rantlust

Posted by cowmoose on September 16th 2005 in Cars
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Smugness is one of those too-common characteristics that leads to unintended and, usually, bad consequences. At the very least, it narrows a practitioner’s mind to the point of bitterness; in its worst cases, the universe gives a big guffaw and boomerangs something awful against the very source of the smugness.

But I can’t help it. When I go to the gas station and pull up next to a monstrous Ford Expedition, I feel smug. Side-by-side, we fill up our tanks. At my island, the meter stops at 9.2 gallons. That’s $27.60 for a full tank. At his island, the meter keeps clicking while I screw in the gas cap, close the door, hit the Power button on my Prius, and silently glide away. Three days later, I’ll see him back at the gas station; meanwhile, my trip odometer clicks cheerfully through 250 miles, secure in the knowledge that there’s still half a tank left to go.
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Posted by cowmoose on July 26th 2005 in Business
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An article in the Wall Street Journal last week discussed a report that suggested a little brain damage might improve your investment returns.

Before you settle down in front of your E*Trade screen and down those two bottles of 25 year old Macallan you’ve been saving, the study further notes that you need to suffer from a particular type of brain damage. Specifically, you need lesions in that part of your brain that controls emotions. The lucky subjects in the study can’t feel fear or anxiety. Which is the definition of psychopath.

Perhaps this why I find it difficult to enjoy the company of wildly rich investment bankers, hedge fund managers, and other movers and shakers of the financial world?

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Posted by cowmoose on July 20th 2005 in Politics
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After an absence of about 15 years from regular access to a piano, husband and I are looking into acquiring a piano. Not that I’m any good, mind you, but in lieu of wee bairns and hyperactive dogs, we’re looking for a bit of self-development-oriented entertainment.

Apparently, American piano making stank in the 60s and the 70s, before Yamaha and Kawai gave domestic piano manufacturers some helpful competition. I grew up with two Baldwins (a company now bankrupt and owned by Gibson Guitars), a 5′6″ grand with some of the stiffest keys imaginable (hence my bony fingers today) and a studio upright used by my mother, the former concert pianist, to teach her reluctant students. So imagine my surprise when the first dealer I encounter tries to push a CHINESE piano on me.

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Posted by cowmoose on July 18th 2005 in Food & Wine
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Growing things has not been our forte. Neglect usually kills even the hardiest plants that issue from the dirt. But something about suburbia and a little plot of bare flowerbed tickled our latent gardening urges. And we had just seen the fine but alarming documentary, The Future of Food, which goes into excruciating detail about how we’re limiting the biodiversity of our food (not to mention slicing and dicing mice genes into soybean genes). All this is part of the “Slow Food” movement (versus “fast food”), which has been slowly gaining adherents from its base in Italy.

So we decided to try planting our own food. Beans, peas, lettuce, corn, cucumbers, basil, carrots, and spring onions. Nothing too ambitious, just turn the soil, put the seeds in the ground, and water daily. This was May.

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