Television Coverage of the Mid-terms

From what I can tell, the cable news channels are not reporting any news any more. Maybe there is none, or at least none that is of any interest to their audience. They are devoting their time to mid-term election related stuff, including especially: Trump's continuing drop in the polls; how misguided Trump is to be campaigning in MAGA communities in Red states; how well the Dems are doing in race after race that no one thought they could be competitive in; to the panic the Reps are in; to the certainty the House will flip and the strong possibility the Senate will flip; and how, the Magic 8 Ball says, "All signs point to yes" when asked are the Dems going to kick ass. If this serves to up the Dem and Independent turnout, fantastic; if not, and it serves to up the Rep turnout, put me down as unhappy.

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Reclaiming 10GB of Storage By Replacing 5 Google Apps

If you're short on storage on your phone, or just want to free up 10GB of memory, this article explains an easy way to do it: Replace 5 Google apps with smaller, free, perfectly good, alternatives.

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Avoiding the Pitfalls When Helping Your Kids or Grandkids Buying a Home

Many young adults today do a lot of whining when it comes to the supposed unaffordability of getting into a starter home. As they've done since they day they were born, they look to their parents and grandparents for help. Some won't help, but others will. As a favor for those that will, we warn you that there are many pitfalls standing in the way(s) of doing it right, and we bring you Terrell Wright's suggestions as to how to avoid them. Unfortunately, we have no advice to shield you from what too often happens, other than to point to King Lear's cutting to the chase: "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child."

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Will the Fed Raising Interest Rates Kill the AI Boom?

Everyone believes that the Fed will be hiking the interest rate they control. No one knows for sure if doing so will douse the AI boom. Greg Ip argues that it will: "Skeptics assume interest rates could only slow AI companies by raising their cost of borrowing. That is a fallacy. Short-term rates are the benchmark cost of liquidity, affecting overall financial conditions. With each successive increase, tighter credit ripples out along the risk spectrum, from Treasurys to corporate and household loans, equity and so on. The leveraged investors who buy risky assets see their funding squeezed. Appetites for initial public offerings, high-yield bonds, private credit and securitizations dry up. This is why asset meltdowns through history bear the Fed’s fingerprints: the 1929 and 1987 stock-market crashes, the dot-com and housing busts, emerging-market crises in 1982 and 1997-98. As assets deflate, investment follows and sometimes recession comes next. And with recession, inflation goes down. To be clear, the Fed doesn’t want to end the AI boom. It only wants overall inflation to fall to 2%, which doesn’t require that AI-related inflation do so as well. But make no mistake: If the only way to 2% inflation is to drain the lake of liquidity sustaining AI, the Fed has the means and, very likely, the will to do it." We believe Paul Krugman would agree. We know Spencer Jakab does from a different angle.

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Why Colleges Are Lax in Cracking Down on Fraternities

The one thing that is in arguable with the recent disclosures about Cornell is that, if Cornell has been lax on curbing abuses at fraternities, it is not alone. It is a problem that  plagues most if not all schools that have fraternities. Occam's Razor provides a compelling reason this is so, a reason that is said to root all evils: money. Specifically, studies from the North American Interfraternity Conference and university advancement offices show that Greek-affiliated alumni give back to their alma maters at roughly double the rate of non-Greek peers.

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Pardon the Interruption (PTI) 25th Anniversary Show

PTI is a wonderful conversational show with Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon. Who thought 25 years ago it would last this long, but it has. How good the upcoming special commemorating this milestone will be I don't know, but I'm taping it. It will air on ESPN this Thursday, October 22 at 5:00 pm EDT.

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Cautionary Note re New Airline "Base Fare" Premium (Business/First Class) Seats

Airlines are expanding their premium seating and making them more affordable with different tiered pricing within them (akin to different tiered pricing in the back of the plane). While this is welcome news, one note of caution: Where a premium seat typically had benefits such as no checked-baggage fee and refundability, the new so called "base fares" might not have them. So, be careful when you book.

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The Surprising Case for Investing in Real Estate Now

Two separate WSJ articles (article 1 and article 2) look at what one might want to do given the steep and sudden rise in long-term rates, and suggest that this might be a good time to add real estate to one's portfolio.

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Keeping Oil Out of the Kitchen Sink Drain

As this cnet article explains in more detail, never dispose of oil down the kitchen sink drain, and there's an easy hack to avoid doing so. While wiping oil off a pan with a paper towel or other disposable does an okay job, what does an even better job is to wipe the pan with a  slice or chunk of bread before washing the pan.

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How Cushiony Shoes Add Stress to Your Feet

High-stack shoes are all the rage. But some doctors worry they could pose long-term risks to a runner’s ankles, knees, or hips. If you don’t own a pair of so-called high-stack or max-cushion running shoes yourself, no doubt you’ve seen others wearing them, whether at the gym, on trails or just knocking about town. Sandwiched between the tire tread-like outer sole and nylon upper is as much as 2 inches of soft and springy foam, which gives these shoes both the look and feel of walking around with mini-mattresses on your feet. It all started back in 2010 with the introduction of the Hoka line of maxcushion shoes, which led other brands to develop similar styles, each stacked with its own patented lightweight foam. Now it is difficult to find running or walking shoes that aren’t raised on a platform of puff, some with the added oomph of a layer, or plate, of carbon fiber. While max-cushion shoes may feel super comfy, and can improve running efficiency and performance if embedded with a carbon plate, there are concerns among podiatrists, orthopedists, kinesiologists, and sports-medicine doctors about the long-term effects, not only on your feet, but also your ankles, knees, and hips. Further detail is provided in this article.

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Tip re Solving a Problem With Amazon

If the first rep you speak to and their supervisor do not give you the obvious solution to a problem Amazon created, do not hesitate to call back and try again. You just might find that a problem that could not be solved in a reasonable way in a 45 minute phone call with a level one rep and a supervisor can be solved in a 3 minute follow-up phone call with a different level one rep. 

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Why Josh Allen Has the Reputation He Has

As this play shows, Josh Allen is one heck of a QB.

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Cautionary Note re New Medicare Plans

As this WSJ article reports, for the third year, major Medicare insurers are pruning some benefits while adding bigger out-of-pocket charges such as deductibles. The article goes on to explain what you need to know about navigating this year’s Medicare enrollment.

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Reasons to Avoid Meta's Muse AI Assistant

This Arizona Republic column sets out some good reasons to not use Meta's Muse (aka in the trade as Metamucil) or, at least, to take cautionary steps if you do use it.

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Cautionary Note re Using Wearables to Track Blood Pressure

As this WSJ article explains, nearly half of U.S. adults—more than 119 million people—have high blood pressure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Wouldn’t it be convenient if a wearable health tracker could take measurements without the panic-inducing arm squeeze? Several devices have recently launched insights into blood-pressure trends, including Hilo, Whoop, Oura Ring, Pixel Watch, and Apple Watch. As someone with a family history of hypertension, I wanted to know if the cuffless tech could help me, or if they’re just pricey, anxiety-inducing doodads. The devices provided a good sense of my long-term trends, but they can’t entirely replace the arm squeeze—at least not yet. Further, while these health trackers alert you to changes, doctors warn they may give a false sense of security.

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The WSJ's Take on Trump

It is generally advisable to stay away from the WSJ's editorial page and its editorial writers. But, if you want to read an excellent critique of Trump, and one we hope is correct, this "letter" does a masterful job.

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Do We Really Live in a Democracy? and a PS

An oligarchy is a state/country where control is held by a minority—often defined by wealth or corporate influence. Given the rise of the multi-billionaire class and the Citizens United decision, and their ability to buy politicians, if not at the ballot box but after they are seated as well, how is America not an oligarchy? Let's hope the first step to get rid of Trumpism is taken next month. But, even if both chambers are flipped, it would seem inarguable we have much to do to MAADA (Make America a Democracy Again).

PS: One great thing about sports, as shown by the fates of the Dodgers, Phillies, Yankees, and Mets this season, unlike politics, money spent, even great disparity in money spent, does not get you the buyer what they wanted to buy.

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Sheesh re Attorneys' Fees

As this Reuters article reports, a California federal judge approved more than $22.6 million in legal fees this week in a $68 million privacy settlement with Google over its voice-activated assistant, but criticized some of the lawyers' billing rates, including a proposed $3,000 hourly rate that the court called "patently unreasonable." US District ​Judge Beth Labson Freeman in San Jose refused to accept the $3,000 rate for David Scott of plaintiffs' firm Scott + Scott and reduced it to $1,600 an hour for purposes ‌of calculating the overall class action fee award. "It is not unusual for named partners to charge more than other partners. And the court is cognizant that rates increase year to year. But not to $3,000 an hour," Freeman wrote, opens new tab. Still, the court granted the lawyers' request for 33% of the settlement fund and called the award reasonable and consistent with market rates. A $3,000 hourly rate ​may have struck the judge as an overreach in this case, but such figures are no longer a shock among top lawyers at major firms. Reuters has reported rates as high ​as $4,000 for prominent lawyers at Susman Godfrey. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Milbank and Quinn Emanuel are among firms with some partner rates over $3,000. "Lawyers operate in a market, and for better ⁠or worse, $3,000 per hour is now very much market rate for top tier partners at large firms," Adam Levitin, a bankruptcy law professor at Georgetown University, said in an email.

