Monday, November 15, 2004
Sunday Afternoon Q-&-A
by Tom Bozzo
A. Working on some outdoor winterizing projects.
Q. That's exciting.
A. After a morning of the Twos being Terrible, it was a needed couple hours of naptime tranquility.
Q. So what did you do?
A. Put one of those air infiltration barriers on the family room windows.
Q. Aren't those the newest windows in the house?
A. Yes, but just in a relative sense.
Q. Why didn't you just install some of those lovely Marvin Casemasters.?
A. Let's just say I chuckled mordantly at Bill Wineke's column on the guy from Forbes who thinks you can get a big house in a nice neighborhood in Madison for $268,000. Also, the Marvins' installed price would pay for about 300 years' worth of the plastic sheeting.
Q. So when are you replacing the windows?
A. Just as soon as the Clinton-Rubin economy comes back.
Q. What else did you do, wishful thinking guy?
A. I built a leaf corral in the back yard.
Q.
A. It's like a compost bin for leaves. Ferns love leaf mold, and are probably the only things that will grow in some of the shady areas of the yard, which is to say basically the whole thing.
Q. I didn't know you were some kind of organic gardening nut.
A. You obviously missed the parts of the blog about being a pro-Kerry Madison liberal.
Q. Anything else? What about Prof. Freese making money off of Bush's re-election?
A. As a 'neo-classical' economist, I am disinclined to question how others spend their money, even if it's in bad taste. Nor am I inclined to begrudge him the $200 (*). [Edited to eliminate intra-social-sciences fighting words.]
Q. Isn't that the economist sin of arrogance?
A. Nobody's perfect.
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(*) I also wouldn't expect the Academy to vote POTC Best Picture, but I've provisionally valued the wager using the naive Tradesports market probability as Jeremy reports it. Charles Manski has a preprint out on the complicated correct interpretation of the prediction market prices, but I haven't had the time to wade through it.
Q. So how did you spend your Sunday afternoon?
A. Working on some outdoor winterizing projects.
Q. That's exciting.
A. After a morning of the Twos being Terrible, it was a needed couple hours of naptime tranquility.
Q. So what did you do?
A. Put one of those air infiltration barriers on the family room windows.
Q. Aren't those the newest windows in the house?
A. Yes, but just in a relative sense.
Q. Why didn't you just install some of those lovely Marvin Casemasters.?
A. Let's just say I chuckled mordantly at Bill Wineke's column on the guy from Forbes who thinks you can get a big house in a nice neighborhood in Madison for $268,000. Also, the Marvins' installed price would pay for about 300 years' worth of the plastic sheeting.
Q. So when are you replacing the windows?
A. Just as soon as the Clinton-Rubin economy comes back.
Q. What else did you do, wishful thinking guy?
A. I built a leaf corral in the back yard.
Q.
A. It's like a compost bin for leaves. Ferns love leaf mold, and are probably the only things that will grow in some of the shady areas of the yard, which is to say basically the whole thing.
Q. I didn't know you were some kind of organic gardening nut.
A. You obviously missed the parts of the blog about being a pro-Kerry Madison liberal.
Q. Anything else? What about Prof. Freese making money off of Bush's re-election?
A. As a 'neo-classical' economist, I am disinclined to question how others spend their money, even if it's in bad taste. Nor am I inclined to begrudge him the $200 (*). [Edited to eliminate intra-social-sciences fighting words.]
Q. Isn't that the economist sin of arrogance?
A. Nobody's perfect.
--------------------
(*) I also wouldn't expect the Academy to vote POTC Best Picture, but I've provisionally valued the wager using the naive Tradesports market probability as Jeremy reports it. Charles Manski has a preprint out on the complicated correct interpretation of the prediction market prices, but I haven't had the time to wade through it.
