tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39444582008-10-28T17:27:59.255-05:00Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944458.post-70946341858494541742007-08-13T21:44:00.000-05:002007-08-13T22:49:27.121-05:00

I have been running on and off most of my life. I have learned a thing or two about my body and how it reacts. Once I was over 30 years old, I found my belly need the occasional discipline of running to keep it from expanding, if you know what I mean. I found that if I ran twice a week, it got easier, but if I ran only once a week, it felt like starting over again each week, as if I had not been

Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944458.post-1172362934263979962007-02-24T19:11:00.000-05:002007-02-24T19:22:14.276-05:00

Journey's End at the Belasco Theatre has excellent characterizations. It a very good play. But the theater itself has a dangerous condition. I was following an usher showing me to my seat at H16 when bang! my head hit an overhead beam. Many people already sitting down heard the thud and asked how I was, as did the usher. What could I say, my head hurt and I may have had a concussion (fortunately

Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944458.post-1166250667518355862006-12-16T01:03:00.000-05:002006-12-16T01:31:07.530-05:00

For the first two years of his life, I owned a dog, a dalmatian, that was deaf. Then, when I moved to Massachusetts, I rented a house that allowed pets (very hard to find there), but afraid that he would be unhappy being alone for long hours and longer days, I jumped that the chance to give him to someone I knew he loved. Actually I gave him to a couple who had taken care of him when I was

Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944458.post-1163403378677898922006-11-13T02:27:00.000-05:002006-11-17T12:57:02.486-05:00

It's November in New York City, and I have mosquitos in my SOHO apartment. They are small mosquitos, and they hide well; they have been biting me every other day, leaving itchy welts. Sometimes they buzz me too. So far I've killed one (I got a good look at it's swatted carcas). I don't know how many there are, since I actually never see more than one at a time. I don't know if they are living in

Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944458.post-1161570247191673252006-10-22T21:01:00.000-05:002006-10-22T21:55:00.743-05:00

Listening to "Fear of Flying" on tape -- it is read magnificently by Hope Davis -- I delighted in the first few hours, and was rather bored by the rest. The book does make you think; it has lots of "ah ha" moments, when you realize something Erica Jong is getting at is so true. Somethings it just brings back my own memories. Like here: Her character Isadora is being romanced at a cafe by the

Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944458.post-1160848646116224392006-10-14T12:47:00.000-05:002006-10-14T15:18:35.730-05:00

I have recently talked to people who have calculated how many tons of polution people in various countries create each year. The waste is from water for washing, carbon from burning fuel, garbage thrown away, etc. Actually a big part of the waste is the weight of the water. The total weight of all waste per person in countries differs due to lifestyle. I do not have a link to this data at the

Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944458.post-1154190174833683772006-07-29T11:22:00.000-05:002006-07-29T11:41:30.723-05:00

I almost said "let me look in your purse for you" as the old lady next to me at the coat check was having trouble finding her ticket. We were leaving the party at Christie's for Nan Kempner's new book RSVP about the tables and menus at the fabulous homes she had eaten dinner at. But there is a certain distance that strangers in New York feel between each other -- afraid that their solicitousness

Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944458.post-1142512534708996922006-03-16T07:27:00.000-05:002006-03-16T07:35:34.716-05:00

When I was young, a walk on the street meant passing may older women and men who had great difficulty walking. They would shuffle with canes or strollers or struggle with no help at all along the sidewalk. Now I no longer see many old people struggling along. What has happened to them? Does the new generation now sit at home, waiting for home delivery and taking an occassional walk around the

Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944458.post-1132717587175048762005-11-22T22:15:00.000-05:002005-11-22T22:46:27.186-05:00

One of the artists who congregate on weekends in front of my apartment house entrance died last week. He was 53 and died of colon cancer that was diagnoised a month earlier. When I had first seen him after I moved here about a year and a half ago, he seemed ill to me. Later when I started talking to him and found him very agreeable, I stopped noticing. His death has caused me sadness; I am sad

Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944458.post-1132298042658913692005-11-18T02:09:00.000-05:002005-11-18T02:14:02.666-05:00

I've been reading Jack Kerouac's Dharma Bums about his search for meaning in life in hiking and contemplation. So ah-ha -- I jotted down a few words about Douglas's secret true Buddha nature. But I'd hardly finished a sentence when I realized I'd never be able to convince anyone that Douglas has a true Buddha nature. The following day I've thought back on how it has happened that he lacks a

Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944458.post-1106533972740406382005-01-23T21:22:00.000-05:002005-02-14T17:02:26.046-05:00

With the talk recently about the rivers of liquid methane that once flowed on Saturn's moon Titan, I am reminded of an article I once read in the Atlantic Monthly. The article described a theory that the earth's oil is of primordial origin. Not made from decaying plants and algae, but in huge pools deep in the earth from its original formation. A proponent of this theory is Thomas Gold. Let me

Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944458.post-1097206066301899882004-10-07T22:25:00.000-05:002004-10-07T22:27:46.300-05:00

The F train is the coolest subway route in the Manhattan and I’ve only just discovered it! It goes from the ultra hip Lower East Side to the ultra conservative Mid Town East Side. The Lower East Side now has all those great bars and restaurants like ‘inoteca on Ludlow and Rivington. At 63rd Street and 3rd Avenue the F train has the most amazing entrance. You have to go down four separate long

Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944458.post-1097023991294219492004-10-05T19:46:00.000-05:002004-10-06T11:45:32.000-05:00

