"Like many Rust Belt cities, it is a captive of its rich manufacturing past, when well-paying jobs were plentiful and landing one without a college degree was easy." ... GLOBALIZATION WIPED OUT AMERICA'S WORKING MIDDLE CLASS

GALBRAITH MENTIONS THIS SITE, "the one that really defined the exact format was Jean Aw and Daniel Frysinger’s NotCot. For the layout of each item on NotCot, the site used the metaphor of a Polaroid photo with a note written in the space below the image." ... ANOTHER SORT OF PREDECESSOR TO PINTEREST

"Have as much contact as possible with older people. Personally, I met people at Podcamps. My friend Greg, at the age of 13, met his first future employer sitting next to him on a plane. The reason this is so valuable is because people your age don’t usually have the decision-making ability to help you very much. Also they know almost everything you will learn later, so ask them." ... PRETTY GOOD POST, BUT THIS POINT ASSUMES THE OLDER PERSON A) UNDERSTANDS THE WORLD B) IS WILLING TO TELL YOU ABOUT IT C) WON'T ACTIVELY SABOTAGE THE ASKER AND D) THE ASKER IS WILLING TO ACCEPT WHAT THE OLDER PERSON TELLS THEM (ALL HUGE ASSUMPTIONS)

"There is a five-step “ladder” of walkability, from least to most walkable. On average, each step up the walkability ladder adds $9 per square foot to annual office rents, $7 per square foot to retail rents, more than $300 per month to apartment rents and nearly $82 per square foot to home values." ... YES, THE SUBURBS ARE THE LAST PLACE YOU WANT TO LIVE ... YOU LIVE IN THE CITY AND YOU HAVE A COUNTRY PLACE SEVERAL HOURS AWAY... NOTHING IN BETWEEN

via @barbariancap ... WONDERFUL! SEE 8 MILE ROAD? SURE YOU DO.

BETTER SEX TOYS?

"knew her to be an exceptional mother" ... THE 11 YO KID SHE LEFT BEHIND MAY BEG TO DIFFER

"Hispanics, blacks, Asians and those of mixed race — reached 50.4 percent, representing a majority for the first time in the country’s history." ... I'VE CONTRIBUTED TO THIS TREND

"Men, eager for replication, are naturally polygamous, while women are naturally monogamous—but only until a man they perceive as of higher status than their current mate comes along. Hypergamy—marrying up, or, in the absence of any constrained linkage between sex and marriage, mating up—is a more accurate description of women’s natural inclinations." ... WELL, IT'S TRUE THAT WOMEN WILL MARRY UP BUT THEN THEY'LL DEMAND MONOGAMY AGAIN, THEY DON'T LOOK TO MARRY UP AND UP AND UP ... " today’s chaotic combination of polygamy for lucky alphas, hypergamy in varying degrees for females depending on their sex appeal, and, at least in theory, large numbers of betas left without mates at all" .. SAME AS IT EVER WAS

"Psychologists now believe fledgling psychopaths can be identified as early as kindergarten" ... OF COURSE YOU CAN, SOCIOPATHS TOO... ONE KID I KNEW OF IN SCHOOL ENDED UP SHOOTING HIS GIRLFRIEND AND HIMSELF WITH A SHOTGUN... WE SAW THAT COMING WHEN HE WAS NINE YEARS OLD

"I later saw Mike (the crewcut) and asked him what happened. Mike, a military veteran (there were a number of vets on campus back from Nam and elsewhere) told me that he didn't care for "hippie values", but it was unAmerican to tolerate bullies of any kind....

