Authentic Asopao
For a really rich chicken soup, perfect for a cold and rainy day, El Nuevo Dia has the recipe in Spanish.

Centerpiece Theater
One of the interesting aspects of living in The Principality is who pays for what.
The resplendent yet-to-be-opened 55,000 sq.ft. Library, for instance. It is facing a $491,000 increase in its $3.7 million budget, which is paid 71% by the Township and 29% by the Borough, even when it is in the Borough, and was to remain in the Borough for the sake of a "vibrant (Borough) downtown". The result is that "the Borough and Township are joined by the hip at the library", as a Township Committee member so accurately described in page 7 of today's newspaper's Library Budget is Centerpiece Of Township, Borough Debate.
Every year there are these rumbles, but this year the rumbles are louder since several large donors apparently gave money to the Library with the understanding that the Library would validate 2 hours' worth of free parking for its users. Now the Borough doesn't want to carry more than 29% of that expense: "the Borough had acted on its own". Still, the Township representatives voted conditionally to approve the budget, and "agree to meet several times before January 1 to discuss library parking".
No need to rush.
As it goes, the Library and parking-building-built-on-the-stream won't be opening until April 15, for now.
An article on page 2 tells us the "Library opening has now been moved three times . . . [it] can't move unless there's a driveway, and we won't open without the garage". The garage/parking-building-built-on-the-stream "is experiencing problems setting up electrical and phone line equipment". Since, from the looks of it, it's built on a giant French drain, let's hope it's also watertight.

Worry, who, me?
Well, we saw it coming. Smart growth law gets warm greeting, in today's newspaper, tells us the Gov. McGreevey signed a law that "permits municipalities to steer development to designated growth areas". The article explains that, "For municipalities that adopt a program under the new state legislation, developers purchase development rights to build in a "receiving area" that is targeted for growth. Those funds are then used to permanently preserve land in the "sending area" at no cost to the taxpayer".

I've lived in NJ long enough to be wary of anything that has to do with
a. Government intervention in property markets
b. Designation of areas of any kind (who does the designating?)
c. Anything from the government that promises "no cost to the taxpayer"
Jim Hess, v-p of planning with the Regional Planning Partnership, put it like this, "Hopefully it will address the issue of property owners' loss of equity, and it will allow towns to preserve critical natural resources without having to spend money of acquisition."
We'll see.

No chads will hang in the Principality
The Township hall will host a display of digital voting machines Wednesday and Thursday. The county budgeted $4.2 million to buy 600 state-of-the-art voting machines. I wonder if originally they were supposed to come at no cost to the taxpayer.

Just how short do you want your haircut?
The Board of Education will vote on its $62.1 million 2004-2005 budget. It means the average Borough homeowner will pay 6.8% increase in school taxes to a total of $5,382. The average Township homeowner's increase will be 5.2%, for a total of $5,600.
Must I remind you that these numbers do not include state taxes or local property taxes?

Cultural items
Back in the 1980s I went to the MOMA whole-museum Picasso show, and a couple of years later to Picasso's house in Spain. The result of that was that I can't stand most of his work. What I've read about the man hasn't been all that pleasant, either. This morning I came across this commentary by Jerome du Bois, based on Calvin Tompkins's bio of Duchamp, which only confirmed my original impression.

British-born American Alistair Cooke died, age 95. The New York Times and the BBC have his obituary. Because of him I learned to appreciate a topic well-reasoned, well-developed and clearly presented. Update A friend sent this article from The Telegraph

A nice obit on Peter Ustinov, who was chancellor of Durham University. He had decided on the epitaph for his gravestone - "Keep off the grass."

Eat your veggies
From The Height Gap: Why Europeans are getting taller and taller—and Americans aren’t, in The New Yorker:

Steckel has found that Americans lose the most height to Northern Europeans in infancy and adolescence, which implicates pre- and post-natal care and teen-age eating habits. “If these snack foods are crowding out fruits and vegetables, then we may not be getting the micronutrients we need,”

Also from the New Yorker, Gals! Are You Entering Your “Goddess” Years?, a cartoon by Roz Chast, ""A five question quiz. Do bright-colored tunics and big, bold jewelry suddenly appeal? Are you starting to carry an eccentric tote bag? What’s with the hair? Have you gotten heavily into herbal tea, especially the “soothing” varieties? How about aromatherapy? Magic crystals? Yoga? Have your house and garden become extremely important to you lately? Like millions of times more than before? Has it just struck you that you absolutely need to make Some Serious Changes in Your Life Style? And, has your husband recently purchased an expensive sports car?"
Hm. That house & garden question hit home.

