News Briefs

I had intended to wish folks a happy 5769 before Rosh Hashanah, but was running late. So here is a slightly belated l'shana tovah.

I have a couple of things I've clipped recently to pass along. One is from our local free weekly paper about a month ago and notes that our local police department won an award in a police vehicle design contest. It hadn't occurred to me that there was really much in the way of design for police cars. I suspect that most folks are like me and are trying to slow down to only 5 mph over the speed limit, not noticing the font of the police department logo.

The other item sitting on my desk was from this past Sunday's Washington Post magazine section. They had a piece that sort of had to do with the future of space travel. (Sort of, because it had as much to do with the personalities of the two people they were writing about. And golf.) Anyway, they had this lovely little tidbit about Burt Rutan's company, Scaled Composites, thanks to a manager there. "One reason for the esprit de corps, the manager theorized, is Scaled's metod for handling on-the-job complaints, namely, making workers express their beef by writing it down as haiku and presenting it to their manager."

It reminded me of the old days when Milo and I exchanged haikus with the weekly activity report. There was not usually a complaint involved, but just a bit of mutual creative silliness. My management in Washington is so staid, by comparison.

Speaking of work, taking two days off inevitably makes the rest of the week hectic. In addition, I have a couple of heinous administrative chores to finish.

I need to write my
performance review. Also
my monthly report.

Economic Question

In clearing off my desk, I went through some non-urgent mail, which included information about a county bond referendum in the upcoming election.

My normal inclination is to vote for bond referenda for reasonable purposes (parks and schools, for example). But I'm wondering if the current economic situation makes it advisable for the county to incur further debt. Fairfax County still has a AAA bond rating, if that matters.

Does any of the Wall Street chaos have any impact on municipal bonds?

I Hate California

I don't actually hate California. But the Pacific time zone is going to kill me.

Aside from all of the times I have rushed to my office to a telecon that turned out to be 3 hours later because nobody bothered mentioning that the time was L.A. time, there is the problem of baseball.

The American League Division Series started tonight. My beloved Red Sox are playing the California Angels. (I refuse to call them by their absurd official name since, in any reasonable place, Anaheim would be in an entirely different state from Los Angeles.) They are playing in Anaheim. And the game time was apparently chosen for the convenience of West Coast television viewers, with the full knowledge that Sox fans are so dedicated that we will pay attention even though the games start after bedtime.

On top of which the Dodgers beat the Cubs, which is just wrong.