folo

Appetites New Orleans is a blog by a lawyer-food columnist down there who regularly posts about his experiences at New Orleans restaurants.  I’ve linked to it occasionally.  His focus is on the newer places (although there’s a post in there about an outing to Middendorfs).  I’ve been reading it for a couple of years– at least since before Katrina, I think.  He’s got a summary-of-his-blogging year up, and one thing it emphasizes is that he’s really become good with pictures of what he’s eating in New Orleans.   One sequence of a single meal in August will make you really envious (although it’s posts about new developments in familiar places that catch my eye– I’m really intrigued by the cured meats their doing in Herbsaint, for instance).

I recommend checking it out.

[Read more →]

You might want to go vote in Balloon Juice’s poll of The Dumbest Thing Said by a Politician in 2008 (you get three votes.)

Bet you can guess who’s in the lead for what already, though . . .

[Read more →]

Newsweek/NBC’s Jonathan Alter eye-dees a problem (though this transcription of what he said is obviously faulty):

I think what’s happened is since you have 24 hour chatter, and unfortunately or rather fortunately for me, you know I’m a part of that, it does detract from one’s ability to go out and report. Also, the whole structure of the media business now has changed. And I would summarize it this way. Talk is cheap and reporting is expensive. In other words if my new organization or any other news organization wants to have me chattering either in print or online or on TV, I can do that from home.

If I’m going to go to Baghdad or even out to Iowa and meet, that’s expensive. So if talk is cheap and reporting is expensive as the profits from news gathering kind of evaporate and dead tree media starts to move off stage with very very serious economic consequences (newspapers) yeah start to move into America’s past they’ll still be around but not as dominate. And once print recedes and you have this new model, it’s very alarming because if talk is cheap and reporting is expensive, who’s going to gather the news that everybody else just chews over all the time.

I find the mess some non-journo made of Alter’s comment a particularly-interesting case of “show and tell.” Not only is reporting expensive, so’s copy-editing, hm? At least we can still get the point.

[Read more →]

He apparently said on more than one occasion (but not on his deathbed) that his only regret in life was that he had not drunk more champagne.

[Read more →]

The quote in the subject line is from Federal Reserve governor Randall Kroszner.

One of the many bits of mythology seized upon during the recent housing crash was that the Community Reinvestment Act (which was designed to break down discriminatory lending practices such as “redlining”) was somehow a major cause of the housing crisis. This was repeated and repeated, and I suspect will come back in the future.

This didn’t fit any part of my experience at the anecdotal level– the crazy lending I knew about and would run into had nothing to do with CRA-type lending– those type loans were not driving the bubble. But now we’ve something more than instincts-from-personal-experience. Brad DeLong writes that a study by two economists for the Federal Reserve Bank has concluded that the Community Reinvestment Act’s program of loans to poor people wasn’t the cause or even a major contributor to the subprime meltdown. The Wall Street Journal reports:

• Overall, lending to low and moderate income communities comprised only a small share of total lending by CRA lenders, even during the height of the California subprime lending boom.
• Loans originated by lenders regulated under CRA in general were “significantly less likely to be in foreclosure” than those originated by independent mortgage companies that weren’t covered by CRA.
• Loans made by CRA lenders within their geographic assessment areas covered by the law were “half as likely to go into foreclosure” as those made by the independent mortgage companies.
• 28% of loans made by CRA lenders in low income areas within their geographic assessment areas were fixed-rate loans, compared with 18.2% of loans made by independent mortgage companies in low income areas.
• 12% of the loans made by CRA lenders in these areas were high-priced loans, a technical definition of subprime, compared with 29% of the loans made by those lenders outside their assessment areas and 52.4% of loans made by independent mortgage companies in low-income areas.

Elsewhere, says DeLong, Federal Reserve governor Randall Kroszner, “a conservative economist on leave from a teaching post at the University of Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business, says the Community Reinvestment Act isn’t to blame for the subprime mess, despite some accusations to the contrary.”

“First, only a small portion of subprime mortgage originations are related to the CRA. Second, CRA- related loans appear to perform comparably to other types of subprime loans. Taken together… we believe that the available evidence runs counter to the contention that the CRA contributed in any substantive way to the current mortgage crisis,” he said in a speech today in Washington.

…

The “striking result,” Kroszner said: “Only 6% of all the higher-priced loans were extended by CRA-covered lenders to lower-income borrowers or neighborhoods in their CRA assessment areas, the local geographies that are the primary focus for CRA evaluation purposes.”

