Again Not Thankful

Here's the 6th annual edition of my Thanksgiving-time list of things for which I am not thankful. You can get to the trail of prior lists here or by using the label Thanksgiving.

As with prior years, this list is in no particular order:

Both a) rioters who disguise themselves as protesters, and b) white privilege.

'Follow the leader' gutless politicians.

Complicated wireless phone plans, and those entities which provide them.

Extreme winter weather in November.  (Basically, a repeat of 2013)

Enabling helicopter parents.

States like Iowa that can't even muster a conversation about medical marijuana legalization, while other states are already legalizing marijuana for recreational usage.

Those who proudly display their debt.

Really big butts, and the pop culture that currently glorifies them.

Social media trolls.

People who want you to think they care, but who really just want your attention.  (This would include anyone who did the ALS ice bucket challenge this year without actually donating money.)

Golf 24/7

An historic event (or is it a historic event?) in my life occurred this week.  After many years of abstinence, I allowed myself to indulge in a long-waited, premium desire.

I got the Golf Channel.

A little background here:  I have cable, bundled with internet service.  I could do that with satellite TV, but I’m happy with the broadband internet speed I have, and that’s keeping me tethered to cable TV for now.

However, our cable provider, Mediacom, sucks when it comes to its basic cable TV channel lineup.  This is true for a lot of cable companies, still fighting against the a la carte model that internet TV inevitably will provide.  Still, I’ve been to plenty of other places that have different cable providers, and Mediacom’s basic cable channels are not robust by comparison.

This means that the basic cable service I’ve had for years is missing ‘premium’ channels that other providers consider basic.  This includes Golf Channel, ESPNU, and a few others.  (One of the others is Fox Business News, a/k/a the 1% Channel.  It’s beyond strange how this is considered a premium channel, while CNBC isn’t.)

Cheap bastard that I am, I’ve never paid the extra dough for home access to those so-called premium channels.  That ended this week with the effort of one phone call, in which I agreed to pay another $100 a year ($8 per month) for a premium sports and information package.

Ironically, I did this primarily for the ESPNU channel, because I don’t want to miss another bunch of good college basketball games this winter.  And I did it secondarily for The NFL Network, so I don’t miss those games this winter, either.

But the long-term crown jewel for me will be the Golf Channel.  A new ‘go-to’ for when there’s nothing else good to watch.  It’s already paying for itself with end-to-end coverage of the Australia Masters and next week’s Australian Open – two events I couldn’t have cared less about a few days ago!

Fore!

Laissez Les Bon Temps Roule'

I visited New Orleans for a family wedding last week.  Hadn't been there before; I almost did nine years ago for a conference, but that was ruined by Hurricane Katrina, and I never came close since.

When I asked others who had been to NOLA about what they thought of it, the one consistent reply was that it was kind of a dirty place.  All they seemed to recall was the heat and grime and smell of Bourbon Street.

I didn't think it was inordinately dirty or smelly.  I would tell you it's a lot better than that.  Some observations:

* Generally speaking, the French Quarter area is an eclectic place, as the inhabitants blend in with the tourists and street performers around Jackson Square.  The weekend day I was there, the Gumbo Festival was in full swing at a nearby park, and the local food and jazz music were flowing.

* Bourbon Street went from nearly deserted in the morning, to wall-to-wall people at night.  While the crowd was rowdy, it was also friendly, with booze and food and live music everywhere.  And it was fun to be a small part of the bead throwing.  (Just ask -- you don't have to do more, at least not on the Saturday night I was there.)

* The Garden District, with its old, large, and (some) celebrity homes, is unique to see.  Also, not interesting enough to go back another time, unless Sandra Bullock or Archie Manning happen to be out in their front yards.

* Yes, the cemeteries have the dead buried above ground.  So there's that.

* This one doesn't apply to most visitors, but hands down, the best part for me was being part of a "Second Line" wedding parade.  From beautiful St. Louis Cathedral, we walked several blocks through the French Quarter to the hotel reception, the streets often lined two-or-three deep with tourists taking pictures/videos of us waving white cloths behind a brass band.  It was the coolest thing I've been a part of in a long time.

Overall, The Big Easy exceeded my expectations.

Food = Life

Went to my favorite local restaurant the other night.  It's basically my favorite because I can get my favorite unique meal there.  Of course, not everyone would agree with my assessment; virtually everyone else would have different opinions of their favorite restaurant/meal.

It's with this in mind that I write about how silly it is for too many people to agree how good a certain food /restaurant is.

We've got plenty of places in town that have a specialty appetizer, or entree, or dessert.  And if you asked almost anyone, they'll tell you how great it is.  But is it really?  Or is it just that the herd mentality applies to the food service business?**

The answer most of the time is, it's the herd mentality.

