US Audience Shrugs Over "Atlas Shrugged"

A new film version of Atlas Shrugged was recently released with the title Atlas Shrugged: Part I. I have not seen the movie , so I don't have an opinion on it. What is interesting is the film's financial backer. He's John Aglialoro, Chairman and CEO of Cybex International, Inc. He made his millions in the exercise machine and muscle building business. Apparently, he's been dismayed over the American audience's lack of responsiveness to this movie version of Ayn Rand's book. The LA Times noted Aglialoro's dismay, as well as the media backstory which strikes me as much ado about nothing.

It's hard to imagine any foreign audience will line up for the movie, as Ayn Rand's book and perspective have historically generated little traction and even less intellectual respect beyond our borders. The American box office results are dreadful; even bad art house films make more money than Aglialoro's valentine to laissez-faire capitalism has earned to date. Ironically, Atlas Shrugged: Part I and its ardent backers have experienced the will of the free market. Call it "Atlas Flopped."

James Brown's Silver Cape Focus of Ohio Lawsuit

The late, great and very much missed James Brown commanded a flashy live performance style essential to his musical persona. Brown's on-stage outfits contributed to his aura. Interestingly, his costumes were woven, not by Hollywood somebodies, but by Cleveland-area tailors Curtis and Marilyn Gibson. They were more than local tailors: the Gibsons were the tailors of choice for other prominent acts, including The Temptations, The Four Tops, and, believe it or not, Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons.

According to a lawsuit filed by attorneys representing Brown's daughter, the Gibsons have kept one of the "Godfather of Soul's" custom-made silver capes. The Cleveland Plain-Dealer reported the story. The dispute appears to center over money. James Brown himself would not have been surprised what motivated the dispute. As he sang in It's A Man's, Man's World, "Man makes money/To buy/From other men."

McDonald's Hires 62K, Turns Away Nearly 1 Million Applicants

You've heard how the American economy is "recovering," and how our economic situation is "improving." Well, a Bloomberg story today puts a sobering shadow on the manufactured good feelings. According to the article, which I first spotted in the financial blog Zero Hedge, 62,000 job applicants will soon be flipping burgers at McDonald's. Unfortunately, over 900,000 got the frosty mitt from the producer of Happy Meals.

Ah, well, there's always the underground economy.

Yahoo Continues Financial Diet, Sells Delicious

Those wild and crazy management figures at Yahoo continue to act according to the philosophy that "less is more." In this case, the once-proud Internet search firm sold the social bookmarking service Delicious to YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. The image (left) shows both Silicon Valley figures in a playful moment.

The pair intend to raise Delicious to "the next level," according to an AP story reprinted in the San Jose Mercury News. In the meantime, they'll fold Delicious into AVOS, "a new Internet company," according to the company's website. You don't say! At least we weren't misled into thinking AVOS was an acronym for a government-sponsored project, an offshore hedge fund, or an untested pharmaceutical product. "The next level" claim also spared us any sort of rigorous thinking. In fact, we could indulge ourselves on thinking about Delicious in any form we wanted. It feels better going down that way.

NFL Draft Curiosities

I'm a sucker for the NFL draft, and I can easily spend hours thinking about it. Call it a guilty pleasure. With that in mind, here's some curious facts from the NFL draft vault:

1985 -- San Francisco swaps picks with New England. The result: Jerry Rice is drafted by the 49ers.

1979 -- Joe Montana was the 49ers third-round pick. Think the player the 49ers picked ahead of him that year was that much better? (James Owens, a wide receiver from UCLA, in case you're wondering.)

2000-- New England drafts Tom Brady with a compensatory, 6th round pick.

1983 -- Richard Dent, a terrific defensive end for the Chicago Bears, was chosen in the eighth round.

1994 -- Kurt Warner was undrafted after graduating from Northern Iowa.

Study Finds Air Traffic KO Due to Iceland Volcanic Ash "Right" Call

Last year, air traffic between North America and Europe, as well as flights within Europe, were put on hold during an eruption of a volcano in Iceland. The cancellations were controversial, cost the airlines a bundle, and led to a significant disruption of travel plans. In some quarters, the decision to prohibit commercial aircraft from flying through the volcanic ash was met with skepticism. That negative sensibility increased in magnitude as more and more travelers became inconvenienced.

