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Questionnaire 10.

May 20, 2012

The creative juices are running low. Here’re some questions culled from the internets: 1. WHO WAS YOUR FIRST PROM DATE? I did not attend either of my proms. I attended soccer tournaments, one of which we won. 2. DO YOU STILL TALK TO YOUR FIRST LOVE? No. 3. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST ALCOHOLIC DRINK? Today? [...]

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In-state vs. out-of-state.

May 13, 2012

An anonymous reader e-mails: “I was accepted into an out of state university and decided to go there this fall. But now I’m having second thoughts. Should I stay in Florida instead? Why did you decide to pick Clemson instead of staying in state?” This question is eerily similar to one posed by a former [...]

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Happy 102nd (take two)!

May 9, 2012

Gram would’ve turned 102 today. At first, I honored her by posting the following picture of her dad and three of her seven siblings, thinking that she was holding the pickaxe: But then it was pointed out that the axe-monger is actually Gram’s younger sister, Nancy. I don’t know exactly what is going on here, [...]

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Soirée.

May 6, 2012

An afternoon nap dream: It is night. I stand outside a mountaintop villa. Parts of the villa hang over the slope and are supported by broad stainless steel beams. The walls are mostly floor-to-ceiling glass, and reveal a well-lit, simple modern interior. No one is inside. The hosts, a married couple of bankers, had given [...]

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Happy 112th.

May 5, 2012

Today is my grandfather’s birthday. Here’s a picture of baby Grampa with his parents in 1900: When this picture was taken, McKinley was still President. There were only 45 stars on the flag. Airplanes, televisions, and electronic computers didn’t exist, and telephones were luxuries. Einstein hadn’t published his paper on relativity. The keel of the [...]

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On Obama’s policies.

April 29, 2012

An anonymous reader e-mails: “What do you honestly think of President Obama? By this, I mean his social and economic policies of course, not of him as a person.” I am, on net, not a fan of President Obama’s social and economic policies. To keep this simple, I’ll just list some of his policies and [...]

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The “f” word, revisited.

April 23, 2012

A former student recently directed me to this “not particularly good article” (her words, with which I concur) and asked for my comments. I sent her some brief comments; hopefully I helped clarify just how confusing the issue really is. The article got me thinking about how to make our tax system more “fair,” which [...]

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2012 Resolution #11.

April 22, 2012

In my “Resolutions for 2012,” #11 was “I shall make an 11th resolution before April 30th, 2012.” I now have one. I am ashamed to confess that I have never seen the Bears play in person. But this fall, I shall atone: the Jags will host the Chicago Bears in October. And I will be [...]

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31-A.

April 17, 2012

Today I took my first little baby step towards becoming a cyborg. The entire transformation will last years and will surely end up costing far more than the mere $6 million they spent on Lee Majors way back when (actually, I should say “the mere $30 million” to account for inflation). They haven’t even invented [...]

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On leftovers.

April 12, 2012

An anonymous reader e-mails: So, seeing as you know a lot about economics, I was wondering if you could tell me anything about the economic ramifications of a large corporation like “Large Corporation” donating shrink/ old product to organizations like “Loving Charity.” I am trying to understand why “Large Corporation” donates so little and throws [...]

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A letter to President Obama.

April 9, 2012

Dear President Obama, On behalf of my fellow citizens of the United States of America, I hereby implore you to end the FDIC’s entirely unwarranted prosecution and persecution of Jim McMahon over this trifling matter of $104 million in bad bank loans. Mr. McMahon is undoubtedly innocent and his involvement with Broadway Bank was clearly [...]

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