Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus is an awesome book.
They do a lot of downers/barbituates at NPR, don't they?
Counterbalance!
Although a sluggish market has forced many large-format retailers to scale back their operations and even close locations, Linens-N-Shit insists that the economy will not prevent the store from providing the consumer with superior quality linens, storage and organizational shit, framed crap, and some foreign-made designer bullshit.
max
['I wonder what would would happen if NPR had a Punk Day?']
Times has done a nice series.
Umm, $60k as an adjunct or associate or whatever? Offered tenure a a considerably larger salary? I may have underestimated what people make around the blogosphere.
Law professors make a lot of money. It's not typical of academics.
2: Knuffle Bunny is also great. Not that we can afford books on what I make.
Reminds of LaGuardia famously reading the comics over radio during a newspaper strike in 1945.
4: The article was good. This, however:
Because he never fully engaged, Mr. Obama "doesn't have the slightest sense of where folks like me are coming from," Mr. Epstein said.was pretty irksome. BHO has spent a good part of his life listening to law professors; he probably has some idea of where they're coming from. Also, the last time I checked? Law professors are not exactly an underrepresented minority group.
Hey Ari, are you going to make minimum wage next month too?
7: I can't even see the name Laguardia without thinking of the pathetic state of the airport that was named after him.
Hey, what's the name of that Philip Roth novel where Charles Lindbergh defeats FDR, and Jewish kids from New Jersey are sent off to farms in the Heartland to learn how to be regular Americans? So excellent. Okay, I guess I should google it...
Oh, how I hate Laguardia. Dear airport, why is it that if one flight anywhere on the East Coast is delayed due to a summer thunderstorm, every flight in your airport leaves two hours late?
Dear Cala,
Our runways are too short, and we routinely have more traffic than we know how to deal with. The slightest change in barometric pressure creates a domino effect, and if you're number 12 for takeoff in the queue you can consider yourself a lucky duck indeed. We're sorry about the substandard shops and services, but you're a euro-wimp to expect anything better, and we never said we were Gatwick, after all. This country was built on a spirit of hardship and deprivation, and it's positively un-American to demand anything that might better conform to your own ease and comfort.
Yours truly,
LGA
Yeah, Gatwick, there's an awesome airport.
16: The sadness of Laguardia is that, by comparison, Gatwick is actually well beyond awesome. I mean, you can easily take a train into the city, and they have all those strategically-placed Marks and Sparks food stops, and even a snack trolley on the train. Ever tried to look for a freaking ATM at LGA? It's just embarrassing, really.
Plus you can go from Gatwick to … Stansted!
The department chair for whom I'll be adjuncting has no idea what they're actually offering me to teach this class. But the possibility that I might not take it is a complete non-starter from their pov.
Ah academia, how soon I'd forgotten.
11: LGA wasn't much better in the Sixties and Seventies even if flying was more fun. (I do remember a pilot standing a DC-9 on its tail and going (what felt like) straight up to avoid a sudden T-storm over LGA. That's not the way I like to wake up)
I actually like LAX: when I flew from Boston to Melbourne (including a 13 hour layover in Denver), LAX's smoking garden was a slice of a particularly discount heaven.
It's true, LAX does have a really nice smoking lounge. Nashville's smoking lounge is so, so hellish.
I'm a big fan of the United groovy-cool soothing neon-and-music tunnel at O'Hare.
I'm a big fan of the United groovy-cool soothing neon-and-music tunnel at O'Hare.
Me too. It makes me want to drink a bunch of cough syrup and just ride the moving sidewalks back and forth.
It's Brant, the physical cartoonist from The Daily Telegraph!
LaGuardia can't be worse than Luton, which is basically a big metal shed with overpriced stores flogging crap perfume and lousy booze.
Mr. B. wants me to tell you, Apo, about the last trip he took through O'Hare, during which he had a transfer on the other end of the tunnel that had gotten shifted back to his original terminal, so he had to go through the tunnel twice. *And* he had his scooter with him, so he was zooming through the tunnel on a scooter, all happy. "It was the shit," he says.
To be fair, every airport contains overpriced stores flogging crap perfume and lousy booze. so it's really just your æsthetic disdain for big metal, big sheds, metal sheds, or big metal sheds.
There has been a lot of insufferable commentary by the law prof "blawgosphere" on this. And I've read it all. Oy. They're not even making interesting comments about pedagogy. And I don't care to myself, because everything I say about critical pedagogy is largely ignored in the highly instrumentalist (rankings! bar passage rates! citation counts! ssrn downloads!) legal academy.
I prefer to blog about plowing through seven seasons of Buffy in three weeks. Well, I would blog, but I spent the past hour crying about how Xander and Anya never got back together before the end. And then comparing it to my own life. And then crying some more.
Please give me suggestions for more captivating, cathartic TV shows to fill my lonely nights and weekends.
Oh, and 27 --> 4, re Obama. I started typing this comment really early on and then got sidetracked by phone call.
27: Battlestar Galactica, but the DVDs for season four aren't out yet, which sucks. Six Feet Under was pretty good, too.
Yeah, Gatwick, there's an awesome airport.
Heathrow, on the other hand, is the most contemptible flageship airport I've ever seen. Should be knocked down and started over.
30: Yay!
27: Have you seen Six Feet Under? It's sent several people into therapy.
I'm going to upgrade Netflix so that I have something to do from 9 pm to 2 am every night and at least half a weekend if I can't convince a friend to spend time with me. It's very nerve wracking, this hanging out with friends thing, when you are insecure about the desirability of your own company and do not have a tight circle of friends. Life is not Friends/90210/Buffy. There's no daily or even weekly hanging out with the same people at Central Perk/The Peach Pit/The Bronze.
My very best friends are all long distance. Most of my local friends from school are either partnered or too busy, and we didn't have a dynamic where we hung out daily or even weekly before my breakup, and so now what do I do? So I'm trying to create steady weekend activities for myself by volunteering, and by watching lots of TV or reading lots of books. I should go back to reading books though. Buffy kind of stopped me in the middle of The Mill on the Floss. Or I suppose I could dissertate. But Veronica Mars sounds very tempting.
I really liked what I've seen of Six Feet Under--not much, but at least a year or two's worth during those glory days when I had cable.
Learn to swim belle! That should occupy your time.
HOLY CRAP, I just invented the COOLEST, or certainly the most recent, web meme EVER! Well, I think it's neat, and it will be a great conversation starter. I call it your "URLphabet".
Just type in each letter from the alphabet, one at a time, in your browser URL field, and record the first URL that pops up. You can exclude dead sites, but leaving anything else out (like using "google" when your first "G" result was really goatfetish.com) is considered bad form.