“This result undermines the assertion by critics of the potential for a substantial role for the CRA in the subprime crisis. In other words, the very small share of all higher-priced loan originations that can reasonably be attributed to the CRA makes it hard to imagine how this law could have contributed in any meaningful way to the current subprime crisis.”

[Read more →]

Lest your life remain sadly incomplete, here are some Texas dips that NYT captured.

Béatrice de Géa for The New York Times
Texas debutantes, who made up the biggest contingent, practicing a curtsy called the “Texas dip.”

You had to look hard amid the four-foot floral sculptures and the Vera Wang originals to see signs of the economy’s collapse at the International Debutante Ball at the Waldorf-Astoria on Monday night.

There was the daughter of the Duchesse de Magenta, Pélagie de Mac Mahon, a willowy 18-year-old with chestnut hair who is a great-great-granddaughter of a 19th-century French president. And there were the two sisters from Hong Kong, daughters of a heart surgeon and a jewelry designer, who stayed not two nights but two weeks at the Waldorf, passing the days on the lookout for designer dresses.

Champagne flowed. Men in tails waltzed and fox-trotted with debutantes in long white gowns to music by the 12-piece Lester Lanin Orchestra, a fixture at the ball almost since its inception in 1954. And shortly before midnight, the young debutantes, each flanked by a civilian and military escort, ascended the stage for a deep curtsy. …

Among them, Arianna Huffington’s daughter and eleven yellow-roses-of-Texas, whose dips “drew gusts of applause from the crowd.” Though tables cost $14,000 (“Watches cost more,” remonstrated the ball’s director), one mom figured,

“Everybody said you shouldn’t do it because of the economy,” Mrs. Armstrong Himelrick said. “It is extravagant. But I felt it was important for my daughter, and things might get worse. This might be her last chance.”

Can’t have that, can we? I should say not! No word on whether any of ‘em are kin to two critters The Mucker noticed yesterday:

… The New York Post reports today that Peter Kraus, a former top executive with Merrill Lynch, just bought a $37 million Park Avenue apartment — “featuring 11-foot-high ceilings, three fireplaces, three maid’s rooms, a library, a gallery and a family room/gym.” In September, Kraus got a $25 million golden parachute from Merrill when it was sold to Bank of America, even though he had only started work there that month. B of A received $25 billion in taxpayer money as part of the bailout.

And back in March, Jimmy Cayne, the ousted CEO of Bear Stearns, bought two adjacent apartments at the Plaza, perhaps New York’s swankiest locale, worth $28.24 million. That same month, his collapsed former firm was bought by JP Morgan Chase, with major government backing. Cayne reportedly spent much of his time playing golf and bridge while Bear Stearns was reeling last year. …

Okay, I’m tired of this movie. Druther watch Uncle Jay explain the news (Juanita Jean, who gets the h/t, assures that he’s work-safe):

And declaring this thread “open,” I cry

HAPPY CHAMPERS, Y’ALL!

[Read more →]

There’s someone down in Clarksdale making folk-art bbq rigs. They had one parked at the “crossroads” at old US 61 and US 49 (that would be the crossroads as declared by the local tourism folks, having nothing to do with blues history) and I had to stop for pictures. I called the number listed on the “For Sale” sign to get some specifications, but this thing does more than I can remember from a brief phone call. It holds over 900 lbs. of meat. It has a rotisserie. It can cook with gas, charcoal, or wood. It has a sink on one end. It has a compartment for holding the meat warm once it’s cooked. It has some rounded doors on one end. It has two metal cut out pigs (total folk-art effect) which have a little red map of Mississippi and painted on them “MS Hog.” It has a license plate that reads “DAMN I’M GOOD.” It is all that and looks totally like it was made by a skilled welder in a backyard. This is not a slicked-up factory product.

As I said, it’s folk art.

It is a completely custom job (and can be yours for $3,500) and the maker, James, who can be reached at 662-645-6500, was fabricating another one out in his yard when I called him. I’m sure he’d build to specifications, although that may cramp the style of someone who is obviously an artist.

To tour you through some of the features on the picture above, each chimney is fitted with bright red fans that will spin while you’re cooking (it was those fans that caught my eye as I was headed up the road after a nice lunch of Delta Lebanese at the Rest Haven). You can see the curved doors on the right hand side and barely see the sink on the left. On the picture below, you’ve got an even better look at those weird fans (but won’t get the full effect without seeing them spinning), the curved doors, and, best of all, the “MS Hog” sign. If nothing else, I’m going to get one of those Mississippi hog signs.

