Quote of the day

“You have no idea how many women are disappointed by me."

-Bob Woodward, responding to an interviewer's question about what it was liked to be played by Robert Redford in All the President's Men.

A return to deep and meaningful issues

In my last post, after patting myself on the back for reaching the 10,000 visits milestone, I promised that I would return to blogging about deep and meaningful issues.

So this post is about the latest installment of the FT Weekend's "Expat Lives," a column about people who are living in countries different from the one they were born in. This week's interviewee is Petra Strand, a Swedish model who moved to Santa Barbara to expand her cosmetics business in the US. It may not be immediately clear why this fits the definition of a "deep and meaningful issue," but she has interesting things to say about the US. People in California are very positive and have a great "can do" attitude, but that means that sometimes you have to work a little harder to separate the substance from the fluff. But people here also love kids, and don't mind if you bring them with you. That's good to know.

She lives in a place called "Hope Ranch." Must be an Obama fan.

I love Santa Barbara. It's a great little big city. It's good to hear that my opinion is confirmed by a beautiful woman who sells things to make other women beautiful, and who lives in a beautiful city.

FT Weekend #4 (a little late)

Several weeks ago I started a tradition for myself of posting the interesting articles from the Financial Times Weekend edition. I missed it a couple of weeks ago, and have been meaning to get that post up ever since. So, herewith is the good stuff from the FT for the weekend of April 12th and 13th.

I always like reading their series Expat Lives. It's sort of an interview/essay by someone who is living in a different country from the one they were born in. This week the subject is Richard Pontzious, an American who has lived in Asia for many years and founded the Asian Youth Orchestra.

On the back page of the House & Home section is Julie Myerson's column "Home Is Where. . ." This week, she describes doing research for a novel in a semi-abandoned old prison in London. She ended up wandering around subterranean passages that were supposed to constitute a museum, but were completely empty. She did not have a good time, and doesn't rule the possibility that it was haunted. The moral of the story is that if you're going to be wandering around a dark, dreary underground tunnel where thousands of people suffered horrible pain and many probably died, bring a friend.

The guest for Lunch with the FT is Sir Richard Cohen, founder of a private equity firm. The name suggests a good old-fashioned Brit, but he's actually an Egyptian-born Jew who didn't speak English until he was 11. He's a firm believer in bringing business and economics into play in any attempt to broker peace, and is attempting to do so in the West Bank.

Whitney Tilson examines the role of information in making investment decisions, and proposes the somewhat novel thesis that too much information is a bad thing, because people with too much information tend to overreact to bad news. Come to think of it, I think that phenomenon can be used to explain a fair amount of how people are dealing with this American presidential campaign. When you have constant access to information, every little bit affects you, and you feel compelled to digest and react to it. A good thing to keep in mind. When feeling inundated, have some tea and don't make a decision for a day. Really good thing to keep in mind.

Vanessa Friedman compares two Audreys famous for wearing the right clothes in their movies, Hepburn and Tautou, and notes that

The clothes give both Audreys credibility: they look so good in their expensive dresses that they somehow seem to deserve them, and not only them, but the life associated with them. These girls aren’t sleeping their way to the top; they’re simply claiming their rightful place, and we root for them to get there.

I will try to keep that in mind the next time I am talking to a costume designer.

That's a fair selection, and I feel much better. I doubt I will ever post about the FT Weekend within a day or two; usually I'll take several days to digest it and wander through the pages. But two weeks is too much. Not going to do that again

FT Weekend #2: Rock Stars and Chaos

In last weekend's FT: An interview with Patti Smith about an exhibit of her visual art work at the Foundation Cartier in Paris. That sounds interesting. If you're in Paris, check it out and let me know. Michael Stipe, promoting REM's latest album, Accelerator, thinks that "You’re only as big as your battles." Not sure I agree with that, but it's something to consider. I'm not sure I want to define myself in terms of who I am opposed to. The man is a master of good quotes, as befits a writer, which I wrote about earlier. More evidence that it's a good album - apparently they are experiencing something of a comeback. And in an interview, George Clooney says that he thinks Obama is going to be president. On this he agrees with Smith and Stipe. No surprise.

Susie Boyt has a wonderful column about finding inspiration for cooking in classic literature. That's a great idea. So much potential there. Almost too bad she had to limit herself to one column. Harry Eyres writes about Itzhak Perlman. Lunch with the FT is with Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a writer who takes on the subjects of risk, unpredictable events, and the limits of forecasting. His point apparently is that we underestimate risk if we discount the limits of our knowledge, because we are unable to deal with massive, sudden change. I buy that. I am going to have to keep this guy on my radar.