Is DFW's Madame X In NYC's Bellevue Psychiatric Asylum?

The day before 9/11 I got a text message informing me that the party sending the message was heading to New York City. I was advised not to reveal this sensitive information. Or to blog about the fact that this person was leaving Texas with NYC as the destination.

As such is what I was advised I shall not name who it was who advised me not to mention NYC was to be this person's location this week. Or the identity of this person.

And so, I shall refer to this temporary New Yorker as Madame X.

Madame X verbalized some nervous trepidation about going from the relative sedate calm of her irregular Texas location to the center of the known universe, New York City, a town which never sleeps, unlike a town like, well, Fort Worth, which rarely wakes up.

I had my phone in mute mode so I did not realize til late this afternoon I had received an urgent text message from Madame X, including the photo you see above, with text simply saying "NYC is stressing me out. Dunno how much more I can take. I may be having a nervous breakdown. Or pizza for dinner."

When Madame X and I communicated about her going to NYC, prior to her departure, with Madame X verbalizing her nervous breakdown fears, I suggested she Google Bellevue Psychiatric Asylum and have their emergency number entered into her phone in case she was in dire need of a straight jacket.

So, what with Madame X not indicating via her text message what it is we are looking at in the above photo, I have no way of knowing if this is the view from her hotel. Or Madame X's room in the Bellevue Psychiatric Asylum.

I suspect clarity on this issue will soon become clear....

Spencer Jack's Big New York City Adventure Starts At Ground Zero

Earlier this second Sunday of October I blogged about a Mysterious Sunday Morning Ferry Boat Ride With Spencer Jack.

The mystery was I was not 100% certain I knew where Spencer Jack was taking his dad on a ferry boat ride.

I speculated the ferry boat was taking Spencer Jack and his dad to see the Statue of Liberty, which indicated they were in New York City.

Follow up emails confirmed my New York City speculation as correct.

The follow up emails were subject lined: FNSJ in NYC and Also FNSJ in NYC.

The first follow up email included eight photos. The second follow up email included one photo.

For blogging documentation purposes I selected four photos from the first email and the one and only one from the second.

First the explanatory text in the first email...

Your uncle speculations of Spencer Jack's Columbus Day weekend trip destination were spot on.

I thought the ugly orange paint on the exterior of the ferry may give a clue as to our location.

We did see Lady Liberty via a ferry, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, Wall Street, Ground Zero, the Trinity Church and more.

Spencer seemed to be more fascinated with the complex NYC subway system and really intrigued with Macy's flagship store on 34th street's wooden escalators. Really intrigued.

We are off to a visit of Mr. Trump's house now.  I won't let him know of our plans to be at the Hillary rally this Friday back in the Emerald City.

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At the top Spencer Jack and his dad are at Ground Zero. Spencer Jack was born about six years after the 9/11 horror. I wonder how his dad explains what they are looking at. When the I-5 Bridge between Burlington and Mount Vernon partly fell into the river, Spencer Jack refused to cross that type bridge til he got over the worry. After the murders in Burlington's Cascade Mall a couple weeks ago, Spencer Jack's dad thought Spencer would likely be going through a period of refusing to go in malls. So, what is Spencer Jack's reaction to being at the location of a mass murder of around three thousand people?

Next up the aforementioned Macy's wooden escalator steps which intrigued Spencer Jack.

Why would escalator steps be made of wood I can not help but wonder? That must be super hard wood.

And then Spencer Jack walked across the Brooklyn Bridge.

I have no idea what Spencer Jack is gawking at in amazement whilst on the Brooklyn Bridge. He has been on bridges high above water before.

It does not surprise me that Spencer Jack would like riding the New York City subway.

Spencer Jack's dad probably does not remember it, but when Jason was about Spencer Jack's age his favorite uncle took Jason and Spencer Jack's Uncle Joey, to Sea-Tac, to ride the subway that takes you out to a remote terminal. Back pre-9/11 security overkill, you could explore all over the airport without  going through any type of security check.

The text in the second email this afternoon said...

FNSJ and I are scheduled to appear on Today tomorrow am. Will keep you posted.

Seems like when Favorite Nephews Jason and Joey went to New York City, pre the arrival of Spencer Jack, earlier in this century, somehow something happened that had something to do with the Today Show. But, it has been a few years and I have forgotten the details.

I suspect I will be seeing more incoming photos of Spencer Jack's Big Adventure in New York City....

Mysterious Sunday Morning Ferry Boat Ride With Spencer Jack

Incoming email this morning from Spencer Jack's dad, my Favorite Nephew Jason.

