Thinking about one of my students this morning. She’s due about the end of the month (first baby). Her mother had a stroke last Wednesday, and died Monday afternoon. She was so looking forward to her mother being a grandma, only for this to happen. Her Mom is younger than I am, she was 56.
I remember how hard it was on Katie to lose her Mom when our youngest was just about two. Her Mom was 2-3 years from retirement, and planned to come stay with us regularly (leaving her husband at the farm), to catch up on kids lives.
I joke that Phyllis wanted Katie to marry me so she'd get an instant grandchild! Our first visit, she was in heaven spoiling that kid.
I loved Dr. Seuss when I became a parent! I read the books to my children with gusto, using character voices. My oldest tells me he still remembers the bad fish, because I'd try to knock him over as I said it (we were sitting on floor, so it's not like he'd get injured).
Of my three, he loves to read. And he told me he fully expects me to read Dr. Seuss to his kids someday.
I didn't see a share gift link. This is a very interesting analyis of gun + violence from a researcher and his colleagues at UofChicago.
Summary: two neighborhoods just south of the University Of Chicago campus. Next to each other. Same laws, etc. But 1 has 2x the murder gun rate.
Short answer. It's not gun laws. Because no matter local laws, drive 20 minutes to Indiana and import them.
They look instead at "Violence". The show work on reaction and response broken into
System 1 thinking-delibarate
System 2 thinking - 10 minute window reactions
"Ludwig: The first thing I want policy makers to take from this is to recognize that the gun-violence problem itself is different from what we think. Again, it’s not a problem of System 2 deliberate, slow thinking, people responding to incentives.
Gun violence is mostly driven by System 1, reactive, fast thinking. That’s the most important thing."
There are two Chicago neighborhoods that are, on the surface, quite similar. They are both more than 90 percent Black; the median age of both is roughly 38. About the same share of people have college degrees, and the median income of both is roughly $39,000.
But one experiences about twice as many shootings per capita as the other.
The University of Chicago economist Jens Ludwig opens his forthcoming book, Unforgiving Places, by describing the neighboring places of Greater Grand Crossing and South Shore, both minutes away from the elite university where he teaches. Ludwig’s argument begins by reframing the problem of gun violence away from the demoralizing story of American exceptionalism and toward the more granular variation that differs state by state, city by city, and yes, block by block.
i'm thinking of the episode with his dog and the neighbor. His comment (lucky not to have a gun) was facetious - no way on earth would he have pulled a gun on the guy, no matter how surprised or angry he was. Same with me - I live in a state where I could open carry if I wanted (I don’t), but, like Ludwig, there's no way on earth I'd pull a gun out of my purse because I was mad. If I felt threatened, maybe that would be different, but not mad.
The 10 minute system (cool off and reflect) is something that has to become 2nd nature. Lots of role playing, modeling, discussion, thinking. Kids have to learn self-discipline. It's not happening at home or church any more, so school is what's left, as well as special community programs as mentioned. I¡m not seeing any great movement locally in that direction - mostly babysitting , social services, and breaking up fights. i know you are a proponent of public schools. I'm of the opinion that the public schools are the last civic institution standing and expected to do far more things than they are equipped for. They are having to clean up the national mess - and of course they can't.
This is an important, complicated, and fascinating topic. Thanks for the link. Ludwig's suggestions are a great place to start, but he is right to notice that there isn't much regional/state/neighborhood uniformity in the US. We have an incredibly diverse population, and motives and solutions aren't going to be the same everywhere.
I'd very much like to know how many property and assault crimes are committed by people carrying weapons, whether or not they are used, and whether or not the use/threat results in injury short of fatality.
Yeah. But here's a forest thing that's really weird, considering many male animals don't have a lot to (cough, hrrmpfhh, 'scuse me) say about how their young'uns are raised...
Back in VT before I go to Colorado. Lotsa snow. Pretty cold but I missed the really frigid, negative degrees stuff. Cynthia: Glad the drive was uneventful.
Just wondering... what part of Colorado? Anywhere near the *Mile High City*, by chance?
Just asking, 'cause, like, you know, man, Vermont like had the number one ranking for per capita marijuana use in the whole country a couple of years ago, and like you live there and, like... uhh... you know... um... I like wondered if... uh... like...
Oh man!!
My wife just got back from the grocery... Is that a couple of packages of Twinkies I see out there on the kitchen counter?
There's really no help for what's wrong with me, but thanks for the advice.
When do you leave? You going to do like you said in your earlier comment and go visit your mom first and then go? Hope the weather cooperates. You said something about having missed some bad weather there in Vermont while you were in FL.?
