Long Reads

Okay . . . let's try this again.

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brian
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Re: Long Reads

Post by brian »

The People Of Las Vegas

(As a Las Vegan, I thought this was a good piece.)
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Nonlinear FC
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Re: Long Reads

Post by Nonlinear FC »

Well, that was an interesting read, thanks for the heads up.

I will admit to wondering what it must be like to live there, having only visited twice (and not really enjoying the experience all that much.) The only time I left the strip was to find a place to watch a US soccer match (found an Irish pub and that was my favorite moment of both trips.)

I'd like to go back on my own terms at some point. My visits were dictated by other people's schedules and desires and I know I'd enjoy the place if I could get out and see more of the "real" city. That's just kind of how my wife and I tend to travel... one of the reasons we get along so well.
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Re: Long Reads

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Nonlinear FC wrote: Mon Feb 10, 2020 12:36 pm I will admit to wondering what it must be like to live there, having only visited twice (and not really enjoying the experience all that much.) The only time I left the strip was to find a place to watch a US soccer match (found an Irish pub and that was my favorite moment of both trips.)
I've found the part I bolded to be an almost universal truism regardless of someone's opinion of Las Vegas. In my occasional flights of fancy, I think about writing a novelization of what living in Las Vegas is really like (in much the same way that a Michael Connelly book vividly evokes what Los Angeles is like).
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Re: Long Reads

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I felt aswirl with warm secretions.
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mister d
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Re: Long Reads

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That was good.
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Re: Long Reads

Post by GoodKarma »

From the New Yorker...was the oldest person ever to have lived a fraud?
I would like expensive whiskey.
We only have beer & wine...
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Re: Long Reads

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The Prophecies Of Q

From The Atlantic.
"beautiful, with an exotic-yet-familiar facial structure and an arresting gaze."
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Re: Long Reads

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Re: Long Reads

Post by Pruitt »

Thanks for that. It hit the spot.
"beautiful, with an exotic-yet-familiar facial structure and an arresting gaze."
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Re: Long Reads

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What Is New York Without New York Bars?
I miss bars.

I miss the noise, the jostling shoulders and the promise the night offers. I miss a long, dark pour of Guinness and the gleaming liquor bottles standing sentry behind the bartender. I miss the crush for the ladies’ room, graffiti decades thick. I miss the endless possibility in conversations overheard, lives intersecting.
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Re: Long Reads

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I was listening to the 'All Fantasy Everything' podcast yesterday (the topic: Bit parts in Movies we think we'd be really good at) and they went on an extended riff about 'Boys are back in town' by Thin Lizzy.

Which reminded me of this:

I Played 'The Boys Are Back in Town' on a Bar Jukebox Until I Got Kicked Out
Whenever I'm feeling miserable, I scrounge a few dollars out of my jacket pockets and tromp up to the bar I don't like. The bar is about three-quarters of a mile from my apartment and wholly forgettable, but ostensibly a metal bar.

The first time I visited, I did what I do whenever I find myself in a new bar: Go to the jukebox and see what record is number 69. Here, it was Thin Lizzy's thoroughly nonseminal Jailbreak. I've never listened to that album the whole way through, and by the grace of God I know I'll never need to, for I know that Jailbreak features at least two songs: "The Boys Are Back in Town," and whatever song comes after "The Boys Are Back in Town," which reminds you that you need to hit rewind.
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Re: Long Reads

Post by Pruitt »

Toots Hibbert: A Reggae King Rises Again

From Toots and the Maytals. Just found out he's in intensive care probably with Covid. Sincere thoughts and prayers.

His new album just came out - and it's not bad at all.

"beautiful, with an exotic-yet-familiar facial structure and an arresting gaze."
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Re: Long Reads

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"beautiful, with an exotic-yet-familiar facial structure and an arresting gaze."
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Re: Long Reads

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What a sad story.
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Re: Long Reads

Post by DaveInSeattle »

This is a great piece about Mormons, and their place in the conservative world.

The most american religion
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Re: Long Reads

Post by wlu_lax6 »

I am not sure if this is a great article, but I giggled at the idea of the guys mom cursing at Mike Boddicker (Darth Boddicker) and settling for Chris Hoiles (which I totally can relate to).
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/305 ... ars-bubble
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Re: Long Reads

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When COVID hit, a Colorado county kicked out second-home owners. They hit back.
When COVID-19 came to the valley, the outbreak was so severe that the 17,400 residents of Gunnison County — which includes Crested Butte, the valley and a few outlying towns — faced one of the highest rates of cases per capita in the entire country. The county’s response was drastic: On April 3, it directed all visitors, tourists and part-time residents to leave, explicitly banning non-resident property owners, of which there are more than 4,000. The order, signed by the county’s public health director, cited the strain on local services: “Non-residents, regardless of whether they own a residence in Gunnison County, are imposing unnecessary burdens on health care, public services, first responders, food supplies and other essential services.” Violators could be fined up to $5,000 or jailed for up to 18 months.

