The University of California-Berkeley recently remodeled its undergraduate library. With the remodel, they have lifted the ban on bringing food and drink inside. There is no longer any danger of books in the library being damaged by spilled food or drink. The reason: there are no longer any books in the library.
As we all know, if it’s on the Internet, it must be true, so the library has been re-styled to serve as a gathering place for students to gather for important discussions, complete with power supplies for laptops and whiteboards for recording vital ideas, and monitors to view work produced in PowerPoint, that scourge of civilized discourse.
What, no Foosball table?
“It’s the wave of the future,” a professor said. “The idea of research in a library is becoming archaic, versus Googling on the Internet. Maybe they’re not accessing the best information with what comes up on Google, but people are used to finding things on the Internet.”
Postscript: At my high school – an all-boys institution – a major project junior year was the research paper. This involved evenings of research at the downtown public library. The downtown library was usually frequented by students from other schools – of the girl gender.
Millions of people took to the streets on Earth Day to promote science as necessary to save the earth. Nearly 900 million people in the world are undernourished. In Syria, 6 million people have lost their homes; another 4.8 million are refugees who have left the county. In the Vatican City, cardinals are outraged that Pope Francis has said that it might be okay for divorced Catholics to take communion.
Writing in his 2016 “Amoris Laetitia” – if you didn’t study Latin that means “The Joy of Love” – Pope Francis said bishops can use their discretion in allowing Communion for Catholics who have divorced and remarried. A few years earlier the Pope said it was probably all right for Lutherans to receive Communion. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he later surmised that is was not for him to judge if gay people could take communion. To conservative bishops in Germany and the U.S. this is not acceptable and goes against what has been Catholic dogma for centuries. The Church does not recognize divorce and so those who remarry are living in sin.
Vinyl records are having a resurgence. Enough people remember what music sounded like before the current era of sterile downloaded digital recordings reproduced through crappy ear buds. Vinyl discs required careful handling, touching only the edges, to avoid scratching the playing surface. When the needle dropped into the groove, pops and skips and scratchy sounds showed the futility of the effort. In spite of that, serious audiophiles spend thousands of dollars on turntables and tube-powered amplifiers.
And record stores are still in business. Some people still purchase compact discs and brand-new twelve-inch vinyl record albums. (No doubt including oldsters who have a much easier time trying to read the notes and deciphering the graphics on the larger album sleeves.) Some artists still record albums with thematic unity. Buying and selling used vinyl and CDs is a thriving business.
Tower Records is gone, but independent record stores are still in business. April 22 is their day. (It’s also Earth Day.) Go visit your local business where they care about the music.
The Chairman of the Board of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is perennially in the top three of the Forbes magazine list of wealthiest Americans. Warren Buffett’s letter to shareholders in the company’s annual report is must reading for many. The letter has become so popular that it is copyrighted and posted on Berkshire’s web site with access given to everyone. The first letter, written in 1978, discloses information about Blue Chip Stamps, one of Berkshires major holdings. The letters contain an aw-shucks overview of the company’s financial performance and explanations of how their major businesses work, including how to make money in the insurance business. They are filled with criticism of other corporate leaders and their outsized compensation packages, which in the end are not tied to actual financial results.
In his latest letter, as in most, Buffett, with his homespun style, offers his investment advice. Not flashy, but sound strategy for the long run.
“The bottom line: When trillions of dollars are managed by Wall Streeters charging high fees, it will usually be the managers who reap outsized profits, not the clients. Both large and small investors should stick with low-cost index funds.”
“Human behavior won’t change. Wealthy individuals, pension funds, endowments and the like will continue to feel they deserve something “extra” in investment advice. Those advisors who cleverly play to this expectation will get very rich.”
“Over the years, I’ve often been asked for investment advice, and in the process of answering I’ve learned a good deal about human behavior. My regular recommendation has been a low-cost S&P 500 index fund. To their credit, my friends who possess only modest means have usually followed my suggestion.”
The folksy letter finishes with summary of the upcoming shareholders meeting, a three-day bacchanal for the conservative investor. Nearly forty-thousand shareholders will travel to Omaha for the event.