To get the ball rolling, here is my list:
A) apostropher.com/blog
B) break.com
C) csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1C
D) debito.org
E) ebay
F) fark
G) google
H) hidemyass.com
I) instapundit
J) jimmyr.com
K) kottke.org
L) login.yahoo.com/config/mail?.intl=us
M) mdn.mainichi.jp/
N) nytimes.com
O) otd3.jbbs.livedoor.jp/x4/bbs_plain
P) pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/
Q) quote.yahoo.co.jp
R) rottentomatoes.com
S) safety-school.honda.co.jp
T) totalfark.com
U) unfogged.com
V) www.visi.com/~dalebor/index.html#contents
W) wwtdd.com
X) xkcd.com
Y) yahoo.com
Z) zumoforums.com
I think this has Internet meme written all over it. Have at it, my fellows.
27: I spent the past hour crying about how Xander and Anya never got back together before the end.
I simply choose to believe much of the last episode didn't happen. Anya is alive and well and happily reconciled as far as I'm concerned.
Firefly is great, though there are only 9(?) episodes.
36: I hate to break it to you, but it's not new. I've seen it before, I think here, years ago.
Here. Nothing is new, even on the internet.
Sir Kraab:
Did I miss an event? Does Misdirection mean that you and m/tch were the main attraction?
I hate to break it to you, but it's not new. I've seen it before, I think here, years ago.
Alles Gescheite ist schon gedacht worden. Man muss nur versuchen, es noch einmal zu denken. -J.W. von Goethe, Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre (Everything worthwhile has been thought of before; the trick is to think of it again.)
Mmmm, BSG and Firefly. I also love Prison Break - what a beautifully mindless way to spend 42 minutes, wondering "Michael or Linc? Linc or Michael? Linc *and* Michael? Oh, I know, Linc and Gretchen ... yum ... " The West Wing? That'd keep you going for a while. Fuck Buffy, I cried at the end of The Office - UK original. Life on Mars - more British stuff.
asilon's personality always makes me smile.
BL: The very first episode of Buffy I ever saw was the Xander and Anya wedding episode. I kept watching just to find out if they'd get back together. Fuck you, Joss Whedon!
Did you hear that the actress who played Jenny Calander is now a fundamentalist who thinks that paganism is a tool of the devil?
Buffy kind of stopped me in the middle of The Mill on the Floss.
Belle, you can't break up and then right away go back to reading The Mill on the Floss. That's just...no. Rent Veronica Mars.
Deadwood is good, especially if you like watching people in 1880s costumes say "fuck" a lot.
LAX has a looped announcement on the PA saying "Please do not give money to solicitors. This airport does not support the activities of solicitors" which causes the British visitor much harmless amusement ("I knew this was a litigious society, but really...")
BSG is good, even if it can be described reasonably accurately as 'so, there's these really hot robots who want nothing more than to have sex with human men', which still surprises me. Rome we enjoyed a lot.
especially if you like watching people in 1880s costumes say "fuck" a lot.
OK, I will register historicalpeoplesayingfuck.com if somebody else offers to provide the content. And pay the ISP.
LGA is atrocious. I like that O'Hare tunnel too, but I do not much like O'Hare, and fly out of Midway at every opportunity.
My favorite airport, aesthetically, is Dulles. The Saarinen terminal & fonts & the abundance of international flights makes me feel like I'm in a sixties movie. Much less of a mall feel than most newer airports. This may have been heightened by the fact that I was there on short notice for a last minute, secret interview with a witness. Intrigue! Obviously, it's super-inconvenient & I normally fly into & out of National.
BSG is good, even if it can be described reasonably accurately as 'so, there's these really hot robots who want nothing more than to have sex with human men', which still surprises me.
have sex with human men in order to destroy them, that is.
50: I love Dulles's AT-ATs, though I heard they might be phasing them out.
The blinkenlights at O'Hare are pretty, but one does not get to see much when sprinting to her connection because the flight left LGA two hours late.
Fuck aesthetics. My favorite airport is Long Beach, because it's really small and not horribly crowded!
Hooray!
I did find the new terminals at DeGaulle quite aesthetically pleasing, but that's before they collapsed on people. Likewise, the new Bangkok airport is fairly lovely, but completely unworkable.
Please give me suggestions for more captivating, cathartic TV shows to fill my lonely nights and weekends.
Sounds like your begging for My So-Called Life.
Right now I'm catching up on Torchwood. Not especially cathartic, but lots of fun, with plenty of inter-species snogging in every episode. Also, rent Sports Night if you haven't seen it; Aaron Sorkin still hasn't done anything better, if you ask me.
I wondered if the family "Philip's" brother stays with in TPAA isn't a kind of reference to the novels and worldview of Wendell Berry, being prewar self-sufficient in Kentucky and all. They do come through for them in the end.
In twenty years going and coming from O'Hare, usually to pick someone up or see them off in recent years, I may have been in the tunnel exactly twice. Yet things like that are Chicago to large numbers. Same with Millenium Park. This must correspond with how natives of other cities interact with their most visible or famous places, I suppose.
LaGuardia's bustle and crowded/crampedness, its very inconvenience, always impressed me as somehow fitting. And in my experience, the taxi/bus ride is no more time-consuming or difficult than the one from Pearson, with more evident cause. Sort of reminded me of Midway before renovation, twenty years ago, except much bigger.
My favorite airport, aesthetically, is Dulles. The Saarinen terminal & fonts & the abundance of international flights makes me feel like I'm in a sixties movie.
Right. I always feel like I should be/wish I was flying Pan-Am when I land at Dulles.
I will say that if you're going to detained as an undesirable for twelve hours, there's no place better than Gatwick for that to happen.
have sex with human men in order to destroy them, that is.
Goes without saying, doesn't it?
have sex with human men in order to destroy them, that is.
Goes without saying, doesn't it?
Please give me suggestions for more captivating, cathartic TV shows to fill my lonely nights and weekends
The obvious suggestion if you are looking for more shows like Buffy would be Angel. Unless of course you want to take a Joss break. Angel does have the best* star crossed lovers arc in a TV series in my opinion.
*Best as in the ending makes me cry every time I watch it.
My favorite airport, aesthetically, is Dulles.
Yes! Mine too. If only it were in the city.
If you need more Buffy, Joss is leading a team writing Season 8 in comic book form. Moving to comics pretty much cements the genre shift from horror to superhero. Joss also seems to be sticking with his established rule that if he has killed off a character in a really painful, traumatic way for the audience, they stay dead.
On the other hand, stay away from Angel: After the Fall. The plot is hard to follow, no because it is too complex, but because the writers don't know how to control the flow of information to the audience. Also, conflicts get resolved at the last minute using weird plot devices that weren't set up at all in the previous story. I don't think Joss has had much of a hand in writing it at all.
Garry Schandling's Larry Sanders Show is great TV, not sure about catharctic. UK Office seconded. Both BSG and Rome start dipping into the sadism as the series progresses, but are really good otherwise. If you haven't seen it, the first few seasons of the Sopranos are good. It's old and not uniformly great, but Roots is interesting watching.
Echoing the Dulles raves. The building is great and the graphics are so 1960's 2001. I once flew in from LAX ("we're not as bad as JFK") and instead of going to the terminal we got picked up by transporters. Back to a very different future. So, so, cool.
