Ana Moure; doctor, am I a prophet?

I don't even have my own "told you so" song and dance routine; frankly the situation is nothing to celebrate; but this is exactly the case where the common sense allowed anyone to see through the unintended consequences of the actions intended to target the public outrage with "huge Wall Street bonuses"

What Ana Moure wrote about AIG bonus cuts.

Two recent articles:

Exodus of Top Bankers - Bad News For The Taxpayer

about the Wall street brain drain and the top stars leaving the most established institutuions

Whoa, who could have predicted this?

Update

Dear readers,

it was a privelege blogging for you; even now I still have a ton of totally irrelevant material on my hands dedicated to my flagship themes to keep the resource afloat, but I now feel like writing a totally different kind of book (I hope a better one).

For me blogging was a fantastic exercise in writing discipline.

So thanks again for visiting me, and I apologize for closing this publication. (you know, many glossy magazines had to close out in the current economic climate)

With best regards,
Wish me luck,
Ana Moure.

Sometimes I receive emails so interesting, I just have to share them.

An economics professor at Texas Tech said he had never failed a single student before but had, once, failed an entire class. The class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said ok, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. But, as the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too; so they studied little..

The second Test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame, name calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for anyone else. All failed to their great surprise and the professor told them that socialism would ultimately fail because the harder it is to succeed the greater the reward but when a government takes all the reward away; no one will try or succeed.

An viable alternative to "We need to talk".

I'm sure you've seen this clip a million times, but here it is again: Sarah Silverman breaks up with Jimmy Kimmel on Jimmy Kimmel's own show (NSFW).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLG3S5WzHig

Jimmy Kimmel's response:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PZNfOZXPJk - Matt Damon on Jimmy Kimmel Show
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lcmNaXmjvs&feature=related - Ben Affleck

Saturday TV (mais biensur, FOX)

My progressive opponents loved to refer to Great Britain as to an example of a country that can have socialized everything without any disasterous consequences for the economy. Before, I could only say "Just wait" and turn on a suspense-buikding soundtrack. Now I have this:



Or proceed with his Fox interview right away:



And on southparkstudios.com the new episode is oh so relevant!

Kisses, Ana Moure.

Attn: Paul Smith ties and Gucci watches at ideeli

click here to join Ties for guys are like shoes for girls (you can never have enough), only more multifunctional. Say a lady friend comes to visit you, then it's easy to make a gag out of a red Paul Smith tie, and tie her up using the navy printed, and the cute yellow one. Prices start at $45. Also, today Gucci watches at ideeli start at $329

Brunette Pride Day

"Blonde women are apparently dying their hair brown, in a bit to be taken more seriously in the office.

Following in the footsteps of Scarlett Johansson and Fergie, one in three female employees are now ditching their light-coloured locks, for a more demure shade.

This latest news comes as we face bleak job losses in the wake of the worldwide recession, and struggling companies across Britain are forced to make mass lay-offs.

In the survey commissioned by Superdrug, Dan Hadley said to the Daily Mail: "The current economic climate is obviously making women take more care with their appearance at work, even down to their hair colour.

"The study shows brunettes do seem to be taken more seriously in the work place which is causing a rise in fair headed women darkening their locks.

"It's incredible how changing your hair colour can alter people's perception of you as well as making you feel more confident too."

A large percentage of blondes also believe that their hair colour has held them back in the past and in the study 31% revealed that they had gone brunette to appear more intelligent in the office."

sources unknown

Friday Fun: Show off your fine art education.

Now here is a fine quiz: tell the genius legendary Jackson Pollock's paintings from birds' doodies.
I'm pretty proud of my 100% true result, I guess I know birds' doodies very well.
Don't be scared that the test is in Russian, just choose radio buttons, 'Поллок' is Russian for Pollock 'Птицы' is Russian for Birds; '100%' is Russian for 100%.
If you are more into literature, try telling a machine-translated German texts from William Faulkner's prose. Here I wasn't as impressive as in telling birds' doodies, note to self: read more Faulkner.

