On 2/12/25 12:55 PM, glen wrote:
What you mention below is the fulcrum for a larger argument against (most) modern cities.
Our own Jenny Quillien is involved in an international group studying related things:
https://www.sustasis.org/I may be misrepresenting her interests and engagements so will leave it there.
We had a kind of speakeasy pub in the basement of this guy's house in Portland. No business license or nothing. If you drank there, you had to donate something ... sugar, eggs, homebrewing supplies, whatever. It reminded me of the alewife tradition. If it weren't for the (ultimately gentrification based) zoning laws, there would be more walkable pubs.I remember (hearing of) the phenomena During COVID of upper midwest Garage Taverns where people would leave their garage door open and a few lawn chairs and tables and a beer fridge... Door open means "Tavern Open" and if the residents were there you could join them (at COVID-safe distance) but in many cases they might be off on some errand and another neighbor or two might be there hanging out... if you didn't want to clean out your garage or have people over in it, you could just contribute by restocking the fridge with your (or someone else's) favorite libations...
And even though there's a subsistence economy around such things, it wouldn't be so stupidly commercial as it is now.Sure. We don't want shanty towns. But zoning can be done well or poorly. If you can't walk to the pub, maybe it's your duty to have the pub at your house? And a tea house is just as much of a pub as the rec center at the Lutheran church, especially now that the kids are turning away from etoh toward thc. We even have a kava pub here in Oly. My libertarian homunculus asks why we don't have more opium dens and rave spaces. Stupid puritans, at home making friends with LLMs: https://jaredhenderson.substack.com/p/replacing-our-relationships-with
I *could* host my own Pub at my house... or tea house... wait! I already do!
We hold a weekly Poetry Salon on (most) Sunday afternoons which
involves Rye Whiskey and a light meal after sharing some poetry...
stuff we might have written, or discovered. Jenny even brought
Richard Gabriel a year or so ago and he told us about his Inkwell
writer's toolkit (also did a Wedtech at SimTable with a bit more
tech bent). It is all word of mouth and we rarely have more than
six, and often as few as three.
I generally provide the "light meal" but others bring appetizers and
sweets. At least one regularly replenishes our Rye stock. Now our
chickens are laying consistently, we send a half dozen eggs home
with the occasional visitor as well as the occasional excess produce
(haven't been very aggressive about growing the last few years)
including neighbor's pear and apple surplus (September). We used to
(in another lifetime) host much more regular impromptu "garden
parties" and for periods of times could depend on uninvited drop-in
guests bearing libations or foods... i is much more the way I'd
like to live... but most folks just can't quite do this?
The 3 families who are close enough to amble-down the lane we
never see outside their vehicles we are the only property without a
locked automatic gate and multi-car garages and signs saying "I
don't dial 911 - protected by Smith&Wesson" and "No Trespassing -
Survivors will be Prosecuted!". We all smile and wave at the
mailboxes and we can entice one of them to visit now and again for
very specific purposes (pick up some eggs) but always on a hit and
run basis. I think they think we are "hippies" (Mary DID paint a
giant peace sign on an old cable-spool in the back yard, so fair I
guess!).
In another lifetime I used to do more of this, including making
drop-ins hyper welcome (crack a beer, or pop a wine-cork, make a
light meal a the drop of a hat)... but the larger culture just
doesn't respond well to this. I've hosted 3 locals from this list
from time to time, but I'm just far enough off the "beaten track" it
isn't easy to just "Drop In!"... my bad.
So I have two Whiskey Tumblers, one for me and one for chatGPT...
and we drink together and talk of "Cabbages and Kings, etc". while I
wait for someone to "drop by".
- Steve
OpenPGP_0xD5BAF94F88AFFA63.asc
Description: OpenPGP public key
OpenPGP_signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature
.- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom https://bit.ly/virtualfriam to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ archives: 5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/
