Let 'em eat cake

The English-Muffin Problem

The economy is hot, but the people are bothered. Americans think the country is in dreadful economic shape despite strong wage growth, low unemployment, and steadily declining inflation. We know this from survey after survey. What we don’t really know is how people formed those judgments. To find out, The Atlantic commissioned a new poll. When the results came in, one finding jumped off the screen: Americans are really, really unhappy about grocery prices.

Or muffins. Either way. I seem to recall this ended poorly last time.

Of course, that was in another century and in a land far away.

“Don we now our gay apparel, Fa la la la la, la la la la.”

Raunchy celebrity party in Russia draws outrage over ‘nude illusion’ theme

The guests paid a hefty entrance fee of about $11,000 to frolic in outfits of flesh-colored mesh, lace and lingerie, with Ivleeva wearing a diamond body chain worth about $250,000 and one guest, the rapper Vacio, paying homage to a 1980 Red Hot Chili Peppers record cover featuring the band members wearing nothing but a sock.

'Tis the season. Woohoo.

"When the song ["Deck the Halls"] was originally written in the 16th century, 'gay' meant something different than how we use the word today," a random blog helpfully explains. In case you were wondering.

You weren't wondering, were you?

Ed ("Slow Eddie") Burke…

One of Chicago’s longest-serving Democratic lawmakers convicted of racketeering, bribery and attempted extortion

…also known in the Windy City as "The Emperor," has been convicted of…well…

The 79-year-old Democrat was convicted on 13 of the 14 charges leveled against him in a 2019 federal indictment accusing the veteran Chicago City Council member of using his position to steer business from private developers to his law firm.

At the New York Post they think this is news, the poor dears.

[The moniker "Slow Eddie" was necessary because "Fast Eddie" was already taken by one Edward Vrdolyak, another Chicago alderman, who earned his prison time for tax evasion.]

Money bites back

China’s Millionaires Are Worried. That’s a Problem for Wall Street.

[Story from Apple News+ or, if you have a subscription, the Wall Street Journal.]

For years, banks including Citigroup, JPMorgan and UBS competed hard to win business from China’s giant pool of wealthy people.…

But three years of stock-market declines in mainland China and Hong Kong, a wave of bond defaults in the real-estate sector and the faltering performance of China’s economy have dealt a huge blow to the business model of these banks.

Oops. 

There are days I'm really happy I never took a course in economics. Ignorance is bliss.

Just get through today and then…

The 2023 winter solstice arrives at 10:27 p.m. Eastern time

On Thursday, we turn the corner toward longer days and a bit more sunlight. Dec. 21 is the winter solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year in Earth’s Northern Hemisphere. On Friday, we’ll start gaining a few seconds of daylight again.

…on toward Spring, woohoo.

 

So draining then, really?

The nation’s capital, built on water, struggles to keep from drowning

At risk are the national treasures housed inside the Federal Triangle, the low-lying area between the White House and the Capitol, home to 39 critical government facilities, $14 billion in property and irreplaceable artifacts of America’s history.

Or maybe find a nice place in Nebraska? 

Maybe

Poll Finds Wide Disapproval of Biden on Gaza, and Little Room to Shift Gears

It is unclear how much the criticism of Mr. Biden will translate into votes for Mr. Trump, or anyone else, given the admitted disaffection of young voters sympathetic with the Palestinians. Voters under 45 who say they disapprove of the president’s policies on Gaza are also more likely than young voters who approve of his policies to concede that they did not vote in 2020. Such youthful critics are picking Mr. Trump over Mr. Biden, by 16 percentage points, but they may not vote.

This seems something like whistling past the cemetary to me.

 

Tourists be tourists in Pisa

 

[Stolen from AP's "Oddities" section.]

Water, water everywhere…

 …and every drop for sale. Or soon to be.

China’s Richest Person Made Billions Bottling Pristine Water

Reports Bloomberg Businessweek via Apple News+ (the web version is here)…

More than 1 million tons of fresh water pumped from Wuyi’s primeval forests arrive each year at the Nongfu Springs facility, where it’s bottled, topped with the company’s signature red caps and trucked to convenience stores and supermarkets in the region.

 What's rare becomes expensive (Water is a Girl's Best Friend?) and clean, potable water is becoming rare everywhere,

The statute of limitations…

Boston Tea Party turns 250 years old with reenactments of the revolutionary protest

…on polluting Boston Harbor has probably run out by now for the 1773 crowd and I suppose the guys who did it yesterday had some special dispensation but until I know for sure it's run out for me I am not going to mention ever doing such a thing myself, no indeed. 

And if I did…

Tea for the reenactment was supplied by the East India Co., the same British company that was at the center of the raucous dispute.

…and I am not saying I did, let's be clear about that…it would likely have been plain old Lipton.

During the historic event, protesting “taxation without representation,” members of the Sons of Liberty and others boarded East India Co. ships and dumped their valuable haul — some 92,000 pounds (41,700 kilograms) of tea worth nearly $2 million today — into the murky waters of Boston Harbor.

And definitely not that much. 

Only just a pinch.