We listened to FM radio all the way down and all the way back. All they have is NPR, goldie oldie and soft rock stations, mixed with a few "all-ads-all-the-time" stations. NPR is OK but they have a one hour news spiel that repeats every hour. You hear it once, and that's enough. What do you listen to for the rest of the trip? We did hear the disk jockey on one station say that this was the first time in her career that a station manager had expressed any interest in music what so ever. This might explain why FM programming is so boring.
Then there was the college station with a student disk jockey who turned the treble all the way down and the bass all the way up to give his voice a deep and breathy sound. Too bad that he came out of the Mercury's speakers sounding like mumble-rumble-mumble and I couldn't understand a word of what he said against the humming of the car and the whine of the tires.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Rahman Noodle Place?
Would you believe a snazzy Washington eatery that features Rahman noodles? Daughter insisted that the place was good and the noodles were good too. And she was right. Big bowls with long noodles and other good stuff like pork in a very tasty sauce. They are on the north side of H street, near 13th st in Washington Northeast. Close to the Rock and Roll hotel.
By the way, H street is all newly spiffed up, and has brand new trolley car tracks embedded in the street. The trolleys oughta be cool when they get running. The tracks are down, I'm told the trolley cars them selves have been delivered. They still need to string the overhead trolley wire, and I'm told they have to straighten out some right of way issues with Amtrak, but if the funding holds up they might be running trolley cars on H street some day.
By the way, H street is all newly spiffed up, and has brand new trolley car tracks embedded in the street. The trolleys oughta be cool when they get running. The tracks are down, I'm told the trolley cars them selves have been delivered. They still need to string the overhead trolley wire, and I'm told they have to straighten out some right of way issues with Amtrak, but if the funding holds up they might be running trolley cars on H street some day.
Antietam
Being an old Civil War buff, I drove up to the Antietam battlefield on Monday. It's in Maryland, about an hour's drive from DC, and very close to the Virginia border. Lee was invading the North (Maryland remained in the Union despite being south of the Mason Dixon line). Lee was north and west of both Washington and Baltimore, and threaten to capture either or both cities. Taking Baltimore would have been nearly as good as taking Washington, the only route to Washington ran thru Baltimore.
The land out in western Maryland is low and rolling, a lot of open fields, cut by little streams, sunken roads, and woodlots. From Union headquarters you cannot see the entire battle field. McClellan must have relied upon messengers to learn where his units were and where the enemy was. Messengers are slow, apt to get lost or shot, or forget to pass on vital information. Battlefield command could be difficult back then.
Terrain features played decisive roles. I saw the Bloody lane where the Confederates mowed down the Union infantry. It's just a one lane wagon track, sunk about a man's height below the fields. The banks slope up at about 30 degrees. Standing in the road, the confederates were protected from rifle fire, and could load and fire and do it again. There is a contemporary photograph showing the field in front of the Bloody Lane covered with Union dead.
Then there is Burnside's Bridge over the Antietam creek. Burnside's entire corps of 9000 men took from 9 AM til 1 PM to force their way across this bridge against 2500 Confederate defenders. Burnside was something of a chucklehead. He never realized that Antietam Creek is shallow enough to wade across. Burnside could have waded across on a broad front and overwhelmed the confederates in less than an hour. Concentrating on crossing the bridge held Burnside up and cost terrible losses.
Antietam was a very important battle. It came after a year of defeats at the hands of Lee and Jackson. Lee felt strong enough to invade the Union rather than just standing on the defensive in Virginia. But despite a bloody year of losses, the Union was able the throw a strong army right into Lee's path, and make frontal attacks on Lee's lines. Lee was driven back to Virginia only a few miles from the Virginia border.
Antietam was the victory upon which Lincoln hung the Emancipation Proclamation. He had been ready to issue it earlier that year, but his cabinet pointed out that proclaiming freedom for slaves after a summer of military defeats would look like a desperation move on the part of the Union. It would be seen as an attempt to raise a slave insurrection in the South after conventional warfare had failed. As it was, after a solid (if costly) Union victory, the Emancipation Proclamation announced the adherence of the Union to the principle of the Declaration of Independence ("All men are created equal").
The land out in western Maryland is low and rolling, a lot of open fields, cut by little streams, sunken roads, and woodlots. From Union headquarters you cannot see the entire battle field. McClellan must have relied upon messengers to learn where his units were and where the enemy was. Messengers are slow, apt to get lost or shot, or forget to pass on vital information. Battlefield command could be difficult back then.
Terrain features played decisive roles. I saw the Bloody lane where the Confederates mowed down the Union infantry. It's just a one lane wagon track, sunk about a man's height below the fields. The banks slope up at about 30 degrees. Standing in the road, the confederates were protected from rifle fire, and could load and fire and do it again. There is a contemporary photograph showing the field in front of the Bloody Lane covered with Union dead.
Then there is Burnside's Bridge over the Antietam creek. Burnside's entire corps of 9000 men took from 9 AM til 1 PM to force their way across this bridge against 2500 Confederate defenders. Burnside was something of a chucklehead. He never realized that Antietam Creek is shallow enough to wade across. Burnside could have waded across on a broad front and overwhelmed the confederates in less than an hour. Concentrating on crossing the bridge held Burnside up and cost terrible losses.
Antietam was a very important battle. It came after a year of defeats at the hands of Lee and Jackson. Lee felt strong enough to invade the Union rather than just standing on the defensive in Virginia. But despite a bloody year of losses, the Union was able the throw a strong army right into Lee's path, and make frontal attacks on Lee's lines. Lee was driven back to Virginia only a few miles from the Virginia border.
