Beneath the geopolitical churn and the tidal washes of virality (each epidemiological and political) life at Bare Capitalism goes on. Particularly within the remark part! This put up is a tribute to the alert readers of Bare Capitalism, whose remark threads weave collectively the fabric realities of our each day lives. If you wish to assist the loom on which this tapestry is woven, what to do!
By materials realities, I imply issues like dad jokes, cougar recognizing, gardening, machine instruments, marriage, fatherhood. On this put up, I’ve curated among the longer threads over the previous yr by these matters (I didn’t say “higher,” so please don’t really feel unhealthy in case your deal with doesn’t seem; the sheer quanity of feedback makes something aside from a random choice unimaginable). Additionally, I’ve pruned the threads and edited the feedback inside them — no ellipses for omissions, the formatting is tough sufficient already — as a result of in any other case this put up could be impossibly lengthy! You may want return to the whole threads on matters that curiosity you; there’s loads of great things! To start:
Dad Jokes. Beginning with El Slobbo:
June 16, 2024 at 5:20 pm
“Why is six afraid of seven? As a result of seven ate 9.”
Really, I first heard this joke in grade 4: it was instructed to me by an 8-year-old woman, a classmate who laughed hysterically at her personal joke, and who could be mortified in the event you known as her a dad.
Lee
June 16, 2024 at 7:36 pm
By ascribing such a joke completely to dads generally is, I suppose, a sly undermining of patriarchy, or extra usually, it questions the whole thing of our constructed social hierarchy. As an outdated man with grandchildren I ambivalently embrace them by being involuntarily amused and laughing at them, on the identical time realizing that my demographic is the butt of a joke that speaks organic reality to what one hopes is waning social energy.
In case you laughed (or snorted (or groaned (and even suppressed laughter totally))), the Tip Jar is positioned, inside straightforward mousing distance, to your proper.
Tree Watching and Cougar Recognizing. Beginning with Wukchumni:
July 16, 2024 at 7:53 am
I’ll always remember my mountain lion encounter on the deck of the Silver Metropolis Resort in Mineral King nearly 4 years in the past to the day @ 4:20 within the morning…
There is no such thing as a electrical energy in MK other than the resort, and so they have a wi-fi connection too, and waking up early is what I do…
At the hours of darkness I traipsed over to the entrance deck and there are a few rocking chairs on the left hand facet and again then, there was a 5 foot huge Lodgepole protruding of the deck (since expired and lower down-yet one other bark beetle sufferer) with a cut-out accommodating it, which hid me away from sight…
The deck has ambient lights that hardly give off any brightness, and I heard an animal on the opposite facet of the tree and actually didn’t give it any thought because the resort has a few home canines who rule the roost, together with somewhat home cat within the guise of a mountain moggie, no biggie.
Then not 5 toes from me, a yearling mountain lion about 30% bigger than a completely grown German Shepherd poked it’s head round mentioned tree and checked out me, as I used to be sitting on the rocking chair peering at my open laptop computer @ NC, little doubt.
It did a ‘oh, a kind of’ kinda appears at me and circled to depart and I don’t know why, however I stood as much as watch it go and witnessed essentially the most sensuous saunter ever, with it’s tail fully erect the place it didn’t transfer an iota because it made it’s means throughout the deck, the place a 2nd yearling the identical dimension was hanging out 25 extra toes away.
It had taken me 58 years to see a cougar within the Sierra Nevada, and I hit the each day double.
The Rev Kev
July 16, 2024 at 8:30 am
Hmmm. Ever thought-about the variety of occasions that cougars could have been watching you within the Sierra Nevada – however you by no means truly noticed them as a result of they had been too effectively hidden? However they actually appear like lovely animals.
Wukchumni
July 16, 2024 at 9:49 am
You come throughout mountain lion tracks and spoor pretty typically, final time we walked as much as Oriole Lake, noticed each tracks and really identifiable poop d’jour in just a few areas…
They’re primarily nocturnal, no completely different than my hair’m who need out at evening to go on the prowl, bringing dwelling the bacon, because it had been.