Two answers.

- Are you married?
- Sometimes.
(From the "Shampoo" movie)

- Ana, what's new?
- Google me.
(this is how all the cool kids should answer now)

My favorite charity (besides for More-Pradas-to-Ana Foundation)

http://www.wholeplanetfoundation.org/

Whole Planet Foundation. provides microloans to women entrepreneurs in the 3rd world countries.An average loan size is $290; and just $200 buys some woman a cow - which is a really great value (and I love great values)! The foundation is founded by Whole Foods, 100% of our donations go to the women, because Whole Foods pays for all the expenses by itself; and it's really convenient to make a donation at the checkout when buying organic apples.

The best way to donate is by starting a chain: on some days Whole Foods gives cute bags to the donors. Instead of taking this bag, I ask to give it to the next customer, and the next customer makes a donation too, thus passing the bag down the line. Chain reactions are a really cool idea I borrowed from another woman who was doing this. So if anyone asks, all rights to the idea belong to one woman with a ponytail, an Ipod, Nike shorts, and MBT shoes who buys apples in my Whole Foods.

Btw, did you know that 100% of your Prada-to-Ana contributions go to buying more Prada for me?

Ana Moure on AIG bonus cuts.

So what do I think about the 90% bonus cut?

First of all, let me tell you about the compensation system in the financial industry. In all the normal industries you work for a big salary, and if you were extra nice this year, then one day you receive a cute little Christmas bonus. This really is an add-on, a sweet touch to show how your employer cares for you and appreciates what you've been doing.

Now in the finance industry it's all different. The base salary is in low 6-figures andhardly covers a box for Prada shoes and the chewing gum. What buys the shoes, and what brings the food on the table is the bonus money.

When the times are good, and there is no liquidity squeeze, the fund returns and thus the bonuses are pretty good. The traders and the portfolio managers actually forget that they work in a very risky industry (by being susceptible to anchoring and linear approximation of recent history biases, - bacause they never passed a CFA exam!) - and take on $2mln mortgages and start to procreate non-stop. In 2007 investment banks were full of pregnant women, and all the male traders took off the job early to drive the baby to the playdate; and had dark circles around their eyes because the baby cried all night.

("Everybody says it's lifechanging but nobody says it sucks" - overheard from trader J.)

So, instead of cutting the bonuses, my proposal would be creating new compensation guidelines that solve the cognitive dissonance between the compensation structure and the fiduciary duty (link). I'm glad that the prudent management of the UBS read my Lebesansichten and has partially implemented my guidelines just one month later (link).

---

On the other hand, cutting bonuses 90% won't do it, because the salary is nada anyway, and the new baby wants baby food, - not just chewing gum, and the (new) wife wants the Prada shoebox to have Prada contents, - not to live in it. So if the financier has any talent, he will find the job somewhere outside of the nationalized financial institution. The only people left there would be idiots no prop shop would hire. And do you expect a fantastic turnaround from a nationalized institution full of idiots whom noone who wants to be profitable wants to hire?

The ladies who brunch.

Do you brunch? I just did, to support my favorite charity (besides for Prada-Chanel-Hermes foundation, which I support each time I have an extra $5K to $50K; but you cannot do much for Prada with a $10 donation every now and then).

I had an omelette, a salad, lots of fruit and berries, and a french toast made of rolled crepes and covered in zabaglione and caramelized diced apples. I thought it was creme anglaise, but zabaglione is so much tastier!

I'm full.

Coming soon (a note to myself): my favorite charities.

Codex Seraphinianus

In the 70-es an Italian architect Luigi Serafini wrote the book about 'Strange and Extraordinary Representations of Animals and Plants and Hellish Incarnations of Normal Items from the Annals of Naturalist/Unnaturalist Luigi Serafini', which is an encyclopedia of another world written on a language unknown to the mankind. Didn't we all do it when we were kids? Only I never published my books (and they weren't as cool either).