Ganging up on someone reflects a certain cowardice, physical if not moral." ... CORRECT

"It is germane, I think, to the election as it goes to the man's character. His cruelty to the blind man he walked into the door (and laughed about) and this classmate and his casual attitude toward his now famous dog, bring into question what kind of person he is. I think that's fair game." ... OF COURSE IT'S GERMANE, THE GUY IS A WORLD CLASS ASSHOLE

PAINFUL POST TO READ ... PROBABLY THERAPEUTIC TO WRITE THOUGH

PATHETIC, BUT I CAN EASILY PICTURE KEDROSKY ON ONE

LOOK WHO DAD HAS TO SHARE HER TITS WITH? (i did have a nephew in germany who would drag around a stool so he could stand on it and feed, the little devil)

"many black women are fat because we want to be" ... FAT AND FORTY BUT LORDY YOU'RE MY MEAT (the great Louis Jordan) ... "How many middle-aged white women fear their husbands will find them less attractive if their weight drops to less than 200 pounds?" .... WELL, THERE'S FAT AND THEN THERE'S BIG MAMA FAT ... " I have my own personal program: walk eight miles a week, sleep eight hours a night and drink eight glasses of water a day." ... EIGHT WHOLE MILES? HOW ABOUT CUTTING OUT THE EIGHT BAGS OF CHEETOS?

"It's a hackneyed, unfunny advertisement featuring Kutcher in brownface talking about his romantic options, with the entire punchline being that he's doing it in a fake-Indian outfit and voice. That's it, there's seriously no other gag." ... WHAT DOES DASH THINK ABOUT PETER SELLERS' WONDERFUL INDIAN SCHTICK? "I've grown accustomed to her doti?"

"we rarely hear about the countless failures and the people and companies who financed them." ... NOT RARELY, NEVER EVER EVER... MYTHS MUST BE MAINTAINED AT ALL COSTS

1. Your time in fraternity basements was well spent. (not incl the date rapes)
2. Some of your worst days lie ahead. (probably all of them)
3. Don't make the world worse. ("skirting financial regulations and selling unhealthy foods to increasingly obese children")
4. Marry someone smarter than you are. (or at least employed)
5. Help stop the Little League arms race.
6. Read obituaries. (god no, do not do this, it's depressing and reminds you how little time you have)
7. Your parents don't want what is best for you. (sheltering is bad)
8. Don't model your life after a circus animal. (don't work for peanuts)
9. It's all borrowed time.
10. Don't try to be great.

... SORT OF CONVENTIONAL NON-CONVENTIONAL ADVICE

SHE DOESN'T HAVE A DAY JOB, CLEARLY

"But books are long. Who has time to read?" ... YEP ...

KINDA NEAT ... BOUNDARIES ARE INTERESTING THINGS, ESP IN DIGITAL AGE

"Empirical evidence of a connection between homophobia and suppressed same-sex desire." ... OF COURSE THIS IS TRUE ... but seeing a gay couple *with children* still sets off alarms in me (lizard brain?)

"Inflation is also distorting the travel business. A five-star hotel used to mean the ultimate in luxury, but now six- and seven-star resorts are popping up as new hotels award themselves inflated ratings as a marketing tool. "Deluxe" rooms have been devalued, too: many hotels no longer have "standard" rooms, but instead offer a choice of "deluxe" (the new standard), "luxury", "superior luxury" or "grand superior luxury"." ... I THOUGHT THAT WAS CONFINED TO CHINA

" I inverted the 5 regrets, yielding a list of 5 commands
Don't ignore your dreams; don't work too much; say what you think; cultivate friendships; be happy." ... EASY WHEN YOU HAVE MONEY

"I noticed that several women listed “bald” as a trait they hoped to avoid. A few even called it a “deal-breaker.” " ... WRONG, IT'S A DEAL BREAKER FOR *EVERY* WOMAN

BOTTOM: NASHVILLE, FT WORTH, OK CITY, CHARLOTTE NC, JACKSONVILLE FL,

THE MAJOR DOWNSIDE IS THE MAN WILL HAVE A MUCH EASIER TIME SPLITTING (which is a major upside from his perspective)

"It is totally acceptable to go for a pint right before the wedding.
Or two…or three." ... YES, IRISH

"They told me it would be against the law to bring an ironing board to my room before 7.30 am.