The BBC reported today on the findings of a scientific study into the volcanic ash. The study's conclusion, briefly speaking, was that the decision to block airline flights through the danger zone was the "right" decision. Small particles of ash could have melted in jet engines, causing the aircraft to fall in mid-flight.

One wonders what would have happened if the cloud of volcanic ash remained in stasis over Western Europe and the North Atlantic. It's a long flight from New York to London when one flies to the UK via Asia and Africa.

The photo shows dust from the volcano Eyjafjallajokull descending on a rural area of Iceland last year.

My Easter Sundays in Greece and New York

My warmest and most significant adult Easter memories are associated with Greece.

Once upon a time, I lived in Italy. Eager for an Easter vacation, I decided to visit Greece. I really didn't realize what I was getting into. For starters, the entire Greek nation takes the religious aspects of Easter very seriously. That meant heavy travel flows within the country, shops closing on religiously significant days, and an emphasis on family-oriented celebrations. Those realities complicated matters for us. However, they also invaluably opened my eyes to a celebration central to Greek life, regardless of region or municipality. The image from Greek Easter (above) gives a sense of the event's flavor.

On a very chilly Easter Sunday, I met an American-English couple I knew from Rome. They had just arrived in Greece after something of an odyssey from Italy, including experiencing an earthquake in Venice and nearly inadvertently driving into a hostile, very closed Albania. We somehow found some lamb and went to a beach on the Ionian Sea to have a barbecue. As we didn't have any barbecue equipment, we had to improvise. The fire was the easy part. The spit was a challenge, but the Yankee part of the Anglo-American couple solved this by using the metal handle of a pail.

Years later, I lived in a Greek neighborhood in New York. Every Greek Easter, my neighbors formed a proper pit and barbecued a whole lamb over the fire. The marvelous aroma made me very jealous for what they were preparing, but what I could not have. (The Tantalus myth came to mind.) I felt like a stranger in their midst, fascinated by and vaguely understanding what all the fuss was about, but unconnected to their culture's assumptions and needs. I also saw some of the religious observances in one of the local Greek Orthodox churches. I liked those events, as the evident community sense of ritual, celebration, and institutional relevance was unmistakable. This part I understood, except for the Greek Orthodox faith's explicit sense of nationalism.

The Greek religious angle touched me, and still does. I grew up in a small central New York town where religious affiliation mattered. The town was divided along de facto religious lines, and then (and only then) along ethnic lines. Everyone knew the unspoken, but well known deal. I was in the Irish Catholic world, and we had our own church. I was a pretty religious kid, and I loved Easter week. I sang in the choir and truly enjoyed singing the hymns associated with the holiday. The colorful pageantry, the wonderful flowers, the variation between solemnity and celebration, were right up my alley. Many years later, when I saw the Greek services in Athens, I felt touched by the congregation's obvious devotion and belief. It just seemed ironic to witness it in the birthplace of Western philosophy.

Potential Blow to Open Source Movement As Google Loses Linux Lawsuit

Today's LA Times reported that Google lost a patent infringement lawsuit pursued by Linux patent holders Bedrock Computer Technologies. While the monetary award was small, the decision's implications are potentially enormous. At risk is the momentum of the open source movement, Android mobile software, and Google's management of its own servers.

Google's statement in response to the court case is noted in the LA Times story and presents a curious perspective on some of the issues at the heart of the case.

Bedrock's legal teams are also chasing Amazon, Pay Pal, and other major tech players for patent infringement.

Amazon's Cloud Computers Encounter Stormy Weather

For the second consecutive day, Amazon's vaunted cloud computing opus has experienced a major snafu. The breakdown continues to affect social networking sites such as Reddit. Amazon, according to the LA Times, has stonewalled any inquiry into the cloud's flop. All the Seattle-based firm could muster to the public has been minimal statements that appear online.

This episode, ironically occurring in the midst of Amazon opening up its Kindle reader to public library users, points out the rather obvious dangers of the cloud computing concept. Why anyone would trust their files to a rented computer space is very puzzling. Perhaps the graphic on the left provides some answers.

DC Police Provide Motorcade Escort for Charlie Sheen

The Charlie Sheen Show doesn't slow down, does it? The most recent episode for Hollywood's reigning Bad Boy champion took place in the District of Columbia, according to today's Washington Post. Sheen, apparently late for a performance at DAR Constitution Hall, received a DC police escort from Dulles into the heart of the District. This was not a slow, deliberate procession: the two squad cars and Sheen's vehicle were allegedly going 80 mph.

