Three Suitcases, Zero Dresses: Guest Blogger Ms. Mungowitz

A guest post....from my wife. Yes, this really happened.

I added some editing, and obiter dicta. But this is her story, so I'll let her tell it.


Went to Fundman's wedding in Chicago. (Editor's note: For my view, see here) Nice big Italian-style wedding with open bar. (Editor's note: It's also Irish style; my wife is from Rhode Island...EVERYBODY's Italian) So we decided to fly up and back overnight and leave boys alone for first time. We were a little worried about what the older younger Munger would do, given that he had done this the week before.

So, plan was flight to leave at 9:20 a.m NC time, gets in 10:20 am Chicago time. Direct flight. Rent a car. Go to hotel, about 20 min away. Get dressed up, refresh... wedding is at 2:00 and about 30 min from hotel. Should be no problem. Easy in fact. Well, pride goeth before a train wreck.

Since you can't carry on liquids, such as shampoo, toothpaste, perfume, etc. Have to check a bag. But even though direct flight, I wanted to make sure I had the necessary things to change into, dress, hairpiece (updo, thank God for that) shoes, purse, wrap. (Editor's note: It is terrifying to witness the full array of feminine battle equipment, laid out for packing. I ran screaming from the room)

What actually happened? We wake up Sat. am early. Get call from airlines, flight delayed 40 min. Go back to bed for 20 min. Get up, have tea, shower, finish packing. Had most done night before. (Ed: Three suitcases! One night, three suitcases!)

A friend of Michael's (Ed: Neanderbill!) is traveling with us. Get to airport. No problems. On the runway getting ready to take off, I start to doze off and all of a sudden I get this image in my head. My dress still hanging on closet door. I told Michael, I think I forgot my dress. He said, no you didn’t. (Ed: she forgets NOTHING. She never forgets). Get to Chicago, check luggage, no dress. That's right, I had forgotten my dress!!!! I didn't even have a nice pair of pants to wear, brought jeans. (Ed: It was only one night. Makes sense not to bring other clothes. Still hard to know what was in the three suitcases, though)

Figured I'd stay at hotel. Michael and Neanderbill could go to wedding, and maybe I could find something in between wedding and reception, which didn't start until 5:00.

Get to Chicago. Called hotel, they told me there was a big mall 10 minutes from hotel. Sounds good. Michael is Hertz Gold member, car rental should be ready, no paperwork.

Nope, not ready. Person in front of us taking sweet time deciding whether to upgrade or not. (Ed: she exaggerates not. The guy was actually saying out loud, "Do I want the SUV, or the minivan? $20....SUV...minivan?" I wanted to beat him). Another 20 precious minutes lost.

On way to hotel. Railroad crossing. Longest and slowest train ever. Another 10-15 minutes lost. (If car had been ready, would not have hit the train crossing). (Ed: Neanderbill pointed out this nonlinearity: "Gosh, if we hadn't gotten held up at Hertz, we would have missed this train, too!" The train was going slow enough you could safely have crawled under it, between the wheels, without getting hit. I suggested Neanderbill might want to try that, just to see).

Get to hotel. It's about 12:15 now. (Ed: Remember, wedding is at 2 pm, and we don't know exactly where it is). Nice receptionist wrote out directions to mall while we went up and got freshened up. Had jeans on, sneakers, pearl necklace and earrings (pearl bracelet broke when getting dressed) and my hairpiece, again so thankful I had that (and I had originally thought I would have time to hair done at the hotel, huh) Michael all dressed up in suit. Carried empty backpack so I could put in clothes and took the shoes, purse, wrap.

Get to mall. Have about 30 min to find a dress. Mall is huge. Tried Lord & Taylor. Ran in, told clerk situation. Showed me all kinds of dresses, just not me. Some awful ugly, can't believe people wear them. Did find one I kind of liked, black lace like. Clerk was nice enough to point out price, $585.00. I didn't pay that much for my wedding dress (although that was 21 years ago!) (Ed: JEEZE! I didn't even know this. Dodged a bullet there...)

Decided to try another store. Nordstrom. Again told clerk story. Found a couple to try on. Had been looking for something in a solid color, simple, but shapely. Most good colors gone, they have out fall colors, boring. Found a sleeveless dress, black and I didn't really want to wear black to a wedding. But it had taffeta and the bottom was like a ballerina dress. Shirred waist, very flattering. At first, did not go with the bra I had. Did not have time to find new bra. Took bra off. (Ed: !!)

