Columns & Rows I have started a new spreadsheet. I love spreadsheets. Ever since I first met a VisiCalc spreadsheet back in about 1979, I have been in love with spreadsheets and what they can do. I actually think that spreadsheets may be the most impactful invention of my time. I know people will scoff at that in light of everything from EVs to Smartphones, but my logic is quite simple. Spreadsheets enabled all innovations…
Step By Step Most exercise measurement programs today seem to focus on walking steps and counting them. I get it. Walking is good for you. It is relatively low impact and almost everyone can do it. But not everyone enjoys it. I am one of those people who does not like walking. My size and weight makes walking a pain in my lower back. I have tried using walking sticks, which help, but not completely.…
So God Made a Dictator The latest Lincoln Project advertisement is a real eye-opener. Its a play off of Donald Trump’s allusions to the notion that God made Trump and that this evangelically appealing narrative is that Trump is doing God’s work by standing up for issues like tighter abortion standards and tighter immigration standards. Of course, as one might expect, Trump is simply too much of a pragmatist and transactional operator to stand by…
Economic Optimism I watch so many movies about the wars of the 20th Century that I find myself wondering what it must be like to be facing the world with nothing in your pocket and no particular prospects for things getting better soon. The two movies I watched yesterday were of this sort. The first was a real D-list movie called Air Strike. This was a 2018 film that was made in China and represents…
A Life Well-Lived I grew up in a single parent household. My mother was 100% of my parental influence, which is, sadly, more often the case in life. I have great admiration for my mother, both for what she achieved professionally in her life and how she went about her role as parent to me and my sisters. The things I have mentioned previously that I liked about her parenting included that she was a…
Who’s The Bad Guy? Tonight I found a Netflix 5-part series on WWII. I know what you’re thinking, haven’t I had enough of WWII with all the war movies I have watched over the years? Yes, I’ve seen them all, but what I liked about this documentary series was that it used original footage that was colorized and enhanced (which does bring some of that old film to life as Peter Jackson showed us with…
The Art of Turning the Other Cheek I am constantly amazed at all the opportunities I get to declare that no good deed goes unpunished. I am well aware that I spent 45 years on Wall Street and developed a thick skin and an ability to joust with the best of them. I know that normal guy trash talking has become the standard and that joking around with your pals is the norm in modern…
Friends and Enemies This morning I spoke to an associate that I first met in late 2008 (fifteen years ago). For the better part of six years of that time we worked together in what was a fairly strained relationship. We were never outwardly hostile to one another, but let’s just say that there was a lot of tension. Now, with the mellowing of age and the passage of time, we are quite friendly in…
Our Own Reality This Christmas my daughter Carolyn gave me a great grandparent gift in the form of a 2024 calendar that is a four-inch block of daily photos of my granddaughters. That means that I have a pad of 366 (2024 is a Leap Year) daily reminders of the charm and beauty of my two granddaughters, Charlotte and Evelyn. When you stop and think about that, to gather and even have 366 current photos…
Blind-Sided One of the fun, but supposedly true life stories made into a movie in the past few years was the story of Michael Oher, the former NFL offensive lineman who was taken in during high school by the Tuohy family of Memphis. The movie, called The Blind Side, based on the book by the same name written by Michael Lewis (strangely enough a writer mostly of financial stories), refers to the offensive line position…