As a Bollywood (popular Hindi cinema) fan, I enjoyed seeing – for the first time ever on a prime-time American network television – Bollywood actors (Anil Kapoor and Irrfan Khan) on stage for Slumdog Millionaire’s Best Motion Picture victory last night. It was a bonus that I was rooting for Slumdog Millionaire.

Even more prominent was Bollywood’s leading film composer, A. R. Rahman, who won an Oscar for best score, sang a nominated song (though singing is not his strong suit), then won a second Oscar for the song. To my ears, the Slumdog Millionaire’s songs are not Rahman’s catchiest work. He has scored something close to 5 films a year (with 4-6 songs per film) for the last 15 years, so he has an amazingly large body of work to try to top. Of the soundtracks I’ve heard, his catchiest songs are for the films Rangeela, Lagaan, and Taal. The first two are worth watching, especially the anti-tax pro-cricket Lagaan.

My favorite CD of Rahman’s music, by the way, is the instrumental covers (with remixes) album Rahmania by London’s brilliant Bollywood Brass Band.

An interesting account of how Rahman’s creative process works (and incidentally of how an Andrew Lloyd Weber - produced stage musical is put together) is available in Salaam: Bombay Dreams, a making-of documentary (with hours of extras) about Rahman’s London smash (but Broadway flop) Bombay Dreams.

In February 1909 there is a running theme in the NYT concerning indecency in the theaters. There have been several letters to the editor complaining about the license being taken by directors and actors, with some calling for censorship or at best a return to the "good old days." In the February 12, 1909 NYT there is a story reporting on a speech given by on Mr. Burnham, President of the Association of Theatre Managers:

Every self-respecting manager would like to be an Irving or a Daly," he [Burnham] continued, "but New York is a town of sensations. It runs wild after a reputation. Let but the word be passed that a play is broad or indelicate, and the town runs wild about it, while some play of merit, bright and entertaining, is laid on the shelf.

"Women are more to be blamed for this than men. No play can exist that is not patronized by women. When `Sapho' was put on a man haunted the box office to get tickets for himself and his wife, because the police had raided it. When the official ban was withdrawn the man returned the tickets and said in apology, `My wife doesn't want to see it now. She says it can't be so very bad after all.'"

In illustration of his point, Mr. Burnham told how while `Sapho' was drawing $18,000 a week, an adequate performance of "As You Like It" brought in only $200 a night. Lester Wallack's widow is now in want, he said, because her husband stuck to the standard comedies at $300 a night, when "Forbidden Fruit" was drawing three times as much."

"The lesson of theatrical history," he concluded," is that the theatre is made by the public, and when the public demands higher things the theatre will respond."

The idea that the public drives the theatre might also apply to professional sports where doping is decried on the radio and in the halls of Congress (neither of which directly affect player/manager/team owner wages) even while revealed preference at the events or for telecasts (both of which do directly affect player/manager/team owner wages) show that the public appreciates the outcome of the doping.

A guy with lots of time on his hands has ranked every original Beatles song, from 185 to #1. His commentary on each song is fun, too. The guy knows a lot about the Beatles.

I'll just list my top 15, knowing they could change tomorrow:

15. Ob-la-di Ob-la-da
14. Hard Days Night
13. I Feel Fine
12. Octopus's Garden
11. Back in the USSR
10. All My Lovin
9. The Ballad of John & Yoko
8. Paperback Writer
7. Lady Madonna
6. Drive My Car
5. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
4. Penny Lane
3. Ticket to Ride
2. I Saw Her Standing There
1. Here Comes the Sun

I'll allow comments for a little while if anyone wants to list or discuss favorites. I should note - to tie it to the theme of this blog - it pained me to leave off the Beatles great anti-tax anthem, the Taxman.

...or if I should expect to see it in my lifetime. From The Onion's archives, here's "Child-Safety Experts Call For Restrictions on Childhood Imagination." Here are the last three paragraphs:

"Many of the suggestions are really quite simple, like breaking down cardboard boxes or sewing cushions to couches so they cannot be converted into forts or playhouses," McMillan said. "Blank pieces of paper, which can inspire non-reality-based drawings, should be discarded unless they are used in one of our recommended diagonal folding and unfolding activities. And all loose sticks left lying in the yard should be carefully labeled 'Not a Sword.'"

Added McMillan: "Remember, if you see a single sparkle of excitement in their eyes, you haven't done enough."

On January 23, 1909 the SS Florida collided with the RMS Republic off the island of Nantucket (I missed the original story). There was considerable response by other ships in the area after the call "C.Q.D." went out over the wireless. This collision was the first time the call had been used after it was standardized in February 1904 (which sounds like a long time to me).

Here's a poem commemorating the "first responders" in this accident printed in the Jan. 28, 1909 NYT:

"C.Q.D.! C.Q.D.!!"
Binns sent it flashing out over the sea
To where'er a ship or a port might be -
"C.Q.D.! C.Q.D.!!"
On went the message of peril and fear,
Winging its way to whoever might hear
The call borne out on the ether's thin breath,
A cry of disaster and imminent death.
And, instant, wherever a ship could be found,
Homeward or outward or anywhere bound,
That caught the alarm, it turned in its course
And rushed through the dark with all of the force
Of steam-driven speed to rescue and save,
Heedless themselves of a possible grave
For them and their crews in the fog-covered wave.
And, again, as so oft, out of peril were born
Names that shall live till earth's final morn,
Names of true heroes as great as of old,
The records of daring and honor have told -
Ruspini and Sealby and Ranson, and he
Who fearless, persistent, sent over the sea
That call of distress, "C.Q.D.! C.Q.D.!!"

J.A. METS

We like to think that the paparazzi today is something new but it is really more of an evolution over time. For instance, the Jan. 13, 1909 NYT reports on the marriage of one John J. Evers. That name probably doesn't evoke a lot of interest from the average person. Perhaps the name is more recognizable after a hint from the baseball refrain "Tinkers to Evers to Chance"?

John Evers, the famous Cubs second basemen got married on January 12, 1909 and merited a total of 17 lines of text in the NYT. Here is the entirety of the story:

John J. Evers, the second baseman of the Chicago Cubs, this afternoon was married to Miss Helen Fitzgibbons, one of Troy's most popular young women. The ceremony was performed at St. Joseph's church by the Rev. Father Leo O'Haire, in the presence of relatives. The pride was attended by Miss Ellen C. Evers, a sister of the groom. Edward Wansbro of Albany, a cousin of the groom, was the best man. The second baseman's gift to his bride was a pair of diamond earrings. He gave the bridesmaid a diamond brooch and the best man a diamond stickpin.

Mr. and Mrs. Evers will spend their honeymoon in New York, Washington, and Palm Beach. They will return home Feb. 1.

An interesting question is why we have so much more paparazzi today than we did a century ago. Clearly there are influences on both the supply and the demand side. On the supply side there are two distinct influences: first the technology to distribute information about Britney and Paris is much more developed today than a century ago. Thus the costs of providing information about the rich and famous has declined. Ceteris paribus, we would expect a lower cost of production to lead to more coverage.

However, this is not guaranteed if those who are the subject of paparazzi focus truly wanted the paparazzi to go away. The rich and famous could lobby for legislation that would restrict the paparazzi snooping around their private lives, or they could continually sue individual paparazzi or their sponsors to drive up the cost of providing coverage of private lives. The fact that there are so few law suits in this area (regardless of the true legal standing of the claim), suggests to me that a) those who are the focus of paparazzi are resigned to their fate or b) are not that torn up about it. It seems, on the surface at least, that those subjected to paparazzi treatment often seek out the "coverage" in an attempt to improve their marketability, improve their image, or simply to "have a gas" at being in the magazines in the grocery store.

There are enough counter-factuals that suggest that famous people can keep a low(er) profile if they wish - I don't hear much about the daily goings-on of Clint Eastwood. Admittedly there seem to be times when famous people wish to keep a low profile and this desire is seemingly ignored, such as the case of Princess Diana. However, cases such as Princess Diana seem to be relatively rare. On the contrary, it seems the paparazzi provide a middle-man service to those members of the rich and famous who want to have some portions of their private lives exposed to their "fans." In return, the rich and famous pay for this service by suffering the "snooping." Perhaps the endogenously determined "price" between the paparazzi and the rich and famous leads to a natural limit for how far the paparazzi can go. If true, this would partially explain why the Diana-type scenario seems relatively rare.

On the demand side, there are a lot more people in this country who seem to have an insatiable appetite for other people's business. This is clearly not unique to the modern era, but the number of people and their willingness and ability to pay for information about where [insert name here] had a latte seems different than a century ago. Perhaps this is a function of affluence and increased leisure time which is filled with liviing vicariously through Tom Cruise rather than through Cousin Melba.

Another thought experiment is whether there is feedback between all-star salaries of athletes and actors and the interest people have in their daily lives. The feedback would arise if some/enough individuals feel a sense of "ownership" of their favorite athlete or actor, perhaps because they directly contribute to the athlete's/actor's high salary by attending games or movies. As interest in the private actions of the actor/athlete increases, this could cause an increase peoples' interest in the public/professional actions (such as games or movies) thereby increasing the salary of the athlete/actor.

While some condemn the paparazzi for invading the privacy of individuals, in many cases it is less clear whether paparazzi coverage is truly an "invasion." Both supply and demand-side effects seem to encourage more revelations of what might have been considered private or uninteresting behavior in the past.

From the Jan 10, 1909 NYT:

The man who forgets what he ought to know seldom knows what he ought to forget.

There isn't anything much more uncomfortable than a professional hero who has lost his job.

The hardest obstacle a man has to overcome is frequently himself.

The pen may be mightier than the sword, but the sword swallower generally makes more money than the poet.

The quarrelsome man should remember that a chip on the shoulder never won a jackpot.

From the January 10, 1909 NYT:

Man that is born of woman is small potatoes and few to the hill, and usually about as necessary as a smokestack on a watering cart.

He takes pride to himself, in his indomitable will, but it only needs an 89-cent alarm clock to wake him up in the morning.

Man goes about in a spike-tailed coat and a skyscraper hat and declares bridges and tunnels open "in the name of the Commonwealth," and he wouldn't know a Commonwealth if he fell over one.

His wife takes his name, his creditors take his money, his tailor takes his measure - but none of them take him seriously.

Man is merely a matter of opinion - his wife's opinion. And that is a serial without an end.

The January 8, 1909 NYT has the following poem:

A CENTURY OF PROGRESS

1809

It seems so rash, their setting forth
To Western wilds, this youthful pair,
Forsaking homefolk, comforts, friends,
For life of toil, privations, care!

A prairie schooner holds their all.
Through weary weeks they keep their way;
Cross dusty plains, ford swollen streams,
Dire perils brave by night and day.

Content when rough log cabin's built,
Secure from storm, from savage beast.
Still grateful for life's common joys;'
For land reclaimed for crops increased.

1909

Their grandson's coming East this week,
To see the home of his sires
In prairie schooner does not jolt,
But glides along on rubber tires.

His family quite comfy is
In car six-cylinder, or so;
Still, last year's model; chances are
He'll buy a costlier at the Show!

It would seem that a new stanza should be added. Suggestions taken.

And the greatest of these is ... ? Interesting essay:

Before Christmas I returned, after 45 years, to the country that as a boy I knew as Nyasaland. Today it's Malawi, and The Times Christmas Appeal includes a small British charity working there. Pump Aid helps rural communities to install a simple pump, letting people keep their village wells sealed and clean. I went to see this work.

It inspired me, renewing my flagging faith in development charities. But travelling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I've been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I've been unable to avoid since my African childhood. It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God.

Now a confirmed atheist, I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do.

President-elect Obama provided a short essay for "Teaching Tolerance," a website maintained by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Too bad that not all of his followers got the memo. This from the Chicago Tribune:

Catherine Vogt, 14, is an Illinois 8th grader, the daughter of a liberal mom and a conservative dad. She wanted to conduct an experiment in political tolerance and diversity of opinion at her school in the liberal suburb of Oak Park.

So just before the election, Catherine consulted with her history teacher, then bravely wore a unique T-shirt to school and recorded the comments of teachers and students in her journal. The T-shirt bore the simple yet quite subversive words drawn with a red marker:"McCain Girl."

"People were upset. But they started saying things, calling me very stupid, telling me my shirt was stupid and I shouldn't be wearing it," Catherine said.

Then it got worse.

"One person told me to go die. It was a lot of dying. A lot of comments about how I should be killed," Catherine said, of the tolerance in Oak Park.

But students weren't the only ones surprised that she wore a shirt supporting McCain.

"In one class, I had one teacher say she will not judge me for my choice, but that she was surprised that I supported McCain," Catherine said.

Only a few times did anyone say anything remotely positive about her McCain shirt. One girl pulled her aside in a corner, out of earshot of other students, and whispered, "I really like your shirt."

The next day, in part 2 of The Brave Catherine Vogt Experiment, she wore another T-shirt, this one with "Obama Girl" written in blue. And an amazing thing happened.

Catherine wasn't very stupid anymore. She grew brains.

"People liked my shirt. They said things like my brain had come back, and I had put the right shirt on today," Catherine said.

Some students accused her of playing both sides. "A lot of people liked it. But some people told me I was a flip-flopper," she said. "They said, 'You can't make up your mind. You can't wear a McCain shirt one day and an Obama shirt the next day.' "

The Oct. 29, 1908 NYT has two stories which deal with questionable medical conclusions:

Dr. L.E. Landrone...commended the modern corset. In an address before the members of the Women's Literary Club he declared that the stays were good for the reason that the torso muscles have been weakened for centuries through the generous support of the corset until now the average female form could not stand without its help...

The speaker said that the body was composed of chemical fluids at the mercy of emotions. Anger, hatred, sorrow poison the fluids of the body while love, cheerfulness, and happiness serve as eliminators of the motive fatigue poisons.

"Anger and hatred will poison forty-two fluids of the woman's body," said Dr. Landrone. "Pleasure stimulates, and that is why, when tired, especially when young, an evening of dancing and music will remove all signs of fatigue."

Another story is even more shocking:

ADVISES SMOKING FOR WOMEN

Dr. Rachel Skidelsky, one of the best known women physicians of Philadelphia, started a brisk discussion last night when, at a meeting of the Women's Club, she supported the right of women to smoke. She said that smoking would undoubtedly be beneficial to the fair sex if it were properly indulged in. To bear out her statements she produced scientific data.

In the course of her arguments Dr. Skidelsky stated that men found relief from worry by smoking. "If a woman would sit down for five minutes before beginning her day and give the time to a cigarette," said Dr. Skidelsky, "she would be able to plan better her day's work. And the five minutes used, three times daily, would be, I think, of much benefit to her.

Many physicians held similar views, said Dr. Skidelsky, but hesitated to advise their women patients to smoke because of a fear that what was offered as medicine might become a habitual indulgence.

Here's a very interesting TED Talk in which Virginia Postrel talks about glamour. And here's one of my favorite books for a penny plus shipping.

From the Oct. 13, 1908 NYT:

Waterbury, Conn. - Dennis Burns of Bridgeport and his wife made themselves objectionable on a trolley car running from Bridgeport to Waterbury last night. Because the man insisted on hugging and kissing the woman dramatically to the disgust of the passengers he was stopped at Naugatuck and arrested under an old blue law which says a man may not kiss even his wife in such a public and ostentatious manner.

Judge Hungerford did not care to entertain the charge of wife kissing on Sunday, and Burns has fined for disorderly conduct enough to make a total with costs of nearly $20.

Burns justified his conduct by the statement, "I love my wife dearly and have a right to kiss her, law or no law."

From the October 6, 1908 NYT:

A boy baby, six months old, will be raffled off at an Alton theatre Saturday evening. Commencing with this evening's performance a ticket will be issued to those in the audience, allowing one chance for the baby. No tickets will be issued to [African Americans] and bachelors.

The managers insist that their offer is genuine and is countenance by the authorities. The object of the raffle, say the promoters, is to obtain a good home for the baby. The winner of the child must be able to exhibit credentials as to his or her ability to care for it before the prize is awarded.

This sounds like a form of viral advertising to get people to attend the theater, as I find it difficult to believe that such a raffle would be allowed to happen, even in 1908 United States.

From the Oct. 4, 1908 NYT:

The difference between a burglar and a promoter of high finance is that a burglar would hesitate to rob the widow and orphan.

The good that men do may live after them, but it isn't so apt to keep on drawing interest as the evil.

The only way to get friends is to make them yourself.

A man's enemies will unconsciously do more to boost him into prominence than his friends.

A little learning is a dangerous thing, especially if it's about an automobile.

Many a man doesn't do anything worth while because he thinks it isn't worth while.

Any man can learn to love if the girl makes the lessons easy enough.

Searching in Tokyo's mammoth Tower Records for Japanese "eleki" ('60s instrumental rock n' roll) and contemporary Japanese surf bands, I discovered that CDs were organized alphabetically by band name, as usual, but alphabetically according to the Japanese alphabet. Bands whose names are in English beginning with R (e.g. the Royal Fingers) were shelved together bands whose names are in English begin with L. Apparently the same Japanese character is used for both R and L. That may explain the stereotypical conflation of the two sounds in English spoken by native Japanese speakers. (If I'm way off on this, please let me know.)

...if you're the kind of person who is likely to find yourself needing a hammer to open a bottle of wine, should you really be buying expensive wine? Steve Levitt offers evidence that could help us answer a better question: should you be drinking expensive wine at all?

Nonetheless, I find the idea inspiring. I'm the last person you would want to ask about wine, but instead of all the convoluted advice that you would get from an outlet like Wine Spectator or Bon Apetit, I propose the following parsimonious formula for willingness-to-pay for wine. The formula relies on proxy variables that should be highly correlated with individual type:

Willingness to Pay = f(time it takes to find your hammer, time it takes to find your corkscrew)

WTP is an increasing function of the amount of time it takes you to find your hammer and a decreasing function of the amount of time it takes you to find your corkscrew. If you could find your corkscrew blindfolded but aren't sure where to find a hammer (or aren't sure you even own one), you're probably a good candidate for expensive wine. If you know exactly where your hammer is but aren't sure where your corkscrew is (or if you even own one), you're probably better off saving your money. In either case, according to the research cited by Levitt, most of us who don't have extensive training probably can't distinguish between high- and low-quality wine.

If you're me, the formula breaks down because while I know where to find our hammers and while I think I know where our corkscrew is, I'm more or less incompetent with both. Therefore, I stick with coffee.

As of 1908, the United States didn't have a national anthem? This seems to be the case, given the discussion in the NYT during the Summer of 1908. Throughout that summer there were a number of candidates offered, but the odds favorite seemed to be the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

The August 22, 1908 NYT has this opinion:

All recognized critics agree, I believe, in calling the "Battle Hymn" one of the few great poetical productions of America. The lyrical structure of the piece is simple, yet superb. It is a truly passionate appeal. I fear, however, that the unpleasant memories it brings up in the South will prove too strong an objection to overcome.

A California band called Eve's Burden was kind enough to send me a digital press kit (I'm not sure why; perhaps somehow they saw some of my music posts). I felt obliged to honor their troubles and give a listen to the tracks that were available their website (www.evesburden.com). After a first listen, the songs are a little nondescript and the production quality seems a tad iffy on some tracks. "The Black Letter" has a good melody but I'm not really taken with the chorus. Their song "Love Keeps Me Hangin On" turns me off by rhyming "standing in the rain" with "tears of pain" immediately. One of my artistic pet peeves has been over-use of the cliched rain/pain coupling, but this is hardly unique to Eve's Burden--many bands I like do it a lot. It seems like space filler when the lyricist can't think of anything else to say. "Like A Wildcat" is rap-heavy, but Rage Against the Machine does it better. "The dogs are licking my face/I eat the leftover food from behind the pizza place" (followed by a second use of "face" as a rhyme) in "Peace to a Fool" doesn't really do much for me in a song that takes itself seriously. I'm pretty easy to please and a total skinflint, so the questions I would ask are as follows: is it worth a listen? Sure. Would I pay for it? No. But don't take my word for it. You can check them out at www.evesburden.com.

On the "rain/pain" thing: what do you think are the worst rhymes in rock songs? Comments are open; I nominate this gem from the third verse of Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive:"

"I walk these streets, a loaded six string on my back
I play for keeps, cause I might not make it back"

It's not nearly as good a question as the ones Steve Horwitz posted on The Austrian Economists a few days ago, but Josh et al. might find your answers useful for the "Abba to Zeppelin, Led" music site.

Celebrate "the original currency of kings". (A riff on the Original Kings of Comedy?) Available here.

HT: Peter Klein

In the last couple of years I have developed an interest in food as a metaphor for economic and social progress. I don't have much to add to what Tyler Cowen and others have already written on the subject, but I can offer some personal case studies. Over the next few weeks, I'll be experimenting with leftovers and some of the provisions I bought during a Sam's Club buying spree a few months ago. I claim no expertise, particularly since I don't have any culinary training, but if these ideas can be improved on by abler hands I would be happy to hear about it. Experiment #1, which involves leftover noodle soup from Pho Saigon and barbecue from Germantown Commissary, is discussed below the fold (cross-posted at www.blog.mises.org/blog).

George Orwell's diaries begin on August 9, 1938 -- so The Orwell Trust had the idea to post the entries online, one day at a time, exactly 70 years after they were written. You can read the first entry (and all subsequent ones, for that matter) here.

The deal is, scientists in Amsterdam have produced a "color X-ray" of Van Gogh's "Patch of grass" (1887) and found an earlier painting that the artist rejected. From the Reuters story:

"It is estimated that one third of Vincent van Gogh's early paintings have been painted on top of existing ones. Van Gogh literally recycled his own canvasses," scientist Joris Dik of the Delft University of Technology said.

Here is greater detail, including speculation that the rejected painting is tied to "The Potato Eaters."