Just curious: What’s your VT airport? I’m guessing connections are required to get anywhere from there—unless Boston/Logan is a relatively close drive.
It’s a big problem in southern WV. The nearest “big” airport is Charleston/Yeager (CRW): an hour’s drive from here. *Real* big airports with nonstop flights are at closest a three-hour drive (CLT).
I grew up on the other western side of WVa. We bought the farm in the late 80s. Were living in Massachusetts then. We sold it about 15 years back when we settled in Tucson permanently.
Pittsburgh is about 4 hours drive from here; Charlotte is about 3. (Charleston is about an hour, but it’s a “spoke” airport at the outer extent of the hub-and-spoke networks.)
Pittsburgh is nowhere near what it was when US Air was based there. Kind of a shame. They spent a lot of money building it up, but now it’s not a network node anymore.
No one around here ever considers Roanoke, for whatever reason. It’s always either Charleston, WV, or Charlotte. Beckley/Raleigh County has also become viable since the feds started subsidizing a twice-daily route. It offers direct flights to Charlotte, Parkersburg, Morgantown (maybe). Might be an Embraer or Bombardier 60-seater or thereabouts—can’t remember.
My sister is a flight attendant and her husband is a pilot. They’re travel nuts. They know the best airports to fly into and out of in terms of available seats and connections. They’ve never said anything about Roanoke. They’ve been flying through BKW in recent years. The subsidized rates are cheap. Thanks to all the CSLF readers for so selflessly covering their airfare!
Albany is the closest “real” airport. I flew there nonstop from Fort Lauderdale yesterday. Only about an hour and a half from my house. Burlington Airport is three hours north of me, so that’s no good. generally, when I’m flying someplace far, such as Colorado or Washington state, I go down to Connecticut to visit with my 93-year-old mother for a day or two and then fly out of JFK nonstop. And visit my mother on the way back.
It’s improved a lot. They had a great manager whom they fired to give the job to the county executive. That got exposed but the manager who led the expansion still got fired.
Long, but not difficult. We got here about 4:30 p.m. Had dinner with my brother, then an early bedtime.
Our assignment is to clear out Mom's rooms. Russ said to text him about 8, and he'll get us through security. His first meeting isn't until 10, which he finds baffling. He normally starts work at 6.
It sounds like you've lost your mother, like Lucy. I'm really sorry.
My mother was neither sentimental nor a “keeper.” She was very organized and so was her house. The difficult part wasn,t any quantity of stuff but the memories so clearly attached to what she chose to keep. She died 15 years ago, my father almost 40, and I still miss them both every single day. Heck, I still have conversations in my head with my Granny, who died when I was 7.
I'll be thinking about you. I am going back down to my mom's after getting the oil changed, then back tomorrow. My goal is to get the junk out of the garage so we can stage stuff for removal. There's a bunch of fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides to deal with but household hazardous waste day isn't until April. (It warms the heart to know the government expects people to do the right thing to protect the environment even when extremely inconvenient and trusts them to never suddenly forget the rules /s)
I was talking with some folks about how the size of the task was motivating me to get our mess under control. They acknowledged the size of their own messes but I did not detect any inclination to reduce it for those who come after. I'll stop there.
Thinking about one of my students this morning. She’s due about the end of the month (first baby). Her mother had a stroke last Wednesday, and died Monday afternoon. She was so looking forward to her mother being a grandma, only for this to happen. Her Mom is younger than I am, she was 56.
I remember how hard it was on Katie to lose her Mom when our youngest was just about two. Her Mom was 2-3 years from retirement, and planned to come stay with us regularly (leaving her husband at the farm), to catch up on kids lives.
I joke that Phyllis wanted Katie to marry me so she'd get an instant grandchild! Our first visit, she was in heaven spoiling that kid.
So yeah, I feel much sorrow for my student.
How sad. Sounds like you’re the right person for her to talk to, if she chooses to approach you, Jay.
I loved Dr. Seuss when I became a parent! I read the books to my children with gusto, using character voices. My oldest tells me he still remembers the bad fish, because I'd try to knock him over as I said it (we were sitting on floor, so it's not like he'd get injured).
Of my three, he loves to read. And he told me he fully expects me to read Dr. Seuss to his kids someday.
I used to work both those 'hoods. I can describe them on a very tight granular basis. There's a nice coffee shop at 65th. It's a strange area.
I used to work both those 'hoods. It gets exciting from time to time.
I didn't see a share gift link. This is a very interesting analyis of gun + violence from a researcher and his colleagues at UofChicago.
Summary: two neighborhoods just south of the University Of Chicago campus. Next to each other. Same laws, etc. But 1 has 2x the murder gun rate.
