PicoBlog

As a Gen-Xer, Judy Blume’s books were the rare ones that were not required reading but virtually every kid did. There were the unusual (at that time) novels that reflected children back to themselves as exactly as they were, rather than the glossed-over, sanitized versions we saw in most books and pop culture. Zits, periods, bras, icky brothers, mean teachers, jealousy between friends, acrimony between parents and families — reading these books was like looking in the mirror, staring at yourself and all your flaws and gradually realizing that accepting them is maybe the most important part of growing up.

Arepas are a continual source of new discovery for me, which is why I really appreciate the just released cookbook The Arepa: Classic and Contemporary Recipes for Venezuela’s Daily Bread, from Venezuelan born author Irena Stein, who owns Baltimore restaurant Alma Cocina Latina (listen to our interview with her here). D… ncG1vNJzZmimlazEsL7LnZyrZqOqr7TAwJyiZ5ufonyxe8CrnKmZXZmybq%2FOnKY%3D

The Israeli security apparatus has had three specialties over the last few decades: preventing riots, preventing spectacular terror attacks, and, most importantly, looking good in the eyes of the Israeli public and our American patrons. In 2021 it failed in the first, on October 7th it failed in the second, and the third isn’t coming along great. All of this is despite tremendous budgets combined with legal and extralegal authority. So when a Jew with long peyyot came to represent successful popular efforts by private Israeli citizens to do the apparatus’ work for it, without any budget or authority to speak of, this was intolerable.

Share Aristotle says there are three kinds of friends: friends that benefit you, friends that please you, and friends that make you better.  In my last article, I tried to make the case that friendship is integral education in the classical tradition, and I used Augustine’s words about sympathy, fellowship, and love as a starting off point. For Augustine, as the teacher instructs the student, the student in turn re-teaches the teacher and the common truth between them dwells within them creating a bond of friendship.

ARM’s stock is up 110% YTD. We wrote about ARM a few months ago and reckoned that intrinsic value for ARM is a bit lower than the IPO price. In hindsight, it was perhaps a limitation of our imagination. We should have added the following in our analysis: “Masa son understands capital markets. ARM is a semiconductor stock in the middle of an AI revolution with only 5% of shares trading.

As someone who has hosted many dinners, you’d think I’d learn to keep things simple….. But there I am, 30 minutes before guests arrive, pacing my kitchen trying to simultaneously finish 4 dishes while setting the table. Too often I’ve been overly ambitious, putting out more dishes than guests and spending all day doing it.   With my recent move, I finally have a space I can’t wait to host in.

Based on using Cyabra Tech and looking at the likely path of ships transiting to Israel, it is possible that AROC was tricked into protesting the MV Cape Orlando. Need an private intelligence agency to inspect your business for domestic or foreign risk? Contact Veloxxity. Like my Department Of the Boat People shirt? Get one here. Share Links and resources available for paid subscribers below: ncG1vNJzZmiqqZa7rq%2FBnquhZqOqr7TAwJyiZ5ufonyxe8CrppyrXaLDbq%2FAqZxmp6Khrq%2Bwzmagp5uZmbKvwA%3D%3D

For plenty of personal reasons, it is far, far too long since my last newsletter. So I’m making my comeback with something some may consider far, far too long. Apparently this post is too long for emails, with the images and gifs. I guess if you’re in your emails and you can’t see everything, it might just be safer to find and read it here. Anyway, onto the serious stuff …

You may never have heard of him. If you don’t follow sports, and specifically golf, you certainly don’t know his name. He’s not Tiger, and he’s not Arnie or Jack Nicklaus, or even some of the names non-golfers have come to recognize: Rory McIlroy, maybe? But he could have been a household name. Maybe a legend. I play and watch the golf, and I remember Anthony Kim quite well. But I didn’t know his full story until a fellow writer sent me the link to a recent New York Times article about Kim’s nearly mystical disappearance from the game, his epic talent, and the artistic link Kim’s real story has to my novella, Sandman: A Golf Tale.