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Stop Blaming the Founding Fathers for Trumpism Subverting the Constitution

We have railed about the Founding Fathers giving us a constitution that failed when confronted by a con man able to develop a rabid cult following. We fear we were not only unkind in that criticism, but wrong and wrong-headed. As James Madison said at a ratifying convention, "To suppose that any form of Government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people is a chimerical idea." We apologize.

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Caution re Supposedly "Cheap" ETFs

As Jason Zweig explains, ETFs are cheap, but they aren’t cheap enough. Exchange-traded funds have made owning swaths of stocks and bonds remarkably affordable. But if you move even slightly away from the broadest indexes like the S&P 500 or the aggregate U.S. bond market, ETFs often cost more than they should. Funds that mimic a large-company index can cost next to nothing: BlackRock’s iShares, Schwab, State Street and Vanguard all offer such ETFs with annual fees of 0.03% or less. Yet index-tracking ETFs that charge at least 0.20% to invest in large U.S. stocks held $417 billion as of the end of September, according to Morningstar. Thanks largely to inertia or inattention, investors are paying tens of millions of dollars a year in excess fees.

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Google's Universal Cart

Google on Thursday said “Universal Cart,” a tool that lets users collect and monitor products they find across search and in the Gemini app, is now available to U.S. users. The idea is to make online shopping easier to manage. Find something you like, save it to your cart, and move on. When you return later, your items and shopping progress are still there, so you don’t have to hunt down the same products or start over. Universal Cart can collect items from multiple retailers, turning it into a central hub for browsing and keeping track of potential purchases. Google says the cart can also help shoppers stay on top of deals and availability. The tool can send notifications when a saved product’s price drops or when an out-of-stock item becomes available again. The tool is also designed to offer more tailored help during the shopping process. Google says it can take credit card perks into account when helping users choose how to pay, and also surface relevant promo codes. Checkout is tied to Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol, or UCP, an open standard the company introduced earlier this year. UCP is designed to help AI agents and retailers work together across different parts of the shopping journey, including checkout. Google is already deeply invested in AI-powered shopping, and Universal Cart is its latest effort to make the experience more convenient. It joins features such as conversational product discovery in Search’s AI Mode and Google’s “Let Google Call” tool, which uses an AI agent to contact nearby stores and check whether an item is in stock.

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Doubts re Fed Chair Warsh

It does not look like Fed Chair Warsh is going to bend to Trump's misguided calling for a lowering of interest rates. That's heartening. What's disheartening is that: (i) in speaking at the IMF annual meeting in Bangkok he told the IMF Director, "You pronounce it AI, in the U.S., we now pronounce it SI"; and (ii) that the Nobel Prize for Economics just went to two economists whose work shaped the importance of central banks giving forward guidance looks like it will have no effect on Warsh's stance to not give forward guidlance but instead to let the market provide the guidance to the Fed (whatever that means, but Paul Krugman surely can explain it and surely will slam it).

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Duplicati

Duplicati is a free, open-source backup tool for Windows and macOS. Unlike traditional backup utilities that simply copy files to another drive, Duplicati gives me complete control over how, when, and where I back up my files. For example, I can select important folders from my Windows desktop, schedule automated backups (more on that in a minute), and send everything to Google Drive, OneDrive, an external SSD, or even my NAS. It also supports incremental backups, so it doesn’t need to upload all my files every time something changes. Another thing I appreciate is its browser-based interface. I don’t need to deal with complicated command-line instructions to configure my backups. Everything from choosing folders to setting schedules and restoring files is accessible through a graphical interface. Duplicati also supports encryption, compression, and multiple backup destinations. It’s mainly designed for file-level backups, and that’s exactly what I need to protect my important documents, photos, and ongoing projects. Duplicati isn’t just about creating backups. It also makes recovering files straightforward. For example, if I accidentally delete an important Word document or overwrite an article draft, I can open Duplicati, head to the Restore section, select an existing backup, and choose the files I want to recover. This XDA article explains everything else you might want to know about Duplicati.

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Windows Default Settings to Turn Off to Protect the SSD

As this XDA article explains, there are a couple of  Windows 11's default settings that are quietly wearing out your SSD and turning them off can extend its life. The article explains how.

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What Are the Stock and Bond Markets Telling Us About the Mid-terms and the Future?

The only answer that makes any sense is nobody knows, and the observers and the participants are all over the place. But do not be surprised if what these markets are seeing is a slow down in growth and investment, particularly on the AI front that has been driving the markets this year, with some daring to utter the stagnation word. If what they're seeing is that the Dems are running on their pushing back on AI (data center) build outs, and that the Dems are likely to flip one or both chambers of Congress, one might hope the stock and bond markets have got it right, even if not good for investors or the economy.

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The Diplomat (Season 4 on Netflix)

The Diplomat has been a terrific series, with each season better than the last. We have loved the stories and the acting by a fabulous cast which stars Keri Russel along with Allison Janey, Rufus Sewell, Bradley Whitford, and Rory Kinnear. S4 has now dropped and we've watched just one EP, and it was really good. Very very good.

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Flight Tracking

Most, if not all, airlines provide real time status updates for any flight you are on, but some do not provide status updates for flights you are not on. There are I'm sure many apps that do. We have found FlightAware for Windows, FlightAware for Android, and FlightAware for Apple, which is free, to be simple and fast.

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Think Again If You Thought Golf Wasn't a Strenuous Sport

Thanks to the latest innovations in technology related to fitness and recovery, professional athletes from 41-year-old LeBron James to 39-year-old Novak Djokovic are able to compete at the highest level longer than ever before. Now, Rory McIlroy wants to make sure he’s part of this elite group as he gets older. McIlroy said he spent the last six to nine months designing a performance trailer with Dutch company Expandable to use for fitness and recovery on the road while he’s competing at tournaments throughout the United States. The 37-year-old used the state-of-the-art trailer for his final three PGA Tour events of the year in Memphis, St. Louis, and Atlanta and decided it was time to create a similar operation for his overseas competitions.

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New and Improved Features in Windows 11

None of these are big deals, but if you are interested in seeing what the latest updates to Windows 11 have brought, this short article lists and explains them. 

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Risks in Buying Bonds

As Ashleigh Ebeling explains, with 10-year Treasury yields hovering near multidecade highs, some investors are looking to add more fixed income to their portfolios. They are moving cash to 2-year Treasurys, building ladders of Treasury inflation-protected securities, and buying target-maturity bond funds. Bonds can offer income, safety, and diversification. But for those wading in, they also come with a unique set of risks, including credit risk, duration risk, call risk, prepayment risk, and tax risk. Those risks need to be understood before diving in to what might be the best the bond swimming pool has been in a long, long time.

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Let's Hope This Is 2018 Redux (at Worst) and Not 2016 or 2024

Trump conned the country in 2016, and the polls missed it in large part because people were unwilling to say they favored Trump. The Dems flipped the House but not the Senate in 2018. In 2020, the people had it with Trump, and could not have been more disgusted than they were when he staged a violent coup. But memories faded, and Trump conned the country again 2024, and again the polls had missed that people were unwilling to say they favored Trump. The question for 2026 is, as the common wisdom of the commentators says, are the people onto and fed up with Trump's con and want Trumpism, or are they even more unwilling to tell pollsters they favor Trump. I am heartened by the number of supposed toss-ups in traditionally Red strongholds. But I  am scared that toss-ups in the polls, which are not electoral wins, will not break the way all sane people want them to break.

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Ted Simons Retiring From Horizon on PBS

We don't watch every Horizon episode nightly, but we tape it because there are so many good segments, and Ted Simons is an outstanding interviewer. Alas, he has announced his retirement effective the end of the year. Dennis Welch  has begun appearing on the Journalist Roundtable segment every Friday, and is as outstanding there as he is on his own show (Inside Politics on Sundays). We have suggested to Arizona PBS that Dennis Welch be Ted Simons replacement and urge others to by sending an email to: supportazpbs@azpbs.org. You are welcome to say you were prompted by this blog.

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Close All Apps

[Preliminary Note: Readers know that I, along with most people, prefer Android (with close to 75% market share) to Apple (with under 25% market share), but I try to avoid sharing my bias. The reason I cover more Android and Windows stuff than iPhone and Mac stuff is the result of my using an Android phone and tablet and a Windows computer. I apologize in advance to all iPhone users for the below post because the event discussed bugged me beyond words when it confronted me and so I used this post to find the words]

The iPhone has no way to close all open apps with one button push or swipe. It might vary by Android phone, but one can close all open apps with a swipe up and tap "close all apps" button that appears. If anyone doesn't think this is a big deal shortcoming of the iPhone, they really should try an Android to see what they are missing. And if they were to try an iPhone, they also would see the customization of screen layouts and other things that, along with lower cost, make Androids far more popular.

