February 2009

gg

February 23, 2009

Yesterday I discovered that my favorite arcade game, “Kung Fu Chess,” is no longer on the internet. It’s gone. The site is down with no replacement, no link to a new site, no mention of whether it’ll ever come back. Some of my computer geek friends in Charleston introduced me to this game seven or [...]

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In which I play the role of demagogue.

February 16, 2009

Just had a good Facebook chat with an econ buddy. In the transcript I have given him the pseudonym “Cassandra,” for three reasons: 1. To protect his identity. 2. It’s a girl’s name. 3. It’s a classically appropriate name. Ne’er spelling nor grammar has been corrected, though I did symbolificate one swear word. ***BEGIN TRANSCRIPT [...]

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In honor of Washington’s Birthday…

February 16, 2009

…I offer these two near-photographic likenesses of events in Washington’s lifetime, as submitted to Cracked.com’s contest “25 Historical Events (As Depicted by 5 Year Olds).” The first one (artist currently unknown) was submitted, but not chosen as one of the top 25 entries: This one (by “Dan the Great” of Rhode Island) depicting Washington crossing the [...]

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The dismal science.

February 11, 2009

Today I came across two clips from an early-90’s movie called Other People’s Money. The first is a moving speech by Gregory Peck’s character, the boss of a struggling wire and cable manufacturer, imploring his stockholders not to sell out to Danny DeVito’s character. (That’s right: the guy who played Atticus Finch and General MacArthur in [...]

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Do-something-ism.

February 4, 2009

When I first started teaching, I would tell my students that the Great Depression was a rare case of everybody in government and business screwing up at the same time, and that there were safeguards in place that would keep it from happening again (barring a world war, a meteor strike, or the sun exploding). [...]

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