The DC police have essentially dummied up when questioned about the motorcade's approval. Sheen and his publicity coterie aren't exactly shy, but they've certainly been light with details about the trip. No one seems to know anything, except that the incident occurred.

At least Sheen's plane, unlike the aircraft carrying Michelle Obama and Joe Biden's wife to Andrews Air Force Base earlier this week, landed without having to abort its landing.

Vegas Puts Stamp on Liberty

The face on the US Postal Service's newly issued Statue of Liberty stamp looks like the bronze monument in New York Harbor. However, looks can be deceiving. In this case, the stamp's face is based on the Statue of Liberty replica in Las Vegas. You can't make this stuff up: here's The New York Times article on the episode.

Meg Whitman Ventures into Venture Capital

Meg Whitman, who lost to Jerry Brown in California's recent gubernatorial election, is returning to her native pasture in Silicon Valley. This time, Whitman has joined various corporate entities, including one of the Golden State's best known venture firms, Kleiner Perkins (KP). According to the Mercury News, the former eBay chief will "coach entrepreneurs and help evaluate new digital investments" at KP.

Having access to Whitman as one's personal trainer for business enterprise sounds like a great deal. What sorts of issues would she "coach" these entrepreneurs about? Would she work by the hour? On a project basis? Would she meet in person, or in keeping with Silicon Valley preference, offer virtual conferences?

All I can say is good luck getting an appointment with her.

Passover

My wife and I celebrated the first night of Passover with dear friends. We definitely enjoyed the evening's warm feelings and religious purpose. On our way home from the seder, I thought about others celebrating the flight of the Jewish people from Pharaonic Egypt.

There's a man in Florida from whom I occasionally purchase movies. A close friend of mine lives on New York's Upper West Side and recently suffered a tough loss. A West Coast friend, whom I've known more than three decades, probably helped with the cooking at his event. A colleague at work had to dash to a family event in Westchester County. There are also those who, no longer actively associated with my life, almost certainly celebrated the holiday.

For all celebrants, Passover is a time of remembrance and gratitude, of wariness and optimism, of family and connection to a larger community united in religious belief. Happy holiday!

Chives, Gardening, and the Lion in Spring

A harbinger of spring for me is seeing the first chive shoots emerge from their dedicated lion's head container.

I'm sentimental about the plants. I've grown them for over two decades, with the exception of one season. They represent an interest in uncomplicated container gardening which began when I lived in New York City's Astoria neighborhood. At that time, Astoria was a largely Greek area where the residents typically grew vegetables, herbs, fruit trees, and flowers in as many areas as their postage stamp-sized yards would permit. It was astonishing, and revealing, what they were able to do with very limited means. I saw my first apricot tree, with its beautiful, delicate blossoms, about a block from my apartment. A neighbor grew a lemon tree under glass. Other homeowners maintained fig trees. My next-door neighbor had a grape arbor for which I lusted, but, like Tantalus, could never possess. They also had a wonderfully lush garden, whose yield was boosted by the home's previous owner's habit of fertilizing it with fresh blood from his slaughterhouse workplace.

This atmosphere inspired me to purchase plants, soil, pots, and manure. My second-floor apartment, part of a two-family home, included a terrace overlooking a shaded backyard. I was very proud of myself with that season's plantings of herbs and flowers. In subsequent years, I've continued this small scale, low maintenance gardening approach. I've always enjoyed it; the one year I was unable to garden was very difficult to endure.

In recent years, I've preferred using seeds as the means to garden. It's a little bit more challenging to do, but the sense of satisfaction is far greater than with "ready-made" plants.

Also, because I'm an apartment dweller, I've been largely compelled to use containers. My favorite is a terra cotta lion's head that I've had since I lived in Astoria. It was my container of choice for chervil and, later, chives. Some years ago, a harsh winter caused the head to break into pieces. I decided to treat it like one would a ruin from antiquity. I kept the pieces in a larger container, partly immersed them in soil, and continued to grow chives. Their emergence every spring gives me of a leonine sense of pride and self-reliance that I value.

Report: Nearly Half of America's Meat Contains Staph Bacteria

Just in time for the beginning of the Northeast's barbecue season, a very unsettling article on America's meat supply appeared in the LA Times. In essence, the story notes that nearly one-half of meat available in retail outlets may have staph bacteria. The culprit for the spread of this most unwelcome biological agent is alleged to be the promiscuous use of antibiotics in the agriculture industry.

