The Envy of Peter Robinson
I am well aware that envy is one of the deadly sins. I am also aware that those who reside in the land of my birth -- California -- pay a heckuva price for it in terms of insane regulation and even more insane politics. There my sympathies end. In New Jerseystan, where I live, we have more or less the same problems California does scaled down for our population, and of course we have a better governor.
Here's one difference. On Sunday night I had dinner with the Robinsons at their home on the Stanford campus. The beautiful Mrs. Robinson asked me if I should like lemon with my sparkling water. When I answered in the affirmative, she sent her son out to their garden in the back to pick one from their tree.
Generally I am not a man who covets my neighbor's anything. That lemon tree, however, really did it.
Yes, it's just an anecdote. You wonder, tho: all this talk about California's collapse, how bad can it really be? It doesn't look bad, and I've been driving all over the state the last few days. Granted I do not see the difficulty a business has in dealing with some crazy environmental restriction, and I've been mostly along the coast, the more prosperous parts. And I don't want to be George Bernard Shaw in the Ukraine, suggesting there could be no famine because he was certainly well fed.
Still, there's nothing about what you see that suggests a place facing truly dire straits, unlike, say, Michigan or even New York which can look very run down, especially in its infrastructure. How can this be -- the huge gap between what the numbers tell us and with the very pleasant appearance?
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May '10
Re: The Envy of Peter Robinson
Head east on Interstate 580 from the East Bay. Smooth sailing until past Pleasanton, at which point the road turns into a potholed nightmare like something out of a post-apocalyptic scifi film. The transition is abrupt and shocking, evidence that what VDH says is true: Coastal elites are allowing the state to be hollowed out, preserving their coastal enclaves at the expense of a collapsing interior.
I imagine this is how things looked from Rome. Haven't had mail from my cousin in Gaul for a while, but it's sure dandy here!
Aug '10
Re: The Envy of Peter Robinson
The presence of Boxer,Pelosi, Brown, and some others severely hamper the enjoyment of the state's natural wonders. This is a place where the lawyers and administrative judges that work for the state have their own union, I guess so they can share bragging rights with the lifeguard union in Newport Beach ( @ $200k.yr). Reality takes a holiday in California. It is a place for superlatives and extremes.
May '10
Re: The Envy of Peter Robinson
Wasn't that Peter, Paul,and Mary, rather than Trini Lopez?
In Minnesota, we just build a place and stay for 25 years, too Scandanavianly stubborn to suck all the equity out of it. It doesn't balloon in value, but it doesn't collapse either.
Nov '10
Re: The Envy of Peter Robinson
Kinda both.
Edited on February 21, 2012 at 11:58pmRe: The Envy of Peter Robinson
Right now we have huge experiments at the state level, most dramatically in the former industrial heartland. Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan are all moving in the direction of reform; Illinois remains content with the status quo.
My gut feeling is this: The states that have right to work, low or no income tax, light regulation -- this recession has taught them what they have, and they are going to keep it and capitalize on it in the years to come. By contrast, states such as California and New Jersey and New York and so forth might get some patchwork reform, but they will find it next to impossible to really turn the state around. (Only Mitch Daniels, I think, can actually claimed to have taken a state and turned it around, though others such as Bobby Jindal are doing good things).
So I don't see California getting any better absent some dire situation. Even the power outages of a decade or so ago didn't really bring about substantive reform. Then again, do people here really feel the pain? Or does it just seem like an ulcer you live with...?
Mar '11
Re: The Envy of Peter Robinson
Here in the Inland Empire I see much the same phenomenon that VDH talks about in Mexifornia. That is, an emerging, if not fully matured, black market. Everywhere one looks one can see under-the-table transactions taking place. Construction trades, car mechanics, welders, IT, and on it goes. California's tax base is shrinking, but people are getting by under the radar. There is an increasingly third world aura to daily life here that, as yet, hasn't overtaken us. But we can see the dust clouds on the horizon, just beyond those gorgeous palm trees.
Edited on February 22, 2012 at 12:37amMay '10
Re: The Envy of Peter Robinson
But you were visiting the Robinsons. It is more than a matter of geography or climate - as Elizabeth says to Jane near the end of Pride and Prejudice "Till I have your disposition, your goodness, I never can have your happiness."
Nothing for it, we need to strive for Peter's good temper.
May '10
Re: The Envy of Peter Robinson
Come visit in Sacramento and I will give you fresh kumquats off the tree. But, alas, don't look for a job in Sacramento. Major employers once located or based here have fled the State because of tax rates, regulations, and work rules. It is far more difficult for my grandchildren to find first jobs than it was when I grew up here seeming millennia ago. But it is a great place to retire ..... as long as they can keep it afloat.
