December 2022
70 articles published this month.
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Notes From My Journal
Why Am I Falling Behind?
Since my stroke in September, I’ve been losing ground on my to-do list. One example: I have three email inboxes. A red-flagged one that I try to answer within 24 hours. An orange-flagged one that I try to…
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The Economy & Investing
More Data on the Next (Biggest?) Financial Crisis
I got into the business of publishing economic and investment advice in the early 1980s. Since then, I’ve witnessed four significant “crises.” * The stock market crash of 1987 * The dot-com crash of 1995 * The…
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News & Views
A More Threatening Threat
Early in December, hoodlums shot down power lines in two major power stations in Moore County, NC. The result: 45,000 homes were without power for close to a week. Schools were shut down. Many businesses were…
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Introducing...
Bari Weiss
If you aren’t familiar with her already, meet Bari Weiss. She is a writer I’ve been following for many years. I first noticed her when she was writing for The New York Times, and continued to read her when she…
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Health & Wellness
Can Vaccines Prevent Cancer?
Amid all the questions about the effectiveness (and the side effects) of COVID vaccines, there is hope that new vaccines may be able to treat cancer. Innovations like genome sequencing have allowed scientists…
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Worth Considering
New Year Resolutions: Making Some Positive Changes in 2023
James Clear is a bestselling author and generally smart person who knows a lot about habits – how they are made and how they can be changed. In this interview with Peter Attia, (another smart person I follow)…
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Worth Watching
Güeros
Güeros Written and directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios Starring Tenoch Huerta Mejía and Sebastián García Released Feb. 7, 2014 Currently available on various streaming services, including Netflix and Amazon Prime…
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Worth Reading
Seven Books to Help You Build Wealth in 2023
Sean MacIntyre is a smart guy. He’s also a polymath. I mentored Sean early in his career. Now, he’s the publisher of DIY Wealth, a website that provides guidance on entrepreneurship, investing, and other…
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A Word to the Wise
Penultimate
refers to the next to the next to the last. As I used it above: “If wealth building is on your do-do list for 2023, these recommendations are a good place to start. (Including, by the way, the antepenultimate…
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Inside Paradise Palms Botanical & Sculpture Gardens
Palmyra or “Toddy” Palm
Also known as Daub Palm, Tala Palm, Ice Apple Palm, and Wine Palm Binomial name: Borassus flabellifer The Palmyra is one of my favorite palm trees. We have half a dozen great specimens at the gardens. It is…
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Readers Write
Re the Bill Maher video in Tuesday’s P.S
“My pet peeve on stupid woke word term requirements is that it is now inappropriate to say homeless and you must say ‘unhoused.’ I think whoever came up with this one is ‘unsmart.’” – PL
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Postscript
The best science images of 2022 from the Nature website…
Click here to see an almighty eruption, the cosmos remastered, swirling cells, and more.