This allegation, if proven true, adds another blow to the nation's psyche. For years, Americans took pride in sanitary food processing conditions. One had relationships with a local butcher, who handled clean critters or soon left the profession. The larger supermarkets, and subsequent superstores, had fewer personal relationships with customers. The "take a number" atmosphere did not lend itself to the same care and concern one would have experienced from a small shopkeeper with a stake in his or her customers' well being.

Some places still maintain a personal hand in meat selection and care. An example of this came to mind at an Italian restaurant my wife and I enjoy. We happen to know the owner/chef and had a chance to talk with him after we completed our meal. I mentioned that I had liked the pork dish I ordered. The owner/chef told us that "the animal" had looked good, with the inference that he had purchased the slaughtered creature and butchered it himself. How many TV chefs would do that? Damn few. Yet, this owner/chef, a proponent of "old school" culinary and personal values, wouldn't have done it any other way.

When I taught recently arrived immigrants in New York City, one constant that spanned all nationalities was their consistent surprise at the packaging of meat in the United States. It was nearly inconceivable that one would purchase beef, lamb, chicken, turkey, or pork without seeing the animal of its origin. Let's just say there wasn't a lot of trust toward cellophane wrapped mystery meat. That sense of suspicion was most pronounced among those students who came from rural backgrounds.

Notably, the research report on which the LA Times story was based came out on a Friday. Bad news often is released on Friday, so that it gets lost on Saturday and forgotten by Monday. Similar to the consternation incidents of Mad Cow Disease generated among consumers, this story has the potential to cause great alarm among those who don't want to imagine that their prime cuts include biological time bombs.

The meat industry has taken the tactic of insisting its products be "thoroughly cooked" as a preventive measure. If the product were sound to begin with, such a warning would be unnecessary. Meat should be properly cooked, not burnt to a tasteless crisp. It should also be properly slaughtered, butchered, and prepared for public sale. That should not be a complicated formula to fulfill.

The photograph shows a cattle herd crossing a road in Montana.

Proposed Overhaul of Florida Supreme Court

The Republican majority in the Florida House of Representatives recently passed a bill that would ask the state's voters to approve splitting the state's Supreme Court. According to today's Miami Herald, the Florida court would split into two entities. One would hear civil cases; the other would consider criminal cases. In this scenario, a Democratic Party majority of justices would sit on the criminal side, while a Republican majority of black robes would sit on the civil side.

If you're a Republican, this arrangement is a bonanza, as legislative issues would be decided in this area. For redistricting and for legislative issues, this is where the action is and will be. It's important because the Sunshine State will be key in upcoming federal elections. A political party would want control of the judicial process, as Bush v. Gore aptly underlined.

It is unusual for a state Supreme Court to be a legislative or electoral issue. California is a notable exception to this assertion. However, Florida, with its considerable political peccadillos, seems to be joining the club.

Yes, there are some big stakes in play for both sides. Stay tuned, and expect more action from this political maneuvering.

Randy Wood RIP

Randy Wood, a Tennessee native who founded Dot Records, died at his La Jolla, California residence at the age of 94. The New York Times carried his obituary in today's editions.

Wood was best known for having white musicians cover R&B hits originally sung by black artists. He also promoted singers such as Pat Boone, celebrities such as Leonard Nimoy, and the band leader Lawrence Welk. For my money, though, his best claim to fame was his recording of Jack Kerouac's Poetry of the Beat Generation accompanied by Steve Allen on piano. Wood promptly disowned the recording, claiming it was in bad taste.

"Resurrection" and The Tunnel Experience

My local library shows movies on selected Wednesday evenings. My wife and I select the program; I facilitate an audience discussion after the conclusion of each movie. Tonight's feature, the 1980 film Resurrection, centered on the experience of a woman who briefly dies. Her passage to the afterlife is shown as a walk through a tunnel, during which she encounters people who had some type of significant connection to her. The woman returns to life, and becomes subsequently imbued with healing abilities.

During the after-movie discussion, one audience member revealed that he, too, had walked through the "tunnel." There was no question in his mind about his experience. What's curious is that this person has a Ph.D. in physics and worked at a high-profile science research institution for many years. His belief in rationality and scientific method is beyond doubt. Yet his consideration of his walk to the "other" side comfortably embraced the seemingly disparate strands of empirical rigor and mystical discovery. Others in the audience agreed with his approach, but without the benefit of a personal encounter with death.