I told this to my Bologna business contact and he scoffed. Of course somewhere in the 10 million lines of Italian code there is - of course - something that talks about ironing boards. Dysfunctional government (at least by the standards of OECD countries) is an iconic feature of Italy - but this was not government as a problem - it was government as an excuse."

TOUGH TO BE AN ANTI-SEMITE IN HOLLYWOOD

BECAUSE THEY'RE SELFISH

ASHLEY IS A BABE, GREAT BONES, NEEDS TO DROP ABOUT 15 LBS TO MAKE 'EM SHINE THOUGH

"you are not that interesting and your quirks are not endearing." ... PLUS YOU'RE FAT AND BALD

"Hunter Moore is the unrepentant founder of Is Anyone Up, a virtual grudge slingshot of a website that gleefully publishes "revenge porn" photos—cell-phone nudes submitted by scorned exes, embittered friends, malicious hackers, and other ne'er-do-well degenerates—posted alongside each unsuspecting subject's full name, social-media profile, and city of residence." ... KIDS TODAY

"Under current English law, divorces are granted only under one of five categories, including adultery and abandonment. About half of the cases fall under the heading of a broad category called unreasonable behavior, in which one party has to accuse the other of acting so unreasonably that living together has become intolerable." ... NO NO-FAULT

"If your kid has a sniffle and your wife wants to take him or her to the hospital, just do it." ... MUST PICK YOUR BATTLES AND THIS ISN'T ONE OF THEM (assuming you have great insurance)

DEFINITELY CHANGING EXPECTATIONS ... "sexual attention deficit disorder" ... "Ron says that for the past couple of years, he’s had weekly “dates” with his favorite porn stars, which he looks forward to all day and even showers and shaves for, as though preparing for a live-action rendezvous" ... SWEET JESUS

"You watch these scenes and other examples of the zeitgeist-y, early-20s heroines of “Girls” engaging in, recoiling from, mulling and mourning sex, and you think: Gloria Steinem went to the barricades for this?" ... I BLAME UBIQUITOUS FREE PORN FOR THE STATE OF THINGS ... "“There’s a biological reason why women feel about sex the way they do and men feel about sex the way they do. It’s not as simple as divesting yourself of your gender roles.”" .. YEAH, DUH ... "“the buffet of fetishistic porn available 24/7” had created very particular and sometimes very peculiar, ratcheted-up desires." ... YES, IT'S A TERRIBLE PROBLEM ... "“Guys my age watch so much pornography,” Dunham told me, adding that she has been subjected to aggressive positioning and “a lot of errant hair pulling” and has thought: “There’s no way that you, young Jewish man from Chappaqua, taught this to yourself.”" ... ARE YOU KIDDING? YOUNG JEWISH GUYS FROM CHAPPAQUA INVENTED IT

"she is delighted by how completely right it feels" ... "Asian-Americans still have one of the highest interracial marriage rates in the country, with 28 percent of newlyweds choosing a non-Asian spouse in 2010" ... "in 2010 Japanese-American men and women had the highest rates of intermarriage to whites while Vietnamese-American men and Indian women had the lowest rates." ... "Intermarriage rates are significantly higher among Asian women than among men. About 36 percent of Asian-American women married someone of another race in 2010, compared with about 17 percent of Asian-American men" ... "she was a bit wary of Asian-American men who wanted their wives to handle all the cooking, child rearing and household chores" ... "she had grown increasingly uncomfortable with dating white men who dated only Asian-American women. “It’s like they have an Asian fetish,” she said. “I felt like I was more like this ‘concept.’ They couldn’t really understand me as a person completely.”"

Batman is 48. He is a self-made success and has the bank account to prove it. He recently sold, for a pile of cash, a commercial cleaning business that he started as a teenager.

