Day: December 18, 2008

James Stewart and Frank Capra’s ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’? It’s a Miserable Life!

“It’s a Wonderful Life” is a terrifying, asphyxiating story about growing up and relinquishing your dreams, of seeing your father driven to the grave before his time, of living among bitter, small-minded people. It is a story of being trapped, of compromising, of watching others move ahead and away, of becoming so filled with rage that you verbally abuse your children, their teacher and your oppressively perfect wife. It is also a nightmare account of an endless home renovation.

A fascinating look at It’s a Wonderful Life.

Outliers

“It struck me that our understanding of success was really crude ….”

Gladwell discusses Outliers, his latest best-seller. Two excerpts:

3. In what way are our explanations of success “crude?”

That’s a bit of a puzzle because we certainly don’t lack for interest in the subject. If you go to the bookstore, you can find a hundred success manuals, or biographies of famous people, or self-help books that promise to outline the six keys to great achievement. (Or is it seven?) So we should be pretty sophisticated on the topic. What I came to realize in writing Outliers, though, is that we’ve been far too focused on the individual—on describing the characteristics and habits and personality traits of those who get furthest ahead in the world. And that’s the problem, because in order to understand the outlier I think you have to look around them—at their culture and community and family and generation. We’ve been looking at tall trees, and I think we should have been looked at the forest.

5. Doesn’t that make it sound like success is something outside of an individual’s control?

I don’t mean to go that far. But I do think that we vastly underestimate the extent to which success happens because of things the individual has nothing to do with. Outliers opens, for example, by examining why a hugely disproportionate number of professional hockey and soccer players are born in January, February and March. I’m not going to spoil things for you by giving you the answer. But the point is that very best hockey players are people who are talented and work hard but who also benefit from the weird and largely unexamined and peculiar ways in which their world is organized. I actually have a lot of fun with birthdates in Outliers. Did you know that there’s a magic year to be born if you want to be a software entrepreneur? And another magic year to be born if you want to be really rich? In fact, one nine year stretch turns out to have produced more Outliers than any other period in history. It’s remarkable how many patterns you can find in the lives of successful people, when you look closely.

How low will it go?

Oil is under $40 a barrel at the moment. There’s no reason to think gasoline won’t soon be under a buck a gallon, in some places at least. You can get regular for $1.27 a gallon in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Is this good news or bad news?

[Update: I don’t recommend driving to Cheyenne to buy gas. It just seems to have the lowest price in the country at the moment.]

Well, wud ya’ look at that

Mesa Verde

Richard Wetherill and his brother-in-law Charles Mason rode out on what is now Sun Point in search of lost cattle 120 years ago today and found Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde. That afternoon, Richard found Spruce Tree House, and the next day, the two men discovered Square Tower House. Al Wetherill, Richard’s brother, saw Cliff Palace sometime the year before, but he did not enter the dwelling, so the credit for “discovering” the dwelling has been given to Richard Wetherill and Charles Mason.

In 1901, Richard Wetherill homesteaded land that included Pueblo Bonito, Pueblo Del Arroyo, and Chetro Ketl in what is now Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Wetherill remained in Chaco Canyon, homesteading and operating a trading post at Pueblo Bonito until his murder in 1910. Chiishch’ilin Biy, charged with the murder, served several years in prison, but was released in 1914 due to poor health. Wetherill is buried in the small cemetery west of Pueblo Bonito.

NewMexiKen took this photo of Cliff Palace in 2006. Click image for a larger version.

December 18th is the birthday

… of Keith Richards. The Rolling Stone is 65.

… of Steven Spielberg. The director is 62. The Writer’s Almanac has an interesting little biographical essay about Spielberg.

… of Ray Liotta. The actor, a good fella, is 53.

… of Brad Pitt. Still pretty at 45.

… of Rachel Griffiths, 40.

… of Katie Holmes, 30. (Tom is 46.)

… of Christina Aguilera. She’s 28.

Ty Cobb was born on this date in 1886.

Ty Cobb Plaque

Ty Cobb may have been baseball’s greatest player, if not the game’s fiercest competitor. His batting accomplishments are legendary – a lifetime average of .367, 297 triples, 4,191 hits, 12 batting titles (including nine in a row), 23 straight seasons in which he hit over .300, three .400 seasons (topped by a .420 mark in 1911), and 2,245 runs. Intimidating the opposition, “The Georgia Peach” stole 892 bases during a 24-year career, primarily with the Detroit Tigers. (National Baseball Hall of Fame)

It was on December 18th

… just 143 years ago that the 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was officially adopted.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Twenty-seven of the 36 states ratified the amendment between February 1st and December 6, 1865. Five more of the 36 ratified it by early 1866. Texas ratified the amendment in 1870, Delaware in 1901, Kentucky in 1976, and Mississippi in 1995.

Best Christmas line of the day, so far

When I was a child, I tell my offspring, my brother and I often would receive just one present at Christmastime, typically an individual crayon. It wouldn’t even be a full crayon, but merely a stub. Still, we’d be grateful and would pretend that “brown” was our favorite of the 64 Crayola colors. We would talk about how great this crayon would be if only we could afford paper.

Joel Achenbach

[First posted here three years ago.]

Ramblings

FedEx is reducing the pay of its salaried employees 5% effective January 1. Do I hear the D-word (deflation)?

Dean Baker wonders why news articles about the auto industry mention employee pay, but similar articles about the newspaper industry don’t.

Calculated Risk has an update graph of the Four Bad Bears. (Be sure to click on the chart to get the readable version.) Doesn’t look to me like the game is over yet. Am I waiting too long to get back in equities?