Notes From My Journal
560 articles filed under Notes From My Journal.
-
Notes From My Journal
Two Poems About War… and Death
Ah! Here’s something! A response to the November 13 issue, where I talked about how much I liked Alan Ginsberg’s poem Howl, and how it had a powerful effect on me when I first read it in my late teens. The…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Bits and Pieces — November 20, 2021
Okay, Just Between the Three of Us, I Was Disappointed… It’s happened again. I recently discovered that a rule of grammar I’ve been dutifully obeying all my life has been rescinded. I’m talking about the usage…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
My Old-World Perspective on Investing
I am a happy member of two discussion groups: The Mules, a book club, which meets monthly, and Whiskey Wednesdays, a sort of old-fashioned conversation salon, that meets weekly. One of the many topics we come…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Bits and Pieces — November 6, 2021
Get Ready for – and Profit from – Higher Fuel Prices When it comes to large-scale and long-term investment trends, I pay attention to three colleagues I’ve been following for three decades: Bill Bonner, Tom…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Is Nike Tapping Into Our Hopes… or Our Fears?
Take a look at this Nike commercial: A colleague sent it in, saying: The tone and content speaks directly to their key audience of children/ teens (and the parents of children and teens), but the message…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Bits and Pieces — October 29, 2021
Everything You Need to Know About Impressionism in 5 Minutes Most people that like modern art like Impressionist paintings. I wish that weren’t true. But it is. Impressionism was an artistic movement that…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Bits and Pieces — October 22, 2021
Diversity Quotas – Do Advocates Really Believe in Them? Wokeness: the pathology of believing one can be virtuous by advocating ideas one hasn’t thought about. Example… Diversity quotas: the policy of…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
How to Find Years of Enjoyment in a Moldy, 50-Cent, Garage-Sale Book
I have this beautiful old book. It is hardbound, 500 pages thick, and has the potential to provide me with hundreds or even thousands of hours of learning and pleasure. Titled Spanish – A Basic Course, and…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Bits and Pieces — October 15, 2021
GOOD: Recommended by Tim Ferriss – an essay in three parts by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian author whose books include We Should All Be Feminists. Ferriss says: “Everyone should read this essay. It’s a…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Old Men Golfing
I’m in Myrtle Beach this week, golfing with some old friends. We were old friends – in the sense of having known one another for many years – when we began this yearly reunion in the 1990s. Now, in our…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Bits and Pieces — October 7, 2021
Can You Beat the Market? The last 20 years have been good for investors in REITs (10%), decent for anyone that invested in index funds (7.5%), and satisfactory for risk-averse investors that put their savings…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Murals & Marbles From Suzanne in Honduras
Enjoy the photos that Suzanne included in her email. And check out the link to Byron Mejia. (If you’re interested in hearing more about Suzanne’s adventures in Central America, send her your email address – to…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Bits and Pieces — September 23, 2021
BAD: Crazy Court Decision in Australia A lot of weird stuff goes on in the land down under. Last week, I read that Australia’s highest court ruled that newspapers and television stations that post articles on…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Fathers and Sons
I looked through the little box next to my bed this morning, the one that contains the letter my mother sent to me before she died, advising me to work less and live more. The letter I’ve only been able to…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Bits and Pieces
GOOD: After 30 years in a Georgia prison for a crime he did not commit, Ron Jacobsen is exonerated. From the Innocence Project… Even though Ron Jacobsen’s conviction was overturned in 2019 after DNA evidence…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
That's Not Funny! Why Humor Matters
Humor is one of the wonders of the Homo sapiens world. It has the potential to bridge social gaps, heal personal wounds, expand rigid minds, and open shut hearts by showing us what is essential in life – in…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
The Good, the Bad, the Uncertain — September 7, 2021
Making Sense of Recent News Stories. Big and Small GOOD: Good for China One of the advantages of having unchallenged central authority is that you can make big decisions quickly. And as I’ve mentioned in…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Values and Aspirations
SS, a very successful investment analyst, once told me that certain things we cherish in our adolescence become valuable collectible assets when we hit our peak earning years. For my generation, this was true…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
More About the F-Word…
Responding to the issue in which I agreed with a reader that the F-Word doesn’t suit us as we get older, AS wrote: I don’t disagree that people our age shouldn’t use the word fuck, even though I do. I don’t…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Word of the Day: Remember
Remember – it was just 18 months ago – when Trump suggested that COVID-19 might have come from a lab in Wuhan? Every major “news” outlet – including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and all 3 major…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
The Good, the Bad, the Uncertain — August 30, 2021
Making Sense of Recent News Stories. Big and Small GOOD: “Mussolini” School Board Smack-Down The COVID pandemic and the lockdowns imposed in response to it has given politicians and regulators all over the…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Introducing: Mr. Doodle
I want to introduce you to someone I’ve been following lately. Sam Cox is only 23, but he’s fast becoming the new Keith Haring among contemporary art collectors in England. That’s in part because of his…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
It’s been a frantic week for K and me at Rancho Santana
With 45 family members here to enjoy all this wonderful resort community has to offer, we’ve been busy day and night managing and participating in all the activities. Besides visiting the five beaches and…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Cousin Camp Arrives At Costa Rica's Top-Rated Resort
Despite the challenge of getting here via Liberia, Costa Rica, the 45 Cousin Camp attendees were graciously welcomed by the staff at Rancho Santana, quickly helped into their beautiful rooms and suites…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
The Good, the Bad, the Uncertain
Making Sense of Recent News Stories GOOD: Illinois Bans Lying to Juveniles During Interrogations Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed a bill prohibiting police from using deception during interrogations of…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
The Good, the Bad, the Uncertain Making Sense of Recent News Stories
GOOD: Federal Judge Issues Injunction Against Biden’s Race-Based Loan Forgiveness Program US District Judge S. Thomas Anderson issued an injunction against the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), halting the…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Wanting Came First; Gratitude Much Later
I don’t remember being grateful very often when I was young. I remember wanting things – lots of things – all the time. As a child, I wanted toy trucks and cap guns and Lionel trains and baseball mitts. I…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Back Home in Florida After a Week in Paris
It’s good to be home. Back, after an impromptu week in Paris, to our family home in Delray Beach. Paris is as unlike Delray Beach as a dinner of steak au poivre and haricot verts is to a drive-thru, McDonald’s…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Looking Out the Window
I sit in my writing studio, which has a view to Vista del Mar, which means “View of the Sea.” And indeed, I have a view of the sea and of this road that leads to and from it. Every so often, I lift my head…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
How The Bikini Got Its Explosive Name
The Secret History of the Bikini According to one of the history blogs I subscribe to, the bikini was introduced on July 5, 1946, at a swimming pool in Paris, France: Created by French designer Louis Réard…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Please… Tell Us How Evil We Are!