Question: Why would Van Gogh "recycle"? Was canvas relatively expensive? Or was it driven by the artist's preferences? In Tyler Cowen's break out book, In Praise of Commercial Culture (1998), he writes on point (pp. 19-20):

Falling prices for materials have made the arts affordable to millions of enthusiasts and would-be professionals. In previous eras, even paper was costly, limiting the development of both writing and drawing skills to relatively well-off families. Vincent Van Gogh, an ascetic loner who ignored public taste, could not have managed his very poor lifestyle at an earlier time in history. His nonconformism was possible because technological progress had lowered the costs of paints and canvas and enabled him to persist as an artist.

Cowen's over arching theme is that the arts generally benefit from technological progress. French Impressionism, no less, would not have been possible without the invention of small lead tubes that allowed painters to take their studios outdoors, where the effects of different lighting were studied. But none of this directly answers why Van Gogh would recycle, much less why one-third of his canvases.

More questions:
Have paintings become larger over time as the price of canvas has fallen?
Does this lessen the relative value of "Patch of Grass"? Did Van Gogh hate the painting underneath sufficiently that he just wanted to cover it up? Or did he love the Patch of Grass so much it was worth covering up even the mysterious face?
Does an artist's economy of necessity lend itself to artistic innovation?
Does creative destruction describe artistic innovation? A recent favorite example of mine is Tom Nozkowski, as recently featured in W magazine.

If the canvas isn’t right, Nozkowski simply reworks it. “I don’t like tinkering. Whenever I go back to a painting, I try to open up the entire surface—you know, run a wash of color over it, or I’ll scrape it down, or I’ll rub it off with a rag—so that everything is back in play,” he says. “They can change pretty radically. I’ve always felt that probably the good stuff will keep coming back.” (To avoid that “Oh s---” sinking feeling that can arise from erasing something good, Nozkowski keeps paper handy to quickly re-create images worth saving before they fade from memory.) Traces of what came before are often left visible, like haunting memories or jumbled-up dreams. “It’s like character in somebody’s face,” Nozkowski says.... “I believe that what I’m doing is actually very close to our normal way of looking at and thinking about the world,” Nozkowski says before getting up to stir the roasted red pepper and white bean soup he’s cooked up for lunch. “We slowly build up a whole web of associations and meanings.”

I've written a rough draft of a review of Richard Land's interesting The Divided States of America? What Liberals AND Conservatives are Missing in the God-and-Country Shouting Match. Comments welcome.

An interviewer challenges folks in the street: did the following anti-evildoer quote come from George W. Bush or from the 1960s TV version of Batman? Great fun, and harder than you might think!

HT: The Lone Libertarian

Here's are the first and last paragraphs from an article in the New Scientist from May 2005:

A gun that spits out ball bearings after spinning them to extreme speeds is being developed by a US inventor. The novel design has already caught the imagination of some defence industry experts.

But Abrahams finds the idea outlandish. "Anything that seems so far beyond anything else is worth a moment's thought before you completely gulp it down," he told New Scientist. "It is way out on the side of the scale that deals with high levels of imagination."

All of this sounds intriguing until you read the July 25, 1908 NYT:

The science of war will be revolutionized and standing armies vastly reduced if a rapid-firing gun invented by William Patten of 270 West 136th Street can duplicate in the field the work of a ten-inch model which Mr. Patten has built and is demonstrating.

The gun is noiseless, and is fired without powder. And this is not all. Mr. Patten asserts that the gun can discharge bullets faster than they can be loaded into its magazine, and that the loading speed is therefore practically the only limit to the number of shots that can be fired. He maintains that 50,000 shots a minute can be discharged from this new weapon, and adds that he'll demonstrate this when he gets a full-sized one in commission.

The gun is fired by centrifugal force. All there is to it is a big wheel with a crank for revolving it. In the ten-inch model this can be turned by hand. A motor of fifty horse power would be required to turn the six foot model Mr. Patten hopes to built.

Via Steve Horwitz blogging at The Austrian Economists, here's an absolutely awesome episode of the Colbert Report. This won't be a supplement for econ 101 or economic history, but it's pretty cool.

Mrs. Carden and I saw Wall-E with my in-laws on Friday night. My take: very cute, visually spectacular, economically illiterate. Mike Hammock, who really liked it, offers a detailed discussion here. Writing for the Mises Institute, Gennady Stolyarov II is much less kind. The trailer for The Clone Wars was worth the price of admission.

A few questions and major, major spoilers are below the fold. Do not proceed unless you have already seen the movie or at least want to know how it ends.

1. Bill Hybels, Holy Discontent. We were in Birmingham over the weekend, and I picked this up yesterday at the bookstore at Gardendale's First Baptist Church. It was a very interesting book; my review (submitted to The Christian Century) is here.

2. My email, which included a notice that my paper "Sound and Fury: Rhetoric and Rebound After Katrina" has been accepted by the Journal of Business Valuation and Economic Loss Analysis.

*-Marginal Revolution.

My friend S. Taylor Williams has an online archive of songs by her defunct-but-not-forgotten band Poor Yorick. A steal at the price of $0.00.

We're spending the night in Bristol, VA on our way back to Memphis from Bryn Mawr. On our way down, we stopped at Bob's Shabu-Shabu in Rockville, MD for an excellent lunch with Tara Sinclair. There seems to be something appropriate about going to a restaurant with a multi-lingual, multi-cultural menu as part of our celebration of one of history's greatest experiments in liberty.

The latest study, from researchers at Liverpool John Moores University, included six boys and five girls between the ages of 13 and 15. The children were fitted with a calorie-counting monitoring device while they played games on the Xbox 360 and the Wii. The kids burned up to 66 percent more calories playing the Wii than the Xbox, the researchers found. That translates to about 179 calories burned an hour playing Wii tennis compared to 107 calories on the Xbox. At rest, a child expends about 70 calories.

But the most active game, Wii Tennis, fell far short of the calorie-burning effects of the real game. The researchers estimated kids playing real tennis for an hour would burn about 270 calories.

That's "Wii Video Workouts Don't Beat Real Sports," from the NYT's informative blog, Well. Personally I think Wii boxing is more of a workout than Wii tennis.

From The Manolo (the most charming blog for extraneous definite articles and third-person self-references), a fun post, "The Pope Does Not Wear Prada"

The Devil may wear Prada — but the Pope does not, according to the Vatican.

The pontiff has been hailed as a "style icon" since his election just over three years ago and speculation has been rife that he enjoys designer clothes. Attention has focused not only on his often elaborate headgear and fashionable sunglasses but also on his dainty red shoes, or moccasins, widely assumed to be made by Prada.

However L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, categorically denied reports today that the shoes were a Prada product, saying this was "of course false". According to Vatican sources the Pope's shoes are made by a cobbler from Novara called Adriano Stefanelli, who makes them from calf or kid for the winter and nappa leather for the summer.

Full story here.

From the June 28, 1908 NYT:

The black sheep of the family may really be a blonde.

Don't waste your time. You will need it all before you die.

It seems as though only the wealthy can afford to have no manners.

We all know a sure cure for the other fellow's ills.

Wise is the man who wants no more than he can get.

The eleventh commandment might very well be, "Mind your own business."

Pour a little out for George Carlin, who died of heart failure Sunday. The link is to a long article carried by Reuters:

Known for his edgy, provocative material developed over 50 years, the bald, bearded Carlin achieved status as an anti-Establishment icon in the 1970s with stand-up bits full of drug references and a routine called "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television." A regulatory battle over a radio broadcast of the routine ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the 1978 case, Federal Communications Commission vs. Pacifica Foundation, the top U.S. court ruled that the words cited in Carlin's routine were indecent, and that the government's broadcast regulator could ban them from being aired at times when children might be listening.

...

Carlin wrote three best-selling books, won four Grammy Awards, recorded 22 comedy albums, headlined 14 HBO television specials, and hosted hundreds of variety shows. One was the first episode of "Saturday Night Live" in 1975, when he was high on cocaine.

Ordinarily I probably wouldn't blog this, but I recently invoked Carlin in a post on innovation and the environment that I titled after one of his lines, "The Earth...plus plastic." The Earth will miss you, George.... Or not.

I just gave a "Brain Candy" talk to students at the Rhodes summer Writing Institute on an economics lesson from the Simpsons episode in which Homer tries to gain weight so he can qualify for disability. At the end, I mentioned the fact that all South Park episodes are now available online, at no charge, with very short commercial breaks during the episodes.

"In general, I think product differentiation expressive of differing values is a very good thing for a free, pluralistic society... If we can have 20 different brands of toothpaste, why not a few different conceptions of how pharmacies ought to operate?"

That's Loren Lomasky as quoted in a Washington Post article on the marketization of conservative Christian beliefs through drug stores that don't sell contraceptives and such. Indeed, as the article describes, an abundance of choice is apparently emerging in the marketplace.

Some pro-life pharmacies are identical to typical drugstores except that they do not stock some or all forms of contraception. Others also refuse to sell tobacco, rolling papers or pornography. Many offer "alternative" products, including individually compounded prescription drugs, as well as vitamins and homeopathic and herbal remedies.

"I'm very, very troubled by this," said Marcia Greenberger of the National Women's Law Center, a Washington advocacy group. "Contraception is essential for women's health. A pharmacy like this is walling off an essential part of health care. That could endanger women's health."

Several states have passed or are considering legislation.

With every passing day I become more convinced that we are in a cultural golden age: more artistic output of higher quality is available to more people at lower prices than ever before. I'm particularly interested in the processes by which knowledge and cultural forms are re-combined to create new cultural output. A friend showed me this video of someone giving a virtuoso performance of Pachelbel's Canon on electric guitar; it has close to 45 million Youtube views. So I ask: is it art? Comments are open.

The June 7, 1908 NYT has the following quips:

Few men believe they are working for all they are worth.

It is hard to be an enthusiast without being something of a liar.

"Joy cometh in the morning," but not if you've been making a night of it.

Many a man's popularity begins and ends with himself.

In looking ahead some people are entirely too previous.

It's a safe plan to believe only half you hear, and then forget most of that.

When a man complains that he is unable to collect his thoughts it may be because there are none coming to him.

and these from the "Dyspeptic Philosopher":

The man who is long-headed is seldom short-sighted.

It is better to swallow your pride than to chew the rag.

Revenge is sweet, when it isn't an instance of sour grapes.

A few minutes ago I clicked an ad (?!) at www.adbusters.com for a really cool shirt, but the $34 price tag was way too much for me. The other shirt in the Adbusters shop was only $29, but it wasn't nearly as clever. By comparison, here's the Bureaucrash shirt store, with better selection, prices that are about half of what Adbusters is asking, and more sizes (I prefer XXL; Adbusters only goes up to XL). I might need to pick up something to complement one of my favorite shirts. If I actually make a few bucks with the futures market trading I mentioned yesterday, I might have to get this. I wonder what Ayn Rand would say?

Just to prove that there are no "new problems" only "our problems" the May 30, 1908, NYT has a letter to the editor concerning Italian immigrants:

Italians come here to better the condition. They come here in response to demand for their labor. As long as these demands are made they will continue to come, and no missionary work in the world can stop them. Admitting this fact, it is desirable that they should become American in thought and aspiration in the shortest time possible. This can only be done by having them learn about American life and institutions through a knowledge of the English language. The danger Italians run here through the demonstration of the "Black Hand," as pointed out by "An American" [a previous letter writer], would therefore necessarily end, for of course no Americanized Italian would think of paying blackmail to a criminal countryman.

Now, as to this criminal countryman: His presence here is due to inadequate immigration laws rather than to a laxity in enforcing extradition laws. Possibly "An American" will be able to tell his Government how to keep the criminal Italian out; possibly,also, he may have some special ideas as to how the good Italian can be made a useful American citizen without a knowledge of the English language and without a knowledge of American institutions.

Memorial Day 1908 was celebrated on Saturday May 30 (I suppose the labor movement had not yet lobbied for the National holiday). An editorial in the May 30, 1908 NYT shows two things: a) for statists, the 100 years war continues (indeed, with a few victories), and b) how far the editorial page of the New York Times has moved in the past 100 years:

To-day, by National agreement, we remember the dead who gave their lives for the preservation of the Republic and its Constitution, its just laws for every man, the liberty it insures to all alike. Most of the people of this broad land believe that its Government is the wisest and best ever established by man, its institutions the safest. From time to time they may develop obvious defects which must be judiciously corrected; there is nothing perfect in the works of man. But the country since the beginning has been one providing the best chance to the honest, sensible human being to develop body, mind, and soul; a country worth dying for.

A small but vociferous number of our fellow-citizens, scattered in all parts of the country, seem bent on its destruction. They are trying to change it into a huge Socialistic community, in which the chances of individual development shall be restricted, and industry and talent hampered. They demand, insanely, the demolition of the Government, and the substitution for it of a vaguely constituted paternal machine which shall support the incompetent and lazy at the expense of the competent and industrious. They clamor for State insurance against unemployment, accident, and the diseases incidental to old age. They demand the abolition of private ownership in productive property.

If they could have their way the Republic would be destroyed and a tyrannical form of government, with an imperator or dictator at the head, eventually established. That i the lesson of history. Of course, they will not have their way, but they are doing much to unsettle the minds of the young, to stir up the discontented, to check progress. It is well to bear in mind, in to-day's ceremonies, what they are striving to accomplished.

The blood that was shed for the preservation of the Union would be shed in vain would be shed in vain in independence and the right of every man to make his way in the world, so long as he respects his neighbor's rights, were denied under the Stars and Stripes. The heroes of the Union fought and died for the Republic as it is. The people who are crying out for the abolition of the Supreme Court, and of the President's veto power, and the other safeguards of the Nation, can have no sympathy with today's exercises, and no tender regrets for the sacrifices of our National heroes.

Wow!! If there were more editorials like this, I might actually read contemporaneous newspapers. It is a shame that both major parties seem content going down the road many seem to have found troubling 100 years ago.

Cross-posted at Heavy Lifting

Regarding my earlier post about "thinkiness," co-blogger Bob sent me an email about one of Hayek's favorite words, "scientistic," which is not in the Urban Dictionary. The Urban Dictionary is a slang dictionary that strikes me as an opportunity for armchair lexicographers to have their voice. I checked and "scientistic" does have definitions in the unabridged Merriam-Webster dictionary, www.dictionary.com, and the OED.

*--Do you know the reference?

For your weekend enjoyment, here's a fascinating TED talk by lexicographer Erin McKean entitled "Redefining the Dictionary."

A few weeks ago I started using the term "thinkiness." In academia, one might say that something is very "thinky" if it is heavy on big ideas but light on precision. It's a quality I'm trying to expunge from my own work. I googled it this morning to see if there was a commonly accepted definition. Google helps us find out that there is indeed nothing new under the sun: I got 1100 hits, but couldn't find a clear definition after scanning a few entries. There was no entry at urbandictionary.com, so I proposed the following, which is under review by their editors:

Thinkiness
noun. The appearance of careful consideration, importance, substance, or profundity while lacking each.

Adjective: thinky.

cf. truthiness [NB: "truthiness" was Merriam-Webster's 2006 Word of the Year]
1. The book was a masterpiece of thinkiness: there were a lot of big ideas, but it wasn't at all clear what the author was actually saying.

2. The ideas here are half-baked; cut down on the thinkiness and try to increase the substance.

etymology: 1100 hits in a Google search conducted on May 22, 2008, no immediate definition proposed.

The May 14, 1908 NYT has a four line "story" that would today generate hundreds of pages of print, hundreds if not thousands of hours of air time, and perhaps a march of several thousand in Washington:

The Senate to-day passed without amendment the House bill restoring the motto "In God We Trust" on coins of the United States.

From the May 11, 1908 NYT:

One night in jail was enough for Edwald Siebert. Rather than pay a fine of $10 and costs, assessed on a charge of being disorderly, Siebert, who is 60 years old and reputed to be worth $60,000, declared he would work it out in the county workhouse.

After spending last night in a cell, Siebert sent for his secretary and had him go to Justice Wangelin's court and pay $18.50, the fine and costs.

City Journal has a retrospective of of the 1968 student protests, most notably the May 1968 Paris unrest. Six accomplished contributors talk about the political, sexual, journalistic, and other cultural inheritances of the 60's. I don't pretend to know a lot about those days; I'm barely a sixty-niner myself (born with 33 days left in the decade). But these six essays leave me with the impression that the events of 40 years ago had an influence that was narrow and misdirected. See below the fold for my top three excerpts. The whole thing is worth a read. Hat tip, Emilio Pacheco.

Sun- and keg-filled yards
Dozens tossing “cornhole” bags
One group playing Jarts!

Good summary statement from the NYTimes:

In truth, movie plots operate according to a self-contained value system that has only an occasional relationship with the real. In movie-think, media figures, at least lately, tend to be much worse than they really are. (One hopes.) Think of Meryl Streep as the nightmare magazine editor in “The Devil Wears Prada,” or Katie Holmes as the skunky reporter in “Thank You for Smoking.”

Dumb slackers, by contrast, are basically good. So it will be in the coming “Pineapple Express,” about a couple of dope smokers on a tear; “Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantánamo Bay,” also about a couple of dope smokers on a tear; and “Step Brothers,” about a couple of feckless middle-aged men who get stuck with each other when their parents marry.

But those who produce things or manage wealth have almost always been the worst.

From "How 'Dallas' Won the Cold War":

Joseph Stalin is said to have screened the 1940 movie "The Grapes of Wrath" in the Soviet Union to showcase the depredations of life under capitalism. Russian audiences watched the final scenes of the Okies' westward trek aboard overladen, broken-down jalopies -- and marveled that in the United States, even poor people had cars. "Dallas" functioned similarly.

"I think we were directly or indirectly responsible for the fall of the [Soviet] empire," [Actor Larry] Hagman told the Associated Press a decade ago. "They would see the wealthy Ewings and say, 'Hey, we don't have all this stuff.' I think it was good old-fashioned greed that got them to question their authority."

In Romania, "Dallas" was the last Western show allowed during the nightmare 1980s because President Nicolae Ceausescu was persuaded that it was sufficiently anti-capitalistic. By the time he changed his mind, it was already too late -- he had paid for the full run in precious hard currency. [...]

After the dictator and his wife were shot on Christmas Eve 1989, the pilot episode of "Dallas" -- with a previously censored sex scene edited back in -- was one of the first foreign shows broadcast on the liberated Romanian TV. Over the next few years, Hagman became a ubiquitous pitchman in the country for firms such as the Russian petroleum company Lukoil ("The Choice of a True Texan").

The dog attack, shark attack, mountain lion attack, or, in general, the "fill in the blank" attack story is a prime example of how the media can generate a crisis even in the face of overall declines in such attacks. The lowly pit bull has been through a rocky patch for the past ten to fifteen years, although I understand that there is some inherent danger with those and other particular breeds.

The old adage "if it bleeds, it leads" is a common criticism of today's media, but the adage simply represents the form of competition in which local news outlets, especially, find themselves engaged. My guess is that the two, three, or four local news outlets find themselves in a prisoner's dilemma where all of them run with the "worst" of local incidents because the perceived (or actual) benefit of leading with the "good news" isn't as great.

Nevertheless, the "dog bites child" story is evidently not new (go figure), as the April 25, 1908 NYT reports:

ELIZABETH, N.J. - While playing with a pet bulldog near her home, 310 Morris Avenue, here to-night, Bessie Berglund, 8 years old, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Gustave Berglund, was bitten so severely on the right thigh that she will probably have to have her leg amputated to save her life. It was necessary for Frank Scheer, a neighbor, to shoot the dog before he would release his grip.

Paul Koontz goes to North Korea:

No mention is made of a grand architectural achievement. I wonder what Howard Roark would say?

From the April 9, 1908 NYT (if true):

ST. PAUL, Minn - Knute Ohnstead died here to-day from starvation, after an attempt to fast for forty days in order to demonstrate his theory that the mind controls the body and that the mind is mightier than matter.

Ohnstead's fast lasted 31 days.

Fans of CBS' "Moonlight" are so passionate about the vampire drama that they're willing to sacrifice their own blood to keep the series on the air.

Teaming with the Red Cross and online protest rally point YouChoose.net, "Moonlight" viewers are organizing a nationwide blood drive to garner network support for a second season. They claim that more than 3,000 fans have pledged to donate a pint.

I hope they succeed--my sister works on the show. Source.

By email from Emilio Pacheco, COO of Liberty Fund:

John Milton born in 1608 is celebrated in two exhibitions, at the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, and the University of Cambridge Library. The links below will take you to the websites for these exhibitions.

http://www.cems.ox.ac.uk/citizenmilton/index.shtml

http://www.christs.cam.ac.uk/darknessvisible/index.html

The latter has a series of worthwhile yet breezy essays on Milton's influences. The little section on Milton's and today's pop culture is interesting. I found a nice connection to one of my favorite novels and novelists:

Several modern novelists have also drawn a lot of inspiration from Milton's work. Pullman aside, the poet has also deeply inspired the American novelist Paul Auster, whose postmodern New York Trilogy (1985-86), picks up several Miltonic themes including the nature of Paradise and the relationship between words and things (both works are haunted by the idea of a perfect language).

I first read Paradise Lost in its entirety for a Liberty Fund conference. A conference on Milton and Auster would be a good one. Hmmmm....

From the March 8, 1908 NYT:

Time is money, but we can't pay our debts with it.

We wouldn't mind the unexpected if it didn't happen so often.

A sermon is sometimes based upon a text, and sometimes upon a pretext.

On March 4, 1908 in Cleveland, Ohio, a fire at Lake View school in Collinwood killed 165 children and 2 teachers (one died while guiding some children to fire escapes). The entire student population was 310 children, thus more than half died in the fire.

The story unfolds much like we have come to expect. The fire started in the basement from an unknown source (perhaps arson), the fire gong was sounded but everyone acted as if it were only a drill. Thus, only those on the first of three floors were able to get out of the building in time. It is claimed that the doors opened inward and therefore the press of panicked students from the upper floors precluded opening the doors.

