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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2/12/25 12:55 PM, glen wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:0e1a8391-c026-45cb-8bf4-8a8dc1b4d041@gmail.com">What you
mention below is the fulcrum for a larger argument against (most)
modern cities. </blockquote>
<p>Our own Jenny Quillien is involved in an international group
studying related things:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.sustasis.org/"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://www.sustasis.org/</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>I may be misrepresenting her interests and engagements so will
leave it there.<br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:0e1a8391-c026-45cb-8bf4-8a8dc1b4d041@gmail.com">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. </blockquote>
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... <br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:0e1a8391-c026-45cb-8bf4-8a8dc1b4d041@gmail.com">And even
though there's a subsistence economy around such things, it
wouldn't be so stupidly commercial as it is now.
<br>
<br>
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:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://jaredhenderson.substack.com/p/replacing-our-relationships-with">https://jaredhenderson.substack.com/p/replacing-our-relationships-with</a>
<br>
</blockquote>
<p>I *could* host my own Pub at my house... or tea house... wait! I
already do! </p>
<blockquote>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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? </p>
<p> 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!).<br>
</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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". <br>
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>- Steve<br>
</p>
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