Short answer. It's not gun laws. Because no matter local laws, drive 20 minutes to Indiana and import them.
They look instead at "Violence". The show work on reaction and response broken into
System 1 thinking-delibarate
System 2 thinking - 10 minute window reactions
"Ludwig: The first thing I want policy makers to take from this is to recognize that the gun-violence problem itself is different from what we think. Again, it’s not a problem of System 2 deliberate, slow thinking, people responding to incentives.
Gun violence is mostly driven by System 1, reactive, fast thinking. That’s the most important thing."
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2025/02/the-origins-of-gun-violence/681556/
There are two Chicago neighborhoods that are, on the surface, quite similar. They are both more than 90 percent Black; the median age of both is roughly 38. About the same share of people have college degrees, and the median income of both is roughly $39,000.
But one experiences about twice as many shootings per capita as the other.
The University of Chicago economist Jens Ludwig opens his forthcoming book, Unforgiving Places, by describing the neighboring places of Greater Grand Crossing and South Shore, both minutes away from the elite university where he teaches. Ludwig’s argument begins by reframing the problem of gun violence away from the demoralizing story of American exceptionalism and toward the more granular variation that differs state by state, city by city, and yes, block by block.
i'm thinking of the episode with his dog and the neighbor. His comment (lucky not to have a gun) was facetious - no way on earth would he have pulled a gun on the guy, no matter how surprised or angry he was. Same with me - I live in a state where I could open carry if I wanted (I don’t), but, like Ludwig, there's no way on earth I'd pull a gun out of my purse because I was mad. If I felt threatened, maybe that would be different, but not mad.
The 10 minute system (cool off and reflect) is something that has to become 2nd nature. Lots of role playing, modeling, discussion, thinking. Kids have to learn self-discipline. It's not happening at home or church any more, so school is what's left, as well as special community programs as mentioned. I¡m not seeing any great movement locally in that direction - mostly babysitting , social services, and breaking up fights. i know you are a proponent of public schools. I'm of the opinion that the public schools are the last civic institution standing and expected to do far more things than they are equipped for. They are having to clean up the national mess - and of course they can't.
This is an important, complicated, and fascinating topic. Thanks for the link. Ludwig's suggestions are a great place to start, but he is right to notice that there isn't much regional/state/neighborhood uniformity in the US. We have an incredibly diverse population, and motives and solutions aren't going to be the same everywhere.
I'd very much like to know how many property and assault crimes are committed by people carrying weapons, whether or not they are used, and whether or not the use/threat results in injury short of fatality.
Every time a TSAF does an ocean thing, I lament I didn't pursue marine biology.
The ocean is so weird.
Yeah. But here's a forest thing that's really weird, considering many male animals don't have a lot to (cough, hrrmpfhh, 'scuse me) say about how their young'uns are raised...
https://apnews.com/article/london-zoo-darwins-frogs-chile-endangered-eeaa384fdbfdbd89969514c14dca53cb
Back in VT before I go to Colorado. Lotsa snow. Pretty cold but I missed the really frigid, negative degrees stuff. Cynthia: Glad the drive was uneventful.
We're hoping to get the furniture sold or donated in the next 36 hours. Drama Queen is on Facebook Marketplace and Nextdoor.
We already gave a desk and chair to a lady down the hall.
Safe travels to Colorado.
Thank you!
Just wondering... what part of Colorado? Anywhere near the *Mile High City*, by chance?
Just asking, 'cause, like, you know, man, Vermont like had the number one ranking for per capita marijuana use in the whole country a couple of years ago, and like you live there and, like... uhh... you know... um... I like wondered if... uh... like...
Oh man!!
My wife just got back from the grocery... Is that a couple of packages of Twinkies I see out there on the kitchen counter?
Cool!
Seriously, I hope you have a good time. Man.
Copper mountain. My friend lives in Longmont. After reading your…missive, I urge you to seek help
There's really no help for what's wrong with me, but thanks for the advice.
When do you leave? You going to do like you said in your earlier comment and go visit your mom first and then go? Hope the weather cooperates. You said something about having missed some bad weather there in Vermont while you were in FL.?
Will visit Mom on the way there and on the way back. Regarding the weather, I spoke too soon: winds and below zero temps tonight.
Just curious: What’s your VT airport? I’m guessing connections are required to get anywhere from there—unless Boston/Logan is a relatively close drive.
It’s a big problem in southern WV. The nearest “big” airport is Charleston/Yeager (CRW): an hour’s drive from here. *Real* big airports with nonstop flights are at closest a three-hour drive (CLT).
I flew many times into Wood County airport. When we needed to fly to Greenbrier to our farm, we flew into Roanoke mostly. Occasionally Beckley.
