The Bluewater and the LMM

So. The YYM drove over to the beach compound for the night. We went for dinner, because that's what you do. Went to Bluewater, a tourist place but with a very nice view of the IntWat. I wore my "Dad clothes."

The LMM took a photo, but I can't post it, on which more anon. Will try, though. As soon as we sat down, the LMM decided that she would like to be the center of attention, as befits a Queen exiled to wed a commoner like me. So she kicked both her sweater and her purse into the ocean.

(Two things: 1. Why did she have a sweater? It's 95 and direct, bright sun where we are sitting. If you have to ask that, you don't know the LMM. She always needs a sweater. 2. Okay, she didn't kick it into the ocean. She kicked it into the IntWat. Nonetheless, there it was ten feet below the rail where we were peering over at it, floating, a purse/sweater clump of flotsam in nasty saltwater. Not Jetsam. Flotsam. Words have meanings....)

The LMM appeared to believe that if she just yelled LOUDLY enough at the purse/sweater clump, it would magically do what she wanted. To be fair, this works at our house, but then she is dealing with me, or the dogs, and we are all afraid of her, and have some capacity for independent movement. If she yells at home, then action is taken and things get done.

"I dropped my purse! I dropped my purse!" And pointing. Everything in the large restaurant stopped, and I think some people up on the highway bridge likely looked out their windows. The LMM is not large, but she has considerable vocal puissance.

I jumped heavily over the rail, and landed heavily down on the dock. Unsurprislingly, another fellow, aroused by the yelling, also jumped over the rail, and got there faster. (He was not as heavy). He fetched the flotsam, and delivered it to the LMM, dripping (the flotsam was dripping, not the guy, and not the LMM).

All the tables (well, the people AT the tables) around us started telling each other of times that they had had something similar happen. And giving advice about how to save the iPhone (rice. Always with the rice). Anyway, before long a little kid at the next table tipped over a big glass of iced tea, and won the "new center of attention award" away from the LMM. But for a few minutes, she was the "It Girl" of the Bluewater.

I'll try to post the pictures, if the rice works. We used the LMM's phone to take the pictures..... (With thanks to Donna Gingerella for the entertainment portion of the dinner, and a show).

Interesting, and Revealing

So, this is an interesting case.  In Wisconsin.  In Madison, WI, in fact.

An excerpt:

Snugglers contend touching helps relieve stress. But Madison officials suspect the business is a front for prostitution and, if it's not, fear snuggling could lead to sexual assault. Not buying the message that the business is all warm and fuzzy, police have talked openly about conducting a sting operation at the business, and city attorneys are drafting a new ordinance to regulate snuggling.

"There's no way that (sexual assault) will not happen," assistant city attorney Jennifer Zilavy said. "No offense to men, but I don't know any man who wants to just snuggle." 

The asst. D.A. doesn't say that there are no men who like to snuggle, she just says she hasn't met any.  Gosh, Jenn.  How's that dating going for you?  Not so well?

UPDATE:  Snuggle house is closed by prudery.

UPDATE II:  Japan is much less uptight about this.

Halloween: Too Scary

Wow.  Universities are some loco parents, huh?

University outlaws controversial (?) Halloween costumes.

I guess this means I have to take back my "Sexy Illegal Immigrant Kardashian Gardener" costume. 

Pants: daily

Fantastically funny blog, Honest Toddler, rats out parental intransigence to grandparents with a dollop of guilt for them thrown in as well.

But, to this non-parent at least, Text From Dog is still the king of this genre!

Another sh*&^y jobs report

Wow. 80,000 net new jobs in June. The last three months (after revisions) now come out to 68,000 - 77,000 - 80,000 and that "trend" is not going to help anyone anytime soon. As Mungo noted, job growth needs to almost triple for unemployment to significantly fall.

People, an infrastructure bank is not going to fix this. QE III is not going to fix this. Retroactive NGDP level targeting is not going to fix this. Tax increases are not going to fix this.

This morning Twitter is again ablaze with calls for the Fed to "finally" act.

Remember this is a Fed that has already kept its policy rate at nearly zero for multiple years and promised to do so until late 2014. A Fed that has vastly expanded its balance sheet pumping trillions of new reserves into the system. A Fed that has already engaged in a couple rounds of quantitative easing.

I believe that at the core of the calls for the Fed to act is a desire for higher inflation. Sure, that's fine with me, lets give it a try. But I don't think running inflation at say 4% is going to be a magic bullet.

Are there still nominal contracts that haven't yet been expired, adjusted or abrogated 4 years into this mess?

Can inflation double and nominal interest rates stick at their current rates? Will the Fisher effect really be neutered?

Even if real rates become a bit negative, will firms really start to make massive investments in projects they would expect to be unprofitable when discounted at zero percent or one percent?

When people call for the Fed to finally act or accuse Bernanke of dereliction of duty ask them this question:  What can the Fed do that will fix this mess, how exactly would the policy action be implemented and by what mechanism would it effect the cure?

And if their answer is that merely adopting a new policy target will cause an expectational change that fixes the mess?

RUN!!!

Best athlete out of Russia since Maria Sharapova!

This crow is the absolute bizzle:

Big Foot, but not THAT Big!

Man orders size 14.5 slipper, gets size 1450.

Not convinced that this is real. A little too pat, at the expense of those "wacky Chinese." Still, a good picture. "Real" slipper at lower left.

(Nod to the Blonde)

UPDATE: More and more questions. "His oversized foot..." FOOT? He only has one? Apparently, because he even says, "I am going to sell it on Ebay." Not them, it. Wouldn't it be a little strange to get an order for one slipper? I mean, even separately from the size 1450 thing, which is probably pretty common, if Art Carden buys shoes. Overall, I cry bullish.

I'm down with OWS!

I, Angus, just want to tell you all that, contrary to my good friend and co-blogger Mungowitz, I am totally down with and supportive of the OWS movement.

The ever stronger link between big finance and big government is really hurting this country, and who knows, maybe OWS will start the ball rolling somehow to improve things.

Even if it doesn't, who are they really hurting?

I say let 'em protest in peace with a minimum of mockery.

Heck, if there was an Occupy Norman, I might check it out. Maybe find some elevators where we could push all the buttons at once....

The culture that is Germany: Naturist Edition

The quantity theory of nudity may be holding in Germany. It appears that perhaps the same amount of skin is being shown by nude sunbathers; it's just been redistributed. Now there's a lot more skin on each of the much fewer naked bodies.

Or, as Reuters puts it, "Fatter & Fewer German Nudists as Numbers Dwindle"

Kurt Fisher, the head of the German Nudist Association, thinks he knows why the numbers are dwindling. Immigrants! Or more specifically, the wrong kind of immigrants:

""Germany is relying more and more on immigrants to keep the population steady. But many come from countries with strong religious beliefs." Immigrants who arrive from cultures where headscarves are common will not usually be interested in becoming naturists in Germany, he said."

Don't you just hate it when that happens?