All drills had used the front door as the primary exit, but the front door was inaccessible by the time the kids from the upper floors reached the first floor. This, in turn, made progress to the back door of the school somewhat chaotic. Then, it turns out the rear door was locked. Those children who made it to the bottom of the stairs tried to return to the upper floors but were met with more students coming down the stairs. The article points out "[w]hat happened at the foot of that first flight of stairs will never be knwn...[a]fter the flames had died away, however, a huge heap of little bodies, burned by the fire and trampled into things of horror, told the tale."

The paper provides a list of those children who had been identified. In total, they listed 120 of which 100 had ages reported. Here are the descriptive statistics and a histogram:

    Variable |       Obs        Mean    Std. Dev.       Min        Max
-------------+--------------------------------------------------------
          age |       100        9.97    2.341781          6         15

Thank goodness these type of events are incredibly rare.

Wikipedia Entry (with pictures) here: The Wikipedia entry reports that the doors didn't open inward. The original NYT article suggests that the building was designed with doors that opened outward but that it was not clear how the doors had been installed.

Admittedly, I usually get creeped out most of the time while listening to NPR's Morning Edition. But today was especially creepifying. The headline on the website sounds great: "Creative Play Makes for Kids in Control." Unfortunately, the actual story is about stifling creativity:

In a normal preschool, playing bookstore would be a pretty casual affair. They would just pick up some books, set the shiny toy cash register on the table by the blackboard, and get down to business.

So before Emmy and Zee even think about picking up a toy, they sit down with their teacher at a small classroom table and fill out some paperwork.

Basically, the kids write out a plan of what and how they are going to play. I know, the "plan" part seems to diminish the "play" part. Am I wrong to be creeped out by the idea that kids may feel obligated to get permission or seek assurance from an authority figure before they can satisfactorily play?

"Regulating behavior." "Play plans." I know Hayek is dead, but he did win a Nobel. I guess the idea of unregulated socities resulting in spontaneous order is passe.

From the Feb. 27, 1908 NYT:

A $12,000 pearl and diamond necklace was reported to have been lost this afternoon in Poinciana Garden, and a $500 reward was this evening offered for its return to "Frank of New York."

There seems to be a good deal of mystery about the affair.

The alias might have been an attempt to avoid a black-mail situation, but revealing the value of the necklace [about $270,000 in 2006 dollars] would seem to have invited whoever has the necklace to ask for a higher reward or to fence the item at a value between $12,000 and $500.

This is nothing new but interesting, I hope. I've recently been reading different sorts of parables. I'm struck by the economics and policy implications in many of them.

Some of my favorites:
-Absence makes the heart grow fonder (diminishing marginal utility).
-A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush (depends on your discount rate).
-Don't cry over spilt milk (sunk costs).
-Don't put all your eggs in one basket (diversify your portfolio).
-Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater (heterodox schools of thought).
-Don't lock the stable door once the horse is gone (sometimes it's better not to rebuild).
-The game isn't worth the candle (information costs).
-Good fences make good neighbors (property rights).
-Life is short; art is long (structure of production).
-There's no accounting for tastes.
-Too many cooks spoils the broth (diminishing marginal product).
-You can't have yoru cake and eat it too (opportunity cost).
-You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs (creative destruction).

Tyler Cowen's favorite Haitian proverbs offer similar implications.

Menken speaks to Art's post below about systematic voter beliefs.
"Noone ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people." (Of course, we know it's the low costs of being wrong, not intelligence, at issue.)

A good Chinese proverb for the classroom:
-He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask is a fool forever.

A couple of Mexican proverbs I managed to retain,
-Hay mas tiempo que la vida (there is more time than life).
-Salud, amor, dinero, y tiempo para gustarlo (health, love, money, and time to enjoy)

The Bartleby Dictionary of Cultural Literacy has a nice introduction in its entry on Proverbs:

Well, back to work. As they say, it's best to make hay while the sun shines.

Do you have some favorites, comments open.

An article concerning the march of prohibition across the South from the Feb. 21, 1908 NYT includes the following poem:

Lay the jest about the julep in the camphor ball at last,
For the miracle has happened and the olden days are past,
That which made Milwaukee famous doesn't foam in Tennessee
And the lid in Alabama is as tight locked as can be
And the comic paper Colonel and his cronies well may sigh,
For the mint is waving gaily
And the South is going dry.

By the stillside on the hillside in Kentucky all is still,
And the only damp refreshment must be dipped up from the rill.
North Car'lina's stately Governor gives his soda glass a shove,
And discusses local option with the South Car'lina Gove.
It is useless at the fountain to be winkful of the eye,
For the cocktail glass is dusty,
And the South is going dry.

It is water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.
We no longer hear the music of the mellow crystal clink
When the Colonel and the General, and the Major and the Judge
Meet to have a little nip to give the appetite an edge,
For the eggnog it is nogless and the rye has gone awry,
The punch bowl holds carnations,
And the South is going dry.

From the Feb. 9, 1908 NYT:

Poets are born, not paid.

Too many cooks spoil the intelligence office.

All things come to those who wait on themselves.

Be careful how you grasp a red-hot opportunity.

Sometimes an exploded theory doesn't even wake up the theorist.

An expert is a man who is able to impress us with how little we know.

The philanthropy of some men consists of a willingness to pass the hat.

Pride goeth before a fall, and it doesn't soften the bumps any at that.

The trouble with some people is that they believe twice as much as they hear.

Would you wear this?

Okay, let me rephrase. Do you think you'd see anyone wearing this in public?

What you see is part of Carolina Herrera's fall 2008 collection shown Monday in New York. Here are some more moderate examples based on the same ideas. And here are some other design goodies of various wearability.

As Carolina Herrera said in a related interview, fashion week is not about every day life. For her it is about "fantasizing." Yes, mass market apparel has little resemblance to runway offerings, especially during the showcase that is fashion week. However, the experiments that occur at that high level of abstraction--those ideas--are crucial to the designs that appear in stores the following season.

High-level, abstract ideas can at first only be appreciated by niches of expertise and taste. Through analysis, imitation and reformulation, such abstract ideas can be diffused to broader and in some cases eventually mass populations.

I don't understand any of the programming that makes this blog possible. To me it's as difficult to comprehend as it would be to see a woman on her morning commute wearing Herrera's feather tweed hat. But the fact that programming-dummies like me click at the keyboard, as I'm doing now, is the sole motivator of the experts at MovableType. The consuming public doesn't think about spontaneous orders, but those abstract ideas matter to "how Paris gets fed." Cell phone users don't know the difference between a Becker-DeGroot-Marshak and a Vickery auction, but these made over 200 million cellular subscribers possible.

With fashion, we get a visual on the general relationship between the abstract and the concrete. Tracing ideas "from the catwalk to the sidewalk" offers clues for how ideas matter generally and for social change more broadly. Because fashion ideas enjoy little intellectual property protection, the imitative force is very strong. Many of the design ideas that are now appearing at fashion week will not take long to cascade down through the boutiques, department stores, and eventually big boxes. Even a modest income can afford to have a look that is both in taste and in fashion. Paris gets clothed, too.

Whenever I get the bright idea that I might want to write something, you know really write something real, not a journal article or book that no one cares about, but something interesting that real people might want to really read, I read something by James Lileks, and crawl sheepishly back into my dark cave.*

Check out Lileks' latest about a contest at Freakonomics to create a six-word motto for the U.S.:

Hundreds of snippets of derisive snark. You can picture the satisfied little grins on the authors’ faces; you can imagine the whole tableau – the computer (which most people in the world will never touch, let alone use, let alone own) the TV in the corner connected to a network that has channels catering to every taste, the iPod stocked with music hoovered up free of charge without consequence, the fridge stocked with food – the light comes on when you open the door, too, unless it’s burned out, and then you go to the store and get another one; they always have another one. The soft bed, the coffee machine, the well-fed pet, the vast panoply of free information and unfettered opinion flowing 24/7 from the internet. You can drink alcohol without being sentenced to death; you can be a girl alone in a room with a man without earning a public stoning; you can stand up in a room and argue for the candidate of your choice without being arrested; you stand in a society that allows for astonishing amounts of freedom, comfort and opportunity. But.

*nice run-on sentence dontchathink?

According to a survey of 3000 UK residents taken by UKTV Gold television,

nearly a quarter think Winston Churchill was a myth while the majority reckon Sherlock Holmes was real. … 23 percent thought World War II prime minister Churchill was made up. The same percentage thought Crimean War nurse Florence Nightingale did not actually exist. … Meanwhile, 58 percent thought Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective Holmes actually existed …

Hat tip: Fleeman

When less is more.

Fashion is one of the greatest forces in present-day life. It pervades every field and reaches every class. Fashion leads business and determines its direction. It has always been a factor in human life but never more forceful, never more influential and never wider in scope than in the last decade, and it gives every indication of growing still more important.

I'd bet even the fashion statement-making New York Giants wouldn't guess what year those words were published. The quote is the opening paragraph of the preface of The Economics of Fashion by a Professor Paul H. Nystrom, published in 1928. A decade after the end of war, and nearing the end of a 21-month economic expansion on the eve of the depression. Any recession coming up is likely to be pretty mild historically. Our current expansion is going on 75 months and the one before that was 120. But still. Nystrom's words seem to ring pretty solid today.

Is the fashion industry procyclical? Of course it is. Fashion is a luxury good, so demand for it moves in the same direction with income. Everyone expects a recession. Consumer confidence is down. Job growth is dead in the water. Luxury brands are in for lean times, just like people are expecting lower spending on vacations, cosmetic surgery, and domestic help. So designers are competing for slices of a shrinking pie. But couldn't this easily spur even greater creativity and innovation, so that despite being in an economic slump the fashion cycle is booming? At fashion week, necessity is all that (!), plus the mother of invention.

Certainly, less business will be done than usual, and some designs will be muted, industry experts say. But at the same time, some designers will interpret the financial downturn as an excuse to turn up the fashion excess.... Just when you would think things would be more conservative, there are likely to be more lavish, extreme displays on the catwalk, Aguiar said. "If anything, people will be more desperate to get attention that they think is going to generate business,"...

Does anyone know what spending on fashion is annually, or maybe how cyclical it is?

Had too much stimulus? Not super psyched about football? Then grab your Manolos and give New York's fall fashion week a try beginning Friday through Feb. 8. New York's is the oldest, but dozens of cities globally now have fashion weeks. Wikipedia's list of cities with fashion weeks is good but incomplete. From the official website:

The international coverage of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week shines the spotlight on New York City and the many talented designers presenting on the runways in Bryant Park. Over 100,000 guests are expected to attend, including some 3,000 members of the press and fashion industry from around the world. The journalists, photographers, broadcasters and bloggers convening in the iconic tents, designed this season as a Greco Roman "Temple of Fashion," will bring the Fall 2008 Collections to fashion-lovers worldwide.

Emphasis added... Why should DOL readers care about fashion? I'll take a stab at that with a series of posts in the week to come.

Okay - I admit to a misleading title. The Jan. 23, 1908 NYT reports:

RIFLES FOR SCHOOLBOYS

Congress May Aid Public Schools in Encouragment of Marksmanship

---

It is probable that within two weeks a bill will be introduced in Congress with a view to the encouragement of marksmanship among the schoolboys throughout the country, and supplying them with rifles and ammunition. The bill wil have the indorsement of President Roosevelt, who is known to favor the project...

Shooting is a growing sport among the schoolboys of this State,and the lads have made marked progress in their work during the past two years...

[Update: A helpful reader points out that up until 1996 this program existed as the Department of Civilian Marksmanship of the U.S. Army. In 1996, the program was privatized and renamed the Civilian Marksmanship Program.]

From the local fish wrapper,

With corporate and private donors stretched thin, taxpayers might be the best hope for solving the immediate financial problems of the Columbus Symphony.

The symphony is pinning its hopes on a city-county arts package -- dubbed Thrive in Five -- to help eliminate its deficit this year. The fundraising campaign would provide $4 million annually for 16 arts groups -- including $1.2 million for the symphony the first year.

Sigh. At least they're not selling it as an "economic stimulus package".

Btw, welcome back Larry. We all hope you're doing well!

Contemporary threats to punish parents for childhood obesity sound novel and to many a bit of an over-reach by government schools. Yet, perhaps the idea isn't as new as we think.

The Jan. 19, 1908 NYT contains is a story concerning hygiene in the public schools:

This plan calls for the establishment of a Department of School Hygiene under the control of the Board of Education. This department would consist of a corps of physicians and nurses, under the direction of a medical expert skilled in the diseases of children. It would be clothed with the power, according to Dr. Maxwell [City Superintendent], not only to make physical examinations, but to prosecute parents who fail to put their children in proper physical condition to profit by the work of the school.

Education economists today discuss the "education production function" for which the inputs are the student, her teachers, her peers, and the infrastructure. This is the same intuition being offered in the 1908 plan, that undernourished and otherwise physically unfit children are not efficient inputs to the education production function.

The good Dr. Maxwell (of 1908) offers some reasons for why city kids are not physically fit:

Lack of exercise, city children seldom having to walk more than two or three blocks to school, and having little work to perform about the home that would develop muscles and breathing capacity; crowding in poorly lighted and poorly ventilated apartments, which results in various forms of tuberculosis; lack of space for free play; lack of interesting occupation outside of school hours; excessive noise; lack of sufficient sleep; insufficient or unwise feeding; uncleanly habits of person...

Dr. Maxwell then points out the effects of these maladies:

These conditions tend to produce various forms of nervousness, lowered vitality, defective eyesight, defective teeth, and probably growths in the nose and throat which restrict respiration and drive the child into reckless mischief and defiance of authority.

Dr. Maxwell then proposes the "make an example of somebody" approach to getting the parents in line:

If half a dozen parents were fined or imprisoned for failures, after repeated warnings to provide their children with necessary eyeglasses or to have adenoid growths removed, the example thus set would do more lasting good than any preaching on the subject.

I would suggest that Dr. Maxwell's plan was just about 100 years ahead of his time, although perhaps his plan will be implemented for a radically different reason.

From the Jan. 19, 1908 NYT:

The fellow who blows his own horn may come out at the little end of it.

Sometimes fate makes a hero of a man, but he can't always hold the job.

So long as a man isn't miserable he ought to be happy.

Many a man complains that he is misunderstood when he is really unintelligible.

From the Jan. 15, 1908 NYT:

THE CONSTITUTION

Old George the Third of merry fame
Possessed a great Big Stick,
J. Caesar had another one
With which he loved to lick;
O. Cromwell armed himself with one
To smite his fellow-man;
In fact, each tyrant, good or bad,
Had one since earth began.

When this Republic's fathers met
To make a nation free,
They took all big sticks in the world
That were or yet to be;
They ground the wood into a pulp,
A deed of might note,
And on the paper thus produced
The Constitution wrote.

McLandburgh Wilson

Perhaps Mr. Wilson was a bit optimistic?

The Jan 5, 1908, NYT reports on a pending battle in the war on smoking, this time from Germany:

War has been declared by the German medical authorities against the familiar apparatus in use in cigar stores all over the world for cutting off the ends of cigars. It is said to be a prolific source of disease, especially tuberculosis and other infectious maladies whose germs are transmissible.

The danger doesn't lie in the cigars themselves, but in the habit of many smokers who insert the cigars in the little guillotine arrangement after the tobacco has already been in their mouths...

It is proposed that the cutting machines shall either be abolished or the smokers warned of the dangers lurking therein by huge placards hung up in all the places where cigars are sold. The apparatus used in private houses and clubs is described as equally deleterious. [emphasis mine]

From the Jan. 5, 1908 NYT:

We never know what we can do till we try, and then very often we are sorry we found out.

The bigger the fish the less necessity for lying about it.

A white lie is seldom as immaculate as it sounds.

The best time for a girl to marry is when the fellow is willing.

The hardest part of knowing some people is to conceal our opinion of them.

A diplomat is a man who doesn't say everything he thinks, or think everything he says.

Adam and Eve, it must be clear, had not a pedigree, and yet from all the tales we hear they had a family tree.

The December 31, 1907 NYT reports a government outrage:

OKLAHOMA CITY - Twenty-three hundred barrels of beer, valued at $17,500 and belonging to the New State Brewery to-day were emptied into the sewers by Internal Revenue Collector Charles Howard.

The brew was completed after Oklahoma became a state. The State would not permit its sale and shipment from the state.

On January 1, 2008, the state of Illinois will ban almost all smoking in enclosed public spaces, including private restaurants and bars. Moreover, it will be illegal to smoke a cigarette in a car in which children less than 18 years of age are riding (enforcement issues would seem to abound with this one) [more state laws going into effect 1/1/08].

In the December 30, 1907 NYT there was a rather different policy concerning smoking:

On New Year's Eve "all ladies" may smoke cigarettes in any of the rooms of the restaurant [Cafe Martin], at Twenty-sixth Street and Fifth Aveneu, and this privelege may become permanent thereafter, if all goes well. With his shrewd eye on his guests, Mr. Martin will determine whether New York is ready to follow the precedent of Paris and London...

Said Mr. Martin yesterday:

"On New Year's Eve all ladies who come to the Cafe Martin may smoke if they so desire. After this one night I may or I may not withdraw this privelege. Smoking by ladies is never objectionable. The smartest women in New York smoke, so why should puritanical proprietors rule against this mode of procedure any more than against the drinking of cocktails or highballs."

From the Dec. 23, 1907 NYT:

Residents of Newark, N.J. have been made the victims of a Christmas swindle in the last few days. The trick consists of collecting charges on worthless packages. Men appear at houses with bundles addressed to persons living at the addresses, and state that there is a special delivery charge of 50 cents of $1. The amount is nearly always paid without question, in the belief that the package contains a Christmas gift. When opened the box or pacel contains only old papers.

From the Dec. 22, 1907 NYT:

According to a special committee of the Board of Education, which is investigation the advisability of restoring corporal punishment in the schools, there is a strong feeling among Superintendents, Principals, and teachers that the use of the rod should be permitted. Of about 1,000 opinions received by the committee, the majority take this view of the question.

Under the present system of discipline it is impossible to maintain order in the schools, say most of the persons from whom the committee solicited opinions. It is recommended by most persons...that the power to punish in this particular manner should be vested in the Principal and regulated by rules.

...Only nine of the thirty-nine largest cities in the country bar flogging from the schools. These nine are New York, Baltimore, Chicago, Jersey City, Louisville, Newark, Charleston, Syracuse, and Toledo.

When Baby New Year pops on the scene, what fashion statement will his swaddling garments make? That depends partly on color, at least if we can take seriously this New York Times fashion article, Pantone's Color of the Year Is....

At least one color authority, Pantone, has taken the plunge and announced its favorite color for 2008. [...] In a statement, Leatrice Eiseman, the executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, said: “Blue Iris brings together the dependable aspects of blue, underscored by a strong, soul-searching purple cast. Emotionally, it is anchoring and meditative with a touch of magic.”

Uhm.... Okay. Somehow I sense that Pantone realized "hey, no one else is doing this" and took the opportunity. Which is cool. But so what?

It's nearly tautological that colors come and go with fashion. But it's empirically interesting to ask which colors and why? For starters, is Pantone actually the leader it's posing to be, or does the designation of blue iris reflect the net leanings of fashion's myriad of tastes and designs?

There has indeed been a surge of blue on the runways in the last year, beginning last February with Raf Simons’s dresses and pantsuits, in an Yves Klein blue, for Jil Sander and extending into the spring 2008 collections with Nicolas Ghesquiere’s explosive floral prints for Balenciaga. Mr. Elbaz used a deep lagoon blue in his spring Lanvin show, and one found lighter but no less robust shades in collections by Marni and Chloé, and in the men’s lines of Prada and Alexander McQueen. Dolce & Gabbana called its new fragrance Light Blue. And JWT, the advertising and marketing company, just named blue as one of the top 10 trends for 2008, saying that “blue is the new green”...

Never mind all the name dropping. I think this is interesting because it suggests (albeit mildly) a catallactic understanding of trends--that trends, like market prices, can be traced to the points where individual actors make choices among alternatives. More on this to come.

Tyler Cowen gives a thoughtful list here. The gist is to learn to evaluate various forms of information, from marketing to information to knowledge to judgment. While Tyler gives some hard suggestions (date foreigners, for example). I would add:

1. Study logic.
2. Join a debate team.
3. Write something everyday.
4. Defy your comfort zones. Practice tolerance, e.g.

If all else fails, remember the song "Not the Sunscreen"by Safran John, opening lines below:

Ladies and gentleman of the class of '98 people often ask me if I have any advice to offer and when they do, I tell them this:

If you're unsure about what you're going to do with your life try to remember some of the most interesting people didn't know what they were going to do at age 22 or even at 40, and nearly all of them are unemployed drug addicts forced to live on cat food. ...

Ahh, the heady 1990's....

The Dec. 15, 1907 NYT has three recipes for "Christmas Cheer." I wonder if any of these really taste all that good?

Egg-nog:

To make a gallon of this eggnog will require a pound and a quarter of pulverized sugar, twelve fresh eggs, a quart of cognac, half a pint of champagne, two quarts of fresh milk, one quart of rich cream, and about a tablespoon of powdered nutmeg. Mix these ingredients thoroughly, then incorporate with them the yokes of the dozen eggs that have already been beaten to a froth. Stir persistently and steadily until the blend is perfect; pour the result into the well-chilled punch bowl.

Punch with a punch?

The "Van Cortlandt recipe" has been constantly used since 1775. It may, therefore, be said to have stood the test of time:

Pour a quart of rare old Jamaica rum into a punchbowl with two quarts and a half of water and enough loaf sugar to sweeten agreeably. Put the peel of three lemons into the mixture and let it remain for about twenty minutes while you stir the ingredients together. At the expiration of this time, remove the lemon peel; let the bowl stand undisturbed for a full half hour; then add a lump of ice and serve.

