Re: us motorists are gas sucking whining energy pigs

[g.daniels]

the subject has monement in the press.
this morn i herd ford 'plans' an SUV hybrid
for the water makes energy crowd 'ford' plans to foster thru
advertizing
a gas turbine with a 400 pound flywheel....
maybe a rooftop parabolic sending surplus microwave electricity to
Niagra Falls
or the moon (so the moonbase can vacuum dirt offn their chips)

a two cylinder horizontally opposed propelling 1000 totally recyclable
pounds forgetaboutit
with bike rack for short trips

 

[Chalo]

[email protected] (gwhite) wrote:
>
> Chalo wrote:
> >
> > You can own, and "tear up", a bicycle or a house or a dinette set.
> > Destroying good land is another thing altogether. Remember how much
> > older and more important the earth is than any of its young cultures
> > that have developed notions about free markets, ownership rights, etc.
>
> I think the collectivist view has been so thoroughly discredited that
> argument on the matter is pure folly.

Your way of thinking will pass away, like all things that cannot
endure the test of time.

Things look pretty good for next quarter, though, eh?

Chalo Colina

 

[Chalo]

Tim McNamara <[email protected]> wrote:

> You rarely vote Republican, I'd guess. Remember the good old days of
> James "we can destroy the environment because the end of the world is
> coming next week, anyway" Watt and Ronald "if you've seen one redwood,
> you've seen 'em all" Reagan? Everything old is new again- it's the
> same bunch of morons running the country yet again.

I remember: air pollution comes mainly from trees, ketchup is a
vegetable. We have to threaten to destroy the world in order to
threaten to save it, or something like that. Evil empire! Did I read
that right? Nancy, bring me my jellybeans....

Chalo Colina

 

[Chalo]

Tom Sherman <[email protected]> wrote:

> We are faced with defining reasonable. Many in the US would define
> reasonable as less than one block. [1] However, if we increase
> reasonable to two miles (a pleasant walk IMO) the number becomes
> substantially greater.

Awk! You have got to be kidding me! Walking is _way_ too undignified
a method of locomotion to engage in it unnecessarily. Two miles' walk
is something you do when you have to nurse a crippled bike into port
(a task honorable enough to warrant all that futile foot-beating).

Chalo

 

[Chalo]

carlfogel <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Indeed, it would interesting to have a statistic about the average
> distance from a U.S. home to a full grocery store (as opposed to a Kwik-E-
> Mart), a far more common destination than a hopsital.

I have gone out of my way to live in a densely populated central city
neighborhood, endowed with a selection of full grocery stores, here in
Seattle.

Which brings me to a tangential point: I find it worth my time to
traverse town by car to do business at grocery stores elsewhere! The
inner-city ones tend to be significantly more expensive, have ****
product selection and inferior perishables, and display indifferent to
antagonistic management and poor customer service. The fact that they
can prosper on location alone seems to have had a detrimental effect
on quality, sad to say.

In these respect and others I find Seattle grocers generally lacking
compared to those in Austin. The "walking neighborhood" phenomenon
might well have something to do with it (since Austin doesn't really
have any pedestrian 'hoods) but even the better stores in the Seattle
area would not pass muster in my Texas hometown. The whole grocery
issue is one of the more baffling and frustrating details of Seattle
life.

Chalo Colina

 

[Dane Jackson]

Chalo <[email protected]> wrote:

> In these respect and others I find Seattle grocers generally lacking
> compared to those in Austin. The "walking neighborhood" phenomenon
> might well have something to do with it (since Austin doesn't really
> have any pedestrian 'hoods) but even the better stores in the Seattle
> area would not pass muster in my Texas hometown. The whole grocery
> issue is one of the more baffling and frustrating details of Seattle
> life.

Which part of Seattle are you in? I'm just about at the intersection
of I-5 and I-90, and I don't feel things are that dire. My closest
grocery store is not fanatastic, but it does stock an excellent variety
of hispanic foodstuffs (4/10 mile). I routinely cycle to the Vietnamese
groceries off Jackson for fresh fruit and vegetables [1]. Madison Market
is good if I need anything of the tofu-head persuasion. The QFC at
Broadway/Pike is fairly good. And Uwajimaya is fairly good if you are
not looking for anglo-oriented foodstuffs, pricier than their Bellevue
branch though.

[1] Which shopping by bicycle is actually *far* easier than going by
car. Driving entails trying to find a parking space there, which can
be challenging. Going by bike, I just zip up, lock my bike to the
inside of the fence and buy my groceries.

--
Dane Jackson - z u v e m b i @ u n i x b i g o t s . o r g
I have a rock garden. Last week three of them died.
-- Richard Diran

 

[Chalo]

Dane Jackson <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Chalo wrote:
> >
> > In these respect and others I find Seattle grocers generally lacking
> > compared to those in Austin...The whole grocery
> > issue is one of the more baffling and frustrating details of Seattle
> > life.
>
> Which part of Seattle are you in?

Near 20th and Madison, in the little drug-dealy patch wedged between
uber-hip Capitol Hill and uber-gentrified Madison Valley.

> I'm just about at the intersection
> of I-5 and I-90, and I don't feel things are that dire.

