I was at the polls all day, so that’s why I haven’t posted yet,
but this gives me a chance to tell you what happened.
The results are preliminary, which means they don’t include
anything that has to be hand counted. In the case of the precinct
I worked at, that’s about 50 out of about 600 total ballots.
But preliminary
results are that four challengers have been elected, including
Dennis Carlone, whom I supported.
I tested healthcare.gov on the morning of October 1, before
I’d read any news stories about the problems,
and it worked fine for my purposes. This is because I live in
Massachusetts, so all I needed was a pointer to the Mass site,
where I wasn’t at that time able to find out my options, but I was
able to read a couple of articles about what was likely to change
for me.
Since then I’ve gotten two communications from my insurance
company. One was a “magazine” with an article stating that
everyone would have to go on the health care exchange because all
the current policies were ending on December 31. This was a
little alarming, but I decided to ignore it until the deadline was
closer.
A week or so later, I got a letter addressed to me personally,
informing me that I did not have to do anything to keep
my current coverage — that if I did nothing my current plan would
be replaced by one with a different name, which would be no more
expensive and might have better coverage. So I only needed to
shop for a new plan if I didn’t like the current one.
I still don’t have the details about the new plan, but since
I’m quite happy with the old plan, I’m not worried about it.
But I’m glad I’m not in a state where I have to depend on
healthcare.gov to find out my options. Apparently the decision to
make shopping impossible without registration was made about a
week before the site went live, and it was known before October 1
that registration didn’t work in major ways.
![[map of time zone proposal]](https://i0.wp.com/cdn.theatlantic.com/newsroom/img/posts/proposed-time-zones.png)
I live in the eastern part of my time zone, so the end of
daylight savings always means that it’s dark when people leave work.
This
article wins this year’s prize for best complaint about
daylight savings time.
Here’s part of the argument:
Daylight saving time ends Nov. 3, setting off an annual ritual where Americans (who don’t live in Arizona or Hawaii) and residents of 78 other countries including Canada (but not Saskatchewan), most of Europe, Australia and New Zealand turn their clocks back one hour. It’s a controversial practice that became popular in the 1970s with the intent of conserving energy. The fall time change feels particularly hard because we lose another hour of evening daylight, just as the days grow shorter. It also creates confusion because countries that observe daylight saving change their clocks on different days.
I missed a Sunday afternoon train in Brussels once because it
didn’t occur to me to think about whether they changed time. But
the real point of the article is that not only should a given
place not change time twice a year, but that there should be fewer
time zones. Specifically, the continental US should have only
two — Eastern and Western.
In reality, America already functions on fewer than four time zones. I spent the last three years commuting between New York and Austin, living on both Eastern and Central time. I found that in Austin, everyone did things at the same times they do them in New York, despite the difference in time zone. People got to work at 8 am instead of 9 am, restaurants were packed at 6 pm instead of 7 pm, and even the TV schedule was an hour earlier. But for the last three years I lived in a state of constant confusion, I rarely knew the time and was perpetually an hour late or early.
It makes one wonder whether the world needs time zones at all
— maybe it should just be like the northern and southern
hemisphere — in some countries, Christmas is in summer and in
some it’s in winter. In some countries, you could go to bed at
midnight and wake up at 7am; in others, you might go to bed at
noon and wake up at 7pm.
![[Estragon and Vladimir]](https://artsemerson.org/ArticleMedia/Images/godot_header_new.jpg)
It’s apparently “GAH – doh”, not “goh – DOH”. I had always
pronounced it in the French way, but the Irish troupe I saw play
it last night englished it.
It was the Arts
Emerson presentation of the Gare Saint Lazare players doing
it. It was riveting, although I can’t explain exactly why.
Peter Hall, who directed the first London production in 1955,
apparently wasn’t sure it would be until it opened.
One critic (Vivian Mercier) said “Waiting for
Godot is a play in which nothing happens, twice.” With
good players, it turns out that that can be really funny,
especially the second time.
It looks from the audience I saw last night that theater is
doing better with young audiences than early music.
I have a friend who takes a prescription for a seizure
disorder, that if she doesn’t take it every day she could well
die, if she has a seizure at the wrong time. She has a rant about
how any drug without major public health consequences should be
available over-the-counter to anyone who thinks they need it. She
is unusually good at dealing with complex systems, and she still
has problems if she goes on vacation or changes insurance
companies or whatever.
