I don’t know if you have occasion to be up early in the morning and looking at the sky, but if you were this morning, then you were treated to a very nice sight (at least from my vantage point on the face of the Earth). In the west at about 6AM EST was a full moon right between the horns of Taurus with Jupiter big and bright just below and slightly to the north. Directly below the moon was Aldebaran, and a bit to the west of the moon was red giant Betelgeuse over in the Orion constellation. Over in the southeast sky was Venus, which, at about 88% full was very bright in the sky. Just above Venus was Saturn (which would have looked a lot brighter had Venus no been right next to it, and just above the horizon to the east was Mercury. One of the things I like best about living out in the sticks is actually being able to see the night sky. I wish we’d have another Hale-Bopp come by.
But then I had to come to work. It’s normally a nice ride in, but today I had some asshole in a pickup truck with his high-beams on for almost the entire 20 mile trip. I was considering pulling over to get behind him and then letting him see how he liked having my brights in his mirrors, but I decided not to. Somebody needs to develop a rear window message board system. Or at least an electronic middle finger that lights up.
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Oh well, time to get back to work, I guess.
A new comet has been discovered that is predicted to blaze incredibly brilliantly in the skies during late 2013.
COMING BACK | RED HOOK LOBSTER POUND
An About-Face, From Expanding to Rebuilding
Slideshow
By CARA BUCKLEY
Published: November 30, 2012
“Where do you start?†asked Ralph Gorham, his breath trailing clouds as he stood with his wife, Susan Povich, in their gutted store, the Red Hook Lobster Pound.
Coming Back
And on that day this week, Ms. Povich, stressed out, was craving a cigarette. “Susan, I’m not going to smoke,†Mr. Gorham said sternly, over the pounding of hammers, before adding softly, “But if you want me to go get a pack, I will.â€
Like almost every other business on Van Brunt Street in the heart of Red Hook, Brooklyn, the lobster pound was trounced by Hurricane Sandy’s relentless surge, submerged under about four feet of saltwater laced with diesel fuel.
A month after Sandy, the couple was still struggling to comprehend the magnitude of the damage that their three-and-a-half-year-old business had withstood.
When Mr. Gorham drove through floodwaters to get to his store in the predawn hours after Hurricane Sandy struck, he was greeted by dozens of lobsters floating dead in the murk. Refrigerators and fryers were toppled and, along with the boiler and baseboard heaters, flooded with filthy water, and unsalvageable. Across the street, in their indoor parking area, sat the couple’s prized and behemoth food truck, Big Red, its engine shot.
Even after the waters receded, the damage kept revealing itself. “Slowly everything started to react to the 12-hour soaking,†Ms. Povich, 49, said. The wood floors began lifting and the handcrafted wainscoting buckled. Mr. Gorham threw himself into the demolition until pinched nerves in his neck and back, only recently tamed through physical therapy, roared back. Eager volunteers showed up — “We kept getting really cute girls with brooms,†Ms. Povich said — but the couple soon learned they needed to hire demolition experts.
They plan to rebuild the store to guard against future floods with waterproof epoxy floors and a rooftop heating and ventilation system, though they have had a tough time finding good contractors to get the heating system in. They are also building a customer bathroom. Mr. Gorham, who is 55 and was originally a furniture maker, has neither the time nor the will to mill more wood for the floors or walls — and besides, all his equipment in his woodworking shop behind the store was flooded, too.
But every step forward requires the couple to reconcile their often differing viewpoints.
“If I had to do an epoxy,†Ms. Povich mused, “I’d do it the color of the ocean.â€
“Oh jeez,†Mr. Gorham exclaimed, throwing his hands up and walking to the back.
“That’s our biggest issue,†Ms. Povich said, “I want things to be warm and pretty, and Ralph wants it to be functional.â€
Theirs is a fiery relationship, but Mr. Gorham said he drew strength from Ms. Povich’s mettle. “I couldn’t have made it without her,†he said later that day. “She’s one tough chick.â€
The couple, who live in Red Hook, had started small — tiny — selling a few dozen live lobsters out of the crude storefront of their modest commercial building on Van Brunt Street, where Mr. Gorham kept the woodworking shop. The lobsters were from Maine, where Ms. Povich, whose father is the talk show host Maury Povich, has a family home, and where Mr. Gorham had cultivated relationships with fishermen.
They soon branched into lobster rolls — Ms. Povich is a trained chef — searching far and wide for the right bread before settling on the J. J. Nissen bakery, of Maine. Their first appearance at the weekly Brooklyn Flea market attracted a line hours long. Demand soared. Mr. Gorham built out the storefront, fashioning picnic tables and lining the floors and walls with reclaimed wood he painstakingly milled. One of Ms. Povich’s cousins began selling their rolls out of food trucks in Washington, to instant success. Last year, Ms. Povich and Mr. Gorham introduced Big Red and rented a commissary space across the street to park it in. Plans were afoot for more expansion. They were able to buy a second home in the Rockaways, eight houses in from the sea, and planned to move there full time.
Then came the hurricane.
“It gets more and more depressing,†Mr. Gorham said, “how much work it needs.â€
Friends and relatives offered money to help them rebuild, but the couple could not stomach taking it. Instead, they started selling gift certificates on Smallknot, a Web site that enables small businesses to raise capital in exchange for goods and services, which immediately provides the couple with 25 percent of the proceeds, and they are seeking to secure low-interest loans.