An "ordinary" punch:

If it is merely an ordinary punch that is to be prepared, however, here is a recipe that has been served by one New England family every Christmas for more than fifty years...

Squeeze the juice of five lemons into the punchbowl, being careful to insert no pips or pulp; add half a pint of water and the same quantity of sugar, and stir until the latter has dissolved. At this moment add three pints of fine whisky, about a third of a jar of Maraschino cherries, with their liquor; a whisky glassful of Jamaica rum, and about three bottles of club soda, or its equivalent in some other carbonated water. While mixing stir constantly that the blend may be perfected. Just before serving add some thinly sliced bits of lemon, and two more bottles of soda to produce an effervescent effect. Although ice may be put into this punch it is better to ice if from the outside.

From the December 15, 1907 NYT (I know, I am reading ahead a couple of days but I am heading out of town until next Monday and I will be off the grid):

Ask a truthful woman what she enjoys most about Christmas, and she will tell you the bargain sales afterwards.

No Christmas present is so worthless that you can't pass it on to some one else next year.

Remember that it is better ot give than to receive - the things you don't want.

Take off the tags. Many a friendship has been severed by the price mark on a Christmas present.

It's all right to pity the poor at this peace-on-earth season, but it is also well to remember that sympathy doesn't fill an empty stomach.

From the Dec. 3, 1907 NYT:

Women who smoke cigarettes in public are still generally accounted vulgar, if not actually wicked, in a land where the prejudices of Puritanism still survive...

No thoroughly sophisticated American woman of good breeding would think of lighting a cigarette in a New York restaurant, because she would know that the men puffing cigar smoke in her face would consider the act unladylike. When you are in Europe you may do as you please...

Perhaps a few years more the last traces of our Puritanism may disappear. Perhaps not. There may be a revival of old prejudices and beliefs. Meanwhile the managers of our hotels are to be commended for prohibiting cigarette smoking by women, because they are acting in accord with public opinion.

Nevertheless, everybody who knows the ways of the world at all, knows that women smoke cigarettes nowadays, and knows also that the cigarette habit is no worse for them, morally or hygienically, than it is for the men. We are no better than the Europeans, and they know it; wherefore our pretenses make them smile.

I would wager that most of today's temperance movements, whether directed toward narcotics, cigarettes, smoking, or trans-fatty acids for that matter, would not admit to "Puritan prejudices." However, the similar outcomes of yesterday and today, i.e., limiting the actions of other people, offer food for thought.

Is there another source of temperance movements beyond "public opinion"? Or has it always been "public opinion" but this "opinion" is "formed" by different organizations or incentives in different eras?

From the Dec. 1, 1907 NYT:

It is said that wealth doesn't bring happiness, but most of us are willing to try the experiment.

Adam looked out for number one, and his descendents have been doing the same thing ever since.

The fool jumps at conclusions, the wise man jumps away from them.

It is hard to preach total abstinence when lemonade costs more than beer.

Many a fellow has fallen in love with a peach, only to discover that fate has handed him a lemon.

Strange as it may seem you can save yourself a lot of trouble by not borrowing any.

An ounce of scare is often worth a pound of advice.

My own daughter is twelve, has a myspace page, and this NYT article scared the $hit out of me:

DARDENNE PRAIRIE, Mo., Nov. 21 — Megan Meier died believing that somewhere in this world lived a boy named Josh Evans who hated her. He was 16, owned a pet snake, and she thought he was the cutest boyfriend she ever had.

Josh contacted Megan through her page on MySpace.com, the social networking Web site, said Megan’s mother, Tina Meier. They flirted for weeks, but only online — Josh said his family had no phone. On Oct. 15, 2006, Josh suddenly turned mean. He called Megan names, and later they traded insults for an hour.

The next day, in his final message, said Megan’s father, Ron Meier, Josh wrote, “The world would be a better place without you.”

Sobbing, Megan ran into her bedroom closet. Her mother found her there, hanging from a belt. She was 13.

Six weeks after Megan’s death, her parents learned that Josh Evans never existed. He was an online character created by Lori Drew, then 47, who lived four houses down the street in this rapidly growing community 35 miles northwest of St. Louis.

I don't say this often, but there oughta be a law. Heck forget the law, this calls for an angry mob with torches and pitchforks.

UPDATE: No I am not joking.

[HT: Al]

An interesting question is posed in an article in the Nov. 23, 1907 NYT:

In an article headed "Breakfast Food and Literature," The Saturday Evening Post supplies an excellent reason for reading the New York Times Saturday Review of Books. Thus the Saturday Evening Post:

Suppose you should see several solid pages devoted to advertising some fifty kinds of breakfast food, and the advertisements were all just like this:

Crisplets
15 cents per package

The color is a deep, rich brown - The Critic
Fresh, invigorating, wholesome - New York Sun
Well cooked, appetizing - Chicago Tribune
One of the best breakfast foods of the season - The Nation

Krinkles
15 cents per package

The color is a deep, rich brown - New York Sun
Not only well cooked, but appetizing - The Nation
Wholesome, invigorating, and fresh - Chicago Tribune
One of the best breakfast foods we have eaten this year - The Critic

Cranklets
15 cents per package

Wholesome, appetizing - New York Sun
Well cooked, invigorating - The Critic
We cannot too much admire the rich, brown color - Chicago Tribune
few of this year's breakfast foods please us better - The Nation

Which breakfast food would you buy?

A follow up on yesterday's discussion of turkey prices, the Nov. 19, 1907 NYT reports the following prices for Thanksgiving staples (perhaps an undergraduate paper lies in these data?):

Pudding maker sells cans at 22, 40, 50, and 75 cents for one, two, three, and four pound cans.

Canned plum pudding sauce can be bought at 16 and 30 cents a can, large and small sizes.

Mince pies vary in size and price from 75 cents, $1, $1.25, and $1.50. Pumpkin pies are the same price.

Sterilized figs are 25 and 50 cents in one and two pound baskets.

Baskets of stuffed figs and dates are 55 cents, large jars 90 cents.

Assorted glace fruits are 35, 65, $1.75 and $2.50 for half pound, one, two, and five pound boxes.

Apricot glaces are 90 cents and $1.60, one and two pounds.

Cherry glaces are 65 cents a pound.

Prunes stuffed with ginger or walnuts are 50 cents a pound.

Chinese cumquats, little Chinese oranges, are 50 cents a pound.

Crystallized pineapple is 50 cents a pound.

Crystallized strawberries are $2 a pound.

Chocolate maraschino cherries are 50 cents and $1 for half-pound and one pound.

Chocolate cream peppermints are 40 cents of a half-pound box and 20 cents for a quarter pound.

Cream peppermint or wintergreen wafers are 25 cents for a half-pound box.

From the Nov. 15, 1907 NYT:

Convicted of selling cocaine without a physician's prescription, Charles W. Hitch, who has a pharmacy at Mott and Worth Streets, was sentenced yesterday to serve six months in the penitentiary by the Justices of Special Sessions.

Hitch was fined twice before in Special Sessions on similar charges. Last December he was fined $75 [$1,659 in 2006] and in April $250 [$5,532 in 2006]...

Health Inspector Masterson testified that on July 26 he bought 25 cents' worth of cocaine at the Hitch pharmacy. This had been analyzed and found to be 99 per cent. pure...

When Hitch was sentenced he turned pale and staggered. His defense was that he was out of town when it is charged the drug was sold.

A courageous town government steps forward to rescue our culture.

From the Nov. 12, 1907 NYT:

Trinidad, Colo. - Miss Catherine Vosbaugh, who for nearly sixty years passed as a man, died at a hospital to-day.

Miss Vosbaugh was born in France eighty-three years ago. When a young woman she found it difficult to make her way on account of her sex. Adopting men's clothes, she obtained employment as a bookkeeper in Joplin, Mo. this position she held for nine years and then accepted a position in a St. Joseph, Mo. bank.

While in St. Joseph she married a woman, with whom she lived for thirty years as "Charles" Vosbaugh. The two women came to Trinidad two years ago. After the death of the "wife" Miss Vosbaugh worked in various capacities until she became so feeble that last year she was taken to a hospital. It was then that her sex was discovered. But even after her recovery she refused to change her clothing, and continued to wear her masculine habiliments to the end.

I don't know what it all means, except that perhaps the movie "Tootsie" wasn't all that original.

Dennis Miller has a three-hour daily syndicated radio show, which I listen to if I'm driving between 10am and 1pm. On it he’s libertarian some of the time, witty much of the time, but occasionally half-witted when he cheerleads for the Iraq war or Rudy Giuliani.

On Tuesday night, Miller debuted a weekly one-hour sports-themed TV talk show, Sports Unfiltered with Dennis Miller, on the Vs. cable channel. The first show wore me out, with Dennis on camera for the entire 60 minutes, starting with a 15 minute (!) monologue. (See a more detailed critique here.)

Now come reports that Miller will host a new game show on NBC-TV, "Amne$ia". No more than once a week, I imagine. But still, with all this on-air time, how many hours a day will the poor man have left to watch old movies and vintage TV shows? How will he continue to keep his obscure pop-culture references fresh?

From the Nov 3, 1907 NYT :

Lots of us won't listen to advice unless we are giving it.

True dignity doesn't stop at a frock coat and a high hat.

Enthusiasm doesn't accomplish much without a certain amount of hustle.

In politics it's the man who sells his vote who is corrupt, not the man who buys it.

Many a man secures a place in history as an also-ran.

Another list of quips from the same issue:

Graft and the world grafts with you.

Silence might be golden but you can't always convert it into cash.

A man has to have a certain amount of wisdom to realize what a fool he is.

From the October 27, 1907 NYT:

In society many a bud blossoms into a wallflower.

Life is a game of chance in which the cards are often stacked.

Perhaps Justice is blindfolded because she so often gets a black eye.

The smaller the bribe the greater seems to be the disgrace.

Love knows no law, unless we except [sic] the mother-in-law.

From the Oct. 20, 1907 NYT:

The man who thinks twice before he speaks doesn't do a great deal of talking.

Some people are so refined they object to even having common sense.

Many a fellow has become all tangled up in a string of lies.

The first requisite of a good husband is a good wife.

One foot in the grave is worth two in the same place.

A man is known by the company he keeps and the friends he gives away.

A few of the days I did not get a chance to read the NYT from a hundred years to the day contained the musings of the anonymous "gentle cynic." Here are a few of his/her(?) better quips:

Sept. 1, 1907

The girl who marries a man to reform him is generally spoiling a good husband for some other girl.

It may be true that wealth doesn't bring happiness, but most of us only know it from heresay.

Some actors get fabulous salaries and some get imaginary ones. There's a difference.

An optimist is any man who thinks it might have been worse.

Money talks, but lots of us only hear the echo.

A man may speculate in wheat without having a grain of common sense.

Sept. 8, 1907

Luck won't overcome laziness.

There are times when we are also thankful for what we don't get [wasn't there a country song about this?]

Some men are so versatile that they never know which side they are on.

Few of us get what we want, but most of us get what we deserve [wasn't there another song about this, okay substitute "need" for "deserve"?]

Wine is a mocker, especially when you haven't the price.

Egotism is always willing to work overtime without extra pay.

Sept. 15, 1907

When you have a chance to get something for nothing, look carefully for the concealed price tag.

Perhaps silence is golden, because it is so scarce.

Many a fellow will stand up for himself even when he has to lie to do it.

October 13, 1907

The trouble with an ideal is that after we attain it we are always looking around for another.

Some of us descend from our ancestors, and some of us rise above them.

In the New York Times today, Charles Taylor reviews Anupama Chopra’s new book King of Bollywood: Shah Rukh Khan and the Seductive World of Indian Cinema. As Taylor notes, it’s remarkable that a book on a foreign movie star, virtually unknown in the US outside the South Asian community, is being published by a major US press (Time Warner).

Taylor writes: “At the moment no one represents Bollywood more than Shah Rukh Khan. It’s not just that this epitome of Hindi cinema is a Muslim, which makes Khan an unusual star. Part leading man, larger part buoyant goofball, Khan looks something like the offspring of John Stamos and Jerry Lewis.” I agree with the first and third sentences. But a Bollywood star being Muslim isn’t so unusual. It's less unusual than (say) a Hollywood star being black. Consider just the list of other leading men surnamed Khan: Aamir, Feroz, Saif Ali, Salman, Sohail, Zayed.

This is a matter of taste, but I think Taylor also errs in calling SRK’s most famous film, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), “wonderful”. It’s a sappy romance with far too much mugging by Khan and pouting by his co-star Kajol. The most vital films in Bollywood, for my money, are the gangster flicks.

Anupama Chopra was the author of Sholay: The Making of a Classic, a well-written book that I had to import from India (via eBay). Even though I’m not a fan of SRK, I look forward to being able to buy her new book domestically.

There will soon be another O. J. Simpson trial. He is going to plead not guilty on all charges. Get ready for a huge shift in what the American public debates talk about.

No, not, freak show Michael Jackson--beer hunter Michael Jackson:

“He was simply the best beer writer we’ve ever known,” said Tim Hampson, chairman of the British Guild of Beer Writers. “He told wonderful stories about beer, breweries and far away places. He told the story of beer through people, and he was humorous and erudite at the same time,” Hampson told The Associated Press.

Jackson knew he would never be as famous as Michael Jackson the rock star, and that was reflected on the beer critic’s Web site. “Hello, my name is Michael Jackson. No, not that Michael Jackson, but I am on a world tour. My tour is in pursuit of exceptional beer. That’s why they call me the Beer Hunter,” it says.

HT: Kara

The New York Times reports that Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt, son of 1960s Bollywood stars Sunil Dutt and Nargis, was sentenced to six years today for his conviction on illegal weapons charges from 1993. Dutt obtained the illegal weapons from Muslim gangsters who were setting off terror bombs in the city of Bombay. He said he was worried about defending his family against Hindu rioters who were targeting Muslims in retaliation for the bombings (his mother was Muslim). After a long trial Dutt was convicted of the possession charges in November 2006, though cleared of involvement in the bombings.

Dutt rose to stardom playing gangsters in such (recommended!) movies as J. P. Dutta’s Hathyar (1989) and Mahesh Manjrekar’s Vastaav (1999). In recent years (out on bail pending conclustion of his trial and sentencing), his biggest hits came playing a gangster who becomes a medical student in the comedies Munna Bhai, MBBS (2003) and its sequel Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006) (I haven't seen either one). He also played a gangster named Munna Bhai in the (not recommended!) comedy Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin (2002), a Bollywood adaptation of Hollywood’s Analyze This.

Man v. Wild star Bear Grylls is under fire for faking parts of his show including staying in hotels on some occasions when he's supposedly been out in the wild.

There's also some questioning about his real service in the "British Special Forces", his being airlifted off Everest after his successful summit, and some of his survival advice.

From the July 24, 1907 NYT:

WASHINGTON - Members of Congress receive many strange requests from their constituents, but probably the most curious one ever received came to a representative from Minnesota recently from Capt. J. F. Allen of St. Paul. Capt. Allen asked the member to look up his arm, which he had lost at the battle of Antietam.

Capt. Allen learned that the surgeon who performed the operation had preserved the member and sent it to the Army Medical Museum. Capt. Allen expressed a desire to have a photograph of the arm, and as he was a very influential man in the district, the Congressman instructed his Secretary to make an investigation.

The arm of the Captain was found at the museum in an excellent state of preservation and a photograph was forwarded to Capt. Allen.

From the July 23, 1907 NYT:

PRESENT LITERARY DEMAND From the London Times:

The demand for all kinds of reflective writing is now very small, and the vehicles for such writing are diminishing in number. The paying public of to-day want to be told how to do things, where to go, what to read, how to dress and behave, and how to keep string in a string box; in short, how to do the things which their parents did every day of their lives by common sense and mother wit. At present it is indifferent to essays and poetry and every kind of pure literature.

I spent all day (12 straight hours) reading the book yesterday. My wife read it all day Saturday. We spent most of the evening going over the twists and turns.

Now the kid has it but will take a few days I'm sure for her to finish it.

All this for $35!

Frankly I feel guilty that J.K. Rowling didn't get more from us--we would've paid much, much more! Bottom line: She deserves every penny she has. Maybe I should send her some more money? Nah.

Toy ovens + children = burned fingers. Who would have suspected?

As I relocate to the Charlotte, NC area, this story from the July 17, 1907 NYT caught my attention:

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The trial of twenty citizens of Anson County, this State, charged with lynching J.V. Johnson, a white man, which was begun yesterday at Monroe, continued to-day.

Miss Alice Bogan, daughter of the Sheriff, resumed her testimony, detailing how the mob broke into the jail on the plea of having a prisoner to commit, how they seized and held her father, took the keys to Johnson's cell from him, released Johnson, and, after tying him with ropes, dragged him down the road to the point where he was lynched. She positively identified several of the indicted men as being members of the mob.

One wonders how the world would respond if a story similar to this one from the July 17, 1907 NYT was to occur today:

Returns of deaths from the plague in India show the appalling total of 1,060,067 for the six months ended June 30. The monthly total is at present decreasing, however, the death roll for June being placed at 69,064.

The total for the first six months of 1907 already surpasses that for the entire twelve months of 1904, when 1,022,000 persons died. It is the highest ever recorded previous to the present year.

Whilst Larry spent his weekend doing the Hookie Lau, I spent several hours myself at the Origins International Game Expo here in Columbus.

Once upon a time I was into board wargames (especially Squad Leader) but haven't played in years. Still it was great fun to see all the new games and game systems that have come out in recent years.

By the way, if you want to feel normal and socially well-adjusted I suggest a few minutes at a gaming convention.

I spent the weekend in Chicago absorbing some culture, specifically Polynesian decorative arts and the indigenous folk music of Southern California. In other words, tiki collectibles and instrumental surf music. The occasion was a music fest called Exotica 2007. 2 bands / 3 sets on Friday night, 8 bands / 9 sets on Saturday, 2 bands / 2 sets on Sunday. Exhausting but fun. Highlight was Saturday night’s headlining appearance by the legendary Trashmen (of “Surfin’ Bird” infamy). For “gramps with amps” they sounded great!

The July 6, 1907 NYT reports:

The Lusitania, the new liner of the Cunard Line, has been carrying out her experimental trials this week. The results are regarded as extremely satisfactory. The steamer twice covered a measured mile in 144 seconds, giving her a speed of 25 knots. Considering the fact that the Lusitania was not running under full pressure and has still to be dry-docked, her performance is considered remarkably promising.

Tie a quirky flavor variation on a well-known candy bar to a revered dead celebrity? Yes! It’s the new Reese’s Collector Edition Elvis Peanut Butter and Banana Creme Cup!

Elvis, as every pop-culture otaku knows, loved peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

Collect all four Collector Edition packages: Leather Jacket Elvis, Crooning Sweater Elvis, Vegas Jump Suit Elvis, and Hawaiian Lei Elvis!

The June 30, 1907 NYT has the following story:

A newspaper published in Suffolk has somehow become the vehicle of a discussion of the Rev. Mr. Campbell's so-called new theology. It seemed as though every man and woman in England who could write had turned theologian and was sending letters for publication in this paper. The editor got very tired of these effusions, but did not dare say he would have no more of them. His wife told him what to do, and now there is a notice running in his paper that whoever wishes to express his opinions on the new theology must pay five shillings an opinion, the money to go to a local hospital. It is almost needless to say that the hospital is not getting rich.

From the June 30, 1907 NYT:

In some circles a gentleman is a man who gets drunk with a dress suit on.

He who has implicit faith in his fellow man is apt to lose that faith with his umbrella.

We all appreciate the good things of life; but few of us want to be the "good things."

The egoist is the first to recognize egotism in those who pay no attention to him.

A man is a failure when he is willing to sell his experience for less than he paid for it.

There's a lot of difference between what we think we know and what we know we think.

When a fellow has money to burn, it is natural for the rest of us to make light of his fortune.

Old friends are like old shoes. They are very comfortable, but we are sometimes ashamed of their shabbiness.

From the June 24, 1907 NYT:

Can you explain why Mark Twain, while visiting London to accept a complimentary degree from Oxford University, whould consider worth while to make such a spectacel of himself as he appears to have done by appearing in the foyer of one of London's best hotels in bath gown and slippers...As a reasonable American I should like to know what treatement would be meted out to any Englishman behaving in a like manner in the Waldorf-Astoria or Astor Hotel. Every newspaper in the city would howl its indignation at the insult offered our beautiful city, especially if it it occured, as it has done in London, during the season. Is it any wonder our manners are sometimes called into question.

From the June 23, 1907 NYT:

It's the things we don't get that often make us happiest.

We are often accused of not listening when we really have no reason to listen.

From the June 16, 1907 NYT:

It's always the under dog that yells for fair play.

The man who nurses a grievance must expect it to grow.

Every man is entitled to his opinion, even the weather man.

The minute a man begins to feel that he is popular, he becomes a bore.

Don't try to convince the mother of a first baby that we are all born equal.

The June 8, 1907 NYT reports on an early attempt to kill "Jim Crow":

Whether railroads have the right, under the law, to provide separate cars for white and colored passengers in Inter-State traffic practically is the question which was argued to-day before the Inter-State Commerce Commission.

The case was that of Georgia Edwards against the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway Company...The complainant alleged that on Aug. 31, 1906, she purchased a ticket from Chattanooga, Tenn. to Dalton, GA.., and was compelled by the defendant company to ride in an inferior coach, popularly known as a "Jim Crow" car, although on the same train white passengers were permitted to ride in first-class coaches....

In the hearing of the case it was asserted by the railroad company that the facilities afforded the passengers in the car set apart for the negro passengers were equal to those in the cars set aside for white passengers, although not necessarily identical.

From the June 8, 1907 NYT:

There are people who could help more by giving less advice.

You can take many a man's measure by pints and quarts.

When a woman needs sympathy, cry with her; when a man needs it, swear with him.

A pessimist is merely a man who expects to get the worst of it sooner than the rest of us.

The trouble with the truth is that most of us are too polite to tell it.