Here is one page from the book:


more scans
The whole book in pdf

I wanted it, but on Amazon CODEX SERAPHINIANUS is way too expensive :(

Changing seasons

The winter is gone. I was kinda scared about my heating bill size with windows THAT big; - I didn't have to turn on the heat for a single day. Today, I switched on the AC to the max. I guess I'll have to live this way till the next winter, hope the AC is powerful enough...

In case you still don't quite understand how CMOs and bailouts work.

Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Berlin. In order to increase sales, she decides to allow her loyal customers - most of whom are unemployed alcoholics - to drink now but pay later.

She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans). Word gets around and as a result increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi's bar. Taking advantage of her customers' freedom from immediate payment constraints, Heidi increases her prices for wine and beer, the most-consumed beverages.

Her sales volume increases massively. A young and dynamic customer service consultant at the local bank recognizes these customer debts as valuable future assets and increases Heidi's borrowing limit. He sees no reason for undue concern since he has the debts of the alcoholics as collateral. At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert bankers transform these customer assets into DRINKBONDS, ALKBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These securities are then traded on markets worldwide. No one really understands what these abbreviations mean and how the securities are guaranteed.Nevertheless, as their prices continuously climb, the securities become top- selling items.

One day, although the prices are still climbing, a risk manager of the bank, (subsequently of course fired due to his negativity), decides that slowly the time has come to demand payment of the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi's bar. However they cannot pay back the debts. Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations and claims bankruptcy. DRINKBOND and ALKBOND drop in price by 95 %. PUKEBOND performs better, stabilizing in price after dropping by 80 %. The suppliers of Heidi's bar, having granted her generous payment due dates and having invested in the securities are faced with a new situation. Her wine supplier claims bankruptcy; her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor. The bank is saved by the Government following dramatic round-the-clock consultations by leaders from the governing political parties.

The funds required for this purpose are obtained by a tax levied on the non- drinkers.

The source

“Finally” with Ana Moure: A long-awaited feminist initiative.

Can you please enlighten me on a polite socially-appropriate way to say to a stranger: “Hello, a disgusting old man, I don’t even care about your marital status, for I cannot possibly have any sexual attraction to you”? What, you say there is no such way? Because to a woman you can certainly say “Hello Ma’am.” And the poor thing is left wondering “Why Ma’am, why not Miss? Is this my hair? Is this my dress? Is this my Bugatti? Is this Texas?”

(A little tip: when you are riding a Bugatti, you are always a “Miss”, which means “I would do any favors, including sexual, to whoever owns this car, if she lets me drive.”)

Hooray, the European Parliament got a proposal to ban the words “Madam”, “Mademoiselle”, “Signora”, “Signorina” etc, as offensive to women!

Indeed, I always found it unfair that when you address a male, neither “Sir” no “Mister” imply anything about his age or marital status, while I’m always bombarded with insults both on the phone with customer service, and when the men won’t talk about anything until you answer their “Miss or Missis?” question. (Translation: “Do you belong to someone, or is there a possibility that I can own you?”.)

Two things I know are:

1. When someone addresses me as “Ma’am” - it means I should never ever wear this fugly hairstyle again (and losing 10 lbs wouldn’t hurt either). I would never call a human being that did me no wrong “Ma’am”, unless he/she insists.

2. When a store clerk of a jewelry department addresses me as “Beautiful Young Miss” - this means that he/she thinks that I, or my husband, or my Sugar Daddy is filthy rich, and is picturing a huge commission in his/her head. I think I should reward good behavior with huge commission. On the other hand, if the salesperson says an M-word, I don’t even care if he/she is being rude or just plain silly, I will make sure the commission goes to somebody else, even if this means going to a different store.