Quote of the week:
"The only defense against interesting food is to assert your independence and eat before you leave the house. This is one of the first things anyone who chronicles parties learns: If you don't eat when you go out, except for maybe just a little taste on occasion, they don't own you when you get home. It's a physiological solution as much as it is anything else."
William Norwich, NYT Style & Entertaining section, Sunday, March 28, 2004, replying to the question, What is my defense against interesting food? Salmon poached in licorice? Bacon-and-egg ice cream dispensed from liquid nitrogen canisters?

Take law back from the lawyers", today's article by Paul Mulshine.

A very good essay, worth reading, by Ron Rosenbaum

A little bit off the sides, please
Yesterday's headlines: Borough Budget introduced: Residents lash out at council over 14-cent hike. "A proposed 14-cent increase in the municipal tax rate" -- which means a 20% increase in munipical taxes -- "proved too much to take for several Princeton Borough residents, who lashed out at the Borough Council on Tuesday". Last year's $19.4 million budget carried a crushing 72-cent tax hike; this year's budget for the Borough is $21.8 million. This year's tax increase on the average residence is $486.

Now, let's put this in perspective. Imagine you are in your early 60s, a widow (in an ethnic group that might be classified as minority), a retired math teacher who has lived in this town your entire life, and now your children and grandchildren live in the area. You are in good health, and are currently supporting yourself from tutoring school and university students in math, for which you charge $60/hr. The reason for not living off your pension is that both your parents lived into their nineties and your father's pension ran out -- after running out of savings (including selling their house) all they had left was their Social Security benefits, which in this part of the country is not much. Hence, you support yourself from your teaching and are careful with your pension so that when you are older and/or disabled you won't be a burden to your children. At $60/hr, in order to cover $486 after income tax, you'd need to take on 10 more students. That translates to 1.5 more workdays, and you already work 5 days a week. There's always taking a reverse mortgage which you want to avoid since it means that eventually you can end up with no equity on your house. Not a lot of choices. So you lash out at the Council.

Just last Wednesday I was saying,

If The Principality were genuinely interested in maintaining diversity they'd be wanting to help the middle classes stay, and to allow the middle classes make a profit on their properties when it's time to move on.

Meanwhile, page 3 states, Township draft budget pared to bring 4.5-cent tax increase, which is an 8% increase over last year's rate. "On Monday night" the Township Administrator "told the committee that a tax increase this year, which he said was originally contemplated at about 12 cents, had been trimmed considerably to 4.5 cents, and advised the governing body to forgo further cuts in order to maintain the surplus". Last year's Township budget was $27.5 million; this year's is $30 million.

And next to that page 3 article, we find More delays for library, garage, and the library director "said opening day is "fluid", and really hinges on when the site work and driveway access to the building can be completed".
Fluid is a particularly apt word to use for two buildings on the same block, one of which, the parking-building-built-on-the-stream, is built directly on an aquifer. Just this afternoon the local cable station carried an interview with Jim Firestone, where they showed video of the completely flooded foundation for the parking-building-built-on-the-stream. It gives new meaning to floating debt.

At least Captain Quack thinks so

Leave dessert to the Scots
I'm hypoglycemic and can't have any sugar, but according to Dave Barry, the Scots (who invented deep-fried pizza) have come up with Dessert

The sandwich consists of two slices of white bread smothered in chocolate sauce, dipped in batter and deep-fried, then covered in sugar and more chocolate sauce. It is served with vanilla ice-cream

I wonder if one washes it down with some expresso and a wee dram of single-malt.

Remember to trim your hair
People and things need maintenance, which is why barbers make a living.

The rulers of The Principality, however, don't seem to notice this until things really need maintenance. Case in point, in today's article Township Plans More Maintenance For Parks System and Open Space, the Township open space manager states "Over the past 10 years, the Township has acquired open space in a rather exponential fashion . . . This activity has created the need for maintenance of these valuable resources in the community".

Ten years of "exponential" land acquisition. Only now they come up with their first strategic work plan for its maintenance.

