The New Yorker had a fascinating and early entry in the "why TARP didn't lead to a recovery" stakes. (It's a cliche, at least among my people, that when something in government doesn't work, and as far as I know, this kind of Keynseyan stimulus has been tried many times, has never worked, and has been thoroughly discredited, but if you know of other evidence, please to inform.) Anyway, the New Yorker's villain is the states, because almost all states require balanced budgets by the constitutions, so they're not able to join in the frenzy for unsecured debt! If a trillion dollars stimulates nothing more than unemployment, if only we could spend another trillion!

There was a guy on the R train yesterday with his feet up on a seat, and I did a double-take, sure enough, he was barefoot. And his toenails looked like Lee Press-on Potshards.

On another ride a while back, a woman said, "That's so second-nature to me it's like it's first nature."