Regular readers of this blog know that I have a . . . well, quirky sense of humor — plus a love of language, odd constructions thereof, and word plays. In that vein, I’ve written such posts as, “What’s the Past Tense of Sight See?”; “Landmark — or Watermark?”; “Dried vs. MORE Dried Apricots“; and...Read More
Precocious Kids If you have young kids, you don’t need to be told when Winter Break officially began (for us, 3:16 p.m. Central yesterday). My 9 year-old son is already complaining that his 7 year-old sister is a tattle tale (“Mommy, Gabriel’s watching the iPad again when you said not to”). As a parent, I...Read More
Adding Fuel to the Fire — Then Buying Fire Insurance According to Margin Call — the most recent movie to tackle the Wall Street-authored financial bust — the honchos running the nation’s biggest investment banks realized too late that the market for mortgage-backed securities was going to collapse. So, literally overnight, they did a 180, dumping their...Read More
The best thing about getting out-of-town for a few days, pre-holidays? (My wife is a physical therapist, who works Christmas Day and New Year’s, so we squeeze in vacations at other times). Empty roads (to and from Chicago), and short lines (or none) for restaurants, museums, etc. The worst? Upon my return, waiting in line...Read More
Return of “Schmutz Dog” In general, I’m a fan of rising — not falling — temp’s. However, there are some advantages associated with the thermometer falling below freezing — and staying there (as is typical in the Twin Cities for a good chunk of the year). (If you’re reading this outside the Twin Cities, rain...Read More
“A River Runs Through It” Nature, to be controlled, must be obeyed. –Francis Bacon You wouldn’t necessarily know it from the sound bite-driven Presidential race, but one of the fundamental questions at stake in the 2012 election is, ‘exactly how free should markets be?’ Continuum At one extreme, Libertarians like Ron Paul say “completely.” They...Read More
