quid.pro

Those silly Swedes

"There is no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes."

An old Swedish maxim, as quoted in The Economist

Driving through a metaphor

It's raining on Sand Hill Road, blue skies everywhere else.

Astrid's driving

I've been relegated to the back and not allowed to talk.

I'm on Team Oprah too

There were some fascinating exchanges between Oprah and Jay, who sounded as though he thought Winfrey was going to be more sympathetic than she proved to be. Winfrey said, “David Letterman called you, I think, the ‘Big Jaw’ Leno… and you hit back by talking about his infidelity.” 

Leno said, “Well, I did a joke about that, yes.” 

”Even the audience went, ‘Ooo!’” noted Winfrey.
”But it was a good joke,” squeaked Leno. “Did you laugh when you heard it?”

“No,” said Oprah firmly, “I did not. I did not laugh. You know what, I thought that was beneath you.” Leno tried to defend himself. “But how many jokes like that have I done? I did one joke in the middle of the week and I never did another one. I had a cheap shot thrown at me, I threw one cheap shot back and I moved on.”
Oprah asked, “So you thought one cheap shot deserves another?” 

Leno said, “Yeah, it’s OK.” Then 
Oprah asked, “Do you feel you’re being unfairly portrayed by the media?” Leno said, “Yeah, I think so.”

via Ken Tucker's TV

Losers Are…Well, Losers

"One of the evident themes in the book, although one not explored by its authors (they may not even be aware of it), is that presidential campaigns have become so long, so arduous, so expensive, so fraught, so abusive to all who participate in them, that nobody—save perhaps the winner—emerges with his sanity intact. In other words, the people who accompany the candidate end up just as nutty, or even more nutty, than the candidate."

Michael Wolff, discussing the book Game Change

My worlds collide

From the best damn baseball blog ever, MLB Trade Rumors:

MLB.com's Brian McTaggart reports that Houston Astros owner Drayton McLane has entered into negotiations to sell the team. McLane says he's in no hurry to sell the team, but has entered into an exclusive 30-day negiotiating window with an unnamed New York investment banking company.

The only thing that would make this better is if the unnamed bank is using TARP funds to purchase them.

Trying too hard for the Dude

I've been using the holiday to catch up with some of my older favorite movies. The Big Lebowski was first to be re-watched last week and it's still one of my all-time favorites. As Renee well put it when she forwarded me this link, journalism about Big Lebowski has become "a bit too precious reporting on the too preciousness of it all."

When putting the book together, Mr. Comentale said, he and his co-editor “immediately cut out all the papers celebrating the Dude as a hippie hero in a postmodern landscape.” That’s a sober choice. Admirers of the Dude are already dangerously close to becoming Internet-age versions of Parrotheads, the weekend-warrior Jimmy Buffett fans who tip back margaritas — and embarrass their children — while wearing flip-flops, board shorts, Hawaiian shirts and coconut bras.

“Trying to impress your academic colleagues and also make a dent in the popular market, that’s a fine line to walk,” Mr. Comentale added. “We wanted these essays to press the connection between the goofy and the profound.”

via www.nytimes.com via Renee

(On a separate note, I'd forgotten just how close to perfect Royal Tenenbaums is... but that's another story.)

Understanding what Christmas is all about

The old bulbs burn 100x more electricity, are hot enough to be a fire risk and are made of breakable glass. Still, tradition! I think the terrorists win either way on this one.

The old two-inch, 9-watt incandescent bulbs may be the gas guzzlers of holiday lights, but they remain a holiday staple in homes across the country. Many people aren't willing to trade the chubby, colorful halo effect for the softer glow of a light-emitting diode, or LED. And as retailers increasingly stock the more energy-efficient lights, lovers of the classic lights scramble to find them, fearing they will soon be gone from shelves for good.

via news.yahoo.com

Saab to shut down

Such a bummer, my family has had Saabs on and off since about 1980 (I owned two myself). Of course, wouldn't have even considered buying one for the last ten years, which I guess was the problem.

Saab, with a narrow following focused in Sweden, Britain and the United States Northeast, proved too small to lure the world’s big automakers, many of which are seeking tie-ups to increase economies of scale.

Saab’s last hope proved to be Spyker Cars, a tiny Dutch maker of high-end sports cars, but problems that could not be overcome cropped up as G.M. examined whether Spyker would be a viable partner.

via www.nytimes.com

Here's a lot of money, now shut up

The New York Times has a piece on a recent Goldman Sachs partner reunion and discussion about how the firm has changed since the late 90's when it went public. All sorts of sniping and nostalgising about how things used to be. Interesting article if you're into the inside baseball of investment banking.

But the best line was buried deep into page one.

None of these people were willing to speak out publicly about Goldman, which, for most of them, has been the source of sizable fortunes.

And the second best was buried deep into page two.

But even people close to Goldman acknowledge that as long as the bank is making a lot of money, public opinion does not matter all that much.

Life is so simple in banking. Very clear priorities.