John Tepper Marlin

Thursday, December 27, 2018

WOODSTOCK | Home of Blenheim Palace

Alice Tepper Marlin (L) and your
blogger. Photo by Chris Oakley.

NEW YORK CITY, December 28, 2018–Earlier this year, Alice and I visited the original Woodstock, with our nephew Chris:

This is the one near Oxford, not the Woodstock in upstate New York where the hippies went and started the music festival and now some good friends live.
Not the one in Vermont where people ski and Alice broke her leg skiing on Suicide Six and her nephew Bruce ran an Inn for many years.
No, we visited the one by Blenheim Palace outside of Oxford, reached via Woodstock Road, where the townspeople near the Palace do their shopping.

Alice in front of the Woodstock (Oxon.) Pharmacy.

Blenheim Palace is where Winston S. [for Spencer] Churchill was born, two months prematurely.

He couldn't wait to get to work.

The palace was built by the first Duke of Marlborough to celebrate his important victory over Louis XIV. Without the brilliant military leadership of the Duke, Britain might have come under the sway of the Sun King.

Today, it shares a few characteristics of the Woodstock in New York. It is picturesque, well-preserved and dominated by arts and crafts institutions.

We went through Blenheim Palace, which was the site of a ball I attended in 1963 while I was at Oxford.

Arms of the Duke of Marlborough.

Today it is open for tours and the palace is signposted and documented inside like a museum.

It's an easy trip from Oxford and could be managed in half a day. Those interested in coats of arms could admire the many examples from the Duke of Marlborough.

Friday, December 21, 2018

Books and Reports by John Tepper Marlin

(1961) Let's Go Guide to Europe, First Edition, with Lois Dean and Gordon Milde. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Student Agencies.

(1978) Reinvestment, ABCs of the Issues. New York, N.Y.Council on Municipal Performance.

(1980) Government Auditing in Britain. Council on Municipal Performance.

(1980) Compliance with Revenue Sharing Audits. Council on Municipal Performance.

(1982) Privatisation of Local Government Activities in Japan. Aims of Industry.

(1983) The Book of American City Rankings. Facts on File.

(1984) Contracting Municipal Services. Wiley.

(1986) The Book of World City Rankings. Macmillan.

(1990) Cities of Opportunity. MasterMedia.

(1990) The Catalog of Healthy Food, with Domenick Bertelli. Bantam.
(1992) The Livable Cities Almanac. HarperCollins.
(1992) Building a Peace Economy, with Betty Lall. Westview Press.
(2001) The Economic Impact of the WTC Attacks. New York City Comptroller's Office.
(2009) Defining Peace Industries and a World Peace Product with Jurgen Brauer (Economists for Peace and Security)
(2018) Oxford College Arms, with Heraldic Artist Lee Lumbley (Boissevain Books)

Sunday, September 02, 2018

GREENPORT | At the Frisky Oyster

With Alice and friends at the Frisky Oyster in Greenport, NY.

We sailed with friends to Shelter Island and had a perfectly cooked fish dinner at the Frisky Oyster (rated by all as 4+/5 stars) in Greenport.

We went back on the ferry to Shelter Island and stayed overnight at the Chequit Inn, then sailed back.

A fine day.😎

Friday, March 03, 2017

BIRTH | Mar 1, John Tepper Marlin, 75th birthday

Wearing my new hat. Water color
by Brigid of the Devon beach on
the wall behind.

My 75th birthday on March 1 began with some gifts at breakfast including a hat with "JTM 75" embroidered on the front and the Boissevain motto on the back: "Ni regret du passé, ni peur de l'avenir."

Birthday wishes from the florist in Vero Beach.

Alice also bought some flowers from Artistic Florist and they had a birthday wish on the sign out front of 805 20th Street in Vero Beach.

First thing, Alice read out to me a poem from my nephew Dr Chris Oakley, who studied physics at both Oxford and Cambridge:

Poem for John's 75th Birthday

by Chris Oakley

I can't believe he's seventy five:

A lot of time to be alive!

His humour, charm and sense of fun.

Are recognised by everyone.

His friendly style is never brash -

A useful thing, when raising cash!

And never once have Oxford's sons

Complained about the flow of funds.

For once the College were caught short

With but a thousand crates of port

And mis'rable non-nutritious scraps

All they had to feed their chaps;

Yet tho' they scarce could students feed,

They were too proud to voice their need!

Unasked then John did find a role

Of holding out the begging bowl,

And thus a flow of cash began:

A new, updated Marshall Plan.

He's now retired, but busy keeps

On lit'rary jobs, while others sleep;

His mother's books are one of these:

When these are sold, he's more than pleased!

And then there's William Hartman Woodin

The treas'ry man who helped to put in

Financial rules and checks and caps

To save the country from collapse.

To find new tasks for him is key:

A recent one is heraldry -

A thrilling thing to be exploring

(And never, ever, ever boring)

It has a set of arcane rules

With rampant lions, vair and gules,

There's bezants azure, or or vert:

Plenty there to keep alert.

The first "or" by the way means gold.

And is no typo - or so I'm told.

So let us raise the birthday glass -

May many more yet come to pass!

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

CITYECONOMIST | 280K Views, Most-Viewed Posts

The CityEconomist blogsite, maintained by John Tepper Marlin, just passed 280,000 page views. Here are the most viewed posts during the last month and since the inception of this blog ten years ago in 2006.

Tuesday, October 04, 2016

SCAM | "Federal Government Agent" (Beware)

I got a request to friend someone I know.

