Today, I am going to be a trouble maker ... again.
I played a CD from my collection yesterday evening: “Irving Berlin Goes to Hollywood”. The CD includes 25 famous songs written by Irving Berlin (lyrics and music) and performed by truly great singers: Ethel Merman, Eddie Cantor, Judy Garland, Al Jolson Betty Hutton, and Howard Keel, among others.
This CD is a perfect example of the correctness of my theorem that little great music has been recorded since 1954. On my Irving Berlin CD I have recorded songs written by one of the greatest songwriters and performed by some of the greatest singers. It’s a conflation of great components to make truly great songs.
What does modern music give us ? Some people rave about heavy metal. Other loquacious aficionados elevate a certain band with a cult-like following to godhood. But they have mediocre singers who can barely hold a note outside one octave without their voices quavering, or “play” electronic instruments making sounds not much better than a cat can make when angry. And when their “greatness” is challenged, what do we get in explanation ? A long contorted tome that in the end just says, “it’s great, man”.
Most modern music is mediocre songs with mediocre music performed by mediocre singers and instrumentalists. Of course we’re supposed to worship them because all these “skills” are in the same person. BUT that’s not how great music is made. That's not how any great complex thing is made. Skills from each person of great ability are conflated into one piece. That’s the division of labor and their conflation into a truly great song.
Here’s a mathematical example. Suppose one takes the cube of 99.9%, representing conflating skills at the 99.9% level of ability in all the population. The result is 99.7% - an A+ on any grading scale. Now take the cube of 90%, representing a merely good ability (B or B+level), albeit in the same person. The result is 72.9% for the product (literally and figuratively). On a percentage grading scale, that’s a D.
QED.
Word of the Day
"Sonsy" - adjective [$10] from Scottish
Sonsy means 1. Plump, buxom; 2. Of a cheerful disposition; 3. Bring good fortune.
Sentence: Performances of Irving Berlin’s great songs by sonsy Ethel Merman on Broadway provided great enjoyment even now decades later.
Le Mot du Jour
“Chanson” – noun, feminine
Chanson means song.
La Phrase: Une grande chanson doit avoir de grandes paroles, de grande musique, and un grand chanteur.
Sentence: A great song must have great lyrics, great music and a great singer.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Unintended Consequences
Obama's use of Chavez-esq tactics to crush bondholders and other lenders to Chrysler and GM is going to have serious unintended consequences.
First, how can either of these two companies ever emerge from bankruptcy with private financing. ? What lender would risk such a beating again ?
Second, lending to ANY union-dominated firm of size must now be viewed as having serious political risk. That political risk WAS largely absent from US lending criteria and confined to places like Ukraine, Russia, South America and Africa. Now a large segment of US industry must be considered as having substantial political risk.
Isn't lending to large states & large municipalities in the same situation ? If California got into trouble, would not Obama likely hammer its bondholders ? Bond buyers beware.
To me, lending to government supported entities like green industries falls into the same group. Would Obama let such fail in the old-fashioned way with lenders getting the firm out of BK ? Or would he step in & "save" them as a national goal ?
The same applies to major health care firms.
You can imagine if this is on my radar screen, it's now on the radar screens of every major private lender in the world.
Word of the Day
"Perfidy" - noun [$10]; perfidious - adjective
Perfidy means 1. the quality or state of being faithless or disloyal; deliberate breach of faith; calculated violation of trust.
Sentence: The perfidy inherent in Obama's gangster-esq treatment of traditional principals of financial reorganization will certainly cause serious disruption in future lending to any firms with political risk.
Le Mot du Jour
"Rompu, e" - adjective
Rompu means 1. worn out, exhausted; 2. well-versed, experienced.
La Phrase: Personne dans l'adminstration d'Obama n'est rompu aux affaires. C'est un problème !
Sentence: Nobody in the Obama administration has wide experience in business affairs. That's a problem !
First, how can either of these two companies ever emerge from bankruptcy with private financing. ? What lender would risk such a beating again ?
Second, lending to ANY union-dominated firm of size must now be viewed as having serious political risk. That political risk WAS largely absent from US lending criteria and confined to places like Ukraine, Russia, South America and Africa. Now a large segment of US industry must be considered as having substantial political risk.
