Jan
3
2009

URLs du Jour

2009-01-03

  • Did you know that the word "gullible" isn't in the dictionary?

    OK, you probably know that joke. But if you're like me, you probably haven't been fooled by it more than two or three times, at least not lately.

    I was reminded of it when I saw the actual blurb on the front page of today's WSJ:

    ME, MADOFF AND THE MIND
    How a Gullibility Expert Was Scammed

    And, no, they're not trying to fool their readers. The actual article by Stephen Greenspan, who lost about 30% of his retirement nest-egg to Bernard Madoff, is online here. And he really is a gullibility expert; he's written an expensive book: Annals of Gullibility: Why We Get Duped and How to Avoid It

    Unless, of course, it's all an elaborate hoax.

  • Mark Liberman at Language Log notes the following quote from VP-elect Biden:

    The greater threat to the economy lies with doing too little rather than not doing enough.

    Speculation abounds why this didn't get Bush/Quayle/Palin-style media treatment:

    1. Nobody noticed.

    2. Everybody noticed, but:

      1. Knew what he "really" meant.

      2. Nobody expects Biden to make sense.

      3. Nobody reports Democrat gaffes.

    I guess time will tell. Specifically, the amount of time it takes for Biden to talk again.

  • Donald Westlake, famous mystery writer, has passed away. I read a lot of his stuff years ago, but more recently preferred the books he wrote under his "Richard Stark" pseudonym about his ruthless criminal anti-hero, Parker. (Frustratingly, the most recent of these have yet to come out in paperback.)

    The Weekly Standard brings back a 2002 article Westlake wrote for them about the post-9/11 Dubya, and a 2001 appreciation of Westlake by Steven Lenzner. Also see Terry Teachout.


Last Modified 2022-10-04 3:02 PM EDT