Then I received a message with my friend's photo attached.

The message asked if I had heard the good news.

I said nope.

The news was that my friend had gotten a grant.

For this person, that was plausible.

My "friend" then asked if I wanted to be part of the grant.

That was plausible too, since I have been part of grants before, providing services.

I said I don't know anything about it but I am curious.

I am then asked to send a message to 303-536-8481 to follow up.

When I do that, I am asked for all kinds of information to identify me.
That triggered caution, and I stopped taking the bait.

They need a "quick response".
They want my Facebook name.

I get 30 follow-up messages and two phone calls

It's a complete scam.

I've looked it up and it does work through Facebook.
Here are some references. Beware.

Government Grant Scams | Consumer Information - Federal Trade ...

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0113-government-grant-scams

Other times, it's a phone call supposedly from a “government” agency or some ... agency, says that “money for nothing” grant offers usually are scams, whether ...

Government Imposter Scams | Consumer Information - Federal Trade ...

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0048-government-imposter-scams

Scammers pretend to be IRS officials to get you to send them money. ... The truth is that no government agency or insurance company is involved, and there are ...

Possible scam using facebook | Facebook Help Community | Facebook

https://en-gb.facebook.com/help/community/question/?id...

really why ? i think you should have gotten the money already because i saw your name among the winners list when the federal government agent brought ...

IDENTITY THEFT SCAM ~ FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ... - Facebook

https://en-gb.facebook.com/help/community/question/?id...

BEWARE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT EMPOWERMENT MONEY PROGRAM ... Agent Mary Robison Giving out $150,000 Government Grants mon.

Grant Scam & Fraud Alerts | GRANTS.GOV

www.grants.gov/web/grants/learn-grants/.../grant-scam-fraud-alerts.html

Although the CFDA agent claims to be with the Community for Federal Domestic ... If you think you may have been a victim of a government grant scam, file a ...

Grant Through Facebook | Scam Detector

www.scam-detector.com/social...scams/grant-through-facebook

They are giving a $12,000 federal grant to hard working individuals who either ... Scammers create bogus Government pages with fake phone numbers then hack ..... BY 3 GOVERNMENT AGENTS TO HER FRONT DOOR WITHIN 24 HOURS.

Government Grant Scam | Scam Detector

www.scam-detector.com/telephone-scams/government-grant-scam

You can also officially report the scammers to the Federal Trade Commission using .... agency was giving out the grant, and he said the US Federal Government ...

Fraud Watch: Fake Federal Grants and Other Scams – Chief Financial ...

https://cfo.gov/2014/.../fraud-watch-fake-federal-grants-and-other-scams...

15 May 2014 - Fraud Watch: Fake Federal Grants and Other Scams ... No government grant- making agency will make phone calls; send email or letters to ...

Friday, February 19, 2016

MARLIN | Books and Blogs 2016

William H. Woodin, FDR's First Treasury Secretary

Status of my top book projects and blogs as of February 2016:

1. Will Woodin, FDR's First Treasury Secretary - biography. A draft is completed. A book proposal for a publisher has been prepared.

2. The Boissevain and van Hall Families in the Dutch Resistance - family biography of 1940-45. A draft has been completed and is being reviewed by the family.

3. Heraldry of the Oxford Colleges. An article was published in Oxford Today. Sample write-ups of Oxford colleges' arms have been posted.

4. Biographies of Eugen Boissevain, Hilda van Stockum, Alice Tepper Marlin. In various stages of writing.

I would love it if anyone who reads this could look at the chapters I have posted above under 1 and 2 and comment. My email address is John[at]CityEconomist[dot]com.

Meanwhile, I post regularly on the following nine blogsites, listed in order of cumulative number of PageViews, which now approach one million (more than 975,000 as of Feb. 21, 2016).

1. CityEconomist.blogspot.com (Regional, Economic History, Policy)
2. Ox-Cam NYC (Oxford, Cambridge Heraldry and Other Themes)
3. Writers4Kids.blogspot.com (Children's Books, Birthdays)
4. CSRNYC (Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability)
5. NYCTimeTraveler.blogspot.com (History, Sci-Fi)
6. Warriors-Families (Military History, Economics)
7. Hilda van Stockum (Her Books, Art, Life, Family)
8. Inez Milholland (Her Life, Husband Eugen Boissevain, His second wife Edna St. Vincent Millay)
9. Boissevain Books (Children's Books, Memoirs, Bios, SciFi)

Most viewed posts since inception of the Blog in 2006	Pageviews

MED BIZ \| How the Clinton Plan Was Killed, 1993 Jan 31, 2009, 5 comments	5306
DEPRESSION \| Caused by the Fed? Or Property Specul... Feb 23, 2009, 2 comments	2240
NYC \| More Catholic, Jewish, Muslim Feb 15, 2008	1065
JOBS \| Brazil #1 in Workplace Innovation (Updated ... Jul 29, 2014	987
JOBS \| Low Labor Participation Puzzle - I (Demogra... Oct 10, 2014, 10 comments	884
JOBS \| Which David Brooks Should We Listen To? Oct 24, 2014, 4 comments	781
JOBS \| What Keynes Said, What Bush 43 Did Jun 23, 2012,	753
MED BIZ \| BBC Panorama on U.S. Jan 25, 2009, 3 comments	694
BANKS \| New Regs after 2008 (Superseded) Mar 22, 2008	655
NYC \| In the Eye of the Storm, OMB's Mark Page Mar 22, 2009