Drive-by pontification
(1) It’s interesting how two separate news articles, published on the same day in papers a continent apart, used the same Orwellian description of the new debt agreement between McClatchy Newspapers and its lender. The Sacramento Bee, McClatchy’s flagship California paper, reported that the company’s negotiations with its lender had helped it “win greater financial flexibility.” The Raleigh News & Observer’s story about the same event for its North Carolina audience announced that the negotiations had resulted in McClatchy “winning concessions” from its lenders. So what exactly did the victorious negotiators from McClatchy win? Well, the company now has to (a) pay more interest on its loan, (b) cut its dividend, and possibly eliminate it altogether, (c) accept a reduction in its credit line, and (d) pledge all of the company’s assets to secure the loan. In return, McClatchy essentially got nothing more from its lender than a little time while the company looks for ways to keep afloat. If that’s winning, I’d hate to see what losing looks like.
(2) Paul Newman’s death was widely noted over the weekend, but almost nothing I read explicitly pointed out the obvious: Newman may have been the last movie star who actually deserved the admiration of the public. The fawning attention given to most celebrities is out of proportion to anything they’ve done to earn it. In fact, the more you learn about celebrities the less appealing they usually turn out to be. Not so with Newman. It was easy to admire that his private life was exactly that — private — and his choice to maintain a certain distance, both culturally and geographically, from Hollywood. Furthermore, he didn’t wear his politics on his sleeve, was married to the same woman for 50 years, disdained the trappings of stardom, and gave away huge sums for good causes. But for all his rejection of a star’s life, he was a hell of an actor. You always got good value for whatever you spent on a ticket to one of his movies.
(3) Who’s the one person who may come out of the current Wall Street crisis with his reputation improved? Eliot Spitzer. As you may recall, before Spitzer became best-known for being the country’s highest-profile john he was the scourge of financiers and corporate heavyweights who pushed the boundaries of ethical business practices. Sure, he was a thug and a bully with a badge. But among the things Spitzer helped fix was the less-than-arm’s-length relationship between investment banks and the analysts who appraised (and recommended) their deals. The long-term judgment of history may yet work in Spitzer’s favor.
September 29th, 2008 at 10:04 am
In the midst of all this, one can’t help but observe how incredibly ‘thin’ the Monday paper has become — literally as well as in terms of content. It takes about 10 minutes to read the entire paper and that’s perusing everything. And yet as they do so they insist it’s to “improve the content.” It’s slow atrophy and at this point in another couple of years the paper will be down to who-knows-what.
The irony is that had the Daniel’s not sold out to McClatchey, they’d probably be in reasonably good shape right now given the health of this market. What an epitaph.
September 29th, 2008 at 10:09 am
No one can say too many good things about Paul Newman. He was truly the last classic movie star. According to the morning BBC, his death was even mentioned in two of the major newspapers in Iran. Now that’s a star!
September 29th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
This has to be said. Doesn’t matter how obvious it is; it still has to be said: he was utterly, utterly stunning.
He was drop dead gorgeous. If he didn’t make your knees weak, you had no knees.
Paul Newman was so beautiful that it made a person feel elevated just to gaze at him.
JFK, Jr. was also unreasonably handsome, but I’d have to say that between the two — and this has NOTHING to do with any other aspect of their lives — Paul was still the more beautiful.
And he KEPT being beautiful even as he got old and craggy.
He could have slapped his picture on a can of spam and I’d have bought it. I don’t eat spam, or meat, for that matter, but if it were a decent photo likeness I woulda licked the label. Sorry, I realize I’m going too far now . . .
He might be the best argument that there is a God, except that I think that God would have wanted us all to have him, instead of his being kept for Joanne’s exclusive use. So I’m back to not believing in God.
And I don’t believe we’re going to ever see his like again.
September 29th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
All that’s well and good but you’re avoiding the elephant in the room - Alabama 41, Georgia 30.
Ouch!
September 29th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
I’ve heard it said that G.D. Gearino is the Paul Newman of bloggers.
September 29th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
I thought he was the Elliot Spitzer of bloggers.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:55 am
Somewhere between the reasoned evaluations of of Lippzee and Jim lies the true Gearino.
Take a little Carl Bernstien, Micky Spillane, Joe “GIRLS GONE WILD” Francis, Warren Beatty, Julia Child and Hans Conreid. Add a smidge of gun powder, two fingers of salt peter and an unquenchable desire to simplify complex financial information for his readers (you can substitute a pinch of oregano here if you don’t have any of this).
Toss it all in a Cuisinart with 1/2 cup of Dewars and run it on puree for two minutes.
That’s freaking Gearino.
September 30th, 2008 at 8:23 am
And in the spirit of Terrell Pryor:
Has anybody else experienced problems with the ignitions of their Buick Century, model years 1998 through 2004?
September 30th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Buick Century chat:
Mine won’t start. The dealership claims it’s got something to do with this tee-niney sensor bean embedded in the ignition key. Supposedly, it’s an anti-theft mechanism.
Screw that, it’s a crap-shoot every morning whether or not Mr. Sensor Bean perceives me as owner or thief - sometimes he ignites, sometimes he don’t. I’ve found that patience (on my part of course) and a soothing verse of Brahms’ Lullaby usually does the trick.
Shoot, I’d be happy if somebody would steal the damned car. If anybody’s interested, it’s parked in front of my house, unlocked, keys in the ignition. Mr Sensor Bean eagerly awaits making your acquaintence.
And I agree with your Terrell. Georgia got spanked but good.
September 30th, 2008 at 10:04 am
John,
You need your posterior kicked, right out-of-the-gate, for buying a Buick!
Too retro, man.
Get rid of it and get with the program!
September 30th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
John, I tried to steal your car but it wouldn’t start.