France Eliminates Sunday Work Restrictions

Bureau of Economics The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the French government has relaxed restrictions on requiring retailers to close on Sundays. Americans will find this strange but most European countries are rather quiet places on Sundays, where many retailers are closed. This of course dates back to a time when one was expected to go to church and pray on Sundays, but now it is taken more simply as a day of rest.

Having lived in both the U.S. and Switzerland, I can say that there is something to both having to plan ahead one day so that you’ll have food for Sunday (and breakfast for Monday), as well, as something to be said for not running around one day per week.

Obviously this sounds rather paternalistic on the part of the governments, and it does originate from people who call themselves Fathers, but there is another side to who gets to play daddy. Someone, I think it was George Stephanopoulos, joked early in the Clinton administration, “If you didn’t work 14 hours on Saturday, don’t even bother showing up on Sunday.” The National Sleep Foundation conducted a survey that shows the average American works 46 hours per week, trying to compete with his or her neighbor, and our neighbors to the South, and China, and everyone else. Employers are the new Fathers in this world of globalization. Perhaps such laws pose a limit on employee productivity, and perhaps that’s just as well.

NY Times has an epiphony: Buses are Eco-Friendly!

This may come as a great shock to some, but the New York Times has found that when you take cars off the road in crowded cities and replace them with fuel efficient buses, you reduce CO2 emissions! Sound crazy? What’s really crazy is that some editor thought that a headline that references poor cities specifically would be a good idea, and that the article itself is news.

The cities of Bogota, Jakarta, Mexico City, and others are of course to be commended, but the idea that buses are something that only poor people would use is a preposterous notion that perhaps automakers would like to perpetuate. Each day, tens of thousands of normal (not so poor) people living in Switzerland hop on buses, trams, and trains to get to where they need to go. I do this myself sometimes.

The article discusses the cost of putting in rail, and here we see a potential avenue for places like the Bay Area. Anyone who knows the Bay Area knows that it is full of rolling hills, has occasional earthquakes, and lots of traffic. Land is expensive, and so a functioning bus system is an ideal addition. But in the Bay Area, those who do use public transportation outside of San Francisco do tend to be poor. That wouldn’t be the case if buses had privileged lanes and the services were both more frequent and comprehensive. Imagine taking a bus from Pleasanton to, say, Sunnyvale? Maybe you would need to change once somewhere. So long as the change is properly timed, what do you care? Who wouldn’t want such a door-to-door service?

Happy (forthcoming) 4th of July

American Flag & The Washington Monument Since America is celebrating her birthday a day early, let’s do the same. Happy 233rd birthday, America! You’re this many fingers old. But a mere twenty-one months earlier, even George Washington didn’t think much about the idea of seceding from Britain. In a letter to British Captain Robert Mackenzie he wrote on October 9, 1774 of independence:

“…that no such thing is desired by any thinking man in North America; on the contrary, that it is the ardent wish of the warmest advocates for liberty, that peace and tranquility, upon constitutional grounds, may be restored, and the horrors of civil discord prevented…”

It’s not that Washington was content with the way things were, but the differences had not yet risen to the point where he felt they were irreconcilable. The Powell doctrine didn’t exist back then. The founders entered into a war not knowing whether they could win it. England’s soldiers were far from home, however, and France was looking for new ways to stick a finger in the King’s eye. Perhaps fortune and geography favored the foolish, and yet here we are. Why did they fight? Perhaps they felt it was simply the right thing to do.

It is often said that America’s revolution was one of ideas and not merely one of force. Those ideas had strong ideological grounding from the likes of John Locke, upon whom Jefferson based the preface of the Declaration of Independence. It was he who wrote that man was entitled to life, liberty, and property.

The real revolution did not end in 1781, however. It continues today as our country struggles through recession. Back then, the idea that we could ruin the entire world through global warming or nuclear war would have been considered laughable, and yet today it is understood by all but the most foolish. Back then black men counted as property, as did women and children. Today a black man is president, and America’s voice to the rest of the world is a woman.

