1. Driving through western Ohio on my recent vacation, I noticed a business called "Endless Endeavors." Unfortunately for the owners naming a business endless cannot hold back the perennial gales of creative destruction--the business was closed and its building for sale.

2. One of my favorite snippets of economics is Steve Landburg's telling of Peltzman's seatbelt research and driver safety in "The Armchair Economist." To the folks who think people don't change their driving behavior in response to perceived changes in risk, I offer another example. While motoring along I-75 in Ohio, I drove into a strong thunderstorm. And how did I and other drivers respond? We slowed down considerably, just as the Peltzman hypothesis would predict.

3. During our vacation my wife thought it would be fun to take Pee Wee to the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. While examining an exhibit documenting Henry Ford's failures in the airplane business, I had a snarky thought about the notion that Ford's success was partly attributable to his paying his workers above market wages. If this is such a winning strategy then it seems that Ford should have been able to similarly overpay his airplane workers and been successful in the plane business. (NB I wasn't impressed by Greenfield Village; of course your mileage may vary.)

4. A few months back the WSJ started a feature on philanthropy called "Giving Back" in it's Friday edition. I dislike the "Back" part--it suggests that donors have taken their wealth rather than earned it via mutually beneficial voluntary exchange. This is not a complaint about philanthropy--lot's of people do lots of good via charitable endeavors. For example, John Walton, who was recently killed in a plane crash, made large gifts to the Children's Scholarship Fund. Of course some giving isn't as effective--think Ted Turner and his gift to the U.N.

5. While excavating the pile of WSJs that accumulated on my desk, I noticed an article on Title IX (July 6) featured a photo of Danica Patrick. I also recall lots of references to Title IX during the coverage of Michelle Wie, Morgan Pressel, et al during the women's U.S. Open. Title IX may well be a wonderful thing, but I have a hard time seeing how it deserves credit for Patrick's success. How many high schools or colleges have auto racing teams? I suspect very few, if any. Likewise, I doubt teen golfers like Wie and Pressel have played on golf teams that wouldn't have existed but for Title IX. Then there are the foreign golfers like Birdie Kim and Annika Sorenstam who are not Title IX beneficiaries. Indeed, I suspect that most of their defeated opponents are Title IX beneficiaries.

6. Much has been made of the sluggishness of movie attendance/box office receipts this year. After returning home a couple of weeks ago, my better two-thirds needed a bit of a break from her 10 days home alone with Pee Wee. I loaded Pee Wee in the car and took him to the Herbie movie so my wife could get two hours of peace and quiet. Based on that experience it's easy to see why lots of folks opt for home viewing. The theater was freezing cold, the volume was too loud, and we had to sit through 8-10 trailers (some of which weren't suitable for a 4 year old). Then there are the expensive snacks and the lousy selection of movies that comes to our multiplex. By contrast, a family with a large tv and surround sound at home can control its surroundings and pick a film of its choice via on-demand services or Netflix.

An aside to my movie outing with Pee Wee: I'm pretty clueless about current celebrities--it hasn't always been this way but I've been pretty tuned out of movies and music since Pee Wee came along. For example, the other faculty at my IHS seminar had fun at my ignorance of Colin Firth. (I actually had seen some of his films but I didn't know his name.) Thanks to my outing with Pee Wee, my celebrity awareness is now improved--I can now identify Lindsay Lohan.