Great summary bullet points from at Bankruptcy Litigation Blog. I look forward to part II.
Update: Here it is, with lots of good stuff on section 363 sale issues.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Mardon me, Padam... (aka Smoot Hoot)
Mardon me, Padam, but you're occupewing the wrong pie. May I sew you to another sheet?
It's a Spoonerism. I learned it from my mother when I was five years old. Or try "for the breast in bed, buy our baguette," which I did not learn from my mother, though she would have loved it. A language tic. Sometimes a joke, and some people just talk that way.
All by way of saying that I enjoy bashing Michele Bachmann as much as the next guy--and I really do believe she is a few lutefisks short of a smorgasbord--but mocking her for "Hoot-Smalley"--i.e., "Smoot Hawley," the tariff--is really laying it on a bit thick. For one thing, it isn't even original with her:
I must say also, however, that Rep. Bachmann might want to look further into the career of Senator Reed Smoot (R-Utah). He (sic, not Franklin Roosevelt) was indeed the (co) author of a punitive, perhaps nation-destroying tariff. And not just of "stuff." Smoot wanted restrictions on indecent books. As Ogden Nash aid:
It's a Spoonerism. I learned it from my mother when I was five years old. Or try "for the breast in bed, buy our baguette," which I did not learn from my mother, though she would have loved it. A language tic. Sometimes a joke, and some people just talk that way.
All by way of saying that I enjoy bashing Michele Bachmann as much as the next guy--and I really do believe she is a few lutefisks short of a smorgasbord--but mocking her for "Hoot-Smalley"--i.e., "Smoot Hawley," the tariff--is really laying it on a bit thick. For one thing, it isn't even original with her:
- A certain Mark Whittington made the blooper in a book review posted July 17, 2007 (link). It's a review of The Forgotten Man by the notorious Amity Shlaes; I don't have a copy handy so I can't check right now to see whether the error originated with her or him.
- And here's a commenter reference from February 3, 2009.
- And from a Blog called "Executive Summary" on Decembere 22, 2008.
- Here's a reference to a Hoot-Smalley Vineyard.
I must say also, however, that Rep. Bachmann might want to look further into the career of Senator Reed Smoot (R-Utah). He (sic, not Franklin Roosevelt) was indeed the (co) author of a punitive, perhaps nation-destroying tariff. And not just of "stuff." Smoot wanted restrictions on indecent books. As Ogden Nash aid:
Smite, Smoot,Now, there's a campaign that Michele Bachmann might want to get behind.
Smite for Ute.
They're smuggling smut
From Balt to Butte.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Me and Bea
It was bound to happen once: along about 1990, in a law school class, trying to make a point about domestic relations law, I riffed the line "I gave you the best years of my thighs."
And set off a minor firestorm, but it's not quite what you think. You think I'm saying "I got MauMaued by a bunch of humorless bitches," but it really wasn't like that at all. I said "firestorm," but I could better have said "crossfire." Anyway, the point is that for the next several days, the bulletin board (this was before Web 2.0) overflowed with pitch and catch, slash and grab, duck cover about the (in)appropriateness of what I said--men and women (for whatever it may be worth) on both sides. As I told one of my colleagues at the time, had I known I was going to set off such spirited discussion, I might have done it on purpose.
Eventjually somebody else committed some other outrage and life moved on. What brought it to mind just lately was one particular item from the bulletin board array, offered as if the ultimate game-breaker. That item was (I quote in full): "he got it from the Golden Girls!"
Translated, I take the writer was saying: anything so prepackaged, insipid, anodyne, as a line from a mainstream sitcom is certainly not off limits in a law school classroom.
The writer had his facts right: I did get it from the Golden Girls; I think it was Bea Arthur's Dorothy, which would be why it came back to mind in the week of Bea Arthur's death. It's not as if I was a regular watcher of the Golden Girls: I was not part of its prime demographic, after all. But you didn't have to be a regular watcher to get the drift. The setup was straightforward enough: four not-young women cope with each other and life. But what may have been more important was the content. I suspect the Golden Girls did as much as any one show to regularize the style of sitcom insult comedy.
Oh, sure, there had been insult shows before, not least Dorothy's comedic godfather, Archie Bunker. But these were ladies, after all--and apparently the point worth establishing this coming-out party was that ladies could be just as waspish, rude and dismissive as men.
Oddly enough, Troy Patterson at Slate picks on this most unfortunate characteristic as the pivot point for his nostalgic mash note: Golden Girls," he gushes, "boasted characters who were sharp in their humor and secure in their freedoms, which included the freedom to be mean."
