Quick note: I am going to be changing email providers before the next edition. Future emails will be coming from a service called Buttondown. I am doing this so I can turn off all email tracking and other “features” Substack has that I don’t want or prefer to customize. Everything else should remain exactly the same.
One of the impressive things about living in the United States of America is the velocity at which every issue arrives at its dumbest point. I was reminded of this after observing the most expansive and ambitious infrastructure/jobs/economic/etc. plan put forth by an administration in generations rapidly devolve into a semantic debate about the definition of “infrastructure.” I wrote a short blog about it which you can read here, but suffice it to say it is an extremely dumb question.
I suspect part of the problem is there is really very little to discuss because the plan is mostly an outline and like all important things the devil is in the details and there currently aren’t any.
I took a vacation, rented a car for a week, and drove to some hiking spots around the city and also Harold’s Deli in Edison, NJ. The hiking was wonderful but the best part of having the car was giving it back.
I couldn’t help but think of the people who bought cars during the pandemic. Are they regretting that now? Or are they all in on the car life? If you did this I’d love to hear how it’s gone. Just reply to this email.
Also the rental agent at the JFK Avis told me they barely have any compact cars anymore because nobody wants them. You ever go to Europe or South America and be taken aback by how reasonably sized most of the vehicles are? I was recently biking alongside a Honda Fit going about 20 miles per hour on a one-way without a bike lane and realized how much nicer biking around the city would be if that was a more common experience than a BMW X6 gunning it past me so the driver can sit at the red light 500 feet ahead for a few additional seconds. This country has such a garbage car culture. The lesson here is if you go to book a rental car and the compact rate is cheaper, book it, you’ll get a midsize regardless.
That is to say I haven’t done a ton of writing since you last heard from me because I was too busy stuck in traffic. But I did publish a few things:
Prison Mail Surveillance Company Keeps Tabs On Those On the Outside, Too: I filed some public records requests about a creepy company that scans all prison mail, destroys the original letters, and gives prisoners photocopies (sometimes mangled or unreadable ones). Turns out the company also claims it surveils people on the outside who sends the letters. I asked the company to comment and they responded by threatening to sue me. Here’s the story. To the best of my knowledge neither I nor my employer have been sued.
The US Is Real Close to Screwing Up Electric Vehicle Charging Forever: Prepare yourself now for a future that, for better or worse, looks nothing like filling up at a gas station.
Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America, Rick Perlstein. Hot damn this was a great book. It is 750 pages long and I read it in less than two weeks, it was all I wanted to do. I think people of my generation are often left with the impression that the 60s were a pretty cool and great time to be alive what with the good music and all but man did this book dissuade me of that notion. I am now going to read the Kerner Report and become stupefyingly depressed at how little has changed in 60 years.
On Bicycles: A 200 Year History of Cycling in New York City, Evan Friss. The bicycle riders of the 1890s needed to have their own mental map of the city because only some roads were paved. Bicycle riders of the 2020s need to have their own mental map of the city because only some roads have spaces that physically separate you from hulking two-ton death machines transporting one person that can accelerate to 60 miles per hour in less than five seconds.
Maurice was back in his tree THREE days this week, he is usually sleeping in that branch and very hard to see but if you look closely he’s there. Maurice is an aspirational presence is my life.
Also the Concert Grove Pavilion restoration is finally complete and is gorgeous, well done to all involved. It is very close to Maurice’s tree, so if you go to one please visit the other.
Here is a cat my wife saw, we call him Mercutio.
Until next time,
Aaron