Aug '10
Re: The Envy of Peter Robinson
i can remember my friends mom plucking avocadoes from the tree outside her kitchen window in san marino
Edited on February 22, 2012 at 1:20amlemon tree is a 1937 brazilian ditty
Re: The Envy of Peter Robinson
Robert Dammers:
Nothing for it, we need to strive for Peter's good temper. · 3 minutes ago
Robert, do you want to give him a big head?
Jan '12
Re: The Envy of Peter Robinson
flownover: i can remember my friends mom plucking avocadoes from the tree outside her kitchen window in san marino
lemon tree is a 1937 brazilian ditty · 37 minutes ago
Edited 5 minutes ago
Many of the houses in the older suburbs around L.A. had divided back yards, lawn toward the house, a tiny farm farther back. Some had chicken coops. Others just had fruit trees. I grew up among pomegranates, a cousin among avocados. These houses were built in the late 1930s and the early 1940s. The War was partly responsible for the Victory Gardens, but also was Henry Ford's suggestion during the Depression that workers could ease the burdens of periods of unemployment by producing some of their own food.
By the way, the trees also provided switches in those days before p.c., when the rod was not spared lest the child be spoiled.
May '10
Re: The Envy of Peter Robinson
A few years back our daughter' boyfriend (now husband) visited from Phoenix for Christmas. He came with a suitcase full of gorgeous grapefruits picked from the neighbors' tree.
I retaliate by bringing maple syrup tapped from our own trees when we visit there.
Edited on February 22, 2012 at 2:46amDec '11
Re: The Envy of Peter Robinson
Woody Guthrie said it so well:
You want to buy you a home or a farm, that can't deal nobody harm,
Or take your vacation by the mountains or sea.
Don't swap your old cow for a car, you better stay right where you are,
Better take this little tip from me.
'Cause I look through the want ads every day
But the headlines on the papers always say:
If you ain't got the do re mi, boys, you ain't got the do re mi,
Why, you better go back to beautiful Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee.
California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see;
But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot
If you ain't got the do re mi.
Jan '12
Re: The Envy of Peter Robinson
CIS: Woody Guthrie said it so well:
...
A case of a Commie clock striking true two minutes every 24 hours.
But still just clanging with envy.
Edited on February 22, 2012 at 3:38amJul '10
Re: The Envy of Peter Robinson
Noesis Noeseos: The Stanford area abuts another such height. Go visit VDH on his farm, however, and you will get quite a different scene. · 6 hours ago
Edited 6 hours ago
Dr. Hanson has written extensively on this very issue. It's those who live sheltered lives along the coast who drive the political scene in CA, from environmental to, actually, any other policy you care to mention. And the Central Valley pays a steep price for this. Example: water for farmers held hostage to the environmentalists. As he says, there are two distinct Californias with the coastal few having no idea that the Central Valley exists, never mind the impact their ideas have on that portion of the state.
May '10
Re: The Envy of Peter Robinson
The contrast just across 101 in East Palo Alto is needed for any real perspective, which is why I never take that particular left turn.
Jan '11
Re: The Envy of Peter Robinson
Every single time I visit California, particularly Southern California, I am reminded of this young woman I knew in my youth.
She was absolutely the most gorgeous, intelligent, fashionable and delightful person I had met in my twenty-some-odd years. Of course I fell in love instantly.
But she had a boyfriend. Who turned out to be one of the nastiest human beings I'd ever met. He cheated on her constantly, treated her like crap in front of her friends, flew into jealous rages, and at least in one instance, gave her a black eye that she claimed came from a skiing accident.
All of her friends told her repeatedly that she had to leave the jerk. She made all the usual excuses, said he promised the change, that things would be different, and so on and so forth. Last time I saw her, much of her beauty was marred by the semi-permanent frown she wore, her conversational ability suffered because she was suffering, and the spark that had made her so charming had seemed to have died.
And that's how I feel about California every time I visit. Every single time.
May '10
Re: The Envy of Peter Robinson
katievs: A few years back our daughter' boyfriend (now husband) visited from Phoenix for Christmas. He came with a suitcase full of gorgeous grapefruits picked from the neighbors' tree.
I retaliate by bringing maple syrup tapped from our own treeswhen we visit there. · 15 hours ago
Edited 15 hours ago
This is how you retaliate?
Er, how do you and your husband fight? As you describe it, remember that this is a family site....
Re: The Envy of Peter Robinson
It would be illuminating to read about the devastation caused by the green movement in California.
Dec '10
Re: The Envy of Peter Robinson
Hasn't Victor Davis Hanson covered this in his extensive chronicles on the slow death of California? Especially as regards the environmentalist devastation on the state's agriculture?