My buddy is a Big Sequoia tree collector, and I met him in 2017 and he needed to know the best way to get to the Diamond, AD, Dean & Arm Bushes, that are all in steep off-trail areas that require hours of strolling to get to, and I took him on his appointed rounds, and the subsequent day he needed to stroll the Partadise Path, which matches via a part of the Atwell Grove, and that i’d walked it just a few days earlier than, and begged off of going, and later that day he comes again with the proper mountain lion encounter that occurred round midday, the place close to the highest of the grove, there was a cougar proper on the path 100 toes forward of him, and he took this picture:
Upon his return he instructed me of what went down, I used to be so resentful, it was like a nasty dream, lacking out.
JP
July 16, 2024 at 9:18 am
They largely keep away from people besides, it appears, a human driving a bicycle appears so much like a juicy deer.
Solely bumped into one within the outback. Felt fairly uncovered however she simply sauntered off. Obtained to look carefully at an grownup that had been depredated by fish and recreation however was frozen stable with eyes open. You couldn’t open that freezer door with out leaping again. That factor was stable muscle killing machine.
They typically hunt in pairs and I’ve seen parallel tracks separated by 15 meters. I’ve additionally heard it mentioned, the one you see is just not the one that may get you. I’ve additionally seen solitary tracks within the snow close to our home. Their very distinctive tracks are a definitive ID. They make loads of noise once they mate. You possibly can hear them for a superb mile.
Permaculture. Beginning with Tom Pfotzer:
July 8, 2024 at 8:54 am
About 20 years in the past, just a few years after we purchased our farm, and earlier than I’d achieved any main plantings, grading, irrigation, tree-cutting, and so on. I fortuitously purchased and skim, and re-read Invoice Mollison’s Permaculture Design Handbook.
There are a variety of causes to have this e-book. Those I discovered most compelling are:
a. It units out the forces that function on a bit of land. Solar, water, wind, animals wild and home, soil, temperature, and crops. These are the main forces to know, and be taught to work with
b. It exhibits the best way to construct the instruments and amenities you’ll have to implement your design. To satisfy your and your land & its inhabitants’ wants, fairly a little bit of bodily intervention is required…
e. It talks about operations – e.g. the commonly occurring actions one should carry out with a view to keep equilibrium and procure the human yield out of your permaculture system
It is a massive way of life dedication. Not only for design, or set up, however the masses – the labor and pondering required, over time – that’s the largest problem to we people.
Steve H.
July 8, 2024 at 9:04 am
I’ve just lately gifted a number of copies of:
: Permaculture Design Handbook
: A Sample Language
: A Darwinian Survival Information.These are extraordinary works.
divadab
July 8, 2024 at 8:54 am
Permaculture is the one answer to agriculture not primarily based in ignorance of pure ecological processes. Our present chemical industrial ag mannequin is as silly and ignorant and wasteful as Las Vegas – unnatural, unsustainable, primarily based on pure borrowing from the long run and thereby degrading that future.
A quite simple begin is to interchange your garden monoculture with perennials – flowers, herbs, berries, fruit bushes – you can be amazed at what number of birds enjoyment of your backyard.
In case you worth e-book suggestions, or have just lately taken up gardening due to a remark you learn right here. then you may keep away from a media monoculture by donating to Bare Capitalism. It’s straightforward!
Machine Instruments and Deindustrialization. Beginning with JBird4049:
Could 13, 2024 at 4:54 pm
The USA (and I assume Europe as effectively) nonetheless has a big puddle or very small pond of expertise, abilities, training, and even a little bit of actual, not finance, wealth. It’s troublesome to eradicate all of two centuries of deliberate, concentrated efforts to create the ocean that after existed. Nonetheless, it’s to the speedy good thing about a lot of our brief sighted elites to cease the usage of this puddle; these ignorant buffoons additionally denigrate the work of fifteen or extra generations of People who created the instruments wanted for the fools to turn into rich.
The puddle of expertise may very well be our starter yeast as after all of the nation began as a backwater with no trade in any respect. The USA as industrial, financial, academic, and scientific Goliath was a deliberate creation simply as its speedy lack of all this was. However I feel that they relatively end draining it if it will get them the final little bit of loot all of the whereas patting themselves on the again for being so farsighted.
