lucius septimius 1/12/2022 6:06:27 AM

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So this is flatbread breakfast week, eh?

The movers are supposed to pick up stuff at mom's house today.  Next question is how long it will take for them to get here.

lucius septimius 1/12/2022 6:15:24 AM

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Occasional Reader 1/12/2022 7:08:22 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 2:

if the administration really believe the content of that statement, shouldn’t they shut down the school?

JCM 1/12/2022 7:33:20 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 2:

Looking for a place to hide my sheepskin.....

And who did the Salish appropriate the land from?

Occasional Reader 1/12/2022 7:42:54 AM

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In #4 JCM said: And who did the Salish appropriate the land from?

I continue to insist; North America rightly belongs to the raccoons. 

Kosh's Shadow 1/12/2022 8:20:48 AM

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In #5 Occasional Reader said: I continue to insist; North America rightly belongs to the raccoons. 

With that bandit mask look of theirs, they must have stolen it.

buzzsawmonkey 1/12/2022 8:30:51 AM

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In #5 Occasional Reader said: I continue to insist; North America rightly belongs to the raccoons. 

Isn't "raccoon" a racist term now?

Occasional Reader 1/12/2022 8:38:08 AM

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In #6 Kosh's Shadow said: With that bandit mask look of theirs, they must have stolen it.

They were masking before masking was cool!

Well, maybe "cool"  isn't the right word. 

buzzsawmonkey 1/12/2022 8:38:47 AM

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You've all probably heard about the recent Bronx fire in which 17 people died (count was reduced from the original 19).  

The building was apparently occupied primarily by Muslim immigrants from Gambia.  Pictures of the building suggest that it was public housing of a sort---it has that drab, facesless, randomly-mixed-brick-color appearance of the later part of the boom in public-housing construction.

Recently, the media did their usual Christmastime stories about the worst landlords in the city, and the city itself---the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) won hands down---for lead-paint contamination, poor maintenance and cleanliness, etc., etc.

The fire supposedly started because a space heater malfunctioned---i.e., there was poor heat in the building. Nobody covering the story thus far has mentioned who the landlord is, which leads one to suspect that it was, in fact, the NYCHA.  One wonders, too, what the immigration status of the residents---victims and non-victims alike---was; are these part of the "undocumented" community, or perhaps some of the alledgedly-documented non-citizens that have just been given the right to vote in local elections?

How silent the media are.  How parsimonious the news organizations are with news.

Occasional Reader 1/12/2022 8:38:53 AM

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In #7 buzzsawmonkey said: Isn't "raccoon" a racist term now?

Everything is a racist term now. 

buzzsawmonkey 1/12/2022 8:42:57 AM

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In #10 Occasional Reader said: Everything is a racist term now. 

The raccoon raconteur rapidly recounted ribald raccoon ringtales...

JCM 1/12/2022 8:47:39 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 9:

Let me pile on to NYCHA....

I've seen reports that a "fire door" was left open.

Smoke infiltrated every floor of the building. All the deaths were from smoke.

Every building like that is require have self closing doors. The door in question had to be on a stairwell. But that wouldn't be enough. Every door on every floor had to be open. Since they are self closing, they had to have been jammed open.

How often are building maintenance staff doing a building check? How often did they find doors open? Did notices every go out to residents not to do that?

JCM 1/12/2022 8:51:54 AM

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There are types of doors that can be left open but when the alarm is tripped close automatically.

Also in large complexes fire doors often have sensors that will send an alert to the fire panel if they are open too long.

Bottom line this type of building smoke should have been confined to one floor.

Kosh's Shadow 1/12/2022 9:10:26 AM

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Reply to JCM in 13:

Also there should have been smoke detectors that set off a building fire alarm.

Occasional Reader 1/12/2022 9:14:07 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 9:

When the first reports came out about the tragedy, and were weirdly silent about details, I made certain assumptions. 

JCM 1/12/2022 10:02:57 AM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 14:

I assumed there were.

High rises everywhere have had to have smoke detection for decades now.

vxbush 1/12/2022 10:03:42 AM

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In #13 JCM said: There are types of doors that can be left open but when the alarm is tripped close automatically.

We have fire doors in a building in town that have electromagnetic locks holding them open. But once a fire is detected or the power goes out, the doors close automatically. 

vxbush 1/12/2022 10:04:55 AM

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In #11 buzzsawmonkey said: The raccoon raconteur rapidly recounted ribald raccoon ringtales...

Rhapsodically!

JCM 1/12/2022 10:14:35 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 17:

Pretty common now.

Very useful where fire doors tend to get propped open. Also on main corridors where you don't really want a door, but the corridor goes through a firewall and has to be closed off in a fire.

JCM 1/12/2022 10:58:51 AM

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Get a load of this story....

Ronald McDonald House to evict families with young children who are unvaccinated

It's Canada.

But kids undergoing cancer treatments are going to be contraindicated for the vaccine.

Occasional Reader 1/12/2022 11:18:55 AM

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Reply to JCM in 20:

Madness.

Occasional Reader 1/12/2022 11:33:55 AM

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In #17 vxbush said: We have fire doors in a building in town that have electromagnetic locks holding them open. But once a fire is detected or the power goes out, the doors close automatically. 

Nakatomi Plaza had a large vault with (inter alia) electromagnetic locks, that worked the other way around.  They turned out not to be a good idea. 