The Biden/Harris administration is inviting the United Nations to come to the US and study our culture to let us know just how racist we are. Apparently, they are not happy with the fact that most Americans –…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
She’s Living My Dream… Damn It!
It was my second effort at retirement. Or was it the third? No, the second. I was going to spend my retirement as an art dealer and collector, traveling around the world and having a wonderful life. And I…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
The Good, the Bad, the Whatever
GOOD: Arizona’s Ballot-Harvesting Ban Is Ruled Non-Discriminatory and Legal Arizona’s ban on out-of-district voting and ballot-harvesting doesn’t violate the federal Voting Rights Act, the Supreme Court ruled…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Steinbeck's Novel Illuminates Shakespeare's Troubled Duke
John Steinbeck’s The Winter of Our Discontent was June’s selection for The Mules, my all-male book club. I’ve always had the impression that Steinbeck is solidly ensconced in the pantheon of American novelists…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Reconnecting With Old Friends After Retirement
Business, Sports… and Defending the Apostrophe I ask GP what he’s been doing since he retired late last year. “Living the dream,” he tells me. “I walk along the beach almost every morning. Once or twice a week…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Walking With Steve
Once a week, Steve Leveen, a friend and neighbor, and I would take an early morning walk. He’s a better walker than I am. And his dog is a better walker than Steve is. So, the pace we kept was halfway between…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Steve's Journey From Zero To Fluent French Speaker
Walking and Talking and Speaking French After retiring from his role as co-founder (with his wife Lori) and CEO of Levenger, a company that sells wonderful products to readers, Steve got interested in learning…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Andy Warhol's Impersonator And Performance Art Legacy
Sad and Happy Fake News in the Real Art World Allen Midgette, the man pictured below, died on June 16 at his home in Woodstock, NY. Yes, he looks a lot like Andy Warhol, who died in 1987, 34 years ago. That’s…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
The Good, the Bad, and the Uncertain
I’m not sure why I’m sending you this. What follows are notes I took about recent news events that caught my attention. Maybe, after you read them, you’ll understand why I sent them. In case you want to know…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
A Fresh Look at Aristotle’s Poetics
One of the best courses I took in college was Classical Literary Criticism, in which we read, among other things, Aristotle’s Poetics. You might think that a literary theory developed more than 2,000 years ago…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Dancing at Emma’s Wedding
At Emma’s wedding last month, I couldn’t dance because my knee was f-ed up. And I like to dance. I’m not a good dancer, but I have the ability to imagine myself to be one after two or three tequilas. I took…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Why Most Educated People Misunderstand Economics
Some of the best-educated people I’ve met know almost nothing about economics. Some of them think they do because they are literate and read Paul Krugman. In fact they don’t understand even the basics: Why…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Amazon Buys MGM: So What?
The public narrative is this: On May 26, Amazon announced it had cut a deal to buy Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) for $8.45 billion. MGM has a catalog of 4,000 films and 17,000 TV shows, which have collectively won…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
The Beauty of a Good Conversation
The Beauty of a Good Conversation “Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.” – Oscar Wilde Earnest and well-meaning interlocutors are the worst. They talk about everything that…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Art Thief Nabbed!
German police nabbed Abdul Majed Remmo, the fifth and final suspect in the 2019 burglary of Dresden, Germany’s Green Vault Museum. The 22-year-old is the twin brother of Mohammed Remmo, who was arrested last…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
What to Do?
What to Do? Another Difficult Conversation After the Memorial Day barbecue, the conversation got around to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There were eight of us in the conversation, two Jews and six…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
The World Has Gone Bonkers!
I was in Albany recently for a family wedding. I’d never been to Albany before. It is a small city with a population of about 100,000. The city center is comprised mostly of stately 19th century buildings, a…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Corporate Labels
Remember the map of “The Biggest Government Employers in Each State” that I reproduced here on the blog a few weeks ago? After looking at it, CF wrote in with some thought-provoking observations… Very…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
How Imagining Disappointment Saved My Marriage
My introduction to Stoicism began many years ago and without knowledge of what I was doing. It happened after I got married… I noticed that I was getting upset when, after we’d agreed to do something together…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
So, What Were You Expecting?
Meditations on Reality, Personal Relationships, and Social Ills “The vast majority of our mental, emotional, and spiritual suffering,” says Maria Popova, the brain behind BrainPickings, “comes from the violent…
Read full post