Isn't lending to large states & large municipalities in the same situation ? If California got into trouble, would not Obama likely hammer its bondholders ? Bond buyers beware.
To me, lending to government supported entities like green industries falls into the same group. Would Obama let such fail in the old-fashioned way with lenders getting the firm out of BK ? Or would he step in & "save" them as a national goal ?
The same applies to major health care firms.
You can imagine if this is on my radar screen, it's now on the radar screens of every major private lender in the world.
Word of the Day
"Perfidy" - noun [$10]; perfidious - adjective
Perfidy means 1. the quality or state of being faithless or disloyal; deliberate breach of faith; calculated violation of trust.
Sentence: The perfidy inherent in Obama's gangster-esq treatment of traditional principals of financial reorganization will certainly cause serious disruption in future lending to any firms with political risk.
Le Mot du Jour
"Rompu, e" - adjective
Rompu means 1. worn out, exhausted; 2. well-versed, experienced.
La Phrase: Personne dans l'adminstration d'Obama n'est rompu aux affaires. C'est un problème !
Sentence: Nobody in the Obama administration has wide experience in business affairs. That's a problem !
Monday, May 11, 2009
Monday Morning Ramblings
Calls of "overbought" and "overvalued" and "extended" are raining onto us à propos the stock market. All true, except the "overvalued" claim. Those pundits point to current PEs. That one is so imbecilic as to almost be ignorable. Driving using the rear view mirror as a primary visual indicator would be considered rather stupid by everyone. Anyone looking at long term charts showing stock prices and earnings in prior severe recessions would "know" that the PE is the trough is irrelevant. What matters are earnings one year in the future.
So what are earnings going to be in 2010 ? A small gain over 2009 trough earnings ? Or a small discount from 2006 earnings ? Or what ?
My Obama Fund is predicated on 2010 earnings being the latter. The bears would say sell the rally since it will be the former. The distribution of expectations is what makes markets volatile as one group takes command, then the other, sort of like a closely matched bout of boxing.
But looking at charts, one can see instantly that all the market has done in this rally is recover to its levels of the fall of 2008. The Obama inaugural sell-off has been reversed. That's it.
Futures are down this morning. Good. Maybe I'll get a good pullback to load up again.
I am also studying the natural gas market. Obama's greenie nonsense "might" make many coal plants shift to natural gas. I've heard anecdotal evidence of that. And with a whiff of industrial demand, that market's glut might get taken up. Natural gas rose a lot last week, about 20% from the lows. That might just be short covering, hedging or new longs. The natural gas ETF saw big increases in volume. IF I do anything, it will NOT be to buy that ETF. It's a loser for anything but short term trading as the monthly rolls kill it.
I put some money back into my commodities account and would buy some more distance futures. IF I decide to do it. I have lots of study to do before that.
Word of the Day
"Jejune" - adjective [$10]
Jejune means 1. lacking nutritive value; 2. lacking interest or significance; 3. lacking maturity: puerile.
Sentence: Writing on the news pages of the Wall Street Journal has sunk to the jejune level of sophomore* journalism clases.
*see bonus below.
Le Mot du Jour
"Éxiger" - verb, transitive, conjugates like manger.
Éxiger means to erect, to set up, to establish (+ en ); S'éxiger means to set oneself up.
La Phrase: Des dirgeants européenes veulent éxiger le socialisme d'État en model pour l'economie du monde. Ils ont tort.
Sentence: Some European leaders want to set up state socialism as a model for the world economy. They are wrong.
*Bonus: a durable 5,000 year old concept: the "sophomore" and the "sophmoric".
The English word for "sophomore" derives from the Greek compound word, "sophos-moros" meaning "clever fool. It was first used in English in 1688 in Cambridge. BUT there is a Sumerian word transliterated as "galam-huru" that means the identical thing - "clever fool" - literally. The word is used in an essay in Sumerian literature that is a type of verbal contest between higher level students and lower level ones.
So what are earnings going to be in 2010 ? A small gain over 2009 trough earnings ? Or a small discount from 2006 earnings ? Or what ?
My Obama Fund is predicated on 2010 earnings being the latter. The bears would say sell the rally since it will be the former. The distribution of expectations is what makes markets volatile as one group takes command, then the other, sort of like a closely matched bout of boxing.