Housing Restrictions
Knockdowns are a normal occurrence in The Principality. A knockdown is the purchase of older modest houses in good locations for the express purpose of demolishing the existing structure(s) and building a newer, larger one. This per se is not a bad thing: real estate operates in a mostly-free market (free as in supply/demand, definitely not free as in no money involved!), the sellers make a profit, the neighborhood is enhanced, the buyers live in the house they want, and, yes, the local government gets to collect a much larger amount of taxes with minimum burden on the public schools (since there's a higher probability the children that live in million-dollar houses will go to private school). There is almost no vacant land available, so people who want new houses in The Principality get a knockdown. I know of at least one instance where the owners tore down their old house and built a new one. I like my modest-looking house, which is why I live in it, and find most large houses unattractive but someone must like them.

Yesterday's headline, Rules endorsed to limit McMansions, points at The Principality's government rearing its ugly head to impede this process. As it turns out, "the so-called McMansions, which typically involve tearing down an existing older house and building out the lot with a much larger residence that is out of scale with its surroundings" are not all that common, since the planning director himself states, "generally no one builds to the maximum house size permitted under (current) zoning (rules)". Thankfully, the new zoning would not restrict property owners from demolishing and rebuilding on their own land.

The Principality has many many residential zoning and construction rules. Several years ago I was having windows added to an existing screen porch and had to get permission from the historic commission, even when I live in a totally-not-historic track house. There is a double-standard, though. New public buildings have been granted variance after variance to exceed current zoning regulations. The University builds whatever it best pleases, including an upcoming Gehry creation. But I digress.

One of the planning board members pointed out that "by limiting the ability of homeowners to sell for knockdown and rebuild, the proposed zoning changes could lessen property values". But, another planning member justified the proposed restrictions by stating that they are "a matter of social policy. We are restricting the size of houses to preserve social and economic diversity . . . It's very clear we've got a real gap in providing moderate-priced housing". In a related article in today's newspaper The Planning Board Recommends Restrictions Aimed to Prevent Visually Intrusive Buildings, the former mayor of the Borough -- now a planning board member -- claimed, "This is how you manage the trend of building too large -- anticipate larger housing and prevent it", which translated into plain English means, interfere further with the private housing market.

No public hearing date has been set for the proposed ordinance.

Social policy might propel the planning board to attach more restrictions, but the planning board is blind to the following,
1. By their own admission, "diversity may be attained at the expense of the property owner"; their approach makes the transaction and building costs rise while "preventing" the building of houses the buyers might want.
2. There is no thought given to the astronomical spending that causes ever-rising taxes, which makes The Principality's middle-income residents unable to afford keeping the houses they already own.
3. Historically, goverment intervention in housing has been inherently inflationary in the long term.
If The Principality were genuinely interested in maintaining diversity they'd be wanting to help the middle classes stay, and to allow the middle classes make a profit on their properties when it's time to move on.

More on the subject of Bad Medicine
Read this article Doctor of Destruction.

Bad Medicine
Read Gina Colata's front-page article in the New York Times, New Studies Question Value of Opening Arteries. Money quote:

The study "caused an uproar," Dr. Waters said. "We were saying that atherosclerosis is a systemic disease. It occurs throughout all the coronary arteries. If you fix one segment, a year later it will be another segment that pops and gives you a heart attack, so systemic therapy, with statins or antiplatelet drugs, has the potential to do a lot more." But, he added, "there is a tradition in cardiology that doesn't want to hear that."

There is a type of person who's attracted to the medical profession because of parental pressure, its aura of prestige, and its potential for lucre. Some of those who do become doctors also convince themselves that they "know better", and that the patient is wrong to ask questions or even to show doubt.

My experience with a bad doctor several years ago was such that now, as a matter of principle I will ask any question, whether the doctor likes it or not, and will do my best to inform myself as fully as possible on what my alternatives are. If the doctor is uncomfortable with a patient that is willing to learn and actively participate in her care, I am changing doctors.

My thanks to the New York Times for placing that article on the front page. A doctor who's wrong, no matter how wrong, is only wrong, but the patient is dead.

