I had to laugh at the last line because my first thought after reading this was: I want to see a picture. I have yet to see anything roadside that I would haul home, although my mother-in-law somehow sees the beauty in these items and after a little TLC from her, I realize she is right. Congrats.
Posted by Jodi at August 26, 2005 12:49 PMI agree with Jodi, my first thought: I wish he had posted a photo.
Posted by Sari at August 26, 2005 01:43 PMYes, photo please!!!
Posted by Jonis at August 26, 2005 05:18 PMYes, A Photo of the old one and the new one please!
Warmly,
Flassie
I COMPLETELY understand your feelings about your new (to you) dresser. When we moved to Davis, we didn't have any furniture, nor did we have the funds to buy some nice stuff for the living room AND the bedroom. We decided our one big splurge would be a dream bed, because the bed that came with our previous fully-furnished place was AWFUL. And the moment I first climbed into our new bed with its super-comfy mattress, I realized that one of the reasons I'd had insomnia my entire life was because I'd never before owned a decent mattress. So I completely understand (and relate) to you getting such delight from sliding that drawer in and out...and peeking back into the room to look at the dresser. Four months after buying it, I still feel like I've won the lottery every time I lie down on our new mattress. Only thing is, doesn't it make you wonder why you denied yourself something so basic (a new dresser) for so long? I sure wondered that about the mattress...especially since it had contributed to decades worth of sleepless nights...
Posted by Marilyn at August 28, 2005 05:08 AMA photo is definitely in order- let the people see this suburban "wonder" you are now living in, and your new chesterfriend. Stop denying us!
Posted by Jonis at August 28, 2005 03:35 PMAnother vote for the photo! I find great beauty in beloved things, no matter how beat up and nasty we think them to be.
Posted by Kelly at August 30, 2005 03:58 PMAnyone who cares about the people of New Orleans, especially our fellow citizens who were too impoverished or too old or to sick to afford an evacuation before the storm, should read this article and forward it/contact your local representatives and demand an explanation and accountability.
(To read the whole story after the excerpts below from the emergency management chief in NO, follow the link at the end. It is written by a senior staff writer at the Philadelphia Daily News.)
On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; told the Times-Picayune: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."
Also that June, with the 2004 hurricane season starting, the Corps' project manager Al Naomi went before a local agency, the East Jefferson Levee Authority, and essentially begged for $2 million for urgent work that Washington was now unable to pay for. From the June 18, 2004 Times-Picayune:
"The system is in great shape, but the levees are sinking. Everything is sinking, and if we don't get the money fast enough to raise them, then we can't stay ahead of the settlement," he said. "The problem that we have isn't that the levee is low, but that the federal funds have dried up so that we can't raise them." The levee board noted in October 2004 that the feds were also now not paying for a hoped-for $15 million project to better shore up the banks of Lake Pontchartrain.
The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the Bush administration came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history. Because of the proposed cuts, the Corps office there imposed a hiring freeze. Officials said that money targeted for the SELA project -- $10.4 million, down from $36.5 million -- was not enough to start any new jobs.
There was, at the same time, a growing recognition that more research was needed to see what New Orleans must do to protect itself from a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. But once again, the money was not there. As the Times-Picayune reported last Sept. 22:
The Newhouse News Service article published Tuesday night observed, "The Louisiana congressional delegation urged Congress earlier this year to dedicate a stream of federal money to Louisiana's coast, only to be opposed by the White House. ... In its budget, the Bush administration proposed a significant reduction in funding for southeast Louisiana's chief hurricane protection project. Bush proposed $10.4 million, a sixth of what local New Orleans officials say they need."
Local officials are now saying, the article reported, that had Washington heeded their warnings about the dire need for hurricane protection, including building up levees and repairing barrier islands, "the damage might not have been nearly as bad as it turned out to be."
To read story in its entirety, go to http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051313
Will Bunch (letters@editorandpublisher.com) is senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News. Much of this article also appears on his blog at that newspaper, Attytood.
Posted by Richard at September 1, 2005 07:04 AM
is your old dresser out by the orad now with a sign on it?
Posted by pink at September 14, 2005 09:37 AM