I guess we all need our escapes. Mayday – Rock and Roll Can’t Save Your Life

• A.L. Kennedy’s Day out in paperback today.
• 20 Years of Merge Records: The Covers ($13 w/ free shipping). It includes all your favorites. For Real.
• $10 super-fantastic cassette tote bag {via – who always has the best leads}

I chose the Gap, because one is near my office. This most recent visit notwithstanding, I believe I can still count on a single hand the number of times I have entered a Gap. I feel fairly confident it will be a long time before I ever need to count on my toes.

I stretched my gift cards on some sale items, meaning I was able to get 4 rather than 3 items I’d've never wanted in the first place. I was just holding 3 of these 4 while waiting in the shamefully long lunchtime line, but I was impelled to grab a pair of boxer shorts by the man in front of me creatively balancing a dozen or more pairs on his forearms.

You see, the Gap was having an underwear sale. My neighbor’s armloads came in about 50% off. Waiting in line, my imagination posed a question I’d never ask: Did he come here knowing about the sale, or did he happily stumble upon this score? My imagination veered between alternative answers a few times, until it didn’t matter anymore: I decided I liked this guy and simply was happy that he was onto such a coup.

But then I began to wonder whether, when he gets home, he throws out all his underwear at once — out with the old — or whether he maybe phases in a few pairs at a time. I have no basis for speculating because I’ve never bought a dozen in one setting. I tend to buy a pair or two, phase them into the rotation, and eventually phase one or two out (by which I mean relegate them to the back of the drawer for years on end). Instead of asking him, of course, I decided to go grab a pair, asking him only to hold my spot in line.

Today, ladies and gentlemen, I wear my first pair of Gap boxers. Truth be told, I wish I’d grabbed about a dozen more.

It also has to do with the fact that I find history so much more interesting now than I did as a child. Youth is wasted on the young I suppose.

It was intriguing to learn that the Upper East Side of Manhattan was replete with coal-belching locomotives in the late 20th Century, and fun to be reminded that the man who founded my alma mater was one of the original robber barons.

Most compelling, though, was the ramifications of a fatal mishap in 1902, that was likely inevitable given the congestion of heavy steel running into the old terminal. The deaths led to a public outcry over safety, which fanned the dissent over the pollution spit out by the coal engines. The New York legislature acted quickly to ban coal engines’ entry into New York City, and forced the majors to go electric or to die. They went electric, and the new beautiful Grand Central was born, and the train service was never disrupted in the process.

I was amazed to see how quickly the captains of industry were forced to modify their bread and butter in the name of the public welfare–such a stark contrast to the tepid environmental regulations that have slodged through Congress in more recent history. One of the show’s historians said that it was useless for them to resist the teeming public sentiment, the socialist and populism clamor was a force too large to be reckoned with, and the railroad was lucky to get out with what it got.

This made me feel a bit envious, I’ll admit. Not since that gilded age have the wealthy and elite been so far removed from the rest of society as they are in this part of the 21st century. But where is our public outrage, our populist movement, and where is our yellow journalism calling for reform? Have the Rupert Murdochs simply done better than their forebears by convincing 5 x more Americans to pay more attention to last night’s American Idol than to its Super Tuesday results? Why is it that slightly better than half the voters, far from outraged or disgusted, buy into the notion that the free market will sort it all out?

Beats me. All I know is that this righteous indignation has made me hungry. I’m off to lunch at Grand Central, with other yuppies who get paid well doing the Man’s dirty work.

Greetings… I’m in a ranting mood today – be forewarned! :)
In case you’re looking for non-network news info on the nation’s bridges… This is the website for the American Society of Civil Engineers. There is an eerie article written in 2005 laying out the serious need for $$$ for infrastructure maintenance. You can read it by clicking here. There are also links to the needs in each state… It was written before they FINALLY approved the transportation spending bill in 2005. You may not remember, but Bush very proudly stood firm that he would veto any bill coming in over $284 Billion. The back-and-forth resulted in something like 5 extensions of the previous Transpo Bill that had expired… a very long limbo for transportation agencies trying to establish their spending/allocating plans.

In comparison… the spending bill passed in May 2007 contained approx. $100 Billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan…. which will run out in September 2007… ([link])

The $284B is intended to cover 6 years of spending.

Below, Mineta cites lack of fiscal responsibility for holding the $284B lid… You all can draw your own opinions/conclusions.

Transportation infrastructure (our own, US infrastructure) may not be everyone’s priority, but ASCE and other engineering groups have been screaming for the need for more funding for a very long time… And at a time when gas prices are rising, increasing gas taxes isn’t politically very popular. (There are many ways to finance transportation projects, but I’ll save that for another day…)

http://www.dot.gov/affairs/dot7205.htm
DOT 72-05
Contact: Brian Turmail, Tel.: (202) 366-4570
Thursday, May 5, 2005

STATEMENT FROM SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION
NORMAN Y. MINETA REGARDING THE SENATE PROPOSAL TO ADD BILLIONS TO COST OF HIGHWAY BILL

“There is a dark cloud looming that will needlessly delay many important highway and transportation projects around the country and force consumers to pay more at the pump at exactly the worst possible time. This threat is a Senate proposal expected to be debated next week which would bankrupt the Highway Trust Fund by increasing spending based on accounting gimmicks.

“Offering American taxpayers an artificially inflated six-year highway, transit and safety authorization bill means promising to spend money that doesn’t exist. If the Congress chooses to irresponsibly add billions to the cost of the bill, it is setting itself up to raise gas taxes or risk bankrupting the Highway Trust Fund in the very near future. Neither option is acceptable.

“Last week the President made it clear that he would veto any bill that increases the top-line dollar figure beyond the $284 billion, six-year level that has already been overwhelmingly approved by the House of Representatives and the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. I urge the Senate to take the fiscally responsible approach by protecting taxpayers, keeping the American economy moving and passing the highway bill.”

******** These are my personal opinions as a private citizen and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer or others in my profession. Thanks and have a good day! **********