(More) Kid Quips Caught in a downpour on the freeway today with my kids in the backseat, I said what I usually say when that happens: ‘free car wash!” To which my 7 year-old daughter replied: ‘Yeah, but they don’t dry it.” True enough. P.S.: When I asked who “they” were, she just made a...Read More
Yankee Ball Park?!? Wrigley Stadium?!? Once upon a time, people who went to baseball games were “fans,” and when they got out-of-line, it was called being “loud” or being “loud and obnoxious.” Today, fans apparently are now “guests,” and when they get out-of-hand, it’s “inappropriate guest behavior” — as in, “please alert an attendant if you are aware...Read More
“Historically Significant” Architecture — Or Just Old? Sometimes a rose is just a rose, as Gertrude Stein knew. And sometimes, an old building is just that — not architecturally significant, and certainly not worth an exorbitant amount to renovate and bring up to modern standards. In a nutshell, that’s my reaction to a provocative NYT...Read More
Sweet Tooth Economics As I wrote last month, inflation can take two guises: paying more for the same item; or, paying the same for less. See, “Kaplan Family Price Index.” Both types were on display at the Uptown Minneapolis Lunds today. Their (Dutch) brownies — the best in town — just jumped from $2 to...Read More
That’s One Way to Put It According to “Why Nations Fail,” a book cited by Tom Friedman in his New York Times column today, egalitarian institutions are the key to successful nations, “extractive economic and political institutions” lead to failed ones. I have no issue with the authors’ observations and conclusions — after all, they’re Tenured...Read More
For the record, practically all my shoes these days are slip-on’s (easier for showings and repeatedly taking them off and putting them back on). However . . . as someone who’s heard that line, ahem, more than once in their life, I thought — as a public service on behalf of non-shoelace tie’ers everywhere —...Read More
