Superbloom of Bust There is a natural phenomenon here is Southern California that occurs every few years. The “Golden” state is mostly covered with semi-arid landscape that I like to call chaparral. It creates a lovely golden backdrop on which outcroppings of green scrub oaks and such get highlighted. The other thing that happens is that the weeds that are native to California decide that it’s time to declare their presence the way weeds do,…
Booking-Up I have now booked all of our travel for 2023. I’m not sure why I do that all so early, but I do. I don’t think I get such a great price advantage by doing that, especially if you add in the inevitable flight changes that sometimes are required, but I do worry a bit about availability of the preferred flights and that is clearly helped by booking early. This year’s travel consists of…
Keeping Up I speak often about teaching and what it means to me. But now that I’ve done it at the graduate level for thirteen years, ten at Cornell and three so far at USD, I am approaching an inflection point and decisions will need to be made. Last week I bumped into the Chairman of the Finance Department, who is my boss for the Advanced Corporate Finance course that I have taught for two…
The Tornado of Life I’ve never really been in a Tornado, a Hurricane, a Tsunami or a Derecho. At least I don’t think I have. I was once riding my motorcycle across a vast open plain in Southern Utah and there was a small dust whirlwind off to my left in a field and I watched it as it came toward the road I was on. It caused me to pull over and watch it,…
Wadi Bashing What a shame that everything is not perfect at all times in our lives. Most of us come to expect and deal with the imperfection on a day-to-day basis, but on vacation it suddenly takes on expanded importance. We got “dumped” here at the Wadi Rum Sun City Camp at 1 PM today. Other than taking a hike, we had pretty much done everything that Wadi Rum has to offer. I wish I…
Modern Medicine I am currently caught up in a Netflix series called New Amsterdam. The series is based on a book that was written about one of the great public hospitals in New York City, Bellevue, located on the East Side just south of NYU Langone Medical Center. It is not unlike ER in that much of the drama takes place in an Emergency Room setting, but it does try to go beyond that by…
Sitting in the Garden This evening I was watching a man-on-the-street report on the first campaign gathering of Donald Trump’s bid for the Republican nomination for president in 2024. To begin with, I say nomination instead of election because it is not entirely clear that the es-president currently has the ability to gather the support needed to win the nomination, much less the election. That is a less shocking reality than the fact that Trump…
A Ticket to the Circus The circus is a very American institution and is a part of our cultural way of life. To be fair, the circus predates America and goes back as far as the Roman Empire. If we define the circus too narrowly to be all about clowns, trained animals ranging from elephants to small dogs and even fleas, and acrobats of all kinds, we might be too limited. Most circuses have musicians,…
Breakfast Hack This weekend, Kim’s nephew Josh, his wife Haj and their kids JJ and Leila are staying with us in order to launch a day at Legoland. Josh’s older brother Will is also staying even though he is more a local than not since he lives in Ocean Beach. The good news is that Kim and I get a pass on the whole Legoland deal and are only hosting breakfast and dinner with the…
Stepping It Up Today was a nice sunny day, but a bit on the cool side. I am starting to teach my course tonight, so I plan to leave my afternoon pretty open to get my game face on and do a few course administrative chores. I have been waiting for clear weather for a few days so that I could get some things done in advance of Joventino’s arrival tomorrow. I have bought 600…