Virtual Memories

Last night, we had CMT’s Hee Haw Weekend Marathon on while Amy worked up a dose of Emeril’s spicy tomato glaze. My parents didn’t watch Hee Haw much when I was a kid, although my dad developed an unhealthy attachment to Willie Nelson in the 1980s (unhealthy inasmuch as he really loved that duet with [...]

In the New Yorker, James Surowiecki tells us to take a chill pill over Airbus’ current struggles. In 2003, Business Week declared that Boeing was “choking on Airbus’ fumes,” and warned that Boeing’s “slip to No. 2 could become permanent.” The problem with such prognostications is that they infer basic truths about a company’s prospects [...]

Surprise, dear readers! Amy & I are down in Louisiana, having surprised the official VM mother-in-law for her brithday yesterday! While we did keep it a secret from almost everyone, I’m starting to think we could’ve told them all we were coming, since no one would believe that people would actually come down here in [...]

We all know people who have Googled past girlfriends or boyfriends (“just to find out what they’re up to,” of course). Okay: we’ve all Googled past girlfriends or boyfriends. Fine. Sometimes, the former partner’s name is common enough that the search is fruitless. Other times, the person has a really distinct name, like, I don’t [...]

I’m interviewing a pair of companies this morning for an article in my September issue. Their combined 2005 revenues were $126 billion. One’s a major drug company, the other a major healthcare distributor. Margins are a funny thing: the drug company had around $52 billion in sales, with a cost-of-goods of $8.5 billion, while the [...]

Microsoft is trying to get PC designers to get some of that Apple feeling, by incorporating such exTREME! trends as the use of black! and white! The PC world used to be divided into two camps: those who made lucrative software and the poor schlubs who built the low-margin hardware it ran on. Apple has [...]

LONG (but really good) article on pharmacoeconomics. You should probably skip it and wait for the movie. Of course, that movie will be a pedantic, anti-business screed by Michael Moore, but hey.

The eternal sunshine of the spotless Lohan. (turn the volume low and wait for it to load)

Neat interview with Paul Reubens at the Onion’s AV Club. I first discovered Pee Wee Herman (I was going to write, “My first exposure to Pee Wee Herman”) when I was watching Cheech & Chong films with my dad at far too young an age (like 11). What’s great is that my father had no [...]

It’s long-ass essay day here at VM! Here’s a piece from the new ish of Foreign Affairs about the economic dynamo in India. I think India’s in a far better position to succeed than China in the long-term. If you read Mr. Das’ article, you’ll see that there are some major reforms India still needs [...]