“If a cluttered desk signs a cluttered mind, what does an uncluttered desk sign?”
—Albert Einstein
May 2008
Traveler's Lament #4761
Staying in Summit NJ for a wedding (my sister-in-law, Katie). Asked the man at the front desk of the Grand Summit Hotel about options to get to JFK, which is 1.5 hours away by car. “Cab,” he said, “our shuttle only goes to Newark airport.” What about other options, I asked? “Don’t know. Can I help you with something else?”
Well, the tiniest bit of research (or training by the hotel) would have shown that there is in fact a shuttle from Newark airport to JFK (see GoAirporter.com) so for $24 I can ride from EWR to JFK, earliest departure of 6:00am, getting to JFK at 7:30am. However, my flight is at 8:05am, and even with my Clear card, that is a bit tight. So I will be stuck with a cab, I guess. At least I will get to sleep an extra half hour though.
Hiring a car is $130, looks like. A cab, $140. I’ll take the car (AAA Top Exec Limo, who haven’t updated their prices online, (732) 744-4213), they usually drive better. We’ll see what happens.
“I have labelled myself as an anti-feminist feminist, and I think it suits me well. The whole female thing is very important to me of course, but then again it’s just as important as the fact that I have two legs and that I come from Iceland. It’s just one of those things. I see so many women constantly questioning themselves. Questioning why they do certain things. There’s this endless analytical process. What they don’t understand is that the main reason men have the freedom to do what they want, and get away with it, is that they don’t question themselves, they just do it. Women should stop doubting themselves because it cages them in and ties them down. They should just do what they want. Don’t take so much shit. If someone tries to make you feel guilty or intimidated, look them straight in the eye and laugh and they’ll probably start to cough in embarrassment. I’d much rather forget what I am, because at the end of the day, at the end of my life, I want to be happy with what I did in it, what I was in it. It doesn’t matter for shit whether I was a boy or a girl. That’s not the point.”
—Björk - Winter Oyster 1995 (via antoinetta) (via paperflowers) (via sailingonthesea)
“I’m not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don’t think anyone should be unkind to anyone else. And then this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and then I thought, is that karma? When you’re not nice, the bad things happen to you?”
—Dior Drops Sharon Stone — Was It Karma? — The Cut: New York Magazine’s Fashion Blog
“Fryer grease has become gold,” Mr. Damianidis said. “And just over a year ago, I had to pay someone to take it away.” Much to the surprise of Mr. Damianidis and many other people, processed fryer oil, which is called yellow grease, is actually not trash. The grease is traded on the booming commodities market. Its value has increased in recent months to historic highs, driven by the even higher prices of gas and ethanol, making it an ever more popular form of biodiesel to fuel cars and trucks. In 2000, yellow grease was trading for 7.6 cents per pound. On Thursday, its price was about 33 cents a pound, or almost $2.50 a gallon. (That would make the 2,500-gallon haul in the Burger King case worth more than $6,000.) Biodiesel is derived by processing vegetable oil or animal fat with alcohol. It is increasingly available around the country, but it is expensive. With the right kind of conversion kit (easily found on the Internet) anyone can turn discarded cooking oil into a usable engine fuel that can burn on its own, or as a cheap additive to regular diesel. “The last time kids broke in here they went for the alcohol,” said Mr. Damianidis, who fries chicken wings and cheese sticks. “Obviously they’re stealing oil because it’s worth something.”
—As Oil Prices Soar, Restaurant Grease Thefts Rise - NYTimes.com