But looking at charts, one can see instantly that all the market has done in this rally is recover to its levels of the fall of 2008. The Obama inaugural sell-off has been reversed. That's it.
Futures are down this morning. Good. Maybe I'll get a good pullback to load up again.
I am also studying the natural gas market. Obama's greenie nonsense "might" make many coal plants shift to natural gas. I've heard anecdotal evidence of that. And with a whiff of industrial demand, that market's glut might get taken up. Natural gas rose a lot last week, about 20% from the lows. That might just be short covering, hedging or new longs. The natural gas ETF saw big increases in volume. IF I do anything, it will NOT be to buy that ETF. It's a loser for anything but short term trading as the monthly rolls kill it.
I put some money back into my commodities account and would buy some more distance futures. IF I decide to do it. I have lots of study to do before that.
Word of the Day
"Jejune" - adjective [$10]
Jejune means 1. lacking nutritive value; 2. lacking interest or significance; 3. lacking maturity: puerile.
Sentence: Writing on the news pages of the Wall Street Journal has sunk to the jejune level of sophomore* journalism clases.
*see bonus below.
Le Mot du Jour
"Éxiger" - verb, transitive, conjugates like manger.
Éxiger means to erect, to set up, to establish (+ en ); S'éxiger means to set oneself up.
La Phrase: Des dirgeants européenes veulent éxiger le socialisme d'État en model pour l'economie du monde. Ils ont tort.
Sentence: Some European leaders want to set up state socialism as a model for the world economy. They are wrong.
*Bonus: a durable 5,000 year old concept: the "sophomore" and the "sophmoric".
The English word for "sophomore" derives from the Greek compound word, "sophos-moros" meaning "clever fool. It was first used in English in 1688 in Cambridge. BUT there is a Sumerian word transliterated as "galam-huru" that means the identical thing - "clever fool" - literally. The word is used in an essay in Sumerian literature that is a type of verbal contest between higher level students and lower level ones.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Stress Tests
The point of these stress tests seems to have been to put the government's imprimateur on the financial strength of major US banks to enable them to raise DEBT in the public market without government backing. Theoretically, doing stress tests AFTER a major recession has hit is rather dumb. After all, reserves are designed to be used in recessions, not created. In recessions one wants banks to have already been strong enough to survive and lend. For example, even a AAA entity will certainly look worse financially in a severe economic trough than it did before the downturn.
But Timmy and presumably Ben wanted to reassure lenders TO BANKS [sic] that the banks are strong and even in a further leg down can survive. This is because they want to extract the government from the position of guaranteeing bank debt, money markets, and on and on. This makes sense, but of course we all know now that prior accounting rules, regulations and capital rules did not look to the future, but to the past. Banks could go to the market's casinos to play and trade and try to pad the pay of their internal hogs.
Hence the stress tests were done and we now "know" that some are fine and some need capital in the form of common equity. I think this crisis also puts the lie to preferred stock as core equity (whatever you call it) for a bank. The point is that cutting a preferred stock's dividend would be a sign that bank is likely insolvent, while cutting the dividend on common stock is not seem that way: it can be seem as bolstering current operations.
So in the future, I'd think government regulations will force banks to hold much more capital as common stock and cut back on preferred stock. By the way, in the 1990 recession, Elmer decided that preferred stock was a great source of capital for banks. Sighhhh.
For investors, all else being equal, this means lower growth rates for banks as the common equity base will be larger. What banks need to do is cut the pay of huge numbers of their bankers, particularly traders, who really make money using and risking the stockholders' money. Stockholders much be better compensated for the risks they bear.
Markets
A minor dip yesterday, but this morning futures are up. I really want a good sized pullback, preferably a lot more than a one day wonder. I'd like a good two week, three wave A-B-C pullback to some support level or some Fibonacci level. I want to get back to 150% long at a point of lower risk.
To accomplish this, I have cast my best market drop voodoo spells:
1. I publicly ( and honestly) proclaimed the recession is over - a very bullish call.
2. I bought a fine new car - an SUV really. Very decadent, but Mrs. B wanted it.
This should infuriate the market gods and cause a sizable pullback. I await it with plenty of skim to invest. I guess this will also test whether the market gods read this blog ;) If they do, they will propel the market much higher to frustrate me.