They are also in a race to reopen, and dread missing Christmas and New Year’s, their biggest days. “It’s a very lean survival in Red Hook in the winter,†Ms. Povich said.
Their second home, in Belle Harbor, Queens, took on eight feet of water. The couple still find it too painful to talk about the differing reactions they had as the hurricane drew near — Ms. Povich believed that it would spare New York, while Mr. Gorham feared the worst — and about what they could have done differently. But Mr. Gorham keeps reminding himself of the most important thing: that his wife, their son, 13, and their daughter, 8, are all well.
“I can replace my truck,†he said. “I can’t replace my kids. The rest is just money and time.â€
I’m glad the Lobster Pound is rebuilding, though their lobster rolls are $16, a bit pricey. Most people seem to be saying they will rebuild but the process is slow. There is competition for skilled people such as electricians and flood insurance and FEMA are not quick.
I assume eventually we will be fine, too, but it is a lesson in patience. The electrician has been working on redoing the electrical panel and all the wiring below the ceiling. Then the heat will be worked on. The house is a mess. I’m looking forward to a working vacuum in a warm house.
When that’s done we need to sheetrock, and put in a kitchen, etc. I don;t think we’ll be Brooklynites for quite a while.
That is kind of par for lobster rolls around here. That is why I don’t eat them but I’d love to get a source for their rolls for slaw dogs.
Mitt’s Oval Office Moment
By GAIL COLLINS
Our subject for today is: Important Holiday Traditions Involving Mitt Romney.
You undoubtedly have heard that Barack Obama invited Romney for lunch this week, in what was described in many reports as a longstanding tradition of re-elected presidents having a good-fellowship meal with the person whose political dreams they had just shattered.
“They pledged to stay in touch, particularly if opportunities to work together on shared interests arise in the future,†said the official report. “Their lunch menu included white turkey chili and Southwestern grilled chicken salad.”
You’d think they could have served meat loaf. Mitt’s favorite food is meat loaf. Also, Mitt loves practical jokes, and if Obama had really wanted to get in the spirit of things, he could have had Romney arrested by the Capitol Police in the lobby.
There was no press coverage allowed. The two men posed for a rather uncomfortable-looking picture, and then, the White House said, had a nice discussion about “America’s leadership in the world and the importance of maintaining that leadership position in the future.â€
A good time was had by all. Well, really, what did you want them to talk about? Whether Mitt could use his extensive popularity with Congressional Republicans to help resolve the fiscal cliff?
The loser-comes-to-the-White-House-for-lunch tradition is an excellent tradition, even though it seems this was actually the first one in memory. George W. Bush didn’t invite John Kerry in 2004. Bill Clinton never gave Bob Dole a postelection meal, though he did give him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which was probably more enjoyable. The historian Michael Beschloss says President Reagan didn’t invite Walter Mondale.
One of the important things about traditions is that they don’t have to be all that traditional as long as you get into the spirit. I was moved recently when a friend told me about how his family always gets together to celebrate Thanksgiving with a large breakfast. Every year I look forward to having Christmas with my husband’s family, an event that always takes place around Dec. 8.
The postelection lunch is certainly a better White House tradition than the Thanksgiving turkey pardoning, although I do like seeing the look on Malia Obama’s face whenever her dad tries to get her to pat the bird. Also, we do not want to repeat anything involving Joe Biden shopping at Costco for pies.
The makeup meal doesn’t even have to make the loser feel better. (In 2008, Obama had John McCain over for a postelection meeting in Chicago, and you can see what a healing effect that had on McCain’s ego.) The point is that you have two super-prominent men who hate each other doing something meaningless just because it’s the civil thing to do.
There was a brief and desperate speculation before this week’s lunch that Obama might be planning to offer Romney a post as secretary of commerce. It’s true that Commerce is not exactly a power hub in most administrations, but presidents generally appoint people from the other party to cabinet jobs because they want to please the opposition. Obama could get more Republican good will by giving Commerce to Alec Baldwin.
The idea of a get-together with Romney first came up during the president’s victory speech. He elaborated at his first postelection news conference, saying that Romney “presented some ideas during the course of the campaign that I actually agree with.â€
The “actually†didn’t sound all that enthusiastic. Also, when it came time to praise his former rival, Obama said Romney “did a terrific job running the Olympics.â€
Romney said nothing whatsoever about the invitation. Perhaps he’s reflected on his gifts for spontaneous comment since he told donors that Obama had won the votes of college-age women by offering them free contraceptives. Maybe he has decided never to speak in public again. But you do have to give him points for showing up for the lunch. He cannot be in a good mood. His lifetime dream is rubble. He got 47 percent of the vote. He’s working out of his kid’s office. Chris Christie is the most popular person in the nation.
As Romney’s SUV approached the White House grounds, police stopped a man who tried to reach for the car yelling “Mitt! Mitt!†It wasn’t clear what he had in mind. Perhaps he was an angry dog lover who still hasn’t gotten over the fact that Romney once drove to Canada with an Irish setter strapped to the car roof. Perhaps he was a disappointed fan, eager to discuss the Tea Party’s clever plan to resuscitate the Romney presidency by organizing a boycott of the Electoral College.
Anyhow, it was sort of par for the course. The man was arrested. The SUV rolled on, driving Mitt toward the White House and the white turkey chili.