This denigration of labor particularly with one’s palms and their perception of their superiority over the previous fifteen or extra generations of People is why now we have such an add. Even the a number of generations of people that created the concepts, languages, and applications that had been wanted for computer systems to work are being denigrated.
Twenty generations to construct and three to destroy; seven lifetimes of labor and considered one of arson. Joyful, completely happy. Pleasure, pleasure.
Invoice Malcolm
Could 14, 2024 at 10:46 am
James Watt is meant to have invented the steam engine — however the Frenchman Gugnot’s wheeled steam-powered carriage of 1769 confirmed way more superior pondering than Watt’s clanking monstrosity (an early instance of which is on show on the Museum of Science and Expertise in London). No atmospheric condensing to achieve a vacuum, so steady operation.
Anyway, when Watt teamed up with Boulton to make steam-powered “engines” for pumping out mines and changing water mill energy, the canny outdated Scot didn’t promote his wares. Oh no, he devised a scheme whereby the precise financial savings in working prices had been paid to him on a 50/50 foundation (or another proportion). That was what made Watt wealthy, paid for manufacturing his wares and leaving a tidy sum over. The shopper made out effectively too.
So, Watt was an early renter outer.
What I’m saying is that there’s nothing a lot new below the solar, however neither did the US develop in tandem with Europe till the 1870s. Steam hammer, precision lead screws for lathes? Normal measurements? All British, look it up. 1840s, 1850s.
JBird4049
Could 14, 2024 at 4:40 pm
Sure, IIRC the British had the usual in machine instruments and associated know-how throughout the nineteenth century. In someways, the US and the British Empire had an analogous dynamic as with China and the US at present. Nonetheless, a giant distinction is that whereas the British additionally financialized and destroyed their financial system, it was not as quick as with the People. Patriotism, usually practicality, combating the world wars, and the shortage of capability to shift cash and staff throughout borders all contributed.
Don’t forget that the US was internally creating for hundreds of years particularly after it acquired out from the British Empire’s financial coverage of mercantilism: sources from the colonies and manufactured items from Britain. The colonists had been to not manufacture a lot as a nail. Including the corruption and mismanagement of the British authorities simply made it worse.
After Independence, there have been the issues of organising a everlasting system of presidency, and proving that it had the fortitude and talent to take care of enemies such because the Barbary Pirates, the British, and Native People in addition to sustaining political cohesion; IIRC, throughout the 1820s, the American System was deliberate, applied, and adopted till the late Sixties. Actually, if one contains the efforts at enhancements from simply earlier than 1800, that’s over 150 years of sustained progress because of a single financial coverage. Many years of canals, roads, manufacturing, faculties, electrical enlargement, infectious illness management, and so on.
I might make 1972 because the yr it was dropped. I additionally assume the Powell Memo, which was typed in 1971, was not nearly stopping the Left; it was a suggestion for destroying the then present system by capturing the federal government and training. This led to the fashionable system of rentier capitalism and authorities seize.
Misplaced Youth. Beginning with Henry Moon Pie:
September 10, 2024 at 12:52 pm
I’ll ask a query I requested right here just a few weeks in the past, primarily of those that, like me, got here of age within the period of assassinations, Kent State and the Democrats’ Chicago conference. If we might return in time, figuring out what has occurred since, would we be keen to affix the Weathermen? We noticed how mistaken issues had been and had been determined to vary them utilizing peaceable signifies that quickly morphed into electoral means with McGovern. These strategies had been clearly lower than the duty, and now issues have grown a lot worse that the concept of electorally powered change is laughable (because it was then if we had been extra life like) and the hope of even peaceable change embodied within the mass strike appears nearly ridiculous.
Did we miss our shot, largely as a result of, as Lawrence validly indicts us, the sacrifice of opposing the insanity by all doable means would have value us an excessive amount of? It’s a query that haunts me as somebody who anticipated to take part in a revolution at 18 however ended up going to legislation faculty.
Carla
September 10, 2024 at 5:45 pm
Re: 1969: “I don’t assume I might have imagined again then how unhealthy issues could be now.”