Shorter, but still hairy
Two articles from Friday:
"Council cuts back on big borough tax hike: Increase is trimmed down to 14 cents": the Borough's $21.8 million budget means "$486 more in taxes, an increase of nearly 20% over 2003". On Sunday, March 14 I had mentioned that the average tax increase was estimated at $700. No joy in reporting either; mismanagement and overspending continue.

"Bigger Library will charge larger user and late fees": the Library's $3.7 million budget is short $50,000 "because a request for municipal support for new books was dropped". Imagine that. We also lean that the Library will soon be accepting credit cards: "While the library would have to pay for the service, it would save on staff time devoted to counting and rolling lots of quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies every night"., said the Library's executive director.

What do you say the library gets a CoinStar machine in the lobby so the public can use it, and the Library can save itself credit card transaction and service fees, and staff time? CoinStar even offers a Coins That Count program for supporting non-profits. Even the Tooth Fairy knows about CoinStar.

Bad hair all around
As if the local taxes weren't enough, "The Garden State's grab bag of tax-law changes in July 2002 ... earned it the label of the state with the most unfair and unpredictable tax environment", according to CFO Magazine. Paul Mulshine of the Star Ledger has something to say about it.

Aniversario
From the Babalu Blog,

Today marks one year that the Castro regime encarcerated at least 75 political prisoners in what can only be understood as a means of stifling opinion and information on the island. These prisoners of conscience, through mock trials - guilty without the regime's need to prove their guilt - have been sentenced to in some cases over 20 years merely for bringing the Cuban people information about the world outside their Elba.

Read also this very good commentary by Duncan Currie

Java on tap
Is it for real? Get your caffeine before the coffee's ready: Shower Shock Caffeinated Soap. No shampoo, though.

Hair-raising
Both today's headlines at The Principality's community newspaper, School Board Proposes $62.1 Million Budget For the 2004-05 Year and Disputed Tulane Street Project Moves Forward, continue to drive home the hair-raising possibilities of further expenses.

The school budget, they wail, "is continually forced to tack on unfunded mandates, which leaves little or no money for local spending", and "This year's budget will only contain Level I spending, which includes expenditures needed to maintain programs. No Level II spending, which would pay to expand programs or add new ones will be part of the budget".

Forgive me while I play the world's smallest violin, but my husband and I have lived for years making sure we have an emergency fund for "maintaining programs" -- avoiding getting into debt, making sure the house is well maintained, not spending money frivolously, and, when doing any project on the house itself, keeping in mind that any construction can (and often does) end up being 25% more expensive than projected. All the while, the taxpayers are, thanks to local overspending, "continually forced to tack on unfunded mandates", which are endless.

The schools now need more money: $500,000 will be used to furnish the schools, even when that cost was supposed to be covered by the $100 million bond issue for the construction project but unforeseen costs ate up that money, and $103,000 on top of that will be eaten up by construction delays. "Neither of these costs will affect taxes" in The Principality, said the Board Secretary. Why am I doubtful?

The second article reminds us that, on top of the $18-19 million spent on the Library, there's the $1.3 million library plaza. The library plaza, BTW, is more or less the size of a basketball court (no, you won't be able to play basketball there), and yes, it is public space in the middle of prime real estate.

But the article is not about that.

The article's about Phase II of the Downtown Development Project. Phase I is the 5-story parking-garage-built-on-the-stream, (Building A). Phase II is a 5-story mixed use building with 53 apartments (Building C). No mention of Building B in the article. All of this abecedary construction is, again, subsidized by the taxpayer, in prime real estate, developed by a former Borough Council member without the benefit of public bidding, and won't pay taxes (instead there's "in lieu of taxes" stuff in the works). It all comes down to some $13-14million for now, at least that's the amount of the bond issue (not to be confused with the $100 school bond).

At least the opposition making noises. On a letter to the editor, "Redevelopment Project" Led Inexorably to Huge Tax Increase, the attorney for Concerned Citizens of The Principality points out that the parking-garage-built-on-the-stream was completed before there was a final judicial ruling on the legality of the bond issue. He raises the question "the Borough may find itself wondering what to do with illegally-issued bonds that financed the 5-story" parking-garage-built-on-the-stream.

Hair raising, indeed.

