Farm Gate; Yankees & NYC Misc.

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

FARM GATE
  
   I thought this was like Watergate from the topic title, but no.
   The book by Baxter Black, HORSESHOES, COWSOCKS & DUCK FEET (NY: Crown 
Publishers, 2002) has a glossary at the end.  Black (of NPR) has written many 
other books from his columns, and perhaps they also have glossaries.
  
Pg. 256:
FENCE STAY: a four-foot piece of twisted wire that keeps barbwire from 
saggin' between posts.  You may also see stays made from    Ocarillo 
skeletons, straight sticks, pieces of bedspring or the occasional car axle.
Pg. 257:
HOG WIRE: or sheep wire, depending on your part of the country.  It is wovewn 
fencing with a vertical and horiztonal wire crossing at intervals like a 
tic-tac-toe board.
  
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YANKEES & NYC MISC.
  
YANKEES--The curse worked!  Wha hoppen?
   From A YANKEE CENTURY (NY: Berkley Books, 2002) by Harvey Frommer, pg. 
398:
   THEY WERE CALLED "Yankees" first by sportswriters Mark Roth of the New 
York Globe and Sam Crane of the New York Journal.  The name first appeared in 
print on June 21, 1904, in the Boston Herald. 
(Frommer--who also wrote a NEW YORK YANKEE ENCYCLOPEDIA--mixes several myths. 
 Roth and Crane first called them the Yankees, but the name first appeared in 
a Boston newspaper?  As I said, it first appeared in the NEW YORK EVENING 
JOURNAL, April 7, 1904.  A huge headline that month was YANKEES BEAT BOSTON.  
I have two fates--people either steal my work, or they get the stuff 
wrong--ed.)
  
NEW YORK DATE BOOK 2003--Sold near the counters at Barnes & Noble.  A big red 
apple is on the cover.  Most of the pages are blank, but there's a little 
info box on why New York City is called the Big Apple.  It's wrong, of 
course.
  
O.T.  MY NYC JOB--It's no secret that NYC is going through hard times, 
financial and otherwise.  It's no secret that transit fines will go up to $2 
from $1.50.  It's no secret that property taxes may increase by 20%.  It's no 
secret that all of this bad news will be announced after the November 
gubernatorial election.
   And it's no secret that many people--probably me--will not take it any 
more, and will simply choose to leave.
   Parking fines were the first to go up--they doubled.  I'm a parking 
administrative law judge; the amount of the fine is none of my business.  
What angers me is when the New York City breaks the law and lies.  
   Department of Finance spokesman Sam Miller said that fines hadn't been 
increased since 1975 (he told Newsday 1978).  This is a lie.  The city well 
knows that the top fine of $40 was increased to $55, and now $105.  I told 
both the AP and Newsday.  No correction was made.  AP told me nine days ago 
it was checking.  Hey AP, there are old online AP stories about this!  I 
cannot tolerate lying.
   I have said that an illegal "mitigation memo" was circulated.  Some judges 
leaked this to Newsday, where a story recently appeared.  (See also below.)  
We are "independent contractors"--we get _no_ benefits because we're 
"independent."  Yet the same Sam Miller says it's just fine if the city 
orders the "independent" judges what to do.
   Replace me with a "robot."  I'm outta here.
   I'll get to this in a little more detail in a Malta food post (I leave in 
24 hours).
   This city has demoralized an honest man.
  
  
Mayor Defends Higher Parking Fines
Oct 11, 2002 
By Dan Janison
STAFF WRITER

October 11, 2002

Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Friday defended higher parking fines -- and a new 
policy of lesser breaks for violators with excuses -- as a way to unclog 
traffic.

“If the fine is there, people should pay it,” he said. “The only way you get 
people not to double-park is to fine them. And if the fine isn’t meaningful 
they’ll say, hey, it’s cheaper than going to a garage.”

As reported Friday in Newsday, the Department of Finance has ordered parking 
judges to refrain from slashing fines for many violations to less than half 
based on motorists’ explanations.

For some categories, such as “No Standing” and handicapped zones, they are 
instructed not to mitigate the penalties.

With fines recently doubled to maximum levels of $85 and $105 including a 
surcharge, some administrative law judges see the policy change as 
compromising due process for motorists.

But Finance Department spokesman Sam Miller said the goal is to ensure that 
judges issue penalties that do not vary widely given the same set of facts.

“We do not want an administrative law judge to reduce somebody’s fine by 
about $60 because they’re wearing a nice suit, and somebody else, who’s 
wearing a T shirt and jeans, gets it reduced by $30,” Miller said. “These 
are serious violations.”

Bloomberg made the remarks during his weekly radio appearance on the John 
Gambling show on WABC (770-AM) when a caller identified as Kathy complained 
that the higher fines amounted to a new tax on small business.

“Trucks aren’t a nuisance to the city. They’re a vital part of delivering 
services ot the city’s mega-buildings,” she said. “It’s easy to say, OK you 
can’t park here. But where can you park?”

Other than to say that most of the fines are issued against cars, not trucks, 
Bloomberg ducked the question. Gambling said she “has a point -- you’ve got 
to service the buildings” before taking another call.