Saturday, September 7, 2013

Twofer................................................

Jeff Healey Band.........................I Got A Line On You




Spirit.........................................I Got A Line On You

Invent.............................................























Full cartoon is here.   Bill Watterson is the creator of Calvin and Hobbes.  I know I am happier for all the trouble/zest that Calvin brings to life.

And now....... a few words of wisdom from Bill Watterson..........

“The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us.” 

“As far as I'm concerned, if something is so complicated that you can't explain it in 10 seconds, then it's probably not worth knowing anyway.” 

“There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want.”

“Dad, how do soldiers killing each other solve the world's problems?”

“That's the difference between me and the rest of the world! Happiness isn't good enough for me! I demand euphoria!” 

“Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless.” 

“If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I'll bet they'd live a lot differently. ” 

If you can't win by reason, go for volume.” 

“The problem about the future is that it keeps turning into the present.” 

“I'm not a vegetarian! I'm a dessertarian!”

“People pay more attention when they think you’re up to something.”

“The secret to enjoying your job is to have a hobby that's even worse” 

“That's the whole problem with science. You've got a bunch of empiricists trying to describe things of unimaginable wonder.” 

And now, a few words of wisdom from Calvin....





























Fifty years ago..................................

The Ventures...............................The Lonely Bull

The Lonely Bull was released by Herb Alpert in 1962.  The Ventures covered it in 1963.  Their version starts at 2:48.  The other songs are Telestar, Green Onions, and Percolator.  Enjoy some Ventures!

On loneliness................................

"Humans connect when they find common ground. It might involve talking about the weather or the local football team or a movie you have both seen. It must involve participating in the rituals and ceremonies that, Confucius said, define community."
-Stuart Schneiderman, as excerpted from here


















cartoons via   

Scariest jobs chart ever.........................?

Business Insider borrowed this one from Calculated Risk:


















I'm curious if a study has been (or will be) done on the impact of the availability of 99 weeks of unemployment benefits on what appears to be an extremely slow pace of employment recovery.

Can this possibly be true.............?

From Greg Mankiw's Blog:

John Lott points out the following: "So far this year there have been 848,000 new jobs. Of those, 813,000 are part time jobs.... To put it differently, an incredible 96% of the jobs added this year were part-time jobs."

TV.............................................

"When you're young, you look at television and think, There's a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that's not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That's a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in business to give people what they want. It's the truth."
-Steve Jobs

























most cartoons found here

Friday, September 6, 2013

Carry me.........................................

It's A Beautiful Day..........................Hot Summer Day

Opening paragraphs..................

Eventually they put Reacher in a car and drove him to a motel a mile away, where the night clerk gave him a room, which had all the features Reacher expected, because he had seen such rooms a thousand times before.  There was a raucous through-the-wall heater, which would be too noisy to sleep with, which would save the owner money on electricity.  There were low watt light bulbs in all the fixtures, likewise.  There was a low-pile carpet that after cleaning would dry in hours, so the room could rent again the same day.  Not that the carpet would be cleaned often.  It was dark and patterned and ideal for concealing stains.  As was the bedspread.  No doubt the shower would be weak and strangled, and the towels thin, and the soap small, and the shampoo cheap.  The furniture was made of wood, all dark and bruised, and the television set was small and old, and the curtains were gray with grime.
-Lee Child,  Never Go Back

About innovation..................

From a recent Schumpeter essay, which is really a book review of Mariana Mazzucato's book, The Entrepreneurial State

Americans have traditionally been divided between Jeffersonians (who think that he governs best who governs least) and Hamiltonians (who favor active government).  The secret of the country's success lies, she thinks, in talking like Jeffersonians but acting like Hamiltonians.  Whatever their rhetoric, governments have always invested heavily in promoting the spread of existing technologies such as the railways (by giving the rail barons free land) and in seeking potentially lucrative scientific breakthroughs (by financing almost 60% of basic research).

Leadership 101..............................

I suspect I have learned more about leadership by reading The Execupundit blog every day for the past four years than from all other sources combined.  Michael posts it, I read it.   He posted this yesterday as the quote of the day:

I think that I'm a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I'll tell you right now that I'm gonna think I'm a better political director than my political director. 
- Barack Obama

My first reaction was, "Wow, that is pretty arrogant."  My next reaction was, "If you speak the truth, is that arrogance?"  My final thought on the matter was, "He ought to hire better and smarter people."

On War..................................

Walter Russell Mead has been watching Congress debate the authorization of military action against Syria.  He is not impressed.  Full essay here.   Telling excerpt here:

But we should be very clear: if you vote for a war, you will have to take the war that you get, not the beautiful imaginary war you have designed in your clever, ivy-educated, IR-theory stuffed head.

Fifty years ago....................................

