So by now have you heard of "PIGS" - as in (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain)?

Now Schott's Vocab tells us about a new acronym for the possible dominoes if Greece should fall - "STUPID" - as in (Spain, Turkey, UK, Portugal, Italy, Dubai).

Labels: Dubai, economy, NY Times, recession, wordplay

The New York Times on the Maine Winter Sports Center up to Fort Kent: "Biathlon Program Finds a Home in Northern Maine".

Labels: Fort Kent, Maine, NY Times, Olympics

Interesting article on the role text messaging is playing in spelling reform: "The Keypad Solution".

Labels: NY Times, txt

I like a good editorial.

I love a great editorial.

And this New York Times editorial regarding Citizens United V. FEC will knock your socks off: "The Court’s Blow to Democracy".

This is how it starts:

"With a single, disastrous 5-to-4 ruling, the Supreme Court has thrust politics back to the robber-baron era of the 19th century. Disingenuously waving the flag of the First Amendment, the court’s conservative majority has paved the way for corporations to use their vast treasuries to overwhelm elections and intimidate elected officials into doing their bidding.

Congress must act immediately to limit the damage of this radical decision, which strikes at the heart of democracy."

>
And it gets better from there ...

Labels: Corporations, editorial, NY Times, Supreme Court

Another author has weighed in on what to call this lost decade.

Paul Krugman from the New York Times says we should call it "The Big Zero".

Hey, it's still better than "the naughties".

Labels: Name That Decade, NY Times

History and art together - awesome!

"Picturing the Past 10 Years".

Labels: 2000s, art, history, NY Times

Nothing much new to note in this New York Times article: "Iger’s Pay at Disney Slips by 28%" except the term "golden coffin".

Wha?!

The Disney board has also decided to end a perk allowing for posthumous payments to the heirs of top executives should they die on the job, a controversial benefit known in financial circles as a "golden coffin." Disney will not renew the benefit when current contracts expire, according to the filing. The move follows investor complaints.

I assume this would most recently apply to Frank Wells.

I wonder if we can find a list somewhere of all of the "golden coffin" payees?

Saldy I don't think Roy O. Disney would count - he retired just before his death on December 20, 1971.

Labels: Disney, NY Times

I love articles about how temporary workers are bad for the economy, and they all should be hired full-tim: "Is Your Job Permanent?"

Labels: economy, NY Times, temps

Hey look, companies are hiring lots of temps! Who knew?! "Labor Data Show Surge in Hiring of Temp Workers".

Key paragraph: "In the past, temps who do well have often been offered regular employment, with higher pay and benefits. Given the uncertainties about this recovery, companies are not doing that now, and temps, as a result, are less likely to spend as freely as regular employees or to qualify for credit, generating less demand than permanent employment would."

Awesome.

Labels: economy, NY Times, temps

Frank Rich has a terribly harsh essay in yesterday's New York Times on how Tiger Woods sums up this year / decade of illusions and fakery.

He touches on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, Enron, Barry Bonds, Eliot Spitzer, Wall Street, Ted Haggard’s megachurch, and more.

Oddly one connection he never makes, even after paragraphs about both Enron's fakery and Accenture's ditching of Woods as spokesperson, is that the two are (albeit tenuously) connected. Accenture had been part of Arthur Andersen, the accounting firm that dissolved due to its role in the Enron scandal.

Either way, it's a fascinating read of what was quite a decade: "Tiger Woods, Person of the Year".

Labels: 2000s, NY Times, terror