Vertical Bike Stands in Downtown Palo Alto Once upon a time — like in the late ’70’s, when I was a Stanford undergrad — neighboring University Ave. definitely wasn’t seedy, but it was no one’s idea of upscale, either: after all, the low-rent University Creamery was practically an anchor tenant (still the best chocolate shake...Read More
Congrats? Or Condolences? It’s hard to know whether congratulations or condolences are in order these days when you hear the news that someone’s company has just been bought out (acquired). The happier circumstance is that everyone’s “ticket” just got punched: their stock options vested, their golden (silver?) parachutes deployed, etc. The other possibility? The new...Read More
Real Estate — Undeveloped If you hadn’t noticed . . . this is my first post in about a week. The explanation: I was on vacation with my family in California, where we visited Yosemite and then met up with family in the Bay Area. I thought a good sequel to “Minnesota Twins” would be...Read More
Vertiginous Stocks “Dear Jack: Don’t buy a single vote more than is necessary. I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay for a landslide.” —JFK quoting a made-up telegram from his father, Joseph Kennedy, after he first won election to Congress. Here’s a thought: overdoing the stimulus — and rocketing stocks higher — can backfire, blunting (or worse)...Read More
Do You Know Where That [Beef/Chicken/Fish/Dairy/Water] Came From? Once upon a time, it was journalists who were referred to as being “well-sourced” (i.e., had good connections, up to and including the most famous one of all, Watergate’s “Deep Throat”). Now, food critics use that term to describe restaurants. As in: “The perfectly medium-rare burger at Red Cow...Read More