Word of the Day
"Subserve" - verb, transitive [$10]
Subserve means 1. to serve as an instrument or means of; 2. to promote the welfare or purposes of.
Sentence: Timmy's stress tests subserved the governments desire to extricate itself from extensive bank debt guarantees.
Le Mot du Jour
"Sommer" - verb, regular -er conjugation.
Sommer means (transitive) to command or enjoin [~ qn de faire qch -> to command or enjoin somebody to do something]; (intransitive) to add.
La Phrase: (adapted from Le Monde) L'administration d'Obama somme quelques grandes banques se renforcer leur capital.
Sentence: The Obama administration is commanding some large banks to strengthen their capital.
But Timmy and presumably Ben wanted to reassure lenders TO BANKS [sic] that the banks are strong and even in a further leg down can survive. This is because they want to extract the government from the position of guaranteeing bank debt, money markets, and on and on. This makes sense, but of course we all know now that prior accounting rules, regulations and capital rules did not look to the future, but to the past. Banks could go to the market's casinos to play and trade and try to pad the pay of their internal hogs.
Hence the stress tests were done and we now "know" that some are fine and some need capital in the form of common equity. I think this crisis also puts the lie to preferred stock as core equity (whatever you call it) for a bank. The point is that cutting a preferred stock's dividend would be a sign that bank is likely insolvent, while cutting the dividend on common stock is not seem that way: it can be seem as bolstering current operations.
So in the future, I'd think government regulations will force banks to hold much more capital as common stock and cut back on preferred stock. By the way, in the 1990 recession, Elmer decided that preferred stock was a great source of capital for banks. Sighhhh.
For investors, all else being equal, this means lower growth rates for banks as the common equity base will be larger. What banks need to do is cut the pay of huge numbers of their bankers, particularly traders, who really make money using and risking the stockholders' money. Stockholders much be better compensated for the risks they bear.
Markets
A minor dip yesterday, but this morning futures are up. I really want a good sized pullback, preferably a lot more than a one day wonder. I'd like a good two week, three wave A-B-C pullback to some support level or some Fibonacci level. I want to get back to 150% long at a point of lower risk.
To accomplish this, I have cast my best market drop voodoo spells:
1. I publicly ( and honestly) proclaimed the recession is over - a very bullish call.
2. I bought a fine new car - an SUV really. Very decadent, but Mrs. B wanted it.
This should infuriate the market gods and cause a sizable pullback. I await it with plenty of skim to invest. I guess this will also test whether the market gods read this blog ;) If they do, they will propel the market much higher to frustrate me.
Word of the Day
"Subserve" - verb, transitive [$10]
Subserve means 1. to serve as an instrument or means of; 2. to promote the welfare or purposes of.
Sentence: Timmy's stress tests subserved the governments desire to extricate itself from extensive bank debt guarantees.
Le Mot du Jour
"Sommer" - verb, regular -er conjugation.
Sommer means (transitive) to command or enjoin [~ qn de faire qch -> to command or enjoin somebody to do something]; (intransitive) to add.
La Phrase: (adapted from Le Monde) L'administration d'Obama somme quelques grandes banques se renforcer leur capital.
Sentence: The Obama administration is commanding some large banks to strengthen their capital.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
The Creation of Civilization
Archeology and studies of seeds and pollen found in the earliest villages and cities in the dawn of the Neolithic age - perhaps even in the Mesolithic period - show that the core food staples in these communities were bread and beer. The term, "Neolithic" even denotes the age when early man began to domesticate plants and animals, perhaps around 8000 BCE in the Near East.
Sumeria built the first true cities circa 3000 BCE. The first city, Uruk, had perhaps 50,000 people, traded over a large area and its people had division of labor and skills. Sumeria also invested writing. And what is found in the writings of the common man in Sumeria ? Paeans to his beer.
The staple diet of ancient Egypt was also bread and ... beer.
Today's blog celebrates beer and as a multilingual blog, I've written THE crucial sentence that underlies all civilization in six languages.
English: I want another beer, please.
French: Je veux une autre bière, s’il vous plaît.
Italian: Voglio un’ altra birra, per favore.
Spanish*: Quisiera otra cerveza por favor.
Polish: Proszę jeszcze jedno piwo.
German: Ich möchte noch ein bier, bitte.
[* courtesy of an erudite multilingual reader and commentor as I am just now commencing Spanish studies.]