Btw, if somebody wants to be respectful, I like “Ana”, “Anya”, “Ana Moure”, "My Lady", “Your Impeccable Perfectness”, “Charming, beautiful, sophisticated, and modest Miss Moure”, and “Yes, Sir”.

Things I’m okay with are “Hey, Lady” and “Miss” (I’m aware that, coming from a straight man, this means “I find you plump and sexually attractive enough; if I could, I’d do you”, - which is not that respectful, but still beats “Ma’am”)

“Dr. Moure” would have been great, but I never finished my PhD.

Besides for my first question,

- Ladies, how do you prefer being addressed, and which words do you absolutely hate?

- Gentlemen, how do you find polite to address the strangers of an opposite sex?

(speak freely, for I’m not lobbying a law that demands a court-ordered public castration to anyone saying “Ma’am”… Yet. Though it’s tempting, and I loved spending time in Washington DC.)

---

The first edition of this text in Alexandria

PS: I had huge problems with the whole Miss/Missis thing, because in my opinion it emphasizes how marriage changes everything for a girl, - and nothing for a guy. The guy, whether before of after the wedding, is still "Mr. Adam Smith", - while the girl turns from "Miss Suzy Brown" into "Missis Adam Smith, property of Mr. Adam Smith, trespassers will be shot to death and then prosecuted to the full extent of the law."

From the comments I learnt that Mr. Wired suggested adding a "married/not-married" qualifier to the man's title, so that after the marriage "Mister Adam Smith" becomes "Misterer Adam Smith".

The only problem I have with it is it's still unfair: for a man "Missis or Miss Moure?" is a very important question, which gives him a valuable information "Is said Lady Moure damaged goods, and a property of some Mr. Moure who can shoot me, or can I try to get her drunk and damage her goods myself?". Let's give girls a similarly important insight into the man's quality, and let them know if they even want to be near his goods. And what do we care about? No, I'm not talking about the size, which as we all know doesn't matter, I'm talking about the disposable income!

My suggestions for men's titles: "Ehh. Smith" for a man with annual income below $250K; "Blah. Smith" if income is above $250K, but below $5M, and "Wwm. Smith" (pronounced "Wa-wa-woom Smith") for men with annual income over $5M.

The importance of having an avatar.

Do you think a picture contributes a lot to the post? On one hand, it shouldn't. We are logical intellectual creatures, and we buy books and read magazines for their content, right? On the other hand, it so does! The humans need to check out the Barron's renderings, see the author's photo on a book's back cover, and meditate over those two square inches of a columnist picture in Forbes. This is how we understand if the article is worth reading. Is the author smart, - or is this a girl? If this is a girl, - how hot is she? More importantly, the avatars make the reader think while looking through the article. The thoughts are of an important question "Would I do her?". Or, for females: "Would I go on a date with him?" "If I was a les, would I do her?"

This is why having an avatar with a human face on it is so essential.

To answer your questions:

Steve Forbes - totally.
Alan Abelson - yes, with or without an avatar. I wish I could write such long funny phrases.
Michael Santoli - ewww.
Richards Lehman and David Dreman, - unlikely; maybe if I could invite both at a time, to make the date less boring.
Ken Fisher, - sure, he looks so much better and more Jewish in person!

- Ana, and if you were a guy?
- Certainly Marylin Cohen.
- But seriously?
- What, municipal bonds aren't sexy enough for you? Then, no doubt, Meryl Witmer! She's my only reason to read Barron's Roundtable!

Lebensansichten des Ana O'Moure.

A short video to create the right mood:

Now to my favorite Irish Drinking Songs:

He wasn't strongly driven
Life to forsake for verse.
He couldn't (to help we'd striven)
Tell an iamb from its reverse

With a heidy-daidy-daidy-dah
With a heidy-deidi dah!

What, Puskin isn't Irish enough for you? Ok, let's try this


He threw down among them
A crumpled paper ball.
Elijah thirty two feet
Per sec is a com.

(With a heidy-daidy-daidy-dah
With a heidy-deidi dah!)

