Davison online
The life and times of the world’s
most self-deluded online superstar
News & Commentary
The City of Angels
I'm in L.A. this weekend to help celebrate my friends Garr and Adrienne's marriage. I've only been to L.A. once before so I'm looking forward to driving about a bit and seeing whatever there is to see. Not so much South Central, you understand, but other places. I booked both my hotel and my rental car via Priceline.com, naming my own price to save a...
I love the Bee Gees
Stayin' Alive, literally. 103 beats per minute turns out to be optimal for CPR. Nifty. And, you know, potentially life-saving.
The new bailout plan
We won't buy illiquid investments. We'll buy the banks themselves. This Harvard lecturer mirrors my thoughts exactly, which is to say this is another terrible idea.
Math
In a nutshell, what it would look like if I ever tried to be a high school substitute math teacher.
David Brooks
I don't think he's a bad fellow, but I've thought this about him for some time now.
The buying opportunity of a lifetime
That's what the last week's 18 percent plunge in the Dow represents. We may well have a world-wide economic recession or depression, and I don't think the United States escapes the economic malaise for at least two years. (More, if the government continues with these idiotic bailouts.) But at some point everything will turn around, and when it does you'll...
A distinction with a difference
Homeownership is a great thing. Promoting homeownership is not. (This so reminds me of the difference between voting and encouraging others to vote.) Is it too obvious to say that much of the financial mess we're in comes from people owning houses they have no business owning? For more, check out From happy homeownership to end the of our economy.
My favorite crime story
There is no better police story comedy for me than when a suspect attempts to resist a police dog. The big German Shepherds are trained to bite the first body part the offender makes available and not to let go until commanded to do so by their police officer partner. News reports inevitably start like this: Bad guy commits or attempts to commit a crime;...
Inconceivable
According to this ABC News story, George Bush and co. spied on innocent Americans. Despite pledges by President George W. Bush and American intelligence officials to the contrary, hundreds of US citizens overseas have been eavesdropped on as they called friends and family back home, according to two former military intercept operators who worked at the...
Color, yo
I'm not sayin' that I is da bomb, but this 39er just got a perfect score on his color vision test. See how you do.
Essays
Correspondence ’97
Letters from adoring fans. Edited for brevity. My witty responses. Prolonged for your annoyance. Name that author. Another way to kill five minutes. This page features letters and e-mail received by me, the Grand Poohbah of Davison Lodge. To assure the instantly concerned, all writers (excepting yours truly) are anonymous unless prior permission for use of their name has been granted. "Ya know, DS had a very good idea. I am going to set up your page as my default home, too....
PGP (Pretty Good Privacy)
A little background on encryption and why it's necessary to keep Big Brother from watching you. Or me, for that matter. My Public Key and the Web of Trust. Encouragement not to make me a solitary, quixotic figure on a singular journey to encryption loneliness. Pathos overdose. Be my Sancho Panza. Why Encrypt? It's probably not going to be easy to convince some of you to use an encryption program for your electronic mail. You're not the typical drug runners or Mafia-types....
Deep Six Courtesy of Deep Blue
The end of humanity as we know it? Or a lot of really nerdy people upset over the head nerd being knocked off (beats "up!") by a machine? From bizarre NBA references to Year 2000 computer meltdown, we've got it all. Daryl Dawkins, a moose of a human being who played center for the National Basketball Association's Philadelphia 76ers in late '70s and early '80s, used to name his dunks. He'd break a backboard on a dunk and suddenly it was the "Chocolate Thunder Flying,...
Meathead is a Democrat: The American President
Richard Dreyfuss is boring with a capital "OR," but otherwise this film is all set to move center stage next time the Democrats run out of material at a fundraiser. Power, romance...and no real sex scenes or else it'd be the perfect Bill Clinton date movie. WARNING: This review may include spoilers! Rob Reiner, of yesteryear's Archie Bunker fame, is now one of the top directors in Hollywood. From This is Spinal Tap to A Few Good Men to Stand By Me to When Harry Met Sally,...