Saturday, September 12, 2015

pig out




why America needs immigration



“Frankfurter” comes from Frankfurt, Germany, where hot dog sausages have been enjoyed since the Middle Ages.


Henry Thumann arrived from Germany in 1928 when he was just 17 years old. He went on to make very fine hot dogs.


By 1959 he employed 30 butchers to cut up livestock.


Other butchers sliced up parts.


Still others worked the grinding machine 
mixing salt and garlic and paprika.



Thumann hotdogs are served deep-fried at Hiram’s.


What’s Hiram’s?

Only the best hotdog stand in America by no less than Bourdain.

Located in north Jersey just south of the GWB, Hiram’s has been bursting dogs and boosting cholesterol since 1932.


And looks it. 


Apparently, not much has changed.


But oh, oh! The DOG.


When a hotdog is deep fried until it bursts it’s called a “ripper”.

Two with onion rings and Coke was one too many. 

Thumann’s are big.


I loved and ate them both. 


Health concerns about nitrates, preservatives 
and colon cancer seem somewhat overblown.


Henry Thumann passed away in 2009.  At 98.

Friday, September 11, 2015

not really



I was here in town on 9.11.


Now it seems it has marked us all for life.
reuters


telegraph

We have revenged our trauma on the entire Middle East.

espressen

Children are suffering everywhere in that region.

guardian

Good for us. Right?

ap

Thursday, September 10, 2015

daddy warbucks


express.co.uk

As Syrian refugees pour into Europe the world watches for signs of hope.


Because Germany's population is aging fast, 
migrants are finding their first real hope there.


It turns out that the proportion of older people in the population relative to tax-generating workers is rising quickly in Germany.


Germany needs more children to grow up into tax payers.

reuters

The good news is Germany projects it can absorb as many as half a million refugees a year for some years to come.


The bad news is in a study published by the Institute for Labour Markets that found there is "a very high proportion of people who had completed no professional training".


This means they haven’t actually been to school. 
reuters

So young migrants must learn German and a skill.

express.co.uk

The US has been sending only money.


The UN's special representative for migration, Peter Sutherland stated this was no substitute for taking migrants in. 

"Buying your way out of this is not satisfactory," he said.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

one forward, four back


This is Kim Davis and her husband posing yesterday with Reverend Mike Huckabee and his wife.

This is a random Google image from “Halloween”.



this'll speed things up






Tuesday, September 8, 2015

building castles in the air



Just east of the Bronx Botanical Garden lies Paulding Avenue named for William Paulding, mayor of New York City in 1825.


Paulding was an honorable and well accomplished fellow. 

Born in 1770 to a wealthy family, he went to law school and served as Brigadier General in the War of 1812.


The combination of wealth, law and military leads straight to the top and Paulding was no exception.


He served in Congress, later New York State government and by 1825 was appointed Mayor of our city.


In those days Mayors were appointed. 
It wasn’t until 1834 Mayors began to be elected.

But back to Paulding.


As a member of high society he needed an aristocratic country house, a place where he could entertain heads of state.


So after he left office in 1838, he built a Gothic Revival Castle near Tarrytown overlooking the Hudson and called it the “Knoll.”

1838

He died there in 1854, but the Knoll passed on to wealthy robber barons of that era.

One added a tower and changed the named to “Lyndhurst.”

1864


Today it’s in the National Historic Trust and is used for movie sets and very fancy weddings.


The 1970 movie House of Dark Shadows was filmed here, 
and the castle is pictured in the poster.


On the day we visited there was a wedding.
We were eating lunch on a bench as the bride arrived
 and the photographers set up.


Then they walked over and asked us to leave so they could begin photography.


200 years later and high society remains very much the same. 
:-)