A man convinced against his will will have to be convinced all over again the next time you meet him.

Don't worry about what the world thinks of you. The world has several billions of people to think about.

Given our advantage of historical perspective, stories from 100 years ago in the New York Times often merit a little extra interest based on who is being described in the story - a few days ago I mentioned a baseball story with the headline claiming that Cy Young had beaten St. Louis.

In the June 6, 1906 NYT:

The Brothers Wright, whose negotiations for the sale of their airship to the German Government were announced exclusively in the cables of the New York Times, left Paris to-day for Berlin to conclude arrangements for the construction of a number of airships.

It is understood that they will be paid $10,000 for each machine constructed by them.

From the June 2, 1907 NYT:

We are constantly adding wings to our castles in the air.

The cost of experience is generally money well invested.

The trouble with the average bread-winner is that he wants cake.

There's a lot of difference between forgetting what we ought to know and knowing what we ought to forget.

When a man likes to be different from other people, the other people are generally quite satisfied to have him so.

The root of all evil seems to thrive in any soil.

It is when duty calls that we are apt to send word we are out.

It isn't until a man lives to learn that he really learns to live.

Besides gathering no moss, a rolling stone gravitates down hill.

Memorial Day was celebrated on May 30 until 1971. May 30, 1907 was a Thursday, whereas May 31, 2007 is a Thursday. Therefore, the May 31, 1907 paper reports on those activities that took place on the day of the week if not the day of the month as in 2007.

Now that I have confused everyone, two articles concerning the 1907 Memorial Day celebrations were noteworthy.

The first concerned activities south of the Mason-Dixon:

RICHMOND, Va. - The twelfth annual reunion of the Confederate Veterans began here to-day. Gen Boiling called the convention to order. Gen Stephon D. Lee was the presiding officer and delivered his annual address.

The session adjourned at noon for the unveiling of the equestrian statue of Gen. J.E.B. Stuart. The parade started at 2 P.M. and was a brilliant pageant.

Nearly sixteen thousand men, soldiers and sailors, veterans of three wars, regulars, militiamen, and cadets,, marched in review along Riverside Drive before General O.O. Howard yesterday, constituting the annual Memorial Day parade of the Grand Army of the Republic. It was a great parade...notable, too, for the decrease in the number of veterans...

Interest in the parade ebbed and flowed, the crowd growing enthusiastic when the Seventh and the Twelfth passed, all the time waiting for the veterans, for they, of course, were the real attraction of the day. When the hove in sight round the turn of the drive there was a buzz of expectancy and whispers: "Here they come."

So they passed along, the old and grizzled soldiers of the civil war, post after post. In some ranks there were less than a score of men and no post had very many...But as they passed the crowd stood and cheered, seemingly realizing more than ever the purport of the whole idea of Memorial Day.

From the May 28, 1907 NYT:

Next Thursday is Memorial Day, and if you will permit me, I would like to express a little sentiment regarding the day and its observance through your columns...in an attempt to rouse a little more thought and patriotic zeal in the reverence and honor which all true Americans should feel for the American soldier, and especially for those gray-headed veterans who are yet with us of the Grand Army of the Republic.

Last Memorial Day I was struck with the absence of cheering and of enthusiasm when the veterans of one of the greatest wars in history marched past, bearing their tattered battle flags, torn by shot and shell, and stained with the blood of some of the finest, bravest, manliest men whom God has seen fit to place upon our earth.

When next Thursday comes and the street is echoing with the step of marching feet, the beat of the drum and call of the bugle, let all of us rend the air with cheers to make those blue-clad veterans realize that, although forty-two years have dawned since their leader said "Let us have peace," that we have not forgotten them who at the call of the Nation left the desk, the forge, the plow in the furrow, left mothers, sisters, sweethearts, and went willingly forward to the Nation's altar to offer their own bodies as a living sacrifice that this Nation should live, and that we are not ungrateful or unmindful of their unselfishness and sacrifice.

Yet a little while, a score of years at most, and they will no longer be with us; therefore unto the fathers of our Nation render what is of a right theirs, the appreciation of another generation who as yet have not tried, but if the time comes, pray God, as they were not, we shall not be found wanting.

CADET SERGEANT MAJOR.

From the May 26, 1907 NYT:

Even wisdom may be only skin deep.

All men are equal - till they are found out.

Many a fellow sows his wild oats and reaps a grass widow.

A wise woman never quarrels with her husband till after pay day.

The worst thing about common sense is that is it so unfashionable.

No search warrant is necessary in looking for trouble or finding fault.

File this in the "things never change" drawer.

In the May 25, 1907 NYT is this nugget:

There is no prejudice in this country against honestly acquired wealth, however large - Judge William J. Gaynor, speaking in Kansas City.

That has been said thousands of times. It may have been true once. It is not true now, and the phrase might just as well be dropped from the formulas of declamation and agitation.

The LA Times brings back culinary memories for those of us who spent four years in the Westwood area on a grad student's income.

Hat tip: Craig Newmark.

You know the lyrics: “Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me …”. But did you ever stop to wonder: how can anyone be expected to play a song melody on a tambourine?

The April 30, 1907 NYT reports the following:

PHILADELPHIA - Miss Martha Korais, a Prussian girl, was killed here to-day by Franz Endrukat, who then mortally wounded himself.

Endrukat followed the girl to this country from Pomerania, Rhenish Prussia, where four years ago he attempted to kill her by beating her over the head with a hatchet because she would not marry him. He then cut his throat, and, after lying for four months in a hospital, was sentenced to one year and eight months' imprisonment.

Endrukat to-day met Miss Korais and followed here from the home of her employer to a near-by bakery, and again pressed his suit. The girl told him she would sooner die than marry him, whereupon he drew a pistol and sent to bullets into her head. He then turned the weapon on himself and sent a bullet into his head, falling unconscious across the body of the girl. Endrukat is 33 years of age, and his victim was 22.

From the April 28, 1907 NYT:

Some people don't believe all they hear, even when their conscience tells it to them.

A peck of trouble is easier to get into than a pint of happiness.

When a man boasts that he never did anything he is ashamed of, it may merely indicate that he is lacking in a sense of shame.

Our sins also have an uncomfortable habit of finding us in.

A lot of sympathy is wasted on the under dog and the old maid.

Of course the bachelor should be taxed, it's worth it.

Kurt Vonnegut passed away last week. I am no Vonnegut expert, although I've read some of the novels and found much of it disturbingly delicious and deliciously confounding. DOL readers are probably familiar with the short story, "Harrison Bergeron" (text here), which I first read as an undergrad in Eric Schansberg's poverty and inequality class at Texas A&M. An futuristic dystopia, the story rivals Anthem and 1984 in its overtly favorable comparison of liberalism (respect for the individual) over radical egalitarianism (reverence for the collective) as political philosophies.

The opening paragraph sets the tone:

The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.

How was this equality achieved? Hilariously, by the use of mental and physical handicapping equipment that people were forced to wear. In the first scene, we go to the living room of George and Hazel Bergeron (parents of the protagonist) to witness the mundane existence of a perfectly average couple. George is naturally smarter and stronger than average, so the Handicapper-General has fitted George with a 47-pound bag of bird shot to hang around his neck, plus an ear implant set to blare thought-disrupting noises at the moment George thinks above average thoughts. The more profound the thought, the louder the burst.

This is the kind of world into which Vonnegut brings us. In this world, there is no individuality, no excellence, no merit. None of the things that libertarians believe to be inherent rights and predicates to prosperity. The ethical backwardness shown to us in this world, and the story's tragic and dreadful conclusion, suggest a negative commentary on egalitarianism. Hence the story is seen as a libertarian favorite, even among libertarians critical of Vonnegut more broadly (like this Cato blog entry).

A few observations that make me think the story is more than its appearance:

1. Of what use is the story to libertarians?

a. Expresses a logical-conclusion critique of egalitarianism. It's not just folly (weighing down better than average ballerinas) but a trampling of individual rights that is anathema (seizing one's thoughts) to the classical liberalism ideals that gird the American founding.
b. Highlights utilitarian costs of central planning. Much of the technology in the story (set in 2081) is 19th century technology. In the wake of the story's climax, the Handicapper General executes the offenders with.....a shotgun (HT Schansberg for that one).
c. For the hard core: constitutions fail to restrain the state from infringing on rights.
d. There are doubtless others that do not occur to me at the moment.

But the point of my post is that "Harrison Bergeron" is more than it seems, especially with regard to the libertarian theme. A few more observations on this.

2. In other aspects the technology is remarkable and subtle. For example, with the ear buzzing implants the state can literally read minds, in real time, and almost in anticipation of the individual's thoughts. The state can also apparently control the weather, having taken "springtime" out of the month of April. (That sure beats our capitalist society's control over the climate!) Vonnegut doesn't mention the technology required to accomplish this degree of control. It's left to back story in this incredibly lean tale. But it's there.

3. I've always wondered why Vonnegut framed the setting, story, characters and dialogue in such blatant terms. It is a plain, almost in-your-face story, as though Vonnegut donned himself with creative weights to use language "as good as anybody else" could. By comparison, I've found his other works (Hocus Pocus, e.g.) to be cryptic, though perhaps no darker. Extending this point of comparison to Rand, her style in Anthem is more poetically subtle than in her other novels.

4. Vonnegut's protagonist/hero is no libertarian. Unlike Anthem's protagonist, who dreamed of becoming a scholar, Harrison Bergeron wants to be emperor. When he breaks out of prison, he violently storms into the television studio (maximum exposure) with the following:

“I am the Emperor!” cried Harrison. “Do you hear? I am the Emperor! Everybody must do what I say at once!” He stamped his foot and the studio shook. “Even as I stand here –” he bellowed, “crippled, hobbled, sickened – I am a greater ruler than any man who ever lived! Now watch me become what I can become!”

In a peek of how he might rule, Harrison bribes the musicians to play their best, promising royal favors

“Play your best,” he told them, “and I’ll make you barons and dukes and earls.”

The secondary characters also have aspirations, though not of the individualist sort. Harrison's mother, for example, says she wants to be Handicapper General.

“I think I’d make a good Handicapper General.”

“Good as anybody else,” said George.

“Who knows better’n I do what normal is?” said Hazel.

In all I have always found Vonnegut to be a dazzler, his tales a seeming refuge for readers with various types of self-deception in tow but with deep counter currents. In Vonnegut the profound is wrapped in the mundane. It's genius. But I don't think it's at all libertarian.

From the April 14, 1907 NYT:

There is no rest for the wicked - or the gas meter.

The man who puts up a good front often does it to compensate for his lack of backing.

One-half the world, suffering from the pangs of hunger, doesn't know how the other half suffers from indigestion.

"The trouble with taking one drink is that it gets miserable in a man's stomach," says a bibulous friend of mine, "and you know how misery loves company."

From this CNN story, Ozzy's forthcoming new album has an unprecedented twist:

NEW YORK (Billboard) -- Ozzy Osbourne's first new studio album in almost six years is also the first he has ever recorded sober.

"I thought I'd never write again without any stimulation," the recovering drugs aficionado told Billboard. "But you know what? Instead of picking of the bottle I just got honest and said, 'I don't want life to go (to pieces).' "

Tobias Wolff's 2003 novel, Old School, has become one of my enduring favorites. In a relevant scene, Ernest Hemingway has just judged the school boy protagonist's short story as the best of the 1961 class, and writes with advice about writing:

Advice... Don't take advice, I never did. And don't get swell-headed. Writers are just like everyone else, only worse. Did he [the school boy] rewrite the story forty times? He could throw away some stuff, I've thrown away enough in my time. The kid knows what he's writing about and that's good, now he should go out and know some other things to write about.

But I don't mean wars, not the way you probably think I mean. You don't go to war as a tourist. War'll get you killed and dead men don't write books. Same with hunting. Same with the sauce. Take Joyce. A rummy. Chained to his desk. Liked to read his work out loud, pretty tenor voice. Blind as a bat. You know what his wife told me? Said he ought to go lion hunting, that it would be good for his work and I should take him lion hunting. Can you imagine that? James Joyce lion hunting, with those eyes? Maybe I should have, come to think of it.

Watch the sauce. The sauce kills more writers than war, just takes longer. If you're going up against the giant killer, you'd better be damned sure you can win. Some of us can, some can't. Scott never had a chance, poor soft [-----]. Mouth like a girl's. Between the rum and that pretty mouth and that wife of his he never had a chance. But he didn't write drunk, not like Bill Faulkner. With Bill
Faulkner you can tell, right in the middle of a sentence, where the mash kicked in. Called me a coward once. A coward. I had to have Buck Lanham set him straight.

The amazing fictional tirade goes on, but for now Hemingway via Wolff has made his point. BTW, the censored [----] is in the novel and becomes a sticking point between characters.

Side note: Ozzy was once banned from my hometown, San Antonio, for giving in to micturating on the Alamo. I wonder what Papa would do if the Ozz called him a coward....

Apparently this device has been around for a couple of years, but reading about it this morning was news to me (I guess I haven’t been hanging around in the right bars, and I let my subscription to Wired lapse). It’s the broadband-enabled jukebox, able to play any of hundreds of thousands of requested songs within a few minutes. Just think:

Now you can dial up some obscure Frank Zappa song from 1982 that nobody else in the room has ever heard before except you.

Another cool feature: the bar owner can program the jukebox so that it won’t play the wrong music, e.g. the Village People’s “YMCA” in a country-western bar. Or vice-versa.

So, I'm a little sick of the whole "we hate Duke!" movement in the U.S. Fact is, the big D is a WHOLE lot more open to alternative viewpoints, and real education, than we get credit for. The fact that most faculty are unwilling to take public positions, or to pretend to represent the university, on matters of pending litigation does not make us complicit in the activities of a clinically insane legal system. But it seems that Duke has become a lightning rod for anger about universities and their intellectual insularity and ideological monochromaticity.

It was nice, therefore, to see this report come out from the Pope Center in Raleigh.

Excerpt below the fold....But the entire report is worth reading. The author, Russ Nieli, did a remarkable job in setting the context of the decline, and partial rise, of intellectual pursuit in American universities. A terrific piece of work.

Business of Cinema reports:

2006 was a record-breaking year for Hindi films at the US box office, with seven of the 14 foreign language films that grossed over $2 million, being Hindi films.

The Bollywood box-office authority, ibos.com, lists six 2006 Bollywood films each with a >$2m US gross:

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, $3.1m – another Karan Johar weepie
Dhoom 2, $2.6m – sequel to the motorcycle caper flick
Don, $2.2m – SRK remake of the AB classic from the ‘70s
Lage Raho Munnabhai, $2.2m – sequel to the comedy Munnabhai MBBS
Rang De Basanti, $2.2m – Aamir Khan starrer
Fanaa, $2.1m – Ditto

In seventh place was Krrish, at $1.4m – Hrithik Roshan superhero flick, sequel to Koi Mil Gaya.

By either measure, a record-breaking year indeed. Also a year of remakes and sequels -- which may have helped the overseas box office. Of these seven I’ve only seen Don (which was pretty good), but I’m planning to rent Dhoom 2.

The April 1, 1907 NYT reports on a day's worth of arresting automobile drivers who were "caught" speeding on Manhattan Island. The story sounds much like This November (1906) story concerning the arrests of drivers in Peekskill, NY. However, the price of a speeding ticket in New York City was considerably higher:

Bicycle Policeman Gibney took Waler C. Martin of 344 West Seventy-seventh Street to the 157th Street Station. He had been timed as going at the rate of twenty-four miles an hour on Broadway...He was released on $100 cash bail. Frederick Lauterback...had been timed as going at the rate of twenty-five miles an hour on Broadway...he was compelled to deposit $100 cash bail before he could proceed.

William Erhardt ...was taken to the 125th street station by Policeman Mara, who timed the car at twenty miles an hour on Broadway. Erhardt gave $100 cash bail.

In November, 1906, a fine for speeding in Peekskill was $10-$25 or $225-$575 in 2005 dollars. The bails in NYC were around $2,100 in 2005 dollars - plus you were embarrassed with the NYT perp walk, which seems eerily similar to the rehab, divorce-court, murder-trial perp walks today's Who's Who endures.

From the March 31, 1907 NYT:

Don't pawn your gun to buy ammunition.

Fate is the scapegoat on which we blame our shortcomings.

A fellow can't do two things well if being in love is one of them.

It doesn't require a college education to make fools of some young men.

Most fathers try to bring up their children in the way they should have gone.

There lots of good points about a man we never suspect till we read his obituary.

The Last Mimzy, starring Rainn Wilson ( Dwight Schrute from NBC's The Office) as a teacher named -- wait for it -- Larry White. No, I was not a script consultant. Here's an early review.

According to this article by Stephen Pinker,

Violence has been in decline over long stretches of history, and today we are probably living in the most peaceful moment of our species' time on earth.

In the decade of Darfur and Iraq, and shortly after the century of Stalin, Hitler, and Mao, the claim that violence has been diminishing may seem somewhere between hallucinatory and obscene. Yet recent studies that seek to quantify the historical ebb and flow of violence point to exactly that conclusion.

Why?

The other major challenge posed by the decline of violence is how to explain it. A force that pushes in the same direction across many epochs, continents, and scales of social organization mocks our standard tools of causal explanation ... No one knows why our behavior has come under the control of the better angels of our nature, but there are four plausible suggestions.

The first is that Hobbes got it right. Life in a state of nature is nasty, brutish, and short, not because of a primal thirst for blood but because of the inescapable logic of anarchy ... These tragedies can be averted by a state with a monopoly on violence, because it can inflict disinterested penalties that eliminate the incentives for aggression, thereby defusing anxieties about preemptive attack and obviating the need to maintain a hair-trigger propensity for retaliation.

[A]nother possibility: that the critical variable in the indulgence of violence is an overarching sense that life is cheap. When pain and early death are everyday features of one's own life, one feels fewer compunctions about inflicting them on others. As technology and economic efficiency lengthen and improve our lives, we place a higher value on life in general.

A third theory, championed by Robert Wright, invokes the logic of non-zero-sum games: scenarios in which two agents can each come out ahead if they cooperate, such as trading goods, dividing up labor, or sharing the peace dividend that comes from laying down their arms, ... because other people become more valuable alive than dead.

[Fourth, e]volution [may have] bequeathed people a small kernel of empathy, which by default they apply only within a narrow circle of friends and relations. Over the millennia, people's moral circles have expanded to encompass larger and larger polities: the clan, the tribe, the nation, both sexes, other races, and even animals. The circle may have been pushed outward by expanding networks of reciprocity, ... but it might also be inflated by the inexorable logic of the golden rule: The more one knows and thinks about other living things, the harder it is to privilege one's own interests over theirs.

I suspect (3) is the major player, but who knows?

I have previously mentioned lawsuits filed by women because of slights to their reputation. In Nov. 2005, I mentioned a 1905 case of a woman suing for $10,000 ( $208,000 in 2005 dollars) because of a stolen kiss. In November 2006, I mentioned a 1906 suit filed for a broken engagement and damages of $25,000 ($560,000 in CPI adjusted 2005 dollars) and property of $2,000.

In the March 12, 2007 NYT is another reported stolen kiss, this time in Newburg, New York:

John J. Scannell...is to be sued for $15,000 by Mrs. Laura White of Central Valley, N.Y.

Mrs. White's mother was employed as housekeeper on the Scannell estate, and the young woman, who is 25 years old, was with her in October. While they were alone in the house, Mrs. White will say, Mr. Scannell kissed her three times. Mrs. White at once notified her mother, they packed up their belongings, and left immediately, going to Central Valley, where they had friends.

From the March 10, 1907 NYT:

Even wild oats seem tame to some wild young men.

The very best business for a man to be in his own.

Many a man's principles are sound; in fact, nothing but sound.

The living the world owes a man costs more to collect than it is worth.

From Russell Banks' NYT review of Milan Kundera's The Curtain: An Essay in Seven Parts, the next book I'll buy.

...reading “The Curtain” is like spending a long desultory afternoon into the evening sitting over coffee and cigarettes in a pleasant cafe listening to Milan Kundera hold forth on history, literature, music, politics, large countries versus small, East versus West, the lyric versus the novelistic, Paris versus Prague and so on into the night....

“The novel alone,” [Kundera] says, “could reveal the immense, mysterious power of the pointless,” in opposition to the “pre-interpretation” of reality. The novel, in Kundera’s view, is not a genre; it’s a way of busting through the myriad lies regarding human nature and our collective and individual fates, lies that serve the purposes of bureaucracy and greed and the joyless quest for power. The “pre-interpretation” of reality is the curtain referred to by the book’s title, “a magic curtain, woven of legends ... already made-up, masked, reinterpreted. ... It is by tearing through the curtain of pre-interpretation that Cervantes set the new art going; his destructive act echoes and extends to every novel worthy of the name; it is the identifying sign of the art of the novel.”

From the March 3, 1907 NYT:

Many a man who spurns tobacco in this world will need a smoking jacket in the next.

The worst thing about looking for trouble is that we sometimes stack up against some fellow who is willing to accommodate us.

Many a great man who began his career as an office boy owes his success in life to the fact that his first boss fired him.

It's a sure sign of rain when someone swipes your umbrella.

The Feb. 23, 1907 NYT reports on the first wave of divorce statistics being gathered by the Bureau of the Census (the data collection started in Summer 1906):

Applications for divorce filed throughout the United States in the two decades up to 1907 number 1,400,000. Upon these applications, 1,000,000 were granted, as against only 328,000 divorces granted in the preceding twenty-year period. For the earlier period the number of divorces averages 33 per 100,000 of population, and 70 per 100,000 for the later period. The average annual ratio of divorces for Chicago has risen from 73 to 107 per 100,000 during the two decades; for Boston from 40 to 63 per 100,000, and from 22 to 63 for Philadelphia...Divorces for the whole country have more than doubled, and they are increasing in the rural districts as well as in the cities.

