http://www.pagliere.net/alan/blog Don't overthink it Thu, 08 May 2008 20:38:17 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en So, the latest Ann Arbor Public Schools spending of taxpayer money is a campaign to ask for taxpayer money. The flyers came in the mail. One  implores us to vote on May 6th to give this dysfunctional administration more money to waste. The other talks about "exceptional Accomplishments." In the blurb ... http://www.pagliere.net/alan/blog/2008/04/25/part-of-the-whole-truth/ My 96-year-old aunt, Virucha, told me this as we walked around the block in Buenos Aires that was once the quinta of the Pagliere clan (the block surrounded by Corrientes, Sarmiento, Gascón, and Acuña de Figueroa). In front of my cousin's shop was a sign that said something like: "No ... http://www.pagliere.net/alan/blog/2008/03/16/chiste/ After the AAPS gets so-called security cameras installed at Pioneer (because they can, because the community lets them), perhaps they should move on to terahertz cameras. Read about them here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7287135.stm http://www.pagliere.net/alan/blog/2008/03/10/pioneer-next-year/ Here in Buenos Aires again, the land of the unexpected adventure and an anarchistic everyday life, on a nearly annual family visit cum winter escape. Heat, sun and chaos of possibility to escape cold, cloud-locked Ann Arbor with its dual self-delusions of cultural diversity and progressiveness. Staying at a fantastic find of an ... http://www.pagliere.net/alan/blog/2008/02/16/buenos-aires-de-nuevo/ It just keeps coming. George Fornero left quite a legacy to this town. And everyone on the board helped him do it. And almost everyone in the community let him do it. Ann Arbor News 2/6/2008, Schools Face $6 Million shortfall http://www.pagliere.net/alan/blog/2008/02/07/george-forneros-legacy/ I am thrilled to announce that "The Catford Tapes: Professor Catford's Life in Linguistics" are now available to the world. This is a very happy day for me. The Catford Tapes are a series of eight one-hour lectures given by Ian Catford in early 1985, on the occasion of his retirement ... http://www.pagliere.net/alan/blog/2008/02/02/the-catford-tapes/ Can this be happening in hip Ann Arbor? Surveillance cameras on kids at Pioneer High School? Sure it can because the AAPS administration is clueless. Let's not talk about the financial, ecological and demographic fiasco that is the new high school and the concocted lies and painted smiles that backed ... http://www.pagliere.net/alan/blog/2008/01/05/ann-arbor-public-schools/ Recently while checking out at the grocery store, the cashier began a nearly sub-vocal, somehow laid-back diatribe about how one shouldn't vote for a person simply because they're black or a woman. Hmm. So that's what this guy, and all the people he is representative of, think. A nice example ... http://www.pagliere.net/alan/blog/2008/01/05/vote-as-symbol-rationalization-as-choice/ Just purchased, from Steel Guitar Nashville where I found a great price, a new Peavey Nashville 112 to replace my Nashville 400 for my steel playing. I had been a bit wary because most reviews (essentially all positive) are from E9 players and I wondered how the 12-inch speaker would ... http://www.pagliere.net/alan/blog/2007/12/06/new-nashville-112/ After the Shadow Art Fair, stopped in, for my first time, at the Fiesta Mexicana on Cross St. in Ypsilanti. Had some nice poblanas, chocolate mexicano, and conversation with the folks there. Worth a stop if you're over Ypsi way. http://www.pagliere.net/alan/blog/2007/12/06/fiesta-mexicana/ In a conversation recently with someone about how many Argentines are blonde (which for some reason still surprises some people), I was pointed to http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/. Cool site. http://www.pagliere.net/alan/blog/2007/12/06/strange-maps/ So, Stephen King told a reporter that someone in the Bush family, e.g., Jenna, should be waterboarded so she could tell the president [Ed: lower case intentional] whether or not waterboarding constituted "torture." That's just plain silly. If you asked George if his daughter could be waterboarded, he would answer, ... http://www.pagliere.net/alan/blog/2007/11/28/29/ This is my first, and though things could change, very possibly only ever, post under both categories of Beer and Belief Systems. The web page Top Ten Reasons Beer is Better than Jesus covers both areas and as you can see by visiting the page, does indeed have a ... http://www.pagliere.net/alan/blog/2007/11/26/beer-and-jesus/ Great concert last night by They Might Be Giants at the Michigan Theater. Best of all being guests of drummer Marty Beller's. John (or was it John?) got the crowd to come to its feet  and move towards the stage before the first tune where it stayed throughout. Playing a ... http://www.pagliere.net/alan/blog/2007/11/15/they-might-be-giants/ Back in my Russian Club days at Rutgers University, after a bit too much kvas, someone taught me the following, irreverent and hilarious juxtaposition. Irreverent because this is a beautifully layered and perfectly constructed poem, one of Aleksandr Pushkin's most famous. So, If you happen to speak Russian and know the ... http://www.pagliere.net/alan/blog/2007/11/11/londonderry-pushkin/ It seems, in retrospect, we were lambs to the slaughter: all of us who gathered in the theater I was in last night to watch Lions for Lambs by Robert Redford. It's been over 10 years since I had a violent urge to walk out of a movie, but this ... http://www.pagliere.net/alan/blog/2007/11/11/lambs-lions-and-redford/ In cleaning my office, I came upon the business card of Antonio Balsemin, a card he handed me after he gave my son and me a ride in his taxi during our late summer 2001 stay in Rome. It was a very enjoyable taxi ride. He is outgoing, talkative ... http://www.pagliere.net/alan/blog/2007/11/10/antonio-balsemin/ Congratulations to Ari Weinzweig and Paul Saginaw for earning Bon Appetit's Lifetime Achievment Award. Cool. http://www.pagliere.net/alan/blog/2007/11/08/congrats/ So, Rudy Giuliani has gotten the kiss of death, an endorsement from Pat Robertson who overlooked Rudy's stance on abortion. Good to know that Pat is not a one-issue voter. He's also thrown the baby Jesus out with the bathwater. Remember him agreeing with Jerry Falwell when he said that ... http://www.pagliere.net/alan/blog/2007/11/07/oh-please/ Color me disappointed. I've usually liked what I've read of Andrew Sullivan's blog. But I followed this link: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/209/story_20904_1.html a back and forth between Andrew Sullivan and Sam Harris, author of The End of Reason. and after reading the entire exchange (I can't believe I read the whole thing...), I will in the ... http://www.pagliere.net/alan/blog/2007/11/06/sullivan-vs-harris/