Don't go grocery shopping in Austin, then; you'll get spoiled. Only
east Asian grocers in Seattle surpass their Austin counterparts. The
grocery portion of the Fred Meyer in Ballard is just par for an Austin
supermarket. The rest do not compare. At least in Seattle we have
Trader Joe's for consolation.

On a related note: a few years ago, I heard that the Lamar Avenue
Central Market in Austin (flagship store of the overwhelmingly
successful HEB chain) was the second biggest tourist destination
there, after the State Capitol. It is worth a look if you pass that
way. http://centralmarket.com/cm/index.jsp

Chalo Colina

 

[G.T.]

"Chalo" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Dane Jackson <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> > Chalo wrote:
> > >
> > > In these respect and others I find Seattle grocers generally lacking
> > > compared to those in Austin...The whole grocery
> > > issue is one of the more baffling and frustrating details of Seattle
> > > life.
> >
> > Which part of Seattle are you in?
>
> Near 20th and Madison, in the little drug-dealy patch wedged between
> uber-hip Capitol Hill and uber-gentrified Madison Valley.
>
> > I'm just about at the intersection
> > of I-5 and I-90, and I don't feel things are that dire.
>
> Don't go grocery shopping in Austin, then; you'll get spoiled. Only
> east Asian grocers in Seattle surpass their Austin counterparts. The
> grocery portion of the Fred Meyer in Ballard is just par for an Austin
> supermarket. The rest do not compare. At least in Seattle we have
> Trader Joe's for consolation.
>

I'm having a hard time imagining that Austin has such fine grocers. I
haven't been to Austin but I have shopped all over the country while
camping/traveling including other Texas cities and I have yet to find
markets that are as good in the middle of the country as they are on the
west and east coasts, including Seattle.

Greg

 

[Matt O'Toole]

G.T. wrote:

> I'm having a hard time imagining that Austin has such fine grocers. I
> haven't been to Austin but I have shopped all over the country while
> camping/traveling including other Texas cities and I have yet to find
> markets that are as good in the middle of the country as they are on
> the west and east coasts, including Seattle.

Austin is very cosmopolitan, despite being in Texas.

Matt O.

 

[Tom Paterson]

>From: "G.T."

>I'm having a hard time imagining that Austin has such fine grocers. I
>haven't been to Austin but I have shopped all over the country while
>camping/traveling including other Texas cities and I have yet to find
>markets that are as good in the middle of the country as they are on the
>west and east coasts, including Seattle.

Well go to Lamar St. Central Market next time you're near and be your own
judge. I'm sure there's more impressive out there but the place is fairly huge
and has lots of excellent quality produce and other food items, plus a
restaurant. Counterpart HEB grocery store south of 45th St. has 26 (IMS)
checkout lanes, another establishment no doubt gawked at. The old 6 or 7 it had
when I lived in the neighborhood 18 years ago just weren't sufficient. The
in-between Fresh Plus, a small grocery store, still exists. Maybe not a
"walking neighborhood" but pretty close. --TP

 

[Chalo]

[email protected]ospam (Tom Paterson) wrote:

> Well go to Lamar St. Central Market next time you're near and be your own
> judge. I'm sure there's more impressive out there but the place is fairly huge
> and has lots of excellent quality produce and other food items, plus a
> restaurant.

And it's a free live music venue-- displaying another of Austin's
uniquely well-developed charms.

Chalo Colina

 

[Tom Paterson]

>From: [email protected] (Chalo)

>And it's a free live music venue-- displaying another of Austin's
>uniquely well-developed charms.
>

Heard some v. good jazz (trio/female singer) Sat. night, kids occupied on
adjoining playground. Sorry no topical relevance except we have friends who
attend with bikes and trailer for the youngest. A little far for my kids'
patience to come by bike.

Not unique, perhaps but "it's here". --TP

 

[Dane Jackson]

Chalo <[email protected]> wrote:
> Dane Jackson <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> Which part of Seattle are you in?
>
> Near 20th and Madison, in the little drug-dealy patch wedged between
> uber-hip Capitol Hill and uber-gentrified Madison Valley.

Ah, basically you're fairly close to where I live.

>> I'm just about at the intersection
>> of I-5 and I-90, and I don't feel things are that dire.
>
> Don't go grocery shopping in Austin, then; you'll get spoiled. Only
> east Asian grocers in Seattle surpass their Austin counterparts. The
> grocery portion of the Fred Meyer in Ballard is just par for an Austin
> supermarket. The rest do not compare. At least in Seattle we have
> Trader Joe's for consolation.

I buy a lot of things from the Asian grocers (because most of my cooking
is Indian, Chinese, and other regions [1]), so that probably explains
why I'm reasonably content. Plus I can always hit Pike Place for most
of the rest of my needs. I still haven't found a really good
cheesemonger unfortunately. I am looking forward to the Trader Joes
opening up on 17th & Madison.

[1] Not terribly fond of typical American fair.

--
Dane Jackson - z u v e m b i @ u n i x b i g o t s . o r g
"As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty,
and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life -- so I became a
scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls."
-- Matt Cartmill