My theory on this one is that lactose intolerant brick walls died a natural,
early death in the olden days before they had all these newfangled Bhopalese
chemicals and internal combustion engines that made longer lives better and
more common.

And speaking of Bhopal and environmental racism, was it the Indian government
who let the evil First Worlders build that plant, or did the Bad White Guys
just decide that out of the entire world, excluding Park Avenue and the
Hamptons, Bhopal was a convenient location?  Did the Russians with Chernobyl,
and the Romanians polluting their entire country count as environmental
racism, even if there weren't pigmentally-challenged there?  And what about
places like Swaziland, where I should doubt that the king had his cesspool
installed in some distant village rather than upwind of his palace?  Wouldn't
all of this make envirocrimes the result of economic and/or aesthetic
decisions rather than racist decisions?  And if the Commies did the same
thing, how can they have exploited or otherwise shit on the masses, when
everybody knows the Commies are the Masses best friend?

Can we go back to book group?  Speaking of which, I picked up an 1844-1845
NYC Directory yesterday, for $6.  C. Vanderbilt was a "steamb. proprietor",
Philip Hone was an insurance company bigshot (environmental racist, too?),
and Anson Phelps lived on 31st St nr Kipp's Bay.  They also had an "American
Society for Meliorating the Condition of the Jews," with a bunch of ministers
whose names didn't end in -berg, -stein, etc.  Know anything about this
organization, O MetHist?  Were they looking to improve the condition of the
Hebes' bodies and/or souls?

Ralph