Not a bit. The ball bobbed
Unheeded on the wake of swells,
Floated under the bridgepiers.
Not such damn fools.

(With a heidy-daidy-daidy-dah
With a heidy-deidi dah!)

Also the day I threw that
Stale cake out of the Erin's
King picked it up in the wake
Fifty yard astern.

(With a heidy-daidy-daidy-dah
With a heidy-deidi dah!)

If you knows the end of this hoedown - good! Get yourself a piece of green apple pie, and I'm happy to sing in front of such an educated public.

"Ana, what the … is this?" - you ask? Tsk-tsk-tsk, it's the most critically acclaimed masterpiece of James Joyce, hoedowned by me without changing or omitting a single word. Ulysses is famous for his music of words. And I cannot think of a better music to go with it than a Traditional Irish Drinking Song!

Kisses to all Irish, (I know you aren't all stereotypical drunks, - neither are the Russians!)
Your Ana O'Moure.

Happy fishing!

Continuing the Jubilee Series. Q&A with Ana Moure.

Corr: Ana, when you started this blog - did you know you will become such a self-proclaimed international Internet celebrity?

A.M.: No, I just wanted a girlie blog to put my pictures and everyday activities on the web for easier reference. I had a blog with quite controversial articles in Russian, but I wanted to keep my anonymity there, so no pics were allowed. Besides, after discussing things in Russian CFA forums, I found out that it was much easier for me to write on finance-related topics in English, (I just didn't know all the correct Russian terms) and I wanted to have an outlet to put my non-work-related thoughts on finance and econ.

Corr: How did you discover your celebrity status?

A.M.: I installed a stats script right after I started blogging, - only because I love statistics and scripts so much. The biggest surprise was when I found I had actual readers. I had more and more of them every day, and suddenly I realized that I owe to the society to update this blog more frequently than every once in a while. After all, people go through all this trouble typing "http://anamoure.blogspot.com" in their browsers daily.

Corr: Can you describe the stages your blog went through?

A.M. My readers did enjoy my pictures, which I found flattering at first, and slightly disturbing later, when it started to look like they were enjoying them too much, not in a way a young lady's photos in business suits are supposed to be enjoyed. At that point I removed all my pictures, curious if people would keep on reading solely for the content.

According to my stats, a half of my readers stopped visiting me altogether. But you my dearest stayed, and I cannot be happier to have such a sophisticated intellectual audience of people who read!

South Park Season 13 Premiere "The Ring"

Watch here, someone on the Internet says it's legal, - to learn of many dangers of putting a weiner in an American Woman's mouth from Eric Cartman himself. Also The Jonas Brothers explain why wearing the Purity Rings is so important.
Some quotes about The Purity Ring:
Butters: "A ring that says you'll be together but not have sex. Isn't that called a wedding ring?"

And a Happy Pi Day!

3.14!

Or
3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510
58209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679
82148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128
48111745028410270193852110555964462294895493038196
44288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091
45648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273
72458700660631558817488152092096282925409171536436
78925903600113305305488204665213841469519415116094
33057270365759591953092186117381932611793105118548
07446237996274956735188575272489122793818301194912
98336733624406566430860213949463952247371907021798

to be more exact.

Or, if you really want to know the first million digits of Pi, you can go here .

PS: My St, Patrick post will be written on St. Pat Day, March 17th, because I missed the parade anyway.

Ana Moure admits she was wrong.

After this post I expected all Google AdSence ads to be of a certain sort. Instead, they all offer multiple ways to charter a private jet. After checking them out, my reader A was surprised that companies rich enough to have Falcons 900 in their fleet still cannot afford to get themselves decent websites.

Still, I hope to receive some spammer comments in that post. Eventually. I'll just wait for 3 days.

PS: Argh! Google just suspended my account. Such a pity - I liked to see how those little ads changed each time Google thought it figured out what my glorious Lebensansichten was about. :( I'll miss those ads - won't you?