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Options If Dairy Bothers You

As this article explains, many people who think they are lactose intolerant really aren't. It goes on to explain how to know if you are, what to do if you are, and what to do if you're not but dairy causes some issues.

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Home Blood Pressure Monitors

If you monitor your blood pressure at home and your getting readings that are higher than you're getting when you go to a doctor's office (which would generally run higher due to white-coat effect), you might have a faulty home monitor or you're not following the guidelines as to how to do it correctly. We say no more here (we have no medical training), but we have seen this happen with more frequency than one might think. So, if you're home monitoring, be sure you're using the correct equipment and that you're using it correctly.

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Medicare for All Is No Longer a Radical Issue

A loyal reader has shared the result of a recent Axios-Ipsos poll which shows that a majority of Americans support increased government spending to lower healthcare costs, while a plurality would support a “Medicare for All” program. 

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Correction re Self-Checkout of Liquor

A recent post said that, by having a clerk put one's birthday on one's Safeway card, no clerk clearance was needed to buy liquor. That post did not hold water and was wrong. Clerk clearance is still required. In fact, at Safeway and elsewhere, not only does a clerk have to clear the sale, they have to ask the shopper for their birthdate even if it's obvious that they're decades above the legal drinking age. What happened re the person who reported the wrong info to us was this: He is a bit hard of hearing and thought the clerk said she was putting the birthdate onto the Safeway card when, in fact, she was saying she now had to ask for the shopper's birthday even where the shopper would have no chance for passing as underage. Apologies for any confusion in our passing along the wrong info in the first place.

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Maricopa County Mail In Balloting Speed

At least one Maricopa County voter received his ballot last Friday, filled it out and took it to the post office on Saturday, received notice of its being received by the County Recorder on Tuesday morning (Monday was a holiday), and 2 hours later, received notice that the signature was verified and the ballot was counted. Wow!

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Screening Questions for Vaccines

When getting a vaccine at a pharmacy, there is a form that has to be filled out. Some of the questions ask about certain health conditions and medications that might result in autoimmune difficulties. Do NOT lie thinking that answering "yes" might stop you from getting Covid, flu, or tetanus shots. Those questions are there for live vaccines (which Covid, flu, and tetanus are not). But, do not believe me. Check with your doctor.

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How Trump Has Funded the "Beautification" of DC

Ten megadonors accounted for more than half of the $300 million that President Trump raised for the new White House ballroom and legacy projects around Washington, according to a new filing from the nonprofit he and his allies are using to take in the money. The identities of the donors, who contributed between $10 million and $25 million apiece, weren’t included in the public filing by the Trust for the National Mall, a long-established nonprofit which the White House has also used to manage funds it raised for the triumphal arch and the Rose Garden. The annual filing shows the trust recorded $320 million in contributions and grants last year, up from less than $10 million in 2024. Three contributors gave $25 million apiece. The trust also racked up $210 million in expenses last year, the filing shows, most of it going to maintenance and capital improvement projects. The documents we reviewed don’t show how much money has gone to each project and they don’t name the donors. The White House has previously identified some ballroom donors but hasn’t disclosed how much they contributed.

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Printing Smarter With Less Waste

This Arizona Republic article has some good and easy to adopt tips to reduce the amount of paper and ink being used when printing.

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Rise of the Game Ending Field Goals in the NFL

We had Matt Hasselback (18Y quarterback in the NFL, Pro Bowler, Super Bowl MVP, and one of the smartest football minds I know) and his wife for dinner last night. It was a delightful evening but also quite informative. As Matt explained, the field goal kickers on most teams now can routinely make 70Y-ers, but they don't during the game because the ceding of field position when they miss is too much of a penalty. But, their ability to hit the long ones has changed what the 2-minute drill looks like and what end-of-game planning looks like. Makes you think.

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Upside of the EV Slump

Electric-vehicle sales in the U.S. are down by half compared with last year. The EV charging industry evidently didn’t get the memo. Charging companies in the U.S. are on track to install about as many public EV plugs this year as in 2025, the industry’s record high. By adding thousands of new plugs this year, charging executives say they aim to serve longtime EV owners looking for easier road trips as well as buyers flocking to used EVs—while prepping infrastructure for a day when EV demand might bounce back.

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Prediction Market on Jury Verdicts

During the summer murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, bettors wagered more than $100,000 on the verdict. Since a deadlocked jury forced a mistrial in early September, more than $500,000 in additional bets have been placed on whether the Massachusetts woman accused of killing her children will eventually be convicted. I wonder if one can hedge a case of one's own to off-set at least in part losing the case. This prediction market stuff is really weird and above our ability to really understand it.

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Interesting Take on How the AI Boom Ends

This Andy Kessler piece might be right or wrong but it's a worthwhile read. As he puts it: "I can tell you how the artificial- intelligence datacenter boom will probably end, but I can’t tell you when. Implementing large language models has been a brute-force approach: Big, fast and expensive GPUs from Nvidia crunch a trillion parameters using massive amounts of memory housed in liquid cooled, gigawatt-gobbling data centers, all with brute-force pricing. It sure smells like IBM mainframes of old. Be careful about extrapolating anything from today’s pricing. With AI, like all new technologies, the refinement stage is kicking in—just as mainframes gave way to cheaper minicomputers, microprocessors, web servers and now AI architectures. AI token prices have been dropping but are set to plunge faster than most anticipate. Tech growth is never a straight line. Silicon Valley’s mantra for decades has been smaller, cheaper, faster, better. I asked venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson to translate that into numbers. “We often see a technology shift when the new approach is 10 times better. It can be 10 times more performant or 10 times cheaper, sometimes both.” He calls it the “factor of 10.” And it’s happening. Last week, according to Open-Router, OpenAI and Anthropic were charging a premium for some of their models—$1 to $2 per million input tokens. Comparable Chinese open weight models like Z.ai’s GLM and Alibaba’s Qwen charged 6 to 12 cents, around 90% less—that factor of 10 inflection point. American AI labs have gone from 70% market share last year to 30% today. All are still growing. But prices matter."

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Higher For Longer Interest Rates

As this article argues, some economic shocks look like bumps in the road—tariffs, to which businesses adjust, or a war with Iran that raises oil prices temporarily. But economists increasingly believe that higher U.S. interest rates will define the rest of the decade.

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Animals (2026 Movie on Netflix)

Animals is a ransom story about the kidnapping of an LA  mayoral candidate. It takes what it thinks are many twists and turns delving into peoples' characters with a lot of dialogue as if it were a Shakespearean tale. It's not. It's okay to kill some time if you have nothing better to do, but it's not particularly enjoyable, and thankfully, is not memorable. The acting by a concededly accomplished cast is a bit overdone.

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Main Street Millionaires Have Far More Cumulative Wealth Than Billionaires

As this NYT article reports, the group of roughly three million “Main Street Millionaires,” as the authors of a recent study call them, have an average net worth of $25 million, and as a group, they commanded $54.8 trillion in 2022, the most recent year cited in the book. That’s more than 13 times the collective wealth that year of the billionaires on the Forbes 400 list, which includes household names like Musk and Bezos. The multimillionaires of Main Street are getting richer even faster than the famous Forbes 400, propelled by tax breaks largely created by Republicans and local regulatory advantages. So, when it comes to taxing the rich, we should put them on notice that we're coming after them.

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Smart Shopping

This Arizona Republic article has some good tips on not wasting money or overspending on one's shopping trips, including: don't food shop when stressed, tired, or hungry; make a list and stick to it--don't impulse buy or ad-lib buy; avoid pre-cut and pre-made items; and buy in bulk when appropriate.

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Hate Car Shopping: Use AI

As this Arizona Republic article reports, buyers are increasingly using AI to shop for cars.

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Why Eagles Fans Hate Sirianni

The Eagles take a one point lead with a field goal and then there is 8 seconds left in the game. On the kick-off, instead of kicking the ball into the endzone, the kick is put into play and run back to the Eagles 40 and, with 1 second left on the clock, the Jaguars kick a game-winning field goal.

[EOP]

Shetland (10 Season Series on Britbox)

Shetland has gotten rave reviews, and having 10 seasons in the bank would support the conclusion that people like it. At least to start, it's a mystery crime drama where a local police team investigates crimes within the close-knit island community of Shetland. I can't say S1EP1 compelled going further, but it didn't put the kibosh on it either. Part of the draw is Brian Cox, who appears in 3 EPs over the first 3 seasons. Who dat? You ask. He played Logan Roy in Succession.

