Archives for 2004

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.

https://faustasblog.com/2004/03/9/

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.

https://faustasblog.com/2004/03/8/

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.

https://faustasblog.com/2004/03/7/

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.

https://faustasblog.com/2004/03/6/

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.

https://faustasblog.com/2004/03/5/

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.

https://faustasblog.com/2004/03/4/

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

https://faustasblog.com/2004/03/3/