I keep wanting to parse the title of this post as if it had a colon instead of a comma.
Christ: what an asshole.
Indeed!
You know, it must have been really awful to be alive at the time of Christ and have to hear him nattering on all the time about abortion and gay marriage.
Airports suck. Dulles included. They're like torture devices. I was stuck at Dulles for six hours once. The main terminal is great architecturally from a distance, but that didn't help being trapped inside it. The only great airport would be one with a movie theatre. And no CNN.
On the Obama article: he's been holding his cards close to the chest for, like, 15 years now. No wonder I can't figure out what exactly he stands for. I hope he still knows himself, and isn't relying too much on the beltway establishment to tell him.
#38-39: Curses, foiled again. But I do think my name for it rocks. URLphabet! It's perfect!
#39: I really did think I was familiar with all Internet traditions.
Another thing that would be a pain in the ass about living when Jesus was around: Having him always pester you, demanding you follow the law to the exact letter.
I mean, this woman at an anti-immigration protest with a sign saying "What would Jesus do? Obey the law" is enough of a pain in the ass. She traveled hundreds of miles to yell at mistreated slaughterhouse workers because they were in the country illegally. Imagine if you had to deal with Jesus himself, berating the unfortunate because they didn't obey the letter of the law.
72 may have killed the joke in 68 by laying it on to thick, but damn that woman pissed me off.
I'm not a fan of the JesusIsRepublican vs. JesusWasAHippieReally caricatures, but that said, the dude was hardly Mr. Law and Order.
one with a movie theatre. And no CNN.
Frankfurt. Both regular and porn.
Schiphol is nice for a layover; chairs upstairs. Generally, utility-optimal travel is a direct flight to a small airport.
Josephus' Jewish War is pretty interesting, has lively descriptions of the social setting AD 50-70. Plus Herod is a great villain.
based on what i've read, it seems like Apocalypse Jesus, is the mos historically accurate, although there is some basis for Hippie Jesus. Self Help Jesus and Social Conservative Jesus have no real basis in scripture or historical evidence, but they don't directly contradict it either.
Obey the Letter of the Law Jesus, though is the first Jesus I have encountered who directly contradicts the overt message of the Gospels.
Jesus was a domineering, overbearing, badass leader of a nonviolent peace and love cult. Hmmm.
Schipol is the best layover airport because there's a very quick, direct connection to Amsterdam and you can return to the airport much more relaxed than when you left.
36. I didn't play last time, so here goes. My list is mostly standard Democratic political sites (and Unfogged affiliates such as Kotsko and Crooked Timber), plus some generics like You-tube, Gmail, Hotmail, and NYTimes Query. No x or z.
Of possible interest to someone:
http://www.idiocentrism.com/ (me)
http://jerslater.blogspot.com/2006/06/on-follow-up-calls.html
http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/who_would_james_bond_vote_for/
64: I'm considering no longer reading the Season 8 comics, they're kind of bad.
77: very well put. The imminent apocalypse is what makes all the various sides of Jesus coherent. He can be a nonviolent badass because his Dad is going to be coming pretty soon and He'll kick your ass but good.
Belle, watch Freaks and Geeks! It's heartbreakingly uncomfortable.
And stop looking for airports to hang out in. Really, TV shows were a much better request.
Just hanging out in airports is bush league.
Christ: That guy who told his followers to bust everyone's balls about petty selfish crap.
Schiphol is truly pretty convenient to get around, and cool-looking inside.
Changi airport in Singapore holds a special place in my heart for sheer efficiency. From disembarking, through immigration and baggage claim, and into a taxi typically within 30 minutes. Amazing.
Hong Kong International (talk about unnecessary descriptors) is a nice one as well. At least it takes the effort to impress with its sheer scale, while remaining fairly navigable.
Good airports really are all too rare. And east Asia tends to have some of the nicest ones, since their infrastructure is far more recent and built to accomodate the sheer amount of people and baggage on jumbo jets.
And no CNN.
Yessssss. This makes me insane.
And no CNN.
I count that among the few virtues of Dulles.
I discovered earlier this year that the way to game airports is to order a wheelchair. You jump all the lines, including security, and then they give you a plane seat with leg room. Like going business class without paying.
88: even crutches will get you a lot of the way towards this. You can get those nice cart rides through the terminals sometime, too.
Frankfurt. Both regular and porn.
...and a disco, and a grocery store, and three (count 'em, three) sex shops, and a bowling alley (Kegelbahn, although I think this might be falling victim to the latest renovation), and the only hair salon on earth that cuts my hair properly.
I discovered earlier this year that the way to game airports is to order a wheelchair. You jump all the lines, including security, and then they give you a plane seat with leg room. Like going business class without paying.
I worked on a project very early in my career that helped an airline, among other things, to cut down on this behavior. The approach we took was, counterintuitively, to heighten the visibility of the handicapped service: reserved seats in a special section, very prominent signage, louder beeps on the electric carts, eliminating wheelchairs on the "trunk routes" in favor of electric carts (which ran on a fixed schedule and could consolidate individual runs), and so forth. The idea was to ostensibly improve the service for handicapped passengers, while subtley stigmatizing it to discourage marginal cases (and outright goldbrickers) from taking advantage of it.
The results were exactly as we predicted; the service actually got better for the passengers who really needed it (because of reduced demand pressure), and there were many fewer obvious goldbrickers.
91: incidentally, I doubt OFE was goldbrickin' it.
||
In light of my current condition, I'd like to debut a possible new pseud.
|>
I was hoping the link in 90 would be to Flickr.
But based on The results were exactly as we predicted, perhaps his head was too swollen to fit in the frame.
Although, actually, it's a quite clever solution. Like Jesus' followers, I'm just busting KR's balls.
incidentally, I doubt OFE was goldbrickin' it.
Just because he's fat doesn't mean he needs a wheelchair. Jesus, Sifu - skinnionormative much?
92: no, but he was subtly/jokingly suggesting that we should.
Consultants get to be sooo smart -- note the seamless combination of wisdom from economics, sociology, and the high school cafeteria in 91.
92: no, but he was subtly/jokingly suggesting that we should.
This is subtle? Hey, I have a bridge to subtly imply might contribute to your future financial security.
After we got through kicking the grannies out of the wheelchairs, we started in on the unaccompanied minors.
The interesting thing about the unaccompanied minors is that many of them are more savvy about air travel than the average passenger. These were the kids who shuttled back and forth every week between a custodial parent and a parent with weekend visitation rights. Some of them had top-tier status in the frequent flier program.
And some of them were a bit old to be taking advantage of the program (which at the time was priced below cost). These were the ones who would come to the airport with a boyfriend/girlfriend, and unnecessarily would delay the escort personnel (who cost something like $25/hr fully loaded cost) by making out with the S.O. for 10 minutes before entering the security line.
We eliminated that problem by creating a staging area in a closed room where only parents and UM's were allowed (a safety and security thing, doncha' know).
"That's just...no. Rent Veronica Mars."
Only the first two seasons, though. The third season never happened. Don't believe anyone who says otherwise.