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Brown Eggs vs. White Eggs

The color of an eggshell is actually determined by the breed of chicken and the genetics of the bird.  White eggs are typically laid by Leghorns, Anconas, and Polish chickens. Rhode Island Reds, Plymouth Rocks, and Orpingtons lay brown eggs. Despite common myths, the nutrition of white and brown eggs is nearly identical. Both types contain the same amount of calories, protein, fat, vitamins, and antioxidants. The color of the eggshell has no impact on the egg’s nutritional content. What truly influences nutritional value is the hen’s environment, diet, and overall health. Hens fed diets enriched with omega-3s produce eggs higher in omega-3 fatty acids, while pasture-raised hens lay eggs with more vitamin A and E and richer yolks. A common misconception is that brown eggs are healthier and more natural than white eggs, with some even believing that white eggs are bleached. This belief may stem from the occasional higher cost of brown eggs, which is often due to the larger hens that lay them requiring more feed.

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Portending Risk in the Bond Market

As Spencer Jakab explains, a rise in interest rates can often be a harbinger of good things to come. Although not yet predicting recession or undue numbers of defaults, as many astute observers see it, what's happening now in the bond market does not appear to be such a time.

[EOP]

Further Dissing of Caitlin Clark

A'Ja Wilson deservedly was named the 106 WNBA MVP. And that Olivia Miles finished second, followed by Kelsey Mitchell and Clark, made sense as well. But, what made no sense was that Clark had a historic season and yet 19 voters left the Indiana Fever star off their ballots entirely.

[EOP]

How Is Hegseth's Impeachment Not an Issue for the Mid-Terms

There can be no shortage of disgust for Hegseth's intention to live-stream Hasan's execution by firing squad, and no possible justification for proceeding with it. Putting aside children being able to watch, making Hasan a martyr, the cruelty and unusualness of the method, and the moral opprobrium it will bring upon this country rendering it impossible for any decent person to say they are proud to be an American, it should be the tip of the lance for every Dem challenging every Rep saying this: Do you support Hegseth's plan to carry out a live-stream execution by firing squad and, if not, will you agree to go back into session now and vote to impeach Hegseth to stop it?

[EOP]

Safeway for Liquor

When entertaining, it's always nice to serve negronis with the appetizer(s) and wine with the main course. The problem with self-checkout is that it can be a hassle to get someone to "clear" the liquor, and no one wants to wait in a non-self-checkout line. Safeway has solved the problem. Just ask the self-checkout clerk to add your birthday to your Safeway card and there will be no need to "clear" the liquor--it will clear itself like magic. It's not even an AI thing. It's just smart use of simple technology.

[EOP]

House/Senate Investigations If the Dems Take Control

Should the Dems flip both chambers, with Trump's veto power, no legislation would seem to be forthcoming. If the Dems flip the House, it's hard to see where they will resist impeaching Trump along with Hegseth and others, but unless the Senate Reps see the light, which heretofore they've never seen, again it would appear that's a dead-end road. If either chamber flips, that chamber will do investigations into the corruption and other wrong-doing by Trump, his family, and others, but DOJ will not be investigating or pressing any such cases or issuing any subpoenas. So, what we can look forward to are repeats of the Jan 6 commission that will produce a lot of television but no changes of minds or anything else.

[EOP]

How Higher Mortgage Rates Can Help Segments of the Housing Market

With the steep rise in long-term rates in the past few weeks, 30Y mortgage rates have climbed to well above 7%. You would think that would depress the housing market, and in some segments it does. As we've said many times here, there is no such thing as "the" housing market. There are different tranches which make concepts such as "median house prices" uninformative unless one know what segment(s) is/are being addressed. All that said, here's the point of this post: With the rise in mortgage rates, in many areas and segments, sellers are having to lower their asking price and make other concessions to sell their house. And especially for buyers who are wanting to downsize and might be paying cash for a new place (e.g., boomers who have small or no mortgages on the house their selling), they might have lucked out. Let's just hope they don't thank Trump for making this happen.

[EOP]

Consideration Before Chasing High Bond Yields

With long-term rates have spiked in the past 3 weeks, there are good reasons one might want to be buying fixed-rate assets. But, as this Telos Demos piece thoughtfully explains, before chasing today’s higher rates, buyers need to figure out the reason they want to invest in bonds in the first place. Are you a bond trader or a yield farmer? That question has taken on added significance for investors enticed by Treasury yields at multidecade highs, even if a successful 10-year note auction on Wednesday momentarily cooled the feverish market. Answering it confronts investors with some very different considerations than what goes into buying stocks. An important place to start is to ask why an investor is interested in bonds in the first place. One could make the case for Treasurys today because those high yields mean prices are cheap, while stocks remain historically expensive. That is, essentially, a trading decision. Or it could be that the income generated by a bond is attractive. It is enough to cover a needed expense over the life of the bond or to induce investors to lock up their rainy day money rather than leaving it in a money-market fund or bank account. That is what a yield farmer is thinking about. Considering the “why” of bonds can help investors decide exactly how to buy them. Because, unlike when it comes to buying stocks, there is a lot more to consider than whether to go with single issues or an index fund.

[EOP]

Storm Clouds Gathering Over Mid-Term Elections

As became clear after the Jan 6 insurrection, Trump had groomed his MAGA cult following to do precisely what they did to stop the peaceful transfer of power. By failing to convict Trump on his second impeachment, the Senate gave tacit approval to let him try it again. And there can be no mistake about it, Trump has been seeding the ground to stop or overturn the election of Dems that would flip the House or the Senate. Whether lawsuits will be soon and effective enough to thwart him remains to be seen. Some might say the author of this post is paranoid. Others might say, to quote Andy Grove (co-founder of Intel), when it comes to protecting one's institutions, only the paranoid survive.

[EOP]

Storm Clouds Gathering Over Cable TV

There is a war brewing between cable TV and streaming services. Disney said its streaming platform will livestream the Super Bowl in 2027. All Disney+ subscribers in the U.S. will be able to stream the traditional game presentation airing on ESPN and ABC, as well as the Spanish-language telecast on ESPN Deportes. The 2026 Super Bowl (photo above) was broadcast on Comcast-owned NBC, Telemundo and Peacock. Outside the U.S., Disney+ will stream the Super Bowl in more than 55 international markets. In addition to the Super Bowl, Disney+ will stream two Monday Night Football games during the regular season. The first regular-season game on Disney+ will be the Dallas Cowboys playing the Philadelphia Eagles on Oct. 26. Both regular-season games will continue to air as scheduled on ESPN and ABC, as well as ESPN Deportes, Disney said. Cable TV has got to be paranoid as Disney+, Amazon, and others are looking to take away their audiences. Some might say the author of this post is paranoid. Others might say, to quote Andy Grove (co-founder of Intel), when it comes to protecting one's institutions, only the paranoid survive.

[EOP]

Storm Clouds Gathering Over MLB

Major League Baseball (MLB) sent a confidential 34-page memo to team owners and executives outlining operational rules for a looming off-season lockout, which is expected if a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is not reached before the current one expires on December 1, 2026. There is enormous amount of money at stake (measured in the billions) and other issues loom, including two interesting possible rule changes: (i) reverting back to a 154 game regular the way it always had been and how God intended it; and (ii) a bizarre post-season tweak called “pick your opponent” where  higher-seeded teams would have the unique advantage of choosing their match-ups rather than following a traditional fixed bracket. If a new CBA is not reached the consequences for the players, fans, owners, and MLB will be substantial. Some might say the author of this post is paranoid. Others might say, to quote Andy Grove (co-founder of Intel), when it comes to protecting one's institutions, only the paranoid survive. 

[EOP]

Storm Clouds Gathering Over Law Firms

Next to universities, law firms are the institution most adverse to changing their ways as they continue to charge rising fees and making more money. As this article explains, using AT&T as an example, there is a rebellion growing by companies not only to take legal work away outside counsel and bring it home, but also to have AI shoulder as much of their in-house legal work as possible. Some might say the author of this post is paranoid. Others might say, to quote Andy Grove (co-founder of Intel), when it comes to protecting one's institutions, only the paranoid survive.

[EOP]

Reaching Out to a Birthday Boy

Reach Out No. 1

Reach Out No. 2

Reach Out No. 3

Clue 1 to Birthday Boy's Identity

Clue 2 to Birthday Boy's Identity

How Great Athletes Acknowledge Each Other

Before Yamamoto (LA Dodger) and Sale (Atlanta Brave) squared off in Game 3, this clip captures how they greeted each other. 

[EOP]

Pluses and Minuses of Ride-Sharing To/From the Airport

This WSJ article keys off on the author's taking a Waymo to Sky Harbor (Phoenix's airport) to discuss the vagaries of various ride-share alternatives.

