HamNo, what does his being declarative have to do with this? (Seriously, thanks for laying off the fat jokes. I do agree with those who feel this is becoming too sad for snark, especially if the man is contemplating suicide.) #dominiccarter
Carter wrote a memoir in '07 ("No Momma's Boy"). In it, he talks about being abused by his mother, who was mentally ill, as a child. That doesn't excuse him if he did abuse his wife, of course, but it's depressing how these things are cyclical. You'd think someone who was abused would not want to inflict that someone else, but that doesn't seem to be how the psychology works. Being abused seems to increase the chance that you'll be violent later in life.
I dunno. This sounds a bit too flippant when you have a family coming apart at the seams because of a violent father, and the abused mom and kids don't need to be brought into this. #dominiccarter
Keep in mind, in these latter days, "ambitious traveling" just means getting through the TSA lines without a body cavity search and before your flight leaves. "Really ambitious traveling" involves not bitchslapping a flight attendant when s/he tries to convince you that making you buy your own 'food' is an opportunity and not the airline cheaping out.
It's not so much the President is here. It's the Secret Service, the State Police, the Press (a giant roving herd), hangerson, and the sightseers. They shut down traffic to let the motorcade go by and the sudden heavy police/federal presence is rather intimidating.Thanks to Bubba's visits, it's an impossible dream for me to own a house here and now Obama will do the same. To clear the record, I'm not a summer dink nor a visitor, I'm a descendant of the original settlers here, which was damn near 400 years ago now.
@Steve Jenkinson: this surely entitles you to something! As a "original settler", perhaps you can petition the government for tribal recognition and a casino license.
@ChampagneSherpa: Oh aren't you smarmy. My point was, while a lot of these posters lament the loss of their precious summer retreat, people forget that there are people from here, trying to live like traditional New Englanders. It's kind of hard these days to be a fisherman, or lobsterman, when insanely rich people buy into the quaint fishing village and then try to push out the quaint fishermen. I personally, have a lot more personally at stake because my entire American ancestry has eeked out a living here for centuries. So you can make all the snarky comments you like, but, I and others find it sad that it has changed so much just because people like our beaches and want a Black Dog t-shirt.
@Steve Jenkinson: I'm sure it was nothing more than an oversight. Once the Obamas realize they are ruining your 400-year dream of owning a house on the Vineyard, especially now that the record shows that you are neither a summer dink nor a visitor, I'm sure they'll do the right thing and immediately cut their vacation short, never to return again.
@aLostLady: I'm sorry for my poor attitude. You're right, I'll pack up and leave my home to make way for people who want to spend a couple of weeks here a year., that seems fair.
@Steve Jenkinson: While I can see where you're coming from, I must question the wisdom of presenting this argument to an audience centered in NYC -- where getting turfed out of your neighborhood by gentrification appears to be a weekly sport, kind of like football.
@Steve Jenkinson: Your first post set you up for a snarky backlash, dear. The second one did a good job clarifying your point, but unfortunately arrived after I began my snark-post.
No one wants you to leave your home--wherever it may be--but do be clearer with your intentions in the future so as to avoid said snarky backlash.
@aLostLady: @skahammer: Fair enough and I love a challenge. I suppose if I was an artist type being run out of an apartment in Greenwich Village, I'd have a better chance here. :P
On a related note, I've noticed the average American family seems to scatter to the winds with each generation. I love living in a place where I can see landmarks and think that's where my great grandfather did this or that. That house is where 3 generations of my family did the carpentry. The big Methodist Chruch in Edgartown, just how many of my ancestors wre baptised there before I was? I don't think the average American today can do that. You also have to remember, that by August, our fuses get a tad short from the two months or so of heavy traffic and August is really busy.
@Steve Jenkinson: I don't want to sound totally negative. The one thing I've noticed and appreciated over the Presidential visits is just the sheer logistics of moving the President around. There's security, communications, and VIP assets that show up well before he does. Then you have to house and secure them as well. There's even a temporary cell node somewhere, maybe, um, I didn't see anything. It is a grand show just to see some of the backend.
@Steve Jenkinson: But he's only there because you're ancestors' neighbors sold out decades ago. I recommend finding their offspring, who are no doubt vacationing somewhere swell on the proceeds, and killing them.
@Conchie Birdie: I'm sure you're trying to be cute and cheeky here, but really? The President? Ruin? Your beach community? I could pin a "there goes the neighborhood" joke on you, but I think you took care of that yourself.
@mhr512: All I see are photos of the children. What do you mean, "does not want"?" Also, Mrs. Obama has a target activity of fighting obesity in children.
@Novaload Welcomes the Returning Jezuits !: obviously the best way to do that is to post children's pictures on web sites, and then have strangers call them "heavy". you are very right, this is exactly what the first lady is going for.
Sigh. The reason I go to Marthas Vineyard every year instead of New Jersey is because it's remote. Not so crowded, the beaches are nicer, and guess what -- the rental prices are the same. That's right -- what you spend for a crappy place in Wildwood, you can spend for a nicer place on an Island. I just view this as being a sign of good shopping on part of the Obamas.