Antietam was the victory upon which Lincoln hung the Emancipation Proclamation. He had been ready to issue it earlier that year, but his cabinet pointed out that proclaiming freedom for slaves after a summer of military defeats would look like a desperation move on the part of the Union. It would be seen as an attempt to raise a slave insurrection in the South after conventional warfare had failed. As it was, after a solid (if costly) Union victory, the Emancipation Proclamation announced the adherence of the Union to the principle of the Declaration of Independence ("All men are created equal").
The Open Road
Drove down to DC and back this weekend. From New Hampshire that's six states. We did the traditional thru New York City and down the Jersey Turnpike to the Delaware Memorial Bridge route. Except for New York, the road conditions are excellent. Vermont is resurfacing I91 again, laying fresh black asphalt on top of fresh black asphalt. Vermont still has some porkulus money to spend. Ignore those NPR pieces about how America's infrastructure is falling to pieces. The Interstates in the Northeast and Mid Atlantic are in fine shape.
New York was a mess. Some lanes on the George Washington bridge were closed and that backed up traffic on the Cross Bronx expressway clear back to Coop City. That cost us an hour of walking pace traffic jam. It was so bad we took the Tappan Zee bridge on the way back.
Someone is spending some bucks on mile markers. All the way down Vermont and across Massachusetts we have fresh new mile markers, marking every tenth of a mile. They are growing in size, this years growth of mile markers are 12 inch by 18 inch, nearly the size of a speed limit sign. They are planting them on US 302, a secondary road in the Northern kingdom. These are new, we didn't used to have them. Some nanny state agency is pushing them and I have know idea where the money is coming from.
Once we get down into New Jersey the truck traffic is HEAVY. Like maybe one fifth of the vehicles are trucks. Full of freight, going to customers. There must be some life left in the economy to keep all those trucks loaded. If all that freight went by rail the railroads would be rich beyond measure.
Americans don't drive American cars any more, at least not the 6 passenger V8 rear drive sedans and station wagons of yore. Mostly they drive dinky four door sedans painted gray and made in Japan. Some SUV's, some minivans, lotta pickup trucks, but the little gray econo boxes are the majority vehicle. My Mercury Grand Marquis handled the trip in comfort and style.
New York was a mess. Some lanes on the George Washington bridge were closed and that backed up traffic on the Cross Bronx expressway clear back to Coop City. That cost us an hour of walking pace traffic jam. It was so bad we took the Tappan Zee bridge on the way back.
Someone is spending some bucks on mile markers. All the way down Vermont and across Massachusetts we have fresh new mile markers, marking every tenth of a mile. They are growing in size, this years growth of mile markers are 12 inch by 18 inch, nearly the size of a speed limit sign. They are planting them on US 302, a secondary road in the Northern kingdom. These are new, we didn't used to have them. Some nanny state agency is pushing them and I have know idea where the money is coming from.
Once we get down into New Jersey the truck traffic is HEAVY. Like maybe one fifth of the vehicles are trucks. Full of freight, going to customers. There must be some life left in the economy to keep all those trucks loaded. If all that freight went by rail the railroads would be rich beyond measure.
Americans don't drive American cars any more, at least not the 6 passenger V8 rear drive sedans and station wagons of yore. Mostly they drive dinky four door sedans painted gray and made in Japan. Some SUV's, some minivans, lotta pickup trucks, but the little gray econo boxes are the majority vehicle. My Mercury Grand Marquis handled the trip in comfort and style.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Bad ideas never die
Last year we managed to kill the New Hampshire casino gambling bill. It took a lot of doing, but we did it in the house. Major objections to NH casinos are the tackiness will offend tourists, the gambling revenues come from sucker citizens who lack the self discipline to avoid gambling away the rent money, and the mob connections of casino operators and personnel.
Well, it's like a snake, gambling is coming up again in the NH legislature. NHPR was cheering that on this morning. Just 'cause a snake is lying on the floor and not moving much doesn't mean it's dead. You have to cut a snake up into six inch lengths to make sure you killed it.
The pro gambling people think casino's will pay rivers of tax money which they will dedicate to their favorite causes, health and human services, education, the environment, what ever. Every one has a favorite cause they want my tax money to pay for.
Well, it's like a snake, gambling is coming up again in the NH legislature. NHPR was cheering that on this morning. Just 'cause a snake is lying on the floor and not moving much doesn't mean it's dead. You have to cut a snake up into six inch lengths to make sure you killed it.
The pro gambling people think casino's will pay rivers of tax money which they will dedicate to their favorite causes, health and human services, education, the environment, what ever. Every one has a favorite cause they want my tax money to pay for.
Blogging may be light
I'm going on a long road trip starting tomorrow. I'll do some catchup when I get back next week
New building?
Solyndra, a startup, was constructing a new factory building on a new site before they went belly up.
Wow. All the famous startups around here got started renting existing, old and shabby, industrial space, old mill buildings. Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) got started in an old woolen mill in Maynard MA. New buildings are expensive, and probably a lot of that $535 million US taxpayer loan guarantee went into construction.
Maybe Solyndra failed because it's principles were spendthrifts?
Wow. All the famous startups around here got started renting existing, old and shabby, industrial space, old mill buildings. Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) got started in an old woolen mill in Maynard MA. New buildings are expensive, and probably a lot of that $535 million US taxpayer loan guarantee went into construction.
Maybe Solyndra failed because it's principles were spendthrifts?
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