Fourteen hours in the lock-up

It wasn’t much fun. Indeed for most of the time it was excruciatingly boring. But it was an interesting experience and I learned something from my almost fifteen hours in the lockup at police district 9. Of course, I could have learned most of this in a shorter period of time. If they ever give opportunities to be jailed for, say, three hours tops, you should grab it. Continue reading

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-13

Cool RT @SenArlenSpecter $28 million in new funding for a high speed Maglev train from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. http://tinyurl.com/r5me7c # Home run!!! RT @tomfitzgerald 2/3 of 427 adults who watched speech support O propoals, insta-CNN poll says. # petition @CongJoeWilson to apologize for yelling “YOU LIE” in Obama speech, and lying about #hcr http://act.ly/iq RT to sign #p2 # Continue reading

Growing up in a Catskills resort hotel

                    This is a long post, about 7000 words. It might be easier to download and print out the pdf version. Introduction One of the last times I walked on the grounds of the hotel my family owned—Stier’s Hotel—was about twenty years ago when I took my wife and some cousins to see it. That was also about fifteen years after we sold the hotel. At the time, our hotel still functioned as a hotel, although much had changed and it was owned by Hasidic Jews. They day we showed up was Shabbos and I was reluctant to walk onto the grounds. So we just stood at one of the gates and looked in. Soon a young boy, probably no more than 12 or 13, came up to us and asked who we are. I told him who I was and he… Continue reading

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-06

has no events til Monday. Adrenaline levels are down and I'm catatonic. # Tell Obama we're counting on him to fight for bold change on health care including a public option http://tinyurl.com/lcx5j2 # Public Option or Insurance Companies?: Thursday Noon, 1900 Market Street in Philly, Noon. Stand up for health care reform !!! # Powered by Twitter Tools. Continue reading

I was a liberal tea bagger

Tonight we turned out a bunch of people for a Health Care Town Hall sponsored by Damian Dachowski, who used the event to announce that he would be running for Congress against Allyson Schwartz next year. Normally, HCAN in PA ignore most these events. Given that the press in Southeast PA pretty much doesn’t cover events held by issue activists unless there is controversy, it doesn’t make sense to show up and give the right wingers more publicity. And, given that we are a non-partisan campaign, we especially make a point of avoiding partisan events. But this was a special case. Allyson Schwartz has been a great champion of health care reform. Her districts is important in that a lot of people who live in it have influence far beyond it. It is a district that is becoming more progressive. And we expected a lot of press anyway given that… Continue reading

A short observation on sensory experience and age

I really have trouble listening to music while I write now. And that’s because, even though I have always love music love, the intensity of the pleasure I get from is stronger now than it has ever been. Something similar seems to be true for all my senses. They are all duller in some ways than they were twenty years ago. I’m starting to have trouble hearing things and not only am I as nearsighted as ever but I’ve totally lost my near point and have to take my glasses off to see close up. My touch is still pretty good but I’ve started to notice that I can’t pick up quite the level of details on a surface as I once did. But the intensity of my sensual experience is much greater than before. Continue reading