Scattered thoughts

For some reason I began receiving a newsletter for a network of "age restricted" communities across the US. This month's installment educated me about online dating for people age 62 plus, health care record keeping, and exciting changes in diabetes treatment. Not a bad little paper.

Does anyone else think Weezer's new album is horrible? I mean, not just horribly overrated, but downright horrible. Yeah, I get Rivers, Pinkerton is my favorite album, I loved it when I saw them and they played almost the whole thing in front of huge pyrotechnics and blazing lights. Hilarious. But I think "Beverly Hills" is mediocre and the rest of the new album is cheesy and doesn't work.

Wal-mart has aggresive plans to develop 250-300 new stores within the next year because towns and cities are refining zoning codes to keep them out. They want to build before towns, a.k.a. the representatives of THE PEOPLE THAT LIVE THERE, figure out how to outlaw them. Slippery bastards. At the same time, they are announcing environmental reforms to increase energy efficiency. Ok, energy efficiency is good, I can't argue with that. But it's a cute PR ploy to make themselves sound so concerned while their business model is absolutely devasting to the environment and to our communities. What's the saying, it's like "dressing up a pig"? Something like that.

In better community development news, Newburyport was inspiring. This house is 6 months old, and as Heather said, the only way you could pick it out on a street of 200 year old houses was the fact that it's cleaner. The planner actually asked the developer to apply for a variance to put the house right on the street and not set it back 20' as the City code requires. The developer and residents were nervous, thought something fishy must be going on. Nope, just a planner who knows what he's doing. And, of course, the new house and others on the street will be more valuable because the new house fits in and improves the streetscape.



A wider view of the street, with the new house on the right:



This courthouse in Newburyport is America's oldest continuously operating courthouse. I like how it fits in with the pond and park in an interesting way. The planner said until 9/11 they didn't have any security, and even now it doesn't even really need to be enforced.