The Ph.D.'s revelation surprised me; I don't know if I would have been as forthcoming in a similar situation.

I had another unexpected event that evening. I asked the audience if a movie like Resurrection could have been produced in any other country. I didn't think so. However, an Indian woman observed that a similar film could have been made in her country. She pointed out there are similar healers in India, with a group of followers and a fair number of skeptics in their midst. Now I know.

Lawsuit Targets No-Pay Huffington Post; Taibbi Article Targets Wall Street Wives' TARP Deal

Today was a tough day for those who believe they are entitled to get something for nothing.

First up is Huffington Post. It is currently a defendant, along with new HuffPost owner AOL, in a lawsuit filed in a New York U.S. District Court. The suit claims that the plaintiff and other contributors to Arianna Huffington's website were not "paid appropriately" for their work. The story appears in today's LA Times. The suit points out that "none of the $315 million AOL paid to buy the Huffington Post has gone to the writers and producers of the news and opinion website..."

The plaintiff in this case is Jonathan Tasini. If you don't know him, let's just say it's not a name that gets prominent play in The New York Times. He was the lead plaintiff in a landmark electronic rights case involving freelance contributions to media publications. The defendant in that case was none other than The New York Times.

Next up is the curious case of Mrs. John Mack and a close female friend. Mack's spouse, John, was the head of Morgan Stanley during the days of the 2008-2009 financial crisis. According to Matt Taibbi's piece in the upcoming edition of Rolling Stone, Mrs. M. and her pal decided to start an offshore enterprise called Waterfall TALF. Its purpose was to invest in student loans and commercial mortgages. According to Taibbi's story, for "an upfront investment of $15 million, (Waterfall TALF) quickly received $220 million in cash from the Fed, most of which they used to purchase student loans and commercial mortgages. The loans were set up so that (Mrs. Mack and her friend) would keep 100 percent of the gains on the deals, while the Fed and the Treasury [read: the taxpayer] would eat 90 percent of the losses." Nice work if you can get it, don't you think?

The information bubbled to the surface as a consequence of the Fed losing a lawsuit to Bloomberg and Fox News over the right of citizens to have access to government records. The Fed fiercely fought the lawsuit, insisting its secret banking practices were essential to world harmony. The US Supreme Court ruled otherwise, and the Fed reluctantly opened its records to public scrutiny.

The financial blog Zero Hedge cited the Taibbi article; the link to the post is noted here. The photo shows Christy Mack (a/k/a Mrs. Mack) during an appearance on Charlie Rose in which she discussed alternative medicine, one of her cherished causes. She declined to comment on Taibbi's article.

David Byrne Settles Lawsuit Against Former Florida Governor

Former Talking Heads musician David Byrne (extreme left photo) reached an undisclosed out-of-court settlement in his lawsuit against former Florida governor Charlie Crist (not so extreme right photo). Byrne had alleged copyright infringement by Crist when the politician used a Byrne song in an attack ad during Crist's recent, unsuccessful US Senate campaign. The story appears in today's Miami Herald.

Politicians, particularly Republican ones, have co-opted music to deliver some sort of electoral message. For unknown, unstated reasons, some songs just seem to get the pols to shake, rattle, and roll. Since music has now become a matter of some significance among ambitious politicians, I have a few suggestions for them:

1. It's a Man's World/James Brown. Just the tune for GOP men running against Palin or Bachmann.

2. Born Under a Bad Sign/Albert King. When a candidate wants to put the whammy on an opponent.

3. My Way/Frank Sinatra. When a candidate runs unopposed.

4. Gold In My Pocket/DJ Food. When the campaign needs some extra coin.

5. Anything Is Possible/Blue Six. Especially true in politics.

Light Shined on Financial Dark Sides of Private and For-Profit Schools

The growth and current state of private and for-profit schools deserves a look under the hood.

Today's Washington Post takes the high road by reporting on itself. For those unaware, the Washington Post, Inc., associated with the august newspaper, in fact is a hybrid enterprise in which its educational arm makes most of the firm's money. Lately, the school side of WP, Inc., through its Kaplan brand, has come under scrutiny for its enrollment tactics. They are in many ways the education world's equivalent of subprime mortgage marketing, as the long Post story makes clear. From Kaplan's perspective, an essential component to its business model was the nearly guaranteed, low-risk funding to which their student pigeons had access. The revenue stream's key driver was Title IV of the Higher Education Act, a federal program designed to aid financially challenged students make their way through the arrogantly expensive world of higher education. One could reasonably characterize Title IV funds as a gift that kept giving to the for-profits such as Kaplan.