FRATS A POWERFUL FORCE IN MY DAY AT HAMTECH ... SYSTEM TOTALLY DESTROYED NOW THOUGH (for better or worse) ... " "I was a member of a fraternity that asked pledges, in order to become a brother, to: swim in a kiddie pool of vomit, urine, fecal matter, semen and rotten food products; eat omelets made of vomit; chug cups of vinegar, which in one case caused a pledge to vomit blood; drink beer poured down fellow pledges' ass cracks... among other abuses ... Pledges would be required to perform endless "quick sixes," recite SAE's creed, "The True Gentleman," while lying in a kiddie pool full of ice, or take shots of mystery alcohol while being quizzed on arcane fraternity lore. (This same ritual, with the addition of tying the pledge's hands and feet with zip ties, led to the death of Cornell sophomore George Desdunes, the SAE pledge who died last February.) There were also "milk meetings," where pledges were asked to chug a gallon of milk in 20 minutes, which always resulted in plentiful booting. "You get points for how many times you booted on other people," says Lohse, who adds that the pledge trainers kept count while they sat on large throne-like chairs in a basement room. One brother recalls the night some of the pledges were served a scramble of vomit and eggs, known as a "vomlet."" ... CHARMING HORSEPLAY ... "Hanover is a fairly boring place to spend four years." ... SAME CAN BE SAID FOR MANY OF THE LITTLE IVIES ... "Sexual assault is rampant at Dartmouth; some female students say they circulate the names of men considered "dangerous" and fraternity houses viewed as "unsafe." Between 2008 and 2010, according to the college's official statistics, Dartmouth averaged about 15 reports of sexual assault each year" ... HA! I BET THE REAL NUMBER IS AT LEAST 10 TIMES THAT ... "One study showed that 95 percent of all sexual assaults among college students are never reported. In 2006, Dartmouth's Sexual Abuse Awareness Program estimated that there were actually 109 incidents on campus." ... SEE? ... I KNEW SEVERAL SERIAL DATE-RAPISTS BACK IN THE DAY, SOME REAL CHARMERS

"He calls himself a hustler, and he seems to have a knack for personal reinvention. In the go-getting 1990s, he worked as a tour manager for musicians. Then he founded a charity — Sport Against Racism Europe — that received an 80,000 euro award from the government. The bottom fell out, the financing dried up and now he is on the dole, living on 188 euros a week — about $250 — in unemployment benefits." ... TOUGH TIMES FOR CON MEN

via kottke... ODD IDEA, I'M STILL UNCOMF WITH SAME SEX FAMILIES, OLD LIZARD BRAIN OBJECTS

"- Organic vegetables: Edamame, avocados, carrots, celery
- Organic fruit (fresh and dried)
- Organic dips: Guacamole, bean dips, hummus, sugar-free applesauce
- Whole cottage cheese, or whole yogurt
- Mixed nuts (unsalted)
- Mini-brown rice/sesame cakes (unsalted)"

... KEEP DREAMING, CUBE FARMERS

"Bowing to the competition online, the encyclopedia's publisher said the 2010 edition, a 32-volume set that weighs in at 129 pounds, would be the last." ... AT LEAST A DECADE TOO LATE

"Robert showed me exactly how much money he and his brother made last year, an unusually profitable one for the dairy industry. He asked me not to reveal the number, but let’s put it this way: Robert and Fred start work at 4:30 a.m., finish at 7 p.m. and trade Sundays off. If you divide their 2011 profit by their weekly hours, they earn considerably less than minimum wage." ... THAT'S WHY YOU CAN'T FIND A FAMILY DAIRY FARM ANYMORE

MESHUGGE TO EVEN TRY TO PUT THOSE UP

de-paginated:

#6. "Well, $500,000 a Year Might Sound Like a Lot, but I'm Hardly Rich."
#5. "Hey, I Worked Hard to Get What I Have!"
#4. "If I Can Do It, So Can You!"
#3. "You're Just Jealous Because I Made It and You Didn't!"
#2. "You Shouldn't Be Punishing the Very People Who Make This Country Work!"
#1. "Stop Asking for Handouts! I Never Got Help from Anybody!"

