Jonathan Clements is leaving the Wall Street Journal. His “Getting Going” column is well read and well liked, so no doubt his presence will be missed.
Where is he headed? Citigroup has offered him a sweet gig as director of financial education, specifically for the “emerging affluent.” He is pretty much going to continue to write what he has always written, but for a lot more money. I say, good for Clements.
However, some may say he is headed for the exits because Rupert Murdoch recently assumed the chairmanship of Dow Jones. But in an interview with Conde Nast Portfolio Clements makes it very clear why he is leaving:
“I recently wrote my thousandth column, and if somebody told me I had to write another thousand, I’d go out back and blow my brains out.”
I put this one in the category of “we can’t make this stuff up.”
A Bellevue, Ohio man has been caught in an, uhm, compromising position with his picnic table. Neighbors of the picnic-table pervert caught their philandering neighbor on tape walking out onto his deck, standing the round metal table on its side, and doing his thing in the hole where the umbrella usually goes. No doubt he’d say it’s not what is looks like, probably something along the lines of the picnic table tripped and he fell, but it did not help calm his neighbors down. I might even be inclined to believe him, if he hadn’t been observed making love to the patio furniture four times.
Even though charges have since been dropped, the picnic-table loving man was originally charged with four charges of felony public indecency. Why a felony? Because “it took place in close proximity to a school, which made it likely that children could have seen [the man, whose name we keep out of it],” said the news report. Read more »
Matt, Josh and myself, along with Mrs. Matt, were on hand for the opening of Lower East Side Vietnamese noodle house Slurp.
Matt had been anxiously monitoring its construction so we were excited to see what they had to offer.
First, let’s chat about the only reason to write about a restaurant: the food. There were some great dishes, and some which, at best, were just OK.
On the good side was my crab meat and shrimp pho. I really enjoyed the noodles and sprouts served in a very interestingly-flavored beef broth (more on that later: I think it had anise in it. Matt says clove), and found the portion size to be spot-on with my expectations.
But, and this is a very big point, the contents of the dish included imitation crab meat, which is an abomination to anyone who takes seafood even remotely seriously.
Read more »
Times are tough and we here at AmericanMadness want to help our loyal readers. Continuing on the theme of “Recession Proof Your Wine Portfolio,” I present to you my latest discount find. Chateau Lafayette has produced a crisp, tight white wine with lots of pear and apple flavors. This Finger Lakes wine bring together the best parts of Chardonnay and the best parts of a Seyval blanc to give a well rounded white for $8. A must buy, particularly as the temperature starts to rise.
Winery: Chateau Lafayette Reneau
Grape: Seyval Blanc & Chardonnay
Region: Finger Lakes, New York
Year: Undetermined
Source: FreshDirect.com
Price: $8
Color: Light yellow
Nose: Melon, grass and butter scents right out of the bottle. With a swirl, strong bubblegum notes join pear and vanilla in the bouquet.
Taste: Crisp and controlled, the seyval, chardonnary blend enters with big pear and apple. The medium-bodied wine has a nice mineral balance, giving a slight fizziness to the tasting, particularly when you spend some time slurping it through the mouth, enhancing the grass, celery, pear and apple flavors mid-palate. At the finish, more of the chardonnay’s characteristics come forth, giving a mango flavor, with kiwi, before a nice, crisp lingering finish of pear and watermelon. Read more »
I was right. It didn’t take me to the end of the month to post 500. That last post did it (this one makes 501). Of course now the question remains how long until I hit 1000.
Today will hopefully also mark Josh’s 200th post (when he gets around to writing one more). We are just hitting milestones left and right around here. Following that, it will be a race to see who writes the 1000th post (only 162 posts to go) while Eric and Adam
working towards 100 each (they are tied with 34 posts each).
We’ll keep writing as long as you keep reading! OK, actually, we’ll keep writing regardless of whether you’re reading or not, but we prefer when you read and comment on what we’ve written. It makes us feel like there is actually someone else out there reading this stuff besides just us.
