A central repository for whatever strikes my fancy that I'd usually comment on under my breath.
Our Weekly Dose of Serenity
Moving back to Thailand. Phuket — I’m going!
(Sorry, that was pretty lame)
Zachary Kanin forecasts the big news stories of 2012 in this week’s Cartoon Issue: http://nyr.kr/qCIh2F
Why the NBA owners’ argument about annual losses is bs
I would say the primary disagreement is not over the accounting numbers. It’s what you include and how you interpret the numbers. For example, the accounting picture of the NBA isn’t very different from what it was five years ago or 10 years ago in terms of ratio of revenues to costs and all the rest — it’s changed very little. Which immediately tells you, wait a minute, if the underlying financial picture is similar today to what it was five years ago or 10 years ago, and people are paying $400 million or whatever for franchises, and you’re telling me that these things lose money every year, something’s missing, right? These people aren’t stupid, right? These guys are worth billions of dollars. So why did they pay all this money for franchises that, it looks like, lose money? Well, the answer is pretty clear. There are a couple of things that are really attractive. One is, historically, you’ve seen franchises appreciate in value and that appreciation has more than outstripped any cash-flow losses that you’ve had. And if you’re in the right tax position, it’s actually pretty good because you’ve got a tax loss annually on your operating and you’ve got a capital gain at the end that you accumulate untaxed until you sell it and then pay at a lower rate. So you get a deferred tax treatment on the gains and an immediate tax treatment on the losses, that’s not a bad deal.
Your Friday dose of serenity. Katikies Hotels in Santorini, Greece.
This is why we’re fat. Fried spaghetti balls. I mean, really, I love arancini, but this just seems insane to me.
I’m not much for fashion, but I am for women…and I love these Calvin Klein ads around the city.
Black and white always works, plus its women in their underwear!
May this trend continue forever in NYC.
The Guess ones around Times Square are great, too. But Kate Upton made a much better model than the current woman featured.
Earlier generations have weathered recessions, of course; this stall we’re in has the look of something nastier. Social Security and Medicare are going to be diminished, at best. Hours worked are up even as hiring staggers along: Blood from a stone looks to be the normal order of things “going…
Get off my lawn!
But to decipher the vagaries of the taxi roof light is to prove one’s identity as a street-tested New Yorker, and any change to the design, which has been in place for decades, would eliminate what is considered one of the litmus tests of city citizenship.
…
Especially interesting since Grynbaum went to school in Connecticut and is himself a transplant. I’m not saying you can’t become a “real New Yorker” but it seems like those who didn’t actually grow up in the city are the ones most interested in bona fides. When I see someone try to hail a cab with its not in service lights on, I just assume they’re a tourist or they couldn’t tell given how far away the cab is.
Kenoa Resort in Brazil. This place has Christmas vacation written all over it.
