Surströmming is one of the world's foulest-smelling dishes. Thank you, Sweden. When the can of fermented Baltic herring is opened, all smell breaks loose. It's probably more myth than anything else that the cans explode a lot, though they do expand as the fermenting takes place. In any case, the airlines, again sensibly, will have nothing to do with it. We've never seen it in New York, not that we've looked that hard. For some reason, there isn't much demand in these parts for canned fermented herring. When we mentioned to someone at the Swedish Consulate that we wanted to track down some surströmming, he said, "Oh, I don't think that's a very good idea."
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Misc Blogs
Terribly Important Silliness
NYC
NY(C) Politics
IseTile
Surströmming - Manhattan User's Guide
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Union pensions in New York
A recent report on city pensions noted that it would take an IRA of $825,000 to generate the same income a city teacher retiring at 62 would receive from his or her pension. A police officer retiring at 51 would need a $1.1 million IRA to generate the income equal to his or her pension.
Last week, the [New York City] comptroller issued a report stating that the median retirement assets of the state's urban residents who have IRAs or similar plans and are nearing retirement are $67,000.
.....
State and local governments' and school districts' pension costs are expected to grow to $2 billion in 2014....
Read more (subscription required).
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St. Mary the Virgin, Episcopal, Times Square, Christmas Eve
THE CHURCH OF SAINT MARY THE VIRGIN (EPISCOPAL)
CHRISTMAS EVE
Choral Music & Carols 10:30 PM
O Magnum mysterium – Gabrieli (c. 1554/1557–1612)
Salve regina – Poulenc (1899–1963)
Sing lullaby – Howells (1892–1983)
Procession & Solemn Mass 11:00 PM
Sermon by the Reverend Stephen Gerth
Missa ‘Laetatus sum’ – Victoria (1548–1611)
O Magnum mysterium – Gabrieli (c. 1554/1557–1612)
Bethlehem Down – Warlock (1894–1930)
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National September 11th Memorial and Museum facts
Some facts about the memorial in New York City:
Hours required to cut each bronze panel: 5
Seconds (average) to water-jet cut each letter on the memorial panels: 45
Total length in feet of the five rows of names: 1,500+
Names on the memorial: 2,982
Acres of land: 8
Pumps for the memorial waterfalls: 16
Height in feet of waterfalls: 30
Weight in pounds of each 2.5' x 5' granite panel lining the interior of the two memorial pools: 420
Granite panels lining the pools: 3,968
Gallons of water each memorial pool holds: 485,919
Weight in tons of the "survivors' stairs," a stairway on the north side of the WTC connecting the elevated plaza to Vesey Street: 57 (it was the last aboveground remnant of the WTC following recovery and cleanup)
Oak trees tagged and selected: 437 (nearly 400 will be planted; some will be maintained as replacement trees)
Expected height of oaks when fully mature: 60
Tons of steel in memorial and museum combined: 8,151 (about 100 tons more than the Eiffel Tower)
Number of design entries for the memorial: 5,201 (narrowed to 250; then to 25 semifinalists; then down to 8 from which the jury of 13 individuals made a final selection; entries came from 49 states and 63 countries)
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9/11- ten years ago
My photos from the 11th of September, 2001.
A narrative of 9/11 by Hon. Joan Paylo, Democratic District Leader on the Upper West Side and former president of Community Free Democrats (CFD), my local Democratic club.
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The Twin Towers
President Barack Obama pauses during a moment of silence in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House at 8:46AM, Sept. 11, 2010, in remembrance of the time that the first plane hit the World Trade Center in 2001. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Some facts about the World Trade Center (WTC), the 7-building complex that included the "twin towers" (a.k.a. the "twin trade towers") destroyed on "9/11," 2001, along with 47-story 7 WTC which collaped later in the day.
Acres of land for the entire complex: 16
New acres created in Manhattan by the WTC excavation: 23.5 (this became Battery Park City).
Elevator top speed in the twin towers: 27 feet per second
Stories in each of the twin towers: 110
Workers on the WTC at peak construction: 5,000
Tons of cooling capacity of refrigeration plant (largest in the world when constructed): 60,000
Windows in twin towers: 43,600
Cubic yards of concrete to build the WTC: 425,000
Square feet of office space: 12,000,000
Number of people on a typical 2011 weekday arrived at WTC by 8:45 a.m.: 16,000-19,000
Miles away from WTC seismic meters registered the towers' collapse on 9/11: 265
Number of planes in North American airspace the FAA orders at 9:40 a.m. to land at the nearest airport: 4,546
Population of Gander, Newfoundland, offering food, clothing, and housing to nearly 7,000 stranded passengers from diverted flights to their local airport on Sept. 11, 2001: 10,000
Number of survivors pulled from the wreckage: 18
Number of search helpers on site by the early morning of September 12, 2001: 5,000 (approx.)
Highest recorded temperature inside the burning pile of debris: 2,000 F
Value of gold and silver removed from a Bank of Nova Scotia vault under 4 WTC: $200,000,000 (2001 value)
Number fo small businesses destroyed, displaced, or forced to close after 9/11: almost 18,000, approx. 130,000 employees.
Truckloads of debris required: 110,000+
Debris tons removed from the "ground zero" site: 1,400,000
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New York City - The Rich Rule the Roost Like Few Other Places in America Rich and Poor
The rich have been getting increasing shares of the city’s income pie for years, while the poor take much smaller [portions]. Even though U.S. income concentration is at a historic high, with 23.5% of income going to the top 1% of earners in 2007, New York far surpasses that level.
via mycrains.crainsnewyork.com
Click the chart to enlarge it.....
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Chamber of Commerce, AFL-CIO, and the President agree: Extending the Transportation Bill
Calls from the usually opposing US Chamber of Commerce and the ALF-CIO to invest in America's transportation infrastructor date back to January.
From recent remarks by President Obama:
At the end of September, if Congress doesn’t act, funding for our roads and bridges will expire. This would put a stop to highway construction, bridge repair, mass transit systems and other important projects.... And it would affect thousands of construction workers....
.....Right away, over 4,000 workers would be furloughed without pay. If it’s delayed for just 10 days, we will lose nearly $1 billion in highway funding that we can never get back. And if we wait even longer, almost 1 million workers could be in danger of losing their jobs over the next year.
....In Virginia, 19,000 jobs are at risk. In Minnesota, more than 12,000. And in Florida, over 35,000 people could be out of work if Congress doesn’t act.
That makes no sense – and it’s completely avoidable....
via www.webwire.com
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