[EOP]

Extension to Filter Out Junk on Amazon

Amazon is hosting its Prime Big Deal Days, which means there’s a lot of good stuff on sale right now. It’s one of the biggest online retail shopping events of the year, and you may have to swim through a bunch of generic brands and algorithmically generated names to find what you want. It turns out that there’s an extension that can help with that. The extension, called Knockoff, makes shopping on Amazon more bearable by graying out or blocking fake brands, increasing visibility for products from actual brands. It’s available for Firefox, Chrome, and all Chromium-based web browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Opera, and Brave. It’s also available as a Safari extension. Developer Josh Pigford launched the tool in early July, and it’s since gone viral, with over 100,000 downloads. 

[EOP]

Concern re the Mid-Term Elections

The mainstream media outlets and the talking heads seem to be trying to outdo themselves with the amount of unbridle enthusiasm they can bring to what they are calling the "bloodbath" that is coming for the Reps in November. There is no one on this planet or in this universe who hopes they are right more than I do. And I'm the last one who wants to say the dingo ate the Dem's baby. Here's the only point I want to make: If there is going to be a bloodbath, or even major pants-down spanking, one would think the poll numbers would show greater separation than they do. There's no doubt  that the polling done by the Dems and Reps is far more sophisticated and accurate when it comes to what the result of any race will be than the public polls are, so maybe watching where money is being spent and where money is being shifted away from is saying more than the public polls are. We don't do politics here. But, if we did, we'd say let's hope so.

[EOP]

The Bind the Fed Is In

Inflation has been sticky for quite some time, and does not appear like it will abate any time soon. The normal obvious course for the Fed is to raise the interest rate it controls, which has the effect of tamping down demand by making the cost of money/borrowing more expensive. Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly clear that this is not a "normal obvious" inflation. It's not driven by an exuberance of demand and buying of stuff or services or undue wage growth. Rather, it's a cockeyed supply disruption side inflation fueled by political and geopolitical forces, including mini-trade wars and erratic tariffs, a war in the Mid-East that sees no evident solution, that raising rates will do nothing to address. So, here's the bind: If the Fed doesn't raise rates, it looks like it is not addressing inflation, and if it does raise rates, it will inflict economic and other possible harm without tamping down inflation. It just might be the case that this inflation is with us and the Fed is on the sidelines until a certain president is out and his economic team is replaced with professionals who know what they're doing and have the freedom  to do it.

[EOP]

Pane Bianco (Phoenix Restaurant)

As the Arizona Republic reports, Pane Bianco was awarded best sandwich shop in U.S. We agree it deserved it!!! The caprese salad is also noteworthy as are the pizza slices. The atmosphere is pleasant and quiet enough. Wish the parking were a little easier.

[EOP]

Getting a Discount From Your Phone Carrier

This article has some interesting ploys to try to reduce your bill with your current cellphone carrier by getting a retention discount. The longer you've been with your carrier, the better your chances, and Verizon is more aggressive than the others when it comes to handing out retention discounts. You might not get one if you try, but you won't, if you don't try, and the most you have to lose is a few minutes. So, Giddy up!

[EOP]

Caitlin Clark's Impact on WNBA

Caitlin Clark is not the best WNBA player. While she is the best WNBA passer, and some have said the best passer in all of basketball, there are better offensive players, defensive players, shooters, 3-point shooters, rebounders, blockers, not-prone to turnovers, etc. But, what Clark does do is fill (indeed, overfill) stadiums, including larger stadiums rented for Fever away games, and drive up the number of eyeballs who watch WNBA games on TV. As great as the other WNBA stars are, and they (e.g., A'ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Olivia Miles, Paige Bueckers, Angela Reese) are great, and as better than they are in the above-noted categories, with Caitlin Clark and the Fever out of post-season play, teams are playing in stadiums with attendance at under 40% of capacity. I don't know what it's going to take to have the opponents she faces and the WNBA's league office to understand that transformational figures come along at most once in generation. The LPGA would give anything to be blessed with one. 

[EOP]

Why Not to Reheat Food in Plastic Containers

As this cnet article explains, heating food in plastic containers is one of the most common ways that microplastics can leech into your meals. When the container is microwaved, it accelerates the breakdown and migration of plastic compounds, which can end up in the food that’s inside of the container. The good news, though, is that this is avoidable. In this article, two experts, a public health professor and a toxicologist, explain what the research shows about microwaving food in plastic and what they’d recommend doing differently.

[EOP]

Border to Rocky Point Road Improvement

As the Arizona Republic reports, the last leg of the road to Rocky Point (the 60 mile stretch from the border) is undergoing a significant improvement that will make the trip safer and faster. It is to be finished in May 2027. Not quite soon enough for our yearly April trip, but we do not allow the perfect to become the enemy of the good.

[EOP]

The NFL Gets Something Right When It Comes to Officials

As explained more fully in this ESPN article, the NFL has suspended line judge Jeff Seeman for two games and referee Adrian Hill for one game as punishment for instances of unprofessional conduct toward a player. The only shame is how infrequent it is that officials are called out and publicly shamed. You can love or hate the bots taking over more and more calls, replays, and challenges in various sports, but, and while AI might change this, we have yet to see a bot exhibit unprofessional conduct.

[EOP]

AI's Impact on Colleges: Maybe The End of College as We Know It

Ever since the desktop and laptop computers emerged and Al Gore invented the internet, we could not understand how the core college model persisted with students crammed into physical lecture halls to see an in-person lecture (aka the sage-on-a-stage format). It made no sense (cost-wise or quality-wise) for every college to pay for their own lecturers giving in effect the same lecture that is given at every other college by its own lecturers where the same lectures could be given by the very best lecturer(s) on each topic over the internet. As this piece by Andy Kessler explains, maybe, just maybe, with AI there will be a radical change in how college education is done and what it costs to become college educated.

[EOP]

Considerations in Hiring a Financial Adviser

This piece by Brian Hershberg has some thoughtful considerations to take into account when looking at  hiring a financial advisor.

[EOP]

True Foods Kitchen Files For Bankruptcy

True Foods Kitchen, a national chain featuring healthy and delicious food, has filed for bankruptcy and closed at least 12 of its stores. We're not sure which have closed, but believe the one at Biltmore Square remains open.

[EOP]

The Appointment of the NY Attorney General in the Cornell Case

On Sept. 28, three days before Governor Hochul announced the appointment of the NY AG, Letitia James, as special prosecutor, James posted the following statement on both X and Facebook: “What this young woman has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable. I’m holding her in my heart and in my prayers. To her, and to all survivors: you’re not alone. We stand with you.” One would think that the point of the investigation would be to find out what Jane Doe went through. The New York Times obtained documents from the university’s investigation, which present a complicated picture: Jane Doe, as her lawsuit identifies her, initially texted one of the now-accused men that “non [sic] of the sexual stuff was illegal” and that she enjoyed being with him and one of his fraternity brothers. She accused them of rape only after being disinvited from the fraternity’s Halloween party. Nor—to put it mildly—do prosecutors publicly proclaim that they hold accusers in their “ heart” and “prayers.” And consider James’s declaration that she is on the side of “survivors.” Whether the accuser is a “survivor” might be seen as the very question that the investigation is meant to answer. To start by characterizing her that way is to turn the burden of proof on its head. James’s job is to determine whether there is probable cause to believe that someone may have committed a crime, and whether she can persuade a jury of his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. It isn’t to “stand with” either side. But I guess decrying that the rule of law has been cast aside is reserved for actions by Trump and his cronies.

[EOP]

WAR (2026 Series on HBO/MAX and Perhaps Hulu)

Whether it will hold one's attention as it moves along is unclear, but EP1 has certainly held our attention to move on to EP2. Two top London law firms clash over a shocking divorce case that rocks the legal world, with elite attorneys battling for supremacy. One might see the ethical norms of London firms to be a tad different than those on this side of the pond, but now most major firms have  offices on every side of every pond. It stars Dominic West who is always a joy to watch, no matter his character, and he doesn't disappoint, and Sienna Miller who is terrific as well.

[EOP]

Why Watching the Phillies and Eagles Is So Difficult: Coaching Matters

The Phillies and Eagles have great rosters with players that make great plays and don't quit (e.g., the Phillies second game against Atlanta and this catch by Darius Cooper against the Rams). But great players cannot overcome bad coaching and managing (e.g., Mattingly not starting Wheeler in Game 3 when he knew he'd be bringing in Wheeler early and Sirianni not going for a sure field goal on 4th down with under 6 minutes to go to extend the Eagles lead from 10 points (where LA needs just a TD and FG to tie) to 13 points (where LA needs 2 FGs). The problem with bad coaching/managing is that it doesn't just result in loss of a game or a series. It is demoralizing both to the players on the team and the fans who root for them. It creates a corruptive culture and makes it difficult for some fans to recover to do a suitable blog email.