Well, they were mean, all right. And I suppose I should be glad that they felt free to be so (just as an aside, I never much enjoyed Archie Bunker, either). But Patterson unintentionally boots the pins out from under his own argument by recalling what else was on TV in those days: Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, The Cosby Show and Cheers. I think almost any one would agree that every one of those shows offered writing (if not plot or character) that was more original, provocative and durable than what you saw in Golden Girls.
I don't suppose I would get all shirty on this point were I not looking back from the standpoint of 2009. The sad fact is that Golden Girls can be seen in retrospect as a harbinger--a show that had little to offer aside from insult, thus setting the path for a TV smorgasbord where the sitcom table is nothing but a mass-production insult machine.
I certainly don't want to savage Bea Arthur: she was an inimitable talent with a long and memorable career. With Maude and Dorothy, she created unforgettable characters, and changed the way we see ourselves. Too bad she (and, ahem, I guess "I") didn't have better material.
And set off a minor firestorm, but it's not quite what you think. You think I'm saying "I got MauMaued by a bunch of humorless bitches," but it really wasn't like that at all. I said "firestorm," but I could better have said "crossfire." Anyway, the point is that for the next several days, the bulletin board (this was before Web 2.0) overflowed with pitch and catch, slash and grab, duck cover about the (in)appropriateness of what I said--men and women (for whatever it may be worth) on both sides. As I told one of my colleagues at the time, had I known I was going to set off such spirited discussion, I might have done it on purpose.
Eventjually somebody else committed some other outrage and life moved on. What brought it to mind just lately was one particular item from the bulletin board array, offered as if the ultimate game-breaker. That item was (I quote in full): "he got it from the Golden Girls!"
Translated, I take the writer was saying: anything so prepackaged, insipid, anodyne, as a line from a mainstream sitcom is certainly not off limits in a law school classroom.
The writer had his facts right: I did get it from the Golden Girls; I think it was Bea Arthur's Dorothy, which would be why it came back to mind in the week of Bea Arthur's death. It's not as if I was a regular watcher of the Golden Girls: I was not part of its prime demographic, after all. But you didn't have to be a regular watcher to get the drift. The setup was straightforward enough: four not-young women cope with each other and life. But what may have been more important was the content. I suspect the Golden Girls did as much as any one show to regularize the style of sitcom insult comedy.
Oh, sure, there had been insult shows before, not least Dorothy's comedic godfather, Archie Bunker. But these were ladies, after all--and apparently the point worth establishing this coming-out party was that ladies could be just as waspish, rude and dismissive as men.
Oddly enough, Troy Patterson at Slate picks on this most unfortunate characteristic as the pivot point for his nostalgic mash note: Golden Girls," he gushes, "boasted characters who were sharp in their humor and secure in their freedoms, which included the freedom to be mean."
Well, they were mean, all right. And I suppose I should be glad that they felt free to be so (just as an aside, I never much enjoyed Archie Bunker, either). But Patterson unintentionally boots the pins out from under his own argument by recalling what else was on TV in those days: Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, The Cosby Show and Cheers. I think almost any one would agree that every one of those shows offered writing (if not plot or character) that was more original, provocative and durable than what you saw in Golden Girls.
I don't suppose I would get all shirty on this point were I not looking back from the standpoint of 2009. The sad fact is that Golden Girls can be seen in retrospect as a harbinger--a show that had little to offer aside from insult, thus setting the path for a TV smorgasbord where the sitcom table is nothing but a mass-production insult machine.
I certainly don't want to savage Bea Arthur: she was an inimitable talent with a long and memorable career. With Maude and Dorothy, she created unforgettable characters, and changed the way we see ourselves. Too bad she (and, ahem, I guess "I") didn't have better material.
Hitler's Profits
The Slate Explainer undertakes to tell us who gets the swag from the artwork produced by the late A. Hitler, which raises an issue I've been speculating on for quite a while. That is: Hitler before he was Hitler made his living (inter alia) as an extremely marginal smalltime Vienna watercolorist. What did he paint? I assume anything that would pay--which means for a moral certainty that at some point, Hitler must have painted some porn.
Gimme a call when you hear about the discovery of watercolors of some apple-cheeked buffs with "Hitler" inscribed in the corner. No, don't bother to call; I'll hear about it anyway, it will be bigger than Susan Boyle.
Gimme a call when you hear about the discovery of watercolors of some apple-cheeked buffs with "Hitler" inscribed in the corner. No, don't bother to call; I'll hear about it anyway, it will be bigger than Susan Boyle.
What Is It With Tim Geithner?
