My daughter, one and a half years old, is learning a lot of words. When we all go to the store and we say we’re going to buy something, she says: “Buy!” Followed very quickly by: “Pay!” And it struck me that a lot of people only say the first thing without thinking about the […]
Is Government Doing It Right?
In my little post about This American Life’s show about the economy, I didn’t mention any particulars. But one thing that seemed clear by the end of the show was that buying up the debt wasn’t as good an idea as buying shares in the troubled banks. The show’s participants were skeptical about whether the […]
Housekeeping
My friend and neighbor, Jill, pointed out that subscribers to weeklyrob only see a sliver of each post, until they actually visit the site itself. Which, apparently, is a bit too much to ask of her. Humph. I’m glad she told me, because I had no idea that there’s a box I had to uncheck. […]
Economy
This American Life has a very good hour-long explanation of why my 401K is down 20% in three months, and whether the bailout package is the right thing to do. It’s called, Another Frightening Show about the Economy
Beautiful Libraries
Some beautiful libraries. They don’t have couches and such, but if you have to do a little research, or browse through the stacks, they beat the hell out of my local branch. Meanwhile, Wired Magazine showcases Jay Walker’s amazing private library.
Mr. Spock Was Unloved
I ran into a friend today who’d been through a terrible car accident a couple of years ago. Through the vagaries of insurance weirdness, she received a lot of money from one insurance company, which she then was supposed to pay to another insurance company. She understands this and expected it and it’s no problem. […]
Bailout
Politics is a wonderful thing. The bailout died (for now. They’ll bring it back, though). I haven’t heard the Dems react yet, but some Republicans reacted in an interesting way. 1. Blaming the Democrats in general because 95 Democrats voted against the thing (140 or so voted for it). 2. Blaming Pelosi for a partisan […]
Bloody Stupid
Back in 1914, Shaw’s Pygmalion opened in England. There was an uproar, even before the opening, because the press knew that a certain word would be used by the main female character. I recently bought (for a dollar, thank you very much) the Cambridge Encyclopedia of English, which reprinted an article from an outraged newspaper […]
Shoot Him
One of the many funny lines in Pulp Fiction was when Vincent said something like: “Jules, if you give this nimrod fifteen hundred bucks, I’m gonna shoot him on general principle.” So, here I am watching an episode of the hugely entertaining Rockford Files (on hulu.com). And Jim Rockford gets mad and says something like: […]
Almost, but not quite, entirely unlike something I'll read
I guess that money can make anything happen. Douglas Adams is dead, but next October there’ll be another installment of the Hitchhiker’s Guide trilogy, this time written by a non-Douglas Adams person. The BBC brings us the story, without so much as a raised eyebrow. This doesn’t make me happy at all.