Se a Cabo
Adiós a 2025
“It has been done.”
Bits and pieces of the past year:
The New England Comedy Hall of Fame
Does anyone want to join in on creating the “New England Comedy Hall of Fame”? Affleck & Damon’s commodification of the accent and South Boston in the 1980’s is not the upper limit on juicing local culture. Lots of funny people come from here, or got their start here. Not just in stand-up but also film (Farrelly bros.), TV (Jay Leno), and immersive (Robby Roadsteamer) comedy. Found it as a 501(c), locate it in a high-traffic area in Downtown Boston or Faneuil Hall to pull tourists.
The following piece was a start that never grew beyond the opening concept, in early August:
Efficiencies
If Capital loathes inefficiency, why are we wasting energy with AI?
Speed is not intelligence. No matter how quickly a program may go from all available data to categorically-relevant data to subject-specific data, and do so with a colloquial prompt and response, the program is not exhibiting intelligence. One of the problems AI is supposed to solve is the problem of wages, so the capacity to execute productive tasks holds immense appeal. The challenge, however, is granting the machines the capacity to “think” as freely as a human laborer—to adjust and improvise as the task may require—without developing enough comprehension to direct that same ability to the relations of production themselves.
This one was part of a longer piece about Christine Pelosi, daughter of Nancy, eschewing a run for the inheritance of her mother’s Congressional seat. Kudos to her for starting her career (in her late 50’s) independent of her mother, at a more local level. I consider myself fortunate not to have been the scion of the very powerful, I have seen how constraining it is on the development of the self, to be pigeonholed by a parent’s career and achievements.
Nepo Baby Rejects Federal Role in Sequel
How is it “newsworthy” that a dog bit a man?
“News,” said Horace Greeley dogmatically, to a reporter, “is this: If a dog bites a man that’s nothing; but if a man bites a dog, that’s news.”
After a long and distinguished political career where her personal stock portfolio outperformed all of yours, Nancy Pelosi is giving up her DC-insider status and retiring from Congress. Make no mistake, this is entirely her choice, as we have plentiful evidence of Members of Congress such as Sen. Diane Feinstein and 88-year old Representative ______ of ______ both having dementia while still holding office, and Sen. Mitch McConnell, and the President all exhibiting significant age-related debilitations. No, once the brand is well established in the marketplace, whether it be a City (Boston has had 5 Mayors throughout the course of my lifetime), a Representative district, or statewide, it will stay on the shelf.
People dislike Congress as a body, but LOVE their own Congressperson so much that when an incumbent loses a re-election bid, it marks a revolt or a protest by voters. More than 9 times out of 10, incumbents seeking re-election win re-election. Every two years.
Food and social class unintentionally became a theme of “Practicing Sociology” in 2025. Here’s a piece on restaurants that needs to be developed further.
The first restaurants grew from boarding houses, some of which began to offer meals for sale without an accompanying room. Food preparation for public sale (the wealthiest had servants prepare their meals) found a place in a densely-populated, increasingly mobile society with a rising professional and managerial class.
To “eat out” radically increases the cost to fulfill a basic, daily need for nutrition. One means of expanding the market for prepared food services is to increase the volume of food served. Like hardware, food is priced at a premium based upon the amount of “servings” being purchased. The difference in cost between a single bottle of water ($1) and a case of 24 bottles ($3.34, or under 14 cents per bottle) at retail is one example. The wholesale price for 240 cases is $454, or under 8 cents a bottle.
This is why, from a restaurant owner’s perspective, it makes sense to take advantage of the economy of scale whenever possible. The way to translate lower food costs into repeat customers (restaurants compete for single customers with meal specials, as people only eat one lunch a day, for example) is to offer larger portions than competitors, so it looks like a better calorie-per-dollar deal for the purchaser.
One social class marker of restaurant dining at the higher end is the size of food portions, in the other direction. Multiple courses of small-servings, designed to be eaten over 90 minutes or longer. While The Olive Garden produces food waste through the sheer volume of what customers cannot consume (and do not bring home), boutique dining produces food waste from the precise selection of the part of the plant or animal being eaten. Neither approach is sustainable.
In the coming week I will be launching a NEW Substack called “The Floral Society: A Cannabis Social Club.” After more than 25 years working in marijuana reform I see a void in effective consumer advocacy, under legalization.
Half the active “reformers” I have met have been looking to get a leg up in the new industry, with several of them obtaining licenses, or otherwise operating personal enterprises, in and around the cannabis industry.
We cannot expect business owners to ever be effective advocates for consumers. Interests are not aligned, in that way.
On the other side, dedicated consumer advocates on the NORML board (which I served on for 15 years) have not shown they understand how to step beyond “Legalize It” and follow the organization’s original mission of consumer advocacy, where prohibition has been rescinded.
The Floral Society will be paid subscription-only. I am trying to build a social benefit corporation that will operate as a combination of AAA, the NRA, and Ben & Jerry’s. Offering member benefits both specific to cannabis consumers (i.e., brand/store discounts) and in general, building a membership large enough to represent the more than 50 million Americans who use cannabis, and operating as a business for the sake of benefitting nonprofit cannabis consumer advocacies.
Everyone who has a paid subscription to “Practicing Sociology” will be credited a “Floral Society” subscription as well. While I chose the name “The Floral Society” to get around the stigma tech platforms impose upon cannabis, I understand that some folks may not want to subscribe because of that same stigma. That is why I am offering full access with a paid “Practicing Sociology” subscription.
Thank you all for having subscribed to Practicing Sociology Without a License. I have found the daily obligation to write something has alleviated concerns about the quality of the work, and has largely lifted decades of writer’s block. I don’t have to produce world-class, epoch-changing sociological work to produce meaningful contributions to the critical understanding of power among people.
¡Hasta la victoria siempre!