Benny Goodman Quartet..................Say It Isn't So

I believe she has this one wrong...........................















sorry Jess

Yep...................................
















thanks Jess

Just because it's in The Onion......................

..............doesn't make it wrong.

WASHINGTON—As President Obama continues to push for a plan of limited military intervention in Syria, a new poll of Americans has found that though the nation remains wary over the prospect of becoming involved in another Middle Eastern war, the vast majority of U.S. citizens strongly approve of sending Congress to Syria.

Full read-worthy post is here.

Boxing......................................

"Young man, young man, your arm's too short to box with God."
-James Weldon Johnson 






















cartoons via

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Infectious fun.......................

Friend Scott points us to Dino Perrucci, who posts pictures of musicians; "shots so good they let you hear the music."  Thinking that pictures that let you hear music must be pretty good, I followed the link.  One of the groupings was of Larry Graham and Graham Central Station.  Never having heard of Larry Graham (the gaps in my music knowledge are enormous), I ventured over to YouTube and found this:

Graham Central Station.....................Dance To The Music

One of love's many disguises.......................

Kurt on Parenting 101 and the hard work of being there:

I never remember the man, however busy he was at work or in life, not being there.  For us.  If we stopped by his office, he always stopped what he was doing to talk and maybe show the latest project he was working on.  Details were explained in the same way he might provide an overview to a client or a contractor.  No condescension was ever displayed.  If you didn’t understand, he would pick it up in your look or expect you to say “I don’t understand”.  He would adjust the explanation until you got it.  “You get it?”

Discovery..................................

















"I slept and dreamed that life was joy.  I awoke and found that life was but service.  I served and discovered that service was joy."
-Rabindranath Tagore

photo via

Opening paragraphs......................

I've always thought that a wonderful thing about sports is that they give everyone a chance.  A child doesn't have to be the best.  He or she doesn't have to make the team in high school or college.  A child can decide if he or she doesn't want to play, doesn't like the sport, or doesn't want to do the work it takes to improve.  But all people should be given the opportunity to go out and compete and see what they can do in comparison to others.  That's one of the wonderful things about America as well.  This country promises everyone a chance.  It is a promise that has not always been kept.  A promise that many of us had to fight for, even die for.  But the promise has always been here, a shining beacon down the road.
-Oscar Robertson,  The Big O:  My Life, My Times, My Game

Fifty years ago............................

JFK welcomes King Zahir to the United States............




This is a fascinating, and brief, video clip.  Mohammed Zahir Shah was the last reigning king of Afghanistan.  He ruled from 1933 to 1973.  You can read more here and here.

Fortune cookie wisdom....................














thanks

If you thought you had a bad day......................


Here's an unexpected sentence.........................

Here are the results of a NAHB survey released today: Shortage of Lots Slows Housing Recovery 
-
Calculated Risk

Tell them to stop by, we have an ample supply of fabulous building lots on hand.


Just an update................................

.........while ignoring Henry Ford II's (and Disraeli's) sage advice to never complain and never explain:

Several friends out there in the Intertunnel have correctly e-mailed to say that the web page link formerly at the top of this blog was non-functional.  The old web page link theoretically directed a clicker towards www.andersonlayman.com.   For the past six months that link didn't take you anywhere.  Perhaps a brief explanation is in order.

Anderson Layman Company was created back in 1982.  The whole company, a commercial and investment real estate brokerage, was comprised of two friends who became business partners.  His last name is Anderson.  Mine is Layman.  So far, so simple.  For the better part of thirty years, we did business together under that banner.  Had the web page and all that.  For reasons that make a great deal of sense to us, last December we decided the end the brokerage part of Anderson Layman Company, and with the end of that came the end of the web page.  Anderson Layman Company still exists, but only as an investment vehicle.  Both of us  now have our real estate licenses with NAI Ohio Equities, a much larger and very well run brokerage firm in Columbus, Ohio.  For reasons that elude me, I never gave much thought to changing the link.  After a bit of gentle prodding, that oversight has been corrected.  The web page link at the top of the blog now takes you to my page on the Ohio Equities web site.

You may be wondering if a name change for the blog is in the offing.  Me too.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Take The A Train.............................

Duke Ellington...............A clip from Reveille With Beverly

Taking the "A" Train................................


















Spent the long weekend in New York City visiting with my sister and brother-in-law.  They live up by Tryon Park, which is about as far north as you can get in Manhattan.  The A train was an integral part of our weekend.    Love the reflection of the photographer over the train driver's shoulder.

Now, this is a library....................................

The New York Public Library

Fifty years ago..................................

The Four Seasons.......................Ain't That A Shame

Thought maybe I'd meet Jeff here, but he was away for the weekend..................

One of those fun little book stores in the Village.  Titles ran
heavy on Dylan, Blake, Kerouac, and eastern philosophy.  

Chess wars...........................

A typical Washington Square scene....................






The streets of New York..................