Jones To The Grindstone

A driveway in Cambridge.

I sympathize with those in the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). It’s not easy making that patchwork quilt look good. Bringing together 27 member countries of vastly different, proud cultures, while only 17 of them use the euro as their currency, and just about none of their politics are united – what a stretch.

Ever made a quilt? I have. It’s about the perfect cutting and secure sewing of varying fabric pieces to fit together, making an attractive coverlet. If the cuts aren’t straight, of the exact measurements, or the colorful fabric swatches clash with each other, the end result is a cattywampus embarrassment that no one wants to display: a failure of precise planning, engineering, and executing. Sounds like the lingering European Union (EU)’s euro crisis.

I can sit here and judge because I know what that’s like, in a way. I consider the U.S.’s longtime federal budget flop to have some similarities.

Often the U.S. is called the “Melting Pot,” but in reality it’s more of a chunky stew. Right now, Europe’s crisis of trying to get a bouquet of cultures to agree with each other on how to meet financial goals, how to deal with the effect of immigrants flowing across their borders, and balancing the reality of certain EU states holding more economic power than others – it sounds so familiar. 

It’s because the U.S. has been doing it for more than two centuries while the EU, formerly the European Economic Community (EEC), was first founded in 1957. On top of that, the common currency of the euro arrived 42 years later on Jan. 1, 1999, and even that was in “cyber form” until paper bills and coins arrived two years later.

The EU is still young and inexperienced in comparison to the U.S. Also, it’s a bit ironic since the Europeans seem to enjoy rubbing it in how juvenile the U.S. is compared to their much more lengthy histories.

The EU’s population is close to 500 million and America’s is around 313 million, according to the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) official Web site. The numbers were the latest since mid-July of 2011. Nevertheless, America has more states to placate when arguing about a problem. With 50 states and Washington, D.C., there’s quite a spread of multicultural influences from within the regions (such as the West Coast, the Deep South, the Northeast, the Midwest) to the influence of immigrant enclaves, from long ago and now.

Can the world, or at least the EU members, now see how hard it is to manage it all? Do they now “get” what it’s like to strive for a stable economy, try to handle all the varying cultures without offending or disenfranchising some group?

Unfortunately, the EU has some members with less than desirable credit ratings, such as Greece and Ireland. So, not only does the EU have our overspending problem, they ran off and did the “bail out thing,” too, like we did with our mismanaged financial industry.

According to the CIA.gov page, the EU’s external debt as of June 2011 was at $16.08 trillion and the U.S.’s same bill was at $14.7 trillion. Both the EU and the U.S. are scrambling to solve their budget nightmares. For the world to lose total faith in the euro and the dollar – chaos.

Lately, there have been suggestions of a “two-speed” Europe. This has a ring of “us and them” to it, where the stronger economic countries figure out a way to slowly flick the “little people” off their shoulders like unwanted lint. The biggest, most stable economies are Germany, France (who may drop in the ratings soon), Netherlands, Denmark, the U.K., and Sweden. Of note, those last three countries don’t even use the euro.

Supporting the notion of superiority, I read some snarky blog posts on the U.K.’s The Telegraph newspaper. One by Lord Norman Tebbit on Oct. 28, 2011, stated that “Once again, Britain must save the masters of Europe from self-destruction.”

Another blog, “Europe on the breadline: Greeks and Italians blame culture of corruption,” by Jon Henley of Britain’s The Guardian, stated on Oct. 21, 2011, that he found “nepotism, bribery and systemic low-level corruption are as much to blame for southern Europe’s crisis as anything else.”

Americans do that, too, blaming someone else’s culture within the union. Sometimes it’s true.

Some of you may be wondering about the European monetary superhero, Norway. Their currency, the kroner, is strong and the country has a budget surplus. Well, they’re not in the EU. Switzerland and Iceland aren’t either. Iceland being out of the game is OK, considering their economy went belly-up in 2009.

The CIA page states, “Because of the great differences in per capita income among member states … and in national attitudes toward issues like inflation, debt, and foreign trade, the EU faces difficulties in devising and enforcing common policies.” Yep.

A grave?

OK, back to the grave … my guess is that the child’s family didn’t own property and settled for some open space next to a street sign along Concord St.

The pet’s name was “Druid.” The name evoked my thoughts on how the Celts of the past still have a rich presence in the Boston area — hello, the Boston Celtics. I researched “Celtic Druids” to better understand the connection between the Celts and the Druids.