Slow Reading
Today's headline: Library moving date could face revision. Opening may be pushed back a week.
One of the public works projects that The Principality has saddled its taxpayers with is the new resplendent Public Library. Appropriately, the new library was scheduled to open on April Fool's Day; March 21 was the scheduled moving date, but it has been changed to March 28, since, according to the article, "the library is awaiting its temporary Certificate of Occupancy". The opening date would then be April 8.
(Temporary CO?). No explanation is given as to why the CO is on hold (or why it is temporary).
The library is presently at The Principality Shopping Center, where you can find any materials you may need if your needs are modest (what you would expect from a local public library), in a perfectly adequate space that was formerly occupied by two bookstores. It is small, conveniently located next to the gym and the supermarket, and, most importantly, there's plenty of free parking space. Conveniently enough that the number of visitors increased by 25% in the new location.
The new library was expected to cost $12million when it was first proposed, but by now the number is $18-19million.

The library originally anticipated a December 2003 opening but a survey error resulted in the installation of footing 6 inches lower than called for in design plans and the opening date was set back to February of this year. Construction then suffered from harsh winter weather that forced the library to push back the opening date again.

The new building is big, located downtown in the middle of prime commercial real estate, where parking is either not available or to be found in the soon-to-be-completed parking-building-built-on-the-stream.
I called the Shopping Center management office and was told that the amount of the current monthly rent "is not public information". A quick Google search showed that the rent is estimated at $20,000/month, and, may I point out, in a commercial space for which the landlord takes care of the maintenance and pays taxes to the community. Compare that to the $75,000/month (my estimate: 5% interest divided by 12 months x $18,000,000) debt service, which doesn't include maintenance costs, for a building that will never pay taxes, on a prime location. Another question also arises, since the parking building's grand opening was scheduled to take place in tandem with the Library's, does this mean the parking building's opening will be delayed further, so there's no parking revenue that week?
Still, the article assures us "if the extra time is required, it is not likely to exceed the library's project budget".
"Not likely". Let's hope.

From the April 1 issue of Software Development Mag, SCO Sues Al Gore

The Bad Hair Blog's been linked! Please visit Rambling's Journal. Thank you, Mr. King.

Nice essay (in Spanish) about Tony Soprano & Dr. Melfi: Crimen y castigo

Not about The Principality (even when it sure sounds like it), but small-town politics, big-time deals all the same.

Recommended obscure book: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Since The University sits in the middle of The Principality and doesn’t pay taxes, its public relations department is keen to promote good will among the locals, hence, we are allowed to audit classes at The University. It was my distinct pleasure to audit Prof. Vance’s excellent Middle English class last year.

Life is full of surprises, however, and early in the class I noticed that several of the students, who are paying nearly $40,000/yr on tuition, habitually didn’t read their assignments on time for the class. Being of the prior generation, I truly couldn’t figure out how they were able to show their faces, much less admit that they hadn’t done the reading. I simply don’t have any sense on humor about this. Back in the olden days we weren’t doing that sort of thing (it didn’t even occur to me, fool that I was), especially for $40,000. On the other hand, as The Husband put it, “it’s not their (the student’s) $40,000, it’s their parents”. That aside, the professor was very patient, erudite, and passionate about the topic, and the class was interesting and challenging.

The first challenge, aside from not tearing my hair out when hearing people hadn’t read their homework, was getting used to the language. Middle English is like Yoda reading Shakespeare on steroids, only difficult. I mean, this:
Thenne watz Gryngolet graythe, that gert watz and huge
means this:
Then Gringolet was ready, that great horse and huge. You get the idea.

Still, I did well enough to mostly understand what was going on with Sir Orfeo and a dozen other Sirs and Ladies, and by the time we got the The Canterbury Tales it all made sense. All the effort was definitely worth it. The Canterbury Tales was great fun, and take my word for it, the Canterbury pilgrims were up to no good, and loving it. A side benefit of taking a Middle English class is that you can impress your really-well-read friends at cocktail parties.

Of all the books we read my favorite’s Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It has everything an action/adventure story could need, plus romance, told in poetry of great lyricism:

But then the weather on earth battles with winter,
The Cold shrinks downwards, clouds rise higher,
And shed sparkling rain in warming showers,
Falling on smiling plains where flowers unfold.
Both open fields and woodlands put on green dress;
Birds hasten to build, and rapturously sing
For joy of gentle summer that follows next on the slopes.
And flowers bud and blossom
In hedgerows rich with growth,
And many splendid songs
From woodlands echo forth

The Broadview Literary Texts edition is in Middle English with facing translation by James Winny (and it’s beautifully translated), so you don’t have to sweat it. Go read it.

