The Economy, Ludicrous Speed and You

I started the year promising continuous optimism, and I support that message. At the same time with yesterday's sub 7000 plunge of the stock market to 1997 levels, the expectation of record job loss again from last month and this story that Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, (pictured) 83 year old former CEO of A.I.G. (A.I.G. being beneficiary of another billion dollar tax-payer cash gift after post billions in loses of course) is suing A.I.G. the company he led until 2005, claiming A.I.G. ruined his finances and health by lying about A.I.G. finances, things are moving closer to "Ludicrous-Speed" by the day.

So yeh after all that, optimism without positive proof seems pretty stupid so I thought I should search for some answers. Plus lately a lot of friends of Brooklyn (yep, FOBS) have been losing sleep, nails and asking questions about what to do when unemployed, and frankly I had few non-punchline answers. (have a drink- *zing!) But after a little googling, I found this gem from the NY Times, getting elbows deep in the "How-To's of Unemployment".

Cool of the Grey Lady, eh?

Then it went from cool to AWESOME when I looked up and noticed the article was penned seventeen years ago this March back in 1992!

Even MORE AWESOME! the first paragraph leads with:

With the nation's unemployment rate now at 7.3 percent, the highest in almost 17 years, tens of thousands of Americans are applying for unemployment compensation for the first time.

7.3 percent unemployment?!? Right now unemployment is at 7.6! And it's expected to jump to a full-on 8 percent when the next report comes this Friday! Awesome.



Y'know what? Have that drink and "Smoke um if you got'um".

Erasmus Hall Landmarked yet Neglected, until now?

Photo: David Goldman for The New York Times (Pictured Erasmus Alum Terry Kaplan)

Cool story: NYTimes Reports on the history and disregard for one of the oldest High Schools in the country, Flatbush's Erasmus Academy

The thing many long term Brooklynites of a certain age remember is that if you took all those cheesy hollywood films about nightmarish crime ridden High Schools and rolled them into one they still wouldn't beat the reputation of Erasmus High. Seated in the Flatbush at what arguably is the geographic center of Brooklyn, Erasmus did a lot to earn that rep, or at least it's students did. Major crimes occurred just enough to make a Junior High Senior piss themselves at the thought of attending. And yet there is another side to Erasmus, as mentioned in the Times article, Erasmus is the oldest High School in the city, and one of the oldest standing in the country. Constructed in 1786 the building pictured above is the original school around which the modern school was built. It's also important as a former Tildenite that I mention Erasmus and all who attended were our sworn enemies and those epic stories are for another day.

"Shovel Ready ""This is only a Test"

Well the local Main Stream Media (MSM to the bloggies) has been all a flutter with Bloomy's proposal to effectively shutdown Broadway in Times Square in favor of a Ramblas styled public space. People are pissed and the press is eating it all with aplomb and a ladle but fear not Bloomy's minions express, "this is only a test" and will be reversed if it causes a trip down midtown to be timed with an hourglass.

Meanwhile here at BrooklynBorn Blog, I felt the bug of spring cleaning (really the lingering nag of New Years Upgrades undone) and I too have made drastic changes. You may (but as most designers fear may not) notice there are changes to this very blog. Where once there were two columns, now there are three. This should give you more info to pick like the succulent ripe from my musings are, without having to scroll around so damned much.

I've also added one of those cool "label clouds" as I learned they are called, which basically displays past topics in order of how many posts are written about those topics. The biggest sized labels have the biggest size, lesser written about topics have a smaller size. Plus a few additions I added months ago that never took, suddenly came to life with this redesign. And finally, just to plea for appreciation I will tell you that it took hours to revise, rewrite and otherwise screw with alot of techie javascript, xml, and wierdo-webpage code to bring this to life, and hopefully make your experience reading the BrooklynBorn Blog more pleasing. So don't said I never did ya nuthing.

Overall the pages as a result should be neater and I'd like to know what you think. Feel free to hate my overlord machinations because after all, "this is only a test".

Photo Wednesday 2/25/09 Of Warmer Days...

It's been so damned cold out. But have you noticed? The days are getting longer and this is the last Photo Wednesday in Feb 09. To get us through the moment I thought a look back to brighter, sunnier, warmer days would help set our minds on a bright, sunnier, warmer future. Here's some pics I shot in Summer past when T-Shirts (and even no shirts) ruled.





Just 23 days till Spring official begins...