The insulin I take for my diabetes isn’t in quite that life-sustaining
category, but the health care providers I talk to do claim that
it’s pretty important to take it every day. But that’s not what
the people who work in the system for getting me refills when I’m
out seem to think.
Here’s the system.
This has nothing to do with Obamacare, because this problem has
existed in some form for at least a decade. It probably isn’t
really related to government health care, although the Cambridge
Hospital Association, which operates both the pharmacy and the
clinic in this story, is funded in a major way by the city of
Cambridge. My friend with the seizure disorder isn’t using
government-operated healthcare any more than anyone else in this
country.
But I have been hitting this problem for a decade, and every
time I hit it, I mention to my health care provider that the
system seems to be screwed up. Most recently, I told the nurse
who finally got me the prescription, and she said she understood
my concerns, but not that she knew of any way to address them.
So it’s probably time to call or write someone else. You can
consider this a rough draft of that letter.
Since I’m posting quite a lot here about what I’m reading, I
thought I should mention how I go about acquiring it. By far the
largest set of books I read these days come from the ebook lending
system of the Middlesex Library Network. The next largest set
come from Project Gutenberg and other online free books source.
And I do buy some books, both ebooks and dead tree books, of which
maybe more later.
The ebook site is pretty complicated, so I thought I’d mention
the way I’ve eventually settled on how to use it.
If I’m feeling insecure about where the next book I read is
coming from, I do steps 2 and 3 even if I can’t do step 1.
We played:
We will not be meeting on November 5. After that we will
resume our regular meetings November 12.
Our regular meetings are on Tuesdays at 7:45 PM at my place. If
you haven’t already told me you’re coming, let me know by 10 in
the morning of the day of the meeting. If you have told me you’re
coming, and something comes up so that you can’t, please let me
know as soon as is practical.
I got this email from Nancy Ryan, whom I met working on
neighborhood issues. She’s been intimately involved in Cambridge
politics for decades, worked for the city for quite a while as
director of the Cambridge Women’s Commission, and as executive
director of the Massachusetts ACLU.
I would add to her list that I’ve talked to people who’ve worked with
Fran Cronin and are enthusiastic about her bid for school committee. I
also think Craig Kelley works hard at communicating with voters, and
said some of the right things about the City Manager selection process,
or lack thereof.
In other words, I respect Nancy and will vote for everyone on her list
based on her recommendation if not anything else. I had independently
concluded that Dennis Carlone should get my number 1 vote. But I
usually continue on down the rankings (although I’m pretty sure my vote
always goes to my first, second, or third choice) quite a lot farther
than she does, so I will be ranking many of the people she doesn’t
mention ahead of other people she doesn’t mention.
Dear Cambridge Neighbors and Friends – Many of you have asked me what
I’m doing about the up-coming election so I’m taking the liberty of
sending my recommendations. Regarding City Council – this is a pivotal
moment in Cambridge. The city seems to be up for sale to large
developers who want to build upscale housing or commercial space in
high and dense buildings. Central Square is particularly a target. The
current City Council members have been inclined to grant up-zoning
petitions even with large protests from residents. There’s no overall
plan and huge development proposals about to be presented to the
Council. Here are my recommendations and a request – would you
consider forwarding this email to lots of your friends and neighbors?
You can change it up to fit your own priorities but I URGE you to
recommend Dennis Carlone #1.
That’s as far as I could go with City Council candidates.
School Committee – I am not deeply involved in the School Committee so
can only offer one strong candidate and some personal experiences or
comments that people have made about others:
#1 Kathleen Kelly – I have known Kathleen as a community activist and
parent and strongly recommend her as a first time candidate. She is a
unique combination of education and experience — a trained social
worker with an MBA who takes the social justice stand that public
education is the great equalizer in our society and has the capacity
to analyze budgets and policy to carry this commitment forward.
And in any order:
Richard Harding – is a lifelong resident of Area 4 and a founder of
the Port Action group focused on violence prevention and connecting
formerly incarcerated people with services and resources. He knows and
cares about the young people and families who most need an educational
system that supports all of our children. I have known Richard for a
long time and hope he is re-elected.
Patty Nolan – I can mainly say that Patty asks the difficult questions
and expects accountability from everyone.
Eleche Kadete – I have not meet this young man who graduated from CRLS
and went on to Brandeis, but I read his platform and on the basis of
that, I’ll vote for him. Here’s a link.
I’ve mentioned this cake a couple of times — it’s my go to
recipe these days when I want to bring baked goods somewhere, or
use up lots of eggs or have fresh rosemary sitting around.