Why I can't watch The Apprentice:
Three words: Donald Trump's combover.

Scalp Massage
Friday's headlines in the county newspaper ($.75 at your supermarket or newsstand): "Painful year reflected in budget plan for schools", and "Budget woes may soon push garage rate up".

The first headline refers to the $62.1 million school budget, 5.6% higher than last year's budget, which means that the average Principality resident will see their school taxes go up $382 in the Borough, and $288 in the Township, on top of the property tax increases.

The second headline's about the yet-to-be-finished parking garage. Following the still-unfolding MOASB (Mother Of All Spending Binges), the chairman of the Finance Committee's quoted as saying, "We are facing a tax impact that is unparalleled in magnitude". Well, duh. Go $200million in the hole and your creditors will want their payment. Therefore, keep raising those taxes, and look for more revenue. There's only two misgivings on raising garage fees:
1. Since the garage's not even finished yet, there's no way of knowing what the optimal rates would be.
2. Less obvious, however, but maybe as important, is the fact that the building's on an aquifer (Spring Street was named over the stream that runs through it, not because someone was thinking of the Season). The construction delay was caused because the aquifer had flooded the entire construction site, and the water had to be drained before the building could continue. For how long will a parking building standing in a stream can remain viable for its intended use remains to be ascertained.

But merrily the taxpayer-financed redevelopment projects continue, so another front-page headline assures us that "Panel calls for additional public space in Tulane Street redevelopment project", which is "part of a partnership between . . . (the) Borough and developer Nassau HKT". Nassau HKT's owned by a former Borough Council member.

To all this expense, the newspaper's editorial states that "Skyrocketing tax rates make case for reform", as if reform would solve the problem. Taxes, no matter how you "reform" them, will continue to go up as long as the spending continues.

Calling for tax reform instead of cost-containment is just like my bad haircut. I can massage my scalp and condition my hair until I'm blue in the face, but my hair's not going to grow any faster. It does, however, make me feel like I'm doing something about it.

My condolences to the people of Spain, especially to the injured, and to the relatives of the murdered.
Here's a link to the Spanish Embassy if you'd like to send a message.

Fashion Advice/Fashion Experience: The Husband’s POV

Men are different. This is how The Husband lists the items:
1. (formerly item #6 on the list, “Take inventory before you shop”) "If there’s any clothes at all in the closet, you don’t need to shop".
2. (#9 on the list, "Get a great haircut"): “Get a haircut”. It doesn’t matter if it’s a great haircut or not; you don’t have to look at it because, aside from shaving in the morning, you don’t look at yourself in the mirror. (Fausta’s comment: I understand that some men who don’t have as much hair as they used to now worry about their hair, but bald men look nice. And definitely much nicer than bald men with rugs. Be bald, be bold.)
3. (#2 "Watch your fabrics: Stick to machine-washable materials".) "Wash it, dry it, wear it".
4. (#3 . "Invest in wear-with-anything pieces".) “Wear what’s clean, wear what’s-on-top”. A variation on this is, "Wear a uniform".
5. (#7) "Find a great tailor". OK for guys who have no choice but to wear suits to work. In the meantime, get your suits at Barney's.

The following are entirely superfluous to The Husband, since they all refer to shopping, which is to be avoided: 1. "Shop seasonal sales", 4. "Check out discount stores for basics", 8. "Look for store labels", 10. "Stay away from 'outfits'." If shopping is unavoidable, try the Army-Navy downtown since The Principality has no Salvation Army shops.

"Bump up your accessories: Spend your money on beautiful shoes and a great bag" means this あなたの付属品をぶつけなさい: 美しい靴および大きい袋にあなたのお金を使いなさい to The Husband, who doesn’t understand Japanese.

Fashion Advice/Fashion Experience:
Just this morning I found
this article, and was comparing their advice with my experience.

