Open Thread Wednesday

For those with a few spare minutes and a desire to clean up a bit, the Lending Library at the end of Grace Court Alley could use an infusion of good, readable books. It’s been a bit spare in August.

(I say good and readable because a few people use it as a dumping ground for books that are very unlikely to be taken. Examples include novels that are full of penciled annotation and highlighting from some college class, ancient paperbacks that will obviously split in two if read again, water swollen books that were left in the rain, travel guides from 20 years ago, etc.)

People “donating” books nobody wants is my pet peeve.

People have some weird guilt about throwing out books, so they end up donating books nobody is ever going to want, which is really just passing along a problem. The give away bookshelf in my building is packed with textbooks, diet books, travel books, and self help books, all over 15 years old.

Anyone else remember the giant Quonset huts near Schermerhorn Street in the 1950s? Evidently double-sized and used as part of St. John’s campus, I just read. Pff! At least I cleared that up. I was beginning to think I imagined them.

I think there’s no harm in clearing out books (taken to the paper recycling) that are obviously unwanted. After you’ve seen them there for a few weeks or a few months, toss ‘em.

I clear out the lending library of any book that’s of questionable desirability and has been there for a week or two. The real estate is limited and too many good books show up there. In just the few months it’s been there I’ve read at least 4 books I’ve taken from there and have at least 4 more queued up. The same is true of my spouse.

And it’s been great for cleaning out the house. We’ve donated somewhere between 50 and 100 books I’d estimate.

i certainly don’t remember them but here’s an article from the times! https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1948/01/30/98428539.html?pageNumber=42
my grandfather attended Harvard from a quonset hut as a veteran.

Still there in 1965, according to this:

https://www.stjohns.edu/150th-anniversary/our-history/digital-history-exhibit/brooklyn-campus-history

https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9444f06c1d3d85bcc8f1acf23c6c36f9a4bb6827edbb0d6581e1898245f47fee.jpg

Confiscated? How about more reasonably deployed to Rideshare vehicles for all? After all, the vast minority of neighborhood residents have a car and even fewer park on the street. These shared vehicles allow for the option of a quick car “rental” when needed or desired for absolutely everyone.

I walk past the first two spaces redeployed as such (corner of Hicks and Remsen) multiple times per day and they’re in heavy use. I rarely see the same rideshare vehicle parked there two days in a row.

How is this giving the public fewer options? Seems rideshare (car or bike) increases options and availability versus a parking space that can accommodate one car at a time.

Colleges needed to accommodate returning veterans in those days! Evidently the world was full of Quonset huts, including Canarsie. Found photos of model “Father Knows Best” families entering their Quonset homes, lace curtains at the windows, men in suits and ties, wives in shirtwaists — pre-Levittown Levittowns. (Yes, thanks, Andrew, it was on the St. John’s site where my quest for confirmation of this childhood memory finally came to an end.)

Humm… I’ll have a bunch of books to get rid of soon, maybe this will be a good solution.

The CHIPS Act relates to a national security matter, so I would give that a reluctant, but necessary green light. Whether it’s software or infrastructure supporting the burgeoning AI technology, building these chips in the US or on friendlier terrain is important.

Politicians always say car crashes and fatalities are “preventable” with just some more traffic mitigation. You can lower the speed limit to 15, build curb bumps, hoist speed cameras, and so on, but as long as you have psychotically aggressive drivers, you’ll have “accidents.” It’s a mystery that people who routinely flout traffic laws still get to keep their cars at all. They’re insane.

She sounds crazy, actually. That behavior smacks of more than entitlement. I wouldn’t blame the world for her vulgar snit.