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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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Category Archives: Literature
A KIPLING LIMERICK.
A KIPLING LIMERICK. I have posted on limericks and how I think that light verse is an important branch of poetry. Today is the middle of January, and there is playoff game scheduled on the Frozen Tundra in Green Bay. … Continue reading
Posted in Football, Literature, Sports
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VICTORIAN HARPOONS IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY WHALES.
VICTORIAN HARPOONS IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY WHALES. Nick and his friend Jane went to the whaling museum in New Bedford recently and were struck by the fact that whales are being found today that are carrying harpoons that were fired in … Continue reading
Posted in History, Literature, Science
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THE WONDER OF THE FUTURE (COMMENT).
THE WONDER OF THE FUTURE (COMMENT). Nick Carraway, before his last reflections on Gatsby’s dream , thinks of the Dutch sailors who first saw Long Island, and of their first glimpse of the American continent. Carraway says: “For a transitory … Continue reading
Posted in Literature
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REFLECTING ON THE PAST (COMMENT).
REFLECTING ON THE PAST (COMMENT). Lee Bryant commented on my post about GATSBY’s wonderful last sentence, calling attention to the beauty of some of the sentences that go before, and how they give force to that last sentence. I realize … Continue reading
Posted in Literature
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TO BE REMEMBERED FOREVER—WRONGLY—FOR BEING MEAN.
TO BE REMEMBERED FOREVER—WRONGLY—FOR BEING MEAN. Dickens is quoted as saying in his diary about Ebenezer Scroggie: “to be remembered through eternity only for being mean seemed the greatest testament to a life wasted.” And that is a message of … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Literature
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EBENEZER SCROGGIE—ADAM SMITH’S GREAT NEPHEW.
EBENEZER SCROGGIE—ADAM SMITH’S GREAT NEPHEW. After I had posted before Christmas on Scroogenomics, I was pleased to find that Charles Dickens based his character Ebenezer Scrooge on a great nephew of Adam Smith. The story is told here by Timothy … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Literature
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GATSBY’S LAST SENTENCE.
GATSBY’S LAST SENTENCE. The great last sentence of THE GREAT GATSBY is: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” Vidyan Ravinthiran had a review in the Times Literary Supplement (December 9) of Stanley … Continue reading
Posted in Literature
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MAKING CHRISTMAS MEMORIES.
MAKING CHRISTMAS MEMORIES. Dickens is wise when he has Scrooge’s conversion accomplished by memories—Scrooge’s past memories, his memories that are being created in the present, and his memories that will be created in the future. We remember our Christmases and … Continue reading
Posted in Literature
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EGGCORNS AS “TINY LITTLE POEMS”.
EGGCORNS AS “TINY LITTLE POEMS”. Eggcorns as well as mondegreens show up frequently in the student writing mistakes that are discussed in RAB’s blog “You Know What I Meant”. RAB analyzes them in much the same way that a good … Continue reading
Posted in Literature
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MIDDLEMARCH.
MIDDLEMARCH. The last words of George Eliot’s MIDDLEMARCH: “…the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to … Continue reading
Posted in History, Literature
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