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- HOW BANKS PREPARED FOR A U.S. DEFAULT. (2)
- GREECE’S ADVANTAGE IN THE CHICKEN GAME. (2)
- Nick: That makes sense. It reminds me of the stories Pater Familias would tell me about how in Boston the person with...
- Dick Weisfelder: Greece seems to me to be playing a game that Karl Deutsch called “underdog.” While one...
- FOOTBALL PLAYERS DELIBERATELY CAUSING CONCUSSIONS? (3)
- Nick: It was my understanding that boxing gloves were to protect the puncher’s hands and not the...
- Dick Weisfelder: Remember the Roman arenas? Bare knuckled boxing? Such injuries were taken as natural and accepted in...
- Mary Jane Schaefer: This isn’t about football. Or even sportsmanship. Well, it is about sportsmanship. But what...
- A 25 % CHANCE OF A EURO DEFAULT? (1)
- Nick: The fact that this has gone on for so long is pretty perplexing. The Economist is referring back to articles it...
- DECIDING WHAT KIND OF PATIENT YOU ARE. (1)
- Dick Weisfelder: One can be very open to new technology, but also risk averse. The recent debates about how to...
- THE EUROZONE—A CHICKEN GAME WHERE EVERY MEMBER CAN BLOW IT UP? (1)
- Mary Jane Schaefer: This is not a matter of chicken. These are all turkeys.
- PLAYING WITH MATCHES NEAR A GASOLINE TANK. (1)
- Mary Jane Schaefer: Why would the French care? As long as they take down Britain?
- NORWAY’S CHRISTMAS BUTTER SHORTAGE. (1)
- Mary Jane Schaefer: Christmas with a butter cookie shortage–in Scandinavia. This isn’t even Scrooge. This...
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Monthly Archives: January 2009
TODAY’S SIMPLER SENTENCES.
TODAY’S SIMPLER SENTENCES. You don’t see complex sentences like Johnson’s very often these days. But you also don’t see a lot of writing which balances arguments. Both of our children had a wonderful teacher in high school who told his … Continue reading
Posted in Journalism, Uncategorized
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SAMUEL JOHNSON’S SENTENCES.
SAMUEL JOHNSON’S SENTENCES. Walter Jackson Bate has a wonderful analysis of Samuel Johnson’s style which consists in part of reprinting a couple of sentences of Johnson’s in a format which shows their complexity and balance. Here is one of them, … Continue reading
Posted in Literature
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SAMUEL JOHNSON AND NaNoRiMo.
SAMUEL JOHNSON AND NaNoRiMo. I posted here on NaNoRiMo (National Novel Writing Month) in which writers complete 50,000 word novels in a month, beginning just after midnight each November. (Annalisa has completed it four times). Speed is obviously important. Samuel … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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WALTER JACKSON BATE AND SAMUEL JOHNSON.
WALTER JACKSON BATE AND SAMUEL JOHNSON. Samuel Johnson was born in 1709 so he will receive some attention this year. I have been reading Walter Jackson Bate’s biography of Johnson, which is one of Mary Jane’s favorite books. I asked … Continue reading
Posted in Literature
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CARLYLE AND JOHNSON AND THE CASH NEXUS.
CARLYLE AND JOHNSON AND THE CASH NEXUS. Thomas Carlyle inveighed against the “cash nexus,” in which people were related to each other only by a neutral transaction. I have always objected to his argument, which seemed to me to reflect … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, History, Literature
2 Comments
SAMUEL JOHNSON ON TAVERNS.
SAMUEL JOHNSON ON TAVERNS. Samuel Johnson’s insight that “a tavern-chair [is] the throne of human felicity” is familiar. Adam Gopnik in an article in the New Yorker for December 8, 2008 had a different quote from Johnson which explained some … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Literature
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FORMULA 1 AND THE OPERATING ROOM.
FORMULA 1 AND THE OPERATING ROOM. I posted here about Atul Gutwande’s argument that lives could be saved if doctors and nurses made greater use of checklists for complicated procedures. Here is an article about how the Great Ormond Street … Continue reading
Posted in Sports, Uncategorized
2 Comments
“JUST ANOTHER THREE MINUTES” (COMMENT).
“JUST ANOTHER THREE MINUTES” (COMMENT). A friend e mailed me about my post on theorizing that that “instead of a universe that emerged from a point of infinite density, we will have one that recycles, possibly through an eternal series … Continue reading
83 CONSONANTS.
83 CONSONANTS. I once chatted about the difficulties of the Finnish language during one of those times at closings where everybody is waiting for the money to move. An American woman was representing a Finnish bank. She told me that … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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KING KONG, THE BAGGIE.
KING KONG, THE BAGGIE. The sculptures of Joshua Allen Harris remind me of the day I walked out of my apartment building, walked to the corner and saw about a mile away a giant inflated King Kong climbing the Empire … Continue reading
Posted in art, Uncategorized
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