In case you are wondering, after my success and fun with French and recognizing my advanced age, I've decided to learn slowly four more languages at once: Italian, Polish, German and Spanish. With French and English, this will cover every major language and people in Europe. I realized that if I didn't start them all now, I would be 70 before I got to the last one if I just learned them sequentially, assuming about three years intensive study in each to become literate and fairly fluent in speech. I'll bang away at each and after a year, try to accelerate the learning.
This means the feature, "Le Mot du Jour", may occasionally stray to Germans, Italian, Polish or Spanish.
Markets
The recession is over.
The question is how long this bull market will last and whether a period of stagnation will occur once the economy recovers to its prior level. A period of 1970s like stagnation is quite possible due to the huge and all-encompassing new regulations and laws that Obama is proposing on health care and the environment. I expect a rapid market and economic recovery similar to the 1974-1976 period until the wall is hit. Whether inflation also occurs causing stagflation then is not determined. The more global economy and the growth in the emerging markets may affect this, too. There's no need to take a position on this now. I await further evidence and trends.
Meanwhile, Obama Fund is roaring up as is Fido Fund. I am sitting on and riding the elephant to the next water hole.
Word of the Day
"Poteen" - noun [$10]; a Mencken word
Poteen means Irish alcohol made illicitly from potatoes.
Sentence: As they drive stock prices higher, are buyers drunk on poteen after drowning their sorrows, or are they "efficiently and rationally" evaluating future prospects for corporate earnings ? I suspect neither. Less fear simply means the far negative end of the distribution of investor expectaions is being chopped off, forcing the central mean is up in price.
Le Mot du Jour
"Grippe" - noun, feminine: La grippe.
Grippe means flu. There's a line in that great movie (one of my favorites), "Guys and Dolls" where a "doll" is reading about health diagnoses and says "la grippe", meaning the flu. I never understood that line until I learned some French.
La Phrase: Cette panique de la grippe porscine sera une pagaïe.
Sentence: This panic about swine flu will be a mess.
Sumeria built the first true cities circa 3000 BCE. The first city, Uruk, had perhaps 50,000 people, traded over a large area and its people had division of labor and skills. Sumeria also invested writing. And what is found in the writings of the common man in Sumeria ? Paeans to his beer.
The staple diet of ancient Egypt was also bread and ... beer.
Today's blog celebrates beer and as a multilingual blog, I've written THE crucial sentence that underlies all civilization in six languages.
English: I want another beer, please.
French: Je veux une autre bière, s’il vous plaît.
Italian: Voglio un’ altra birra, per favore.
Spanish*: Quisiera otra cerveza por favor.
Polish: Proszę jeszcze jedno piwo.
German: Ich möchte noch ein bier, bitte.
[* courtesy of an erudite multilingual reader and commentor as I am just now commencing Spanish studies.]
In case you are wondering, after my success and fun with French and recognizing my advanced age, I've decided to learn slowly four more languages at once: Italian, Polish, German and Spanish. With French and English, this will cover every major language and people in Europe. I realized that if I didn't start them all now, I would be 70 before I got to the last one if I just learned them sequentially, assuming about three years intensive study in each to become literate and fairly fluent in speech. I'll bang away at each and after a year, try to accelerate the learning.
This means the feature, "Le Mot du Jour", may occasionally stray to Germans, Italian, Polish or Spanish.
Markets
The recession is over.
The question is how long this bull market will last and whether a period of stagnation will occur once the economy recovers to its prior level. A period of 1970s like stagnation is quite possible due to the huge and all-encompassing new regulations and laws that Obama is proposing on health care and the environment. I expect a rapid market and economic recovery similar to the 1974-1976 period until the wall is hit. Whether inflation also occurs causing stagflation then is not determined. The more global economy and the growth in the emerging markets may affect this, too. There's no need to take a position on this now. I await further evidence and trends.
Meanwhile, Obama Fund is roaring up as is Fido Fund. I am sitting on and riding the elephant to the next water hole.
Word of the Day
"Poteen" - noun [$10]; a Mencken word
Poteen means Irish alcohol made illicitly from potatoes.
Sentence: As they drive stock prices higher, are buyers drunk on poteen after drowning their sorrows, or are they "efficiently and rationally" evaluating future prospects for corporate earnings ? I suspect neither. Less fear simply means the far negative end of the distribution of investor expectaions is being chopped off, forcing the central mean is up in price.
