Should California build a moat and a rainbow-painted wall around the state?

“California Bans State Travel To Florida And 4 Other States” (from state-sponsored NPR, June 29): California added five more states, including Florida, to the list of places where state… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Saying goodbye to Pride Month

A few images from Manhattan (June 12-13) as we say goodbye to Pride Month. Nordstrom, CVS, Foot Locker, and Pain Quotidien want to remind you of their commitment to LGBTQIA+: The windows at Macy… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

TWA Hotel at JFK

This is a report on a June 23 visit to the TWA Hotel, a conversion of the former TWA Flight Center terminal, designed by Eero Saarinen and used from 1962 through 2001. Essentially two big new apart… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Steeped in the religion of homo economicus, American central planners underestimated the number of satisficers?

Recent text message from a friend: [wife] is pissed at government for extending unemployment. Our nanny won’t work until September because she is being paid to not work. Many of the Americans colle… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Smartest people in the U.S. can’t figure out why the young don’t want to be vaccinated against a disease that kills 82-year-olds

“Why Young Adults Are Among the Biggest Barriers to Mass Immunity” (New York Times, today) shows that, despite scientific leadership in the White House, America is not safe from science… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Can public schools suspend students who go away for a weekend and aren’t able to arrange a COVID test?

Keeping a child from attending public school is a crime. Parents can be arrested and imprisoned for obstructing a child’s access. See, for example, “The Story Behind Kamala Harris’… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Will Tesla’s only long-term competitive advantage turn out to be Dog Mode?

“Comparison Test: 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E vs. 2020 Tesla Model Y” (Car and Driver) has Ford crushing Tesla in every area except straight-line acceleration (useful in a country of 330+ … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Now that we have a country with no rental cars, who’s laughing at the flying car concept?

When the founders of Terrafugia, 15 years ago, showed me their pitch arguing that a flying car was more efficient for some class of trips than a Honda Accord or a traditional piston-powered airplan… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Why isn’t the cost of mining Bitcoin more or less equal to the current price of Bitcoin?

A comment on Is inflation already at 15-30 percent if we hold delivery time constant?: GPU scarcity is entirely due to the growth of digital currency mining and the corresponding increase in demand… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Why didn’t we ever get convenient neighborhood COVID-19 testing?

We spent $trillions purportedly fighting COVID-19. We said that testing was critical to this fight. There is empty retail space all over the U.S. (thanks partly to closures ordered by governors!). … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Turn opprobrium into praise by identifying as LGBTQIA+?

Happy Pride Month again! Don’t forget that Suppose that we hear about a financially secure 90-year-old white American having sex with a 31-year-old “Brown” immigrant? That’s… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Good news for Californians who spent all of their money on marijuana

Both medical and recreational marijuana stores were open throughout California’s coronapanic shutdown. “Amid coronavirus pandemic, California gov classifies cannabis industry as ‘essent… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Official business victimhood designations

A form from a university vendor portal, in which one is asked to enter one’s “Diversity Classification”. Here are the federally recognized victimhood categories for a business (in… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Our Juneteenth ice cream cake

From the weekend, our Juneteenth ice cream cake: Togetherness and love for the chocolate and vanilla. Rainbow sprinkles to celebrate all of the varieties of love among humans (including poly!) that… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

ICUs were clogged during coronaplague partly because relatives couldn’t visit

Our anonymous hero behind Medical School 2020 is working in a hospital now. Part of his residency training has included shifts in the intensive care unit. There he has gained some insight into why … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Four weeks to flatten the curve (U.S. keeps the border closed)

From the Biden administration: In other words… “4 weeks to flatten the curve” (“reduce the spread”). How is this supposed to work? Can’t anyone come in from Cana… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

You can sit on top of each other, but wear a mask

Part of an email from the local public school here in Maskachusetts…. To assist you in planning, our bus protocol for the fall includes: All students/drivers will wear masks on the busWindows… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Happy Irrelevant Person’s Day!

Hallmark says that today is Father’s Day. The Harvard Gazette takes a different view with “Why living in a two-parent home isn’t a cure-all for Black students” (June 3, 2021): New… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Coronavirus became 12X more deadly after just one month of the Biden administration

The CDC, early morning on January 20, 2021 (i.e., the last few hours of the Trump Dictatorship; via archive.org): From an epidemiologist’s point of view, the best “reference group”… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

NYT celebrates a beauty contest limited to one skin color and one gender ID

“What Does It Mean to Be Crowned ‘Miss Juneteenth’?” (New York Times, June 14): For contestants, it’s a pageant, yes, but also a place to celebrate Black sisterhood and promote a deeper… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Medical School 2020, Year 3, Week 20

Same rotation, but the second week of Internal Medicine brings a new attending and new residents. I get in at 6:15 am to pre-round on my two patients from the weekend (one was discharged on Sunday)… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Happy Juneteenth for government workers

Juneteenth (June 19) is the latest day off for government workers, a great mid-summer demonstration of why it is stupid to work in the private sector (an Irish small business owner friend: “G… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Medical School 2020, Year 3, Week 19 (Internal Medicine)

Internal Medicine clerkship starts at 7:00 am. My classmates and I meet the clerkship coordinator at the hospital coffee shop to receive schedules and team assignments. Gigolo Giorgio is frustrated… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Medical School 2020, Year 3, Week 18 (REI)