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Notes From My Journal
A Fitness Program for 2023
Good for the Young as Well as the Older Since my stroke three months ago, I’ve been trying to get back into my former physical shape. I want to reclaim my strength, speed, flexibility, and stamina – the things…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Yet Another Finding That “Short Bursts of Activity Lower Your Risk of Early Death
Just after I finished writing the above essay, a friend sent me the results of a new study – another one showing that exercising the way I do produces better results than longer sessions of low-to-moderate…
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Building Wealth
The Hidden Wealth Impact Of Daily Choices
How Every Decision Can Make You Richer (or Poorer) This is an essay I wrote that was published on Dec. 19 by DIY Wealth – an online business that provides guidance on entrepreneurship, investing, and other…
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Readers Write
My Response — December 27, 2022
“What have you found to be the best meeting rhythm for a copywriting team? Regular meetings to brainstorm on copy and ads? Meetings only when necessary to collaborate on new copy? As few meetings as possible…
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Postscript
Bill Maher On Eight Weaponized Woke Words
From Bill Maher: 8 words that have been weaponized by the woke…
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Notes From My Journal
My Grandson Hudson Is Exceptionally Clever And Adorable
There are few things more annoying than talking to someone that can’t stop talking about how clever and cute their little child or grandchild is. It’s understandable as a biological impulse – protection of the…
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Worth Watching
Home Alone
Home Alone Directed by Chris Columbus Written by John Hughes Starring Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, John Heard, and Catherine O’Hara Released in theaters Nov. 16, 1990 Currently streaming on…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Grandkids Can't Get Enough Of Fauci On A Couchi
Fauci Is Still on the Couchi Children, like their taller counterparts, enjoy bright and funny stories. And when they like something – any form of entertainment – they want to experience it over and over again…
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Worth Reading
Holidays on Ice
Holidays on Ice By David Sedaris 128 pages Originally published Dec. 1997 I knew I had a few Christmas-themed books on the shelves somewhere. I was hoping to find one that would entertain the grandkids. The…
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Worth Quoting
Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus
In 1897, eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York’s now-defunct newsletter, The Sun. Photo of Virginia O’Hanlon from the 1890s “Some of my little friends say there is no Santa…
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Inside Paradise Palms Botanical & Sculpture Gardens
Christmas Palm
Also known as Manila Palm, Kerpis Palm, Adonidia Palm, Dwarf Royal Palm, and Veitchia Palm Binomial name: Adonidia merrillii This palm is native to the Philippines. During the summer months, it produces light…
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Postscript
In case your heart needs more warming today…
Did you know that sea otters hold hands while they sleep so they don’t drift apart?
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The Economy & Investing
Out of the Frying Pan…
The Fed raised interest rates last week, the last cut of seven this year meant to curb 40-year-high inflation. The benchmark federal funds rates stood at near zero in March. With this last raise of 0.5%, it…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Good news, bad news
Good news, bad news: Package delivery time has improved by 47% year-over-year. Unfortunately, package theft is up 87% this month compared to last year. Click here for details.
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Fun and/or Interesting
Spotify’s “Billions Club
Spotify was launched 14 years ago and came into the US in 2011. Since then, the Stockholm-based company has become the world’s most popular audio-streaming service, with 456 million users across 183 markets…
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Worth Considering
The COVID Response. What We Got Wrong — December 20, 2022
Part VI: The Masks Photo of a WHO mission to China in 2020 At the beginning of the COVID crisis, in the early months of 2020, there was almost uniform agreement among scientists that the virus was an airborne…
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Arts & Letters
This painting by Piet Mondrian has been hung upside-down for 77 years
The goof was discovered by the curator of a new exhibition at a museum in Germany. Here’s how she figured it out.
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Worth Quoting
The Grinch On Christmas Beyond Consumerism
“Maybe Christmas, [the Grinch] thought… doesn’t come from a store / Maybe Christmas, perhaps… means a little bit more.”
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Postscript
People Who Know How to Pose with Sculpture
For your enjoyment (sent in by JM)… People Who Know How to Pose with Sculpture
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Notes From My Journal
Comedy Censorship: The Penultimate Step Before Totalitarianism
Over the last 10 years or so, ideas about fairness and equality have changed drastically in Europe and America. Almost all of it germinated in colleges and universities. And most of it mind-bogglingly stupid…
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Worth Quoting
Benjamin Franklin On Freedom Of Thought And Speech
“Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom – and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.” – Benjamin Franklin
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News & Views
How Far Did He Go?
