Dean Clough

December 12, 2022

Portico Darwin: Prime Polluters

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS

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I should be up front about this:  Hoboken, my home until Christmas day, is a veritable adult f'ing Disneyland for someone like me - maybe you, too.  Bars.  Restaurants.  Wine boutiques.  Bodegas.  Delis.  Bagels.  JFC there's even a German biergarten a few blocks away with . . . Weissβier!

Oh, and there's this place called Manhattan, just a 10 minute ferry or subway ride away.  Perhaps you've heard of it?
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So if my writing seems a little - shall we say disjointed? - over the next couple of weeks, there's good reason.  For example, on Friday, we had Chamber of Commerce weather and Diamond Certified real-deal fondue and wine for lunch in a Swiss restaurant in The West Village in pristine Manhattan.  Our server was from Santa Cruz, speaks fluent French, is a surfer, but also grew up in Switzerland and has both US and Swiss passports.  Our fellow diners pictured here in the gondola were quite affectionate lesbians.  The food, wine and overall experience were among the best I've had in a while.  And this was only our first day of an almost 3 week stay.
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With that on the record, I'll move to something that covers a number of topics.  Climate.  Transportation.  Politics.  Ethics.  I would love to hear your thoughts if you're so inclined.

Because I've seen plenty of all of the following around, both in Manhattan, and Hoboken.  And San Francisco.  And everywhere.  Wouldn't you agree?
My brief-ish post today is to ask this:  should the federal government insist that Amazon, FedEx, and UPS use electric vehicles for home deliveries? 

There would be a grace period, but after, say, 3 years, each would have to be 100% rid of anything that uses fossil fuels for transporting goods to homes.  And regulate it in a way that they couldn't pawn it off to subcontractors or otherwise weasel out of it.  So the drones have to be electric, too.

OK - I know we can't even control guns, and I can already hear the howls of protest (and lobbyist checks being written) from, oh, I don't know, the American Petroleum Institute?  So maybe this belongs in one of my Fantasy Island posts.  But still:  is it too much to ask these companies to invest in this way?  They have the money and designs.  Even the vans themselves. 
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?
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Couldn't they migrate faster?  Should they be made to? 

They could go retro . . . 
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. . . yet thoroughly modern at the same time.

But 10 Seconds of Seriousness:  don't we have to start going after the relatively low-hanging fruit in terms of slowing climate change?  Isn't this a pretty easy one in the big scheme of things?

FROM THE UNWASHED MASSES

Let me be frank.  I love Hunter Deuce.  I really do.  But it's rewarding to hear from others and know that he's not the only reader.  

And it is especially humbling when it's the East Bay playboy Kevin Monza taking the time to share his thoughts on baseball.  

Selig is worse than Ortiz.  I would argue that Selig gained more from steroids than all the players combined.  He lined all the owners pockets off of it.  Hypocrisy at its best when they added him.

Thank you for being reasonable about Judge.  I have too many friends who are upset (I can see the frustration with Heyman’s tweet).  The Giants aren’t one piece away.

Forget the exact article from The Athletic, but frustrations are arising among the analytic FOs over the big money given out this year.  I think specifically overpaying Bogaerts by SD.  When’s the last offseason you remember with all this money being spent before Christmas? 

Great points, all.  And more came from the cool baseball chick Rikki Aurich.

Was holding my nose when I read about the Barry bonds vote.  Or lack thereof.  Of course he deserves to be in there.  He’s more than redeemed himself and the fans here love him. 

And I was pleased the fabled musician Arthur took my bait and weighed in on drummers.  He produced a gem.

Nice picks for drummers; I was tempted by Gene Krupa but he was a big band drummer, not rock, so I would call him one of the most influential drummers of all time since he molded generations of both jazz and rock drummers.

I have a pick for the most influential drummer of whom you have never heard:  Michael Giles.
 
Neil Peart credits him as one of his biggest influences, and many other prog rock and heavy metal drummers have as well.  He recorded very few albums, but the most notable was King Crimson's first.
 
If you want to geek out on drums, listen to his isolated track on "21st Century Schizoid Man".  Starting at 1:45, it's nuts, and he only used a small jazz-type drum kit: Deconstructing King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man (Isolated Tracks)

Arthur's right - I'd never heard of Michael Giles, and his link is very cool and well worth a listen. 

Lastly:  I am embarrassed who I left off my list of the greatest rock drummers, especially given I asked about any top 21st century players.

That would be the late and certainly great Taylor Hawkins.  For me, he comes right after Keith Moon.
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Thank you to any one that is reading this newsletter.

KLUF

LOL here is a Van:  Van Morrison and the very nice Moondance.
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About Dean Clough