Automakers have been chewing nails ever since introduction of the Tesla that’s been beating all comers in acceleration. Finally, after two years of work by a team of twenty-five engineers, Dodge has unleashed its 840-horsepower Demon. Dodge claims it is the fasted production car period. The Demon reached 60 miles-per-hour in 2.3 seconds. That’s two tenths of a second quicker than the Tesla Model S P100D. “Big deal,” you say. It is a big deal. Bragging rights are important in marketing a car to that certain segment of auto buyers who cannot abide losing to a battery-powered sissy car. Dodge brought Vin Diesel to the 2017 New York International Auto Show to emphasize how serious they are about being the leader in the macho car market. The Demon comes with barely-legal drag-racing tires and an $85,000 price tag. The high-performance Tesla sells for about $130,000, but that includes passenger and rear seats. No mention of the Demon’s fuel consumption. The Tesla P100D gets the equivalent of 98 miles per gallon. One pundit commented that the Demon is evidence that the internal-combustion-powered vehicle has jumped the shark.
The green bean & mushroom casserole was the bomb! I asked Gram for the recipe, but she said it’s a family secret passed down through generations! The sweet potatoes with the toasted little marshmallows on top were dope. The only reason I’m not giving this five stars is there was no PBR beer to wash the meal down with.
★☆☆☆☆
The food wasn’t bad. I would’ve given more stars if I’d felt welcomer. I took a picture of my plate and was putting it up on Instagram when Poppa said he’d really appreciate it if people would not use cell phones at the dinner table. It’s not like I was talking on the phone or anything! If they expect grandkids to come over for dinner, they need to let us text and stuff. It’s like they’re living in another century!
★★★★☆
I have eaten here regularly for many years, breakfast and dinner. Usually it’s been pretty good although the portions were often too small. The food would be brought to the table with the announcement of how many slices of bacon or how many pieces of roast we were each allowed. And then if we didn’t eat it all, no dessert. I’m glad to see that now the servings are of a reasonable size.
★★☆☆☆
My wife told me I would really like this. It was supposed to be a family-style dinner. We drove a long way with our children and then Gram told them they had to sit at a separate “kids” table. Our kids are well behaved. Being kids, of course sometimes they get a little rambunctious. That’s no reason to not let them sit at the same table with the others or to get so upset because one of them threw a couple green beans at another or knocked over a glass of chocolate milk.
★★★★★
The ham was better than Honey Baked. My only criticism is the slices weren’t perfect like the spiral ones from Honey Baked. The brown-sugar glaze made up for that, though. And Gram and Poppa were really nice, too. Gram made sure I got all I wanted to eat. And the pecan pie – Wow! With REAL whipped cream in a spray can. And they had my favorite, Bud Lite.
★☆☆☆☆
I went to a lot of trouble to order a “Happy Easter” cake from Costco for the dinner. I think it was very rude of everyone to eat the pecan pie that Gram made and not mine. They probably just didn’t want to hurt her feelings. At least I got to take the cake home so I can eat it later.
★★★★★
This has to be my favorite pop-up restaurant. You could tell every dish had received the personal attention of the owners. Part of the charm was after the meal we all pitched in with clearing the table and taking care of the dishes. Not sure why none of the guys did, though.
★☆☆☆☆
I really don’t like this place, but my husband makes me go.
★★★☆☆
I thought by now Gram knew that I am a vegetarian. I know ham with brown-sugar glaze is the tradition, but does anybody think about the living conditions of the pigs before they are slaughtered? I didn’t make a fuss but I will definitely have a conversation with Gram before Thanksgiving. I also will tell them I’ll bring the wine next time. Nobody drinks white Zinfandel. I gave three stars because I think they really do try.
As we all know, if it’s on the Internet, it must be true, so the library has been re-styled to serve as a gathering place for students to gather for important discussions, complete with power supplies for laptops and whiteboards for recording vital ideas, and monitors to view work produced in PowerPoint, that scourge of civilized discourse.
