{"id":1217,"date":"2006-11-24T07:18:11","date_gmt":"2006-11-24T12:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-nov-24-2006\/"},"modified":"2006-11-24T07:18:11","modified_gmt":"2006-11-24T12:18:11","slug":"unrequired-reading-nov-24-2006","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-nov-24-2006","title":{"rendered":"Unrequired Reading: Nov. 24, 2006"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s the Black Friday edition of Unrequired Reading, dear unreaders! Amy & I are skipping out on the shopping chaos, since we took care of a bunch of it during our Paris trip. Plus, what with these here internets, we can get plenty of holiday shopping done from the comfort of the old fainting couch! Without further ado:<\/p>\n

Here’s a BW piece on how the Analog Meat Market<\/a> is performing. No, it’s not an article about offline dating services, it’s about The Rise of Tofurky!<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Michael Kinsley has decided that, because “the market” doesn’t set “the right price” for a share of stock in a company, capitalism is inherently flawed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Poor Kinsley. If only the state could become more involved in determining how companies do business. Well, actually, there was significant legislation passed during the Clinton administration to “shame companies” into doing the president’s idea of the right thing<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Clinton’s brainstorm: Use the tax code to curb excessive pay. Companies at the time were allowed to deduct all compensation to top executives. Clinton wanted to permit companies to write off amounts over $1 million only if executives hit specified performance goals. He called [Graef Crystal, author of a book on corporate greed] for his thoughts. “Utterly stupid,” the consultant says he told the future President.<\/p>\n

Now, 13 years after Clinton’s plan became law, the results are clear: It didn’t work. Over the law’s first decade, average compensation for chief executives at companies in Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index soared from $3.7 million to $9.1 million, according to a 2005 Harvard Law School study. The law contains so many obvious loopholes, says Crystal, that “in 10 minutes even Forrest Gump could think up five ways around it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Even when people try the old Robin Hood routine, it goes awry<\/a> (thanks, Faiz)!<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Charles Krauthammer doesn’t like Borat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

When I first saw the Beth Sholom Synagogue<\/a> designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, I called it “Battlestar Judaica.” Here’s a piece about the architecture of houses of worship<\/a>, which seems to be an excuse to post a sldeshow of neat photos<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

I really need to sit down and read the Aeneid sometime<\/a>.
\n* * *<\/p>\n

I’ve long contended that Paul Allen has the anti-Midas touch, but I had no idea that his Portland Trailblazers have the most incredibly messed-up business situation in professional sports<\/a>. This one’s long, but it makes for pretty entertaining reading, if only to find out that a man worth $22 billion should never come along with you to negotiate buying a car.
\n* * *<\/p>\n

I don’t have any pity for car salesmen, esp. after the guy at the Mini place tried scamming Amy into buying a $550 stereo system. Looks like they’re under plenty of pressure<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

And, in honor of Black Friday, a Christmas display you won’t forget<\/a> (thanks, Tina).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s the Black Friday edition of Unrequired Reading, dear unreaders! Amy & I are skipping out on the shopping chaos, since we took care of a bunch of it during our Paris trip. Plus, what with these here internets, we can get plenty of holiday shopping done from the comfort of the old fainting couch! … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Unrequired Reading: Nov. 24, 2006”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[25,2,27,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-basketball","category-big-business","category-literature"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-jD","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5345,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-may-28-2010","url_meta":{"origin":1217,"position":0},"title":"Unrequired Reading: May 28, 2010","author":"Gil","date":"May 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy Memorial Day weekend, dear readers! Let's kick off the long weekend with some Unrequired Reading! Polari: one queer anti-language. * * * Threesus Christ! * * * Go read this Random Roles interview of Danny Trejo by Nathan Rabin! It's a blast! * * * The new Abstract City\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5768,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-nov-26-2010","url_meta":{"origin":1217,"position":1},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Nov. 26, 2010","author":"Gil","date":"November 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It's a Black Friday installment of Unrequired Reading! Quit shopping and start clicking! Athens and Jerusalem and the Lower East Side. * * * How would you promote a David Lynch-directed Spider-Man movie? * * * Perhaps as a minimalist superhero? (What, no Atom?) * * * Someone has to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1820,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-dec-14-2007","url_meta":{"origin":1217,"position":2},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Dec. 14, 2007","author":"Gil","date":"December 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Even the annual slog through the Contract Services Directory won't stop me from delivering my weekly oddball links, dear readers! Enjoy! Under construction: some neat and\/or grotesque buildings! (including that CCTV building that I'm convinced is going to tip over) * * * What does the success of The Deadliest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1415,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-mar-30-2007","url_meta":{"origin":1217,"position":3},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Mar. 30, 2007","author":"Gil","date":"March 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Yeah, yeah: make with the links. I've been reading a lot about Afghanistan's history and how the country ended up in such bad shape. Here's a piece from Spiegel on the possibilities of legalizing the country's opium trade. * * * I think Daniel Gross exaggerates the \"CDs are dead\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2528,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-sept-26-2008","url_meta":{"origin":1217,"position":4},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Sept. 26, 2008","author":"Gil","date":"September 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Unrequired Reading is off this week! All you get is this: Come back next week!","rel":"","context":"In \"zoidberg\"","block_context":{"text":"zoidberg","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tag\/zoidberg"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3176,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/meta-unrequired-reading","url_meta":{"origin":1217,"position":5},"title":"Meta-Unrequired Reading","author":"Gil","date":"January 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Jason Kottke offers up his favorite posts of 2008. I only discovered his site recently, and realized it's like my Unrequired Reading section, but every day of the week. So I suck.","rel":"","context":"In \"kottke\"","block_context":{"text":"kottke","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tag\/kottke"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}