The for-profits' cousin, the K-12 private schools, also needs more light cast on its management philosophy and practice. This is a burgeoning market attracting private equity investors, as a recent New York Times story on private school demand in Manhattan south of 96th Street noted. "Executive" compensation is an especially sharp thorn in this tale, as is middle-class aspirational agida.

Meanwhile, the private schools' most recent black eye occurred in southern California. The LA Times reported today on allegations that the director of a private Santa Monica high school "misused" approximately $1 million in school funds. The institution has recently declared bankruptcy and is trying to work with its existing students in what sounds like makeshift facilities. One item of note was the school director's $300K annual salary. For a small, one-school enterprise, that's a hefty reward for services rendered. To put this in some perspective, New Jersey governor Chris Christie demanded public school superintendents who manage districts including thousands of students and multiple schools cap their pay at either $175K or $225K, depending on an individual district's size. Meanwhile, Christie has notably not commented on the pay scales of charter school administrators, some of whom reputedly receive compensation packages rivaling or surpassing those of public school superintendents.

The three articles reveal an educational world where ethical corruption and shameless gaming of the fiscal system is covered in a phony, feel-good veneer. Underlying the drive for this false "progress" is what one Kaplan employee precisely characterized as "FUD" -- fear, uncertainty, doubt. Kaplan and the Santa Monica school are hardly the only two institutions where FUD hovers like a vampire's shadow. The charter school "reform" movement leverages FUD against the perceived (and sometimes quite real) failures of public schools. At times, religious zeal finds a home with FUD tactics in efforts to create charter schools where voucher payments essentially encourage the development of taxpayer subsidized religious education. However, the charter schools generally don't like to talk about compensation packages for its "management" team. They would rather tout its "dedicated," and generally underpaid instructional staff, most of whom are doomed to burnout and employment churn. That tactic happens to be a tried-and-true way to keep salaries down and control high.

The world of higher education at "reputable" four-year colleges and universities isn't much better. In some ways, they are laboratories for corruption, through their shameless leveraging of cheap teaching assistants, an embrace of an irrelevant, profoundly misguided tenure system, and outrageous tuition and fee demands that routinely, dramatically exceed the cost of inflation every year, year after year. Essentially, when students now reach the Promised Land of higher education, the promise is entirely on the students to pay for the privilege or obtain federally guaranteed funding. Keep in mind the NCAA just generated for higher ed an enormous payday from the Final Four men's basketball tournament and its "unpaid" student athletes. Top coaches now expect multi-million dollar contracts and perks. Does the collegiate world, given these scenarios, strike one as "clean"?

Meanwhile, the drumbeat continues for education "reform," except where it is most needed, and least wanted, by those who play education's darker, inside game. With a handful of exceptions, it's all about the money. Mark Zuckerberg, when he made his showy demonstration of faith in education by contributing unvalued Facebook stock to Newark's school "reform" movement, grasped this concept. He knew what money could buy, and so did his media and "reform" backers. He looked under the hood and understood what the purchase was really all about. Then, and only then, did the face of Facebook give funds to the 'hood.

Pet RIP

A close friend of mine let me know that one of his cats died recently. The pet's last years were ones in which the feline struggled with a variety of ailments. It was a tough time for the cat and for the humans close to the animal. My friend put his heart and soul into caring for the creature, often at considerable personal expense. He'll grieve now for the loss of a pet for which he had considerable empathy. It's not known how the other animals in the household will react when they sense one of their own is no longer among them.

For all the digital wizardry in the world, gadgets just can't match animals when it comes to absorbing our attention. They have distinct lives, yet touch us in many ways. We also communicate our feelings to them, particularly through our senses. How the concept of a pet originated is unknown, but clearly the notion has been with us since antiquity. Pets also have the curious attribute of being universally accepted -- one of the few concepts without territorial boundary.

The latter observation demonstrates a key reason why a pet's mortality touches all of us. Even though the sentiment for the cat's demise is shared by many, my friend's feelings remain his own. However, he is not isolated by grief; his sadness links him to all of us who have cared for a pet through thick and thin, even when the animal passes from life to death.