On the Buffy comic, if you do launch into it, be patient. The first few arcs are competent fanservice, but the last couple have been pure gold.
"BSG is good, even if it can be described reasonably accurately as 'so, there's these really hot robots who want nothing more than to have sex with human men', which still surprises me."
And women. Admiral Cain gets some Cylon loving too.
And that stopped them from making out? Pikers. When I was that age, I'd make out on the floor of the senate given half a chance.
Not that much has changed, I guess.
100: I think the key was their SOs weren't allowed in the security room, so they would have had to make out with their parents. And Sifu, we really don't want to know how your teenage self would have felt about that.
I'm starting to think KR should weigh in more on Mineshaft questions. We need more of these brilliant manipulation strategies.
And that stopped them from making out?
No, they just had to do it before they were "on the clock", so to speak.
I could never tell why so many parents were paying to have their teenage children travel as unaccompanied minors. The teenagers hated it (they had to wear a badge that identified them as such), and they were never allowed to be out from under adult supervision at the airport.
I surmised it was because the parents had been doing it that way for years, and inertia kept them going. But I never completely ruled out the possibility that the parents feared a kidnapping by the non-custodial parent and wanted to deprive the non-custodial parent of plausible deniability by creating a chain of custody between the two.
I travelled as an unaccompanied minor for a couple years starting around age 5 or 6 and, man, I fuckin' loved it. Talk about getting treated as a prince. Wings from the captain, stewardesses hovering constantly; I wonder if I could pull it off now?
My five year old is barely able to travel as an unaccompanied minor to the grocery store we live directly above to buy milk. Lord knows how she'd do on an airplane by herself.
I managed to get wings from the captain when I was 19 or so. It was the first time I'd been on a commercial flight, and my friends were teasing me about it 'oh, do you want wings and a cockpit tour' so I buzzed for the flight attendant.
Also, rent Sports Night if you haven't seen it; Aaron Sorkin still hasn't done anything better, if you ask me.
So true. I bought the series (I'm not one for buying DVDs generally) and have watched it many, many times. Do try to ignore the laugh track the network forced on him at the beginning.
It was the first time I'd been on a commercial flight
All your previous flights were drug runs or on military jets?
108: Chartered flight for high school band. I should come up with a backstory about drug runs, though.
Just because he's fat doesn't mean he needs a wheelchair.
I'd be marginal now, it would depend on the size of the airport. Definitely needed one at the time. Airports are the only places I do, which is another reason to hate them.
KR
We eliminated that problem by creating a staging area in a closed room where only parents and UM's were allowed (a safety and security thing, doncha' know).
Did you then make out with some of the UM's who were a bit old? I mean to provide the same service the SO had been providing?
You don't have to answer this if you think that might be a problem.
Chartered flight for high school band. I should come up with a backstory about drug runs, though.
If your HS band was anything like mine, any organized trip most definitely involved the small scale smuggling of drugs.
Also, rent Sports Night if you haven't seen it; Aaron Sorkin still hasn't done anything better, if you ask me.
I would third this assessment. Sports Night was really well done.
Cala,
Chartered flight for high school band.
You got an airplane for your band trips?! Well la-dee-dah. Did you have servants to play the instruments for you too?
Technically, the UM's weren't my module, so it wasn't expected of me. Though I did make out with one of the interns from the client (who, I hasten to add, was several years older than me).
I managed to get wings from the captain when I was 19 or so.
Did he ask you if you'd ever seen a grown man naked?
Though I did make out with one of the interns from the client (who, I hasten to add, was several years older than me).
Yes! OK. Spill. (rests head on hands).
I managed to get wings from the captain when I was 19 or so....
Great first line for a letter to Penthouse.
(Do people even know that reference these days? My pre-internet porn adolesensce seems ever more exotic).
My pre-internet porn adolesensce seems ever more exotic
PGD is going to make the best crotchedy old grandpa ever: "Why back when I was your age, we didn't even dream of virtual reality sex partners. We looked at things called photographs that were printed on paper. Yessirree, you had to be really careful with those magazines, because the pages would stick together if you..."
119: We young people are still familiar with "letters to Penthouse", but don't know what "wings from the captain" means.
OK. Spill.
The interesting details would be far too personally identifying to both parties. We were dating when I met Fleur. The modality of our breakup remains an ugly subprime liability on my karmic balance sheet.
We looked at things called photographs that were printed on paper.
That's nothing. In *my* day we had to use charcoal drawings on the cave wall. I remember the time my Mom walked in on me and I was like "Mommmm! God!" Well actually it was more like "Uggghhh. Uggh" and she said "Ughhh?" which meant "why don't you get out of the cave and go find yourself a nice young lady with good character out on the veld."
You know. Mothers.
122: I'll tell you one thing, though: she didn't have tan lines.
I slept in the LAX international terminal once, but I can't remember why.
but don't know what "wings from the captain" means.
It means that you let the captain have sex with you.
Sheesh, kids these days. Probably never got "absolution from a priest" either.
I slept in the LAX international terminal once, but I can't remember why.
Woo! Ben got tanked on that flight from SFO!
The modality of our breakup remains an ugly subprime liability on my karmic balance sheet.
Those merely possibly necessary breakups are a bitch.
When I was a boy, the porn was women in underwear.
43 - aw, thanks Will - is it my incompetence with html tags that appeals?
47 - "Please do not give money to solicitors. This airport does not support the activities of solicitors"
Well, that made me laugh a lot just reading it, I might wet myself to actually hear it.
I got ushered through like a VIP for wearing dungarees. I was actually pregnant, but didn't really show (or so I thought!) and the dungarees predated the pregnancy. But when the nice Turkish lady asked if I were, I cheerfully agreed.
KR,
The interesting details would be far too personally identifying to both parties.
That's why I have the rule of NEVER commenting on a blog where people know me IRL.
Also, never attend a party where they have a camera.
This is wisdom talking here. Wisdom learned from experience. I'm serious.
I spent a night in Newark once when I was 19, and I spent most of it hanging out with the baggage claim repair guys. They were *fun*.
124: Sifu has a good memory.
The oddest part of it was keeping our relationship secret vis-a-vis her and my colleagues. As befits a professional relationship, we addressed each other by honorific+last name and used the formal mode of address. Every so often one of us would slip up and address the other in the familiar form, but no one ever grokked the significance of that, AFAIK.
Let me guess -- you're James Carville.
Agree with the Sports Night recommendations, though the stupid laugh track at the beginning of the first season really does fuck with the timing of the rapid-fire dialogue.
If you haven't seen Queer As Folk (I've only seen the American version, fwiw), it's very good and will fill many, many hours. Pluse, lots of hot naked young men. If explicit gay sex makes you uncomfortable, however, it ain't the show for you.
I just started watching Extras, which has hilarious so far.
135: you know, it's possible for the astute unfogged-archivist to infer quite a bit more of the context, including, I suspect, the name of the relevant corporation.
