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May 21st, 2002
09:28 pm - Location
In case I comment on someone's post, and he/she thinks "who is this guy?" and then wanders over here looking, I can be found here.
Rebuttals, comments, and other smart-aleck remarks welcome.
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January 22nd, 2002
08:20 am
Mr. Krugman usually agrees with me (snicker); he does so again in this column about the Administration and tax policy.
Current Mood: cranky
Current Music: NPR - Morning Edition
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January 11th, 2002
07:44 pm
I've been up in arms about the executive order which forbade release of presidential papers, but this is unbelievable. (Link lifted from Skarlet, with my thanks). Our illustrious Attorney General, who just decided he'd better recuse himself from any Enron hearings, recently (Oct. 12) issued an order telling federal agencies not to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests. Further, he has said the Dept. of Justice will back up said agencies in any court fight they may have to keep from releasing information. Anyone else reminded of Stalin, Andropov, et al.?
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04:20 pm - RE: Enron
A friend came up with a good line about this administration; she was referring more to their blocking of access to Presidential papers, but it works for Enron too:
"I'm restraining myself from making a reeeally bad pun about Obfusgate..."
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January 10th, 2002
09:14 pm
Now comes Arthur Andersen's announcement that they've somehow lost or destroyed documents pertaining to their audit of Enron. I've worked places where Big Five companies did the audits; the ones I worked with could pull workpapers from three, four, or five years earlier without too much of a stretch.
Apparently Andersen itself felt that its original statement needed clarification. Looking to your hole card, guys?
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08:12 pm
On the heels of ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) pixelshim's account of his experiences, here's another story of that Excite@home debacle.
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08:54 am
"Skilling has said he had no idea, despite Enron's falling stock values, that the company was on the brink of failure."
Which, if true, makes one wonder just what qualifications the man had to be a CEO of a billion-dollar company.
Current Mood: infuriated
Current Music: NPR - Morning Edition
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January 9th, 2002
01:49 pm - Quips?
Yikes! Since sherahi put the pressure on, have a list of E-Book best-sellers in 2001, according to Palm, Inc. I suspect, based on this material, that we can expect no decline in hard-copy books anytime soon.
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January 8th, 2002
09:49 pm - Site update
I've now got a working comment system over here, as well. Feel free to stop by!
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04:00 pm - Cogito ergo journalize
So ok, somebody has gone hog wild with the pithy remarks. This has exploded in two days. (This post prompted by Sherahi's item).
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January 5th, 2002
09:30 am
This seems an appropriate place to link this; it's Ian McKellen's journal, kept while making LOTR. It is an absolutely fascinating tale of the movie-making process, kept (presumably) contemporaneously.
Current Mood: impressed
Current Music: The Splendid Table
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December 30th, 2001
01:17 pm - 2001 Top Ten Lists
Now here's an amusing item from Google; the top-ten lists of search terms for 2001.
Grist for the sociologists!
Current Mood: amused
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December 29th, 2001
09:14 pm - Mystery commentor
It may have been a source of confusion to some folks that I'm commenting away on some of your sites, but there are no posts of my own. That's because in a fit of pique a month or so ago when LJ was failing daily, I went over to the blogger side. I have been posting my own thoughts over here. The comments function isn't nearly as good, since all the free comment systems have died, but it's still possible if you are willing to register at a msg board thingy which can be found there. Feel free and welcome to come on over!
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December 24th, 2001
08:57 am - Merry Christmas to all...
Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus
Editorial Page, New York Sun, 1897
We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O'Hanlon
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a sceptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.
He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus?Thank God he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!
Yes, Virginia: Text of the famous editorial. With follow-up about the principals at the site.
Current Mood: happy
Current Music: Guess!
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December 14th, 2001
10:48 am
More on Enron's weird accounting practices. And still more. Then there's this op/ed about the all-too-frequent failure of corporate boards to think about shareholder value when approving strategy. I remember owning three different mutual funds with three very different stated goals about 15 years ago; nevertheless, all three owned huge chunks of Telefonos de Mexico (Mexico's ATT). Bemused then, bemused now.
Current Music: NPR - TOTN Science Friday
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December 12th, 2001
09:28 pm - What's up with LJ?
I got in here for the first time in a week with no trouble, bounced around looking at friend's entries with no trouble either.
Have they gotten the bugs out of this system, finally? I felt compelled to move over to my personal site in the userinfo section and create a journal there, due to the inability of access to this thing.
Anyone got any answers?
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December 6th, 2001
09:44 am
Part 2 of the Washington Post series about the Big Five accounting firms.
Current Mood: aggravated
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December 2nd, 2001
09:34 pm - Unauthorized absence!
I've been MIA for a few days; Friday we had upholsterers, vets making house calls, and all of that kept me from getting work for clients done, much less posting in here. Then I got involved with a project on my web site (see Userinfo; no, really, I'm rather pleased...it ain't perfect yet, but...) and was tired too lazy to get around to this. I will try to do better!
Current Mood: tired
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November 29th, 2001
10:45 am - Shine on Harvest News!
Here's one worthy of Pop Culture Junk Mail: what were we distracting ourselves from, pre-September 11?
Once again, our Administration has embarrassed itself; let us remain beholden to our campaign contributors, and argue for tobacco companies and against the World Health Organization.
Today's Word of the Day is one of Nero Wolfe's favorite words: flummery, meaning an empty compliment; unsubstantial talk or writing; mumbo jumbo; nonsense. The site cited above is probably the best fan site available.
'English lords must now parade before a New York jury "thick with delicatessen owners and rehabilitated alcoholics speaking with impossible accents."' So quotes this article about the current price-fixing trial of Sotheby's and Christies, now going on in NY.
Slashdot correspondent a victim of "pouncing-nerd syndrome?" Publish, perish, or be flamed, perhaps.
The NYT publishes its Holiday Buying Guide to Technology. In other techie news, how about using your mobile phone to identify music on the radio?
Finally, a Russian multiplication puzzle. An explanation is provided, but it still seems like magic.
Current Mood: good
Current Music: NPR - TOTN
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