This afternoon I went down to my campus radio station's studio to be interviewed. Not about economics -- I was there in the guise of my alter ego, the surf music and spaghetti-western maven. The subject was the CD "For a Few Guitars More" (Dancing Bear, 2003), which I co-organized, on which a variety of surf bands pay tribute to Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western themes. The interview is for a segment to air this weekend on the public radio show "Weekend America". They're also planning to interview a guitarist (Ferenc Dobronyi) from one of the bands (Pollo del Mar) that contributed.

From what I gather, one of the show's hosts was looking for a different hook to the story about Ennio Morricone finally getting an Oscar. She found the website that has my liner notes for the CD and a link to a news article about it. The radio show will play from clips from the CD intercut with me and Ferenc talking about Morricone and the CD. I was interviewed for half an hour, but I'm guessing they'll boil it down to 5 minutes.

The show airs at different times in different cities, usually on Saturday afternoon. The stations and times are listed here. Podcasts of the show are available after 3pm Saturday here.

From the Feb. 17, 1907 NYT:

The road to pleasure is much shorter going than coming back.

Experience makes a cynic, lack of it a fool.

A closed mouth is seldom open to suspicion.

You can't expect a mere man to be perfect when even the sun has spots on it.

Prejudices are merely other people's opinions.

An innocent lie never hurts quite as much as a malicious truth.

The office holder always believes that one good term deserves another.

Good deeds may never die, but lots of them seem to go into a trance.

Lots of us would rather be happy than be in love.
It's too bad a man can't get into heaven with his tombstone inscription as a passport.

From the Feb. 10, 1907 NYT:

A man with a wooden leg naturally has a lumbering gait.

The average man doesn't know what he wants until he can't get it.

We always see the worst of people when we fail to get the best of them.

Our credit is indeed bad when we feel that we can't trust ourselves.

A man is either taken aback by criticism, or he takes affront.

A girl can either make a fool of a fellow or make him make one of himself.

A factoid in the back of my brain suggests that colonial Wilmington (?) banned smoking in the late 1600s. The ban wasn't intended to reduce second hand smoke or reduce health care expenditures. Rather, because everything was made of wood and straw, the ban on public smoking aimed at reducing the probability of a fire which could raze large swaths of the town very quickly. In other words, the negative externalities of public smoking have been around for a while although the natures of the externalities have changed over time.

While we pat ourselves on the back for our progressive and enlightened attitude toward smoking, both in public and increasingly in private, the Feb. 8, 1907 NYT reminds us that we are not doing anything "new" today:

SPRINGFIELD, ILL - The Senate passed a bill to-day prohibiting persons under 18 years of age, pupils in schools, and students in universities from smoking cigarettes in any public place.

The Jan. 30, 1907 NYT reports on the bizarre incentives (and extremely wishful thinking) embodied in the "War on Cocaine" in India:

Consul General William H. Michael of Calcutta advises the Bureau of Commerce and Labor that the Government of India has prohibited the bringing in of cocaine by means fo the post, and has restricted its importation by any other means to cases in which it is imported by persons, or by their authorized agents, who have been especially permitted to import the drug by a local Government or administration. In consequence of this order the Government has also empowered certain postal officials to search for any cocaine in course of transmission by post and to deliver all such to the nearest excise officer.

Over the past two years of reading the NYT from 100 years ago, I have mentioned multiple instances in which disasters struck and there was little inclination for the Federal government to provide extraordinary aid nor was there an expectation for the government to do so. Admittedly, this was pre-income tax, pre-New Deal, and I am sure there was a much different attitude between the citizenry and their governments.

Because of this general attitude, the following article in the Jan. 24, 1907 NYT caught my eye:

A COLD AND HUNGRY TOWN

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 - This telegram was received by the Inter-State Commerce Commission to-day from R. M. Kennedy at New Rockford, N.D., a town of about 700 inhabitants on a branch line of the Northern Pacific Railroad:

"Must have aid at once. No fuel for ten days; no groceries for three weeks. Cars of fuel on road for six weeks not received. People are suffering."

An effort will be made to get fuel and food to the town.

Given recent events in the Dakotas, and the lack of cries for help, demands for FEMA directors to step down, and for Pres. Bush to "do something," perhaps the reputation for heartiness among the people of that region is well deserved.

Today, the web-site for New Rockford proclaims the city is up to 1,600 inhabitants. If I have worked my solar calculator correctly, that implies an annual population growth rate of 0.0083.

From the Jan. 23, 1907 NYT:

The Eiffel Tower, one of the marvels of the Paris Expositions of 1889 and 1900, will become a permanent institution as a result of the decision of the Government to use it as part of the army wireless telegraph system. From its great height, 900 feet, the War Department, during the Fall army manoeuvres was able to maintain communication with the eastern frontier along the Vosges, and since then the Eiffel Tower station has communicated with Berlin and London. New installations are being made by which regular communication with Algeria and Tunis, the French African colonies, is expected to be assured.

From the Jan. 23, 1907 NYT:

A young couple who gave their names of John C. Rea of Bloomfield and Miss Katheryn Ready of Glen Ridge appeared at the office of Justice of the Peace George W. Cadmus of Bloomfield [New Jersey] about ten day s ago and asked to be married. The Justice quickly tied the knot, and they went away happy.

Their happiness was short, however, for to-day the bride appeared before Justice Cadmus and asked for a warrant for her husband's arrest.

"He didn't like my cooking, Judge," she said, "and then he threatened to strike me, so I want him arrested."

Rea was arrested. He told the Justice that he had only been joking with his wife. In court the couple made up their differences, and Justice Cadmus advised them to try and live peacefully together hereafter, and they promised to do so. Mrs. Rea left the courtroom arm in arm with her husband.

In the early 1900s, social drinking by women was still a bit frowned upon. Regardless of social mores, there were obviously those who wanted nip from time to time.

From the Jan. 22, 1907 NYT:

The cocktail bracelet is the latest for women. There are fashionable women of this city who wear circlets on their wrists which sometimes contain a Martini dry or a Manhattan. The bracelets have one drawback, it is said, and this is they will not accommodate the cherry that goes with the fairy cocktail. The other night a Pittsburg attorney observed a woman of fashion place her lips to her bracelet. He thought that she was paying tribute to her own loveliness, but learned later she was merely refreshing her inner self with a mixture of cordials....With one of those graceful movements which appear to be natural with a woman the drink may be imbibed without fear of detection...A Broadway goldsmith sells numbers of the bracelets every week, and as most of the purchasers prefer secrecy in connection with the transaction they pay a pretty penny for the dubiously useful trinkets.

Today's Chronicle of Higher Education includes an article concerning student excuses. Sometimes I wonder how much though the student actually applied to their particular excuse. Often I suggest recording the excuse before bringing it to my attention. The student can then listen to themselves, or better yet have someone else listen to them, to determine if the excuse has any plausibility. A lot of headaches on both sides of the desk could be avoided with this self-check.

The article points to this blog concerning both sides of the excuse market.

One thing you learn from reading the paper from 100 years ago is that our modern-day problems are, for the most part, not new problems they are simply our problems.

The Jan. 13, 1907 NYT has the following ditty:

He steals away at early dusk,
A bundle 'neath his coat,
And both his pockets bulging, too,
As all the neighbors note.

With furtive looks on every side
He dodges down the street,
And starts and pales at every step,
Afraid his friends to meet.

He disappears within a shop
Above whose dingy door
Three tarnished golden balls display
The Mecca of the poor -

And now we know the cause of
His secrecy and thrills,
He's had to pawn his Christmas gifts
To pay his New Year bills.

From the Jan. 13, 1906 NYT:

The lofty ideals of some men are restricted to high living.

Contentment is merely dividing what you have with what you want.

There is plenty of room at the top without pushing anyone else off.

Some men look so far ahead that they lose sight of the opportunities under their very noses.

When the parlor gas is turned down its a pretty good sign that the young fellow calling there isn't.

I have returned from the AEA's in Chicago where I caught up for a chin-wag with co-blogger Frank Stephenson. It was a long but productive weekend.

The Jan. 8, 1907 NYT reports on the increasing plague of Cocaine Fiends and society's response:

[F]ive boys escaped capture last night by plain-clothes policemen sent to the place by Capt. Russell of the West Thirty-seventh Street Station. The Captain had been informed that a gang of boys who had become addicted to the cocaine habit frequented the cave. He said he would investigate for the purpose of getting evidence against certain druggists who, it was alleged, had been selling cocaine to boys of tender age.

The story goes on to describe the plight of a mother whose two sons were heading toward addiction. The eldest son allegedly pawned his clothes in order to purchase cocaine and "after learning this...she caused the boy's arrest." The story is less clear on what, exactly, the son was charged with.

However, similar to today's meth problem, the article reports that

[w]hile is was a criminal offense for a druggist to sell cocaine to any one who did not have a physician's prescription, the boys managed to get it at first by buying catarrhal and toothache preparations which contained the drug. Under the pure food law the makers of these catarrh cures were compelled to print on the label the fact that the powders contained cocaine.

The story goes on:

Dr. Gregory, the chief of the psychopathic ward of Bellevue Hospital, said that unless something is done to put a stop to the manner in which some druggists sold cocaine, the hospitals would soon be filled with cocaine users. Many hospitals now had a cocaine ward set aside especially for the treatment of cocaine fiends.

Another physician of prominence said that it is worse in a way than the morphine habit, as it killed by inches the person who became addicted to the drug. A person taking an overdose of morphine, he said, would die immediately, while cocaine killed slowly, but surely, those who snuffed it after acquiring the cocaine habit.

From the Dec. 30, 1906 NYT:

All the world loves a lover, especially the jeweler, the florist, and confectionist.

The rich man always goes to extremes. He either buys an automobile, or walks to save carfare.

Appearances are almost as deceptive as trying to keep them up.

Fame often merely makes it harder for a man to dodge his creditors.

Many a man who is clothed in his own righteousness has a mighty poor fit.

Marriage generally proves that two can live quite as expensively as one.

This paper titled "Why Danes are smug: comparative study of life satisfaction in the European Union" published in the British Medical Journal, investigates the phenomenon of why the Danish are always so happy.

The paper includes this graph showing the percentage of survey respondents who admit to being very satisfied with their life. The Danes consistently come out on top (BTW, what's up with Portugal?):

The authors posit a number of reasons for why the Danes are so much happier than the rest of Europe:

1. Hair colour
   
2. Genes
   
3. Food
   
4. Climate
   
5. Native tongue
   
6. Alcohol and smoking
   
7. Marriage and children
   
8. General health
   
9. Welfare state
   
10. Exercise
    
11. Prowess in sports
    
12. Expectations
    

The article is written in what starts out as serious tones and ends up sounding like one of Preston McAfee's "tounge-in-cheek, but hey there is something important here" pieces. It is hard to tell if the journal and the article are meant to be taken seriously - I leave it to the reader to decide. The article concludes:

The causes of the stolid depth of Danish wellbeing are undoubtedly multifactorial. We are satisfied, however, that in the end and against all odds we have contributed to comprehension of the conundrum of Danish contentment. We doubt that further research would lead, in the foreseeable future, to deeper understanding, but decades of effort might possibly result in some incremental advance. Optimism is unwarranted.

Our analysis points to two explanatory factors. The Danish football triumph of 1992 has had a lasting impact. This victory arguably provided the biggest boost to the Danish psyche since the protracted history of Danish setbacks began with defeat in England in 1066, followed by the loss of Sweden, Norway, Northern Germany, the Danish West Indies, and Iceland. The satisfaction of the Danes, however, began well before 1992, albeit at a more moderate level. The key factor that explains this and that differentiates Danes from Swedes and Finns seems to be that Danes have consistently low (and indubitably realistic) expectations for the year to come. Year after year they are pleasantly surprised to find that not everything is getting more rotten in the state of Denmark.

To be filed in the TNC (Things Never Change) drawer, the Dec. 27, 1906 NYT reports on "College Reform". The President of Yale, speaking to a convention of teachers and principals:

We have to-day a great many more elective courses of study than we need, and we have multiplied them without any definite principle or clear understanding of the purpose for which the elective systems exists. Its true object is to find out the lines of work a boy [or girl] is good for. To do this it is not necessary to have as many different studies as there are different kinds of human interest...There are three well-defined types of mind - the scientific, the literary, and the practical. If you have arranged your courses so that you can find out to which of these types a pupil belongs...you have done all that is needed. The work of the school will be more efficiently and economically accomplished if this adaptation is made with a few subjects instead of a great many.

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be. --Peter De Vries

HT: usemycomputer dot com

Music legend James Brown, 73, died early this morning in Atlanta. It would be difficult to overstate his influence on contemporary music.

When I was young, Brown once appeared on TV wearing an outfit with the initials GFOS spelled out in sequins on his cummerbund. Contrary to the joke at my junior high the next day, the initials did not stand for “Go $#@! O’ Self”. They stood for “Godfather of Soul”.

Brown was best known as a vocalist, but he was also an amazing bandleader and organist. For his best instrumental work, check out the 2-CD set Soul Pride: The Instrumentals.

From the Dec. 24, 1906 NYT:

[S]everal stories underground, underneath the Hotel Astor, Times Square, the coalpassers had some tests of endurance yesterday afternoon. One of these men, John Faulkner, of 400 West Fortieth Street, tried to break the record for the number of shovelfuls of coas passed in an hour.

Faulkner hit an average of 100 shovelfuls to the minute, according to the story told by Patrolman Nelson...

But Faulkner didn't last long. Accompanying one of the full body swings that sends forty pounds of coal across many feet of space came a cry of distress. The man straightened up and toppled over backward.

Before technological change, such a record might have been impressive - at least enough to get a couple of beers at the Pub. Perhaps the competitive spirit took over to the extent that he gave his life for a record that no-one would remember until someone with strange habit of reading the paper from 100 years ago would come across his feat. Notice today that watch feats of strength such as Mr. Faulkner's on ESPN's "World's Strongest Man."

Faulkner's record was very impressive, but, alas, didn't come with an endorsement from a body-building enhancement.

Occasionally the paper from 100 years ago reveals, in a subtle way, that many of the problems we face today are not new problems, they are just our problems.

From the Dec. 21, 1906 NYT:

As Christmas Approaches

'Tis now the gladsome Christmas time
Too suddenly draws near,
When puzzled mortals, such as I,
Must face this problem drear -
   How to make every dollar do
   The necessary work of two!

The Dec. 19, 1906 NYT contains an argument for allowing women in the jury pool:

In breach of promise cases the presence of female jurors among the male jurors would certainly benefit the men, as they would at once see through the wiles of their own sex, disconnect the picture hat and the pretty gown, and disclose the hussy at heart in the pleading innocent betrayed one.

From the December 16, 1906 NYT:

Flattery is a fault that is easily cured by marriage.

The man with a grievance never seems to have an impediment in his speech.

It is almost as hard to live up to a good reputation as to live down a bad one.

The Dec. 13, 1906 NYT reports that President Teddy Roosevelt was abandoning his "simplified English" executive order:

President Roosevelt has surrendered gracefully to the English language, and Noah Webster is to-night receiving congratulations from Samuel Johnson, Worcester, and all his chums on the other side of the Styx. Representative Landis of Indiana, Chairman of the House Printing Committee, is authority for the statement that the President will issue an oder complying with the House's wishes on the subject, not waiting for Senatorial action, and that this order will regulate thru, clipt, and dropt to Skibo Castle and other places where the air is more congenial than in Washington.

From the Dec. 12, 1906 NYT:

"The dark places of the earth are full of horrible cruelty." That is a saying a great many centuries anterior to either the existence of sensational newspapers or the formation of the Congo Free State. But it seems to have an impressive modern instance in the case of the Congo Free State...The evidence of "horrible cruelty" has been so abundant and so shocking that it has penetrated to Belgium.

If you want to stir up some discord in your household, I recommend Christopher Hitchens's "Why Women Aren't Funny."

Why are women, who have the whole male world at their mercy, not funny? Please do not pretend not to know what I am talking about.

The chief task in life that a man has to perform is that of impressing the opposite sex, and Mother Nature (as we laughingly call her) is not so kind to men. In fact, she equips many fellows with very little armament for the struggle. An average man has just one, outside chance: he had better be able to make the lady laugh. ... Women have no corresponding need to appeal to men in this way. They already appeal to men, if you catch my drift.

She who faces Death by torture for
each life beneath her breast
May not deal in doubt or pity—must
not swerve for fact or jest.

From the Dec. 9, 1906 NYT:

Never hit a man when he has got you down.

Don't wear out your welcome. It's hard to get another.

No man can make a mistake without learning something.

No man can serve two masters such as dyspepsia and optimism.

Some people believe everything they hear, and take the rest for granted.

Some men never succeed because they are afraid of doing more than their share.

Some men seem to get a heap of melancholy satisfaction from being misunderstood.

Necessity is the mother of invention, but the children don't always turn out well.

The ABC Family cable network will air “The Year without a Santa Claus,” the original Rankin-Bass puppetoon (stop-motion-animated; similar to but not quite the same as Claymation because it uses hard puppets rather than modeling clay), this Saturday (9 Dec.) at 5pm Eastern (4pm central). And again on Friday, 15 Dec., 7/6c; Weds. 20 Dec. 7/6c; and Sun. 24 Dec. 9/8c.

Sure, you’ve seen (or deliberately skipped) it every year since in debuted in 1974; why see it again? Because you’ll need to refresh your memory before you tackle the new live-action version, which NBC will air Monday, December 11th at 9/8c. John Goodman plays Santa, Delta Burke plays Mrs. Claus, Chris Kattan (naturally) plays the devious elf Sparky. Carole Kane is Mother Nature, Harvey Fierstein (!) is the Heat Miser; Michael McKean is the Snow Miser. In case you think I must be making all this up, here’s the IMDB link, and here’s a YouTube clip.

From the Dec. 5, 1906 NYT:

The tailor whose shop is located near Columbia University sighed as he regarded a crowd of students passing his doorway. "The college boy is the worst dressed young man in America," he announced. "Why so?" inquired the customer to whom he was talking.

"Because the college boy goes in for such exaggerations," was the answer. "Instead of following a new fashion with restraint, he seizes upon it and enlarges on it until on his figure an attractive garment becomes a caricature. Look at those boys. Notice their shoes - soles an inch thick and extensions all out of proportion. Take notice of their coats, their trousers, their overcoats, their waistcoats - all overdone, all burlesques of the real fashion...If he were simply and quietly well dressed he is afraid no one would know he was a college man, so he takes every feature and exaggerates it...So on account of his tendency to distort everything, I call the college student the worst dressed young man in America."

From the movie, Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny, comes this wonderful, and very crude song, "The Government Totally Sucks." Lyrics and a link to listen are found below the fold. WARNING: very foul language!

HT: JCH

No, this isn't a rant about anti-immigration economists. I just wanted to share the following clip from the movie Clueless that I've showed in class to introduce my discussion of immigration. It helps to reinforce to my students the importance of the argument that led to a conclusion. To often they think because they got the right answer they deserve 100 percent, even if everything leading them there was wrong.

I've placed the clip below the fold.

While Richard Dawkins makes a name for himself today criticizing religion and those who are religious (Youtube clips here), Bernard Shaw had similar comments 100 years ago. In the Nov. 30, 1906 NYT:

Bernard Shaw lectured to-night in the Essex Hall, in connection with the Guild of St. Matthew, his subject being "Some Necessary Repairs to Religions." Mr. Shaw said we had a great many pressing social problems to solve, but lacked a religion which would impel us to tackle them.

The Socialism presented by those able middle-class Jews, Marx and Lasalle, was a demonstration that the workingmen were being robbed of 50 per cent. of the proceeds of their labor, but it was found that people would not make a revolution for 50 per cent. Men were always cowards. If they were not afraid they would not be constantly be getting run over. The more intelligent and sensitive a man was the more cowardly he was.

If the great congregation of cowards called the human race were to be got to disregard their own safety and interest, they must be made religious. A religious man was not one who belonged to the Church of England or who did not...[n]or was he a man with a special creed. A religious man was one who had sure knowledge that he was here, not to fulfill some narrow purpose, but as an instrument of the force which created the world and probably the universe. Religion made a man courageous, and if he was not intelligent it made him extremely dangerous. In the absence of religion a coarse man had the most courage, but with religion the most fragile and sensitive became enormously courageous.

From the NY Post:

THE K-K-Kramer scandal murdered Michael Richards' career - but it's doing wonders for sales of the latest "Seinfeld" DVD.

Season 7 of the popular sitcom is outselling the Season 6 set (released on the same day last year) by more than 75 percent, and more than 90 percent over season 5 at some online DVD retailers, according to TMZ.com.

The Annals of Improbable Research (home of the Ig-Nobel Prize) recently directed a "challenge" to its readers - "If you know of a published academic study that surpasses Werner-Michael Kulicke’s record of including 23 self-references, please send us a copy."

Today's email contains at least one contender, and it's Nobel winner James Heckman. In this 110 page working paper, Heckman (and two co-authors) cite 30 Heckman papers (that's only two fewer than my entire resume).

Now, I respect Heckman for his contribution, but 30 self-cites? As the AIR points out:

One of the studies he [Heckman] cites is:

"Sample Selection Bias as a Specification Error," J.J. Heckman, Econometrica, vol. 47, no. 1, 1979, pp. 153-62.

The valuable NCPA Policy Digest passes along this observation:

In France, growing numbers of couples are choosing to raise children, buy homes and build family lives without religious or civil approval of their partnerships, says the Washington Post.

Do they mean civil approval or approval by the state? Later in the cllipping this appears:

The result is massive migration to urban areas, where young adults are more independent from their families; and a society that has become not only tolerant but supportive of personal choice in lifestyles.

I recall the famous picture of Rep. Henry Waxman swearing in the tobacco executives before asking them what they knew about the dangers of cigarette smoking and when they knew it. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the general public knew of a correlation between cigarette smoking and illnesses of certain types long before the Surgeon General reports in the 1960s.