Thomas O’ Donovan published an article online using “ezine” article. (I’m quoting him because he summed it up more clearly than the sophisticated online sources.) From O’ Donovan and co-Arthur, Frank Soul, “The Druids were an ancient order of Celtic priests in the societies of Western Europe, Britain and Ireland. The Celtic Druids served their communities by combining the duties of seer, priest, poet, philosopher, historian, scholar, teacher, doctor, astronomer and astrologer. The Celts had developed a highly sophisticated religious system, with three divisions of men who were held in exceptional honor; the lowest division were called the Ovates, the second division were called the Bards and then the Druids.”
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1477679
The small pet had quite a name to live up to.

OK.....

This gives “yard art” a big boost — it’s the Big Boy Burger statue. As a kid, I used to ride in the back of my parent’s car and see the Big Boy standing outside of the chain restaurant. In a way, it’s iconic with Americana.

The restaurant’s Web site, Big Boy.com, offered a short history:

“In 1936, Bob Wian sold his prized DeSoto Roadster to purchase a small hamburger stand in Glendale, California. He named it ‘Bob’s Pantry.’

One night in 1937, a regular customer requested something different for a change. Bob went to work and the first double-decker hamburger was born. Customers couldn’t get enough of Bob’s new creation. One fan in particular was a chubby, six-year-old boy in droopy overalls.

He would often help Bob sweep up in exchange for a free burger. In honor of his young friend, Wian decided to name the better burger the Big Boy®. Another regular customer, a movie studio animator, sketched the now famous character on a napkin.”

I didn’t know that Big Boy was still in business or adorning a “dining al fresco” setting nearby.

I’ve been startled by this sighting more than once. The car gets parked in different spots around my building. Sometimes the bust is in the front passenger’s seat, not just on the backseat.

One time, I thought I saw the bust in a house nearby, posed on the fireplace’s mantle.

Does the owner think the bust gets cold and therefore “he” gets a t-shirt? There are art classes taught around Boston. I hope this is a student’s project as opposed to a “special friend” to travel with when feeling lonely.

I can’t help it. It’s cliché, but I’m going to say it anyway, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” That infamous line from the 1976 movie, “Network,” says it all.

Well, not really, but it does express a strong sentiment, representing the increasingly noisy American anger about the cruddy economy, the federal government, and the eyebrow raising actions of certain corporations.

One of the strongest voices of late is the “Occupy Wall Street” movement. From reading headlines, I’ve seen the protest movement trek from city to city, including my own, Boston, and even spreading to Europe.

Honestly, I’m not entirely sure what the movement is about and what their goals are, but I admit that I haven’t conducted intense research either. However, Occupy has my attention because I’m tired of government shenanigans and “don’t want to take it anymore” either.

I want to share with you some posts from my Facebook profile’s wall. Reading the comments from a smattering of Americans may give some insight to those peeking into to see what the hubbub is all about.

(To put it in proper context, many of my “Facebook friends” are people I’ve never met in person. Moreover, it’s not a running tally of people who have a close personal connection to me, but rather a random sampling of the American public.)

My original post about Occupy said, “… I have mixed feelings: I believe in capitalism, but hate corporate greed. Also, many large corps [corporations] have regular people like me invested in them, with hopes that I will have a nest egg one day ….”

The ongoing thread of responses has zigged and zagged, somewhat mirroring Occupy’s meandering messages and suggested solutions. Frankly, I was relieved that my Facebook friends provided some definitive answers, or opinions, to explain what Occupy is about. It “keeps it real,” instead of canned sound bytes or quotes that some questionable news outlets supply.

“This movement is against the Fed. The people of the nation — especially the millions who were bamboozled into signing for worthless mortgages, laid off from their jobs, and had their 401k’s cut in half — are fueling this movement,” wrote Vincent Hearne, who has worked in finance as a licensed broker and trader on the NYSE. “The banks are getting trillions of government assistance while the hard working men and women of this nation are being foreclosed on.”

Another fed up New Yorker, Barbara Holtzman, wrote, “This is more a civil rebellion based on class, and hence a social movement … the top two percent have anywhere from 24 to 65 percent of the assets, while the remaining 98 percent have to somehow get by with the remainder. [It’s] A rebellion, not a revolution.”

Currently, Holtzman says she is “self-employed” because she cannot find a job, despite her holding a Ph.D. from an Ivy League university and a few other degrees in tow.

A self-described “redneck” from Texas, Don Warren, wrote, “The big ‘occupy’ movement, as I understand it, is [a response] in frustration to the corporate bailouts. But those companies really WANT to stimulate our economy again and fix things … If we tie the hands of those who hold the money [the top 1 to 2 percent], they can’t get us back to a time of positive economical growth.”

Warren added that he owned a new home construction and land development company for 11 years, “until the market crashed.” He found new employment as an industrial safety inspector.

