It’s a hot afternoon here at the roost, and time for a cold drink.
Perhaps a gin and tonic.
Build the drink in a highball glass by adding the ingredients in order.
This is a modification of the Raspberry Fizz by Sebastian Reaburn found in Food & Wine Cocktails 2010. I didn’t have raspberries to hand, but blackberries were. I’ve made one, for the wife. She would let me make another.
Muddle eight blackberries in a shaker. Add ice, 1 oz. of lemon juice, and a squirt of agave nectar. Shake well. Strain into a highball glass and fill with seltzer water. (I just tossed the mix in, since the liquid wasn’t straining past the blackberries.)
When anyone asks what I’m mixing up now, I say that I’m attempting to perfect my martini. I have a feeling that will hold true for some time.
I enjoyed a Three Olives martini, garnished with three olives stuffed with bleu cheese, at the Bonefish Grill, so the olives in my refrigerator are stuffed with bleu cheese. (Well, they say it’s bleu cheese, but I don’t see any blue on it.)
Tonight, though, my martini did not have an olive in it, nor did it have vodka.
Begin with a chilled glass. Wash the inside of the glass with Martini & Rossi extra dry vermouth. Stir two jiggers (3 oz.) of Beefeater gin with three cubes of ice, about a minute, then strain into the glass. Twist a lemon peel over the drink. Brush the edge of the glass with the peel, and add it (or discard if you prefer) to the drink.
Monday, May 31st, I made a Margarita, c.f. CocktailDB and the International Bartenders Association.
Shook, with four cubes of ice, 2.5 oz. tequila, .75 oz. triple sec, .75 oz lime juice.
Served over three cubes of ice in an old fashioned glass rimmed with lime and salt.
A second Margarita added a bit of blackberry left over from a Blackberry Fizz I made for D.
I have a new hobby: mixing drinks.
Now, some have taken this to mean that I’m exclusively mixing cocktails. While those are most pleasurable to sample, this is not the case. I am also mixing juleps, punches, mocktails, sodas, and lemonade. Mom, for one, liked my cream soda.
What I am avoiding are electrical devices and highly processed ingredients, such as pre-made mixers and anything containing high-fructose corn syrup. This means replacing Rose’s Sweetened Lime Juice, which contains high-fructose corn syrup, with Nellie & Joe’s Key Lime Juice, which contains only lime juice, or a fresh-squeezed lime, and a spot of sugar. Sad, yes, because Rose’s sells on its tradition, and there’s nothing traditional about the ingredients. I expect that I’ll soon be making my own grenadine.
And, as a result of my new hobby, I shall post here some recipes I’ve used, and notes on the taste of the drinks that resulted. Do not expect expertise. I am but a dedicated amateur but recently come to the task.
The Board of Education of the Arlington Central School District has made the difficult decision to close an elementary school in order to reduce the district’s budget.There are obviously consequences to this decision other than the money involved. Some are logistical, such as the effect on bus routes and the dispersion of the population to other buildings. Some are emotional; the school to be closed, Lagrange Elementary School, has been an integral part of that community since 1966.
My comments are not on those subjects, which made the decision difficult, but on the choices the Board has made in the overall budget, and particularly with regard to the closing of the school building.
A review of the school budget process in New York is in order. The Superintendent proposes a budget. The Board adopts the budget and submits it to the voters in the school district for approval. If the budget is not approved by the voters, then the Board may submit the same budget or a revised budget for a second vote, or adopt a contingency budget. If the budget is not approved in the second vote, then the Board must adopt the contingency budget. The contingency budget allows for certain expenditures, but not others, and will increase costs over last year’s budget. More details on the nature of contingency budgets are available from the New York State Department of Education.
Because of this need for voter approval, the Board finds it necessary to sell the budget to the voters, and is somewhat more circumspect than blunt when describing the decisions being made. In their brief description of the benefit of closing Lagrange Elementary School, the Board says this.
This reduces the budget by $1,109,160, bringing the budget to budget increase down to 1.7%.
That number is interesting because it comes directly from the Superintendent’s school closing report, page 5.