Moran decided to stay put. He was upset, and he was far from alone. The next day, another Dallas resident with a home in the valley created a private Facebook group, eventually called GV2H & Friends Forum, for Gunnison Valley second-home owners in the area to gather and commiserate. The group swelled quickly to several hundred members. The order was divisive, one person wrote in a comment; it made non-residents feel like “outcasts,” wrote another. Many questioned the county’s wisdom in forcing them to travel during the pandemic. Then there were the legal issues. Moran told me that a key question was: “Can they just tell me I can’t use my property?”
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Re: Long Reads

Post by Shirley »

Haven't read the article, but I remember that a number of beach towns did the same thing, or at least publicly considered it. Seems like a pretty tricky legal issue.
Totally Kafkaesque
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Re: Long Reads

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Interesting story about Robert Caro, the biographer of LBJ: What We Found in Robert Caro’s Yellowed Files
A seasoned curator entered the spare Upper West Side office of her subject the way a student of art might approach the Louvre. Eyes wide, notebook in hand.

Along the wall was pinned the 27-page outline for a section of a long, long-anticipated book: the fifth and last volume of a magisterial biography of President Lyndon Baines Johnson.

In a corner sat the idiosyncratic desk designed decades ago for her subject by the personal physician of another back-pain sufferer, John F. Kennedy. And on that desk, a Smith Corona Electra 210, a model of typewriter last manufactured in the 1970s.

Plugged in.

“Wow,” said the curator, Debra Schmidt Bach, which is pretty much all one can say upon entering the writing sanctuary of the author Robert A. Caro.
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Re: Long Reads

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DaveInSeattle wrote: Sat Jan 02, 2021 2:27 pm When COVID hit, a Colorado county kicked out second-home owners. They hit back.
When COVID-19 came to the valley, the outbreak was so severe that the 17,400 residents of Gunnison County — which includes Crested Butte, the valley and a few outlying towns — faced one of the highest rates of cases per capita in the entire country. The county’s response was drastic: On April 3, it directed all visitors, tourists and part-time residents to leave, explicitly banning non-resident property owners, of which there are more than 4,000. The order, signed by the county’s public health director, cited the strain on local services: “Non-residents, regardless of whether they own a residence in Gunnison County, are imposing unnecessary burdens on health care, public services, first responders, food supplies and other essential services.” Violators could be fined up to $5,000 or jailed for up to 18 months.

Moran decided to stay put. He was upset, and he was far from alone. The next day, another Dallas resident with a home in the valley created a private Facebook group, eventually called GV2H & Friends Forum, for Gunnison Valley second-home owners in the area to gather and commiserate. The group swelled quickly to several hundred members. The order was divisive, one person wrote in a comment; it made non-residents feel like “outcasts,” wrote another. Many questioned the county’s wisdom in forcing them to travel during the pandemic. Then there were the legal issues. Moran told me that a key question was: “Can they just tell me I can’t use my property?”
It's that last sentence that gets to me. I'd be ripshit if someone told me that I couldn't occupy land that I've purchased legally.
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Re: Long Reads

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I sympathize far more with the full-timers, whatever that says about me.
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Re: Long Reads

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mister d wrote: Tue Jan 12, 2021 9:50 am I sympathize far more with the full-timers, whatever that says about me.
This seems to me like the perfect Assholes vs Assholes scenario.
And his one problem is he didn’t go to Russia that night because he had extracurricular activities, and they froze to death.
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Re: Long Reads

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I'd be inclined to sell my property there and buy in a community that doesn't bite the hand that feeds you.
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Re: Long Reads

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DaveInSeattle wrote: Tue Jan 12, 2021 1:03 am Interesting story about Robert Caro, the biographer of LBJ: What We Found in Robert Caro’s Yellowed Files
I'm not sure it's a stretch to say that Caro's fifth volume of his LBJ biography is the second-most anticipated book in the country (and first in my book, no pun intended). I'd feed George RR Martin to crocodiles if it bought Caro another month to finish The Life and Times of LBJ.
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mister d
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Re: Long Reads

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Steve of phpBB wrote: Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:12 amThis seems to me like the perfect Assholes vs Assholes scenario.
I think there are plenty of valid non-pandemic reasons to want your neighbors to be full time rather than rich people who pop in and out when it best serves them.
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Re: Long Reads

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That would apply almost everywhere, but towns that survive on tourist dollars are a different story, IMO. You don't want us now, then you don't want us when we're helping to pump dollars in your local economy by providing shelter for these tourists.
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Re: Long Reads

Post by Gunpowder »

Generally agree save for one line in the article that was telling, something about how "they come here for 6 months and try to change everything".

EDIT: And these aren't really tourists, per se.
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Re: Long Reads

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Giff wrote: Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:59 am That would apply almost everywhere, but towns that survive on tourist dollars are a different story, IMO. You don't want us now, then you don't want us when we're helping to pump dollars in your local economy by providing shelter for these tourists.
Same argument if AirBnBs take over your neighborhood and raise up housing prices?
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Re: Long Reads

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mister d wrote: Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:50 am
Steve of phpBB wrote: Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:12 amThis seems to me like the perfect Assholes vs Assholes scenario.
I think there are plenty of valid non-pandemic reasons to want your neighbors to be full time rather than rich people who pop in and out when it best serves them.
I'm not sure how true that is. Sure there are some reasons, but ultimately, why should I care when my neighbors pop in and out (except maybe if there's a crime problem from their houses not being occupied when they're gone)?