I take into consideration this so much. And each time, I wind up right here: we had been so younger. So very, very younger.
I imply that not as an excuse, however extra, a lament.
If a path was obvious, certainly we missed it.
Marriage and Mourning. Beginning with Amfortas the Hippie:
June 12, 2024 at 3:30 pm
2 years in the past, at 13:12 Lima….and there I used to be down by the graveyard within the Falcon, balling my eyes out.
I can keep in mind each minute of that day…besides the half the place I used to be alone together with her, saying goodbye….i dont keep in mind that, not what I mentioned, something.
this was the primary of 4 Wakes…and none of them had been deliberate, in any respect…
and I keep in mind all of it…and all in such element…
and I relive it…nearly each day…however particularly on days like immediately.
Besides there are not any different days like immediately,lol….
Y’all had been with me via all of this…and I nonetheless thank y’all for it.
katiebird
June 12, 2024 at 3:41 pm
Despite being speechless, I’ve to let you know how a lot. I respect you. And, I hate that Tam and also you and your loved ones went via this. And that you just nonetheless ARE going via it. (however how might you cease?) Thanks for sharing your life and world and the Wilderness Bar with us.
Cassandra
June 12, 2024 at 4:26 pm
Amfortas, my deepest sympathies for what she endured, for what you proceed to endure. And but… what a fortunate girl she was to have been so beloved.
Lastly, Marriage and Fatherhood. From Late Introvert:
July 26, 2024 at 12:29 am
I by no means needed kids, and I believed I’d be a horrible father. I got here late to the sport too, 42, however I feel that was a superb factor. Financially secure for the Midwest, we had been capable of purchase a small home in a superb faculty district. Spouse and I not too formidable, thrifty and nice to have 1 automotive and no luxuries, part-time and freelance gigs so the parental duties had been manageable.
I can’t converse for others, however the minute I had a baby all the things modified, the main focus was now her.
I do need to say there have been a number of moments within the first 2 years the place I’d flip to spouse and say how do single dad and mom do that (the reply is badly)? And we simply had the one little one.
Neatest thing that ever occurred to me. Introduced me out of my introversion. I wasn’t essentially the most importanct individual anymore, she was. It was very troublesome, however I realized to faux it. Spent my share of hours on the playground after faculty speaking to largely mothers, all youthful than me.
We’re fortunate. She is completely happy and wholesome regardless of some Covid years setbacks and turning 19 this yr doing effectively in faculty that we might by no means afford if she didn’t have scholarships.
Name-back to earlier discussions on NC, we learn to her each evening till she was a young person and it lastly acquired awkward. She reads books on her personal on a regular basis now.
America is so onerous as of late, and nothing is ideal however for me being a father has labored out.
It is a small sampling of the quotidian, day-to-day matters of curiosity to the Bare Capitalism commentariat. If you’d like threads like this to proceed to be braided collectively, please go to the tip jar. In case you can provide somewhat, give somewhat. In case you can provide so much, give so much. If in case you have already given, take into account “paying it ahead” by donating on behalf of those that want they may however can not. Each little bit helps!
APPENDIX
Since “Dwelling within the Materials World” is the title of a George Harrison album, here’s a monitor from that album:
Sure, all issues should move… However not too quickly!
And issues move, however patterns endure; patterns like jokes, cougar recognizing, gardening, marriage, fatherhood (even de-/and reindustrialization). Because the Dwarves’ Low King, Rhys Rhysson, says to Sam Vimes in Terry Pratchett’s The Fifth Elephant:
Immediately the king was holding his mining axe once more. “This, milord, is my household’s axe. We’ve owned it for nearly 9 hundred years, see. After all, typically it wanted a brand new blade. And typically it has required a brand new deal with, new designs on the metalwork, somewhat refreshing of the ornamentation… However is that this not the nine-hundred-year-old axe of my household? And since it has modified gently over time, it’s nonetheless a reasonably good axe, y’know. Fairly good.”
And so with the continually old-but-new each day considerations within the feedback part.
However talking of axes, you may assist Bare Capitalism hold its edge by visiting the Tip Jar — over there! — to your proper.