Ah, the airbrush. Good for eliminating Trotsky and people's naughty bits. There must have been a bunch of skilled craftspeople who became redundant around 1972.
139: I've no hope of ever getting a job that requires Senate confirmation, have I?
141: oh, well, join the club.
Actually a couple years ago my friend unearthed an audiotape we'd recorded while, uh, sitting around one day. On it I can be heard to say (rough transcription):
"Well, [ flick, bubble bubble, voluminous exhale, cough cough cough ] I guess I'll never be a senator."
I'd vote for you! But lord knows I've eliminated any chance of getting elected to the Senate.
[ flick, bubble bubble, voluminous exhale, cough cough cough ]
You were on a respirator?
144: that's one way to think about it. It was definitely life-sustaining.
This New Yorker article suggests some career options for you, Sifu. Got to be more fun than building robots.
(There's a slight reefer madness tone at times which is annoying, but still).
I don't get it; building robots rules.
Any NYC unfoggeders online today? I'm headed your way this evening. I will graciously consider any and all offers of booze.
In 2003, the California State Legislature passed Senate Bill 420
Lordy.
148: Actually, a few of us are getting together in Brooklyn.
I hate Dulles. Stupid shuttles. National is way better.
I'm going up to Comox this afternoon -- bet there aren't even any lurkers there . . .
149: That line caught my attention as well.
Since the rebuilding, BWI is actually pretty nice. There's even a place to hang out and watch planes outside security.
Dulles shuttles will be replaced by a subway whose construction has already caused three fatalities. Do others keep track of which buildings have killed workers while being built? There are a couple of garages I just avoid.
150: I'm catching Ace in the Hole in Brooklyn Bridge Park, unless weather messes that up, but I also might be up for meeting up.
146: Yeah, it's kind of an annoying article. But I like how, at the end, the reporter seems to acknowledge that it's been about pretty annoying people. Kinda makes me long for when pot gets fully legalized and openly-regulated: lower prices for consumers and producers actually having to run their shit like businesses.
152: I'm going up to Comox this afternoon -- bet there aren't even any lurkers there . . .
This afternoon? That's not enough time to assign a lurker there to Unfogged.
Have a great time, Napi.
KR, email me. W/D, check your email.
Ok. So I just finished watching Park's Oldboy for the first time. There will be more viewings. I liked it.
I think I like Sympathy for Mr Vengeance a little better thematically. Someone called Sympathy a "tragedy of circumstance" while Oldboy is more a tragedy of character. My weltschmerz prefers bad things happening to good people.
But other than that, Oldboy is a much more beautiful perfect film. Soundtrack alone would make it immortal. Of Korean films, Tale of Two Sisters and maybe some Kim Ki-Duk approach it. Maybe others. Nothing made in America is within miles.
Do others keep track of which buildings have killed workers while being built?
In the building-of film they show at the St. Louis arch, they proudly declare that no one was killed in the building of the arch, even though the building plans had estimated that four* construction workers would die. The narrator says this all proudly, and even as a kid found it crazy that they factored human deaths into the cost.
*I can't remember the actual number. In the single digits.
National really is the obvious winner of the DC-area airport sweepstakes; it's hard to beat the Metro convenience and lack of inter-terminal shuttles. Meanwhile, I wish that BWI hadn't moved their rental car pickup/dropoff place to the middle of confusing nowhere. It is displeasing.
161: except for poor, orphan terminal A, where they stick all the discount airlines & there's nothing even resembling decent food, but yeah, in actual practice I opt for convenience over architecture.
Actually, it's crazy when they don't. It sounds like they were conscious of safety from the beginning and made safety a goal.
161: that is confusing.
You know what airport does a surprisingly good job with rental cars? Ft. Lauderdale.
Did you hear that the actress who played Jenny Calander is now a fundamentalist who thinks that paganism is a tool of the devil?
My understanding is that the *character* of Jenny Calendar is actually based on a friend of mine.
And yes, Heathrow really is from hell.
The important thing is that everyone continue to call it "National Airport" and not that other name people are trying to promote.
166: The only time I've flown through there was shortly after the name change. Our booking agent in Tampa was a rather fabulous young man who was very arch on the topic.
I recall it as very yellow and with decent food.
Philly is my gateway to der Vaterland, and so I have mixed feelings about it. After a couple weeks in Germany - which I love - I'm really happy to be back in the States, and I always eat some crappy food court food and think, "ah, home."
Bitch, you have a friend who was born a gypsy but changed her name and is now a techno-pagan?
Before she played Calender, Robia LaMorte was a dancer for Prince.
I flew through Heathrow the other day, and was quite dreading it, but it turned out to be rather pleasant, as layovers go. Worst problem was that my flight on American had served approximately a half ounce of beef, four grains of rice, and a single pea for dinner, and so I was starving, and had no pounds to buy anything to eat.
a single pea
"Serve one pea. One pea only!"
"Are you sure, keptin?"
"Yes. One pea only!"
But also, a note to those Americans on the bus with me transferring terminals: I know you've never been somewhere they drive on the other side of the road, but please try not to be so fucking provincial. We are not going to get into a wreck. The bus driver drives on the left all the time.
Especially since the driver's on a closed airport road.
Geez you'd think the exchange rate would've kept that sort of riff-raff from leaving the country.
We are not going to get into a wreck.
Assumes facts not in evidence!
Well I'm certainly glad it wasn't God driving the bus.
God drives on the right, because god's American. So yeah, the crash comes as no surprise.
174: Like the rest of his age cohort, God drives painfully slow and leaves his turn signal on for miles at a time.
Geez you'd think the exchange rate would've kept that sort of riff-raff from leaving the country.
Oh, and I haven't even told you about the high school boys basketball team from Alaska on the bus with me from the airport in Berlin.
approximately a half ounce of beef, four grains of rice, and a single pea for dinner,
Don't they call that nouvelle cuisine? Did you get half a Tic Tac for dessert?
I suppose some Ugly Americans were clamoring for extra portions.
177: cosmopolitan, quietly respectful of other cultures, and proud ambassadors for America's now-tamed frontier?
The English drive like Knights and we American plebes drive like lowly drayman.
They weren't terrible, just annoying in their number and cluelessness. If 20 of you giants are going to force your way on the bus at the same time, the least you could do is move to the back of the bus and not try to hover around the doors. And those giant athletic shoes each and every one of you has tied by the laces around the strap of your bag? Have hit every single seated passenger you've passed in the head.
Oh. Well, teenagers are idiots. This is, presumably, not a purely American phenomenon.
This morning my kid and I are talking about upcoming vacation, and he looks up at me with all-consuming eagerness and asks "will we get dinner on the plane?"
hoping for a yes because last time the meal (recalled in detail) was soooo good.
God drives
Wait, that's Morgan Freeman, right? How could he be a bad driver if he used to be a professional chauffeur?
183: Holy crap, what do you feed the poor child regularly that airplane meals are remembered so fondly?
182: Yeah, that was my take. More of a dumb kids thing than an ugly Americans thing.