Reproductive, Endocrinology, and Infertility (REI) elective begins at 8:00 am at the newly-constructed clinic, a 30-minute commute. I work with a 33-year-old first-year attending straight out of he… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

The English decide to stay in their foxholes (COVID surge despite vaccination)

“How UK PM Johnson decided to delay COVID reopening” (Reuters): British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday delayed by a month his plans to lift the last COVID-19 restrictions in Eng… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Medical School 2020, Year 3, Week 17 (Outpatient Gyn)

Outpatient gynecology week begins at a clinic with two nurse practitioners. Two-thirds of appointments are routine obstetric visits; one-third are gynecology visits (annuals and acute problems). Si… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Masked in Manhattan

Some photos from a June 12-13, 2021 visit… Summary: Based on observed behavior and discussions with folks we met on the street, New Yorkers continue to regard their city, including the outdoo… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Celebrating Pride Month with hostility to polyamory?

Happy Middle of Pride Month! Here’s an educational video for children: Note that the leaders among the sexual relationships on parade are monogamous, e.g., starting with a family anchored by … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Did the Zillow icon become a rainbow flag on your phone?

Part of a screen capture from my guiltiest secret (i.e., that I own an iPhone (my excuse: the camera and hardware/software behind the camera)): Was this change to the rainbow flag because software … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Medical School 2020, Year 3, Week 16 (Inpatient Gyn)

Gynecology rotation starts at 7:30 am in the outpatient surgery center. The chief texted the previous night to skip hospital rounds and just meet the team at the outpatient surgery center for the f… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

The 18-year-old chooses a primary care physician

A local 18-year-old, raised on a steady diet of social justice messages delivered by unionized employees at the public school he has attended, asked his mom for help in choosing a primary care phys… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Greeks and Danes don’t want to get rich through low-skill immigration

“As Greece installs ‘sound cannons’ on border, Denmark passes law allowing asylum seekers to be sent overseas” (Washington Post): A law passed by Denmark’s Parliament on Thursday allows… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

How can Starbucks be thriving without any indoor sit-down space?

“Starbucks sales miss estimates, shares drop despite rosier forecast” (Reuters, April 27, 2021): U.S. sales returned to pre-pandemic levels, Chief Executive Officer Kevin Johnson said d… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Pride Month reading for children

Featured in the “Children’s Books” category of the New York Times recently… “This Coming-of-Age Novel Features a Girl on the Cusp of Manhood”: Bug lives with her… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Shopping in Concord, Massachusetts: Bring your Mask

“In consideration of the health and safety of our employees and guests who have not been fully vaccinated, Masks are Required AT ALL TIMES Inside the Cheese Shop.” Vaccinations have bee… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Nobody wants to work, tinted window edition

I was chatting with a guy who runs an automotive tint film service with three employees. “I can’t hire anyone right now,” he says. What would someone expect to earn? “A high… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Nobody wants to work, coastal North Carolina edition

If you’re a devoted reader you might recall 20-hour Bonanza flight over the North Pole, in which I discuss a plan to fly to Beaufort, North Carolina with some sea turtles. The good news for t… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Jew-hatred in the Boston suburbs (school administrators of color to the rescue)

A parent at the Lincoln-Sudbury (Maskachusetts) high school received the following email: Dear LS Students. Families, and Staff, It is with profound dismay and disappointment that this past Friday … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Coronalogic: Obamacare saved lives by expanding Medicaid; the shutdown of 2020 did not kill anyone

“Expanding Medicaid to low-income adults leads to improved health, fewer deaths” (Harvard School of Public Health, July 2012): “The recent Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Why are New York hotels expensive and mostly booked?

Tens of thousands of people with money fled to Florida. Broadway shows are closed until at least September. The Metropolitan Opera has turned itself into a TV channel featuring 200-year-old shows. … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Kamala Harris tells migrants not to come to our party

Lately there has been a rash of American victimhood groups demanding that others stop hating them. I wondered how a strategy that would never be tried within a family (“if your brother hates … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Is inflation already at 15-30 percent if we hold delivery time constant?

The government assures us that the U.S. inflation rate is 3 percent. Part of the magic of this statistic is that the actual cost of buying a house was removed from the basket of stuff that an Ameri… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Why don’t the white saviors let the BIPOC take their jobs?

“White Brandeis Dean Kate Slater posts epic critical race theory rant: ‘I hate whiteness’” (New York Post): A white Brandeis University administrator defended critical race theory in a … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Common sense gun safety

From the typical person’s perspective, the most reasonable interpretation of the Second Amendment is that it entitles him/her/zir/them to have a gun and prevents everyone else from having gun… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Small business autopsy

Looking for a place to rest in between practice helicopter instrument approaches last month, I stumbled on Mike’s Runway Diner at the Auburn/Lewiston Airport (Maine). From the restaurant̵… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Sacrament of Masks preserved at the Apple Store

The Church of Shutdown abandoned the Sacrament of Masks, at least for the vaccinated, here in Massachusetts at the end of May. The ritual is kept alive at the Apple Store, however. From the Burling… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

The 5-year-old hater

Proud 5-year-old: “I was chasing Canada geese on my bike.” Me: “Why?” 5-year-old: “I want them to go back to Canada.” Related: Government experts in Everglades N… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago

Profiles in Corporate Courage

Happy Pride Month! I would love to hear everyone’s plans for celebration. We have a two-car garage here in Maskachusetts and, for compatibility with neighbors’ yard signs, I had thought… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 3 years ago