""expert" predictions are no better than those of well-informed ordinary people, and barely outperform simple algorithms." ... EXPERTS AGREE

""Almost every weekend I was at the office, I'd have a $90 dinner of steak, lobster, mac & cheese, and calamari."" ... LET THE WAGE-SLAVE GRUNTS GAME THINGS A LITTLE BIT, KEEPS MORALE UP

"Companies are very, very good — better than consumers themselves — at knowing what consumers are actually craving." ... I SHOULD HOPE SO (IT'S ALL ABOUT SHAPING TASTES)

"You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs." ... SPOKEN LIKE A TRUE VANDAL

"What migrant work is really like" .... NOT IN A MILLION YEARS DO I WANT TO KNOW

"He also wrote the following list of commandments for aspiring con men.

(Source: Fakes, Frauds & Other Malarkey, via Marc Manus; Image: Victor Lustig in 1937, via.)

Be a patient listener (it is this, not fast talking, that gets a con-man his coups).
Never look bored.
Wait for the other person to reveal any political opinions, then agree with them.
Let the other person reveal religious views, then have the same ones.
Hint at sex talk, but don’t follow it up unless the other fellow shows a strong interest.
Never discuss illness, unless some special concern is shown.
Never pry into a person’s personal circumstances (they’ll tell you all eventually).
Never boast. Just let your importance be quietly obvious.
Never be untidy.
Never get drunk."

I WOULD BE A GREAT CON MAN EXCEPT FOR MY INABILITY TO TELL A LIE

STICK Mac McClelland IN A FOXCONN FACTORY AND SHE'D PROBABLY BITCH LESS ... NOW GET BACK ON THE LINE, YOU GRUNT

"In an interesting twist, about one-third of Prius drivers broke crosswalk laws, putting the hybrid among the highest "unethical driving" car brands" ... I BLAME LARRY DAVID

"The place really is not a commune; it is a dictatorship" ... THEY ALL ARE

ENTREPRENEURS TO THE RESCUE... BUT NO WORD ON RATES, THAT'S WHAT INTERESTS ME

"New York Daily News sports editor Paul Gallico wrote in the mid 1930s that basketball "appeals to the Hebrew with his Oriental background [because] the game places a premium on an alert, scheming mind and flashy trickiness, artful dodging and general smartalecness."" ... HA! I LOVE IT (larry david plays a pretty mean game of hoops)

BEEN THAT WAY FOR AWHILE NOW, ONE GOOD OCCUPATION TO PURSUE IS SELLING DIME BAGS AT COUNCIL FLATS, DOOR TO DOOR

BE FASCINATING TO KNOW WHEN "BBW" ARRIVED ON THE SCENE, NEWS TO ME!

"Would a leading North American journal of cultural studies publish an article liberally salted with nonsense if (a) it sounded good and (b) it flattered the editors' ideological preconceptions?" ... THOSE ARE THE CRITERIA FOR ALL ACADEMIC ARTICLES THAT ARE PUBLISHED

via @actualtina ... "Advocates of Digital Sabbaths note that if you are nose-deep in your smartphone, you are not connecting with the people and places around you in a meaningful way." ... ASSUMES THAT THE PEOPLE AND PLACES AROUND YOU ARE WORTH CONNECTING WITH, WHICH IS A BIG ASSUMPTION

STILL THE RULE: “This is my daughter Ellen, Mrs. Jones.” YOUNGER TO OLDER ... LADIES FIRST ... "a gentleman is always presented to a lady, even though he is an old gentleman of great distinction and the lady a mere slip of a girl" .. AS EMILY NICELY PUT IT A HUNDRED YEARS AGO ... mere slip of a girl, this is my old horndog colleague, gentleman of great distinction.

