I attempt to balance being reasonably well informed about the goings on around the world while tuning out all the partisan blah, blah, blah. I’m just not a political animal. Much of the news these days seems a lot like ridiculously inward focused palace intrigue between eunuchs and concubines. Left, right, center… all blah, blah, … Continue reading Ich Will den Kaiser Zurück
Too long, didn’t read. I hear this more and more often from all sorts of people. Busy people. Distracted people. People trying to digest hundreds and hundreds of e-mails and texts a day while still getting work done, raising children, and dealing with all of life’s complex challenges. TLDR. As a result I’ve now taken … Continue reading TLDR
I just purchased a new electronic device. It has exactly the right combination of qualities that tickle both my Granola and my Shotgun. But first some background. I’m not a tech guy. Not even close. My natural threshold for machinery of any kind cuts off somewhere in the 1930s. I have warm fuzzy feelings toward … Continue reading The Mesh
Blogsplaining. Is that a thing? I think it is. It’s a close cousin to Rebecca Solnit’s mansplaining. Blogsplaining is the use of logic to solve an obvious problem, but without acknowledging the cultural imperatives that make the solution impossible to implement. In other words, blogsplaining is the thankless task of solving a problem no one wants … Continue reading Blogsplaining Good Urbanism
People who love living in vibrant walkable mixed use urban neighborhoods sometimes look at suburban commercial corridors and suggest they can be transformed with light rail, bicycles, fine grained locally owned businesses, clean solar and wind power, and mom and pop small scale infill construction. Others who really enjoy their spacious suburban homes, front lawns, … Continue reading The Future of Suburbia
I occasionally find myself in an Uber or Lyft. I like to hear about the lives of the people who do the driving. They’re overwhelmingly from the distant suburbs and drive in to the city to collect fares. An hour away is the most typical distance. I ask why they don’t just drive near where … Continue reading Lyfting Herself Up From Her Bootstraps
A friend asked me to write about my predictions for the coming year. Anyone who says they know what the future holds is either lying or delusional. But I do make decisions about my personal affairs based on reasonable medium term trajectories. I’ll get to that in a minute. But first, a word from our … Continue reading So Long as There’s Still More Road…
Granola Shotgun 