@skahammer: Not definitive, but here, look at Cape May [www.cyberrentals.com] and then West Tisbury [www.cyberrentals.com] You'll see on the whole the prices are comparable, and I gotta say, I find almost all the Island houses nicer than almost all the Jersey ones.
It's harder to get to, and food is a bit more expensive, but not by much. And yeah, the beaches are clean. And there are bike paths. The up-island towns are dry, so families can hang there and younger, livelier sorts can hang in Edgartown and Vineyard Haven. What's not to love?
@Big Poppa: Anyone who hangs out there knows that the Kennedy compound is on the Cape, not the Island, though they, along with every other Democratic politician of any note, has also spent time there. Since I'm going on Thursday, I'll let you know how they are doing.
@Big Poppa: i don't know- i kind of think that vineyard as de-facto vacation spot for black folks of means kinda trumps the kennedy thing. plus, aren't the kennedy's in hyannis? totally diff.
@Wannabeer: My parents had a place in Aquinnah which I sold after they died and I specifically remember Caroline had a place there...and my parents and everyone else got upset when she divided it up into parcels. Also Jackie O her mom had a place there (back when they called it "Gay Head" --hee). I thought thats were Teddy Boy likes to hang too. And of course John F. Kennedy Jr.'s remains were scattered around Martha's Vineyard. I think they have a closer connection to Martha's Vineyard than the cape.
@loosecanon: thats true a lot of freed slaves moved to martha's vineyard to work in the fishing industry and have stayed ever since. I knew african american families out there who had been there for generations. I hope the Obamas take their daughters to see the historical exhibits on the black experience in Martha's Vineyard!
@Big Poppa: Because the Vineyard is a relatively small island, it provides excellent security for the first family. Between airport screeners, the Secret Service, local police, the Coast Guard, the Navy, NORAD and everyone else, nobody should be able to get close to the place unchecked and the Obamas can relax.
@Big Poppa: Three generations at the compound in Hyannisport is a bit stronger connection than Jackie having a house on the Vineyard. It's not even close.
@gladys_kravitz: For Jackie O, Caroline and JFK Jr. the connection was much stronger to Martha's Vineyard. I think Teddy prefers Martha's Vineyard too. Its much less commercial than Nantucket. And those Wampanoag make some pretty mean moonshine. Just ask Teddy.
@Magister: If security is key then the Obama's should have vacationed on Governor's Island here in NYC. Its much smaller than Martha's Vineyard and run by the Coast Guard.
@Big Poppa: My personal suspicion is that Jackie O preferred her home in Gay's Head (hee!) in Martha's Vineyard over Hyannisport because Jackie O was a "secret smoker" and she could chain smoke at her home in Gay's Head in secret. Sadly it later cost her her life.
@Big Poppa: Nice dope! But I used to run into Teddy in Chatham a lot. Though I did happen to be sailing when I heard the Coast Guard called to help Teddy -- he'd gone aground on the way to the Vineyard. Probably 20 years ago, but it made me resolve never to take any form of transportation with that guy.
@Big Poppa: I thought she died of lymphomic cancer that was tenuously connected to the extreme toxins in the sort of dark hair color she used for thirty years while living in New York? The irony of her death is that it had very little to do with her cigarette habit, except by way of having a weakened immune system, like every other person who smoked their way through the sixties, seventies, and eighties. By the way, I love that Gawker talking about the president in 2009 has descended into gossip from the 1970's concerning real estate and a heady discussion that has brought up not only my beloved Jackie Onassis, but my absolute favorite forgotten bouffant, Joan Kennedy. THIS is why I love Gawker.
11/04/09
11/04/09
11/04/09
11/04/09
09/02/09
Yeah, I'm jest jealous.
09/02/09
09/02/09
09/02/09
You should check out his old band, Bitch Magnet -- for real.
David Grubbs + Sooyoung Park were also in the band so they were kind of a post Squirrel Bait almost-super-group.
[en.wikipedia.org]
09/02/09
09/02/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
No one wants you to leave your home--wherever it may be--but do be clearer with your intentions in the future so as to avoid said snarky backlash.
08/24/09
On a related note, I've noticed the average American family seems to scatter to the winds with each generation. I love living in a place where I can see landmarks and think that's where my great grandfather did this or that. That house is where 3 generations of my family did the carpentry. The big Methodist Chruch in Edgartown, just how many of my ancestors wre baptised there before I was? I don't think the average American today can do that. You also have to remember, that by August, our fuses get a tad short from the two months or so of heavy traffic and August is really busy.
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
yeesh.
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
It's harder to get to, and food is a bit more expensive, but not by much. And yeah, the beaches are clean. And there are bike paths. The up-island towns are dry, so families can hang there and younger, livelier sorts can hang in Edgartown and Vineyard Haven. What's not to love?
08/24/09
I'm bothered by how close Obama is getting to the Kennedy clan for all the obvious reasons. (Can anyone spell C-h-a-p-p-a-q-u-i-d-i-c-k?)
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
A pity "non sequitur" isn't so handy a part of their vocabulary.
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
Actually, what is the exact reason you're concerned? I can't even dream up a conspiracy that would relate to something that happened 40 years ago.
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/24/09
08/25/09