I'm not saying that my dad is God or anything, but he did in fact get into a car accident when he was in England 17 years ago. It wasn't his first time driving on the left, but it was a roundabout, and I think the combination was too much.
The best part (from my POV) is that he had to spend the night in jail! I guess that, for whatever the specifics were, the local cops had no choice. They were very apologetic, but it sure made me feel better about whatever minor infractions I may have performed.
Kids have no taste. The little motherfuckers. They'd be all Velveeta and Wonder Bread if you let them.
185: TWA's first-class food was really good in the 70's -- when we flew with Mom, we'd often get to move up to empty seats in first class, and even when we didn't there were often extra first class meals. I still remember the baby lamb chops fondly. And that's the first venue where I ever had caviar. So I can get wistful over airline food, too.
I still recall fondly the airplane food from our trip to England when I was 4.5. Some sort of crepes in a bechamel. Also, stupendous eggs on the flight from England to Ireland.
Say what you will about my standards at the time, flying was pretty different in 1977.
I remember thinking the food in the dining cars was the best I'd ever eaten, and also the first time I'd ever been served or interacted with a black person. And that was just The Canadian, a CN, not CPR train.
189: My dad worked for Exxon, so we always got the best gasoline. Just one of those perks, you know?
183: Tell him you will probably have the chance to buy three crackers, a cup of applesauce and a chunk of cheese-product in a $5 snack pack. If you're lucky.
Rory was downright indignant about the inadequacy of her in-flight dining experience on our trip to SF.
191: True. I was also fairly old before I ever stayed in a hotel other than a Hilton -- they were TWA's crew hotels, and everywhere I'd been was tagging along with Mom on a flight. Being a flight attendant didn't pay a crazy amount, but until it started to suck in the late 80's, the perks were sweet.
189: LizardBreath
So I can get wistful over airline food, too.
Hush. You'll make the children sad. You are making *me* sad. Put a smile on your face.
Airplane meals are among my best food memories from childhood. The only times I had ever been on a plane as a kid were on Korean Air and JAL, and the food was pretty great, or at least I thought so at the time. Bonus: everything was in little compartments, nothing touching, which was like food heaven for me when I was eight.
"I think I like Sympathy for Mr Vengeance a little better thematically. Someone called Sympathy a "tragedy of circumstance" while Oldboy is more a tragedy of character. My weltschmerz prefers bad things happening to good people. "
I found SfMV a bit too nihilistic for its own good. I mean, I still loved it, but it could have been better. Why are the police so useless? It's one thing to argue that violent revenge is futile and counterproductive, but what's the alternative in that film? I think Lady Vengeance works better in that regard. Viewed purely as a way to pass two hours, though, Oldboy is almost without equal in all of cinema. The virtuoso direction and cinematography allows you to overlook some of its more literary flaws. There are some great shots in SfMV, but there's nothing to match the kinetic camerawork in Oldboy.
I think that it's texture. He'll eat food that needs to be chewed, but prefers overcooked tortellini consistency. He's reasonably adventurous about taste.
Both remembered meal and upcoming are transatlantic, so they'll at least be heated food. Unless there's been a change in the last couple of months, the heated meals are OK given constraints (sealed undivided pouch). The only alternatives don't scale to an airplane packed full of people.
Even while being a jaded slab of cargo, I think that airports and airplanes are incredibly cool. Hanging out and watching planes take off, than having a shirley temple at the bar is a pickup/dropoff trip perk. One of Italo Calvino's invisible cities is an eternal airport. Their placelessness and pseudoconvenience make them a realization of utopia, which after all means noplace, a place to think of but not to dwell.
I am consumed with hideous envy over the fact that first class exists, but I never get to fly in it. Once I was bumped from a flight and rescheduled so that the second leg of my trip was in first class, and that tiny taste of the experience confirmed every last bit of my resentment and jealousy.
Think about private jets. That's the real rich person's flying mode these days, I hear.
Even while being a jaded slab of cargo, I think that airports and airplanes are incredibly cool.
Anybody else ever hang out at the park along the Potomac just beyond National's runway, where the big planes come down like twenty or thirty yards above your head? It's like a dramatic effect from a bad movie. Plus the field is big and flat so you can see them bank over the river and turn right for you.
There's a whole family scene there, with awestruck kids holding hands with their parents, HS couples sitting on the picnic tables making out between planes, etc. Also, fishing.
My nightmare is moving from airport to theme park to mall to exurb to megachurch, etc., forever. This makes me an elite snob that David Brooks understands so well, because what I just described is exactly what salt of the earth Americans dream of.
200: Pretty much my experience too. Usually when I'm walking into the plane past all the already-seated already-drinking first classers I think "Christ, what assholes!" The couple of times I've gotten to sit up there, I found myself thinking "I wish all this riffraff would hurry up and get to the back of the plane and stop glaring at me!"
Also, at least when I was in China, on the trains they didn't have "classes" because, you know, they're good Communists. But they did have cheap "hard seat" and expensive "soft seat" cars.
On my first and only first class trip (bumped up while flying on a frequent flyer ticket), I watched the movies Sophie Scholl: The Final Days and How to Marry a Millionaire. Quite the incongruous pairing.
Having a private jet is a lot more nuisance than you'd think. I don't recommend it.
206: The man speaks from experience, y'all.
I don't want to bore you with the details, but trust me.
200, 204: Yeah, I'm still sort of indignant about the whole paying for air travel at all, much less having to sit in coach, thing. While I haven't flown free since I was 21, I still subconsciously think of airplanes as somewhere where people should all be friends of my mother's who are falling all over themselves to bring me free stuff and make sure I'm in the best possible seat.
204: I'm all burned up over it even as I sit here in my cushy office. THE NERVE!
Good to know that my heart is really in the right place re: social justice.
When I went to Spain last April I got upgraded to first class for pain, suffering, missing a day of a four day holiday, and artful complaining. The food was quite good (as far as I recall, which is only so far, because they kept pouring out the excellent Bordeaux, but anyway), there was actually a good salad, which I found surprising. It was Air France, so maybe that made a difference.
Something I doubt I'll ever do again--the actual price of the first class ticket shocked me when I looked it up afterwards.
202 - I love that park. It was closed for a long time after 9/11, but they reopened it when they finally figured out that terrorists have better stuff to do than gawk at airplanes. Or something.
It's great when there are significant crosswinds and the landings are a little tricky.
I was in "business class" once and though "this isn't that fancy, although obviously nobody needs all these luxuries and they aren't worth paying extra for unless you really do take flights across the continent several times a month." Then later on I found out that "business class" isn't just a euphemism for "first class", and "first class" is far nicer even than "business class".
It makes me wonder why there is ceaseless complaining in the media about airplane travel, since on all other topics the media usually only operates from the perspective of people who fly business class or first class.
I have a private jet, but I change the oil myself, so it's not like I'm an effete elitist or anything.
206: Who said anything about owning one?
