tfl: The Flatiron Life

What a happy coincidence I thought it was when I checked the Chicago Summer Dance schedule this weekend and found that tonight’s music woud be Big Band and the lesson beforehand would be Jitterbug! Carpe Diem! And imagine my disappointment when I realized that the lesson was being taught by Ballroom-ers and remembered that their version of Jitterbug is the basic East Coast Swing. Boo hiss! I guess the term is a little less specific than I thought.

The music, however, was great! I ended up teaching an impromptu Charleston lesson to Jacob and a few curious beginners. I don’t have my usual stamina, but it was a fun time nonetheless.

I love Chicago summers!

I wish I were writing to say this is my weight, but it is not (around 280 and falling). That is the number of miles I have ridden my bike since my birthday. Joscelynn gave me a Cycling Computer for my 27th on 27 May. I have ridden to work every day since then. That is only 14 days and I have amassed 214.1 and passed 200 on the way to Whirlyball (work outing) yesterday. At this rate I will put over 1000 miles on my little bike just in the summer months and have a fun workout the whole time.

Now I am faced with the question, what is regular maintenacne to a bike that get 100 miles ever 7 days or so? The bike shop said they expect my tires to rot before they go flat, but I should check the pressure regularly. My double walled rims seem to be holding up well, but they will need a truing every 3 months or so. I wonder how often my drive chain needs to be cleaned a lubed.

I Love Lucy

We’ve been watching a lot of I Love Lucy before bed recently; It’s great winding down TV. Last night I was really impressed by these scenes of Lucy doing the Jitterbug, the last is one of the few times that the show lets her show-off her true dancing chops without making her the butt of a joke. You have to watch through to the second scene to see what I mean.

Every time I see a truly funny person in a non-comedic context I’m reminded that it takes very serious skill to get big laughs. I think it takes a very knowledgeable and logical person to find the absurdity in life and a very dexterous person to successfully execute physical comedy. If she wanted to, Lucy could throw-down with the best of ‘em, my friends.

Also, I really want to learn to Jitterbug.

In his latest, Jonah Goldberg asks, “Why have public schools at all?” He answers with the boilerplate responses but points out

The problem with all these bromides is that they leave out the simple fact that one of the surest ways to leave a kid “behind” is to hand him over to the government. Americans want universal education, just as they want universally safe food. But nobody believes that the government should run nearly all of the restaurants, farms and supermarkets. Why should it run the vast majority of the schools - particularly when it gets terrible results?

OK, so schools are not good at actually educating children, but they are still good at teaching culture and general government brain washing right?

As for schools teaching kids about the common culture and all that, as a conservative I couldn’t agree more. But is there evidence that public schools are better at it? The results of the 2006 National Assessment of Educational Progress history and civics exams showed that two-thirds of U.S. high school seniors couldn’t identify the significance of a photo of a theater with a sign reading “Colored Entrance.” And keep in mind, political correctness pretty much guarantees that Jim Crow and the civil rights movement are included in syllabi. Imagine how few kids can intelligently discuss Manifest Destiny or free silver.

Oh, crap! It is not all bad right. Maybe the good out weights the bad.

What about the good public schools? Well, the reason good public schools are good has nothing to do with government’s special expertise and everything to do with the fact that parents care enough to ensure their kids get a good education. That wouldn’t change if the government got out of the school business. What would change is that fewer kids would get left behind.

Read it, weep, and start working to privatize your local schools.

Jacob: “I think to become a citizen you have to have not broken any laws ever.”

Me: “Really?”

Jacob: “Yeah, I heard a This American Life one time about this person who was an American citizen, but was in the process of becoming a Canadian citizen and they traveled to Paris and lost their passport. So whose embassy do they go to? And. . . . wait. . .”

Me: “Yeah, that wasn’t on This American Life, that’s the plot of the movie French Kiss”

Oh we will solve the problems of this world. Believe you me!

I share this not to make fun, but because it made me feel better to know that even my knowledge sponge of a husband sometimes can’t remember his sources exactly. I do stupid stuff like this all the time.

Joscelynn traverses Theatre de l’Europe, originally uploaded by flatiron32.

This is the sidewalk along Theatre de l’Europe on the way to Jardin du Luxembourg. It was beautiful in October and imagine is it amazing on a warm, sunny spring day.

I think I want a print of this one for our walls.

If you live in Illinois and especially Cook County, you have to read this.  Our property taxes are going to be getting much higher and much more confusing.  We have to fight back.

Apparently the FTC hasn’t been in any mainstream supermarkets recently to notice that Whole Foods and Wild Oats didn’t just capitalize on a niche market, but also incited an entire dietary movement that now permeates even corner pantries.

Read the story.

I don’t know about you, but I kind of already confused these two places in my mind anyway.

It is a big deal to care about the right things and to pick the right battles.  Russ Roberts sums up pretty well why I care, here.  This is but a taste:

So when your friend laughs at you for caring about something as trivial as trans fats, tell your friend you don’t care about trans fat. You care about the principle that’s at stake. The principle is that when your health is a justification for restricting liberty, then the power of politics climbs in your car, in your kitchen and in your bedroom.  Today it’s trans fats. Tomorrow it’s meat or single-malt scotch, or skiing or sex. It’s not about whether some cost-benefit analysis proves that on this particular case or that one, the ban is worthwhile. It’s about whether you’re free to be an adult and pursue what you enjoy, knowing that nothing is entirely safe. I choose adulthood for adults.

Because if you don’t care about principles what do you care about?

Russ Robert explains in this new column. It is quite readable and rather remarkable for its lack of graphs.

Why are convertibles more expensive than non-convertibles? Why is scotch that’s been aged for 21 years more expensive than scotch that’s been aged 10? Why are red peppers more expensive than green peppers? Why do Wal-Mart employees earn less than the average worker in the United States? Why is gasoline more expensive in the summer than the winter? Why is gasoline more expensive in Europe than in the United States? Why are roses more expensive on February 14? Why isn’t beer more expensive on Super Bowl Sunday? Why are houses in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. more expensive than houses in the suburbs of Richmond, Virginia?

If you want to know the answers to any of these questions give it a read.