Sunday, October 31

Happy Halloween!

To infinity....


and beyond!

Thursday, October 28

One day she WILL ask you...

"why, mom, am I folically challenged?" Well, at least that is what I ask my mom. And that is probably what this kid will be asking her mom if things don't change for the better.



This is one of several very hip "e-cards" available from Hipster Cards. So be hip and send an e-card to your friends. They're free!

Wednesday, October 27

"Bush makes me laugh, and [that is why] I'm voting for him"

I shit you not, that is the thesis of David Gelertner's article in today's LA Times. Read this, it gets better:
Bush is funny. Americans have no litmus test for the presidency — but if they did, "sense of humor" might be it. Your sense of humor is an open door that gives other people access to your character, to the person you are. A humorless person is a mystery. We can't ever know him, so we can't ever trust him.
...
In modern times, we have occasionally elected a massively humorless president, and have always regretted it. It is no accident that Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter are the two (a) least funny and (b) most embarrassing presidents of modern history.
...
[Bush] is gently amusing; Kerry isn't gently anything. When Bush made a mild little joke during the second debate ("I own a timber company? That's news to me…. Need some wood?"), the nation breathed a sigh of relief. In the hyper-tense atmosphere of a presidential debate, an impromptu joke is rare and precious, like a summer flower in miraculous late-October bloom (in New England).
Link. What in gods name is he talking about? Litmus test? Sigh of relief? No, that was no "sigh of relief," that was heartburn, my friend, indigestion. If this is a joke, the joke is on me, because I'm going to bed. Night.

Addendum: funny

Another addendum: Free Burrito!

Final Addendum, I promise: The ever-insightful Steve Landsburg puts forth this argument for why he is voting for Bush. I agree with him re: Edwards, but I am curious how he reconciles his argument with the fact that Bush has been one of the most protectionist, anti-free trade presidents in recent history. As with Galertner, his evaluation seems to be results driven. It is sad seeing smart people that I respect grasping at such assenine straws.

Are we really living an increasingly corrupt and scary world?

...or are we becoming increasingly paranoid? For instance, is the issue reported below really a new problem or a recurring problem? Is this type of behavior being reported only because of the closeness of the race or is this behavior (or the prevalence of such behavior) truely novel to this election?
Mrasek, who is disabled with emphysema, said he and his son spotted a newspaper ad for the [GOP funded] Sproul group. The younger Mrasek, who also is disabled and lives with his father at the Daisy Motel, bowed out when he learned the emphasis was to register GOP voters.

His father took the Sproul job, which paid about $8 an hour and allowed workers to go home early with full pay on days they managed to register 18 Republicans.

Mrasek said he was given a written script to ask people whether they favored Bush or Sen. John F. Kerry (news, bio, voting record). To those favoring the Massachusetts senator, Mrasek replied that he was just taking a poll and thanked them for stopping.

But for those who liked Bush, Mrasek offered to register them. 'George Bush (news - web sites) really needs your help this election,' he said he was told to say.

In predominantly Democratic Las Vegas, however, Mrasek had a hard time finding unregistered Republicans, he said. One day, he registered himself and his son as Republicans to meet his quota, though he opposes Bush's Iraq (news - web sites) policies and plans to vote for Kerry.

Eric Russell, another temporary employee for the project, also alleged that he saw Democratic Party registrations thrown in the trash. With legal assistance from the Democratic Party, he went to court and tried, unsuccessfully, to reopen registration.

Russell, a Republican who now plans to vote for Kerry, also gave authorities a copy of the written sales pitch, which said, in part, "Use your training to find likely Republicans."

Sproul denied the allegations. He said he fired Russell and then sued him, alleging he and the company had been slandered.

"Our goal was to register as many supporters of President Bush as we could. However, we gave very strict instructions to everybody associated with us that we had a zero tolerance policy if anybody was destroying, tampering or altering registration forms," he said, adding that his project turned in more than 500 Democratic registrations in Nevada.

Meanwhile, Republicans say the Democratic registrations submitted by liberal groups are tainted.
Link. If you want my opinion, and I am sure you do, we are increasingly paranoid and we have become this way, as Moore cogently argued a la Bowling for Columbine, because the media feeds on our fear. Fear sells! This article seems to support my hypothesis.

Tuesday, October 26

100 Facts and 1 Opinion

While the Nation is not one of my favorite magazines, I do highly recommend this article: "100 Facts and 1 Opinion: The Non-Arguable Case Against the Bush Administration." Link

Insert your own caption...