The elementary school model yielded the following estimates of cost savings for closing:
- Building not used and 0 regular teaching positions are eliminated: $1,292,160
- Building not used and 8 regular teaching positions are eliminated: 1,885,760
- Building used for other District purposes and 0 regular teaching
positions are eliminated: 1,109,160 [emphasis mine]- Building used for other District purposes and 8 regular teaching positions are eliminated: 1,702,760
See Exhibit 3 on page 11 of the report. This shows how the cost savings is determined: by eliminating 26.8 positions associated exclusively with the school. Of particular interest is the decision not to eliminate any teaching positions as a result of closing the school. Not only are the students being re-assigned to other schools, but so are the teachers. This is perhaps kind to the students: if they are left back, then they might encounter a familiar teacher in the new school. However, if the eight average teaching positions used in the estimate were eliminated, the district would see an additional $600,000 in savings.
The Board has already made the tough decision to close a school. What happens if the voters think that small sacrifice isn’t enough, and require a contingency budget?
If the budget is defeated again, the District must adopt a “contingency budget.†This will require a further reduction of $1.6 million. In addition to the 25 positions eliminated by closing a school, the contingency budget would require that an additional 18.5 teachers lose their jobs. [emphasis mine]
But what, specifically, does the Board say would be cut?
The superintendent has recommended several cuts to core instructional programs. These include:
- Reducing selected high school electives and AP courses
- Eliminating fourth grade band and orchestra
- Reducing the middle school and high school band, orchestra, and choral programs
- Decreasing teaming for 6th grade students, which will significantly raise class size at this grade level.
- Cutting high school sports
- Eliminating all middle school competitive sports
This is where it gets really interesting, at least from a political or marketing perspective.
The District has been very helpful in posting which line items might be cut, and their descriptions so we can see for ourselves the numbers underlying the summary description of the cuts. Notice which of these particular line items, which I have helpfully marked in red, have been selected for inclusion in the summary.
Reference Number Item Description Est. Value Positions 58 Eliminate 0.5 credits art in either grades 7 or 8 100,170 1.5 59 Eliminate accelerated art in grade 8 29,702 0.4 60 Grade 6 teacher reconfiguration – reduce team from 5 teachers to 4 teachers 467,459 7.0 61 Increase elementary class sizes up to 29, 30 and 31 per ATA contract 1,703,060 25.5 62 Eliminate teaming Grades 7 & 8 all middle schools 534,240 8.0 64 Close one elementary school 1,109,160 65 Close one middle school 1,875,000 32.0 66 Reduce electives & advanced placement at AHS 267,120 4.0 68 This line intentionally left blank 70 Eliminate computer instruction classes in middle schools 238,000 4.6 71 Eliminate computer trainer 55,767 1.0 72 Eliminate instrumental instruction Grade 4 students or increase groups sizes 200,340 3.0 73 Reduce instrumental small group lessons in middle School to alternate weeks 267,120 4.0 74 Reduce small group instrumental lessons in high school to alternate weeks 200,340 3.0 75 Eliminate all instrumental lessons or band groups to alternate days gr. 6-8 267,120 4.0 76 Chorus to meet on alternate days in middle schools instead of daily 100,170 1.5 77 Reduce middle school hall monitors 42,745 1.5 79 Eliminate all sports program at middle schools 157,810 80 Eliminate all intramural program at middle schools 30,000 81 Reduce sports and co – curricular activities at high school 56,236 82 Reduce AHS house assistant principal work year from 12 to 10 months 65,582 partials 83 Eliminate two AHS house assistant principals 157,800 2.0 86 Eliminate one district supervisor 111,919 1.0 87 Teaching assistants Tier Three Gr. K-12 1,167,388 47.0 88 Eliminate all remaining busses after school grades 6-12 94,298 hours New Equipment (required by State law) 107,754
This budget is being sold to the voters by targeting those items the voters actually care about: sports and music. NONE of the sports line items result in a staff reduction. These are stipends being paid to the teachers and coaches for their time. The coaches will still be employed. The music teachers on the other hand, will not be. A couple of years ago, the Mahopac School District was in a similar situation, and a second defeat at the polls resulted in cutting the sports programs. The Mahopac Sports Association picked up the cost. In the detailed description of the line item, the District notes:
The following criteria were used to establish these potential cuts …. Activities that have significant financial parental support which might be available to assist in funding recovery.
But of even more interest is that none of these cuts resulted in a reduction of administrative staff or salary.