Subject line of email: Ferry boating with Spencer Jack.

Text in email: Favorite Nephew Spencer Jack boating this morning. Thought you'd enjoy the pic.

I looked at the "pic" and thought to myself why would Spencer Jack and his dad be floating a Washington ferry early Sunday morning out of Seattle?

Then I noticed all the people standing at the ferry's railing and realized this was not something one would usually be seeing on a Washington Super Ferry. Maybe on a warm, clear day, maybe. Because on a clear day those standing where these people are located would be looking towards Mount Rainier, with the mountain out, if it was a clear day.

Then I noticed the skyline in the background and thought where is the Seahawk Stadium and the Mariner Ballpark? Both should be visible to the right of the skyscraper skyline.

Then I noticed the tallest building on the skyline and realized that I was likely looking at the skyline of New York City, with that tall building being the Freedom Tower, or whatever it is the World Trade Center towers replacement ended up being named.

So, I am guessing the ferry Spencer Jack and his dad are on is taking them to visit the Statue of Liberty.

I will likely be receiving more details later....

Seattle Billionaire Nick Hanauer Explains Why Raising Minimum Wage Causes Booming Economy

On Facebook, and in other locations, I find myself getting annoyed at some of the  nonsense spouted by right wing reactionaries whose unevolved, uneducated, wrong-headed, economically stupid claims about raising the minimum wage bear no relationship to economic reality.

But, they are just so darn sure of themselves.

One of Seattle's billionaires, Nick Hanauer, speaking to the New York City wage board about the economic reality of raising the minimum wage, explains in simple easy to understand language what actually happens in towns and states which have raised the minimum wage to a level much higher than states like Texas and towns like Fort Worth.

Below I excerpted part of  how Billionaire Nick Hanauer Explains How Higher Wages Create Jobs, for your economic education enlightenment....

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, “a review of 64 studies on minimum wage increases found no discernible effect on employment.” And contrary to popular belief, relatively large minimum-wage hikes like those recently passed in Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles are not unprecedented. For example, the federal minimum wage jumped 88% in one year, from 40 cents an hour in 1949 to 75 cents in 1950. Yet despite the usual warning from the Chicken Littles at the National Association of Manufacturing that the hike would prove “a reckless jolt to the economic system,” unemployment plummeted, from 5.9% in 1949 to 2.9% in 1953.

Likewise, my home state of Washington raised the minimum wage for tipped workers by 85% between 1988 and 1990—yet over the following decade restaurant employment growth somehow managed to outpace the nation as a whole.

I live in Seattle, the first major city in the US to enact a $15 minimum wage. But a high minimum wage was not a departure for us or something new. Seattle already had the highest minimum wage in the country. Rather, $15 was a continuation of an economic strategy that already was allowing our city to outperform yours.

Our current state minimum wage is $9.47—30% higher than the federal minimum. Seattle’s minimum wage is now $11.00, 52% higher than the national minimum. But we have no tip penalty in our state, so our tipped workers make $11 plus tips, 513% higher than the federal tipped minimum of $2.13, and more than twice the $5 still paid here in NY.

So, if the good people from the industry were right, that a higher minimum wage killed jobs, then we should have no restaurants in Seattle, right? You would have to bring food and cooking equipment when you came to visit us in the hinterlands. How could it not be otherwise, with these stratospherically high wages?

But here’s a really odd thing. Not only do we still have some restaurants in Seattle, we have a lot of them. In fact, we have more of them per capita than even—wait for it—New York City. According to a Bloomberg analysis, of all major cities in the US, Seattle ranks second in restaurants per capita. New York is number four. Read it and weep, New York. OK, so surely the number one spot will be held by some low-wage paradise, right? Not hardly. The number one spot is San Francisco, the only place in America that pays restaurant workers $12.25, even more than Seattle. Why? How can this be? They told us that high wages killed jobs!! And business! And the economy!

Nonsense.

Seattle has more restaurants than New York because that’s how capitalism works. The fundamental law of capitalism is: when workers have more money, businesses have more customers, and need to hire more workers. In places where wages are high, business is good—particularly for restaurants.

Let me say that another way. When restaurants pay restaurant workers enough so that even they can afford to eat in restaurants, that isn’t bad for the restaurant business—it’s great for it, despite what the good folks at the National Restaurant Association may tell you.

With the highest minimum wage in the country, my state somehow manages to outpace the rest of the country in small business job growth.

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Go to Billionaire Nick Hanauer Explains How Higher Wages Create Jobs to read all of what Nick Hanauer had to tell the New York City wage board.