Perhaps the next revolution lies in the orthodoxy of economics; the idea that production can sustain us. If production sustains us at the cost of the environment, it does so at the cost of our children. How we value the earth and future generations is something our current model does so poorly, that to this day coal production destroys land and pollutes the air.

Perhaps the next revolution will be how we as a world community live together. Although Roosevelt and Truman worked to form the United Nations in 1945, the institution has done a poor job at preventing wanton attacks on civilians, despotism, and adventurism.

Perhaps the next revolution is yet within America, on how we govern ourselves. As I look at the fiasco that faces the people of California I wonder what it will take to undo the tyranny of the minority of people who are unable to cope with the simple notion that you get what you pay for. If government requires the consent of the governed, which is really what King George III lost, doesn’t it also require at least some amount of common ground? Where is that common ground today? This is not just a challenge for politicians. Californians themselves must agree on what is important to fund and what is not.

So Happy Birthday America! Now let’s get back to work.

Harry Kalas: Part of my escape from the ’70s

When I grew up in New Jersey in the ’70s and into the ’80s, one of the constants in my life was my father’s love of the Philadelphia Phillies. Throughout the Spring and Summer, we would turn the rotor Antenna toward Philly and bring in snowy Channel 17, WPHL, to watch the game and listen to Harry Kalas and Richie Ashburn. When we were on the road we would listen to them as well, as one would provide coverage on the TV and the other on the Radio.

Part of following a sport on TV is listening to commentary. A bad announcer can really turn off someone, whereas a good announcer can bring a new dimension to the entertainment. Everyone has their favorites, and there have been legends, like Murray Walker for Formula 1, and Howard Kosel for boxing and football.

In baseball in San Francisco we think of Lon Simmons and John Miller. St. Louis and Chicago had Harry Caray, and in NY it was people like Ralph Keiner and Phil Rizzuto, who passed away in 2007.

Some years ago Hall-of-Famer Richie Ashburn died of heart attack in his room on the road. Now legendary broadcaster Harry Kalas, the dean of the game caller core, as also died, after having collapsed in the Phillies’ broadcast booth. You may also recognize his voice from This Week in the NFL, but those of us who followed the Phillies got to enjoy him at his best, when they won the NL series in ’80, and then the World Series. We escaped from the grim ’70s, when interest rates and unemployment skyrocketed, when the Soviet Union was strong, and when Iran held Americans hostage, to listen to Ashburn and Kalas, who were low key when that was called for, and pitched when it seemed appropriate.

When an entertainer dies, we lose our escape. Reality intrudes in a most unwelcome way, and our constants are no longer constant. It is not just a loss for his family, but for the fans. The bubble bursts, and we see what we are reminded of all we tried to escape, including our own mortality.

Rest in peace, Harry Kalas, and my escapes from the ’70s.

Happy Passover!

Is there such thing as a healthy passover diet? Let’s see. What are we eating?

Egg water. Egg, salt, and water.
Matzoh Ball Soup, which contains at least part of an egg in the matzoh ball, and probably some chicken fat and salt. (Mine were absolutely floaters, by the way).
Haroset. Apples, walnuts, cinnamon, and wine. Not so bad.
Four cups of wine. We did a 1994 Chateau Musar. Forgive me, but if I’m going to have four glasses, they’re going to be good glasses of wine, and this one was VERY good.
Farfel. Yumm. Matzoh, egg, salt, and maybe carmelized onions.
Spring vegetables and perhaps a salad. This is perhaps the healthiest part of the meal.
A meat or two. Lamb provides easy access to a lamb shank.
Lots of sweats for dessert.
Matzoh-bry for breakfast. More matzoh and egg.
Matzoh meal pancakes. That’s 3 eggs, 3/4 cup water, salt, 1 tbsp sugar, and 1/2 cup matzoh meal. Then sour cream or apple sauce.

No wonder there are so many Jewish doctors. And we really need cardiologists!

Here’s hoping you had a huge seder and a grand old time, and that there was lots of help cooking and cleaning up.