Latte-sipping liberal?

He is plainly the better choice

Another shrill endorsement, this time from The New Yorker magazine. For the first time in its 80-year history, the venerable magazine endorsed a presidential candidate, urging readers to vote for John Kerry in next week's election. Quote:
In the November 1, 2004, issue of The New Yorker, the magazine endorses John Kerry for President. The editors begin with a thorough review of the deficiencies - starting with its questionable legitimacy - of the Bush Administration ... On the candidacy and character of Senator Kerry, they write, 'In every crucial area of concern to Americans, Kerry offers a clear, corrective alternative to Bush's curious blend of smugness, radicalism, and demagoguery.' The editors see in John Kerry's conduct during the vicissitudes of this campaign, as in others earlier in his career, a quality that fits him for leadership: 'In the face of infuriating and scurrilous calumnies, he kept the sort of cool that the thin-skinned and painfully insecure incumbent cannot even feign during the unprogrammed give-and-take of an electoral debate. Kerry's mettle has been tested under fire - the fire of real bullets and the political fire that will surely not abate but, rather, intensify if he is elected - and he has shown himself to be tough, resilient, and possessed of a properly Presidential dose of dignified authority. While Bush has pandered relentlessly to the narrowest urges of his base, Kerry has sought to appeal broadly to the American center....He is plainly the better choice.'
GOP response? This endorsement, along with the myriad other print media endoresments, is concrete evidence that the press has a liberal bias. As this link notes: "The polls may be too close to call, but there's one area in which Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry seems to be pulling well ahead of President Bush: newspaper endorsements."

Monday, October 25

Polar Express

Last Thursday evening, Steph and I took the boys to see an advance screening of "The Polar Express," an animated film starring Tom Hanks. A lady in our apartment, whom Steph befriended in the laundry room, gave us four tickets to the "event," which included a whole bunch of stuff (e.g., Hanks gave a brief shpiel before the show, snacks, a book for Sam and ODB, etc.).

Anyway, it was a really great movie. It captures effectively childhood fanstasy (or at least my perception of a child's fantasy). And it does it in a way that is captivating for both children and adults. Based on my furtive glances, Sam was enthralled and had his mouth open for much of the film. Oliver, on the other hand, seemed startled at times, and afraid at other times. The music is rather loud and the animation is very vivid and realistic. However, when asked by mom if he wanted to leave, he insisted on watching the entire movie.

The movie is unlike other animated children's movies, such as Shrek or the Pixar flicks, Finding Nemo, Toy Story, etc. What makes it different is the technology used to create the movie. According to this article in the NYT "there is a revolution hiding inside this seemingly innocuous family film." It is cool, indeed. Its seems best suited for kids Sam's age and above (age 4+).

Friday, October 22

I'm the C-A-S an the O-V-A

Steph tells me that there is a Tommy Lee interview with Barbara coming up so I got to go, but first I gotta bang bang the boogie to the boogie. Why? Because I love these lyrics and I know you will too!

What Would Slim Shady Do?

The real slim shady is in the his-house:
'I think [Bush] started a mess . . . He jumped the gun, and he fucked up so bad he doesn't know what to do right now . . . We got young people over there dyin', kids in their teens, early twenties that should have futures ahead of them. And for what? It seems like a Vietnam 2. Bin Laden attacked us, and we attacked Saddam. Explain why that is. Give us some answers.'

The thirty-two-year-old rapper says he has registered to vote for the first time -- but stops short of endorsing a candidate. 'Whatever my decision is, I would like to see Bush out of office,' Eminem says. 'I don't wanna see my little brother get drafted -- he just turned eighteen. People think their votes don't count, but people need to get out and vote. Every motherfuckin' vote counts.'
Now THAT is some motherfuckin' G shit. Link

We're just as lazy as them French

I take pride in this finding. Its kind of the conclusion to a very nice article by Prescott in today's WSJ. Excerpt:
Here's a startling fact: Based on labor market statistics from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Americans aged 15-64, on a per-person basis, work 50% more than the French. Comparisons between Americans and Germans or Italians are similar. What's going on here? What can possibly account for these large differences in labor supply? It turns out that the answer is not related to cultural differences or institutional factors like unemployment benefits, but that marginal tax rates explain virtually all of this difference. I admit that when I first conducted this analysis I was surprised by this finding, because I fully expected that institutional constraints are playing a bigger role. But this is not the case. (Citations and more complete data can be found in my paper, at www.minneapolisfed.org2.)