Fascinating piece up at Baseline Scenario (which has whizzed to the top of my must-read list, but let that be) about Tim Geithner and how with all good faith and good intentions he has climbed into the lap of the moneymen. I suppose it is impudent to suggest that there is another and more pointed name for the phenomenon--"Stockholm Syndrome," where (as Wiki recaptulates) "the tendency might well be the result of employing the strategy evolved by newborn babies to form an emotional attachment to the nearest powerful adult in order to maximize the probability that this adult will enable — at the very least — the survival of the child, if not also prove to be a good parental figure."
I wouldn't for a moment want to suggest that Geithner is playing Patty Hearst to to the bankers' Symbionese Liberation Army. Well-- I'm thinking, I'm thinking...
I wouldn't for a moment want to suggest that Geithner is playing Patty Hearst to to the bankers' Symbionese Liberation Army. Well-- I'm thinking, I'm thinking...
Slurpers
When people think of Kurt Vonnegut, I suppose they are most likely to think of bombed-out Dresden. Joel thinks of slurpers:
"The Money River, where the wealth of the nation flows. We were born on the banks of it--and so were most of the mediocre people we grew up with, went to private schools with, sailed and played tennis with. We can slurp from that mighty river to our hearts' content. And we even take slurping lessons, so we can slurp more efficiently."
"Slurping lessons?"
"From lawyers! From tax consultants! From customers' men! We're born close enough to the river to drown ourselves and the next ten generations in wealth, simply using dippers and buckets. But we still hire the experts to teach us the use of aqueducts, dams, reservoirs, siphons, bucket brigades, and the Archimedes' screw. And our teachers in turn become rich, and their children become buyers of lessons in slurping."
"I wasn't aware that I slurped."
Eliot was fleetingly heartless, for he was thinking angrily in the abstract. "Born slurpers never are. And they can't imagine what the poor people are talking about when they say hey hear somebody slurping. They don't even know what it means when somebody mentions the Money River. When one of us claims that there is no such thing as the Money River! I think to myself, 'My gosh, but that's a dishonest and tasteless thing to say.'"--Kurt Vonnegut, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
Invasion of the Feathered Quackers
Ever since I came here, we've had ducks on and around the creek just south of the Law School. They're mostly a good entertainment, but they are fearless: they will chase you and scold you and peck at you if they don't think you are maintaining standards of propriety.
Lately, they seem to have strayed up at least as far as Second Street (maybe further; Second Street is about as far as I go). They perch on the lawn; the waddle along the sidewalk. I haven't seen them yet with hand cameras or measuring tape, but I wonder if something is up? Do we need a fence?
Lately, they seem to have strayed up at least as far as Second Street (maybe further; Second Street is about as far as I go). They perch on the lawn; the waddle along the sidewalk. I haven't seen them yet with hand cameras or measuring tape, but I wonder if something is up? Do we need a fence?
Manès Sperber: A First Look
Manès Sperber appears to have been a figure of some consequence in his time. Born in the shtetl to face for the horrors of his century, he was variously a Zionist, a communist, a former communist, a psychotherapist, a medium-productive author, and an editor at a prestigious publishing house. But he died in 1984. I know a little about Eastern European historyand I had never heard of him until a couple of years back when I ran into an appreciation by Clive James. I've had a chance now to read the first volume (there are three) of his memoirs, and I think I'll be going back for more. He isn't perhaps as elegant as Gregor von Rezzori, about whom I wrote a while ago, nor Elias Canetti, of whom I have to admit I have read precious little. And while I don't know for certain, I suspect the Sperber novels don't measure up to Joseph Roth or even Stephan Zweig.
But each of us does things in his own way, and Sperber's way seems worth taking seriously. On the current evidence, his prose is mostly straightforward and unadorned; but he seems to have a remarkably clear eye for the workings of the human mind, and he seems to care about getting things right. And aside from elegance, he differs from von Rezzori (still fresh in my mind) in at least one other way: almost alone of the Eastern European literary pantheon, von Rezzori was not Jewish. Sperber is Jewish and thus perhaps inevitably was impelled to engage more closely with the action and passion of his time.
This first volume takes the reader just to the end of World War I, but he spent those years in Vienna enjoying, if that is the right word, one of those childhoods that must have been interesting to look back on, even if not much fun at the time. He was not separated from his family, but his parents were desperately poor and not able to give him much by way of framework or direction. Thus he finds himself footloose, as it were, a semi-streetkid at large in a dying empire. There's a priceless passage in which he faces down a Teutonic bully of a schoolteacher, not so much by malice as just by the accident of being so much more mature and self-sufficient than the poor sap ever suspected.
