I bought a bottle of the Hillebrand Winery Trius 2004 Cabernet Franc (VQA Niagara) this evening, partly on the strength of having enjoyed the 2002 version and partly because it was, er, conveniently available where I was buying the wherewithal for dinner. J. nicely deconstructed (or perhaps reverse-engineered) the label as broadcasting a sort ofcontinue reading
January 2009 Archives
Even a boomer is impatient with the boomers
From an interview with Clay Shirky in CJR: CS: I mean, really, I’m just so impatient with the argument that the world should be slowed down to help people who aren’t smart enough to understand what’s going on. It’s in part because I grew up in a generation that benefited enormously from not doing that.continue reading
Spinning for the city he disdains
Goodbye, so long, and enjoy your visit to the dark side. Yes, putting us all out of the misery of his whiny, self-referential, tiresomely negative screeds in Toronto Life and elsewhere is Philip Preville as (according to newsletter Inside Queen’s Park, not online) he takes on the role of Director of Public Affairs at thecontinue reading
A deconstruction after my own heart
Courtesy of McSweeney’s — CRITIQUE OF YOUR POWERPOINT PRESENTATION TITLED “SALES FORECAST, THIRD QUARTER.” Another highlight was your complete rejection of Tuftean convention through the use of colors without meaning, location without purpose, and position without movement. How daring it was to represent the quarterly shortfalls in revenue with the color purple—the color associated notcontinue reading
The new normal
After the barrage of happy-happy new year stories on the turnaround that’s no doubt just around the corner, some bracing blasts of common sense from some of the best financial bloggers around. From the Cassandra Does Tokyo blog, an excellent rant about the “when things get back to normal” school of thought. When massive shiftscontinue reading
Your call is important to us
The Financial Times has announced the 2008 winners of “twaddle” awards for ludicrous business phrases and practices — they’re all good, but this one is truly outstanding: Third is the award for Most Aggravating On Hold Message, which in 2008 was as hotly contested as ever. However, the clear winner was the UK’s Driving Standardscontinue reading
He would know
A rare moment of candour from an unlikely source: Daniel Seaman, director of Israel’s Government Press Office, said opening the Erez crossing would endanger its staff. But Mr. Seaman also asserted the absence of foreign journalists was good for Israel because the Hamas militants who rule Gaza fabricate coverage to make Israel look bad. “Andcontinue reading
Thoughts for thinking…
Engrossing piece from edge.org below (linked in aldaily, where I found it), with a large number of thinkers answering the question “What will change everything?” Interesting for the variety of perspectives as much as the content of some of the answers. Guaranteed to make your brain get bigger, or at least provide some perspective oncontinue reading
Take me to Neverland
Welcome to the TinkerBell economy. If we all believe and clap hard enough, the hope is that it will pull through. – Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism coins a term for the upbeat forecasts that call for an inexplicably quick end to the Great Unwind.
Chianti
Occasionally we actually have practical wine suggestions. Beppi Crosariol recommended Gabbiano Chianti 2007 some months ago in the Globe and Mail as a reliable $14 Chianti, also pointing out that (improbably) the operation was owned by the Australian megawinecorp Beringer Blass, better known for decidedly non-Chianti-like products such as the Wolf Blass line of Aussiecontinue reading