The Sam Bankman-Fried story keeps getting bigger. On Tuesday, I made the point that the mainstream media has been either sympathetic to or suspiciously quiet about this multibillion-dollar scammer. He was…
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The Economy & Investing
Cathie Woods vs. Warren Buffett
Cathie Woods (of Ark Investing) is a crypto/disruptive technology investment superstar. She attracts the young, hip, and adventurous. The Hustle recently published a short article on her track record over the…
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Worth Reading
The Sun Also Rises
The Sun Also Rises By Ernest Hemingway Originally published 1926 272 pages This was Hemingway’s first novel. And I think it’s a very good one. Plot It’s the story of a small group of 20-something British and…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Holiday Costs Soar Across Decorations And Traditions
Everything is more expensive this Christmas – even a partridge in a pear tree! Click here for the alarming details. And click here for the extra cost of putting up holiday lights this year, state by state.
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Arts & Letters
Victorian Suitor's Backup Plan For Rejected Proposal
I don’t know if this letter was written in earnest. But I do know, from Letters of Note, that it is real. Margaret Stuart-Wortley 1879 Margaret, If you find yourself unwilling to accept me, will you please…
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Inside Paradise Palms Botanical & Sculpture Gardens
Pygmy Date Palms
Binomial name: Phoenix roebelenii These are Pygmy Date Palms, showing their roots and looking scary. They look like this because they were originally in plastic pots that were left unattended for years before…
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Readers Write
Re Alex Hormozi’s recommendation of Ready, Fire, Aim in Tuesday’s issue
“Ready, Fire, Aim is amazing.” – JC “It is one of the best, and I reread it about once per year.” – CH “It’s your crowning achievement. Insights on every page!” – MS Another mention from Alex Hormozi – this…
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Postscript
Thirteen-Year-Old Violinist Brings Energy To Hallelujah
Another young musical talent getting famous on YouTube – Karolina Protsenko, a 13-year-old violinist playing a particularly animated version of Hallelujah… Watch it here.
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Notes From My Journal
What Was The New York Times Thinking?
Sam Bankman-Fried – who was arrested yesterday in the Bahamas after the US filed criminal charges against him – cheated more than one million investors out of billions of dollars. Most of it vanished into thin…
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The Economy & Investing
Energy Supply and Demand Likely to Be a Big Topic This Winter
That’s because of sanctions against Russia for the war on Ukraine, the unwillingness of OPEC to increase production, and the politically driven campaign to move too quickly away from fossil fuels towards green…
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Business & Marketing
Overlooking the Obvious
Something is going wrong with your business. Usually, you know how to fix it. This time, you are flummoxed. You try everything that has worked before. No luck. What else can you do? You can hire a consultant!…
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Worth Watching
The Wonder
The Wonder Directed by Sebastián Lelio Staring Florence Pugh, Kíla Lord Cassidy, and Niamh Algar In theaters Nov. 2, 2022 Currently streaming on Netflix The Wonder is grim, stark, and depressing (GSD, as my…
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Worth Considering
The COVID Response. What We Got Wrong — December 13, 2022
Part V: The Treatments Today, I’m going to take on yet another topic that was front page news for months... and then, simply disappeared. Do you remember when, early in 2020, President Trump talked about…
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Fun and/or Interesting
The "Magic 8 Ball” – the top-selling Christmas stocking stuffer in 1950, the year I was born…
The original Magic 8 Ball was created by Albert Carter, the son of a professional psychic. Along with his brother-in-law, Abe Bookman, Carter unsuccessfully marketed several incarnations of the “Syco-Seer”…
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Readers Write
My Response — December 13, 2022
“You have stated several times in the past year that you believe the US is in for a significant and sustained recession. You have also said that, in spite of your expectation of an extended bear market, you…
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Postscript
Alex Hormozi Names Ready, Fire, Aim Essential Reading
I just found out that my book, Ready, Fire, Aim, was recommended by blogger Alex Hormozi as one of the “top 13 business books that every business owner should read.” Thanks to TJ for sending in this video…
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Notes From My Journal
I came down with something…
It was on my penultimate day in Nicaragua. It began with a dry cough and progressed to a wet cough. I’m fatigued. Otherwise, okay. I’m treating it by drinking liquids and resting. It feels like it will be over…
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