The second most memorable business card I came back from EG with. (Sorry Jeff, there was another I got that had a roll of dental floss built into it.)
In wayfarer’s worlds out west was once a man,
A man I come not to bury, but to praise.
His name was Geoffrey Lebowski called, yet
Not called, excepting by his kin.
That which we call a knave by any other name
Might bowl just as sweet. Lebowski, then,
Did call himself ‘the Knave’, a name that I,
Your humble chorus, would not self-apply
In homelands mine; but, then, this Knave was one
From whom sense was a burden to extract,
And of the arid vale in which he dwelt,
Also dislike in sensibility;
Mayhap the very search for sense reveals
The reason that it striketh me as most
Int’resting, yea, inspiring me to odes.
— The most excellent comedie and tragical romance of TWO GENTLEMEN OF LEBOWSKI
OSCAR MAYER’S GREAT NEW ‘SACK O’SAUCE IN A CAN O’MEAT’
Bootleg DVDs can be awesome, if only for the cover art.
Best Final Jeopardy Response?
No joke, just saw this amazing response tonight. The original ‘answer’ was: In a policy begun in 2002 as a symbol of the war on terrorism, US Navy ships fly the 18th century flag with this 4-word motto.
The correct response, by the way, is: “Don’t Tread on Me.” This guy ended up wagering $0 and still won the game … another victory for pastrami!
I’m not one for sucking up advice from motivational speakers, but this is universally good advice.
The reason a person is critical of a thing is because he is passionate about that thing. In order to have a critical opinion, you have to love something enough to understand it, and then love it so much more that you want it to be better.
—
Alex Payne is fantastically on-point regarding feedback, criticism and passion. I do this all the time, but always wonder a bit if I am being weird or inappropriate.
I ask blunt questions about people’s work, projects, companies. Friends, and new people I meet. Startups, naturally, lend much to be discussed in this fashion.
Similarly, I never understood why people were willing to accept mediocrity from friends. They’d usually say something like “well, they are my friends! I can’t criticize it!”
If anything, being a friend means to sternly encourage awesomeness and accept nothing else. Sometimes that means saying things people don’t like to hear but will hear from you. You can be tactful with that too, of course.
(Via fascinated. Props to Anthony for writing this up. I couldn’t have said this better myself.)
Hey there I-Bankers … here’s where (some of) your paychecks are coming from.
Morgan Stanley received a $9 billion investment from Mitsubishi UFJ in the fall of 2008 that kept the firm from collapsing. The payment was supposed to be wired electronically, but because it needed to be made on an emergency basis on a holiday, Mitsubishi cut a physical check, perhaps the largest ever written.
Above is a copy of the $9,000,000,000.00 check.
This is a gold mine of celebrity endorsed retro-tech ads. Jack Black, Phil Hartman, Bill Cosby, Kevin Costner, John Cleese and Shatner. This made my morning.