Playing hard To Get video - just too good not to be shared.

Ask and ye shall receive (John Chapter 16 Verse 24 )

Blessed we are indeed, for we live in times when the Bible verses come true. As long as we follow the "Love Thy Adsense" Commandment.

For how it was it 19th Century? Say Thou wanted some Viagra. And Thou wandered all over the place asking Thy neighbors, apothecaries, and such if they had any Viagra, -but in vain.

20-eth Century simplified the process a great deal: now thou could mayhaps ask thy family physician for a prescription - or thou could just launch an online search, and get thy Viagra without a prescription.

But now that the 21st Century has cometh, one doth not even have to do anything but expressing her desire in her private diary. For example, if I write "I want some Viagra on discount, please" in my secluded Lebensansichten, I'll get many spammer comments with links to the places where I can buy some.

Better yet, the Google AdSense ads under this entry will probably all lead to the websites that sell Viagra!

Ana Moure,
Bible Interpreter, and Fearless Internet Spam Researcher.

Leaving DC. Reagan Airport. Part III.

Some things are a given:

1. S&P cannot possibly fall below $1300. It's absolutely safe to sell 2010 $1300 LEAP puts, like Warren does.
2. Real estate is the most reliable investment ever. The price can only go up.
3. Every airport terminal has a restroom and a Starbucks.

I know many statements that were the essense of pure conventional wisdom got shuttered lately. For example, Reagan Airport has no Starbucks. I don't know what to believe in anymore! (not that I ever believed the first and the second statements.)

Leaving DC. Reagan Airport. Part 2.

I'm in the airport for over 8 hours now, thinking of many unladylike words to describe my attitude towards commercial airlines. I'm being transferred from one standby list to another. I believe I just became an author of several Great American Euphemisms. In the meantime, the teleprompter thanks me for the cooperation again and again.

It's really hard to leave the hospitable District of Columbia.

All this inspires me to write a groundbreaking research paper, which I want to call "Why private jets rule, and flying commercial sucks." Some major points to address are listed below.

Some private jet advantages:

1. No security check: the pilot only looks at your license.
2. You don't have to take off your shoes, your metal belt and the only diamond earring hanging, or to take your liquids and laptops out of the privacy of your suitcase.
3. The limo drives you right to your plane, - not to silly terminals with their dumb security checks, nauseating airport food, and bad knockoff bags selling everywhere. (attn, fashionistas-on-the-budget: Reagan airport has a horrible but very realistic Balenciaga knockoff for under $70)
4. Inside the jet you have a waitress, edible food, a variety of prestigious alcohol drinks, and a coffee machine.
5. If you don't like the drink selection on the plane, you can take a huge bottle of your favorite liquid with you.
6. Also, you don't need to make sure all your toiletries are travel-size and fit into a ziploc bag.
7. If there is a jam in the destination airport, you don't have to wait for it to resolve, - you can just ask the pilots to re-route the plane to another airport nearby.
8. Chairs are more comfortable; and because many face each other - it's way more convenient to travel in a bigger than 2-persons group.
9. Your seat is both window and isle at the same time.
10. No carry-on luggage form-factor restrictions: you can take a surfboard, a guitar, etc.
11. No lost luggage - ever!
12. (and no wait in the baggage claim area)
13. The cockpit is not locked - you can see how the pilots work.
14. If everyone in your little group arrived to the plane a bit earlier - the plane will take off earlier.
15. Private jets fly faster: you arrive way earlier than you would on a big commercial airline.
16. You have the front window panoramic view - instead of a side view of a plane wing from a tiny oval window.
17. Private jets are cool!

Leaving DC. Reagan Airport.

I guess some people are taught to engage you into the conversation to get a bigger tip. I hate it when a masseuse tells me anything but "Is the pressure okay?". Same with limo: I'm the happiest when the only things I hear during the ride are "Good morning Miss Moure" "Is the temperature fine with you?" "Thank you Miss Moure, goodbye Miss Moure". I'm not paying to listen to the taxicab driver preaching socialism as the only fair system.

