Power Adds Up

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While I’ve been working at my Syracuse office, I decided to plug all my desk appliances into a Kill-a-Watt meter and see how much power they use. I was surprised in a week it turned out I used over 4 kilowatt hours of power in a week. I would have never thought I used that much power, although with my phone charging, the laptop and monitor plugged in, various USB desk accessories and other equipment it all adds up to about 45 watt draw.

Which doesn’t seem like much, but I’m in the office 12 plus hours many days, seven days a week, and those miserly 45 watts add up quickly. That’s 540 watt hours a day or 3.7 kWh a week — but then again sometimes I draw more power and sometimes I’m there more then 12 hours a day.

Hooked to the grid, 3.7 kWh of power works out to maybe 40 cents a week worth of power. Which granted I am sure my employer can afford with all the other expenses. Grid power is cheap, it’s virtually unlimited. But it’s still a lot of power, that has to be made by burning coal and natural gas, and it’s something I will think about when I’m back home — unplugging things as much as possible and not using the big screen monitor as much.  And certainly when I have an off-grid cabin, I won’t be able to use the laptop 12 hours a day — but outside of a work environment, I doubt I would want to do that.

Spruce Pond

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Spruce Pond as seen along the North Country Trail.

‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ was never about drugs

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Peter Yarrow: ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ was never about drugs

"QUESTION: As a journalist, it can be hard to interview someone with more than 50 years in the entertainment business, because there is nothing really original to ask. So, let me start by asking you what is the one question you are tired of being asked?"

"ANSWER: I am not sure I am tired of being asked about it, but I am tired of how many people start by thinking "Puff the Magic Dragon" is about drugs. It is not, and it never was. That all started with a guy at a magazine that wrote about songs that had hidden drug references or had some subtext message that was about drugs or advocated for drug use. He had "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" on there, which is just absurd. He mentioned "Mr. Tambourine Man," which is about drugs, but it was not hidden, it was a direct reference. His third song he listed was "Puff the Magic Dragon," which is insane and stupid. I asked him once about it and he basically said he was just looking for a third and thought, “maybe this will work.”