About the same time that I was reading Sperber, Mr. and Mrs. Buce were enjoying a readaloud of the first volume of Parade's End, the World War I tetralogy by Ford Madox Ford. More about that later. Ford's English soldiers were, of course, embroiled in the awfulness of the Western Front. But the English Home front was just about as isolated from the War as it was possible to be--suspended in time, or in some kind of bubble. A long way from the trenches, and a long way from dying Vienna.
===
Ref: God's Water Carrier, vol. 1 of All Our Yesterdays
But each of us does things in his own way, and Sperber's way seems worth taking seriously. On the current evidence, his prose is mostly straightforward and unadorned; but he seems to have a remarkably clear eye for the workings of the human mind, and he seems to care about getting things right. And aside from elegance, he differs from von Rezzori (still fresh in my mind) in at least one other way: almost alone of the Eastern European literary pantheon, von Rezzori was not Jewish. Sperber is Jewish and thus perhaps inevitably was impelled to engage more closely with the action and passion of his time.
This first volume takes the reader just to the end of World War I, but he spent those years in Vienna enjoying, if that is the right word, one of those childhoods that must have been interesting to look back on, even if not much fun at the time. He was not separated from his family, but his parents were desperately poor and not able to give him much by way of framework or direction. Thus he finds himself footloose, as it were, a semi-streetkid at large in a dying empire. There's a priceless passage in which he faces down a Teutonic bully of a schoolteacher, not so much by malice as just by the accident of being so much more mature and self-sufficient than the poor sap ever suspected.
About the same time that I was reading Sperber, Mr. and Mrs. Buce were enjoying a readaloud of the first volume of Parade's End, the World War I tetralogy by Ford Madox Ford. More about that later. Ford's English soldiers were, of course, embroiled in the awfulness of the Western Front. But the English Home front was just about as isolated from the War as it was possible to be--suspended in time, or in some kind of bubble. A long way from the trenches, and a long way from dying Vienna.
===
Ref: God's Water Carrier, vol. 1 of All Our Yesterdays
Oh Now Cut That Out
From my Google Reader:
Specter Defects to Democrats
Large Tortoise Turns Up in the Bronx
Two Swallows Make a Summer: Foreign Investment Dept.
I sent my buddy Joel a link to an Economist piece about how the Italian/Canadian superhero is going to save Chrysler (or maybe not). Joel responded by pointing out that the Wall Street Journal has structurally the same story up today about what the auslanders are doing to Anheuser Busch.
Whether this is a trend, or just slack, uncritical journalism--is left as an exercise for the reader.
Whether this is a trend, or just slack, uncritical journalism--is left as an exercise for the reader.
There once was a lass from AnheueserAfterthought: And I bet Old Overholt is still repeating that story to the boys down at the Elks Lodge...
Who thought that no man could supreuser,
Till Old Overholt
Gave her virtue a jolt.
And now she is sadder budweuser.
China Patent Factoid
Number of patent applications in China last year: 800,000.
Number in 1985: zero; under Mao, they weren't allowed.
Link.
Number in 1985: zero; under Mao, they weren't allowed.
Link.
But Who's Counting...
FP Passport is reporting that one fifth of all candidates in India's national election are facing criminal charges.
Wonder how this compares with Illionis where, it is said, 1,000 businessmen and officials, including three governors, have been convicted of corruption since 1970 (link).
Makes me remember my late friend Pete Elliott who used to say that he and Aaron Phelps got the bankruptcy judgeships in Orange County because they were the only two trustees not then under indictment.
Wonder how this compares with Illionis where, it is said, 1,000 businessmen and officials, including three governors, have been convicted of corruption since 1970 (link).
Makes me remember my late friend Pete Elliott who used to say that he and Aaron Phelps got the bankruptcy judgeships in Orange County because they were the only two trustees not then under indictment.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
More on Doctors
Guess you can't expect too much from Slate's answer person, but their answer to the question "where have all the doctors gone?" seems pretty thin to me (link). Okay, baby boom doctors are burning out (or rich enough that they can go play golf). And okay we imported a raft of foreign doctors a few years ago. But this is only scratches the surface. Are we still importing doctors? if not, why not? How much "doctor" work are we shifting to nurse practitioners and physician's assistants? Enough? Too much?
And here's a thought: with the collapse of banking, will some of our bright young things begin to rediscover their inner Marcus Welby (or at least J.D. Dorian)? A lot more to be said on this topic, and I'm waiting with watchful eye, or ear.
Previous:
Greenspun on Doctors
A Second Thought on the Supply of Doctors
And here's a thought: with the collapse of banking, will some of our bright young things begin to rediscover their inner Marcus Welby (or at least J.D. Dorian)? A lot more to be said on this topic, and I'm waiting with watchful eye, or ear.