[EOP]

East of Eden (2026 Series on Netflix)

East of Eden has gotten much buzz--especially given the connection with the original (Zoe Kazan's writing this for television series and her grandfather, Elia Kazan, directing the original). Maybe it was my depressed mood from the Phillies and Fever getting knocked out of post-season play and Scotts closing, but I found the characters so difficult and depressing to watch I gave up after a half-hour of EP1. In fact, the entire audience walked out with me. 

[EOP]

Understanding NFL Defenses

[Prefatory Note: What follows is not my insight. I learned it in a convo with my good friend, and a good friend of PTI, Booger McFarland. It tells me why others who have played or studied the sport know more than I do and why no one is hiring me as GM of any NFL football team]

To say the least, the Dallas Cowboy defense has been porous this season is to state the obvious truth. Much of the criticism has been aimed at their D-line, so when they traded this week they came under substantial criticism for trading for a cornerback Joey Porter, Jr. instead of for a D-lineman. Here's what Booger explained. If the defensive secondary is leaving receivers open, no D-line, no matter how good, is going to stop the opponent. If the defensive secondary is keeping receivers covered, no quarterback can succeed no matter how good his O-line. Given that Porter is one of the best cornerbacks in the league, if not the best, this was the right move for Dallas.

[EOP]

Narrowing of the Stock Market

From a piece by James Mackintosh: There’s a new story in stock markets: If you aren’t touched by AI, good luck. AI is sucking in capital and squeezing the rest of the market, where stocks face higher interest rates and oil prices without a sexy technology story to sell. The new pattern took hold in September, when Treasury yields skyrocketed—and it’s creating stress in other debt markets, too. In stocks, the headline indexes appeared remarkably resilient in the face of a 10-year Treasury yield jumping from 4.7% to 5.3%, with the S&P 500 only slightly down and the technology-heavy Nasdaq-100 gaining 3%. But under the surface, September’s stock-price moves show how narrow the market has become. Almost 80% of stocks in the S&P were down, the average stock was off 5% and only two out of 11 sectors were up, led by tech. The other gainer, communications services, was up only because tech giants Meta and Alphabet, not classified as tech stocks, outweighed losses for almost all the media and telecoms companies in the sector. Smaller stocks fared even worse, hitting hopes that they were on a firmer path after gains earlier in the year. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies was down 5% in the month, while the top 50 stocks rose 2%. The same pattern shows up within the S&P 500: 41 of the largest 100 stocks rose, while only 10 of the smallest 100 constituents eked out a gain.

[EOP]

How Today's Super Wealthy Are Different

This Noah Hawley article from The Atlantic is not just well-written, it is an insightful, compelling, and disturbing read. It focuses on a weekend gathering hosted by Bezos, as it tries to explain what makes our New Gilded Age barons different from the rest of us, and not in a good way.

[EOP]

PS re Firestick DNS

There was a post yesterday about changing a Firestick's DNS. It wasn't wrong but to implement the change, one has to go to an article referenced in the article cited in the post. We appreciate the matter being brought to our attention. The only thing we can say in defense of not making that clear and other recent errors on our part was the triple whammy of the Phillies and Indiana Fever getting knocked out of post-season play and Scotts closing.

[EOP]

2026 Elections: The Battle to Turn Out the Haters

Trump is being besieged by criticism by the mainstream media for focusing his campaign efforts on his MAGA base. As the media sees it, Trump does not understand that he is unpopular and he cannot sway Dems or independents. Perhaps what Trump sees is that his only path to holding the House and perhaps the Senate is energizing the anger/hate felt by his base for the (mal) treatment of Trump and all he's "accomplished." At the same time, for the Dems to take the House and the Senate, they need to turn out not just their base (those who dislike Trump and like the Dems), but those who dislike all of government including the Dems. In this context, Trump's efforts might be what he should be doing to help the Reps avoid a catastrophe, while it's not clear what the Dems are doing to have voters that dislike them vote for them nonetheless.

[EOP]

Interesting Parallel

Traditional Reps have been known to favor tax cuts at every turn: Cut taxes when the economy has stalled to stimulate it and cut taxes when the economy is booming because lower tax rates can be afforded and will not add to the deficit. At the same time, environmentalists point to increasingly strong hurricanes as a result of climate change, and that the Atlantic Ocean in September broke a century-old record for the latest time of year without hurricanes, one of many consequences of a historic El Niño reshuffling global weather. Okay, this isn't a serious post or a dig at environmentalists. It's put here for the enjoyment of my bot followers.

[EOP]

Walking Is Good

A recent Harvard study reports that people who walk more or walk faster live longer.

[EOP]

Improving a Firestick's Connectivity and Minimizing Other Problems

As this XDA article explains, as surprising as it may sound, changing your Fire TV Stick's DNS, or even the one on your smart TV, improves connectivity and minimizes related issues. So, if you are looking to upgrade the streaming experience on your Fire TV Stick, switching DNS is one of the easier options.

[EOP]

Correct Temperature for Air Fryer Baked Potatoes

I've been setting my air fryer at 425 to do baked potatoes. They come out great with delicious crispy skins in just 22 minutes (11 minutes per side in the air fryer, after being softened in the microwave, and salt and oil is applied to the outside). As it turns out, setting the temperature at 400 makes them come out even better. Of course, oven temperatures can vary.

[EOP]

PS re Scotts Generation (Phoenix Deli)

Our post yesterday about Scotts Generation left out the point of the post: The last sentence should not have stopped at the word "devastated." It should have read: "We are devastated that, on October 25, it is closing." We apologize for any confusion we caused, and appreciate the loyal reader's bringing my error, and mine alone, to our attention.

[EOP]

What To Do If a Windows File Folder Disappears

There are several ways to "find" a file folder that somehow got deleted. One of the easiest is to see if it's in the Recycle Bin even if your Recycle Bin is empty. Open OneDrive (or right-click on OneDrive and click on Recycle Bin), look for the folder there, and if it is, right click on it and click on Restore. It should pop back to where it always had been.

[EOP] 

PS re Phillies Wildcard Game 2

Many readers who saw the Game 2 of the Phillies/Atlanta series criticized us for not including one particular defensive play. We take the point. There were quite a few terrific plays by both teams and a couple of bone-headed ones especially by the Phillies in Game 2 against Atlanta which we described yesterday. We omitted, and apologize for doing so, one of the rarest double plays in baseball: the 3-2-3 double play, which the Phillies pulled off with bases loaded in the bottom of the 6th.

[EOP]

ChatGPT vs Gemini

This cnet article presents an informative comparison of the features of ChatGPT vs Gemini. There's mention of Claude which one should always consider especially for editing written works.

[EOP]

Trump's Profound Misunderstanding of the Bond Market

Trump was upset with Powell and, while holding his tongue viz Warsh, has been singing a constant one-note for the Fed to lower rates. In recent weeks, the long-rates have soared to Trump's chagrin, causing further calls for Fed rate cuts. Whether the10Y's bounce off a new ceiling might or might not be a signal that long rates could be going lower no one knows. But, if they are, one explanation is that Fed raised rates at its last meeting and signaled further rate hikes to come. And if that's what happens, namely, the Fed raises rates (at the short end which all it can do) and long-rates go down, it could be because the bond market believes that the Fed is taking  inflation seriously and is tackling it. The irony then would be that Trump would get his lowering of the 10Y rate because the Fed raised rates, and would not have gotten it if the Fed had, as Trump asked, to cut rates.

[EOP]

Questions re Trump's Poll Numbers

In a Quinnipiac University's poll of 1,032 registered voters conducted Sept. 24-27, 61% disapprove of how Trump is handling his job as president, compared to 34% who approve. The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points. According to the poll, 61% is an all-time high disapproval rating for the president, last reached in a Jan. 18, 2021, poll, after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. Here is what I don't understand:

1. Who are the 34% that approved of him then and approve of him now?

2. What is it that they approve of?

3. Is there anything that can be said or done to change their minds?

4. What is the likelihood that they will turn out to vote (assumedly for their Rep candidates) in the mid-term election next month in a greater percentage than independents and Dems?

5. Is the 2026 election more akin to the 2018 election (when the Reps took a shellacking) or the 2016 election when Trump was thought to have no chance to win?

[EOP]

Scott's Generations (Phoenix Deli)

Scott's Generations has been a Phoenix fixture for 37 years. We can't say everything tasted better than it did elsewhere, but the portions were bigger and the prices lower. As to taste, everything was fine, and some things (e.g., their bagels, bialys, whitefish, matzah ball soup, chicken salad, and more) were better than elsewhere. Parking was great, seating was ample and comfortable, and the noise level was excellent. We are devastated. 

