Amakudari Revisited
Thomas Nast, Mr. MoneybagsâIf you were sensible of your own good, you would not wish to quit the sphere in which you have been brought up.ââIn marrying your nephew, I should not consider myself...
View ArticleSome Work of Noble Note May Yet Be Done
We are not now that strength which in old daysMoved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,One equal temper of heroic hearts,Made weak by time and fate, but strong in willTo strive, to seek, to...
View ArticleOop. Time, Sheâs Up
âI am old, Gandalf. I donât look it, but I am beginning to feel it in my heart of hearts. Well-preserved indeed! Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter that...
View ArticleTEDâs All Time Greatest Hits
The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him. And he must have a strong sense of the sardonic. This is what uncouples him...
View ArticleFarewell, Ghafla Distraction
âAha! Now we see the violence inherent in the system!ââ Monty Python and the Holy GrailYes, itâs true: Iâve left Twitter.No special reason. All of a part with my reasons for terminating this...
View ArticleThe Privy Counselor
Diego Velasquez, Portrait of Pedro de Barberana, 1631No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; Am an attendant lord, one that will do To swell a progress, start a scene or two, Advise the...
View ArticleSunday Reading from the Archives
Edward Hopper, Early Sunday Morning, 1930âThen I need say no more,â said Celeborn. âBut do not despise the lore that has come down from distant years; for oft it may chance that old wives keep in...
View ArticleCourtly Love
Contrary to the cynicism that can pervade discussions of [mergers and acquisitions], many top level M & A advisors have a genuine concern about the integrity of large scale transactions and a...
View ArticleQuis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?
Auguste Rodin, The Age of Bronze, 1876âIf you meet a thief, you may suspect him, by virtueof your office, to be no true man; and, for suchkind of men, the less you meddle or make with them,why the...
View ArticleWhat Is It Like to Be a Banker?
Conscious experience is a widespread phenomenon.â Thomas Nagel, inveterate optimistWhilst conducting primary research into the ontological foundations of metaphysical epistemology recently, O Dearly...
View ArticleRegrets, Iâve Had a Few
Auguste Rodin, Orpheus and Eurydice, 1893Martin Blank: âIâm sorry if I fucked up your life.âDebi Newberry: âItâs not over yet.ââ Grosse Pointe BlankWhy do we regret life choices? In...
View ArticleHis Dark Materials
Joseph Wright, Arkwrightâs Cotton Mills by Night, c. 1782The best one can hope for as a human is to have a relationship with that emptiness where God would be if God were available, but God isnât....
View ArticleShow Me the Money
âMoney changes everything.ââ Some guy, probably without any moneyAndrew Ross Sorkin, access journalist extraordinaire and alleged shill for the Great and Good,1 put up a sensible op ed this...
View ArticleGreatest Hits of 2014
âI think itâs just elegant to have an imagination. I just have no imagination at all. I have lots of other things, but I have no imagination.ââ The Seven Year ItchYes, O Dearly Beloved, itâs...
View ArticleThe Morning After
Frans Hals, The Laughing Cavalier, 1624There is an inn, a merry old inn beneath an old grey hill, And there they brew a beer so brown That the Man in the Moon himself came down one night to drink his...
View ArticleNerd Intersectionality
Infancy is not what it is cracked up to be. The child seems happy all the time to the adult, because the adult knows that the child is untouched by the real problems of life; if the adult were...
View ArticlePassing Fair
What though the sea with waves continuall Doe eate the earth, it is no more at all ; Ne is the earth the lesse, or loseth ought : For whatsoever from one place doth fall Is with the tyde unto another...
View ArticleGoldman Sachs Doesnât Care What You Think
A cat may look at a king.â English proverbSo, in an apparent effort to raise its rank in the Most Recognized Polling Firm in America Sweepstakes, Harris Poll recently published a survey of 27,278...
View ArticleUncle Warren Explains It All to You
âSure, sure.ââ Sidney J. Mussburger, The Hudsucker ProxyApparently some doddering old fart in Omaha, Nebraska published a celebratory letter yesterday in connection with an obscure anniversary...
View ArticleOut of Service
I met a traveller from an antique landWho said:âTwo vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desert. Near them on the sand,Half sunk, a shatterâd visage lies, whose frownAnd wrinkled lip and...
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