Let's take another look at the data. According to the OECD, from 1970-74 France's labor supply exceeded that of the U.S. Also, a review of other industrialized countries shows that their labor supplies either exceeded or were comparable to the U.S. during this period. Jump ahead two decades and you will find that France's labor supply dropped significantly (as did others), and that some countries improved and stayed in line with the U.S. Controlling for other factors, what stands out in these cross-country comparisons is that when European countries and U.S. tax rates are comparable, labor supplies are comparable.

And this insight doesn't just apply to Western industrialized economies. A review of Japanese and Chilean data reveals the same result. This is an important point because some critics of this analysis have suggested that cultural differences explain the difference between European and American labor supplies. The French, for example, prefer leisure more than do Americans or, on the other side of the coin, that Americans like to work more. This is silliness.
Link

Thursday, October 21

There Are Rumors on the Internets

So will the administration impose a draft? No idea, but I want one of these t-shirts. Link

Wednesday, October 20

Bush's Big Joke

War. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Huh!

"We ask for equations that explain what words mean"

More on this year's Nobel prize winner. I really wish I understood macroeconomics better than I do. Then again, I don't. It is much too esoteric and the leading edge research is literally impossible to decipher. [Mom, do you recall commenting on those pages and pages of equations I doodled in prep for my prelims? That was my attempt to understand "rational expectations," which is the foundation of Prescott's work.]

This article accomplishes several things. First, it offers a nice, breezy explanation of "time inconsistency." E.g., I like this paragraph:
The clever editorial writers at The Financial Times last week compared 'time consistency' to Odysseus' famous trick of putting wax in the ears of his oarsmen and lashing himself to the mast, thus hearing the Sirens' beautiful song, without commanding his boat to steer into the rocks, or throwing himself into the sea.
And it offers a brief history of macro thought. But most importantly, it provides a glimpse into how theoretical macroeconomists work. This excerpt is nice:
[O]ne morning [Bob Lucas] came to work and found in his mailbox a note from Prescott:

"Bob,

This is the way labor markets work.

v(s,y,λ) = max{λ,R(s,y) + min [λ,βº v (s',y,λ)f (s',s)ds']}.

Ed"

...

[Lucas] writes, "Other features of the equation were as novel to me as they are (I imagine) to you."

"The normal response to such a note, I suppose, would have been to go upstairs to Ed's office and ask for some kind of explanation. But theoretical economists are not normal, and we do not ask for words that 'explain' what equations mean. We ask for equations that explain what words mean.

"Ed had provided an equation that claimed to explain how labor markets work. It was my job to understand it and decide whether I agreed with this claim. This took me a while...
I like that very much. It says a lot about the stubborness/competitiveness of economic theoreticians. Yes, theory guys are the badasses of economics. Its too bad that macro has to invoke such fricken complicated equations.

Monday, October 18

Using experiments to predict voter turnout

Nice summary of the issue by Dr. Krueger in today's NYT. Excerpt:
The filmmaker Michael Moore is stirring controversy by offering 'slackers' a three-pack of Fruit of the Loom underwear if they promise to vote. Beyond its comical value, Mr. Moore's campaign raises a serious question for candidates in both parties: What is the best way to increase voter turnout?

Two Yale political scientists, Donald P. Green and Alan S. Gerber, have studied turnout for years. Their findings, based on dozens of controlled experiments done as part of actual campaigns, are summarized in a slim and readable new book called 'Get Out the Vote!' (Brookings Institution Press), which is bound to become a bible for politicians and activists of all stripes.
So which method produces the greatest increase in voter turnout/$? Door-to-door canvassing. What I find interesting is the use of experimental methods to uncover this result. As Krueger concludes "Perhaps we are witnessing the rise of what can be called Fisherian Democracy, after the statistician R. A. Fisher, who invented the experimental method."

Saturday, October 16

Do Labor Unions benefit labor?

Economist, Claudia Goldin, suggest the benefit may not be as significant as we think. The following is an excerpt from Dr. Goldin's interview with The Region, a quarterly publication of the Minneapolis Fed. This is the core of Goldin’s response to a question on the role that labor unions played in increasing wages and reducing work hours for American workers:
[A]lmost all of these changes began before the great rise of private-sector unions and federal government labor regulations. Real wages have increased for a very long time, long before the rise of union activity and in sectors in which there were no unions. Real wage increases occur because workers are more productive, so it could be technological change or it could be education....

