Politics

Peter Vallone vs George Pataki (1998)

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Peter Vallone vs George Pataki (1998)

24 years ago, a very red year at least for the Governor's race, with George Pataki receiving 54.3% of the vote to Peter Vallone's 33.2%. This was a three-way race, with Tom Golisano getting 7.7% of the vote, but for sake of mapping I ignored that. Peter Vallone really didn't win much outside of New York City, and the bluest of blue areas in Upstate cities.

With this I learned a lot about how to read fixed width files into R. It's actually not hard if you have the separate header files, and use the read_fwf to set the widths based on the header file. Which is good because a lot of old data is in fixed width format, especially things from the 1960s and 1970s but also later decades too for big datasets. You can get the R code for making the map: https://github.com/AndyArthur/r_maps_and_graphs/blob/main/pataki_v_vallone_1998_map.R

Worst week of the year 💔

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As a single guy, I am no fan of Valentines’ Day. We are now seven weeks into winter, often with a gray haze and clouds all around. It’s cold, I’m stuck inside in my small little apartment that is rarely warm in part because I don’t like paying for the heat, and in part because it’s drafty and falling apart. Despite the foam I put around the door, one of the days it’s going to completely fall apart again. The vinyl windows have lost their seal, and the walls don’t line up with the foundation, allowing air to leak in freely on this blustery morning.

I got the news that I am likely losing my home 16 years this week, with the landlord selling the building. A place I’ve gotten to know so well, with many in-perfections but also the niceties of living somewhere that is walk-able and bikable, with good public transportation. I have to start the home search, be it an another apartment or buying a house. But I don’t want to move or give up on the life I’ve come to love — biking to work, walking down to the library, weekends in the wilderness.

My heart is so broken to be losing my apartment in the coming months. But it’s also tough to be so alone, in what often seems like the bleakest days of winter, before the dawn of spring. The nights are getting shorter, but not by much, and the mercury slightly warmer. Things will get better soon, but it’s so bleak right now. I have much to look forward to after this period of darkness.

How to recycle in rural Iowa

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If I lived in rural Iowa 🐄 and got a mailer from one of the democrats promoting gun control 🔫 I’d probably save it…

  1. And use it to toss behind the cows in the barn for bedding and absorbing up the pee and poop to be later spread with the manure spreader, 🐮 or maybe…
  2. Toss it out in the hog barn, let the hogs root around in it, shredding it into the mud and muck, 🐷 or maybe…
  3. Tape it up to an old politician’s lawn signs, use it for patterning your shotgun or plinking with your 22, 🔫 and then maybe…
  4. Save it for using to light the farm garbage pit. Dip it diesel or old motor oil, light it up, drop it in the pit. Let it burn! 🔥

Now that’s what I call recycling, ♻ although honestly most political mailers I get these days really don’t compost well 🥝 or even burn well 🚒 because they are glossy, coated with plastic and contain a lot of clay in the paper mix. 🤔Many urban paper programs take them for recycling but even then I doubt they’re very good for recovery.