The bulk of the cost of running a school is labor, primarily teachers but also administrative staff, cooks, mechanics, drivers, and custodians. The bulk of the cost is not textbooks. It is not sports equipment. It is not heating and cooling. It is salaries and benefits.
And the District, in comparison to others in New York, does fairly well at keeping those costs down. The challenge is in slowing or halting the rate of increase, and in doing so to find a way to avoid increasing taxes. Without understanding where the costs are, and without facing those costs head on, we will — as we have been for each year in recent memory — be faced once again with the same difficult choices year after year.
This year’s budget does not directly address these costs in a systematic fashion. It eliminates staff positions instead. That adjustment changes future budget projections, but only because those staff are no longer employed. The factors which caused this year’s budget to increase by $5 million are still there. Next year’s will as well.
To quote again from the Superintendent’s report,
The credibility and trustworthiness of the Superintendent of Schools and the Board of Education will hang in the balance and will impact the School District long into the future.
p.s. The district consistently uses the alternate spelling of buses, which drives me nuts.
Rain falling from the sky
Slowly sliding off the roof
Dripping down the window panes
Glittering on the spider webs
Gently slipping down the leaves
Making puddles on the ground
The sun shows its royal presence
It pushes the clouds away
The rainbow makes me smile
© 2009, Emily Cox
You disappoint me.
You don’t understand pricing. Or perhaps you simply have no experience of buying things with your own money. In any case, what are you thinking?
I know that you stop in both cities, so I was hoping to take my family from Poughkeepsie to Montreal by train instead of by car. But then I checked your prices.
According to Google Maps, the trip is 5 hours 12 minutes by car, to travel 309 miles. Our van gets 25 miles per gallon on average, or 12 1/3 gallons from here to there. Let’s call it 13 gallons for imprecision. Gasoline currently costs roughly $3.00 per gallon. One way, the trip would cost, out of pocket, $39 plus lunch and dinner for six. If we eat at a restaurant, lunch or dinner tends to run between $50 and $60. Thus far, from here to there would be $159 by car.
But you? You want $241.50 to make the trip in 9 hours 30 minutes? Taking the train might be more relaxing than driving for six hours with four kids strapped into car seats, but trying to keep them in the same train car, much less the same seats, for ten hours would be well nigh impossible. They will have gone stir crazy before we reach Albany. And you and I both know that your timetables are a rough approximation: The last time I rode Amtrak you said the trip would take 8 hours; it took 12. For this you want me to pay almost six times as much as driving?
That was weekend pricing. Let’s look at the weekdays. Apparently there’s a deal if I take The Adirondack over the weekend, but I didn’t notice that in the price. Weekday prices drop the fare considerably, once this discount takes effect: $148.
BUT, it’s TEN HOURS.
And only a snack car on the train?
No, thank you.
Suppose that I were to travel alone. For that you ask $69. I could have a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes and a pair of sunglasses, and make it there by morning for less than that.
I like trains; I do. But at the rates you charge, your only customers are those with time to spare, those without travel options, the price-insensitive, or die-hard railfans such as Vice President Biden. That’s no way to make a profit.
Oh, I think I just realized how you’ve determined the prices. You’re charging by the hour. OK. Let’s see how that compares.
$148.5 divided by 9.5 hours is $15.63 per hour. That sounds cheap. How does my driving compare? $159 divided by 5.25 is $30.28 per hour. Wait, I forgot to factor in bathroom breaks and time for casual dining: $159/8.25 = $19.27/hour. Ah, I see now. That makes perfect sense. The trip length is also almost the same. Let’s stop at a park for some running around and exercise: $159/9.5 = $16.73/hour.
Are you going to throw in dinner while we’re on the train? I didn’t think so. Let’s remove that from the equation: $39/9.5 = $4.10/hour.
I suggest perusal of this article at Wikipedia. Meanwhile, I’ll enter the Toot & Puddle Read & Ride Sweepstakes.
1) An essential characteristic of UDP is that it is
a) unreliable
b) undecipherable
c) unconscionable
d) unwieldy
2) This characteristic is a result of which quality of UDP?
a) guaranteed
b) ordered
c) archaic
d) stateless
3) Which essential service of the Internet relies on UDP?
a) WINS
b) NFS
c) DNS
d) FTP
4) What happens when you increase the “connection timeout” in a firewall for UDP packets from 40 seconds to 60 minutes? (Hint: the connection timeout value determines how long entries are retained in the table the firewall maintains in order to track state.)