In his book Adventure Capitalist Jim Rogers mentions that in traveling through Gambia he saw many French, German, British and Swiss woman. At first he didn't understand why, then it soon became clear that they were there as what some are calling “romance tourists”. They came singly to pair up with young local men. I am a bit surprised! Thinking some more about this reminds me of Truman Capote’

Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944458.post-1095971534302733842004-09-23T15:31:00.000-05:002004-09-23T16:05:33.196-05:00

Lost post The recent suicides at NYU are disturbing. I wrote a really good post about this a few days ago, but it got lost in transmission. I thought I had lyrically pinpointed the kind of despair that leads to suicide and the reasons it is worth waiting instead of acting. Here goes a more prosaic effort. Two weeks ago a graduate student at the film school took off all her clothes and

Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944458.post-1095651706671534312004-09-19T22:41:00.000-05:002004-09-19T22:42:52.230-05:00

Mayor Bloomberg has recently made efforts to reduce noise in New York City. Noise from ice cream trucks blaring loud music, noise from construction on the streets, perhaps some other kinds of noise too. It is a great idea to reduce unnecessary noise in this city with so many people living so close to each other. And there is one potential target that I’d suggest creates more annoying noise than

Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944458.post-1094000784805045032004-08-31T20:04:00.000-05:002005-01-01T23:58:22.236-05:00

I wrote this on the bus 2nd Avenue bus as an exercise. I thought I would re-write it ten times in different ways. Dialogue, points of view, style changes, etc. But so far it hasn't been done. Why Waste Food There are many convincing reasons not to waste food, but the more I think about the “people are starving in China” indoctrinations that mothers tell to their skinny children, the less I

Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944458.post-1093716278154504762004-08-28T12:38:00.000-05:002005-01-03T23:43:15.930-05:00

Several weeks ago to lose weight I decided not to eat. I thought about how every year I don’t eat or drink for the 24 hours of the Jewish new year. How much easier it would be just not to eat! So I stopped eating. My immediate motivation was that a girl I liked had told me how she’d lost interest in a guy after he gained weight; he was no longer sexy. And I myself have always had a major aversion

Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944458.post-1093542970206316872004-08-26T12:44:00.000-05:002004-08-26T12:56:10.206-05:00

In May I went to Roscoe with my brother to try fly fishing. We were able to stay at a cottage connected to a beautiful small manor. We went to one of the stores there, met a guide, got fitted with waders and bought a fishing license. Then we drove to the stream. I saw some amazing things on this fly fishing trip. And I learned a lot of surprising things about how some flying insects are born.

Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944458.post-1071683177326216892003-12-17T12:46:00.000-05:002004-08-16T13:35:22.900-05:00

I have been incredibly delinquent in writing to my blog; I sincerely apologize to all (any of?) my loyal readers and promise that I will start to say all the wonderful things that I thought about blogging, but have not. For the moment a quick, quick update: I was travelling a lot. Mexico -- Merida and the Yucatan; Mongolia -- where I gave a talk and now have a pad in Ulaan Baatar; China --

Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944458.post-1056938769730871592003-06-29T21:06:00.000-05:002003-06-29T21:06:09.703-05:00

I was listening to the tape of Melissa Bank's excellently written book, "The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing". She uses lots of short sentences, reminding me of Hemingway. They are like this (I'll make some up): "I sat. I sang. I read. I waited. I walked " And she goes on. Anyway what I am getting at is this: at one point in the book the female character (who I assume to be always right)

Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944458.post-956709822003-06-14T17:42:00.000-05:002003-06-14T17:42:56.820-05:00

Well I know I haven't been saying much and many of my loyal readers are wondering why. For the moment I'd like to tell a story that I already put somewhere else on this vast website, somewhere so remote that it may never be view by a human eye (mine own not counting). A place where even search engines never go. OK, I'll admit it, I originally put it there on purpose. Bridgehampton Mobil

Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944458.post-931086652003-04-23T07:51:00.000-05:002003-04-23T07:51:59.636-05:00

Today on C-SPAN2 Dawn Calabia from the UN Information Center said that last year the world spent $850 billion on armaments and $5 billion on humanitarian assistance. That's 170 times more on armaments! For several weeks now I have been thinking that the US's traditional methods of defense -- bombers, armies, air craft carriers -- is not optimized to deal with terrorist threats. Some countires

Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944458.post-908596122003-03-17T10:56:00.000-05:002003-03-17T10:56:32.216-05:00

We have all been listening to speculation on the TV news about whether the "non-combatants" that the US has captured in its war on terrorism are being tortured to make them give out information about plans for terrorism. Some of the captured terrorists (and I call them terrorists assuming that they are guilty -- which some of them may not be -- though the idea of being "guilty" raises its own

Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944458.post-908014232003-03-16T07:59:00.000-05:002003-03-16T07:59:10.966-05:00

I also had been thinking a bit more about the "Julie Christie" song. It is kind of amazing for a musician to have their work used in a movie. The musician sends out her creation and really has no idea how it might be used if it ever gets into a movie. It could be background music to a scene -- that could be a love scene, a murder scene, a fishing on the pond scene. In this case the scene was

Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3944458.post-908012722003-03-16T07:51:00.000-05:002003-03-16T07:51:31.403-05:00

Recently I have been doing a little musing on the quantity of water vs. gasoline that I use. Sad to say, I use more gasoline than I do water. (Well, let's include oil in that calculation too). Perhaps that will change as the summer comes and I take longer showers. :)

Geoffreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846980821421036730noreply@blogger.com0