1. "Shop seasonal sales." Oh yes. My experience in this field is such that my middle name is sales.
2. "Watch your fabrics: Stick to machine-washable materials". Indeed! Here in The Principality dry-cleaning fees are only matched by tax rates. I've been purchasing washable clothes since the days when I commuted to New York City from Morristown in the really dirty Erie-Lackawanna. Later on I became a mother, and there's nothing like an infant to lead you to the washables.
3. "Invest in wear-with-anything pieces". A must.
4. "Check out discount stores for basics". Until the arrival of Target to the vicinity of The Principality (The Principality would never allow anything so down-market as Target -- unless pronounced tar-JEH -- so Target's in another town, but with Principality address), I'd prefer to get things on sale at The Gap, since The Gap garments are well made and durable. Now I still prefer The Gap but might get a thing or two from Target if I'm there already. My experience with discount stores is that the stuff doesn't survive more than a month or two of serious laundering (see item#2 above).
5. "Bump up your accessories: Spend your money on beautiful shoes and a great bag." I hear ya! I bumped up my accessories so well it was time to buy some Coach stock, which I did. Luckily the stock has done well.
6. "Take inventory before you shop". Definitely.
7. "Find a great tailor". This one is a no-no for me. I'm 5'9"+ and my experience has been that if the garment doesn't quite fit, no tailor on Earth will be able to get it right. Pants that are too short are probably not going to fit well around the hip or waist, shirts with sleeves that are too short usually are too narrow around the shoulders while being too wide around the waist, and a dress that's too short-waisted is never going to look good. Then you have to bear in mind, that, if the tailor exists that can get the clothes altered correctly (and if you can find him/her) , that same tailor's going to charge Real Bucks. Not worth it.
8. "Look for store labels" Yes.
9. "Get a great haircut". I feel your pain. Will have to get hair long enough to recover from current bad haircut, though. (see yesterday's Blog entry).
10. "Stay away from 'outfits'." Separates are It.

Eight out of ten, not bad.

This Week's Recipe: Swiss Chicken Cutlets

2 ounces thinly-sliced Swiss cheese
4 chicken cutlets
2 tbs flour
1/2 teas black pepper
1 tbs butter
1/2 cup chicken broth (if you are hypoglycemic, make sure the broth doesn't contain sugar)
1/4 cup white wine
1/4 teas oregano.

Place 1/2 of a slice of cheese on top of each cutlet. Tightly roll up the cutlet and tie securely with string.
On waxed paper, stir the four & pepper together; toss the cutlets on flour gently until coated.
In a large skillet, met the butter over medium heat, until golden (apprx 3 minutes).
Add the broth, the wine and the oregano, bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered for 12 minutes until chicken is cooked through. Place on serving plate and remove string.
Serve over wild rice, with steamed vegetables and a salad.
Preparation time: it takes me some 10 minutes to prepare; allow 15 minutes total cooking time.

Quote of the day,

Let her who is forty call herself forty; but if she can be young in spirit at forty, let her know that she is so.
Anthony Trollope, The Small House at Allington.

Welcome to The Bad Hair Blog.

I chose the title inspired by my current haircut, since I was recently at the mercy of a bimbo who cut at least 2" more than I wanted, and left me with the right side shorter than the left. This is, aside from a bad haircut, a metaphor for a lot of things we face now as consumers or as residents of any town. I'll refer to my town as The Principality.

To give an example,
Yesterday's headline in the local weekly newspaper (delivered free to my driveway), read "Borough, Township Face Tax Hikes for 2004. Borough Projects $22 Million Budget. Township Budget Remains 'In Flux'".

What happened to cause this 'flux'?

Both the Borough and the Township went on a 10-yr long spending spree. A new Township Hall was built (everything in this town has to be duplicated, with two police forces and two city halls) and furnished at top-of-the-line expense, the public schools got a $100 million bond issue for repairs and improvements (mercifully there's only one school district), an $18 million downtown redevelopment project was authorized, a $19 million library's in the works, and on and on, which means the average resident of The Principality "can expect an increase of approximately $700 in property taxes for 2004".

Which brings me back to my haircut. Since the streets are in deplorable condition, I use the township hall only to deposit my tax payments, no one in the house attends public school, rarely go downtown because of the traffic and lack of time to be going downtown to get stuck in traffic, and order my books through Amazon because the library is downtown, the bad haircut describes this taxpayer's situation: Fewer services (cut 2" too short), "in flux" (one side longer than the other), and stuck with the bill ($60 for the haircut, unknown amount for the taxes).

It's all about the haircut.

posted by Fausta