WhimsyLand

Here's a very interesting article on globalization from some economic heavyweights at the World Economic Update:

"So if you look at earnings by educational attainment for example -- let me just give you number if I can -- look at 2000 through 2005, the most recent year we have data for, and look at mean total money earnings by educational cohort.  And of all the workers in the U.S. economy in that period, the only educational cohorts that had increases in mean real earnings over that period -- so adjust for inflation -- were PhDs and people with professional degrees -- the doctors, the lawyers and the MBAs.  And that was only 3.4 percent of payroll jobs in 2005.  So during that period, not even college graduates and not even nonprofessional masters degrees -- who together account for about 29 percent of payroll jobs today -- their mean real earnings were falling over that period as well.  And that's a real change -- and Alan, correct me if you think I'm wrong, but think we just (don't ?) know yet what set of forces are contributing to those changes. "

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Funny stuff from the Sunday Boulder Camera: 

A new cookbook with the elegant and ingenious title of "I Like Food, Food Tastes Good" instructs you how to "cook like a rock star" and includes the favorite recipes of musicians from Decemberists, NOFX, They Might Be Giants, and Drive-By Truckers.

The U.S. has retaken the hot dog eating crown.  Joey Chestnut, 23, of San Jose, ate 59 hot dogs and buns to smash the former record of 54.75 "HDBs" set by Takeru Kobayashi.

Paul Newman donated $10 million to Kenyon College to help start a scholarship fund (apparently, none of it will go to the Kenyon Review).  Meanwhile, Governor Arnold supposedly bought a Cuban cigar while on a trip to Canada, which violates U.S. law, but his spokesman says you can't get the goods on him "now because he smoked it". 

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From this week's Time, which boasts a chocolate sundae on its cover (no, really):  10 Questions for that loveable Colorado nutcase, Tom Tancredo included "what evidence would convince you that global warming is a serious threat" and "if you are successful in barring illegal immigrants, what will happen to the economy?"  Mexico has no minimum age limit for matadors, so "children as young as 10 are picking up the sword".  The word "quarantine" (as in what's happening to the TB-afflicted Georgia personal-injury attorney who coughed his way across Europe) comes from the Latin for 40, the number of days that Venice required ships to stay anchored before landing during the Black Death.  Poland's official children rights watchdog will begin investigating whether Teletubbies are homosexual propaganda.  Joe Klein calls Mitt Romney a man "without a shred of courage or conviction".  Congressman John Dingell, whose surname at birth was Dzieglewicz) has spent decades defending Big Auto and is now serious about "taking on Global Warming".The Israeli occupation of Palestine is now 40 years old.  The Science of Appetite explains why 200 million Americans are over the ideal weight:  for most of human history, we were starving, and now we eat as much as we can, as often as we can.  How the World Eats shows these yummy photos of weekly food bought by families of different nations.  The German family spends $500 a week on juice, water, beer, fruit, vegetables, pastries, and what-not.  The Sudanese family spends $1.23 a week on fruits, nuts and eggs – water and unmilled sorghum is provided by NGOs.  I think the Mexican family had the best-looking spread.  ExxonMobile is spending 40% less on oil exploration than they did in 1981 (in constant dollars), but have radically increased the amount returned to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks.  The cast chat about Ocean's Thirteen, this from Matt Damon to the interviewer:  " You have us confused with deep thinkers.  You've already put more thought into why we did the movie than we did". 

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Der called from Amsterdam.  So far, he and Max have been to Paris, Nice, Trieste, Genoa, Rome, Florence, Venice, Strasburg, Munich and Antwerp.  His current "hostel" is a room on a houseboat.  He and Max made it to Venice and loved it, except for the prices.  They ambled into Harry's bar and Der was told he needed something more substantial than shorts to meet the dress code.  After window-shopping for a while and declining on $600 Armani slacks, Der found a store that sold "transparent white Disco pants", which barely passed muster at Harry's.  He and Max toasted Ernest with Bellinis that cost them 15 euros apiece.  I'm sure I will have more news about their adventure Wednesday, as they're flying home tomorrow.

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Weird.  I submitted to Hotel Amerika and got an email saying that they'd relocated to Columbia College (where Der goes to school).  I think that makes three fine journals associated with Columbia, including Court Green and Columbia Poetry Review.

There's some interesting work in Colorado Review.  More on that tomorrow.