I don't care about the pseudoluxuries much (I flew to Japan once business class-- extent of my experience), but the few extra inches of space are really nice. I'm a little smaller than the typical bouncer, and usually sleep some in coach. I flew on a domestic airline that had larger-than-usual seats recently, and I'd be willing to pay something extra to do it again.
It was closed for a long time after 9/11
I do find myself thinking sometimes when I'm there that, hey, this plane is close enough that I could throw a rock and maybe take out an engine (I DON'T MEAN THAT NSA!). But I trust that you're right. It's a terrific place, as someone who regularly flies out of National I'm comfortable with having it open.
And yeah, you can charter a jet or else hitch a ride on someone else's (ideal! except no one I know has a private jet...Emerson?).
I have never, ever flown anything but coach in my life, nor will I probably.
I have never, ever flown anything but coach in my life, nor will I probably.
I bet you don't even own a TV either.
216: I'm always trying to get one of the coach seats with a little extra legroom. Northwest makes you pay extra to get a seat facing a bulkhead, or in the exit rows. This infuriates me.
200, 204: That's why on international flights, the entrance to the plane is behind first class. If the coach class passengers saw the lie-down pods before going back to their seats, there would be rioting with fire and pitchforks by the 9th hour of each trans-Pacific flight.
Speaking of people who are assholes, this was written by a professor whose class I'll be taking next year (whoopie! this ties in with what FL said in the pedagogy post!). I even mostly agree with him, but I'm still left thinking "man, you're being a dick!".
I don't have cable, and my TV will turn to static this February with the digital switchover (a Republican plot...the first black President, and then a few weeks later YOUR TV GOES OUT!).
I'm a pretty determinedly 20th century person. Even Unfogged is really toward the Usenet end of the internet.
PGD, maybe one time I'll take you on my jet, but you have to remember that I'm pretty busy and can't spend a lot of time farting around with commoners.
Even Unfogged is really toward the Usenet end of the internet.
This calls for a response with several dozen nested >>>>> responses plus an absurd .sig. But I'm not up for it.
Will somebody please tell me whether or not Jason Bay is still a Pirate!?!?!
221: What a dick. I especially found this sentence worthy of cockpunching:
Yes, there are people left on the planet who write and think this way, and no, I'm not making this up.
Yep, anyone who questions the indubitable rightness and benevolence of Milton Friedman's policy recommendations must be some throwback loony leftist.
And yeah, you can charter a jet or else hitch a ride on someone else's (ideal! except no one I know has a private jet...Emerson?).
Or buy a fractional share! You too can be 1/16 of a really rich guy!
I recommend the Gulfstream 550, which can carry 14 people non-stop from Chicago to Tokyo.
221: I'm rather amused that much of his letter is making the point about how circuitous the letter he's complaining of is and it's failure to get to the point.
Also especially douchalicious:
So here's my question: If you're embarrassed by this legacy, if you worry that it will tarnish the University's reputation, just what is it that you good-thinking guys and gals have against human freedom?
221: Uh, he's right about the weasel language, cliches, etc. but he also spews some pretty horrible canards. China, India, Japan, and South Korea didn't "adopt the 'neoliberal global order'" until neoliberals realized they had succeeded and retroactively declared their policies to have been correct.
203: Mr. B. actually did have a dream like that once. We'd been in a plane crash and everyone was filing out of the plane into two lines, one of which went across a field into the distance while the other--the line we were in--went down an escalator into a mall-type atmosphere filled with the kind of animatronic holiday figures that populate fancy mall Santalands. The line was taking forever, and Mr. B. thought we were probably supposed to be in the other line, but I was insistent that we weren't and was not interested in hearing him argue. As we're descending the escalator, he whispered to me: "I think we're in hell." I responded, in that adolescent world-weary voice I continue to do so well, "No, this is heaven, and I just hate it here."
I think Emerson has a cropduster or something?
Yes, there are people left on the planet who write and think this way, and no, I'm not making this up.
"I know what you're thinking, gentle reader: No one would say that! Surely he jests. But no! I do not jest! There does indeed beat a heart so depraved. Several such hearts, in fact. Bleeding ones, obviously. Not that these weirdos wrote the letter with their hearts literally, you understand. But seriously! Get a load of these freaks."
230-232: And to top it all off, he hints at accusations of anti-semitism! Hurray!
232 is exactly correct. You have to be stupid to see the story of development over the last 30 years as any kind of vindication even for the neoliberal "Washington consensus", let alone for real hardcore Chicago school stuff.
Watch out for that when taking his class, PMP. Modesty is in order for economists.
237: Thankfully, it won't matter too much for my class. He apparently started out as a monetary economist, and seems to have edited for a few of the major journals, but all his work I know nowadays (and the classes he teaches) is in asset pricing theory. Pure finance stuff, with little space for editorializing.
Pure finance stuff
When you get your private jet, PMP, remember all the little people who knew you when.
||
Billmon is back
Also, while things are paused here, I'll note that Bay stayed put.
|>
I was in Taiwan in 1983, and the protectionism and state monopolies were unbelievable. But they worked!
They did follow some U of Chicago plicies: unions were discouraged, and business regulation were weak.
Monopolies: Rice, energy, tobacco, alcohol, and some forms of transportation.
High tariffs: Private cars, alcohol, luxuries such as coffee, and I forget what else -- consumer products, mostly. My guess is that industrial equipment was not taxed.
When you get your private jet, PMP, remember all the little people who knew you when. and don't empty the toilet tank over our homes.
This reminds me that I tried to have a conversation a couple of nights ago with one of Wall Street's global-economy think-tankers. I asked a lot of naive questions, to which he responded, rather graciously, "Look, what happened last week is ancient history. What happened this morning is ancient history. Every few hours, we're working on a completely new problem." This is so far from my experience of life. I've been thinking about the same two words for three years.
Plus:
I attempt to fill the spaces between equations of my papers with comprehensible words.
Of an economist, no loftier can be asked.
237: you wish. in fact there are all sorts of little ideological schools within asset pricing and Cochrane is a shill for the Chicagoiest of each one of them. Read "A Non-Random Walk Down Wall Street" by Andrew Lo if you want to torture him with empirics.
I dump my private jet's toilet only over Republican neighborhoods. I've tweaked a Google map to identify the appropriate nighborhoods.
244: The guy sounds like a con man. Don't lend him money or buy anything he's selling.
He's a great guy, and a super-smart one. He's an academic among wolves, sure, but he's not personally selling or buying anything.
Also, while things are paused here, I'll note that Bay stayed put.
He may not have moved physically, but he is now a member of the Red Sox. According to Ken Rosenthal, the Pirates will receive Andy LaRoche and right-hander Bryan Morris from the Dodgers and outfielder Damien Moss and releiver Craig Hansen from the Red Sox.
I fly just enough to get status, so I get upgraded more often than not. When traveling with my son, we take turns riding in first. In his turns, he sends me a glass of wine and/or piece of chocolate cheesecake. The attendants think it's a hoot, my fellow steerage passengers are less amused.
It was cuter when he was 10.
241: I haven't seen what we got for Manny. Getting Bay wouldn't have been the worst thing that could happen.