What about hours declines? Unions, as you know, were quite insistent about hours reductions. But hours declined in manufacturing from the early part of the 19th century to the midpart of the 20th century both per day and in terms of days per week. The big rise of unions in the United States was from the mid-1930s to the early 1950s. Thus the decline in hours preceded the rise of unions, although increased union activity in the late 1910s and in the 1930s may have furthered the decrease in hours and the increase in leisure.

The Daily Show's Jon Stewart's Crossfire appearance

It seems that Jon Stewart, the host of The Daily Show (on Comedy Central), is not a fan of the show "Crossfire." Salon has a brief summary of the highlights. Here is one exchange:
'I think you're a lot more fun on your show,' said Tucker Carlson to 'Crossfire' guest Jon Stewart this afternoon. 'And I think you're as much of a dick on your show as on any other,' Stewart shot back.
Or read the transcript here. And he recently published a book, America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction, which I'm told is pretty good.

Friday, October 15

Christian sex instruction LPs

Just in case you were interested, someone has unearthed a trove of materials on Christian sex ed. Sweet! Here is an excerpt:
Dad lights up his pipe and starts talking about nocturnal emissions.

DAD: One of these nights before too long you may find some of it (semen) passes off in your sleep . . .

BOB: (worriedly) But Dad, that's wrong, isn't it?

DAD: No, son, it's not wrong . . . No, it's true that to waste the seed deliberately - to do anything knowingly to make it come is a very grave sin. Because God designed that secretion in a man for one purpose. That is to be, well, like one of his raw materials in the creation of a new life . . . Wet dreams are different. Sometimes the supply of semen becomes too great before a man is married and these dreams are sort of a safety valve . . .

BOB: But Dad, why do fellas get these feelings before they get married?
Hmm, how do they define "knowingly"? Also, I love the way they differentiate the value of semen. Those poor "safety valve" semen don't get any respect! Linky

Rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated

The following is reported under the heading "Newspaper Gossip for Cook County Illinois Residents":
David BURNSTEIN, who was said to have been murdered by Jack HOBSON, a Negro, in Chicago is not dead at all. Another sensation spoiled.
So sorry to spoil the sensation, you twisted bastards. Link

Thursday, October 14

The Bush Cocoon

Kevin Drum at the Washington Monthly comments on Bush's Osama bin Laden gaffe:
I think the most interesting question about it is: why? Why did he say it?
See Link for Drum's conjecture.

Tuesday, October 12

Lying, cheating bastard - slight return

I posted some time ago about a relatively trivial Bush deception.

In this article, Krugman lays forth the important deceptions, and there are many. Krugman effectively distinguishes Bush's tactic, from that of "politics as usual." Excerpt:
By singling out Mr. Bush's lies and misrepresentations, am I saying that Mr. Kerry isn't equally at fault? Yes.

Mr. Kerry sometimes uses verbal shorthand that offers nitpickers things to complain about. He talks of 1.6 million lost jobs; that's the private-sector loss, partly offset by increased government employment. But the job record is indeed awful. He talks of the $200 billion cost of the Iraq war; actual spending is only $120 billion so far. But nobody doubts that the war will cost at least another $80 billion. The point is that Mr. Kerry can, at most, be accused of using loose language; the thrust of his statements is correct.

Mr. Bush's statements, on the other hand, are fundamentally dishonest. He is insisting that black is white, and that failure is success. Journalists who play it safe by spending equal time exposing his lies and parsing Mr. Kerry's choice of words are betraying their readers.
In parting, did anyone see Frontline this evening? It was a two-hour account of the candidates' backgrounds, from the Vietnam war to present. It was a relatively even-handed and informative piece. However, what struck me most was its discussion of Bush's campaign for governor against Richards and his 2000 primary campaign for president against McCain. In both instances, allegedly independent groups mysteriously appeared to slander Bush's opponents. The corollary in this campaign is the swift boat veterans for truth. My hypothesis is that this group's distortions have not had the effect of those previous groups and, hence, Bush is now left with the dirty work of lying and cheating on his own behalf. Either way, it is reprehensible tactic, and in the words of McCain, Bush "should be ashamed of himself."

Addendum: Brad DeLong reaches a similar conclusion and offers a nice rule of thumb:
I really don't understand why reporters are having such a hard time covering this campaign. One clear rule is all that's needed: assume as a rebuttable presumption that the Bush campaign is lying. That's all you need to do. And you will 99% of the time wind up getting the story right.

Geogre W. Bush's Resume

Hello. My name is George Bush and I'm running for President. Please consider my qualifications as set forth in the following resume... Link

Presenile dementia

Is George W. Bush suffering from "presenile dementia"? The attached footage compares Bush ten years ago to Bush today (Link). The author seems to take this hypothesis seriously (Link).

