Un-related Friday things

Any of you that have ever bought anything from Victoria's Secret know that, once they have your name, you can expect a daily deluge of catalogs, each sporting a cover of an impossibly gorgeous woman in an impossibly gorgeous location looking utterly ravishing in something that would likely look ridiculous on anyone who is under 5'10" or over 118 lbs. I probably get 3-4 catalogs a week, many of them identical to one that was already sent, but now sporting a new cover. I am guessing that most of you have the same issue...Victoria love the mail.

So, yesterday when I got home, it was not at all surprising to find two separate catalogs in the mail. One was a summer swimsuit sale, and the other was the initial Fall catalog mailing. And it had this picture on the cover. Omigod! I giggled with glee! Are those not the cutest things you have ever seen? Striped thigh-high socks? I think they adorable, yet incredibly sexy at the same time.

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Went out with Smoking Hot Roommate and some of our friends last night...really fun! It was a good night to be in the few bars in Boston with outdoor spaces. And everyone seemed to be in a really friendly mood, too. Not sure why...but I feel like I met a lot of strangers (OK...I was with four incredibly gorgeous girls...I guess there is no real mystery.)

I also made a new friend, which always makes it a good day. There was a girl there that was out with three guys that she works with (she was clearly playing Wingman for the night...memo to guys: nice girls make the best Wingmen), so we sort of adopted her as one of us;-). Her friends were cute, but I don't think any of my friends were really digging them...but that's OK, because we liked her:-). Which, I guess makes her an outstanding Wingman, in hindsight... Anyway, she ended up hanging out with us for most of the night, and she just moved here after finishing school, and doesn't know that many people yet, so I promised to call her next time we go out.

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What the fuck is up with the stock market? When did it become normal to have daily 2% swings in both directions? The Boy (who spends his time trying to forecast these things) has actually held up pretty well so far. I think his portfolios are doing pretty well, and he hasn't let the stress of it get to him yet. But, just in case, I have some proven stress relief techniques that I am willing to break out in an emergency;-)

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Is there anything worse that the general coverage of business and economic news? I get surprised daily by how major news outlets can misunderstand basic things that they should definitely know. Hey...I am not that smart...and if I know something is dumb, then an editor somewhere should have caught it.

As an example, how about the recent discussion of Recession, and whether we are in one or not. Many large, reputable and presumably capable news outlets seem to treat it as if it is some subjective, hard-to-quantify event that requires an expert's aesthetic opinions to identify. But no...it has a technical definition, and all you have to do is check GDP growth to figure it out. Two straight negative quarters means a Recession...so far, none. Ergo, no recession.

I think the problem is that they use Recession to mean a sort of general "economic struggle", of which there are obviously plenty. But, it is just not the same thing, and they should know better. Here is an example...CNN published this story a couple weeks ago, saying that a recent poll showed that 75% of Americans think we are in a Recession.

I have an analogy for this...if you dropped 100 people out of a plane into the Great Salt Lake and didn't tell them where they were, and then asked "Are you in the Ocean?", many of them would say "Well, it is salty, so yes." Then, you turn around and say "75% of Americans say that the Great Salt Lake is an ocean." That still doesn't make it an ocean...an opinion poll doesn't make a lake into an ocean.

And in a larger sense, it doesn't really matter. Whether we are technically in a Recession or not make little difference to consumers who need to pay their bills. Just like, whether you are in an ocean or not makes little difference to the person who would like to, you know...not drown. So, why devote so much time to arguing it?

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How did I get off on that subject? That is an unnecessary level of analysis for a Friday;-).

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I just finished Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. Interesting...very interesting. Not nearly as good as The Tipping Point, and I am not really 100% sure what that I get the takeaways, but there is a ton of interesting stuff around brain function and decision making and stuff. I don't know that I would recommend reading the whole thing, but if anyone points you to any excerpts of it, they are probably worth reading (does that make any sense?) Has anyone else read it? Or any parts of it?

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Congratulations Mississippi. Better luck next year Alabama, try more McDonald's.

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When Nancy Pelosi and George W Bush argue about how incompetent the other is...which one is actually the kettle, and which one is the pot?