Another Texan, John Poole, a retirement consultant for nonprofit organizations and institutions, remains critical of the Occupy outcry. “Some of us in the working world, and financial services industry, see these protests as a way to skip philosophy class and hit on hippies with impaired judgment,” Poole wrote. “Currently I am protesting my bills by going to work and not having a weeklong vacation.”

Poole said he was laid off from Merrill Lynch in ’08 and later worked manual labor construction on the Mexican border in Eagle Pass, Texas, for a year. He rejoined the “white collar” world last year.

Brandon Sims, who is self-employed and working with small business information systems and networks, wrote: “The protests are the inevitable result of the declining standard of living and unemployment. It is truly amazing that the protests are not far more violent. In parts of the world, and in recent history, people would be dying every day, buildings and homes would be burning to the ground and entire cities would be paralyzed.”

The Occupy protest doesn’t impress Sims. “Instead, the net effect of protest is the generation of more ‘infotainment’ to pacify the masses,” he added.

A realtor in Houston, Texas, Rob Rule, wrote, “The quick and dirty on this is that it’s too soon for a person to reasonably form an opinion about the Occupy movement … Until they [the protesters] can conceptualize exactly what they stand for, anyone having an opinion on what it is, comprehensively, is like having an opinion on an amoeba.”

A Scandinavian man chimed in with his outsider-looking-in perspective. “It looks like the [Occupy] movement doesn’t know what it wants to achieve with the protests. The only thing that unites them is their anger toward the Wall Street corporations,” wrote the Nordic.

“And part of the U.S.’s problems is a result of the average American’s habit of spending more money than they have by getting loans and credits.”

“And when the [expletive] hit the fan and people lost their houses –,” the Scandinavian wrote, “It must be frustrating to see that the people [creditors], who fooled them to believe that the economical growth was a tree growing to heaven, did not cut off the branch they where sitting on, but [instead] the branches of the other 99 percent.”

Most Americans agree that we do have a problem with our deep economic recession, our tax system, our funding to political campaigns, and perhaps on the top of the list, the Fed’s spending habits.

I’d love to hear solutions, not just a laundry list of American ills. But, I suppose the first step of any rehabilitation program is admitting there is a problem. In that case, we are on the right track to recovery.

This bike has been locked up outside my building for at least 7 months. It hasn’t moved once, that I can tell.

Made in Nottingham, England

It’s not like the other bicycles parked outside — that’s why it caught my eye. After some research, I was able to find some information that may tell it’s history.

This link offers an extensive, business-like explanation of the manufacturer, Raleigh. However, this link provides a more casual view, complete with “old timey” photos.

On my street I was able to find one other company that poured its concrete, F.O. White Construction Company. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find much of anything on F.O. White’s history.

Here are the two medallions. I am curious as to why each shape was chosen.

The only concrete information I could find on F.O. White came from the digitized Google eBooks — Concrete, Volume 8 edited by Harvey Whipple and published by Concrete-Cement Age Publishing Co. in January 1916. It said,

“MONOLITHIC OARAGES [sic]

A very tasteful garage is illustrated at Fig. 20 which possesses the distinction of being truly all-concrete.

This garage, 36′ x 42′, was built at Brookline, Mass., by the F. O. White Construction Co., Cambridge, Mass.”

The image above is from the original book’s table on contents and also shows the publisher and price for the issue. The “Fig. 20″ is too small to post here. The words were unreadable.

I walk the sidewalks of Cambridge daily.

Even though I shouldn’t admit to looking down when I walk, it happens. Several weeks ago I noticed insets on the sidewalks that line the street I live on. Relying on rational guessing, I went with the notion that the year on the medallion is the year the sidewalk was set.

This one has no year on it:

And then I saw this one from 1898:

And finally this one from 1904:

After conducting research on Simpson Bros. Corporation in Boston, I found some old advertisements. Here’s one from Google  eBooks, Boston Register and Business Directory, Issue 83  (originally from the publisher of Sampson & Murdock, 1918),

and take note of the remarks about the U.S. government using one of the concrete plants:

My building in Cambridge is old. How old, I’m not sure. However, the fire alarm system certainly cannot be ancient — it uses electricity. I’ve lived here for almost eight months and the computerized fire alarm malfunctions almost monthly.

I’ve included a video alarm of the latest outburst. Thing is, when it goes off, hardly anyone cares. I walked outside and there were about four young women (hundreds of people live here) sitting on the curb waiting to see if the building was actually on fire. It wasn’t. Nevertheless, Cambridge’s fire trucks showed up and took care of the problem of the loud noise.

It’s costly and dangerous to keep a sketchy fire alarm system here. How are we to know when the alarm means something dangerous?