From a letter to the editor of the Nov. 26, 1906 NYT:

I want to say a word or two against cigarette smoking. Every place one goes a man or a boy is seen smoking a cigarette. It is bad enough to see boys smoking this poison, but when it comes to men over 50 years old it looks silly. In fact foolish.

It is said that President Grant brought on cancer of the throat from his long habit of smoking. In fact, I know of an elderly man who has been smoking cigarettes for over thirty ears...Yes, I suppose he will smoke as long as he is living. It is too bad - that is, it will bring on a disease that will kill him.

Due to excessive travelling, I won't be back home with family on Thanksgiving. So this holiday I will do the untraditional and dine at Harris, a San Francisco institution, with my wife (to be) and her sister. On the menu is a Kobe Wagyu boneless ribeye. After reading this story, "the world's most expensive steaks," I know what I'll be ordering:

It's a steak with the texture of foie gras, and it comes from cattle that, according to legend, are fed beer and massaged by human hands. In its raw state, the meat is pale--almost white--packed with what Chef de Cuisine David Varley of Las Vegas' Bradley Ogden restaurant calls "an ungodly amount of fat."

This marbled delicacy is the product of Japanese beef cattle, or "Wagyu," raised both in and outside of Japan, and it dominates high-end steak menus internationally.

Now THERE'S the beef. Happy Thanksgiving, all.

Ed

This article reports that San Francisco plans to place marijuana enforcement near the bottom of the list:

Legislation approved Tuesday afternoon by San Francisco's Board of Supervisors will have police put the enforcement of marijuana laws on the bottom of the priority list, although prohibitions remain for marijuana sales in public, possession by minors or use by motorists.

“We have a tremendous opportunity here. We need to pass as stringent a law as we can, I would like to make it illegal,” said Councilman Dave Warden. “What if every city did this, image how many lives would be saved? If we can do one little thing here at this level it will matter.”

Armed with growing evidence that second-hand smoke causes negative health effects, the council chose to pursue the strictest law possible and deal with any legal challenges later. Last month, the council said it wanted to pursue a law similar to ones passed in Dublin and the Southern California city of Calabasas. It took up the cause after a citizen at a senior living facility requested smoke be declared a public nuisance, allowing him to sue neighbors who smoke.

Freedom goes 1-1 this round?

From the Nov. 11, 1906 NYT:

PEEKSKILL, N.Y. - A number of arrests were made here to-day for automobile speeding. Fourteen prisoners were held and all pleaded guilty when arraigned before Judge Travis. Fines ranging from $10 to $25 were imposed.

The prosecutions were the first of their kind here. The police marked a course of an eighth of a mile, and at either end men were stationed with signal flags and stop watches. It was expected that many automobiles would pass through the village to-day with parties bound for the Princeton-West Point football game at West Point, and in this the authorities were not disappointed. All those arrested were either going to or coming from the game.

The folks at EH.net suggest that the range in fines was approximately $225 to $575 in 2005 CPI adjusted dollars. Ouch.

Why were speeders arrested rather than simply given a ticket and sent on their way? Perhaps the (marginal) cost of arresting a particular speeder was less because there were fewer cars on the road? On the other hand, perhaps the marginal benefit of arresting a particular speeder was greater. At the time, only the rather well-to-do drive cars, so perhaps there was a bit of scandal involved that would titillate the common man and "make an example" of someone?

Indeed, the article describes several of the people stopped:

Among those stopped for exceeding the speed limit was a man who said he was the ex-Gov. Robert L. Pattison of Pennsylvania....Another said he was George W. Morgan and persons in the court room said he was the Superintendent of Elections in New York....Elben Van Cott, who said he was the son-in-law of Isaac N. Mills, the newly elected supreme Court Justice.

From the Nov. 11, 1906 NYT:

No man's respect for old age extends to eggs.

Some people can't even do their duty without striking an attitude.

A young man doesn't think seriously about marriage until after it happens.

Many a man gambles with his reputation, losing it in an effort to gain a bigger one.

Heaven is a place where the pedestrian will have just as many rights as the automobile.

A jury is a body of twelve men selected to decide which of the contestants has the best lawyer.

The glutton is always thinking of what he is going to eat, the dyspeptic of what he has just eaten.

A snippet from the Springfield Homestead repeated in the Nov. 1, 1906 NYT :

There need be no misgivings anywhere or at any time over the usual good sense of the people of the United States or of any State thereof. This is a democratic Government of a well-intending and fairly intelligent democracy, and a Government by it and for it. Out of our scares the Government has gone on to better things. The American public is not a mob. It is a sane and self-controlled Nation.

From the Nov. 1, 1906 NYT:

PHILADELPHIA - Miss Bella Blum, daughter of Israel Blum, a wealthy resident of Brooklyn, N.Y., instituted suit in the Common Pleas Court to-day to recover $25,000 damages from Abraham Press, charging breach of promise of marriage. Press is a jeweler. Miss Blum, who is 19 years old, is seeking to recover jewelry worth over $2,000, which, she declares, Press gave her but afterward obtained on the pretext of having it repaired.

On a similar note, last year I "reported" on the alleged value of a stolen kiss in 1905 - approximately $208,000 in 2005 dollars. It is interesting(?) that a stolen kiss wasn't worth as much as being left at the altar, so to speak.

From the Oct. 28, 1906 NYT:

Killing time is the assassination of opportunities.

Some people hate to take advice, even when they pay for it.

A diamond is one thing that matches every woman's complexion.

Perhaps you have noticed that the married cynic is usually anonymous.

From the Oct. 27, 1906 NYT:

LONDON - Thomas Henry Morris has been fined 2£ 10s by a Chester magistrate for squeezing a woman's hand so that her little finger was broken. The woman had lost her husband, and the man had called to offer condolences. It was as he was leaving her that he broke her finger. He put altogether too much muscle into his sympathetic handshake.

From a letter to the editor in the Oct. 26, 1906 NYT:

Our citizens should not lose sight of other public matters of interest just because we are to have an election next month, i.e., pushcarts are just as much a nuisance as ever and should be driven off the streets. Likewise stands on all sidewalks and in the public parks, at the Brooklyn bridges, under "L" stations should be removed and never permitted again.

From a letter to the editor in the Oct. 26, 1906 NYT:

I am sure that Grossmutter Knickerbocker would have held up her hands in amazement, as I did the other day when I saw three articles of lingerie in a new dry goods shop on Fifth Avenue that were market to cost $2,000.

In 2005, $2,000.00 from 1906 is worth:
$45,791.32 using the Consumer Price Index
$35,904.46 using the GDP deflator
$200,254.78 using the unskilled wage
$244,351.51 using the nominal GDP per capita
$862,888.81 using the relative share of GDP

Ouch.

A story in the Oct. 24, 1906 NYT reports on the "Divorce Congress" which is in session to try to revamp divorce (and in the process marriage?):

[One] enactment prohibits the solicitation of a divorce case by advertisement, circular, or otherwise, and prescribes for such an offense a fine of not more than $1000 and imprisonment of not more than one year.

The story goes on

Annulment of the marriage contract, as distinguished from divorce, will be made for the following causes: Impotency, consanguinity, existing former marriage, fraud, force or coercion, insanity, and illegal age.

Divorce, it is provided, shall be of two kinds - absolute, or divorce a vincule matrimonii, and divorce from bed and board, or divorce a mensa et thoro. Under the first classification the grounds shall be adultery, bigamy, conviction and sentence for crime followed by two years' continual imprisonment, extreme cruelty, willful desertion, and habitual drunkenness for two years. The same causes will prevail for the second class with the additional cause of "hopeless insanity of the husband."

From the October 5, 1906 NYT:

LONDON - The delightful forecast of the world gone made is held up to us by Dr. Forbes Winslow.

"According to the statistical figures on insanity," says the doctor in an interview, "it can be shown that before long there will be actually more lunatics in the world than sane people. The burning problem of the day is how to prevent this increase in insanity. What is the use of wasting time and energy on an education bill when we have before us this absorbing problem, the contemplation of an insane world, to deal with?"

And the winner is? One guess.

Rant begins.

During the past week it has become abundantly clear that the culture and innovation on the web is progressing far faster than folks over, say, 25 years of age can maintain. When folks in Congress, the media, and on the street can't or won't distinguish between email, text messages, and instant messages, one fears that whatever legislation being written concerning the net is mis-informed.

Rant ends. We return to regularly scheduled blogging...

Evidently Walmart initiated a myspace-type system aimed at teens. Why Walmart would think this is a good idea seems a bit strained, but nevertheless Walmart invested some scarce resources in a failed experiment. Advertising Age reports that Walmart pulled the plug after three months.

That seems like a short amount of time for an Internet startup nowadays - how long did Amazon make "negative" profits? On the other hand, give credit to Walmart that it recognized its mistake.

The article provides some insight as to why teens would not flock to Walmart's version of myspace:

"The Hub" was designed by Wal-Mart to allow teens to "express their individuality" but it screened all the content, informed parents when their children joined and forbade users to e-mail one another.

Unfortunately (or fortunately?) the target audience said "Nyet!."

Anti Walmart folks might sleep better tonight knowing that, at least in one instance, Walmart did not have "lower" prices and lost a battle in convincing fashion. How convincing? The article goes on to say:

In August, the site attracted 91,000 unique visitors, according to ComScore Networks. Social-networking giant MySpace.com garnered 55.8 million unique visitors the same month

Here's a video clip of Ennio Morricone himself conducting "The Ectsasy of Gold," the best piece of music ever written about the yellow metal.

From a letter to the editor in the October 1, 1906 NYT:

We have reached a time in the history of this country where every department of our social, financial, and political life is rotten to the core, and even more so than Rome was in the last days of the empire. We desire a change before it is too late, and the people who are going to bring it about are the solid rank and file, the pride and backbone of every progressive country.

From the Sept. 30, 1906 NYT:

The flatterer is never a bore.

Only the rich can afford to be stingy.

Good resolutions too often die of malnutrition.

At any rate, the loser is never accused of cheating.

Only a fool will rock the boat on the sea of matrimony.

Faith may move mountains, but it won't remove freckles.

Most troubles are not worth the time it takes to tell them.

Success is often the result of a one-card draw in the game of life.

When a man takes whisky for a cold he doesn't care whether he gets over it or not.

The man who makes his money in trade is sneered at by the man who makes his by marrying it.

The fellow who is imbued with the idea that the world owes him a living can get it in the penitentiary.

If you get the AZN channel on cable, set your Tivo to record "Ab Tak Chhappan" tomorrow morning at 9am Eastern, 8 am Central. It's a ruthlessly unsentimental cop/mafia drama, the best Indian movie of 2005. (I'd call it Bollywood, but there are no songs. There will be subtitles.) Nana Patekar plays an "encounter specialist" whose assignment is to shoot gangsters and then make up a story about how he did it in self-defense. I thought the premise was a bit over the top until I read Maximum City, which has a chapter about a real-life Bombay cop whose job is exactly the one depicted in the movie.

From the Sept. 29, 1906 NYT:

"Wealth has its disadvantages," said the philosopher.

"Yes," answered the man with sporting inclinations, "it must be very monotonous for a man to be able to bet $5,000 or $10,000 on a horse race without caring whether he loses or not."

Until now, the only self-identified libertarian among fictional TV characters has been “Penn Jillette” on the Showtime series “Bull$#@!”. But on Sunday’s season opener of Desperate Housewives on ABC, we got this exchange during a bedroom scene between Bree and her new boyfriend Orson:

"I don't do that," she says. "I'm a Republican."

“I'm a Libertarian," Orson replies. "I believe in minimizing the role of the state and maximizing individual rights. Trust me, I know what I'm doing."

Hah! Too bad they made the libertarian character not only a creepy control freak who murdered his wife and put Mike into a coma, but a dentist.

From a story linked at Drudge concerning the possible demise of Air America:

Norman Wain, a Cleveland-based former radio executive and investor in Air America, says he hadn't heard about any financial difficulties. "I know nothing about it," he says. "They don't communicate with investors very well. They only come to us when they're looking for more money." The last time that happened, he says, was "three or four months ago."

I've been tagged so here goes:

1. One book that changed my life: Although it is overly dramatic to say it changed my life, when I read Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom in college I realized that I had left behind my liberal Democrat upbringing (when I was a child my father had a McGovern pin on the visor of his car) and embraced liberty.

2. One Book I've Read More Than Once: Steve Landsburg's The Armchair Economist. A bit contrarian but a fun read.

3. One Book I Would Want on a Desert Island: I'm tempted to say The Wealth of Nations so I'd finally have an opportunity to read all of it, but the depressing circumstances of being stuck on an island leads me to choose something humorous. My choice--Parliament of Whores by O'Rourke.

4. One Book that Made Me Laugh: I've used O'Rourke already and it's tempting to choose an early offering from Tom Wolfe, but let's go with A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. My hiking buddy Chris gave me a copy and it's a stitch. Although Bryson is a bit crunchy for my taste he also ridicules the Forest Service for its ineptitude.

5. One Book that Made Me Cry: I haven't read any 9/11 books but one of those would almost certainly do the trick. The sheer evil of 9/11 upsets me more than most tragedies; I remember taking my son (then about 4 months old) home that afternoon and wondering what sort of world my wife and I had brought him into. (BTW, like Brad, I am offended by folks--like here and here--who think 9/11 is some sort of government conspiracy. There's a difference between favoring limited government and being just plain nuts.) As for a book I've actually read--All But My Life by Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein.

6. One Book that I Wish Had Been Written: Something by me. I don't mean to sound flippant or narcissistic; I mean it as an indicator of respect for people who have written books.

7. One Book I Wish Had Not Been Written: Instead of serious answer like The Communist Manifesto, I'll offer a somewhat whimsical one--my father wrote a chitlin cookbook. A truly awful concept; fortunately, I had left home before he started trying these out on the family. My father has also written several local history books, perhaps similar to the one on Granville OH that Brad is reading. I only wish he'd stuck to history and left the stomach churning cooking to someone else.

8. One Book I'm Currently Reading: The Shackled Continent by Robert Guest. The human misery inflicted by predatory African governments would actually make this book a good candidate for the made me cry category.

9. One Book I've Been Meaning to Read: I have a draft of JC Bradbury's forthcoming The Baseball Economist that I've been meaning to read. Technically it probably shouldn't be considered a book yet since it hasn't yet been published. Instead, I'll go with Bees in America by Tammy Horn; I hope to have a bout of nostalgia thinking about the fun I had keeping bees as a kid.

Now to pay the tag forward--I'll tag Aeon Skoble, George Leef, and co-bloggers Tim Shaughnessy, Michael Munger, and Mike DeBow.

I've been tagged in the one book meme game.

Here are my picks:

1. One book that has changed your life: Anarchy, State and Utopia, by Robert Nozick. I remember reading this book as a college sophomore with growing excitement: why, the things I felt in my gut actually had intellectual heft and support behind them. People much younger than me will often not realize difficult it was to grow up libertarian in the 1960s and early 1970s.
(more below the fold)

As a reference, here are some random headlines from the 9/11/2001 NYT:

Advertising; Marshall Field's decides it's time for a big branding effort.

Arsenic Standard for Water Is Too Lax, Study Concludes

Biden Opens Wide Critique Of Bush Plan For a Shield

City Voters Have Heard It All As Campaign Din Nears End

Crowd Beats Truck Driver for Killing a 4-Year-Old

Despite Plan for Talks, Mideast Violence Explodes

E.P.A. Finds Some Soot Is Bad, Other Soot Is Worse

Federal Agency Says Verizon Broke Law Regarding Union

High and Dry in Denver; Giants Are Perfect Guests in the Broncos' New Stadium

Man Clinton Pardoned Balks at Testifying

Protect Sharks? Attacks Fuel Old Argument

Report Cites Vulnerabilities Of Global Navigation System

Reports Disagree on Fate of Anti-Taliban Rebel Chief

Scientists Urge Bigger Supply Of Stem Cells

Suicide Bomb Kills 2 Police Officers in Istanbul

The Politics of Panic

The last article is about how the administration is beginning to "panic" about the economy and criticizes the proposal to reduce the capital gains tax from 20 percent to 15 percent.

The Biden article starts out:

Washington, Sept. 10 - Declaring a profound difference with President Bush, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., said today that plans for missile defense sacrifice national security for the sake of a "theological" belief - and that the effort to make such a system work would cost astronomical amounts of money...Mr. Biden said the administration would create greater insecurity than at any time since the 1960s if it went ahead [with the plans to test a limited national defense system]...

Interesting.

Yes, tagged. More to come.

From the September 9, 1906 NYT:

Fame is sometimes a bubble that comes from blowing our own horn.

Never bluntly call a man a liar. Break the news to him gently.

Drinking to drown sorrow is merely feeding a fire with alcohol.

A snapshot photograph often demonstrates that truth is stranger than fiction.

This one demonstrates remarkable talent with little physical capital.

Advertising Age reports that Taco Bell is having a hard time convincing Hispanics, particularly Mexicans, to eat at their restaurants.

Taco Bell's fast-food version of Mexican food isn't playing very well with Hispanics, who contributed just a half-percent to the company's same-store-sales gain of 7% in 2005, despite making up 20% of Taco Bell's core 18-to-34-year-old target market.

"If they say they deliver good Mexican food to [Hispanics] they won't be believed. If they say they have good, filling, cheap American food, they may have a chance."

From the September 2, 1906 NYT:

An affinity is generally a person with money.

Too many cozy corners will drive a man to his club.

The greatness that is thrust upon a man generally goes to his head.

A true friend is one who won't hold you responsible tomorrow for what you say to-day.

Peppery remarks should be taken with a grain of salt.

It's the things we don't do that often give us the most unhappiness.

A man talks louder when he knows he is wrong than when he realizes he is right.

No man can hope to shine in society unless he can say nothing and make it sound interesting.

I quit watching "The Apprentice" a few years ago, but I did find it somewhat intriguing for a while. I especially liked Carolyn. Alas, Carolyn may not be on the show any more as The Don cracks the whip:

"Being on 'The Apprentice' went to her head. She was no longer focused on business. She was giving speeches for $25,000 and doing endorsements," said a person quoted in the New York Post as an "insider."

I wonder if she received the news via email?

Stuart Taylor has this excellent column at Slate, on the alleged - and it now appears almost certainly false - rape of a stripper by members of the Duke Lacrosse team. It's a story of dishonest, politically ambitious prosecutors; crooked cops bent on making the evidence fit the crime, ideologically driven academics, and mostly, the shameless, ideologically charged reporting of America's most influential newspaper. It's long, but well worth a read - a real life Bonfire of the Vanities.

Filed in the things don't change drawer is the 1906 movement to reform spelling in American. Teddy Roosevelt passed an executive public order [to the Public Printer] last week ordering all government documents to be printed with the new English spellings, including tho for though, altho for although, stopt for stopped, and so forth. Andrew Carnegie has thrown some money at the project, but in the end it will die.

In the August 29, 1906 NYT is an article announcing that Webster's Dictionary would not include the new spellings simply because Roosevelt said so. The company had this to say:

"English is a lively enough language without a wholesale change such as that which is now being agitated. Snipped particles, like `stopt' for stopped are particularly undesirable, and hideous, and will not come into good use for a long time."

In another article there is concern that Congress will try to block the President's move by requiring that Congressional documents be printed using standard English with the President's/Executive branch documents being printed in reformed English. This leads to the following concern:

[I]t may easily produce a vexatious mix-up in requiring two sets of employes at the printing office. It will be practically impossible for one set of men to follow both styles alternately without making frequent blunders in each, and two sets of men means two sets of salaries.

As an aside, you might notice that there seem to be typos in the 1906 articles I pull from. There might be some typos, but fortunately for me many of what seem to be typos are accurate. For example, employe and to-day and per-cent are typed as they were spelled in 1905/1906. Thus, it is apparent that English does evolve and "reform" although it is interesting that the President of the United States would attempt such a reform unilaterally (consider if Bush tried to change nuclear to nucular and strategy to strategery? Although some of these Bushisms are already creeping into the language even if only in jest.)

The simplified spelling movement is still rolling along.

More here
More here
More here
More here

Heck, with my bad primary education you would think I'd be a life-time member.

An amazing letter to the editor in the August 29, 1906 NYT:

We had an earthquake that scared us all up to our full capacity to be frightened, followed by a conflagration which devoured all the business section and about one half the resident section, reckoning in point of population, (not area.) The loss of life will never be known, I might say three thousand, or again five thousand. Each would be simply a guess. The property loss likewise may have been $500,000,000 or again $700,000,000. I don't know, nor does any one else. Discomforts were plenty; actual suffering not at all. My family and I dined off a can of corn, eaten cold out of the can, this being our sole dish the evening after the earthquake...I carried wood and water, cooked in the streets, stood in the bread line for four hours, and with thankful heart received, in the shape of two hard-boiled eggs, my share of the millions the country at large had contributed.

But all this is forgotten, the fact being that we are all too busy to think of it...All the weakkneed gleaners have fled; leaving the ever-springing crop of those who remained. Everybody here is busy. Personally, I hear no one discussing the safety of the city or its advantages or disadvantages as a place of investment...I have found nobody who is worrying himself over the question as to the opinions of outsiders...

I am doing all the business I can take care of...Whether there are 70,000 people here of 350,000 I don't know, but I do know the business is here, which is the thing of interest. And it must not be forgotten that the good-will of thousands of firms went up in the fire, and the business of to-day is anybody's who goes after it. I don't believe in the history of the country there has been such an opportunity for a new house as exists to-day in San Francisco...

That is the great advantage of this city to-day. The population has been winnowed and the chaff is scattered to the four winds of heaven. The present population of San Francisco is not worrying about its future. We haven't time at present to take much interest in daily chronicled facts that this one or that will erect a class A building. We are not worrying over the fact that the rehabilitated Palace Hotel will have five or seven gilt angels at it pinnacles. We are occupied in making money in one-storied shacks at present, and will turn our thoughts to putting our surplus into class A buildings later on.

