Spoiler alert! I mean that in two senses. I am going to use this post both to tell you a few things about this weekend’s upcoming episode of “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” (sometimes hereinafter referred to as WWDTM) and…
Category: A Day in the Life
Choices: Too Many, Not Enough
“It’s a typical situation in these typical times too many choices… Oh, everybody’s happy everybody’s free we’ll keep the big door open everyone’ll come around. Why are you different? Why are you that way? If you don’t get in line,…
Oh Nose
They say that smell is the sense most linked to memory. It’s funny how hard a time I have identifying smells and how hard they are to objectively describe, even in reference to each other. One can describe the characteristics…
Unemployment Actually Down, Still Above 11%
Unemployment declined in February 2015 for the second straight month, to 11.42%. This is the lowest unemployment has been in the US since June 2009, when unemployment was 11.26%. The Reporting Gap, which indicates how under-reported the official BLS figure…
Overpopulation and the Growth Obsession
Did you ever wonder why property values always (2008 aside) go up? It just feels like one of those economic truths we imbibe at a young age, probably before we even take an Economics class, for those of us who…
Pancakes Make Me Hungrier
That term: “pancakes make me hungrier” appears nowhere on the Internet as a phrase. Until now. I had pancakes for breakfast yesterday, the second time in about a week, at a place that New Orleanians seem to adore called the…
Moment of Reflection
Last night, I had a disquieting and somewhat absurd realization that most people think it’s fine for some people to be rich and other people to be poor. I was struck anew by how difficult I actually find that to…
In the Ballpark
New Orleans has brought me my first-ever NFL game and second- and third-ever NBA games in quick succession (and I have a feeling that, at those ticket prices, we’re going to become Pelicans semi-regulars). But it sadly lacks an MLB…
401(k)’s and IRAs are a Pyramid Scheme
The stock market is booming! On Wednesday, February 25th, 2015, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at an all-time record-high of 18,224.57 points. This is getting awfully close to triple the March 2009 lows and is, according to all the…
Rim to Rim to Rim Revisited
When I was in college, one of my closest college friends, Stina, spent the summer of 2000 working at a cafeteria in the Grand Canyon. It’s one of those quirky little facts of American life that you might not think…