Friday, January 29, 2021

The Wonder that is the Intertunnel...........

 There is this guy I don't know, but whose style I admire.    He advises, via this medium, a friend I do know, and whose style I also admire, to read a certain book.  Sounded good to me, so I ordered it (not from Amazon - I am done with them for a while, but that is another story).  In no time the book arrives and, unsurprisingly, jumped to the top of the stack.   It is a collection of essays from Russell Lynes.  Here is the opening paragraph to the opening essay:

Some years ago a magazine no longer published but then widely read and respected asked me to write a piece about the "rat race."  I did and was paid for it, but it languished in the editor's "hold" file for a long time and then disappeared without a trace.  My thesis, evidently not agreeable to the editor, was that each of us makes his own rat race, that it is not an inevitability imposed by the nature of society, and that those who are caught in it are there essentially because they choose to be.

I'm going to enjoy this book.  Expect to see more.

The artistry..............................

 ..............................................of a blogger.

One of those mornings..........................?



              via

A pretty good primer..........................



             more wisdom here

Remember..........................

To seek "causes" of poverty in this way is to enter an intellectual dead end because poverty has no causes. Only prosperity has causes.

-Jane Jacobs

We would do well to remember that, from a historical perspective, abundance has not been the norm for us humans.

Careful.............................

 Interpreting behavior is rife with value judgments that are invisible to those making them.

-Margaret Heffernan, from Uncharted:  How To Navigate the Future

Happy Birthday Sweetie................................

Sir Paul delivering the Beatles "Birthday" Song

 

Thursday, January 28, 2021

Homing impulse......................



 “Our passionate preoccupation with the sun, the stars and a God somewhere in outer space is a homing impulse. We are drawn back to where we came from. ”

-Eric Hoffer

APOD image here

Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Chatting with Eric Hoffer..........................

A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business.

The greatest weariness comes from work not done.

In a world of change, the learners shall inherit the earth, while the learned shall find themselves perfectly suited for a world that no longer exists.

When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.

The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.

The individual's most vital need is to prove his worth, and this usually means an insatiable hunger for action. For it is only the few who can acquire a sense of worth by developing and employing their capacities and talents. The majority prove their worth by keeping busy.

Scratch an intellectual, and you find a would-be aristocrat who loathes the sight, the sound and the smell of common folk.

The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.

Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.

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

 When ranch owner Opal Scarlett vanished, no one mourned except her three grown sons.  Arlen, Hank, and Wyatt, who expressed their loss by getting into a fight with shovels.

-C. J. Box, In Plain Sight:  A Joe Pickett Novel

A breath of fresh air...........................?

 


Gamestop..........................

 ..............I'm not even going to pretend I have a clue about what's been going on with their finances or their stock.  Chris Lynch has part of the story here.  David Merkel has - what seems to me anyway - a pretty good explanation here.   Stories like this make me glad I'm an investor in real estate.  Much simpler (at least the way we do it).

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

A dog named................................

 .......................................................................Beau.

The Intertunnel is such a wonderful place..........



     via

Goal setting......................

 Extend to each person, no matter how trivial the contact, all the care and kindness and understanding and love that you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.

-Og Mandino

A really good question.....................

 The Bible actually has a very clear statement that spells out what it means to love God first and foremost, and our neighbors second. That statement, of course, is the 10 Commandments, albeit in the McClendon version: “Have no other gods but Me; Don’t make or bow down to idols; Don’t use my name in a way to make it mean something it doesn’t; Keep at least one day holy so you can have time to remember Who I am; Respect your parents and those who take care of you; Don’t murder and that includes way more than you think; Sex is sacred, so don’t fool around in your head, bed or on your TV, computer, or phone; Never steal in any way, shape, or form; Don’t lie or spread anything that isn’t 100% accurate; Be content, and don’t be envious or want what you don’t have.”

These commandments are pretty evenly split between love of God and neighbor. They beg the question: What would happen if we took them to heart, and put them into practice? 

-Tim McClendon, as culled from here

Grace..........................

Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.

-Frederick Buechner

Sunday, January 24, 2021

Bernie and his mittens......................

..........................the non-meme:










..........................a new favorite:








............................some old favorites:





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

Credence Clearwater Revival.............Have You Ever Seen The Rain

 

Released in December 1970, received major airplay in 1971

On the importance of self-knowledge............

 Extreme adherence to an investment strategy is dangerous in a world that changes all the time, so an important question to ask when things aren’t working whether you’re being patient or stubborn.

Embrace and accept your flaws and build a financial plan around them, rather than assuming you can alter your susceptibility to dopamine and cortisol by reading a blog post.

There are few universally right answers. Just lots of shades of gray that work for people’s unique personalities and situations. A lot of finance arguments happen when people get upset after realizing that not everyone has, or wants, the same life as you.

-Morgan Housel, three excerpts from this read-worthy post