Gravello

One doesn't automatically associate Calabria with good red wine. We recently enjoyed an exception called Gravello. The wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (surprise) and Gaglioppo. The latter grape was unknown to me, so a little due diligence was required.

Gaglioppo is a locally-grown grape whose historical associations include the ancient Greeks. The fruit requires specific nurturing and harvesting techniques in order to produce wine suitable for blending.

The 2004 vintage of the Gravello Val di Neto, which my wife and I enjoyed at a local Italian restaurant we like, had many desirable qualities. It has reasonable depth, solid structure, and smooth taste. I had a glass with a flavorful rack of pork, and the harmonious combination of Calabrian cuisine and regional wine was a lovely treat.

If you can find it, Gravello generally costs in the mid-thirties per bottle.

Education: The Best Show in Town

Yes, we've got trouble my friends, right here in River City. And today's "trouble" focused on events in New York. This morning's abrupt departure of Cathie Black from her role as Gotham's education department boss raised more than a few eyebrows. Black was heavily criticized for her entire lack of education experience throughout her 90-plus-day tenure as Department of Education chief. What Black's hiring demonstrated was the arrogant classist belief that anyone with senior management experience could run just about any organization. A cadre of MBAs and attorneys sincerely believes this line of reasoning. This managerial hubris is a key element to the drive for greater data reporting in school systems. In that sense, New York mayor Mike Bloomberg and President Obama are truly soul brothers. Cathie Black was their sister, in that her prior CEO experience made her accustomed to getting her way. She also notably lacked any empathy with the community she claimed she wanted to serve. She couldn't even get an audience of parents from prosperous, Wall Street-oriented TriBeCa to side with her at a school meeting.

There's more to the Black dismissal than meets the eye. Over time, one hopes those details will emerge. In the meantime, New Jersey's ambitious governor, Chris Christie, crossed the great water to make a speech at a Brookings Institution event in Manhattan. His remarks offered little new insight beyond his boilerplate observations on education. He did manage to characterize the New Jersey teacher's union as an organization run by "bullies and thugs." He did not discuss a case before the New Jersey Supreme Court in which advocates for poor students have challenged the Christie Administration's shifting of funding from schools in low-income areas. One could reasonably suppose the governor, a former federal prosecutor, did not want to publicize the legal muscle being used to bully and screw the needy.

Google to Open Beverly Hills Office

Google, an increasingly rare American growth industry, is opening an office in what the mayor of Beverly Hills characterized as the municipality's "emerging entertainment business district."

According to a story in today's LA Times, those wild and crazy guys from Mountain View will lease more than 13,000 square feet for the firm's entertainment division. Google is reported to plan to spend around $100 million on original content that will be shown on YouTube.

Did anyone say Google TV?

How Many Potato Chips Does $1.5 Billion Buy?

It's not an idle question. Procter & Gamble recently calculated the value of its Pringles potato chip brand and offered it for sale. The buyer, according to the story in today's Financial Times, is Diamond Foods. The snack king ponied up $1.5 billion in its own stock, and assumed an additional $850 million in Pringles debt.

I'm not a fan of Pringles as a product. The flavor just doesn't grab me. I don't like purchasing potato chips in a container that held tennis balls or pets. Pringles seemed like polite potato chips, thus taking all the jazz out of enjoying the chips.

The billion-point-five sale price leads one to wonder about the state of affairs in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. Who knew a potato chip manufacturer could be worth more all but a handful of Silicon Valley enterprises? What would the late Ross Perot think about all of this? Perot, in case you don't follow domestic politics, once famously claimed that the United States could only afford to make potato chips instead of computer chips.

Supreme Court Ruling Adds to Assault on Public Schools

The Supreme Court, in a split decision reflecting its political schism, upheld the use of state tax credits that pay for children to attend religiously affiliated schools "cannot be challenged on constitutional grounds." The story from today's LA Times reviews the decision, the reactions of very interested parties, and the decision's likely impact on public and church schools.

The ruling continues a trend in which classist forces, such as Mike Bloomberg and Barack Obama, have found common ground with reactionary religious organizations and political conservatives. Both groups want the end of the public school system as we know it. The classists believe an education "crisis" exists which can only be solved through the erosion of teacher's union clout, the creation of "new" schools, and the need for "21st Century" curricula and instruction. In this effort, an entire generation of teachers has essentially been told to hit the road. Why? They're allegedly too expensive, indifferent to students, and unable to teach. Curiously, the people making this criticism may very well have been taught by the same instructors now given a collective dunce cap.

