Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Back in the Saddle

I'm back in the saddle again - reading, thinking, doing. My mind is crammed full of data and visions of Sumerian and Egyptian art, culture and history after spending four solid days in the museums of London. Plus I spent a day in the National Gallery viewing fine paintings. That's five solid days of intense study in the humanities. I'm making up for 40 years of science, math and business. and doing quite well so far. The Bunkerman re-education program is at full speed now.

But I did let the body have some pleasures. Within very easy walking district of our hotel in the Mayfair district, we dined at quite fine restaurants every night suggested by the concierge of the hotel. We had a different style every night: British, Chinese, Indian, Italian and French. London has excellent cuisine. The Chinese restaurant produced some of the finest Chinese food we had every eaten. We were particularly delighted with a 'starter' in a vegetarian style of Peking Duck made with fried strips of bean curd served in the style of Peking Duck - magnifique !

British beef is superb. I had fillets twice - they pronounce the "t" in Britain - from Scottish beef which is so tasty and tender. And the wine lists had plenty of excellent reds.

Naturally I did not let the "depression" get in the way of vacation enjoyment. Overall, London is a superb city for the intellectual tourist. I'll write more later, but have an early errand now.

Markets

Up, up and away. The Obama Fund is roaring as is the Fido Fund. These funds are 115% and 100% long, respectively, and doing very well.

I wait to deploy new funds on the next intermediate dip.

Word of the Day

"Etiology" - noun [$10]; British spelling is "aetiology"; adjective is "etiological".
Etiology means 1. the assignment of a cause or reason; 2. the study of causation; 3. all of the causes of a disease or abnormal condition.
Sentence: Some academics in the history of English simply describe its evolution without considering and developing its etiology. I recommend the book, "Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold Story of English", by John McWhorter. That is a excellent, readable book with solid ideas and evidence.

Le Mot Du Jour

None today - out of time. Also, I am planning to modify this feature of the blog to include other languages that I am now studying. The new "Le Mot du Jour" will be pan-European and include French, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish. I'd include ancient Egyptian in the hierglyphic script, but Microsoft Word doesn't seems to have those signs as a font.

19 comments:

maverick said...

welcome back Bman....glad the trip went well

mfl59 said...

glad to see you had a safe trip Bunkerman?

speaking of culture were you able to attend any football matches?

Bunkerman said...

not attend BUT I could watch lots of fine rugby matches on TV in the evenings. The Heinekin Cup series was ongoing, so I watched some great rugby.

The record setting game of Leicester vs. Cardiff was great.

Bunkerman said...

rugby is such a great sport - too bad it's not popular here.

I prefer the XV union style, by the way, over the "League" style.

When I played in college and grad school, I was a "loose head prop".

I scored a try vs. Yale while hung over.

:)))

Bunkerman said...

The Daily Telegraph is a good newspaper. I read about some really bad things going on in Iran and Pakistan ... return to the dark ages stuff.

The British papers cover it well.

mfl59 said...

From what I recall Yale had a very porous defense....

Bunkerman said...

ohoh, a Cooney shot.

;)

Frosty said...

Bunky...sorry, we beat your boy aazzhead bad while you were gone...certain you can see the tear stains on the blog...without you to protect him he was helpless.

Put call back donw to .40 and spiddy top of channel that formed the end of March...each time the put call drops to this level at the top of the channel range, we test the lower channel ...dip buyers continue to be rewarded...or should I say real buyers.

Bunkerman said...

real buyers ... lolol

Extinct except for me, Mrs. B and "Warren"

I await the lower channel.

Bunkerman said...

sold bits of DKS, GT, TEX, GNK, EXM, URBN, and maybe a few more.

Just getting to 100% long in Obama.

Frosty said...

the master at work...well done Bunky...aazzhead missing a good lesson and a free one at that...his yhoo hcp must have ballooned...I think so, thx jim.

tejasjeff said...

Welcome back and a Happy Cinco de Mayo from Northern Mexico.
Who cant celebrate a neighbors defeat of the French?
Not I.

Frosty said...

Bunky still on limey time...drunk as a skunk and poor krypto dancing his lil paws off...bangers on the grill but the darn mash keeps putting the flame out.

Cinco de Mayo cancelled...nonono kissing runny nosed mexicans...just show me your tetas...Spin luvs the mexitetas.

Bunkerman said...

haha, no I'm on local time now.

Paying bills, catching up on business, etc.

Almost done now. Then I think I'll hit the Italian.

Trying to learn five languages at once should keep me from going crazy.

Bunkerman said...

btw, Krypto's sheep herding skills are now rapidly improving. She should be ready for trials very soon, too.

Bunkerman said...

One would think with all this "stress test" risk floating around, that the beefer could creatre some panic.

odd.

And why buy in front of Timmy's stress test debut ?

Market "should" be going down.

Seems wierd to me.

Bunkerman said...

I decided to learn some Spanish, tejas. I'm an inclusive sort of guy.


My first effort: How to order beer in Spanish.

Someday I'm going to write, "I want another beer, please" in five languages for the blog.

Bunkerman said...

six, counting English.

Spin-em said...

Bunkerman...Quisiera otra cerveza por favor.....