Look people, something isn't good because others say it's good.  If you think something is 'the best', there's an equally good chance someone else won't.  Plus, trends change over time.

My point is, food is the same as life.  Alright, not really my point.  The point is, decide for yourself.

**That paragraph ended in the 'Conjunction Trifecta" -- starting consecutive sentences with 'and' 'but' & 'or'!

Best Song Lyrics (Part XVI)

Last week I noticed the Songwriters Hall of Fame announced its new inductees.  Along with the songwriter I wrote about way back in Part V of this anthology (Yusaf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens) was the name Tom Petty.

Awesome.

Tom Petty led his band The Heartbreakers onto the rock scene in the late 1970s with a distinctive sound and cool, easygoing lyrics.  Some of the best known songs included The Waiting, Free Fallin’ and , You Don't Know How It Feels (To Be Me).

All of those songs are lyrically terrific, but I'm going with Learning To Fly as my example.  While there is certainly a drug double-meaning, Petty himself said it was really about failing and trying and failing and trying again.  I highly recommend listening to it in its slower, acoustic form:

Well I started out, down a dirty road
Started out, all alone
And the sun went down, as I crossed the hill
And the town lit up, the world got still

I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings
Coming down, is the hardest thing

Well, the good ol' days, may not return
And the rocks might melt, and the sea may burn

I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings
Coming down, is the hardest thing

Well, some say life, will beat you down
Break your heart, steal your crown
So I've started out, for God-knows-where
I guess I'll know, when I get there

I'm learning to fly, around the clouds
But what goes up, must come down
I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings
Coming down, is the hardest thing

Don't Buy The Fake

Society doesn't accept emotionally fake people, right?  People who mislead in order to make themselves look better are eventually exposed, then ostracized by others.

It's the same for intellectually dishonest people.  If someone lies about the facts in order to make themselves look better, society is usually quite efficient at discovery and excommunication.

Then why are we so willing to accept physically fake people?  Those folks are also doing something to make themselves look better, yet others often encourage them to repeat that behavior.

From plastic surgery to artificial hair to indoor tanning, people have plenty of ways to pull off the physical-fake.  Unless it's taken to the extreme, we accept that it's better to look good (and younger) than to feel good.

I suppose faking the physical self isn't harming others, so we let it go.  But is it really harmless?

I'm not so sure if obscuring the physical-you is any better than obscuring the emotional-you or intellectual-you.  I don't buy that faking it should be allowed in anything.  (Yes, even that.)

In matters of integrity and trust, I'd rather deal with someone being honest in all three.

Charlie

I've written on several occasions about the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting.  Most associate it with Warren Buffett, but it also stars his vice-chairman, Charlie Munger.  Both are very smart and witty, but Munger has a slightly more acerbic style.

Last week someone forwarded an article to me with 29 of Munger's most interesting quotes.  They are the kind of things he says at the Berky meeting all of the time.  The guy is awesome.  I'm just going to throw out a few of best ones (in my opinion), and this is just a short sample:

"The right way to make decisions in practical life is based on your opportunity cost. When you get married, you have to choose the best [spouse] you can find that will have you. The rest of life is the same damn way."

"What do you want to avoid? Such an easy answer: sloth and unreliability. If you’re unreliable it doesn’t matter what your virtues are. You're going to crater immediately. Doing what you have faithfully engaged to do should be an automatic part of your conduct. You want to avoid sloth and unreliability."

"Some people are extraordinarily good at knowing the limits of their knowledge, because they have to be. Think of somebody who’s been a professional tightrope walker for 20 years – and has survived. He couldn’t survive as a tightrope walker for 20 years unless he knows exactly what he knows and what he doesn’t know.  He’s worked so hard at it, because he knows if he gets it wrong he won’t survive. The survivors know. ... Knowing what you don’t know is more useful than being brilliant."

"Another thing that does one in, of course, is the self-serving bias to which we’re all subject. You think the 'True Little Me' is entitled to do what it wants to do. And, for instance, why shouldn’t the True Little Me overspend my income. There once was a man who became the most famous composer in the world but was utterly miserable most of the time, and one of the reasons was because he always overspent his income. That was Mozart. If Mozart can’t get by with this kind of asinine conduct, I don’t think you should try."

"The highest form that civilization can reach is a seamless web of deserved trust — not much procedure, just totally reliable people correctly trusting one another. ... In your own life what you want is a seamless web of deserved trust. And if your proposed marriage contract has forty-seven pages, I suggest you not enter."

"Wisdom acquisition is a moral duty. It’s not something you do just to advance in life. Wisdom acquisition is a moral duty. As a corollary to that proposition which is very important, it means that you are hooked for lifetime learning. And without lifetime learning, you people are not going to do very well. You are not going to get very far in life based on what you already know."