Minorities

As a white male of European descent, it is not often that I find myself in the minority anywhere I might wander. But I did this past weekend. Oddly enough, it was not in a place I expected to be a minority. Many of you are picturing a lot of stereotypical situations where I might have strayed. But it was not where you think. I was at a college graduation at a highly regarded university on the east coast of the United States. The disparity between us “whites” and the Asian and Middle Eastern “majority” was more pronounced during the portion of the Commencement where they conferred post graduate degrees. There was about a three to one ratio of “non-whites” to whites in both the Masters degree and Doctorate degree portions of the program. The undergraduate mix was a little more even. This apparently, was not an aberration www.bsos.umd.edu/socy/vanneman/socy441/trends/collrace.html To paraphrase an old quote, “I have seen the future, baby, and the future is now.”

Vultures

It is an inarguable fact that someone, somewhere makes money on every disaster. But the story in a recent New York Times article about the windfall profits being made by bankruptcy attorneys is setting new heights (or depths depending on your point of view) to test this adage. www.dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/who-knew-bankruptcy According to that article, “The lawyers, accountants and restructuring experts have already racked up $730 million in fees and expenses, with no end in sight.” for the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy alone. Fees include hotel fees, as much as $864 a night, $364 dry cleaning bills, and $500 a day limo fees for the people called in to “rescue” these assets. There seems to be no limits to fees and expenses that can be charged against the carcass of this or any other major company in bankruptcy. If there was anything left at Lehman, the cure is certain to eat it alive.

By Sam DelPresto

The Joys of Travel

I don’t travel as much as I’d like to, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like to keep up with what is hot in travel. So I was delighted to find a Hilary Travel website (www.hilary.com/travel/hip-60thompson.html) devoted to just that. Apparently Hilary is a woman’s magazine, but finding its web site seems to negate the queasiness I might normally have intruding on travel secrets from “the other side”.

Hilary covers the important issues of our times. Who doesn’t need to know where to go to find a snowmobile valet? (The Fairmount Hotel at the Fairmont Le Manor Richelieu in Quebec). And how many times have you found yourself wondering which vacation spot to bring your dog for the best gourmet pet food. (The Grove Isle Club in Miami.) These are not issues I need to tackle when I’m home! I’m in a better mood already, and I’m not even going anywhere.

By Sam DelPresto

Olympics

The Winter Olympic games began in Vancouver . (www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/11/) It is hard to remember an Olympics with less buzz going in. Perhaps it was the lateness of the Super Bowl this year, perhaps it is just that Americans have never warmed up to many of the winter sports. Other than figure skating and hockey, NBC scrambles to create interest in many of the other cold weather sports.

I heard an interesting theory as to why the Olympics don’t capture the imagination as they once did. It was said that the Olympic broadcasts, unless the viewer is an aficionado of a particular sport, are in effect, reality TV, a collection of unscripted, human interest stories; “up close and personal” in the words of the late Howard Cosell. And the one thing Americans do not need more of is reality TV.

By Sam DelPresto

Better to be Small

President Barack Obama’s proposal to tax bonuses given by banks who received government bailout money may have an unintended bonus. The proposal would have huge popular support in the midst of all the anger being targeted toward Wall Street (www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/us/15tax.html) The proposed tax would apply to bank, thrift and insurance companies with more than $50 billion in assets. It would not apply to certain holdings, like customers’ insured savings, but to assets in risk-taking operations. The silver lining in all this may be found as the banks attempt to circumvent the tax, which of course, they certainly will. One solution to avoiding this tax would be to keep assets under the threshold of $50 billion. Companies could splinter off “subsidiaries” in a reversal of the way they consolidated during the late stages of the 20^th century. The result would be fewer companies “too big to fail”.

By Sam DelPresto

Bah Humbug

I recently heard about the Spanish Christmas lottery, El Gordo, or “The Fat One, that takes place later this week. It is the oldest lottery in the world, dating back to 1812, and also the largest. http://gospain.about.com/od/christmasinspain/f/play_el_gordo.htm Last year’s prize was nearly two billion euros. Tickets are expensive, 200 euros each, but you can buy “pieces” of a ticket for twenty euros. People often give tickets as Christmas gifts.

As for me, I’ll never buy a lottery ticket as a gift for someone. If they won, I’d be sick about it. I might even have to consider suicide. Imagine buying a winning lottery ticket for once in your life and handing it over to someone who you don’t care enough about to buy them a real gift. No thanks. I don’t need that kind of aggravation in my life. If I’m looking for a little gift in the one dollar range, I’ll stick to a McDonald’s gift card. Bah humbug! In the words of Ogden Nash, “Merry Christmas to almost everyone.”

By Sam DelPresto

Ratings

Sports television ratings are through the roof. All sports. All networks. The NBA on TNT is up 25% to the highest levels in 26 years. NFL ratings are hitting 20 year highs. The MLB Game 1 of the World Series hit five a year high.

www.blogmaverick.com/2009/10/29/sports-ratings-records- I can safely predict, with little trepidation that Tiger Wood’s next TV tournament will set new records for golf viewership, if not for sports ratings in general. We are either in the midst of or coming out of, depending on who you read, the second worst financial recession of the past 100 years. You don’t need a PHD in anthropology to see the connection. Escape, baby, escape. In a decade where the evening news has become an assault weapon, sports remain one of the great, inexpensive escapes. Unlike the war in Afghanistan or medical insurance reform, the intricacies of NFL playoffs can be mastered in a few short hours. Whether or not this is healthy for our society or not, I could not say. Or certainly I couldn’t say with the NFL about to kick off.

By Sam DelPresto