Wow. And this not five months after the SF earthquake. Something to think about amidst the carping sure to fill the airwaves today and the rest of the week.

To put it mildly, the vintage base ball community has been fairly cold to the idea of the new Vintage Base Ball Federation previously blogged about my Mike. (A taste of the responses I've seen floating around the listservs is pasted below the fold.)

I have nothing against people making money with vintage base ball. Doing well and doing good are not incompatible. Also, I have nothing against marketing the game aggressively. My first reaction was, "Great, vintage base ball is going to get some attention here."

But after reading more about it, my thinking was, "Oh no..."

I have a problem with the idea of using "hyrbid" rules from the 1860s to the 1880s. In the last decade the vintage base ball movement has worked very hard to research and portray different time periods as accurately as possible. To combine some aspects of early 1860s base ball (for example, a ball caught on one bounce is an out) with 1880s base ball (for example, the use of gloves) is simply inaccurate.

Of secondary concern, I am not thrilled with the general thrust toward more aggressive competitiveness in vintage base ball. Winning is good. But one of the main attractions of vintage base ball for both players and fans is that it eschews the worst aspects of modern life. There are few insults in vintage base ball worse than calling someone a "softballer". I realize that in real life the relatively genteel game of the 1850s gave way to the more aggressive game of the 1880s so it does matter what era you're trying to recreate. But I do hope the game remains a game for people interested at least as much in history and accuracy as in winning.

From the August 26, 1906 NYT:

None are so blind as those who have no object in view.

Many a man would rather be on the level than climb upward.

Home is what we make it, and some fellows never make it until about 4 A.M.

When prosperity is with us the pessimist goes ahead announcing that this is positively the fare-well appearance.

It's the man who sticks to water that drinks like a fish.

Sitting on a young man's knee isn't a positive sign that he can support a girl forever.

Even marriage doesn't take the conceit out of some men.

The fellow who courts trouble generally ends up marrying it.

There wouldn't be so many sinners if people struggled to get into heaven as they do to get into society.

This came to me from my friend, Mike Stroup, and I reprint with permission:

Some of us follow the careers of fantastic athletes. Others admire movie superstars. “Different” people like me admire incredible jazz musicians. Maynard Ferguson, jazz trumpeter extraordinaire, died this week. He was 78.

I cannot condone his typical sixties “experimental” lifestyle. Nor can I really relate to his devotion to Far Eastern religious beliefs. However, I can certainly embrace his tremendous talent as a band leader, jazz arranger and amazing trumpet player. Maynard also selflessly supported music education in High Schools, giving many free seminars for disadvantaged student musicians and raising money for supplying musical instruments to poorer public schools.

Back when I was playing saxophone in High School jazz band, I remember laying on my bed and playing Maynard’s LPs on my stereo. I would stare at the ceiling, enjoying the wonderful artistry of Maynard’s band and marveling over the incredibly high notes that he projected over his entire orchestra. Maynard effortlessly reached these high notes with such force that no other contemporary trumpet player could touch him. To play this instrument so strongly at those lofty heights takes tremendous breathing control techniques that he attributed to his ardent devotion to yoga.

Have you heard of the Stan Kenton jazz orchestra? This popular band of the late fifties and early sixties toured world-wide to great critical acclaim. Maynard got his start there, playing lead trumpet (Yes, LEAD!) at age 15—a mere teenager! Despite Ferguson’s young age, Stan Kenton called him the best trumpeter in the world. I have to agree.

In his early 20s, Maynard finally broke out with his own jazz orchestra, putting together some amazing jazz talents that you’ve probably heard of: names like Chuck Mangione, Bob James, and Chick Corea. Just like Kenton gave Maynard his shot, Ferguson’s band also gave these fellow musicians their footholds in the jazz world before they each became jazz greats in their own right. In the sixties, Maynard’s jazz orchestra was a showcase for his superb talent when he was at the peak of his form. From that point on, however, his career would take a gradual, downhill slide from that lofty peak. Yet, he would still remain a great musician throughout his career.

When jazz became less and less popular in the 70s (remember the rise of disco as a music genre? many of us are trying to forget it…), Maynard felt financial pressure to become more commercial. He sought mainstream recognition in order to retain record contracts with the big name recording studios. The jazz purists howled, but what is a starving musician to do? Do you remember the screaming trumpet on the jazzy version of the song “Gonna Fly Now,” which was the theme song from Sylvester Stallone’s movie “Rocky,”? That was Maynard’s trumpet screaming at you. He earned a Grammy nomination for that song. Soulless and overtly commercial, perhaps, but it still showcased his awesome talents. And the tune was darn catchy, too. Guilty pleasures, I suppose.

He later returned to the pure jazz scene, touring the world with small combos into the 80s and 90s. He then fell into relative obscurity during this past decade. I saw him in concert once during that twilight time, late in his career. I longed for the tight control and ultra-high notes that once emanated from his horn, but it was just not there. The spirit remained but the chops were too old. Once in a while, a few of his solos briefly warbled into the stratosphere and brought a smile to my face. For at that moment in time I was transported back to my old bedroom, all filled with high school angst and a tremendous admiration for this magnificent trumpet player. He played a large part in instilling in me a love for jazz at an early stage of my life.

Goodbye, Maynard. The world of jazz will sorely miss you.

From Forbes.com a list of the drunkest cities in the country, although dictionary.com has no entry for the word "drunkest."

I suppose Forbes means the cities with the most drunk populations - can a city be drunk?

Here's the top five:

1. Milwaukee
2. Minneapolis-St. Paul
3. Columbus, OH
4. Boston
5. Austin, TX

I'm not sure if I am buying the list. New Orleans is ranked 24th and tied with Tampa? Dallas is ranked 27th and Savannah GA isn't ranked at all? Washington, DC is only 20th? Hmmm...

As a follow up on Frank's post concerning party schools, I wanted to mention my pride that my alma mater (UGA) is gaining on the party school dimension even as we gain on the academic and intercollegiate football dimensions. However, I not the considerable inflation in drink specials. In the late 80s and early 90s the drink specials ranged from penny drinks through nickels and quarters.

A little tidbit from the August 23, 1906 NYT suggests that Princeton might have been near the top of the list of party schools 100 years ago:

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union has taken a step in the right direction in its decision to attempt the reform of the students of Princeton University...It is well known that smoking, which I believe is the more prevalent of the vices mentioned, retards and stunts the growth, and may very possibly be responsible for the lack of athletic supremacy referred to.

It seems every fall there is at least one article that lists the differences between the freshman class of this year and the freshman class of, say, 1987 (mine). As we roll into the new fall semester (we start next Monday), here's another - it includes 75 items. Wow things are changing fast!!

Here's the top eleven:

1. The Soviet Union has never existed and therefore is about as scary as the student union.
2. They have known only two presidents.
3. For most of their lives, major U.S. airlines have been bankrupt.
4. Manuel Noriega has always been in jail in the U.S.
5. They have grown up getting lost in "big boxes."
6. There has always been only one Germany.
7. They have never heard anyone actually "ring it up" on a cash register.
8. They are wireless, yet always connected.
9. A stained blue dress is as famous to their generation as a third-rate burglary was to their parents'.
10. Thanks to pervasive headphones in the back seat, parents have always been able to speak freely in the front.
11. A coffee has always taken longer to make than a milkshake.

The list seems a bit strained at times as I remember getting lost in the old big-box stores such as Treasure Island and K-Mart and I wonder how many freshman (and non-freshman) even know who Manuel Noriega is and why we care(d).

[Update: Frank Stephenson emails me: "I was going to add a comment that my colleague Gary Roseman brought to my attention—items 1, 2, 4, and 6 (and perhaps others down the list)—are not literally correct. While a child the age of, say, your cutie with the DOL bib doesn’t know or remember much, she would have been alive while GWB is president. The same can be said of the items on the list."]

From the August 18, 1906 NYT:

Gompers, with his counsel, appeared at Washington to advocate a bill prohibiting the Federal Courts from issuing injunctions in any case between employer and employe, except to prevent irreparable injury to property or to a property right. But its atrocity consisted in the proviso that "for the purposes of this act, no right to carry on business of any particular kind or at any particular place, or at all, shall be considered or treated as property, or as constituting a property right."

In other words, a mob, according to Gompers, should be permitted without molestation or interruption by the courts, to put out of business any employer who had incurred the displeasure of "organized labor." It is perhaps the most outrageous, un-American, and anarchical project of law ever submitted to an American Congress. After explaining to Gompers, gently but firmly, how infamous the proposal really is, as a denial of essential human rights the claim of which upon the courts for protection is older than the Constitution, and as well established as any other principle in law or equity.

From the August 14, 1906 NYT:

A force of clerks from the Department of Commerce and Labor at Washington invaded the Surrogates' Court on the ground floor of the County Court House yesterday morning for the purpose of making up records of all divorces granted in this city for the last twenty years...The records, when they are completed, will be used for purposes of information by Congress, when it takes up the question of a uniform divorce law...In each divorce case the clerk is expected to find out and fill in the answers to these questions:

1 - State or county in which married
2 - Date of marriage
3 - Date of separation
4 - Date of filing petition
5 - Who was libellant? Husband? Wife?
6 - How as notice served? Personally? By publication?
7 - Was case contested? Yes. No.
8 - Was decree granted? Yes. No.
9 - Date of decree or judgment
10 - Number of years married
11 - Cause for which divorce
12 - If not direct, was intemperance an indirect cause? Yes. No.
13 - Kind of divorce. Absolute. Limited.
14 - Number of children by this union affected by decree.
15 - Was alimony asked? Yes. No.
16 - Was alimony granted? Yes. No.
17 - Occupation of husband. Wife.
18 - Residence of libellee.

The coming of the government clerks was entirely unexpected, and caused no little talk in the County Court House, where it was pointed out that their investigations would doubtless create more or less uneasiness in the minds of those divorced persons who have been wise enough and lucky enough to keep the fact that they have figured in divorce litigation out of the papers.

All of this sounds eerily similar to the DOJ requests for search history from ISPs and search engines. Many privacy advocates suggested that even anonymous data concerning Internet searches could be used to back-track to an individual. This has been proven a couple of times using the AOL data that was "released" to the public and then "un-released."

In a similar fashion, could government clerks of 1906 be trusted to keep quiet about their knowledge that certain society types had a drinking problem that led to a divorce, or that a certain divorcee receives alimony?

From the August 12, 1906 NYT:

The fellow who is always grunting about his ailments generally outlives those from whom he expects sympathy.

Ajax defied the lightning, but the man who defies his mother-in-law makes Ajax look like a pinhead.

When a woman's face is her fortune it is not necessary for her to be continually flashing her roll.

Nowadays when a superstitious man sees a red-headed girl he looks around for a white automobile.

Some people are so sensitive that they would rather be shot at than laughed at.

It takes a pretty big navy nowadays to enable a nation to paddle its own canoe.

A man is soon forgotten after he is dead, unless you happen to marry his widow.

Wireless telegraphy is comparatively new, but the kick under the table is as old as marriage.

Many a right bower is turned down in politics as well as in euchre.

It is perhaps better to tell your troubles than to listen to other people's.

Every rose has its thorn, and, what is more, the thorn doesn't fade.

It is hard to keep up a light heart with a heavy liver.

From the August 8, 1906 NYT:

UNION CITY, Tenn - After deliberating for more than three hours the jury in the suit of Miss Lola Walker, who is said to have formerly been a society girl and who was later a chorus girl, returned a verdict this afternoon awarding her $21,000 damages against Col. Richard Edwards, a wealthy young clubman, whose residence is in Union City and who is well known in New York, Chicago, and St. Louis...Miss Walker brought suit for $50,000, alleging breach of promise of marriage. An appeal will be taken to the Supreme Court by Col. Edwards.

Notwithstanding the expected appeal, an interesting question to ponder is whether the $21,000 was a reasonable price to avoid matrimony to Miss. Walker.

Current-day cynics about the U.S. media are perhaps less novel and less clever than they think. From the August 5, 1906 NYT:

[O]n one occasion she [Queen Maud of Norway] was with her sisters at a public gathering in London, and noticed a curious reporter gazing at their every movement. Accordingly, she wrote something on a piece of paper, and, making a pretense of handing it to one of her sisters, dropped it. The reporter, of course, in great glee picked it up, expecting to get a scoop for his paper. Imagine his chagrin when he fond written on it the commonplace remark: 'My new boots pinch me terribly.'"

That nothing came of this incident simply proves the denseness or the timidity of the London reporter. Had an American knight of the pencil been thus favored, his paper the next morning would have had the note reproduced in fac simile, with a drawing of the boots of the Princess, speculation as to the location of the offending corn or bunion, and a dissertation on the folly of wearing tight boots. Rising to the occasion and jumping to meet an opportunity are essential in up-to-date reporting.

From the Aug. 1, 1906 NYT:

The cornerstone of the new Senate office building facing the Capitol plaza was laid at noon to-day [July 31]. The exercises were informal. In the stone a sealed box was placed containing a Bible, copies of the Declaration of Independence, and of the Constitution, photographs of President [Theodore] Roosevelt, Vice President Fairbanks, and of several public buildings, and copies of a number of official documents.

Talk about mission creep. The official RSOB webpage states the following:

Today 36 senators and 5 committees occupy space in the Russell Building, which in 1958 housed 96 senators and 10 committees.

I wonder what the Bible was for? Perhaps a symbolic gesture that the country is founded on something contained therein? I wonder if the Senators and committees that have offices in the building know or would even care about such symbolism.

I am slowly wrapping my brain around the Middle East situation and its long history. Most people are familiar with the Biblical history of the Jewish people in the region, but what is less familiar (at least to me) is what has been going on over the past two-hundred years or so.

A lot of talk show hosts insist that there was nothing called "Palestine" before the 1940s. Perhaps that is true in some sense. However, from the July 30, 1906 NYT comes this interesting one-paragraph story lifted from The British Weekly:

Some twenty years ago Palestine meant little to the majority of Jews. Now all is changing. Nearly every year fresh colonies have been established till now they number of thirty, and time is adding to their number and extent. One-third of Palestine proper is once again Jewish soil. So anxious are the Jews to again get possession that they endeavor to purchase all that comes into the market.

On the other hand, much like there is concern in this country about foreigners "buying up" too much land, there could have been confrontations over time. One wonders if the first and second world wars hadn't occurred, along with the ever expanding pogroms and massacres of Jews around Europe (and European Russia) during the first half of the twentieth century, whether there would be a completely different situation in the Middle East today.

The BBC reports that Metallica will make their songs available for download on iTunes and other music sites. This is a 180 degree turnaround from the six or more years that the band has refused to do this for fears that the pirates would make it impossible to ever sell a digital song again.

I suppose 40 million iPods might indicate that the whole music biz is changing - for the better? - and a band like Metallica, which will likely have less new music relative to their old music, might be smart to allow folks to buy their music one song at a time.

From the BBC story:

A statement on the band's website said: "Over the last year or so, we have seen an ever-growing number of Metallica fans using online sites like iTunes to get their music.

"So, in continuing with the tradition of offering our albums for sale online as well as making our live concerts available for download in their entirety we are now offering fans the opportunity to obtain our songs individually."

Printed on page 6 of the July 23, 1906 NYT:

Sir: As an old experimentalist I have discovered a way to increase the speed of marine vessels indefinitely, making them the fastest means of transport in the world. I cannot afford to get wide patent rights, nor can I exhibit a model, without divulging my secrets. Do you think that any of your readers would be able to tell me how to get the matter taken up?

Occasional tidbits in the paper from 100 years ago are suggestive of what might prove interesting history books (or dissertations? gasp!). How about this one from the July 22, 1906 NYT:

RICHMOND, Va - Frederick Smith, colored, one of the panel of twenty-four jurors summoned to try Jefferson Davis for high treason against the United States died in the city home here to-day. He was nearly 90 years old.

From the July 22, 1906 NYT:

Too many nightcaps are apt to go to a fellow's head.

Nothing trains a man's memory like lending money.

The people who tell their troubles are never gifted with a sense of humor.

In spite of the bookbinders, most books are bound by precedent.

Dyspepsia is a handy thing on which to blame a naturally bad disposition.

The average man hates to play poker with a bad loser almost as much as with a good winner.

There are men who labor under the delusion that if they should hide their light under a bushel the whole world would be dark.

From the July 19, 1906 NYT:

The Statue of Liberty on Bedloe's Island is to be painted. The goddess is to receive a coat within as well as without. In the eighteen years during which she has borne aloft her torch, she as been exposed to the salt winds of the Atlantic, and their action has begun to affect her bronze plates. A coating of verdigris has spread over them, and it is feared that unless something is done quickly they will be seriously weakened and the statue itself endangered....

Signs of dilapidation are also seen about the island. In many places the walls are crumbling and the electric lighting plant has long been lacking the proper care. Capt. George C. Burnell, who has charge of the statue and the signal station on the island, denies the report that the stairway inside the statue is unsafe. He said it probably would become unsafe if neglected a few years longer. The work of rejuvenating the statue will be begun immediately...

To a considerable extend the statue has been allowed to remain incomplete since it was erected. The foundations need to be finished off to match the pedestal, and the openings in the latter, which have been simply boarded up, will be supplied with iron doors. We will also put in an iron approach instead of the present wooden stairs, fix up the walls of the fort, which are tumbling down in places, and build a waiting station for visitors at the pier. Last but not least, we will paint the statue inside and out.

I wonder if the lack of concern about the Statue of Liberty was because the U.S. was not yet the superpower it was to become. While Roosevelt is doing his part to extend the influence of the United States, not until WWI and, perhaps especially, WWII will the Statue of Liberty come to mean something different?

It is interesting to read about the rather blase attitude taken concerning what today would be considered by many one of the best symbols of the United States. However, it should be noted that the statue didn't become a national monument until 1924.

Interesting tidbits:

Here's information on Bedloe's Island and a picture c. 1905

Another time-line of Bedloe's Island a.k.a. Liberty Island

From the July 15, 1906 NYT:

• Making a mountain out of a molehill appeals to the real estate speculator.
  
• The people who write articles on how to succeed are not always able to sell them.
  
• A fellow never knows he is in love till the girl tells him.
  
• It is true that a woman promises to love, honor, and obey, but a man promises to endow her with all his earthly goods, so it's an even break.
  
• A man never hears the best things that are said about him, because he is dead then.
  
• Only a few of us can have our faces on banknotes. Most of us would prefer to have our hands on them anyway.
  
• There are no return tickets issues from the frying pan into the fire.
  
• The fellow who is looking for trouble frequently overestimates his capacity.
  

I know almost nothing about typography, so I found this article from Sunday's International Herald Tribune, "Quirky serifs aside, Georgia fonts win on Web," to be very interesting and informative. From the opening:

Log on to The New York Times's Web site, and you'll see it there. Just as you'll spot it on the Web sites of London's Frieze Art Fair, the architecture magazine Metropolis, the artist Damien Hirst, and on blog, after blog, after blog.

All of these Web sites use the same typeface - Georgia. Typefaces slip in and out of fashion like every other area of design, but right now Georgia is the most fashionable one on the Internet. "A few designers have mentioned that there seems to be a 'Georgia revival' going on," says Matthew Carter, the British-born, Boston-based designer who developed Georgia for Microsoft in 1996. "It seems a bit young to have died and been revived already."

Of course, I immediately logged onto the NYT website and found the font recognizable but pretty so-so IMHO. (I also discovered that Bruce Arena had been fired.)

Clicking back to the Tribune article, I finished reading it with zest. How often we take for granted all the talent and resources that go into producing things just so we can take them for granted. And how crucial spontaneous capitalist order is to supporting the innovation of things we value without even realizing it. It made me wonder in which font "I, Pencil" was originally published.

When designing my website I chose, with Kirznerian ignorance, to use Verdana. It just looked the cleanest. So I was pleased to read the story of this font in the Tribune article. The passage is also revealing of the many issues with electronic typography that readers can essentially take for granted.

By the mid-1990s, as more and more people were using Internet and e-mail, we were spending so long reading information on screen that legibility became a critical issue. Concerned that none of the existing digital fonts were easily readable, Microsoft commissioned a collection of screen-friendly typefaces to be given away free with its Windows software. [Matthew] Carter [who developed Georgia for Microsoft in 1996] was asked to produce two, a serif and sans serif.

As the most popular digital fonts at the time were sans serifs, he began with that. He started by analyzing why existing typefaces were so hard to read on screen, and worked out how to rectify the problem by focusing on the characters that are most easily confused - i, j, l and the number 1. Stylistically he made each one as clear as possible, by designing them in simple shapes with no superfluous details. He paid particular attention to the spacing between characters, having realized that this often caused confusion in other computer fonts.

The result was Verdana, which was launched by Microsoft in 1996 and given away free to millions of people with Windows.

I would shout two cheers for Microsoft except I'm posting this on IE7 Beta 3 and it is terribly buggy. So just one cheer for now.

Another curiosity. Recently while drumming up some faux letterhead to use in soft copy, I was drawn to Sylfaen. I searched it and found that it is popular in Latin, Greek, Armenian, Georgian, and the Cyrillic, among others. Perhaps that's because Slyfaen supports many of these languages' characters.

I perceive something bigger than style, fashion and legibility in the font wars. Each font is a collection of a particular set of ideas--a claim with which the talented and hard-working Matthew Carter and most typographers would probably agree. How widely a font is used represents a measure of success for the ideas embodied in it. Social critics (especially economists) like to say "ideas have consequences," but too few economists pay attention to how ideas propagate. Often, I think, idea propagation relies heavily on the subtle. I regularly read stuff from the New York Times, but only today did I bother to recognize and appreciate the font. How many dead fonts are there, lying as heaps of rejected, forgotten ideas?

On a final note, two questions.
1. Is there intellectual property in font design?
2. What font does Division of Labour use?
Comments open for awhile.

From the July 13, 1906 NYT:

The National Billposters' Association to-day decided to stop adve