Le Mot du Jour
"Grippe" - noun, feminine: La grippe.
Grippe means flu. There's a line in that great movie (one of my favorites), "Guys and Dolls" where a "doll" is reading about health diagnoses and says "la grippe", meaning the flu. I never understood that line until I learned some French.
La Phrase: Cette panique de la grippe porscine sera une pagaïe.
Sentence: This panic about swine flu will be a mess.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Lots of News
The Chrysler bankruptcy proceedings appears to be a mugging of the secured creditors orchestrated by Obama to give the company to the union. A good rule: never trust the government.
Some big banks are finding this out, too. BAC is rumored to need a huge infusion of common equity. This is the dilution I worried about in avoiding that stock.
The SEC is filing some cases for fraud and insider trading. So far the effort is anemic, but that's no surprise as its staff in practically on the payroll of the fraudsters.
Meanwhile, the junk bond market is roaring and seems wide open to new issues. That is hugely positive news for many small stocks which need refinancings to survive. I suspect that's part of the reason small stocks are performing so well lately.
Obama Fund is up 43% year-to-date. I guess buy and hold isn't dead as in investment strategy, but I do modify that with some trading to buy low and sell high on dips and rips. Obama Fund is benefiting greatly from the re-opening of the junk bond market as its cheap but risky companies are now perceived as less risky.
Fido Fund is up 45% year to date, showing that the gains are not tied to small stocks.
Both funds are about 100% long now as I've sold some bits of many positions after being 150% long around the lows. On a significant pullback, I'd go back to 150% long if fundamental news and outlook did not change.
Word of the Day
"Bespeak" - verb, transitive [$10]; past tense is "bespoke".
Bespeak means 1. engage in advance; 2. order (goods); 3. suggest, be evidence of (his gift bepeaks a kind heart); (literary) speak to. The usage #3 seems to be used when a thing is 'speaking'.
Sentence: Actions of the Obama administration bespeak racketeering tactics: force, pressure and intimidation versus the rule of law. I expect the judge - a government official - to bend over and let Obama have his way.
Le Mot du Jour
"Exprimer" - verb, regular -er.
Exprimer means to express. S'exprimer means to express oneself.
Le Phrase: Je veux apprendre exprimer l'idée, "I want another beer, please", dans six langues.
Sentence: I want to learn to express the idea, "I want another beer, please", in six languages.
Some big banks are finding this out, too. BAC is rumored to need a huge infusion of common equity. This is the dilution I worried about in avoiding that stock.
The SEC is filing some cases for fraud and insider trading. So far the effort is anemic, but that's no surprise as its staff in practically on the payroll of the fraudsters.
Meanwhile, the junk bond market is roaring and seems wide open to new issues. That is hugely positive news for many small stocks which need refinancings to survive. I suspect that's part of the reason small stocks are performing so well lately.
Obama Fund is up 43% year-to-date. I guess buy and hold isn't dead as in investment strategy, but I do modify that with some trading to buy low and sell high on dips and rips. Obama Fund is benefiting greatly from the re-opening of the junk bond market as its cheap but risky companies are now perceived as less risky.
Fido Fund is up 45% year to date, showing that the gains are not tied to small stocks.
Both funds are about 100% long now as I've sold some bits of many positions after being 150% long around the lows. On a significant pullback, I'd go back to 150% long if fundamental news and outlook did not change.
Word of the Day
"Bespeak" - verb, transitive [$10]; past tense is "bespoke".
Bespeak means 1. engage in advance; 2. order (goods); 3. suggest, be evidence of (his gift bepeaks a kind heart); (literary) speak to. The usage #3 seems to be used when a thing is 'speaking'.
Sentence: Actions of the Obama administration bespeak racketeering tactics: force, pressure and intimidation versus the rule of law. I expect the judge - a government official - to bend over and let Obama have his way.
Le Mot du Jour
"Exprimer" - verb, regular -er.
Exprimer means to express. S'exprimer means to express oneself.
Le Phrase: Je veux apprendre exprimer l'idée, "I want another beer, please", dans six langues.
Sentence: I want to learn to express the idea, "I want another beer, please", in six languages.
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
