No Blizzard Yet
A friend whose opinion I value noted recently that my association of Dana
Levin with Fox News was an unfortunate choice of analogy. And he's right.
Not that I think you are among the few dozen souls who read this blog, Ms.
Levin, but I apologize for the slight.
~~~
Some interesting articles in the actual news part of WSJ:
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will pay $210 million in retention bonuses over the
next 18 months. The bonus recipients include approximately 80% of the
headcount of the firms, and represent bonuses of at least $100,000 to 92
employees, and a maximum bonus of $705,000 to one (apparently irreplaceable)
member of management. I find this incomprehensible, and not just as a
result of some populist hysteria. Silicon Valley is experiencing 10%
unemployment. Extremely skilled and experience engineers, scientists, and
managers in hundreds of firms around the country are facing pay freezes and
layoffs (and they don't make anything like the salary common in the financial
industry). It seems that every industry (including highly profitable ones,
such as pharmaceuticals and aerospace) is having to cope with the most serious
recession in decades. Except one. I'm sure the free market will lend
its invisible hand real soon now to deflate the bizarre compensation
expectations in the financial industry. It would be nice if Congress and
the Administration gave the process a little push, though.
Monster Cable Products Inc. is that company that makes ridiculously expensive
cables for your stereo and PC that every unbiased review and analysis show
provide no more efficacy than cheap versions of the same thing. One thing
that MCP is good at, however, is litigation. If you want to put "monster"
in your company or product name, expect a law suit. They have sued the
online jobs site Monster.com, Disney when they released "Monsters, Inc.", and
the Boston Red Sox for selling "Green Monster" hot dogs. All told, MCP has
filed 190 law suits to stop what they believe is an infringement on the
"Monster" moniker that they filed as a trademark in 1980.
AT&T (which is really SBC, which is the result of mergers among 11 of the
formerly spun-off Baby Bells, plus the much chastened former giant Ma Bell, but
I digress) has more full-time unionized workers than any American company.
And they want concessions from the union on company-sponsored health care
benefits. AT&T is actually only asking for a 10% contribution by the
employee, plus accepting some deductible (which is a lot better deal than 90% of
employees). Still, it's the first step in avoiding the kind of liabilities
that killed Detroit's operating margins (not that that was the only
issue, but it was a large part). The interesting upshot of this and
other company decisions is that Big Business is starting to look at national
health care as a pretty good idea.
Advertisement: 2008 Maserati Quattropore, White exterior, beige interior.
Ferrari-engineered 405 horsepower V8 engine. Seating for 4 adults.
$111,579. Contact Maserati of Cleveland.
Would you ever have imagined that there was a "Maserati of Cleveland"?
Paul Freedman reviews "The Song of the Cid", which chronicles the life of
Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, more popularly known
as El Cid. The epic poem follows El Cid, a man of modest origins,
throughout his attempt to make war, seek revenge, and enrich himself and his
mates. The friends include both Moors and Christians, while his enemies
are generally of the Spanish court.
~~~
Trish
proposes a new currency, an admixture of two Easter sensibilities.
~~~
More interesting items from
Emily: "Flowers
and skies were taken out of over 40 store bought puzzles and combined to form a
series of spectacular landscapes. Although puzzle pieces are unique and can only
fit into one place within a puzzle, they are interchangeable within a brand."
~~~
From
Crg Hill: "Skilled flarf internet technicians could design a software program to scan the web pages users view each session, then as users log out assemble poems from those scans. For example, on Sundays, the program could produce sonnets for its users based on the web pages viewed. On Mondays villanelles could be the choice (users of course, as artists, could choose the form they want), on Tuesdays the program could write poems in terza rima, on Wednesdays, hump day, it could deliver some beaming haiku, on Thursdays it could create tanka, on Fridays it could generate free verse poems, and on Saturdays, just in time for the evening social events, it could produce crowd-pleasing slam poems."
~~~
An enterprising man has
constructed a business card that can be transformed into a catapult.
~~~
I've always thought that a Rhodes Scholarship was an odd mix of academic
qualifications and some sort of sports involvement. I just
looked it up
and found a number of poets and
Kris Kristofferson in the list. Also Wesley Clark, Bill
Clinton, E. J. Dionne, Bobby Jindal and Rachel Maddow. Pretty eclectic
bunch of folks.
~~~
Madman Jim Cramer
declares the depression is over.
~~~
In a landmark decision, Walgreens has decided to cancel its prior
order for thousands of Chia Obama heads.
~~~
Of course, since a blizzard was predicted, none happened. It's been in the
low 40's with a little wind. No snow to speak of.