Monday, October 11

More G Shit

The following is all the info you need if you wish to contact one of us:

[Note it is in part a rehash of a previous post.]

Snail mail address (thru April 2005):
535 Michigan Avenue, Apt. 1W
Evanston, IL 60202

Email address:
david_burnstein@yahoo.com (David)
stephanie_kahl@hotmail.com (Steph)

Mobile phone:
847-208-1086 (David)
847-962-6645 (Steph)

Voip phone (which, note, is not yet functioning):
847-620-2480

Prescott wins Nobel

Finn Kydland of Norway and Edward Prescott of the United States won the Nobel economics prize Monday for research that laid the groundwork for more independent central banks and explained business cycles.
Link

What is interesting about this outcome is that the market predicted Prescott, but economists - at least those that blog - ironically poo-pooed this prediction. This is an example of what some were saying before:

I don't feel like I'm going out on a limb here - Ed Prescott will not win a Nobel Prize for economics this year. Prescott will win some day, no doubt. And personally, I hope he wins with Finn Kydland, co-author on Prescott's two most influential papers. But his current high price in a Nobel Prize prediction market is a good opportunity for short selling ... So, bring it on Nobel committee ... make me look like an idiot.
Your wish is their command. Link

Addendum: Marginal Revolution has some interesting commentary on this year's Nobel winners. Here, Here, and Here.

Christopher Reeve Dies at 52

Now I wonder if stem cell research will take on added importance in the campaign? I certainly hope so! Link

Economics of the "internets": The Long Tail

In 1988, a British mountain climber named Joe Simpson wrote a book called Touching the Void, a harrowing account of near death in the Peruvian Andes. It got good reviews but, only a modest success, it was soon forgotten. Then, a decade later, a strange thing happened. Jon Krakauer wrote Into Thin Air, another book about a mountain-climbing tragedy, which became a publishing sensation. Suddenly Touching the Void started to sell again.
The above is an excerpt from an article worth reading on two counts. First, it cites to a book that I highly recommend, at least to those of us that enjoy reading mountaineering/outdoorsy adventure books - that would be you, Laura and Lesley. Second, it cites to the above circumstance - i.e., why did Simpson's book start selling again, over a decade after being published? - to motivate some interesting economics. Excerpt:
What happened? In short, Amazon.com recommendations. The online bookseller's software noted patterns in buying behavior and suggested that readers who liked Into Thin Air would also like Touching the Void. People took the suggestion, agreed wholeheartedly, wrote rhapsodic reviews. More sales, more algorithm-fueled recommendations, and the positive feedback loop kicked in.

Particularly notable is that when Krakauer's book hit shelves, Simpson's was nearly out of print. A few years ago, readers of Krakauer would never even have learned about Simpson's book - and if they had, they wouldn't have been able to find it. Amazon changed that. It created the Touching the Void phenomenon by combining infinite shelf space with real-time information about buying trends and public opinion. The result: rising demand for an obscure book.

This is not just a virtue of online booksellers; it is an example of an entirely new economic model for the media and entertainment industries, one that is just beginning to show its power. Unlimited selection is revealing truths about what consumers want and how they want to get it in service after service, from DVDs at Netflix to music videos on Yahoo! Launch to songs in the iTunes Music Store and Rhapsody. People are going deep into the catalog, down the long, long list of available titles, far past what's available at Blockbuster Video, Tower Records, and Barnes & Noble. And the more they find, the more they like. As they wander further from the beaten path, they discover their taste is not as mainstream as they thought (or as they had been led to believe by marketing, a lack of alternatives, and a hit-driven culture).
Emphasis added. An interesting aspect of this "new economic model" is that the effect of the internet on expanding supply (i.e., see emphasis above) is endogenous. In other words, "unlimited selection" is driven in part by the way the internet expands the geographic market. Then again, the expansion of demand is in part driven by the unlimited selection. Link

Philadelphia Inquirer

Dad's hometown paper makes a reserved endorsement for Kerry. Excerpt:
The choice is vivid. The stakes are vast.

...A hooded prisoner on a box has replaced a soaring lady with a lamp as the global icon of America's intentions. Our national discourse has grown peevish, choking on distortion and bile.

On Nov. 2, we can return to office the man who, since 2001, has spawned some of those ills and shown a shaky touch at healing the others.

Or we can go a new way, one alert to fresh global challenges yet rooted in the approaches that made the 1990s so productive. We can elect Democratic nominee John F. Kerry.

