The Bailout is Thrownout

Manomanoman, I would have bet money that, as noxious as it was, the bail-out package would have been voted through today.

But no. It wasn't. So, selfishly speaking, I suppose it was good that I was out today with "The Annotated Fed."



This is a shot of Lola Ogunnaike from CNN interviewing one of my annotators. Since you can't really see her, here's her publicity shot:



Ms. Ogunnaike, for the record, is the entertainment reporter for American Morning, CNN's morning news show--the show on which I assume a piece about me will air tomorrow. All of which, of course, leads me to a quick aside re. the University of Virginia...

Are you going to talk about how they got their asses kicked by Duke, of all people?
Duke. Wow!
Yeah. Notice how I italicized it when I said it the first time?
Yeah. I mean, Duke. Italicized.
Exactly.
But that's not what I want to talk about.
No? Well, do you want to talk about your plan to take a painting of Al Groh to the Maryland game and get it annotated? Orange for students, blue for alumni?
No. Although that is the plan.
Well, what do you want to talk about?
I want to talk about how, usually, University of Virginia graduates can sense that quality in each other. The way the big cats in the jungle are aware of each other's presence, even through all those leaves. Yet there I sat, chatting up (on tape) Ms. Ogunnaike like nobody's business and not once did either of us glean the other's inner Cavalier.
Wow. And, if I'm reading her CNN bio correctly, you and she were both English majors.
Yeah. Although I do have a leg up on her since I know for a fact she never took a Shakespeare class from Professor Irby Cauthen.
No. 'Cause he'd have been as dead as Banquo by the time she arrived. She's obviously quite a bit younger than you.
Hey. Not that much younger. She's obviously in her twenties/thirties and I'm obviously in my forties/fifties.

Enough with the Greek Chorus for a moment. This is the way Big Ben turned out by the end of the day:



Did I mention it was for sale? Email me a bid.

It looks great. The extra day of annotations has really fleshed out the image.
Yeah. I'm very pleased.
But I want to get back to this Ogunnaike thing.
Okay.
If you're saying that she's in her twenties/thirties and you are in your forties/fifties, then it is mathematically possible that she's 39 and you're 40.
It's possible, I suppose.
So did you get her phone number?
No.
No?
No.
Then I rest my case.
What does that mean?
By "my case" I mean my continued belief that you are a complete idiot.
I like the term idiot-savant.
I know that's what you like, but I'm going with the ordinary, garden-variety idiot.
Oh.
Totally.