Is Pittsburgh much farther away than Charleston?
Greenbriar, West VA? I went to camp there - a beautiful place
Yes indeed. It is beautiful Ann.
Is this where you grew up? Do you still have the farm?
I grew up on the other western side of WVa. We bought the farm in the late 80s. Were living in Massachusetts then. We sold it about 15 years back when we settled in Tucson permanently.
Pittsburgh is about 4 hours drive from here; Charlotte is about 3. (Charleston is about an hour, but it’s a “spoke” airport at the outer extent of the hub-and-spoke networks.)
Pittsburgh is nowhere near what it was when US Air was based there. Kind of a shame. They spent a lot of money building it up, but now it’s not a network node anymore.
What about Roanoke? I flew in and out there a number of times.
Lotta driving. Charleston seems your best. Cincinnati too far west
No one around here ever considers Roanoke, for whatever reason. It’s always either Charleston, WV, or Charlotte. Beckley/Raleigh County has also become viable since the feds started subsidizing a twice-daily route. It offers direct flights to Charlotte, Parkersburg, Morgantown (maybe). Might be an Embraer or Bombardier 60-seater or thereabouts—can’t remember.
My sister is a flight attendant and her husband is a pilot. They’re travel nuts. They know the best airports to fly into and out of in terms of available seats and connections. They’ve never said anything about Roanoke. They’ve been flying through BKW in recent years. The subsidized rates are cheap. Thanks to all the CSLF readers for so selflessly covering their airfare!
Hard to beat Charlotte. I'd also drive to Charlotte over Charleston or Roanoke myself
Albany is the closest “real” airport. I flew there nonstop from Fort Lauderdale yesterday. Only about an hour and a half from my house. Burlington Airport is three hours north of me, so that’s no good. generally, when I’m flying someplace far, such as Colorado or Washington state, I go down to Connecticut to visit with my 93-year-old mother for a day or two and then fly out of JFK nonstop. And visit my mother on the way back.
I have stories about flying into Albany. Not my favorite airport. Much preferred Hartford, that was another 20 minutes away.
There is something to be said for a diving to land, screaming engines Boeing 727 into a strong snowy wind into that airport.
It’s improved a lot. They had a great manager whom they fired to give the job to the county executive. That got exposed but the manager who led the expansion still got fired.
I flew into Albany last January to visit friends in the Berkshires. It definitely has come a long way since 1978
Lucky you and lucky mother! Bon voyage.
Good morning from The Villages, FL. I'm about to go down to the lobby for breakfast. DQ is still asleep.
Are you driving around The Villages in golf carts?
Nope. Too dangerous.
For them or you? 🤔
Me. Golf car drivers here are terrifying.
That's fore sure.
Morning. How was the drive? Uneventful, I hope.
It was sunny and over sixty here yesterday. I gave my car a soothing spa treatment. Boy, was *that* needed.
Long, but not difficult. We got here about 4:30 p.m. Had dinner with my brother, then an early bedtime.
Our assignment is to clear out Mom's rooms. Russ said to text him about 8, and he'll get us through security. His first meeting isn't until 10, which he finds baffling. He normally starts work at 6.
It sounds like you've lost your mother, like Lucy. I'm really sorry.
My mother was neither sentimental nor a “keeper.” She was very organized and so was her house. The difficult part wasn,t any quantity of stuff but the memories so clearly attached to what she chose to keep. She died 15 years ago, my father almost 40, and I still miss them both every single day. Heck, I still have conversations in my head with my Granny, who died when I was 7.
I'll be thinking about you. I am going back down to my mom's after getting the oil changed, then back tomorrow. My goal is to get the junk out of the garage so we can stage stuff for removal. There's a bunch of fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides to deal with but household hazardous waste day isn't until April. (It warms the heart to know the government expects people to do the right thing to protect the environment even when extremely inconvenient and trusts them to never suddenly forget the rules /s)
> and trusts them to never suddenly forget the rules <
Much less know the rules. Considering the Federal Register balloons on a yearly basis, there’s hardly any chance to keep up—even if you wanted to!
As for the task at hand, here’s hoping it progresses with minimum stress and strife.
Thanks.
"We have rules (wink wink) but, well, the landfill is lined, so..."
And we wonder how we got into the Federal mess we're in...
We have a much smaller task.
I was talking with some folks about how the size of the task was motivating me to get our mess under control. They acknowledged the size of their own messes but I did not detect any inclination to reduce it for those who come after. I'll stop there.
I too feel like purging more items.
It’s a bewildering planet for the preternatural early bird. Speaking here from experience.