Previous:
Greenspun on Doctors
A Second Thought on the Supply of Doctors
Can This Be Right?
Overheard one of my students today saying that with the departure of Arlen Specter, there are no more Jewish Republican Senators (apparently he is not counting Joe Lieberman). And that Eric Cantor is the only Republican Jewish Congressperson. Can this be right?
He also asked a classmate: then why is it that Republicans are much more pro-Israel than Democrats? Are they?
Fn.: I see that Wiki also lists Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, but this looks like a more complicated case.
Update: Yglesias posted a similar item under the headline "The Democrat's Jewish Problem," and set off a thread of Talmudic exegesis.
Afterthought: Along with Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback, Arlen Specter would bring to three the number of Senators born in Kansas. Are there more?
He also asked a classmate: then why is it that Republicans are much more pro-Israel than Democrats? Are they?
Fn.: I see that Wiki also lists Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, but this looks like a more complicated case.
Update: Yglesias posted a similar item under the headline "The Democrat's Jewish Problem," and set off a thread of Talmudic exegesis.
Afterthought: Along with Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback, Arlen Specter would bring to three the number of Senators born in Kansas. Are there more?
Why Does Katy Couric Hate Me?
Note the previous post--the one that says something about Katy Couric. Can you see a video link? No? How interesting. How odd. I can see it, but one of my faithfulest readers says he can't see it. Following my links, he can't find it at the source, nor at the source's source. I sent him a YouTube link and he says that seems to be blocked.
But not blocked for me. I wonder why? Is this some sort of Mac issue (I'm PC, he's Mac)? Or is Katy just trying to make his life miserable?
Update: Ah, puzzle solved! Turns out that my buddy rents space from a cheapo landlord who figures he saves bandwidth by blocking YouTube. So Katy doesn't hate me after all, cool!
But not blocked for me. I wonder why? Is this some sort of Mac issue (I'm PC, he's Mac)? Or is Katy just trying to make his life miserable?
Update: Ah, puzzle solved! Turns out that my buddy rents space from a cheapo landlord who figures he saves bandwidth by blocking YouTube. So Katy doesn't hate me after all, cool!
Monday, April 27, 2009
Take That, Brad DeLong
Herbert Spencer (whose birthday we celebrate today) was once featured on a trading card.
H/T: the ubiquitous David Lull.
H/T: the ubiquitous David Lull.
"I Am Large, I Contain Multitudes..."
I'm wondering-- of the auto workers will be part of the 89 percent government-takeover stake in General Motors--how many of them went tea-bagging in an tee-shirt blasting Obama as a socialist? And of the 48 percent of Americans who think that torture may sometimes be necessary--how many of them ever picketed an abortion clinic?
Ferris Bueller, Felon
Steinwald wants "a comprehensive list of each offense Ferris and his friends commit during the movie 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off'. Fifty comments (albeit not 50 crimes) at Metafiler so far but it raises an interesting issue. I've always said that no male reaches the age of 21 without committing at least one Class IV Felony (and violating at least seven of the Ten Commandments?). I still think this is pretty much true, and one reason we don't see more evidence on the point is that we don't prosecute when the felon is a loveable upper-middle-class white guy.
Strike that, did not prosecute. These days, of course, we are far less likely to tolerate that kind of invidious class discrimination (white kid gets a ride home in the cruiser; black kid gets to go to the stony lonesome). And what with a security guard and a metal detector on every corner, just about everybody has, shall we say, pretty much lost his sense of humor.
I admit there are some tough issues here, and I'm not certain that I would know how to sort them out. One thing, re race discrimination, I suspect the answer is not to arrest a lot more white kids but a lot fewer black and browns. Re the other stuff, I suppose we have a lethal combination of (a) punitive assistant principals (who else would take that job?) and (b) near-obsessive fear (justified?) on the part of the authorities that they will face third-party liability if they let anything slip.
Strike that, did not prosecute. These days, of course, we are far less likely to tolerate that kind of invidious class discrimination (white kid gets a ride home in the cruiser; black kid gets to go to the stony lonesome). And what with a security guard and a metal detector on every corner, just about everybody has, shall we say, pretty much lost his sense of humor.
I admit there are some tough issues here, and I'm not certain that I would know how to sort them out. One thing, re race discrimination, I suspect the answer is not to arrest a lot more white kids but a lot fewer black and browns. Re the other stuff, I suppose we have a lethal combination of (a) punitive assistant principals (who else would take that job?) and (b) near-obsessive fear (justified?) on the part of the authorities that they will face third-party liability if they let anything slip.
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