Kosh's Shadow 1/12/2022 11:41:52 AM

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This reminds me that back in 1980 or 81, we lived in Allston, MA (part of Boston). HBO was filming a movie on the Coconut Grove fire, and a building in the area was similar enough for external shots, and a parking lot was used for some other scenes.

I remember (and got pictures of) one of them.

They had a fire machine at one end, maybe with some big fans, too, and in the middle of the lot was a "revolving door" with nothing on either side. 

They filmed the "crowds": trying to get through the revolving door in a way that made it look like the fire was close to them and they were trapped. Interesting seeing how movie special effects are made.

BTW, due to the fire, all revolving doors have to fold if pushed on both sides; that rule was made not long after the disaster.

vxbush 1/12/2022 12:34:21 PM

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In #22 Occasional Reader said: Nakatomi Plaza had a large vault with (inter alia) electromagnetic locks, that worked the other way around.  They turned out not to be a good idea. 

Heh. Yes. But then, the FBI should also change their procedures. We've seen how well that's gone. 

Kosh's Shadow 1/12/2022 12:56:03 PM

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Reply to vxbush in 24:

The FBI? The Federal Bureau of Insurrection?

Occasional Reader 1/12/2022 1:22:50 PM

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In #25 Kosh's Shadow said: The FBI? The Federal Bureau of Insurrection?

Special Agent Johnson (no, the other one) does not appreciate your comment.

buzzsawmonkey 1/12/2022 1:26:02 PM

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Occasional Reader 1/12/2022 1:43:59 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 27:

See the link I posted yesterday (I think) about Dalrymple's concepf of "learned stupidity".  

JCM 1/12/2022 1:49:37 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 27:

How many buildings are still heated from those central steam plants in NYC?

buzzsawmonkey 1/12/2022 1:57:13 PM

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In #29 JCM said: How many buildings are still heated from those central steam plants in NYC?

I have no idea. 

I was fascinated to learn that, years ago, there was a giant pneumatic-tube network in Manhattan, emanating from the Central Post Office across from the now-demolished Penn Station, that shot massive tubes of mail to the branch post offices in Manhattan for local distribution.  This network of underground tubes was scrapped during the Eisenhower Administration, after Ike appointed the former head of GM to be Postmaster General and he decided---shocker!---that what the Post Office really needed was a fleet of GM trucks to do the same job.

vxbush 1/12/2022 2:13:04 PM

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In #30 buzzsawmonkey said: This network of underground tubes was scrapped during the Eisenhower Administration, after Ike appointed the former head of GM to be Postmaster General and he decided---shocker!---that what the Post Office really needed was a fleet of GM trucks to do the same job.

I bet that explains why some hospitals still have pneumatic tubes to this day to send meds to and from the on-site pharmacy. Couldn't exactly get GM cars to help in that case. 

JCM 1/12/2022 2:15:56 PM

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New York City steam system

Occasional Reader 1/12/2022 2:17:00 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 30:

The only time I can recall seeing a pneumatic tube setup in action was at a Marks & Spencer in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1985.  I asked the sales clerk for underwear, and it was delivered.. pneumatically!   One of the great little "retro" experiences in my life; alongside dining at the Horn & Hardart Automat on Lexington & 41st in 1992 or so. 

Occasional Reader 1/12/2022 2:17:49 PM

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In #32 JCM said: New York City steam system

I think it's just to provide amibiance. 

buzzsawmonkey 1/12/2022 2:48:33 PM

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In #33 Occasional Reader said: The only time I can recall seeing a pneumatic tube setup in action was at a Marks & Spencer in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1985.  I asked the sales clerk for underwear, and it was delivered.. pneumatically!   One of the great little "retro" experiences in my life; alongside dining at the Horn & Hardart Automat on Lexington & 41st in 1992 or so. 

I remember seeing the little pneumatic-tube canisters in use in a Salvation Army store in Manhattan some years ago, where they didn't quiiiiite trust the recovering alcoholics working the cash registers to actually make change themselves.  For that matter, I remember seeing in a setup of baskets on wires, where the clerk put the register receipt and the money paid into the basket and sent it up to an overhead "cage" where the change was made, in a hardware store.

JCM 1/12/2022 3:47:27 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 35:

The time I remember was in a Penny's or Sears. Clerks on the floor would bundled the sales receipt and payment. WHOOSH up to a mezzanine where the cashiers were. Then WHOOSH back comes the receipt marked paid and change.

buzzsawmonkey 1/12/2022 3:52:44 PM

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Reply to JCM in 36:

Yep.  That was the height of modernity, once upon a time.

doppelganglander 1/12/2022 4:15:51 PM

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Reply to JCM in 36:

There's at least one building in Atlanta that still has pneumatic tubes - the former C&S Bank building downtown. It was bought several years ago by a German developer who picked up dozens of properties with a plan to redevelop the area without destroying beautiful and historically significant buildings. I can't find any updates since 2020. He's still in business but presumably there's been a delay due to Covid.

Kosh's Shadow 1/12/2022 4:21:05 PM

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Reply to doppelganglander in 38:
A local bank at least used to have a pneumatic tube to the drive-up teller area. 

Occasional Reader 1/12/2022 4:25:46 PM

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I've known some ladies who were delightfully pneumatic...

/hat tip: Aldous Huxley