May 20th, 2013 → 6:12 am
“The giddy round of Fortune’s wheel.” – The Rape of Lucrece
I don’t normally follow lotteries, but I have to admit, I was hoping no one would win yesterday’s Powerball, just so that the pot could ratchet up to $1 billion. A $1 billion lottery prize; that would have been cool! As it happens, someone in Florida did apparently win. Good luck, mystery winner, figuring out what to do with all that money. History (and academic research) has shown that not everyone actually knows how to handle it.
Filed under: Blog & Economics/Money
May 16th, 2013 → 6:23 am
“If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.” – Romeo and Juliet
Well, the wedding my husband, son, and I flew out to Nevada to attend never took place. Our neice, in the end, broke it off. At least we got to see family and have a bit of memorable fun time. Personally, I think 19 years old is too young to get engaged in the first place, but when I say that, I then can’t help but think of my in-laws who got married that young and yet still stayed together for 50+ years. Even now they hold hands together when they sit on the couch and watch TV at night (it’s so friggin adorable). Who knows what makes love work?!?
Filed under: Blog & Other & Self/My Life
May 12th, 2013 → 7:43 am
“He did it to please his mother.” – Coriolanus
We’re in Nevada right now with my in-laws. So for the first time in many years my husband is actually with his mother on mother’s day. It’s adorable. I can’t wait till my own son is old enough to do nice things for me on Mother’s Day!
Filed under: Blog & Other & Self/My Life
May 9th, 2013 → 6:39 am
“[They] who
With half the bulk o’th’ world played as [they] pleased,
Making and marring fortunes.” – Antony and Cleopatra
Here’s Shakespeare’s version of Keynes’ famous quote about defunct economists influencing the world. And unfortunately, perhaps, sometimes it is true. The discredited study by Reinhart-Rogoff on debt limits really got too much currency; even had it been empirically correct it got too much attention – it was just one study! Theory advances by repeated results over time. Having said that, I came across an academic study last week whose purpose was to repeat the empirical results of a rather famous health care study from the 1980s. And it was beautiful! No cheating uncovered, empirical results repeated and advanced upon, conclusions and updates made. Now this is what academic research is about.
Filed under: Blog & Economics/Money
May 7th, 2013 → 6:24 am
“If it be a man’s work, I’ll do it.” – King Lear
My heart breaks when I read stories of people in their fifties who have been unemployed for six months or more. They are too young to retire, but old enough to suffer from ageism. And the longer they stay out of the job market, the harder it gets. I’m glad the recent unemployment report was better than expected, but my heart goes out to the millions still who have been without a job for months on end.
Filed under: Blog & Economics/Money & Other
May 5th, 2013 → 6:13 am
“Freedom, high-day! high-day, freedom! freedom, high-day, freedom!” – Tempest
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
May 2nd, 2013 → 5:44 am
“I cannot tell what the dickens his name is.” – Merry Wives of Windsor
Yes, that screech of letters and numbers up there is a name someone in Sweden tried to give their baby. They weren’t allowed. Yesterday New Zealand released its own list of banned baby names, which include: Lucifer, Messiah, Christ, King, Anal, and others. After having done some research on this important and fascinating topic, it appears that the U.S. is one of the most liberal countries for naming babies; we pretty much don’t ban anything so there are apparently hundreds of people with the name Noun in this country. (Don’t worry, Comma, Period, and Semicolon are represented as well.) The one thing I did find odd is that New Zealand bans the name Justice. Justice? One of my son’s best friends at school is named Justice. His dad is a polling worker on election day. What’s wrong with Justice?
April 28th, 2013 → 6:33 am
“When that I was and a little tiny boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
A foolish thing was but a toy,
For the rain it raineth every day.” – Twelfth Night
It was a cold, rainy day here in St. Louis yesterday and Vincent, Mommy, and Daddy stayed holed up in the house eating oreos and playing with any foolish thing Vincent decided to make a toy. At one point he tore all his clothes off, put mommy’s hat, gloves, and socks on, and ran around the house with a London Big Ben keychain in is hand. We don’t know why either, but it was pretty darn hilarious.
Filed under: Blog & Self/My Life
April 23rd, 2013 → 6:09 am
It’s Shakespeare’s birthday today, or at least, we think it’s his birthday today. The earliest record we have of a William Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon is of a baptism on April 26, and assuming he was born just a few days before the ceremony (as was custom), the logical deduction is that today is most likely his birthday. Anyhow, in honor of William Shakespeare’s (likely) birthday, I thought I’d quote Sonnet 105 in full, where the bard talks about idolatry, and how a lover should not idolize his love, although by the end of the Sonnet, that is exactly what he is doing!
“Let not my love be called idolatry,
Nor my beloved as an idol show,
Since all alike my songs and praises be
To one, of one, still such, and ever so.
Kind is my love today, tomorrow kind,
Still constant in a wondrous excellence;
Therefore my verse, to constancy confined,
One thing expressing, leaves out difference.
‘Fair, kind, and true’ is all my argument,
‘Fair, kind, and true,’ varying to other words;
And in this change is my invention spent,
Three themes in one, which wondrous scope affords.
‘Fair,’ ‘kind,’ and ‘true’ have often live alone,
Which three till now never kept seat in one.” – Sonnet 105
Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art
April 21st, 2013 → 6:20 am
“No profit grows where is no pleasure taken.
In brief, sir, study what you most affect.” – The Taming of the Shrew
Another semester is nearing an end. I can’t believe there’s only one month left of classes! Now’s the time I get the stray student or two coming to office hours to discuss their courses, their majors, their future… And one piece of advice that I really do think is true, is that you should study what you most affect (i.e. “enjoy”). Life’s not worth it otherwise.