I made it last night for the Recorder Society, and
someone asked for the recipe, so here it is.
From “An Everlasting Meal” by Tamar Adler, who
adapted it from “Cooking by Hand”, by Paul Bertolli.
Heat the oven to 325 degrees.
Coat a bundt pan first with butter, then with flour, tapping out the
excess flour. (I use a non-stick angel cake pan, and spray oil.)
Beat the eggs for 30 seconds with a handheld beater. Slowly add the
sugar and continue to beat until the mixture is very foamy and
pale. Still mixing, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. (I use the beater
on the highest speed for the preceding steps.) Using a spatula,
fold in the rosemary. (I use the beater on the slowest speed for all
the following steps.)
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and
salt. Keeping the mixer on low speed, gradually add the dry ingredients
to the egg mixture. Pour the batter into the bundt pan. (I never
bother with a separate bowl or pre-mixing the dry ingredients.
I just add the small ones, in this case salt and baking powser,
first, and figure they’ll get evenly mixed while I’m mixing in
the flour.)
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. The cake is
done when it is golden brown and springs back when touched, or when a
skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool
briefly in the pan and then tip it out onto a rack to continue
cooling. (I don’t bother with the rotating; I use the skewer
method, and it takes my oven a little over an hour to do this.)
This is delicious on its own, or accompanied by freshly whipped
unsweetened cream, or the wonderfully rich, soft Italian cream cheese
called mascarpone. (I’ve always just eaten it on its own.
What people like about it as opposed to other pound-cake style
baked goods is how it isn’t sweet at all.)
I spent yesterday afternoon being trained to be a warden in the
Cambridge city elections on November 5. It was an unusually tense
training session — normally you want to choose your seat so that
your nap isn’t interrupted by the snores of the person next to
you, because everybody has done everything before, and if the
training didn’t take then, it isn’t going to happen now.
In Cambridge, the city elections are different from the others
because of proportional
representation. As a voter, what this means is that instead
of putting X’s next to the names of the people you want to vote
for, you have to rank the candidates in the order you prefer.
As an election worker, this means you do a lot less of the
total process, since the counting takes place in a computer back
at the election commission, instead of in the scanner and the
various tally sheets at the precinct. But you have to do more
voter education, since a remarkable number of the voters have no
idea that they have to do anything different for this
election.
Of course, this city election takes place every two years, but
it seemed like a longer interval than usual this time, because
we’ve had so many more elections than we used to. I’ve done
special elections and primaries for a state senator and a US
senator, and lots of poeple have also done them for state
representatives, and the primary for the US Representative.
Part of the tension yesterday was that the Election
Commissioner was new and hadn’t ever done this particular
training. Actually, he’s someone who’s done the warden and clerk
job before, so to some extent his answers to questions were more
practical than some of the other commissioners. Example:
Q: Can we tell the voters to use a ruler, so that they
won’t be as likely to vote the same number for two
candidates?
A: You can tell them that, but you can’t yell at them
when they decide not to and spoil their ballot.
But the real reason for the tension I think was one particular
trainee, who I think is insecure about whether she’s doing the job
right, and has found all the training sessions that are exactly
like all the other training sessions very reassuring, and suddenly
this one started out by saying, “Here are some things you have to
do differently for a city election.”
So she freaked out, and it set off a few other insecure
people. In justice to them, some of the material could have been
organized better. For instance, there are two different problems
that are referred to as “overflow” — one is the actual ballot box
physically overflowing, and the other is the memory card in the
scanner running
out of room. This isn’t a problem in a regular election, because
all it has to store is the tallies of how many votes which
candidate got. For proportional representation, it has to store
each ballot separately, because if your first choice candidate
gets “counted out”, the computer back at the election commission
has to be able to find your second choice candidate. In any case,
there was a set of directions about what happens if the memory
card is in danger of overflowing, and 15 minutes later, a second
set of directions about what happens if the ballot box is in
danger of overflowing, and a completely different number of
ballots.
It was a pity the session got so hung up on these technical
issues, because there is an actual voter education problem I’d
like to discuss in that setting some time. When I was first at
the precinct I work at, there were two checkin inspectors who did
a particularly good job of warning the voters that they needed to
fill in numbers instead of marking X’s. Then suddenly one year,
there were brand new inspectors at that table, and we had a lot
more spoiled ballots. I keep trying to remember what the first
two said, and never do.
LayMusic.org 