[EOP]

MLB

Whether you like the Phillies, hate 'em, or don't care about 'em, if you missed Game 2 of their wildcard playoff game against Atlanta, you missed a game that will go down in the baseball annals as a game for the ages. After Harper did this (which astoundingly was not called an error) to give Atlanta the lead in the 8th, Harper followed Schwarber's home run in the ninth with his own home run to tie Atlanta in the ninth. And then the Phillies (the visiting team) won in the 10th by taking the a 1-run lead with a Bohm home run followed by a walk-off strikeout on an ABS challenge in the bottom of the 10th.  

 [EOP]

Simple Way to Cash In on Higher Yields

The yield curve has yet to invert, i.e., where short term rates are higher than long term, but the gap has been getting increasingly smaller. As a result, as Telos Delos explains, if you don't need the cash, 2Y treasuries pay you almost as much dividend-wise as 5Y or 10Y, so it's a nice place to park cash with a no-premium risk and no interest rate risk (except the opportunity risk). 

[EOP]

Another Guess re Bust of the AI Boom

No one knows what the stock market holds for AI, i.e., will the boom continue or might there be a blow up. Everyone is making their guess, either explicitly or by default. Asa Fitch's take is interesting, suggesting that "memory stocks remain as good a proxy as there is for investors’ belief in the boom’s staying power. Right now, the conviction isn’t especially strong."

[EOP]

The Gap Between Rich and Super Rich Widens

It's not your imagination. As the WSJ reports, the ultrawealthy aren’t just pulling away from average Americans. Buoyed by a stock market boom that has added trillions of dollars to their net worth, now the extremely rich are even pulling away from other rich Americans. The top 0.1% wealthiest Americans have seen their total wealth more than double since the end of 2019, according to new data from the Federal Reserve. The 0.1% now control about $28 trillion, or about 15% of the nation’s total wealth, which amounts to nearly $186 trillion. The average wealth for a household in this group is over $200 million. As of 2022 you had to have at least $45.8 million to be in the top 0.1%, according to the most detailed data available from the Fed. With wealth among the group up by about 50% since then, that threshold is much higher now. Our democracy is under attack by Trump and his MAGA cult for sure, but the new robber barons of our New Gilded Age do not make for healthy democracy either.

[EOP]

Urban Fraiche (North Central Phoenix Restaurant)

The Urban Fraiche website has almost no pictures of its servings, which is a shame, because they are beautifully presented. It's a Moroccan-style Mediterranean restaurant which we haven't tried yet, and while it's a bit pricey they next time I have a craving for goat or lamb and don't care how much the meal cost, we'll be trying it. Per the website, it would be a great place to try for restaurant week, but that ended 2 weeks ago. We've informed them as such.

[EOP]

Lanterns (2026 Series on Hulu and HBO/MAX)

Lanterns follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, Earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland. Okay, it sounds weird and it might not be for everyone. But, it was recommended by someone who is not a sci-fi guy, who said this: "The first episode is sooooooo good. It's sci fi, but good characters, well acted, and an interesting plot." We agree. Kyle Chandler is always a delight and the woman sheriff (Kelly Macdonald) was the therapist in Department Q. There are many out-loud laugh funny scenes, and the quote that has now gone viral is spot on: "There's nothing better than eating off another man's grill." Finally, Laura Linney appears at some point in the series.

[EOP]

Better Solution Than Wi-Fi Extenders

This engadget article explains why wi-fi extenders might do the job of extending coverage in certain cases, they cannot make a weak signal stronger. So, as the article goes on to explain, in looking to have better and stronger blanket coverage, the more effective way is to improve and broaden the network's signal strength.

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GLP-1 for Conditions Other Than Weight Loss

As the WSJ reports, certain GLP-1s are approved or being explored for uses beyond weight loss and diabetes, including sleep apnea, kidney disease, endometriosis, Crohn’s disease, and alcohol and other addictive disorders. Relatedly, as this News Medical Science Reports article explains, research makes a strong case for broader use of GLP1 drugs to protect hearts. As encouraging as it is to see the medical breakthroughs, one can only wonder how many lives will be lost waiting to get the MAHA cultists out of the government and sent off to wherever they came from with Dark Ages dystopian view of the world.

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Home vs Lab Testing for Sleep Apnea

As this Acibadem article explains, most adults with classic obstructive sleep apnea symptoms, loud snoring, witnessed breathing pauses, and daytime sleepiness, can start with a physician-ordered at-home sleep apnea test. An in-lab sleep study is the better choice if you have significant heart or lung disease, suspected central sleep apnea, another sleep disorder, or a negative home test despite ongoing symptoms. Both tests require a clinician's order and professional interpretation.

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Trump Stops Short for the First Time

Trump signed an Executive Order to replace the term “Artificial Intelligence” (“AI”) with “Super Intelligence” (“SI”). The Order directs all departments and agencies to use the terms “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in all official correspondence, public communications, policy documents, and non-statutory documents within the executive branch and to no longer acknowledge the terms “Artificial Intelligence” or “AI." I'm not surprised Trump felt the need to do a rebranding of something I don't really understand and I know he doesn't. But I am surprised he didn't call for AI to be called ASI (American Super Intelligence) or TSI (Trump Super Intelligence). That said, I just wonder how long it will take his New Gilded Age kiss-ups to him (from Bezos to Musk to Zuckerberg to the Nvidia guy to Ellison and on and on) to adopt the SI nomenclature. I'm sticking with AI both in my work, my writing, and in every other way.

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NFL Highlights

Highlights of every NFL game can be seen on YouTube. So, for example, if you missed the end of the Ravens/Cowboys game, you can see the last 1.5 minutes there, which is MUST SEE game-ending from being robbed to amazing revenge.

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Verifying Messages From Amazon and Others

If you receive an email, text, or phone call claiming to be from Amazon, you can now check whether it's legitimate. There are three easy ways to verify: (i) Log in on the Amazon shopping app or on Amazon.com and type your question into the Alexa for Shopping chat, for example, "Did Amazon email me?" or "Did Amazon call me?"; (ii) you can also visit the Identify a Scam page to submit any message for verification; and (iii) submit your question or forward a specific email to verify@amazon.com. If Amazon sent the message, you'll know in moments. The important bottom line: Do NOT engage with a merchant message in any way before verifying. While Amazon is more protective than other sites, the basic lesson here applies to any message or phone call: Do NOT engage with the merchant without first verifying by going to the merchant's actual site on your own and not through the email or phone call you received.

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Applauding Scottie Scheffler's Sportsmanship

I didn't watch even a minute of The President's Cup, but I heard about this, and it's to be applauded: While Nico Echavarria was in the middle of his backswing on the 14th tee, a spectator shouted out mid-swing, disrupting his shot. Scottie Scheffler's Reaction: Visibly frustrated, Scheffler immediately turned to bark at the crowd that "there's no place for that." The Concession: After Echavarria hit his third shot over the back of the green, Scheffler conceded the long par putt to halve the hole, ensuring his opponent wasn't penalized on the scoreboard for the fan's poor behavior. American fans are jerks. One has to wonder if Tiger would have done as admirable a thing as Scheffler did.

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WNBA Playoffs

The WNBA playoffs have begun and, if you're not watching, your missing a real treat. The stunning upset of Minnesota by New York was something to behold, as was the jaw-dropping performance of A'ja Wilson in trouncing (to our sorrow) the Indiana Fever (with a lackluster appearance by Caitlin Clark notwithstanding one stellar assist). Putting aside the refereeing which is at best bizarre, the joy, enthusiasm, athleticism, speed, and effort these kids bring to the court make for great TV (and there's little wasted time as there is with other sports).

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How to Know If the AI Boom Will Pop

AI related stocks have been driving the market in the face of geopolitical risk, rise in interest rates, and other headwinds. Many have predicted this boom will pop and have missed out on substantial gains waiting for it to happen. That is not to say that they have been wrong. It could be they have just been early. This piece by Jonathan Weil takes a insightful look at the matter from an historical perspective and concludes as follows: "Booms need continuous flows of fresh capital to perpetuate themselves. History shows they can start turning into busts the moment the window to raise new capital closes. Tipping points can happen suddenly, or as a slow-motion capitulation. But we’re not there yet. Here is a signal to watch for in the meantime: See if the term 'funding gap' returns to the market’s vernacular. Along with 'burn rate,' funding gap became part of the financial lexicon in 2000, as the dot-com bubble was starting to deflate."

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Milestone We Don't Mark Any More

The bots keep hitting this blogsite at the rate of 20K-to-40K per day. So we don't mark milestones any more. If we did, we would note we just went over 4M hits.

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Youth (2026 Series on HBO/MAX and Hulu)

The audience split about half way through of EP1 of Youth, half of which walked out and the other half pressed ahead seeing it as a possible series to continue with but not without reservations. Everyone agreed it was quite, unduly so, explicit on the you-know-what-front. They differed on what half saw humor at various points, the other half saw overdone, stylized scripting. The draw of the series is the star, Sharon Horgan, who was fantastic in Catastrophe and might ultimately save this series. It is the story of a 50-year-old divorcee who juggles dating life while taking care of her parents who were annoying beyond belief for some in the audience and her adult son who also didn't ring true to many in the audience. In short, it's a story worth telling, and it's a story made for Sharon Horgan to tell, but some might find the script not up to telling the story as well as it should be told. It's just a half-hour so no big loss trying it on and see if it fits.

