Wednesday, June 27, 2018

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).

Monday, June 25, 2018

Monday's Child is Full of Links!



1.  Interesting question: given that the "public" (that is, developers and construction companies) side is well-funded by tax dollars used for advertising and "education" programs about mass transit, is it illegitimate for private groups to try to balance the scale?  Even if it is the Kochs?  So-called mass transit tends to benefit wealthy neighborhoods whose residents want to go to sports events or go shopping.  If we really cared about mass transit, we'd end the stupid parking restrictions on new housing.  There is no "right" to free parking in densely populated urban areas. Just end the parking requirement, and the demand for mass transit will no longer be artificially suppressed by public policy.

2.  Rats devalue currency. I'm sure George Selgin has some Fed metaphor for us, but in this case its literally true.

3,  Wife sends husband back to jail.  She was right to do so, but still.

4.  Roger Stone is concerned that he might be indicted, because that would "suggest culpability."  Yes, yes, it would.  I understand the charges could be frivolous, and have to have innocent until proven guilty. But it would indeed be a bad sign if he is indicted.  I wonder if it's just a tactic to charge him with something, get him to plead guilty for immunity, and so on.

5.  Who are you going to believe? That outraged woman or some lying verbatim audio recording?

6.  If this is true, it is remarkable. And bad.

7. Rubies are red, sapphires are blue, but the Times just said, they're actually really the same mineral.

8. Prices, products, and wage stagnation. (tl;dr:  wages didn't stagnate) 

9. The case for free trade is unilateral. The case for free trade is unilateral. The case..... No, really, it's unilateral.  We should cut trade barriers even if our trading partners don't. If they want to tax their citizens, they get to do that. It says so in "The Big Boy Book of Governments."

10.  American see "media bias" everywhere. And they are not pleased.

11.  This is an actual refereed journal article. No, really. The dead cat is listed as a coauthor.

12.  Jubilee!  Or, pot jubilee, at least.  (In Hebrew tradition, Jubilee was a debt forgiveness year. Interesting incentive problems....)

13. There's a decent chance that within the next year Trump will start appearing in public wearing a uniform designed by some famous designer.  A military uniform.  If we keep doing stuff like this.

14. America is an idea. But it is not ONLY an idea.... And the part that is not an idea is fragile.

15.  Law schools need a new governance model.

16. The arguments for a "grand bargain" on immigration are not getting better.

17.  The Texas Health Department....standing for truth in pickles

Grand Lagniappe:  C'mon. Is it REALLY a surprise? I think we all knew....  Every once in a while, the cat gets a signal from the mother ship: "YOU ARE IN THE WRONG ROOM!  RUN!"  And off it goes, with an insane look on its "face." Alien.


Monday, June 18, 2018

Monday's Child is Full of Links

1.  News flash: People with below average income have below average income.  Seriously, these folks are shocked that poor people can't afford middle class stuff.  Does "middle class" just have no meaning?

2.  A list of summer reading lists.

3.  Why Canada should pay for blood plasma.

4.  It's raining octopus. That can't be right.

5.   J-Sess, the most evil AG in American history, actually quotes the Bible to support breaking up families.  If only there were some religion where the hero had been forced to hide from authorities were out to kill all the male children, and then had to live illegally under persecution. Maybe then we could understand people better. Or maybe if J-Sess had actually read Romans 13, all the way to verse 10, instead of just using the Cliff's Notes.

6. Netflix has a new "5 second rule." No eyeballin', there.

7.  Florida Man!

8.  Canada: You suck. Trinity Western decision is a blot on your copybook.

9.  Snake swallows woman whole.  I'm not convinced this is real. But it certainly is horrible.

10. Supermoon, in NYC.

11.  The "Data Science" course segment the EYM taught in Colombia.

12. The "Matthew Effect." Particularly prevalent, apparently, when a relatively unknown person, often a woman, is cited by a more famous person, often a man.  Later work cites the famous person who didn't actually do anything.

13.  Heterodox Academy. Full disclosure: I signed up.

14.  Not all sharing is done through markets. But much of it is now done through some software platform....

15.  Father Long's Sacred Nugget.

16.  This is a thing. Why?

Grand Lagniappe: Happy Father's Day to ME!






Wednesday, June 06, 2018

Supermoon

In NYC, the EYM took us to visit "Supermoon."  It's....well, it's this.

After we ordered (the pastries were, I grudgingly admit, fantastic, really something special) and while we were waiting for our order. There was a commotion.

A 40 year old woman and an extremely overdressed and overly made-up young woman (looked 15, could have been 22) came in and started demanding to speak to the manager. They wanted "...a box, for photographs. She's a blogger!" pointing to the younger woman.  I had never heard "S/he's a blogger!" used as an argument for "give me free stuff!" before, so I felt I was missing out.

They kept loudly demanding a free box of pastries and the chance to do some photos, because (and I'm totally serious) "She's a blogger!" This was said at least ten times, in an increasingly loud voice.

Eventually the manager came out, made the crazed women give back all the display items they had decided to just steal, and gave them a box with some pastries. The older woman took a bunch of photos of the young woman pretending to take bites, affecting surprise and / or delight, and so on. Then they finally left, after throwing away all the untouched pastries and the box they came in.

I got the EYM to take my picture, in front of the Supermoon boxes. And, I want the whole world to know:  "I'm a blogger! Give me free stuff!"