Thankfully, everything fit ok, nothing showing. Through clothes in my bag (still had on old white sneakers, with tall white socks), walked out of dressing room, asked clerk if I could pay for it and walk out in it. She snipped off price tag. Couple of women looking, complimented the dress and my hair (told them it was piece). One of them said I looked like a ballerina. But they asked about my shoes, told them I had them in the car. Then ran to jewelry section and bought faux pearl bracelet. Again, snipped off tag and wore out.

Running out in mall in black dress and sneakers, trying to find way out. Michael and friend were at a restaurant having a drink (non alcoholic so far). Finally found them. Have about 45 min. Church is supposed to be about 30 min. Missed exit. (Ed: we were using wrong directions. My fault. But I blame Neanderbill). Went out of way and had to do U turn. Get to the church 5 minutes before wedding.

Very nice ceremony. Go back to hotel and nap. To reception. Many compliments on dress. Told story.

Interesting, gender-specific reactions to story. Nearly all men thought I had deliberately left dress behind so I could buy a new one.

They are crazy. No one wants to have to find a dress in 30 min. No women thought that.

But dress was great for the swing dances. We danced the night away. Had floor to ourselves sometimes. Now I have new favorite store. Nordstroms. Been looking on line at all kinds of pretty dresses, may get out to South Point next weekend. (Ed: AAAAARGH! SHOOT ME! Though, I have to admit, an outstanding dress. She looked incredible.)

She Blinded me with Science!

Jessica Alba that is. Or did she?

According to the Telegraph, a survey decided and then Cambridge scientists proved that Jessica has the most sexy walk

Its apparently all about the .7 waist/hip ratio which lets her shake it in a way more elfin stars cannot!! Hmmm..... ok.

However, not so fast says Ben Goldacre at Bad Science: apparently the survey was done internally at the PR firm pushing the story and Jessica actually finished 7th out of 10! Plus the Cambridge professor (who was paid around $1000) claims the following:


I suggested that as a bit of fun and nonsense, but no more, that they could say something like the following:

“I have studied how 10 celebrities have ranked for “sexiness of walk” in
relation to their bust-waist-hip measurements. (Angelina) Jolie’s measurements at 36-27-36 mean she has the biggest waist surveyed, and a waist-hip ratio
(WHR) of 0.75. Scientists have repeatedly discovered that WHR is a
significant factor in judging female attractiveness. See, for example,

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6444851.stm

Women with a WHR near 0.7 are invariably rated as most attractive.
However, it’s probably ‘the way she moves’ which attracts, not just shape.
Angelina’s slightly larger waist may give her the torso strength with
which to produce a better angular swing and bounce to the hips than
minuscule stars such as Eva Longoria and Kylie Minogue can achieve with
32-21-33 and a WHR of only 0.64.”

He mentions Angelina Jolie because she actually came in first in the survey.

Man oh man, how do you get on the list for gigs like this?

This just in from the department of Doh!!

Rock stars more likely to die prematurely

Yes, the Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University has been busy pushing back the frontiers of science.

The paper clearly describes a population of rock and pop stars who are at a disproportionate risk of alcohol and drug related deaths," said Mark Bellis, lead author of the study.


Which leads us to ask: How in the world is Keith Richards still walking around soiling our planet?

Look Ma, no batteries

The electric car of the future may well not have batteries but instead a super-duper ultra version of the humble capacitor. Austin Texas based EEStor has patented ''technologies for replacement of electrochemical batteries,'' meaning a motorist could plug in a car for five minutes and drive 500 miles...without gasoline.

In the vacuum tube audio world I frequent, people argue about the sound of different types of capacitors (which tends to drive engineers crazy). Hmmm...... I wonder what one of these babies would do in my homemade amp.

We'll probably never know because GM will buy the technology and bury it, right?

dubya's gettin' 'er done!

or "Look out Iran!"

In 2002 Dubya told us about the axis of evil. Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. Iraq is now off the list (things may not be any less evil there, but I'm sure they are off), and the big news this weekend is that North Korea has agreed to provide a full declaration of all of their nuclear programs and will disable their nuclear programs by the end of this year, 2007.

For their part the North Koreans say the US has agreed to take them off the list. Now maybe this is a "wily Filipino" situation, but it does seem that they lived up (finally) to their promise to shut down the Yongbyon reactor and maybe they are really pulling a Libya here.

That just leaves the Islamic Republic of Iran and 16 more months of Dubya. Who can bet against him?

Viva Le Bron!!

It's "mission accomplished" for USA basketball in Vegas. All opponents smoked, the Olympic berth secured and only a meaningless rematch with already trounced Argentina left tonight.

The big three, LeBron, Kobe, and Carmelo did the job, but LeBron was first among equals.