As regular readers of the blog know, I’m very partial to cooking in a real concrete block pit. But there are aesthetic considerations in addition to practical ones, and this is quite a rig.

If you decided to call him to buy one, tell him Folo sent you and should get a little something in the tip jar by way of commission.

[Read more →]

An exorcism went wrong at a Pentacostal church in Texas.  The girl who was the subject of the exorcism sued the church, saying she’d been kidnapped and assaulted. The Texas Court of Appeals halved her six-figure judgment, but on further appeal, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that when assault and kidnapping are all part of an, um, belief system, the First Amendment doesn’t allow the courts to interfere:

The “laying of hands” and the presence of demons are part of the church’s belief system and accepted as such by its adherents. These practices are not normally dangerous or unusual and apparently arise in the church with some regularity. They are thus to be expected and are accepted by those in the church. That a particular member may find the practice emotionally disturbing and non-consensual when applied to her does not transform the dispute into a secular matter.

I’m so glad there aren’t Aztecs roaming the land, picking out select members of their congregation to sacrifice and cook into a communal porridge.

I’m also pleased to report that the plaintiff’s lawyers have petitioned to the United States Supreme Court for certiorari to change this bizzaro result.

h/t Overlawyered and the Texas Supreme Court blog (here and here).

[Read more →]

Judge Dan Jordan wants a doctor from Tupelo to look over Mayor Frank Melton’s medical records and report to him tomorrow on how he likes the odds for an undisrupted trial beginning next week.

Meanwhile, Melton himself (photographed either really sick or wearing gray makeup) owned today that he hasn’t been doing such a hot job keeping Jackson safe — so he vows to ban baggy pants.

I can’t make this stuff up.

Update by NMC (I’m updating Lotus because I have a couple of pieces of info)

Melton’s records are being reviewed by a cardiologist at Cardiology Associates in Tupelo. His CV can be found here. The questions the judge wants answered are outlined in his order, here, and are:

1. Will a three to four week trial beginning January 5, 2009 create substantial danger to Defendant Melton’s life or health?
2. To what extent do Defendant Melton’s hospitalizations on November 17 and December 22, 2008, affect his ability to stand trial beginning January 5, 2009?
3. To what extent would a period of recuperation following these hospitalizations reduce the risk to Defendant Melton’s life or health (assuming such a risk exists)?
4. Is Defendant Melton’s condition expected to improve over the next few months such that a later trial date would present less risk to his life or health?
5. Are there accommodations that would reduce the risk to Defendant Melton’s life or health?

They are going to have a confidential phone call about all of this tomorrow morning at 8:30 and then the judge will rule…

[Read more →]

After three appeals of objections to a class action settlement, Judge Posner of the Seventh Circuit has had it.  In rejecting appeal round #3, he calls the objectors and their lawyers everything but a child of God.

To quickly sketch in some background, the suit involved a lender, who among their alleged predator practices, was selling bundles of information about their borrowers to third parties.  One group of subclass had not been directly injured by the information sale; the question in all three appeals was the extent to which they could be cut out of a recovery yet have any claims precluded.  Judge Posner wrote:

We are disheartened that the litigation by the information-sharing class has been allowed to draw on for eight years, when it has no merit– and that as a matter of law, without need to take evidence. It is an example of the typical pathology of class action litigation, which is riven with conflicts of interest… The lawyers for the class could not concede the utter worthlessness of their claim because they wanted an award of attorneys’ fees. The lawyers for Fleet were reluctant to argue the utter worthlessness of the claim because they were able to negotiate a settlement that cost their client virtually nothing– provided they did not take such a strong stand that it jeopardized the class lawyers’ shot at a generous award of attorneys’ fees….”

Where Judge Posner truly snaps is in dealing with the objectors’ fee request– the district court had found a smallish fee supported but then cut it in half for misconduct by the objectors:

With what can only be described as chutzpah, defined by Leo Rosten as ‘gall, brazen nerve, effrontery, incredible ‘guts,’ presumption plus arrogance such as no other word and no other language can do justice to,’ the objectors [to the class settlement] ask us to substitute them for the lawyers for the information-sharing class and award them the entire $750,000 in attorneys fees…awarded those lawyers….”  The opinion describes the objectors’ “lack of constructive activity in the district court.

The opinion ends:

The improvement that the objectors produced in this case, minus the detriment caused by their courtroom antics, barely justified the modest fee that the judge awarded them.

This case is finito.

H/t to the How Appealing blog.

[Read more →]