NYC is striking

It looks like I moved to Jersey just in time. The subways and buses are shut down due to a transit strike and 7 million people a day are out on their arse in the cold looking for other ways to get to work. Many are walking miles, others are biking and car pooling (only cars with 4 occupants are allowed into Manhattan) it's a strange sight to say the least.

If you have ever watched the movie "Working Girl" with Melanie Griffith or Terry Gilliam's "The Fisher King", you'll be familiar with the image of the kooky New York secretary who shows up to work in a smart business suit but rounded off with a pair of sneakers. Apparently this phenomenom is a leftover from the last transit strike in 1980 when the system shut down for 11 days. I've been seeing lots of suits and sneakers in the last two days. Thousands of people have been marching over the Brooklyn Bridge in the bitter cold.

I'm okay; I now ride the PATH train and it drops me 8 blocks from work. Owned by the Port Authority and not the Metropolitan Transport Authority, It is not affected by the strike other than being a bit busier than usual.

A lot of people are being affected though and not just the public and transit workers (who stand to get fined two days wages for ever day they are out). A lot of stores are closed because their staff cannot get into work, a lot of restuarants have no customers and some have no delieveries as commercial vehicles are also banned from downtown NYC during the day. It's the run up to Christmas, this is one pinch that has to hurt.

The other annoying thing is that the MTA who run the subways announced a billion dollar surplus this year and does not want to spread the money around to the workers! Also the union in this case stepped out from the blanket of it's international affiliate and called the strike without approval. This means support strikes are virtually non-existant and the local union which is being fined $1 million dollars a day will be bankrupt by the end of the week.

It seems to me, my paranoid eye that is, that this strike is the best thing that ever happened to the management of the MTA. They can kill the Union once and for all and once that happens they can do whatever they want! I'm a great believer in Unions and I think this would be an unspeakable tradgedy. Again maybe I am being paranoid, but I keep thinking about how it turned out in the Miner's strike in the 1980's in the UK when it was discovered years later that some of the Union's top executives were in fact secret service moles, and that the destruction of the union was just as inportant as the closure of the mines.

All I hope is that this gets worked out without too many people getting hurt any more.

New House

So We have left New York. The Wife and I are officially residents of New Jersey - I've bought the Springsteen t-shirt and the trucker cap, the whole kit and caboodle! Tony Soprano can kiss-my-motherfeckin-Scottish-arse!

Paradoxically, I might have moved to another state but I am actually closer to Manhattan than I was when I lived in Brooklyn and I have 3 times the amount of space for half the amount of money! I have an attic and a basement now for god's sake!!!! And I can play my music as loud as I want without disturbing the neighbours!

The house was built in 1929, the year of the Wall Street Crash and also, I realised after, the year my Mother was born. It has been owned by one couple for the last 40-odd years, it has updated heating systems (5 years old or so) and updated windows but there is a ton of cumbling plaster to be fixed and it needs a new roof (the current one has curling shingles but it is not leaking - there was a leaking part but that was repaired in 2002).

The good news is that the house is bloody warm! I can't believe how much warmer it is than our old place. It is freezing outside and I am sitting in my t-shirt. The downside is though that I am now paying for that warmth and not our old landlord, I'm sure my first heating bill will be a shocker!

I also now have to pay property taxes, water bills, electricity and gas, along with my mortgage and the various home repairs that I'm sure will crop up. I think my irresponsible drinking days may be coming to a close! From now on I will be a drunk only on special occasions like weddings, funerals and weekends!

John Lennon

John Lennon was all over the TV today - it is 25 years since he was assassinated outside the Dakota Building up on 72nd Street. The Beatles fans are holding their yearly vigil in Central Park and this year Yoko came down to join them.

All very nice… yes, I know that you are all waiting for me to say something cynical but this time I won’t. John Lennon was my version of the Kennedy assassination - you know that idea that you always remember where you were when they were shot.

I was getting ready for school - or to be more precise I was behind the big wooden clothes horse in the kitchen by the heater and sheltered by the laundry, I had one leg through my underpants and was struggling to get the other one through when it came on the radio. My Dad, my Mum and probably one of my Brothers or Sisters were on the other side of the clothes horse having breakfast. There was shocked silence then I asked “Who died?”.

“John Lennon” said my Mum.

