This is a controversial plan? Mind you, this is the city that had this in a restaurant that passed inspection: As this New Yorker article discusses (in great detail if you register to read the whole thing), everyone lies in the restaurant business. Quite simply, when preparing food for other people, the temptation is just [...]
Archive for February, 2009
NY Food Inspection
Posted in Food on February 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Bobby Jindal
Posted in Housing Policy, Obama, Television on February 25, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I understand that it’s tough to follow Barack Obama in the best of times, and just short of impossible when he has had weeks to prepare and your speechwriters have spent the past hour sequestered in a room frantically playing Mad Libs. Doesn’t help when your delivery sounds like a cross between the Grinch and [...]
Pick-Up Lines
Posted in Baseball, Miscellaneous on February 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
So some guy decides to impersonate a scrub major league baseball player impersonating other major league baseball players? How Shakespeare. Deadspin article One of the enjoyable aspects of the Madoff saga – one of the few enjoyable aspects, as some people lost a significant amount of money, and not all of the people were complete [...]
Sound and Fury Signifying Nothing
Posted in Meltdown, Obama, Television on February 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Way to stand up for your beliefs: Republican Governors Showing Courage I actually wish there were real strings attached. I wish the government told states that if they want to get Federal funds they need to take on the issues that got them into this mess – abolish Prop 13 in California, abolish rent control [...]
Housing Market
Posted in Finance, Housing Crisis, Housing Policy, Meltdown on February 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Case-Shiller 20 was down 18.5% year over year for December. (31.2%) change for the SF area, although curiously there are still folks who will claim that the drop is in outlying areas and core SF/Peninsula will hold up fine. Sure it will. NY is actually one of the better performing markets, down (9.2%) year-over-year, and [...]
Mean Girls
Posted in Drugs, Movies on February 24, 2009 | 1 Comment »
What were the odds that five years on, five members of the Mean Girls cast would have more promising careers than Lindsay Lohan? Rachel McAdams, Tina Fey, Amanda Seyfried, Lacey Chabert…even Amy Poehler. Would make a compelling commercial to keep kids off drugs.
Pull the Plug
Posted in China, Finance, Meltdown on February 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The government is supremely unable to get with the concept of sunk costs: Wall Street Journal The government owns AIG. Why not do what any other investor would do when faced with a company whose obligations far, far outstrip its ability to repay them? Declare bankruptcy. Just walk away. If the insurance assets have been [...]
Be Careful What You Wish For
Posted in Finance, Labor Policy, Meltdown, Politics on February 23, 2009 | 1 Comment »
So it seems there is some sort of movement to try to permanently alter finance comp. New York Times Wall Street Journal Great. But it seems folks are after two diametrically opposed goals: Longer term vesting/evaluation cycle. Instead of an annual bonus, tie the bonus to performance over several years, presumably because one year is [...]
Flying Coach
Posted in Football, Television on February 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I like Stacey’s decision. Of course, it’s a shame she isn’t going to be roaming the sidelines, doing something – remind me what the sideline reporter does, standing in a place with a terrible view of the game, while all the coaches are on the headsets with their guys in the press box who actually [...]
Oscars
Posted in Movies on February 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Were the Oscars always this boring? It could be foggy memory, but I seem to recall these things being at least modestly funny. I even remember the David Letterman year, which was funny in the sad way of watching an incredible talent bomb (“Oprah, Uma”). Goes to show that the skill of being a late [...]