Dear fellow citizen, this is as important an election as any in which you've had a chance to vote.

The Inquirer's urgent, deeply felt recommendation: Cast that ballot on Nov. 2 for JOHN F. KERRY.
OK, OK, we'll vote Kerry. Don't have a hemmorage. Link

Sunday, October 10

Where is Genghis?

And I did not even know we were looking...
Genghis Khan went to extraordinary lengths to conceal the location of his grave site, even after his death.

According to legend, the Mongolian despot's huge burial party killed anyone who saw them en route to the site, and then servants and soldiers who attended the funeral were massacred.

Now archaeologists believe they could be close to finding the long-sought grave, after unearthing the site of his 13th-century palace.
Link

I don't understand

It seems the vocabulary levels of presidential candidates have declined significantly over time. Check this:

The Princeton Review, best known for its test preparation services, analyzed the vocabulary used by the presidential candidates in the campaign debates of 2000 and compared it to the vocabulary levels used in earlier campaign debates.

The Princeton Review obtained transcripts of the Gore-Bush debates, the Clinton-Bush-Perot debate of 1992, the Kennedy-Nixon debate of 1960, and the Lincoln-Douglas debate of 1858. It analyzed these transcripts using a standard vocabulary test that indicates the minimum educational level needed for a reader to understand a document. This test is ordinarily used to evaluate textbooks and other educational materials.

The results? In the debates of 2000, George W. Bush spoke at a sixth-grade level (6.7); Al Gore spoke at a high seventh-grade level (7.9). In 1992, challenger Bill Clinton scored in the seventh grade (7.6), President George Bush in the sixth grade (6.8), and Ross Perot at a sixth-grade level (6.3).

Our contemporary politicians, who found it necessary to speak to us as sixth and seventh graders, compared unfavorably with Kennedy and Nixon, both of whom spoke in a vocabulary appropriate for tenth graders. And they, in turn, looked sophomoric when compared to Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, whose scores, respectively, were 11.2 and 12.0.
The above quote is from a 2001 article by Diane Ravitch. Link. Ravitch asks, "is it the candidates who have dumbed down their appeals or are they simply acknowledging that the public has a limited vocabulary?" Ravitch argues for the latter, and her thesis is that this limited quality of Presidential debates is based on the declining quality of our educational system.

Saturday, October 9

Two from Boing Boing

Nothing newsworthy here, just sharing. The first is titled "Young Joe Sixpack takes a vacation", a note on a book of photographs on spring break, titled Spring Broke. Ahh, the memories.

The second is an interesting story on a class photograph.

Flip Flop

A funny parody: The G.W. & Crew magazine.

Friday, October 8

So watchya want?

Of all of the infamous answering machine messages I compiled in my days of youth and singledom, I am most proud of my application of the Beastie Boys' tune "So watchya want?" (on their "Check Your Head" album). For some reason Steph has never shared this artistic interest, and once we began sharing an abode this endeavor waned.

My last attempt, as I recall, was a recreation of the Dr. Dre/Snoop Dog duet in "Nuthin but a G thang" (on Dre's "The Chronic" album). I, of courese, was Snoop and Steph was Dre. The message commenced by me asking Steph if the caller might be "in the mood for some motherfuckin G shit?" and Steph responded "heeell yeeeah", etc. To be honest, I know not what "g shit" is, but I would surmise that most callers, out of curiosity, would be in the mood for some of it were they asked. Steph thought not and nixed it; it never aired, and from then on it was standard "leave your name after the beep" bs.

You'll be happy to know that this conundrum now appears to be a thing of the past. In our current abode - which, by the way, is our 4th residence in the past nine months..yikes! - we've decided to nix the landline telephone altogether. Hence, the answering machine is no more. We plan to have two mobiles (one for mom, one for dad) and a VOIP phone.

At present, the only functioning means of voice communication is Steph's mobile, which for your records is 847-962-6645. Also, please note our new address (which will remain for at least the next 6 months):

535 Michigan Avenue
Apt. 1W
Evanston, IL 60202

(Mapquest directions: Link). We do have high-speed internet (via Comcast), so we can be reached via email at the usual places.

So what else? Well, as of yesterday, I am officially without employment. ICTA and I agreed that it was best to part ways, seeing that I am not interested in returning to the island sans the boys. For some reasons, the spouses of work permit holders are permitted back on island, but not their other dependents. I am presently searching for new employment, so if you hear of something (in the Chicago area) that looks interesting, please let me know.