If necessary, review http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_Datagram_Protocol
Frankly, I don’t understand why people buy gift cards. I understand why they give them, but not why they buy them.
Gift cards are given because giving the card, instead of cash, shows that you spent some time and effort thinking about the gift. The selection of which store can even indicate that you know a little something about the recipient. I tend to receive Barnes & Noble cards, for example.
What’s puzzling is why people buy gift cards. Many entail fees, declining value over time, and expiration dates. Is the benefit of a good impression sufficient to cover these additional costs?
Our dear leader has suggested that we include our senators on our Christmas card list. That’s an excellent idea! (But I don’t think we printed enough.)
This year, when you’re writing holiday cards to your friends and loved ones, there are two more people who need to hear from you: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Senator Chuck Schumer.
With the Senate deep in final negotiations — and a compromise just introduced that increases choice and drives costs down — your senators need to understand how urgent reform really is.
So we’ve come up with a unique way for you to get the message across — by sending your senators a card with your holiday wish for the season.
Send a holiday card to your senators, telling them that your wish this season is for them to pass health insurance reform.
Perhaps we shall. Sens. Schumer and Gillibrand might like a picture of our extremely cute children accompanied by a desperate plea to leave well enough alone.
It’s quite simple, really.
I use Facebook because I know people who use Facebook.
That last item is the only reason I’m feeding posts on my website into Facebook.
I’m not averse to sharing some information publicly. I am, however, wary of something that pretends to be intimate and personal — a few friends gathered together at a bar — and yet is not.
I should probably return to Rose Hill for a visit, but I fear I will be saddened if I do.
In the Spring 2009 issue of FORDHAM magazine, the University presented sketches of construction started on the Rose Hill campus, and planned for Lincoln Center (c.f. Curbed.)
I suppose that Sasaki has tried their best with the residence halls and McGinley replacement to reflect the Gothic Revival architecture that made Rose Hill so striking, but it doesn’t seem so from the pictures. They could still be an improvement over some of the more modern facilities, McGinley and Mulcahy in particular — or not.
I will not be contributing anything to the fund drive for this. But we might park in the college’s lot if we visit the Botanical Garden.
(By the way, I find it odd that Pei Cobb Freed & Partners chose music from The Mission for the promotional video for their Lincoln Center plans.)
The Little Sister is in the second grade this year. One of their weekly assignments is to write sentences using the words they are learning to spell. She has quite a way with them.
I don’t really go in the deep side of the water because I might sink.
We do not have a king to rule our country. We have Barack Obama.
When I get water in my eyes I blink.
My favorite drink is Shirley Temple. What’s yours?
Did you know that left wing is in hockey?
My brother wakes up cranky.
I love to go on the swing.
In Anne of Green Gables the word hang was used.
Look for artichokes that are hard through, with the petals tight together. It’s OK if the petals have begun to open, but you do not want the base of the artichoke to be soft.
Cut 1″ off the top of the artichoke. This removes the sharp points.
Trim the stalk to within 1″ of the base of the artichoke.
Peel the outer layer from the stalk.
Rinse under cold water, spreading the petals so that the water can run into the flower.
Place base-down in a pot. If necessary, use a coffee cup in the center to keep the artichokes from flopping over.
Add sufficient water to cover the stem.
Add peppercorns to the water.
Cover the tops of the flowers with chopped garlic.
Drizzle olive oil over all.
Cover.
Bring water to a boil, then simmer until the petals pull freely from the artichoke and are to taste, approximately 45 mins. to an hour.
— Concetta Visioni Clorofilla.
A while back I expressed some trepidation regarding the Cooper Union’s trendy new building. Well, they’ve finished constructing it, and they’ve exceeded my expectations dramatically.
It’s even uglier than I expected.
But what I find most amusing is that the glistening outer shell in the sales brochure architectural elevation drawings doesn’t glisten.
Before: 
After: 
Ha!
These videos from WABC and WCBS give a sense of being in the building.
Back before Twitter, there was jogger.jabber.org.