I guess in DC the limo drivers should be the most political. But this was the only issue I had with DC (except for losing one beautiful diamond earring; Please if anyone finds a gorgeous platinum diamond-encrusted oval - I really miss it!)

One reassuring thing I heard was that my driver didn't like Obama for him "being to rightist". One thing that saddened me was that Obama will have the driver's full support no matter what he does, because "He's our brotha." (The guy was a Muslim from Pakistan, but whatever.) I'd prefer if the president was judged based on things other than his race.

Housekeeping

I truly appreciate all your insigtful and interesting comments and questions. I think my commenters are all very intelligent, successful, and beautiful people.

I also truly appreciate the pre-moderation feature blogger offers. I switched it on after the comment orgy in "My Epistemological Poem" post, and cannot be happier with it.

Let me (one year later) introduce some Lebesansichten etiquette rules. If the comment follows the rules, it gets published, otherwise unfortunately it doesn't.

1. I love when you sign in with your real name, your blogger ID, or if you prefer to post anonymously - just your exact position in the Forbes 400 list. It's a common knowledge people write better comments when they care about their image being consistent.

2. Exceptions are for the extremely interesting anonymous comments; it so happens one of my favorite commenters prefers to do it anonymously, with a signature inside the post. I'm the ultimate judge of what's extremely interesting.

3. I don't appreciate when your comment says bad things about my other commenters, - and won't let it in.

4. If you sign your sexual fantasies as "Steve Forbes"; or sign your anonymous comments as "The Real Steve" - you better be one. Because I so can tell the real Steve from a fake one. There's nothing wrong with your real name! (unless... coming soon!)

5. If you want me to review a book or an article, - I'll be happy to. But I love the rule we had in one political forum: when suggesting a problem to discuss, in the first post the author states his own opinion on the subject matter.

6. Spam, spam, spam - wonderful spam! You betcha I get tons of advertisements in my comments; I have already written and scheduled a post where they will have a chance to get published (coming soon!), - but outside of that specially designated post spambots won't make it.

Shameless product placement in classical literature. Part 1: Alexander Puskin, "Eugeny Onegin"

Onegin wasn't strongly driven
Life to forsake for sake of verse.
He couldn't (though to help we'd striven)
An iamb tell from its reverse.
Theocritus and Homer spurning,
Instead to Adam Smith
oft turning,
He studied economics hard,
To learn to judge in which regard
A country's prone to be imperial,
What it might profit from, and why
It might, despite no gold, get by,
Provided it's got raw material.
His father thought this all was Greek,
And sold his farmlands up the creek.

---

He'd still be sleeping, on occasion,
When served by servants with the post.
"Hallo? What's this? Some invitation?
Not one, but three would be my host?
Let's see — some ball, some children's party ..."
Where will he dash, my dashing hearty?
Where to begin? It's all the same —
He'll make all three! Life's such a game!
But now in morning garb he's dressing,
Dons his bolivar, downs his bread.
To Nevsky Prospect now he'll head,
And there he'll stroll with nothing pressing,
Until his timepiece chimes away
`For suppertime: Watchful Bréguet!


Alexander Sergeevich Puskin, "Evgenij Onegin" (in case you read in Russian)

Adam Smith was right!

Exactly 333 years ago a certain Scot with a simple Scottish name Adam Smith published the first edition of his book on Life, Universe, and Everything.

Actually he defined himself as a moral philosopher, he was a moral philosophy professor in the University of Glasgow, and presented the posterity with many books with boring titles such as:

"The Theory of Moral Sentiments"
"Essays on Philosophical Subjects"
"Lectures on Justice, Police, Revenue, and Arms"
"A Treatise on Public Opulence"

But this is not the only reason we love him. On the 10th of March 1776 he gave the world the book no single household is complete without "The Wealth of Nations (Bantam Classics)". It expounds that the free market, while appearing chaotic and unrestrained, is actually guided to produce the right amount and variety of goods by a so-called "invisible hand".