From the stats department:

LeBron shot 76.5% from the field, 57.7 on his treys (15 for 26), while averaging 16.7 points in 21 minutes per game. He also led the team in assists (with 44 to JKidd's 42) and was second in steals (with 15 to Kobe's 16).

Kidd only took 10 shots but did have the 42 assists (to only five turnovers).
Kobe shot well (56%) and was the steals leader, 'Melo shot well (62.8%) and did nuttin' else (as his is custom).

KPC favorite from his turnaround year with the late lamented OKC Hornets Tyson Chandler made the most of his limited playing time (rebounding and blocking shots). I think he may well make the Olympic roster.

Weekend Roundup

As we head into that most ironic of American holidays (Thanksgiving being #2), KPC presents for your perusal the weekend roundup:

1. Tyler Cowen takes off his rose colored glasses and comes to his senses.

In his own words: "What does it really mean if some part of your brain lights up? Who really knows?" The idea that seeing what parts of your brain react to stimulii somehow explains what is actually going on is one of the dumbest ideas ever and economics has not proven immune to this so far useless practice. Kudos, Tyler for seeing the light.


2. Lee Kuan Yew explains the resource curse.

In his own words: “Supposing we had oil and gas, do you think I could get the people to do this?” Mr. Lee said. “No. If I had oil and gas, I’d have a different people, with different motivations and expectations.

“It’s because we don’t have oil and gas and they know that we don’t have, and they know that this progress comes from their efforts,” he said. “So please do it and do it well.”

3. Zambia loves chess!

25 year old Amon Simutowe, who learned to play from reading magazines and became national champ at 14 and international master at 16, is poised to become the first black grandmaster from Sub-Saharan africa. Amon went to UT-Dallas on a chess scholarship and is said to win by "grinding his opponents down". Is there any other way to win?

4. Who needs Raymond Carver when you have the Chadron Record Police Beat?

Examples: Caller from the 100 block of North Morehead Street requested to speak to animal control because caller felt that someone was coming into his yard and cutting the hair on his dogs. Dispatch advised caller to set up video surveillance on his house. Caller said he planned on it.

and: Caller on the 900 block of Parry Drive advised a squirrel has climbed down her chimney and is now in the fireplace looking at her through the glass door, chirping at her. (hat tip to Dan Barry at the NYT)

Three birds with one Stone

In a great post, Marc Hodak manages to take down the silliness of our financial press, the triviality of Dubya's plan to help borrowers and the perils of investing your ever falling dollar in a managed stock fund with high fees. Kudos to you, Sir. Well done.

my favorite line? after quoting one of the "experts" quoted in the financial press, Squire Hodak sez: Dear readers, you should know that this speaker hasn't said a g**d**n thing. The only sentence here that isn't fluff is the one contending that the Fed will correct the market--and that one is flat out wrong.

Andy Roddick is more like me than I thought

Ok people insert your favorite loser joke here and then go on to read the posting!!

6'-9" John Isner who only got into the Open on a wildcard has won two rounds and now faces Roger Federer this afternoon. There is an incredible, yankee-jingo buzz about Isner's chances in this match and as the legendary "future of american tennis".

When asked about the matchup, Roddick summarized it succintly and accurately:

"Isner's going to be very tall," he said, "and Roger's going to be very good."

snap!

South Korea is more like the US than I thought

They even have prominent resume fakers!

Of all the recent revelations of résumé fraud here, the one involving a prominent Buddhist monk was perhaps the most shocking to a nation that values academic credentials almost as much as it does honesty.

The monk, the Venerable Jigwang, had transformed a temple in an affluent district of Seoul from a struggling collection of seven souls in 1984 to more than 250,000 members today, partly on the basis of his prestigious degree from Seoul National University, the country’s top academic institution.

“People swarmed in because they heard that a monk who had gone to a distinguished university was teaching the scriptures in English,” the Venerable Jigwang said at a confessional news conference on Aug. 18. “I think that the Seoul National University title more or less helped in propagation.”

Alas, he had no such title, and in that he was not alone.

After a news agency reported in July that an important art historian had faked her credentials, a nationwide wave of allegations and confessions followed that has so far swept up a movie director, a renowned architect, the head of a performing arts center, a popular comic book writer, a celebrity chef, actors and actresses, a former TV news anchor and now the Venerable Jigwang.

South Korea has been shaken as one prominent person after another has been exposed as having exaggerated, or fabricated, academic accomplishments.

The exposés have prompted prosecutors, the police, the Education Ministry and regional education authorities to announce plans to combat academic record fraud. Legislators have introduced a bill calling for a verification system.

I would like to take this opportunity to state once more for the record that, despite all appearances, and the University's claims to the contrary notwithstanding, Mungowitz and I really truly did graduate from Wash U.!!!