The first section — the “A” section — of the Los Angeles Times, focuses on international news and domestic stories of national interest. It is here that one learns how ugly and cruel life is for most of our brothers and sisters living in places other than America and Europe. The next section is the...
Take water. Add salt or sugar. Give water product a name that sound nutritious or refreshing. Acquire celebrity endorsement. Advertise heavily, imbuing sugar-water with perceived value and prestige. Sell at handsome profit.
As a counterbalance to the reflexively liberal Los Angeles Times, which we read every morning, we also read the reflexively conservative Wall Street Journal on weekdays. The paper is extraordinarily well-written, and its non-news feature articles are better than those in most magazines. The problem with reading the WSJ every morning, though, is that you soon discover the way the...
Since I don’t wear a watch, I can’t say with any certainty that one brand is better than another. (I don’t wear any jewelry, especially the kind that would remind me on a constant basis that I’m creeping inexorably toward death.) So if I’m completely out of line here, forgive me. It seems to me,...
The U.S. stock market is the world’s largest casino, except in this particular gambling den players don’t know the odds on their wagers. They just bet and hope. There’s very little correlation between a company’s real value and its stock price or between its earnings and its stock price. If there were, anyone could safely...
An Open Letter to Councilmember Hugo Soto-MartinezDear Councilmember Soto-Martinez,
The man you replaced, Mitch O’Farrell, was perceived by many as a cynical politician who placed the desires of wealthy real-estate developers over the concerns of the people he was supposed to represent. Sensitive to any perception of impropriety, you’ve made it a point to not accept…
The “letter” in question was written as a heartfelt Christmas greeting nearly 600 years ago by the early-Renaissance painter Fra Angelico. Inspired by this ancient missive, the French drummer Raphael Pannier has composed a suite of thoroughly modern music exploring the themes of universal brotherhood and divinity. He’s joined on the recording by, among others,...
