Bear Fort Lodge

A few weekends ago, I was privileged to spend time in the company of a conservative, sorry, I meant to type conservator, and here are a couple of paltry images which do not do justice to his magnificent work of restoration art, Bear Fort Lodge, in the hills of north-eastern New Jersey (so much towards New York State that the landscape resembles the Catskills)...

The Lodge was once a speak-easy, and more recently, before my friend took on to restore it to its quirky glory, it was a kind of tax haven... which will make any New Jersey property owner go "huh?" given that the Garden State's property taxes are amongst the highest in the U.S. When I say tax haven, what I mean is, the former owners came here to rest after a hard day's strong-arming on behalf of the I.R.S...

Taxes, taxes, death and taxes: yes, my friend has some conservative opinions and ideals, and yes, we argued almost as much as we conversed, but always with civility, a testament to my friend's welcoming and gracious home. But! There! Are! Bears! In the Woods! That's me above, exhibiting the eternal vigilance that is the price of not having a bear chomping at one's ass...

Merely Me

This is Mr. Dungannistan himself, (above). The photo is from last year, but not all that long ago.

And now, other news: last weekend I got to play with a new iPad. It was rather impressive. Too impressive, in fact, for some, including Israel, as in the well-known non-Arab Middle Eastern state:

JERUSALEM—Israel this week has been blocking travelers from bringing Apple Inc.'s new iPad into the country saying the device's wireless technology threatens to create interference with other products, a move that has puzzled people both in Israel and Silicon Valley.

The Ministry of Communications said the ban was instituted earlier this week because the iPad's Wi-Fi wireless technology was built to the U.S. standard, which allows stronger signals than those allowed in Europe and Israel.

"This device's wireless strengths violate Israeli law and will overpower other wireless devices in Israel," ministry spokesman Yechiel Shavi said.

[Pause] You may now make silly remarks about iPads not being kosher...

Photograph taken at the 5pointz graffiti space in Long Island City, by Robert Garrison.

Me and You and He and Them

The President called me today.

Oh yeah? you say, what did Obama want this time?

Well, he has a very important project. There's an enormous centipede, with many, many legs -- innumerable legs, too many legs to count. And it's very dangerous, you understand? It threatens our economy with its thrashing around, in fact, it threatens the world economy. And it's very powerful.

Yes.

And President Obama is asking you and I to chop off our legs (see above) and send them to him, so he can constrain the centipede. Does that make sense?

No.