But even if there are good reasons, I also don't think that really matters. There are lots of valid reasons to want your neighbors to be different than who and what they are. I used to want neighbors who didn't let their dogs shit in my yard. Now I want neighbors who don't freak out when my dog shits in their yard. But regardless of what I want my neighbors to be, we don't get to tell them they can't live in their houses, whether full-time or part-time.

Plus, this isn't a situation where you have longtime rural middle-class residents who are hit with an influx of rich outsiders who come in and change the town. That part already happened. It's mostly those rich outsiders who already moved in who are saying that other rich outsiders need to stay out.

(I'd imagine those longtime middle class rural residents are MAGA now anyway.)

It's a common saying in the West - the loudest opponent of development is the guy who built his cabin last year.
And his one problem is he didn’t go to Russia that night because he had extracurricular activities, and they froze to death.
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Re: Long Reads

Post by Nonlinear FC »

Yeah, I just think that unless a county/town/whatever passes some kind of specific ordinance, you shouldn't be able to just announce that people living here "xx arbitrary amount of days" get treated differently.

I have no problem with states/counties declaring that tourists (AirBnB and VRBO) aren't allowed, even though that's a hit to a lot of homeowners. But, again, in this country property ownership is pretty sacrosanct.

I do think, btw, that telling people that show up that they have to have a negative test result OR quarantine for 10 days is totally legit.
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Re: Long Reads

Post by mister d »

I'm not saying I necessarily think its enforceable on any level, just that I'd be on the side of those yelling they want the unenforceable thing to happen. All the NYCers who had secondary NJ / LI / WC / Hudson Valley homes no doubt transported the disease around in the mid-early stages of this when they got sick of their apartments.
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Re: Long Reads

Post by Nonlinear FC »

Or... OR... they decreased the amount of congestion in the City, thus flattening the curve.

I don't really buy this, just throwing it out there. If people hitting up Cape Cod or Maine or the places you mentioned were responsible (testing prior to trekking out there, isolating for a week or more once they arrived) I don't see it as a big deal.
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Re: Long Reads

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Sure, if they went door to door and didn't emerge for 14 days (since this was all well pre-test), they're good. I imagine right around zero (0) of them did that. They were just carriers.
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Re: Long Reads

Post by Giff »

mister d wrote: Wed Jan 13, 2021 11:12 am
Giff wrote: Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:59 am That would apply almost everywhere, but towns that survive on tourist dollars are a different story, IMO. You don't want us now, then you don't want us when we're helping to pump dollars in your local economy by providing shelter for these tourists.
Same argument if AirBnBs take over your neighborhood and raise up housing prices?
It's a scenario too improbable to consider, tbh.
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Re: Long Reads

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Got this link from the Men In Blazers newsletter...

Trolling the Great Outdoors
For David Lesh, the smell of Greeley has often prompted him to fly his single-engine airplane from Denver up to the mountains, to work and play in the snow. Lesh, who is thirty-five, has been skiing in the Colorado Rockies for sixteen winters. During many of them, he was a professional—he performed aerial tricks in photo and video shoots on behalf of sponsors. In 2012, frustrated with this arrangement, he started designing and manufacturing his own mountain-sports outerwear, founding a company he eventually called Virtika. Effectively, he was sponsoring himself. Lesh, who markets the brand mostly on social media, projects a rogue persona and a lavish life style, full of decadence and danger. Rally cars, airplanes, parachutes, snowmobiles, machine guns, drugs, bikinis, booze: “Jackass” meets “Big Pimpin’,” by way of “Hot Dog.” The act has helped him acquire both a viable customer base—self-styled rebel snow-riders and park rats—and the contempt of his fellow-Coloradans.
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Re: Long Reads

Post by P.D.X. »

That's hilarious. I have a few buddies that are in a Greeley-smell text alert group.
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Re: Long Reads

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P.D.X. wrote: Fri Jan 15, 2021 12:57 pm That's hilarious. I have a few buddies that are in a Greeley-smell text alert group.
Being a huge flaming asshole is quite a business model.

I looked at their website (I'd never heard of the company). Looks like totally standard issue snowboard gear, and way over priced.
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Re: Long Reads

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Lesh seems like a dick.
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Re: Long Reads

Post by P.D.X. »

DaveInSeattle wrote: Fri Jan 15, 2021 1:15 pm
P.D.X. wrote: Fri Jan 15, 2021 12:57 pm That's hilarious. I have a few buddies that are in a Greeley-smell text alert group.
Being a huge flaming asshole is quite a business model.

I looked at their website (I'd never heard of the company). Looks like totally standard issue snowboard gear, and way over priced.
Laughing at the Greeley thing... Yeah he's a douche
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Re: Long Reads

Post by Pruitt »

DaveInSeattle wrote: Wed Dec 16, 2020 12:14 pm This is a great piece about Mormons, and their place in the conservative world.

The most american religion
Excellent article.

Interesting to see that story told from a Mormon writer's perspective.
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