Wednesday, September 2, 2020

In the Hamptons


Sophie dozes at the front door while Angus has an interesting chat with a dark suited man. The early rising Manhattanite thinks shutdown  may represent the largest risk transfer by income bracket in recorded history. The wealthiest  removed infection risks by transferring them to those who kept society afloat.  He expects there to be another HUGE stimulus package in recognition of this. He says 5% of New Yorkers are working from the Hamptons and may make their homes there.  80% of his staff aren't coming into the office apart from a shortened day once a week or so to maintain 'esprit de corps' with the new interns. There has been no fall off in efficiency or profitability.


Here it's another of those heaven made days that start warm and have a gentle breeze that accompanies us on our way through the sunflowers to the waterfall. Sophie loves charging through the sunflowers. She clearly has a sense of adventure and has no problem being out of my sight.


At the cafe there is another dog. Male PONs would have been keen to say hello. Sophie is of the opinion that it's not worth her time greeting this interloper. PONettes are a level of creation elevatedly different from their brothers.


The croissant, considering we're not in the 6eme in Paris, is a delight. Warm, flaky and yet buttery. Angus scores it 9.4/10. Sophie who has been brought a bowl of water and a mignardise ( does the waitress not know Sophie gets the curly croissant ends ? ) gives it a tail thumping 14/10. The other dog sits and stares at an adjacent table until it is rewarded with some torn off lumps of baguette. I tell Sophie she's missing a trick.



Wonderful : https://gizmodo.com/an-ancient-breed-of-singing-dog-isnt-extinct-in-the-wil-1844906068

This is a style of writing that 's breathless :
https://solana.substack.com/p/fire-in-the-sky

The things one never knew : https://www.quantamagazine.org/mathematicians-report-new-discovery-about-the-dodecahedron-20200831/

4 comments:

Lisa in France said...

You seem to be having a very successful croissant streak now after a somewhat difficult period! The conversation with the dark-suited man reminded me of this article I read back in May, discussing the effects of plagues on society: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-covid-19-ancient-plagues-pandemics-lessons-society The author suggests that some historic plagues have actually benefited lower-income workers in the longer-term, but this one does not seem to be turning out that way, particularly in the US. It is such a strange time we are living in, but at least we have the newly-discovered singing dogs to feel good about. I was reading your post during my lunchtime in the office and forgot that I had turned up the volume on my computer for a meeting yesterday. I turned it back down as quick as I could, but I am really hoping my neighbors were away from their offices at that particular moment - definitely not a candidate for an apartment pet.

WFT Nobby said...

I too picked up on the recent high croissant scores. Clearly not the result of an algorithm!

Taste of France said...

The food in rural France beats Paris any day.
I'm surprised the man in the black suit was so insightful--not a typical trait in masters of the universe.

Coppa's girl said...

That croissant does look particularly good.