AND UNEDUCATED ONES... MAYBE EVEN MORESO BECAUSE EDUCATED WOMEN END UP BEING FRUSTRATED WITH THEIR DUMB HUSBANDS; UNEDUCATED WOMEN (AND MEN) KNOW THE SECRET TO SUCCESSFUL MARRIAGE IS LOW EXPECTATIONS

"As 20-somethings struggle in a tough economy, their moms and dads are writing their resumes, tracking them on LinkedIn, and even going along for the job interview." ... HELICOPTER PARENTS TO THE RESCUE! UNFORTUNATELY JUNIOR HAS A DEGREE IN WOMYN'S STUDIES

"In Macon, the college town next door (and geographically the true dead center of Georgia), gorgeous historic homes rent for as low as $400 a month and often no more than $650." ... AND IT DOESN'T SNOW

"2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard." ... I WILL NOT HAVE A PROBLEM ON THIS FRONT

19 YO EAGLE SCOUT ON THE COMPLEXITY OF HIS FAMILY LIFE AND THE CONTENT OF HIS CHARACTER (mlk ref)

"the working class have lost their industriousness, honesty, religion, and respect for marriage" ... LOL ... [Boomers are] the greatest generation of naive, self-absorbed whiners in the History of Man." ... SPOKEN LIKE AN AGGRIEVED X'ER ... "successful people are ashamed to assert they have better genetics, values, and habits" ... EEESH, FALKENBERG SHOWING HIS TRUE COLORS A LITTLE TOO CLEARLY HERE

"“You know, the Two Things. For every subject, there are really only two things you really need to know. Everything else is the application of those two things, or just not important.”

“Oh,” I said. “Okay, here are the Two Things about economics. One: Incentives matter. Two: There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”" ... WRONG, THEY WOULD BE SUPPLY AND DEMAND AND THE TIME VALUE OF MONEY

"The Two Things about Trading
1. Buy low.
2. Sell high. " ... WRONG AGAIN, THEY ARE 1. CUT YOUR LOSSES, 2. LET YOUR WINNERS RUN (and add to them)

UM, THE OREOS I SEE IN CHINA LOOK LIKE OREOS EVERYWHERE ELSE ... CHINESE JUST DON'T HAVE A SWEET TOOTH AND FIND THINGS LIKE OREOS DISGUSTING

"“For many people it’s not,” she conceded, but added that they “don’t get to define my gayness for me.” They do get to fume, though." ... GAY FOR MORE THAN A DAY? ... "she clarified that she has experienced an unforced, undeniable attraction to individuals of both sexes" ... THAT MUDDIES THINGS FOR MANY PEOPLE, NOT CLARIFIES

"I wanted him to know he'd made an impact on me." ... ACK, IMPACT... DOES SHE REALLY TALK LIKE THIS? ... "Being an adroit networker is non-negotiable" ... UGH, SHE REALLY DOES TALK LIKE THIS... SHE WILL GO FAR IN THE CORPORATE WORLD

"Young people are expressing their affection by swapping passwords to e-mail, Facebook and other accounts." ... TERRIBLE IDEA, KIDS

THAT'S WHY THE TECH SAID TO US: 穿裙子

"Samantha said she dreams of becoming a marine biologist after attending Brown or Yale." ... THEY ARE ALWAYS GLAD TO INCLUDE A HANDFUL OF 'DESERVING' POOR AMONG THE LEGACY KIDS

"The man, called Patron X by the Philharmonic, said he was a lifelong classical music lover and 20-year subscriber to the orchestra who was friendly with several of its members. He said he himself was often irked by coughs, badly timed applause — and cellphone rings. “Then God, there was I. Holy smokes,” he said." ... FRONT ROW SEAT ;-)

"Don't get me wrong, I don't have any problem with women giving birth to children. That's how I was born and that's how my child was born. I wouldn't hire a woman because when she gets pregnant, she goes for a 3 years maternity leave, during which I can't fire her. If she wants two children, the vacation is 6 years long." ... THAT'S WHY MATERNITY LEAVE IS ONLY THREE MONTHS IN THE N'UNITED STATES (AND CHINA)

"As more women earn high-level corporate roles, more husbands are staying home, raising the kids, and changing the rules." ... IT AIN'T NATURAL AND THESE GUYS ARE LOSERS