The most famous quote:
"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages."

Smith wrote that the "real price of every thing ... is the toil and trouble of acquiring it" as influenced by its scarcity. Smith maintained that, with rent and profit, other costs besides wages also enter the price of a commodity. Other classical economists presented variations on Smith, termed the 'labour theory of value'. Classical economics focused on the tendency of markets to move to long-run equilibrium.

Smith also believed that a division of labour would effect a great increase in production. One example he used was the making of pins. One worker could probably make only twenty pins per day. However, if ten people divided up the eighteen steps required to make a pin, they could make a combined amount of 48,000 pins in one day.

Celebrate me!

Today is a 1-year jubilee since the creation of The Blog That Ana Built. Time to publish some statistics.

According to Google Analytics Dashboard, my blogger dashboard, and your private letters:

I've got over 367 entries;

35000+ unique visitors came from all over the world;

Many of you love to return here every day;

The single most visited post is... Who cares, I don't even like it anyway!

Also my articles on biology are being visited a lot!

Every day my review of Dallas restaurants is found by Google. That's no surprise, - that's the top Google search result for "the best carrot cake in Dallas" query. I still stand by my words: Trulucks has the best carrot cake, not just in Dallas, but all around America (except for DC)! (I tried to find substitutes in LA, in New York, in Chicago, in Miami. But invain. Carrot cakes outside of Dallas suck. Somebody give the girl another piece of cake!)

18 Filthy Rich Billionaires and Almost Billionaires privately confessed that they love to start their day with a fresh issue of Lebensansichten. Not surprisingly, most of them work in the finance sector.

The countries that read my Lebensansichten:



The US States where my readers reside (the greener is the state, the more intelligent and beautiful are its people, for they read Ana Moure the most):



The cities my readers live in:



If I had to draw a regression line... May I draw two?



More stats is coming soon.

On the subject of Food.

My favorite restaurant in DC is Kinkead's (upscale seafood). Granted, this is the only DC restaurant I've been to yet (come on, I only came yesterday!). But it's really fantastic. I hope Dallas Truluck's forgives me liking Kinkead's better (and we all know how highly I rated Truluck's all the time.)

Lobster medallions dish is a delicious way to start; then you can proceed to a whole Red Snapper marinated in all the spiciest peppers of Mexico. And, as a final accord - something I couldn't find anywhere outside of Texas (LA, New York, Boston, Chicago, Miami - shame on you!) - a perfect Carrot Cake for dessert. It's not the Texas-Size Carrot Cake Whole Meal (with a bushel of roasted pecans, and a quart of rich caramel sause), which they serve in Trulucks; - it's more like a dessert of two modest slices of pecan-crusted Carrot roulette, a-la-carte (with a ball of rum-and-raisin ice-cream).

By the end of the meal you hear some pounding sound, which you identify as couple pounds that plan to settle in your hips, - but you are so deeply satisfied, you think the meal was so totally worth it, and you say "Welcome dear guests!".

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Tonight I'm the cheapest date you can think of. Like a python digesting a fat rabbit from yesterday, I'm still sleepy, and passive, and cannot have anything but a small cup of light soup. Better yet, make it tea. Let's skip the teabag, and make it just hot water.

That snapper was THAT big!

PS: Washington DC is great!

Hungry?

Ana Moure:

Height: 5'8"
Eyes: Hazel
Weight: 103 lbs
Down from: 115 lbs last year
How?: no idea. That's really a mystery to me. I'm not an exercise junkie who spends 3 hours a day in the gym anymore. Sometimes I'm even too lazy to go grab myself an apple for dinner. Ghm... Maybe that is the reason!

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PS: Where do people eat in DC, anyway?