248: Noo! I live in a Republican neighborhood. Well, sort of.
It just sounds as though he's more or less at sea and reacting to things as they happen. Doesn't sound like what you'd hope for from an expert with an overall view.
I didn't know that Manteca had Republican neighborhoods. I guess I'm out of date.
I'll note that Bay stayed put.
Wow! No he didn't! Out of left field (ha ha), a 3-way with the Dodgers. I've been following this obsessively for about 30 hours now, and I'm stunned.
Whoa.
On preview, CN-pwned/corrected.
246: Ah, crap. I haven't read any of his work yet, I'm just aware of a decent amount of it. Is he one of those guys who builds entirely theoretical models that are fairly clearly refuted by empirical pricing data, but refuses to change his underlying assumptions at all because the model's too damn pretty?
Actually, I'd love it if you would be willing to expand a bit on what you see as the major schools in asset pricing. Do you have any particularly relevant blog posts, or would you deign to email?
254: Hell, Manteca *is* a Republican neighborhood. As is most of the rest of the entire central valley.
It's been 35 years since I passed through Manteca. It didn't seem Republican then.
Of course, that was before you were born.
What do you mean by didn't seem Republican? I'm pretty sure the valley's always been socially and politically conservative, and that was post-civil rights and post-Vietnam, so I'd be surprised if Manteca really wasn't leaning that way already. Certainly Stockton in those years was experiencing a lot of white flight. I don't really know how the city as a whole leaned, though I'd be willing to believe it was slightly less Republican then than it is now, since my folks actually *had* a social circle at the time.
And yes, I was alive then.
I haven't seen what we got for Manny. Getting Bay wouldn't have been the worst thing that could happen.
WTF! "we"? How are you a Red Sox fan, Napi?? Bandwagon jumper!
264: he's likely been a Sox fan since before you were born, PGD.
AWB,
He's a great guy, and a super-smart one. He's an academic among wolves, sure, but he's not personally selling or buying anything.
In that case pull him back from the brink. He needs to get those feet back on the ground!
Fantasyland is a great place to visit, sure, but if you try to live there you'll go bonkers.
He needs to get those feet back on the ground!
...in academia? You've got to be kidding.
You got an airplane for your band trips?! Well la-dee-dah. Did you have servants to play the instruments for you too?
The 'long trip' was once every three years, and it was paid for by selling 13,000 hoagies yearly at $3 apiece. Swipple, but not that swipple.
(Great line from next door neighbor, to me upon my sister's graduation, which meant the end of ten years of purchasing two hoagies, every six weeks: 'I never have to eat one of those nasty things again.')
Well, on my band trip we had to take an old school bus, and we went to Winnipeg.
Winnipeg! Need I say more?
In the Third World!
he's likely been a Sox fan since before you were born, PGD.
He's not from Massachusetts, though. I bet he jumped on the bandwagon during the 1967 pennant year, when his geographically proper team was losing and Yastrzemski was ripping up the league. Typical.
He's a great guy, and a super-smart one. He's an academic among wolves
marry him right away. Before he gets super-rich. The quants always do well. If it doesn't work out, you can always divorce and get a private jet.
The quants always do well
Don't think this is true. Of the people I know who left physics post-PhD, half of those who tried financial modelling either failed or have left that field, and moving to Manhattan for the first job was pretty much obligatory.
We didn't even have a band. We had an old kazoo in a box that whoever was voted most unpopular had to play the national anthem on at basketball games.
OT: I just found out that I knew this guy in college. I knew he was a musician, but I didn't know he was that good. He, Ry Cooder, and I all had the same piano teacher.
You must have gotten terrible grades, John.
The piano teacher taught each student at the level he was capable of. The best teacher I ever had, but my pianistic talent was limited. He died a few years ago at age 90 or so, self-sufficient until the end.
Ry Cooder's father worked for my grandfather.
Levine did not seem at all like a Sir when I knew him. He was down-home Brooklyn.
He's an academic among wolves, sure, but he's not personally selling or buying anything
oh la de da. I am sure that I speak for the many other stockbrokers who are presumably generating the revenues to pay his wages, when I say how jolly delighted we are that Brainy McSmartington has not yet had to sully himself with anything so vulgar as trade
256: nah, I only really know of him as a writer of a whacking great huge and horribly tedious fucking textbook. In as much as he's anything, Cochrane is probably more toward the empirical side of things and by "Chicagoiest" I mean "basing everything off expected utility functions, even in contexts where it doesn't obviously make sense to do so".
If you actually want to torture Cochrane, keep asking him "how would you integrate foreign exchange into this?" - the approach he uses has a real problem with international asset pricing because currency movements don't have a natural interpretation in terms of expected utility because one man's "up" is the other side's "down".
He's not from Massachusetts, though.
Connecticut, originally. Three of four grandparents born in Mass, though. I don't claim to be born into it, as the t-shirts put it. But I'm fan enough to say 'we.'
More sympathetically, perhaps, I recognise the developmental stage that Brainy McSmarts is going through, and he is quite possibly seriously annoying a lot of his colleagues.
When you first get started in the market, the thing that overwhelms you is indeed that it goes up and down, and that when it's going down, nobody particularly cares about your theory of why it might be going up.
However, if you're going to go down that road, being Brainy McSmartington isn't going to help you very much, and it's totally lethal to try and react to short term newsflow and market moves if you're not prepared to actually lose your cherry and start buying and selling. The people who know what's going on right now, know it because a) they are reasonably personable, so people talk to them b) they have a certain amount of judgement, so they know who's bullshitting and who isn't and c) they have enough character to dump a pet theory quickly when it isn't making money. Very few academics actually do well in this.
On the other hand, there is a place for Brainy McSmartingtons, because they can usefully help you see the bigger picture. But that bigger picture really doesn't change from week to week. People who produce revenue do quite often resent being taxed to pay for thinky types, but the good ones recognise that they can save you from doing something silly quite often. But when they start trying to be pretend traders, that's infallibly annoying.
b,
We didn't even have a band trip.
Awww, shoot, I missed my chance in the sequence. Before you said this I was going to so "*We* had to march to Iowa for our band trip. We were a marching band."
This was my bad. I'll try to explain the sequence better in private email next time. I'll also try to schedule it at a time when I can be here throughout.
Oh, and for anyone wanting to join the improv joke-a-thon - welcome! The first, biggest rule is that you never, EVER go negative. That stops things dead. Instead try to top the other person, or build on it, or maybe take things in a different direction but NEVER go negative. Negative means things like "You are effing insane" or "Nuh-uh" or stuff like that.
Thank you and I look forward to your participation.
pgd,
marry him right away.
Oh, yes! Sure he has flaws, but everyone does. He has great potential. You can work on him and improve him and rub off all his rough edges. You can spend a lifetime at that. With our help of course. Blog it. Think about all the great comments you'll get.
dsquared has already made some really excellent suggestions. C'mon, it'll be fun!
Do it, do it, do it!
281, 283: dsquared
I find you quite brilliant.
