Wednesday

Happy Tax Birthday to 3! Here she is in one of my favorite pics with her friend Warren.

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Rainy Fall day here today. Not sure if I'll get a run in or not. Befitting October 15th and the last of the 2007 tax returns, we may be looking at a little Tuscan red after work.
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In a decidedly unplanned series of events, I found myself at Crow Valley Country Club last night with my pal Roy, his spouse, and another business acquaintance. My intent was to stay for a single glass of wine so that I could get home, to bed early, and ready for a productive day today. Well, one glass turned to consent for a second, and Roy made a big deal to get the Club Manager over to get the "best" Cabernet in the wine room.

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The Manager trots out this 2005 Caymus Vineyards Special Selection Cabernet. For a mere $300 a bottle. When Roy asked if one of our other wine snobbish friends might choose such a bottle, the Manager closed the deal by saying in his natural European accent, "Oh no, Mr. C., your friend cannot afford this wine." Another story that will be told and re-told among the boys for years to come.

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I pointed out to Roy that if you drop the "y" in Caymus, you get the name of a famous person in literature, and he was able to remove the necessary cobwebs and recall Albert Camus and existentialism. If the tree falls in the woods while no one is there, does it make any sound? Good 'ol Albert was a staple of first year English Lit at ND.

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A new term that has come to the fore in the financial crisis is "systemic risk." This is a euphemistic term that is meant to describe a risk that can affect an entire market. That's why they bailed out AIG. They thought that failure of that company would have a broad negative impact throughout the economy. This in contrast to, say, Arthur Anderson, whose bankruptcy killed only a few previously wealthy CPA's.

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Craig Wilson's column today was a Christmas-based effort in response to seeing the retailers get into the season. Yet another example of him copying my observations here in 4KDays. I wonder what else he does with his time. Surely his responsibilities extend beyond spinning out 500 words or so of Oprah-like shtick once a week. I mean, just how much of that syrup can people take? Its like drinking middle-shelf wine all the time; every once in a while, you need a change. Get something with some kick, for crying out loud. Geesh.

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Sorry about that.

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My Russian cleaning lady was scared off yesterday because my CO2 alarm was clicking (as those alarms do when the batteries are low). She had pulled the alarm off the shelf and set it on my kitchen table, but was too uncertain to just take the batteries out and silence the clicking. I'm not sure if she really wanted to work that much yesterday. (Heck, I had fortgotten that I even had a CO2 alarm. Even when I opened it to see the size of batteries required, I thought that it was a smoke detector. Alzheimers again.)

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Have a great evening.

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BCOT