tfl: The Flatiron Life

Today I found out there is a bit of a baby boom going on at OWW.  I had noticed that a couple women around the office were pregenant.  Then today I was talking to a teammate about Jonah and he said his wife is expecting in October.  Another teammate’s wife had a son last week and ‘new boss’s wife had twins earlier this year.  Also, I have heard that several other wives of coworkers are expecting.

Does this say anything about the health of the company?  I dunno and the SEC would not want me to say if I did.

Have you ever seen information about a national birth index or conception index?  Would this be a leading or trailing indicator of economic health?

This is the first thing Ryan is going to IM me on Monday.  He does it every Monday and it is reassuring.

So, how was your weekend?

It was hot in Chicago and our air conditioner had trouble keeping up.  My mom visited and we stayed in a lot and ‘visited’.  (BTW, what is an adult word for ‘hanging out’ that is not the midwesternism of ‘visiting’.  Usually when I am looking for an adult word for something I ask what my Grandma would say, but it does not work in this case.)

We also went to the Chicago History Museum.  It was nice to see el car number 1 and the bed were the great nationalizer met his end after seeing “Our American Cousin.”  However, I don’t know if I could recommend it as the best use of $12.  If you do go, remember it closes at 4:30 on Saturdays.

After that we strolled to Lincoln Square and showed mom were we would like to find our next home.  Finished up with dinner at the Chicago Brauhaus and desert at Cold Stone.  Mmmm

Richard Posner says ridicule used to play a role in keeping kids thin.

The Onion takes this to its logical conclusion.

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Originally uploaded by flatiron32

Last night I told my mom that I think George knows I’m pregnant. Recently he’s practically been sleeping on top of me when he normally just seems to wait at the foot of the bed to nibble on my feet. Mom’s response: “Oh! Did you hear about the cat that predicts people’s death!?” Thanks, Ma! Now I’m a little creeped out.

The cat to the right is George. Here is the death cat. What do you think? Am I facing imminent doom?

I challenge anyone to make it through a business school marketing class without discussing Target’s uncanny knack for putting its finger on the pulse of the moneyed masses with wide aisles, designer merchandise, and meticulous attention to “zoning” (this used to be my job).
Free Exchange highlights an interesting article suggesting this consumer drive towards “affordable luxury” and easy shopping might not be an international craze.

As if to defend its policy of publishing long detailed stories on small offbeat subjects, the Wall Street Journal comes out today with a classic of the genre, about a supermarket chain in India which has found that its customers actively prefer noise and congestion when shopping to clean, quiet browsing. So it has redesigned its stores to make them messier, noisier and more cramped—spending $50,000 in a Bombay store alone to replace long, wide aisles with narrow, crooked ones.

Business has boomed at the company, Pantaloon, now India’s largest retailer. It doesn’t allow haggling, which its customers would probably also enjoy, but it gives them the next best thing: it scatters its produce bins with a few inferior fruits and vegetables so that shoppers can have the satisfaction of picking out the better stuff, and come away with “a sense of victory”.

Maybe it’s the lack of panhandlers and swarming, gawking tourists that unnerves me a bit when I leave the city to shop at suburban malls.

Joscelynn has written about our desire to not raise Jonah in a protective, sanitized, no-risk bubble-world.  Jonah Goldberg’s article today is about another developmnet in parenting I want to avoid, specialness.  Our children will be loved for sure.  They will also be special to us, but do they need to know it all the time?  Are they automatically special and should be appreciated in the world for their specialness?

I am sure I have a bit of inherent specialness of my peers and wrapping generations; I do blog after all with the assumption people care about what I have to say.  However I mostly know I am special today for 3 reasons: the bible tells me so (but it also tells me I am a sinner), my family loves me (but love means you tell people when they are wrong), and Orbitz pays me well for something I really like to do (but Alex and Jeremy are quick to keep me inline and make sure I don’t mess up and I often have to do thing I don’t want to do).

I am glad I was raised knowing that I messed up from time to time (mom, often?).  I am glad that I was spanked, grounded, and forced into labor when I was wrong.  I am also I played sports where there were winners and losers and we cared which we were.  I am glad I was in 4-H, where there is competition for Champion and Grand Champion and it was my to win.

This seems to be slipping away.  What are some other areas were automatic specialness is popping up?  What should we keep an eye out for while raising our special little boy?

For Bryan Caplan’s The Myth of the Rational Voter, it would be “The Underdog” off of Spoon’s “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga” album.

This post brought to courtesy of multi-tasking on the train.

No he can’t; he’s a pig!

We saw The Simpsons Movie yesterday. It is excellent. I thought it was quite touching at times and continuously hilarious. I read about how there are libertarian overtones. I don’t know. If The Simpsons regularly is libertarian, then yes. However, dosn’t everyone agree with Pres Reagan that “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”

You should also be prepared to sing Spider-Pig for the next few days after seeing the movie.

My reason for following blogs so closely is that I find written debate in areas such as politics, economics, and religion better reasoned and less inflamatory than verbal debate; I tend to believe that increased ease of written communication via email and blogging enhances discussion of these topics. Diane and Michael Ravitch, guest blogging at Moreover, examine the possible effects of quick and easy communication on poetry and literature, forms of writing that previously took more time and consideration to produce:

Is the internet good for literature? On first glance, it might seem so. Between internet forums, online diaries in the form of blogs and the constant use of messages and emails, nearly everyone is writing and reading more than we did just a few years ago, when the ubiquity of television and the telephone together seemed to be making literacy obsolete. On the other hand, if literature represents a higher value than just the sheer quantity of words, the internet might not be such a beacon of hope. Even if great and significant work were being done somewhere on the World Wide Web, who could find it?

So are we wising up or dumbing down? Do you find elegant prose on the internet? Even if it can’t be found on the internet, is it something you otherwise seek out?

If you ever find yourself in control of a country with out of control inflation, remember this one simple rule: “STOP PRINTING MONEY”. Inflation is caused by too much money; printing more is not going to help.

If you need an example of what not to do, ask yourself this question, “What would Robert Mugabe do?”  Then all you have to do is remember to not do that.

(HT: Mises Blog )