I really had no idea who he was, other than a member of the Beatles, a group my brother John liked. I just remember the feeling of shock in the room more than anything else.

18 years later when I step off the plane in New York, one of the first places I visit is Strawberry Fields, the commemorative Gardens in Central Park across from the Dakota.

7 months after arriving I land my first job (it took that long to sort my work permit) through a job agency at The NYC Department of Statistics. I am put in charge of retrieving birth and death certificates from and for hospitals.

The job involves getting a request from a hospital or out-of-state government then running down to the vault to locate it from large boxes sorted by year and then alphabetically. The boxes date right back to the 1920’s, any earlier than that and you send the request to another, even bigger vault in Brooklyn.

It was actually a pretty cool job. It was weird to think that every bit of paper represented a person and inevitably had a story behind it. Some death certificates were detailed and had a corresponding reference number for locating more info, some just simply stated “natural causes” or “accidental death”.

There was one woman who worked in the office whose job it was to scan the newspapers every morning for homicide stories or fire-related death stories, she would then call the doctors or local precincts to make sure the death certificates were lodged with the city.

Another person dealt specifically with infant mortality. Another with HIV/AIDS. Every detail of death and birth was scrutinized.

I worked there for 6 months but part of me wishes I had stayed, it was that interesting.

Anyway, what has this to do with John Lennon? Well, even though it was forbidden, I pulled his death certificate out of morbid curiosity. Celebrity death certificates often had legal shrouds on them to block access to any sordid details the public might not know and they could only be accessed by going through a lawyer first. John was like that - there were no details other than birthdate, place of birth and cause of death. It simply stated “Homicide”.

Impeach Bush!

Lifted from a political humor site:

George Bush has started an ill-timed and disastrous war under false pretenses by lying to the American people and to the Congress; he has run a budget surplus into a severe deficit; he has consistently and unconscionably favored the wealthy and corporations over the rights and needs of the population;he has destroyed trust and confidence in, and good will toward, the United States around the globe; he has ignored global warming, to the world's detriment; he has wantonly broken our treaty obligations; he has condoned torture of prisoners; he has attempted to create a theocracy in the United States; he has appointed incompetent cronies to positions of vital national importance.

Now, would someone please give him a blow job so we can impeach him?

Talibangelicals and The Movies

The Talibangelicals are at it again. Popular nature documentary "The March of The Penguins" is being touted as a good Christian film and proof of the existance of God and "intelligent design". After I heard this I went to my favorite Christian film review site to check out the reactions. I think I've posted this site before but check it out as it's always good for a laugh!

Anyway, back the penguins! Dirty little Buggers that they are! Apparently " The penguins mate during the film, but it is understood, not shown." Is Penguin sex mentioned in the Bible? Sinful little shits!

Another reviewer remarked:

" from a Christian perspective, in the opening scenes of the movie, it explains that the yearly penguin routine has gone on for millions and millions of years, which we all know is false".

It's amazing to me that the Talibangelicals can get that upset about the teaching of evolution but then again, most of the ones that are bothered by this do look really unevolved. To quote Bill Hicks:

"I believe God created Me in one day".

"Yeah, looks like he rushed it!".

Here's an article on some gay penguins that live in New York just in case you got the idea that penguins are now christian crusaders for abstinence!

Another film that comes in for a hard time on this site is the new Harry Potter film. Now personally I think Harry Potter is over-hyped crap, I have never read the books and have seen two of the previous films only because I have been stuck on a plane with nothing else to watch. Anyway, one Potter reviewer coughed up this great story:

" I just want to comment on how much this series has negatively affected my child. I let my son read the first book and took him to the movie. I didn't much care for the movie but didn't realize how much it made my son want to be a wizard. He started carrying around a stick and trying to cast spells on things. I thought, 'oh this is just a phase. He'll grow out of it.' Then he tried to fly with my broom…off the roof of our house. He broke both of his legs because he is possessed by this book. I haven't let him read or view any of the other ones, and I won't but he is clearly possessed because he keeps asking me if he can ,and he still wants to be a wizard, and he doesn't want to go to church anymore.… "

Cool!! My suggestion to this reviewer would be to move to a high rise apartment complex! Your child is not possesed by the devil, he is obviously being raised by an idiot. Tell him to try taking off from the ground first!