Tag Archives: life

Circling Back to Roundabouts

Posted on by under activism, Fatwas, princeton, slices of life

I’m grateful for the many off-line responses to my roundabouts post, particularly those from decision-makers at Princeton Municipal Council. I thought I’d re-visit the issue to respond to some of what was said.

One set of comments suggested that I over-complicated a simple issue: roundabouts are safer than right-angle intersections, so that’s that. But it’s not that simple. “Safer” is equivocal as between safer at the intersection and safer all things considered, and it’s not clear that roundabouts are safer all things considered.

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The Iranian Sleeper Cells Are Here

Posted on by under Big Data, EVS Journal, migrant defense, War with Iran

If I wrote here that the Iranians had scored a major tactical hit on American soil, I doubt that 1 in 100 people would believe me. But in fact they have. The tactical hit is the hack, on March 11, of Stryker, the medical device company (not to be confused with Stryker the eight-wheeled armored fighting vehicle designed by General Dynamics). Continue reading →

Out in the Cold

Posted on by under slices of life

It’s a good day, just really cold. I go to the gym. I get my hair cut. I go to the public library, and get some books to read. On my way out, I stop by an exhibit displayed with great pride in the lobby: the municipality is tearing down the lo-fi flyer kiosks in town and replacing them with hi-tech versions, at an estimated cost of $80,000. Stupid, I think. Expensive, vain, and pointless–but typical.

It’s dark now, and even colder than it was when I left the house–somewhere in the 30s. I’m annoyed at the prospect of having to bike home in the cold, but it’s festive in the square, and for a minute or two, even I manage to feel a bit of holiday cheer, Scrooge that I am. Continue reading →

No Such Thing as a Free Ride?

Posted on by under Palestine, slices of life

I’ve just worked a fifteen hour day. I want it all to end. I want to end it all.

I take the 8:54 train out of Metropark, hoping to get to Princeton Junction in time to catch the 9:25 bus into town. I’m in luck. We get in at 9:24.

Just as we get there, the son-of-a-bitch bus driver pulls away. In other words, he sees a whole trainload of commuters come in, then leaves a minute early. I curse as I watch him go, sympathizing briefly with every terrorist who’s ever lived. Continue reading →

Alfred Brendel (1931-2025)

Posted on by under Art/Literature, Memorials and Obituaries

I read a few days ago that Alfred Brendel had died at the age of 94. To be honest, I was shocked that he was so recently alive. What was a guy like that doing alive at a time like this? I can’t so much confess to any personal sense of loss as a vague sense of bewilderment that Brendel and I ever inhabited the same world. It takes effort to convince oneself that Alfred Brendel and say, Ted Cruz were members of the same biological species and historical milieu. But it turns out they were.

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