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National Sigh of Relief and a Note re MLB TV Coverage

With their win on Sunday and the Diamondbacks loss, the Phillies limped into the post-season with a September collapse that almost matched their 1964 collapse, where neither the batters nor the pitchers seemed to show up to play. How anyone thinks they can take 2 of 3 from Atlanta other than die-hard fans that believe in miracles is beyond me. MLBTV chose to air the Phillies game on Saturday where the Phillies got blown out. How MLBTV or any channel would not then air Sunday's game is a national disgrace to deprive the country of seeing what would be a national sigh of relief.

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College Football and a PS re the Ravens

I don't watch college football unless Penn happens to be aired which happened several years ago. College football held some interest when the players were ostensibly students at the school whose uniform they were wearing and were supposed to attend academic classes. I don't begrudge them getting paid, in fact, I applaud their being paid because it was outrageous how they were taken advantage of by big-time schools. But while many changes are underfoot at once, it now can be fairly said that big-time college football is the equivalent of AAA baseball which is subsidized by MLB but which the NFL gets for free. To put it another way, I have no interest in watching AAA baseball or college baseball for that matter, and I put college football in terms of overall skill to be in the same category. The one thing college football has over the NFL is that games cannot end in ties, and while a bit involved, breaking a tie is done in a fair way. Another interesting difference is defensive pass interference where it is a spot of foul penalty in the NFL but a 10 or 15 yard from scrimmage penalty in college football. Finally, I glanced at a couple of games this weekend, and was stunned that it seems there are attendance rules where fans must wear one of the two school colors and sit in section of that color so the stadium are large bands of each color.

PS: If you get a chance, watch the last 2 minutes of the Ravens/Cowboys game. I shall say no more to avoid spoiling it other than to say it's one of the greatest endings of a football game.

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Tip re Movie Watching

A non-reader watched The Duke and loved it as was to be expected given how great it is. In talking about it, it became clear they had not watched it through the credits to the actual ending. Here's the tip: Not just for The Duke which is MUST SEE, but for any movie, be sure to watch until the credits stop rolling because otherwise, and more often than you think, you will miss something important, entertaining, and noteworthy.

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New TV Series to Binge This Fall

This is Esther Zuckerman's list of 13 new series to watch this Fall. She provides nice summaries of each, and many of them look to be terrific.

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Football Remains on Top But Other Sports Are Creeping Up

As the Arizona Republic reports, while football remains Americans' favorite sport by far, its margin is shrinking. In brief, football's favorite status has retreated from its high point, while basketball and other sports have seen their favorite-status rising. I don't see any short-term problem for football, but if it's playing with me it's playing with fire if it doesn't get a handle on its injury problem and its association with gambling.

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The Case For Renting

As this WSJ piece explains, renting can make more economic sense than buying a home.

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Caution re Bond Funds

Anyone reading this blog knows our affinity for fixed income investing (even as painful as it has been these past 3 weeks). Anyone reading this blog also knows the kind of fixed income investing we abhor, namely, bond funds with no maturity dates such that, while they minimize default risk, they have both income rate and principal risk. This piece by Jason Zweig, whom we greatly respect, goes on to explain why not to trust bond funds that say they are beating the market.

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NYT 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century

There are picks and omissions that we don't understand, but, overall, this NYT listing of the best TV shows  of the 21st Century is informative.

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Remediating a Website That Freezes the Computer

It befell a loyal reader that, while reading on the NYT website, his computer would freeze. This is not generally a sign of any big problem or problem with the computer especially where, as was the case here, it's just one website and the website is known to be reputable (which will assume the fake news put out by the NYT does not ipso facto or per render it disreputable in the circumstance being addressed). Here is the first (and what here was the successful) step to try: Clear the cache and cookies for the site and reload it. Here is the second step to try: Clear the cache and cookies for the site, delete the site, reboot the computer, restart the browser, and reinstall the site.

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Lessons re Sonora Quest's (and Perhaps Other Labs') Test Results Reporting

It is typical to have lab work done shortly in advance of a doctor visit. When the lab results are done, the lab will notify the patient and send the results to the doctor's office. As it turns out, the lab typically will not send the results until it has them for ALL the ordered tests. So, if you don't get notice that the lab results are done before the visit (either from the lab or the doctor portal), it might mean that, while some of the test results are in, at least one result is not. If it is important that all the results that are known be sent to the doctor's office, a phone call to Sonora Quest (and likely other labs) will be answered promptly and the partial results sent to the doctor's office while you're on the phone. Finally, when you are given a lab order, be sure you ask two questions: (i) do I have to fast; and (ii) how long will the test results take to be reported (e.g., a Vitamin D test can take 5-10 days to be reported out).

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Implication of the Surge in Bond Market Volatility and a PS

 As Telis Demos explains, a key measure of bond volatility surged this week to its highest level since the early days of the Iran war. That should be a worrisome sign for a lot of investors. The ICE BofA U.S. Bond Market Option Volatility Estimate Index, or MOVE index, is designed to track U.S. bond market volatility via prices on a basket of options. It is roughly a counterpart to the VIX index for stocks. On Wednesday, the MOVE index level surged from 78 to 95, its highest close since the beginning of April. On Thursday, it jumped again to 104, according to Intercontinental Exchange data. That is still short of where it regularly was from 2022 to 2025. But the jump is still a worry, because up until now the recent march upward in Treasury yields had come against a backdrop of still-subdued volatility. It suggests the market could be moving to a new, less orderly phase of trading. And even for passive index investors, it could signal another development: Wider spreads. Spreads refer to the yield gap between Treasurys and other bonds, like corporate or mortgage bonds. This gap has been quite tight for the highest-rated corporate bonds in particular, despite the recent jump in yields. But higher volatility is a typical driver of wider spreads. So if bond volatility were to persistently rise, investors in corporate bonds or mortgage bonds could see more losses on those bonds than on Treasurys. Through Wednesday, the spread on ICE BofA’s index of top-rated U.S. corporate bonds hadn’t seen a big widening jump. But high-grade credit strategists at JPMorgan Chase, in a Thursday morning note, warned that there could be a slowdown of investor money flowing into bond ETFs. “A further pickup in rate and/or equity volatility would likely dampen these flows as well, leading to broader outflows for the asset class,” they wrote. If losses on corporate bonds were to start to pick up speed, then we could soon be talking of a 2022-style bond market wipeout all over again.

PS: All the said, the surge in yields doesn't feel good for bondholders. But, as long as defaults are avoided, they will maintain their income stream and return of capital. Again, as we've said several times here, avoid bond funds that have no set maturity date.

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Anti-Choking Devices vs. the Heimlich

As the WSJ reports, regulators authorized LifeVac in the U. S., but medical groups say manual procedures are still the best methods to remedy choking.

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Two Scrabble Factoids Thanks to the NYT

There are many reasons to do the NYT crossword every day. One of them is you learn stuff. The Sep. 24 puzzle taught me (at 21A) that Scrabble was invented by Alfred Butts while unemployed during the Great Depression and (at 37A) that Scrabble's name before its acquisition by James Brunot in 1948 was Criss-Cross Words. 

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Harkins Special Screening Room (Scottsdale)

I don't go to theatres anymore to see movies, with one exception that had been a well kept secret until the Arizona Republic blabbed about it--The Freezer at Harkins Camelview. It’s a hidden speakeasy-style screening room locked away behind a faux freezer door — complete with fake frosted glass and temperature gauge. If you’re walking to the left of the concession stands, just past the women’s restroom and a theater on the left, there’s an unsuspecting door that blends into the wall. Just behind that door is a big, white room and a freezer door that leads into Harkins’ hidden, private screening room. When you open the false freezer door, you’re immediately transported into a luxury screening room. You walk down a narrow aisle with luxe cabinets on either side. There’s a private bathroom on the left before the room opens up to the theater where there are16 leather loungers, four swivel bar stools, four armchairs and, of course, a massive screen. You get unlimited popcorn, unlimited sodas. You can order food, and an en suite attendant will help you with whatever you need for your orders.. There's a special menu that you can order food from. People host meetings, do family get-togethers, bachelor and bachelorette parties, anniversary celebrations, and more. Plus, you’re not just limited to watching a new release. Guests can request throwback films or even bring in their own home movies to show for a special occasion. The pricing starts at around $1,200, though it depends on how many people will be in attendance and how many hours you would like to rent the space for. Other factors that can determine price are if it’s a holiday, what time of day it is, and if it’s an opening weekend for a title you’re requesting. You can fill out a Freezer Request Form at harkins.com to get a quote for renting out The Freezer.

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