September 11th10:40:10 AMR.I.P. WTC 🙁10:06:15 AMLooks like most of the news sites have been /.d. Guess no one has learned their bandwidth lessons.10:05:26 AMa0551 —–
wbx
AP-PENTAGON EXPLOSION, 1ST ADD
“I saw the tail of a large airliner. … It plowed right into the Pentagon,” said an Associated Press Radio reporter. “There is billowing black smoke.”09:12:02 AMA plane just crashed into the World Trade Center. Picture on www.cnn.com
Many people started writing that day.
If she was driving from Sullivan County to Long Island why did she crash there?
Investigators have since located the cell phone Mrs. Schuler used to call her brother. It was found resting on a barrier just past the toll booths on the Tappan Zee Bridge. Apparently she pulled over to make the call. Mrs. Schuler’s niece spoke to her dad. And then someone left the phone on the barrier.
Getting from the Tappan Zee Bridge to where she entered the Taconic involves a sequence of probable mistakes: taking Saw Mill Parkway north instead of I-87 or the Sprain Brook Parkway south; deciding to take the Taconic south after missing the Taconic’s junction with the Saw Mill; then entering the Taconic from an unmarked exit ramp, before seeing the signs for the entrance ramp.
But why did she turn there?
I have to wonder if she was following instructions from a computer.
The other option is that she intentionally drove north from the Tappan Zee before deciding to turn around. I think that’s less likely than computer error.
UPDATE: New York State Police have released, for some definitions of the word, the final report on this accident. The only additional detail released from the report is the speed of the vehicles. There is no mention in the press reports whether or not Mrs. Schuler’s vehicle contained a GPS device.
Nate Silver has an interesting, if partial, analysis of statistics comparing modes of transportation based on the National Household Travel Survey. He wonders why Americans prefer to drive long distances than fly, and calculates the costs to be generally cheaper if one flies.
Today the Poughkeepsie Journal did the same thing for the costs of commuting by car or rail. (Unfortunately the website doesn’t include the charts.) Rail is cheaper, but the comparison leaves out the cost of time.
Both comparisons depend on a variety of factors, including, among other things, the number of passengers, the length of the trip, whether you’ll need a car to get around at your destination, the bulk and mass of your cargo, and so forth, none of which are really taken into account. For us, trips generally involve six passengers and gear. This rapidly decreases the value proposition of plane or train travel since we’re dividing the total cost by six, making our own personal mass transit more affordable.
It doesn’t help that Amtrak’s prices this year are the same as last year’s, while JetBlue’s have gone down.
While reading In Our Image: America’s Empire in the Phillipines, I came across mention of a disturbingly familiar topic. War is hell.
From The New York Times, April 15, 1902, the following (also at wikisource).
WASHINGTON, April 14.—The Senate Committee on the Philippines began the week with the intention of making an investigation of the charges to the effect that the “water cure,” so-called, is practiced on the insurgents, and Charles S. Riley of Northampton, Mass., formerly a Sergeant in Company M, Twenty-sixth Volunteer Infantry, was the first witness Called with that end in view.
Mr. Riley said that he had been in the Philippines from Oct. 25, 1899, to March 4, 1901. In reply to questions by Senator Rawlins, he said he had witnessed the “water cure” at Igbaras, in the Province of Iloilo, on Nov. 27, 1900. It was administered to the Presidente or chief Filipino official of the town. He said that upon the arrival of his command at Igbaras the Presidente was asked whether runners had been sent out notifying the insurgents of their presence, and that upon his refusal to give the information he was taken to the convent where the witness was stationed and the water cure was administered to him.
This official was, he said, a man about forty years of age. When he (the witness) first saw him he was standing in the corridor of the convent, stripped to the waist and his hands tied behind him, with officers and soldiers about. The man, he said, was then thrown under a water tank which held about 100 gallons of water, and his mouth placed directly under the faucet and held open so as to compel him to swallow the water which was allowed to escape from the tank. Over him stood an interpreter repeating one word, which the witness said he did not understand, but which he believed to be the native equivalent of “confess.” The Presidente agreed to tell what he knew, was released, and allowed to start away. He was not, however; permitted to escape. Water was brought in a five-gallon can, one end of a syringe was placed in it and the other in the man’s mouth. As he still refused a second syringe was brought and one end of it placed in the prostrate man’s nose. He still refused, and a handful of salt was thrown into the water. This had the desired effect, and the Presidente agreed to answer questions.