The right-wing doesn't like public schools on principle (no pun intended). Their mantra is "choice," though that slogan has become a Trojan horse for the taxpayer subsidy of religious education. Nothing good can result in the United States from state supported religion. The Supreme Court's conservative wing, with its intention to provide a legal foundation for the right-wing's moral agenda, produced a transparently specious line of reasoning to support a politically motivated decision.

The big losers are, again, teachers. The public schools will certainly be weakened; the religious schools can pay lower salaries and demand fealty to religious beliefs, while keeping their hand out for taxpayer funding.

600-Pound Bronze Moose Reported Stolen

This story came from the "Weird News" category in the Mercury News. Apparently, there's been a rash of theft of lawn art in San Diego County. One of the items pilfered was a 600-pound bronze moose.

That type of heist takes planning. Did it happen at night? When did people notice the moose was on the loose? How did the robbery happen quietly? And where did the stolen items go? It's not easy to hide a 600-pound bronze moose.

The theft most likely involves a connection to an enterprise that could melt the statue or otherwise use it for scrap metal. However, other possible motives should be considered. It's possible a jealous individual coveted the bronze creature. Or the object's disappearance could be related to a prank.

I don't know if security for other bronze statues has increased. Parks are filled with bronze sculptures Raymond Chandler famously described as "dull." Would anyone miss these public pieces if they vanished?

The photograph shows an example of a bronze moose; as far as I know, it is not connected to San Diego County's stolen moose sculpture episode.

Black Squirrels

The Washington Post's John Kelly began a brief series called "Squirrel Week" with a look at the origin and expansion of the District's black squirrel population.

While this story isn't for everyone, the notion of exploring something we more or less take for granted is an interesting one. The effort can result in looking at the world with a modified, more informed perspective. It can provoke questions and lines of inquiry we would probably otherwise not have considered. It can help us appreciate the simple, commonplace aspects of our immediate environments. Over the centuries, philosophers and religious savants have followed these three paths. The fruits of their considerations and activities have enriched humankind in the big picture and on individual levels.

My mother's interest in philosophy was down-to-earth, but occasionally connected with the animals in her immediate environment. Gray squirrels were nearly constant visitors to the outside sitting area of her Pennsylvania garden apartment. They would stare at her, with a characteristic combination of cuteness and stupidity, and hope to get food. Sometimes Mom gave in and tossed the animals a little something. When she was in that mood, she connected her charity to that of St. Francis of Assisi, a plastic statue of whom she kept in the squirrels' reception area.

When my family lived in upstate New York, one of my brothers hunted the creatures. He brought one home, skinned it, and kept the fur in a clothes drawer without telling anyone in the family. One can imagine my mother's surprise when she opened the drawer one sunny summer afternoon.

After my small town upbringing, I lived in New York City for decades. Urban life does not generate trust of squirrels' habitats and mating. Squirrels were capable of anything, from simple sweetness to complete mayhem. More significantly, they were rodents. I wondered if they bred with their cousin rats, a true New York nightmare scenario.

My darker thoughts were dispelled by the immigrant and refugee students I used to teach. Some of them would spend their lunch time in Riverside Park; the squirrels' irrepressible spirit lifted them of their often heavy concerns. It gave the students a sense of renewed energy, all of which they would need in their efforts to build a sustainable life in an often alien, merciless environment. Like squirrels, they didn't need much to live some sort of life. They were committed, generally speaking, saving whatever money they could earn. My students did this during a time of American triumphalism, when leveraged spending, house flipping, and other speculative excesses ruled the day.

They never learned the phrase "squirreling away," but they lived its ethic. The chances are strong that the students' character has not significantly modified over the years. They remain solvent savers in the midst of nationwide foreclosures and foreboding. There's a fable in here, someplace, waiting to be told.

Hands-Free Faucets Not Germ Free

You know that "safe" feeling that comes from washing at a hands-free water faucet? The ones you see at airports, up-to-code restaurant restrooms, and "smart" offices? Well, researchers from Johns Hopkins University have researched the plumbing. The findings, summarized in today's LA Times, noted that the "hands-free" faucets in medical facilities harbored more disease -- a lot more -- than their old-fashioned counterparts.

"'Newer is not necessarily better when it comes to infection controls in hospitals,'" noted lead researcher, Johns Hopkins infectious disease expert, and former San Francisco Ballet dancer Dr. Lisa Maragakis.