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1990: “Do You Sell Carbon Fiber Running Shoes?”
November 20, 2023
2051: Bill is featured on Season 47 of “Pimp My Ride” Remember when I said I wanted to live like the people in pharmaceutical commercials? I wasn’t being...
Quick Update: Bill 2, Airlines 0
October 27, 2023
“The plane, the plane… is late!” Once upon a time there was an intrepid young warrior-god who, sword in hand, bravely took on an evil nest of flying dragons...
I Want to Live Like People in Pharmaceutical Commercials
October 26, 2023
“Hey, Hon: I’m ready to go here, but my back just went out and I can’t get out of this f-ing tub.” For those of you who don’t watch the evening news on TV...
Airline Cage Match: Part Deux
September 26, 2023
The golden age of flying, when stewardesses were regularly thrown into the engine for entertainment Like most of you, I have a love/hate relationship with...
The Five Best Movies Ever
August 15, 2023
“I’m going to make a ‘best’ movie list the Internet can’t refuse.” Whenever you see a newspaper/magazine/web site/TV show/newsletter publish a list, it’s...
"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds...
July 5, 2023
“Barbie has a boffo opening weekend!” I’m writing this on July 4, 2023, the 247th birthday of the United States. In the overall scheme and vastness of world...
A Comment About Politics…
June 12, 2023
Bill’s choice for 2024 When I started this newsletter, I promised there would be no talk of politics. Nobody cares. Actually, a great many people care about...
UPDATE: Elizabeth Holmes STILL Not in Prison
May 15, 2023
Bill picks up his order at Chipotle How about another update on subjects previously covered in this newsletter? Yes? Great! Read on! 1.) Remember Elizabeth...
You Had ONE Job!
May 8, 2023
Bill gets his car serviced Hi. It’s been a spell. If I were you, and I was paying for this newsletter, I’d be PISSED right now. Since it’s free, well, then,...
Amazon Fresh: It’s Getting Stale
April 3, 2023
Yummy! How about an update?Back in June 2022, I posted about how long it seems EVERYTHING takes these days. One of the specific items mentioned in that June...
When Two of My Worlds Collide…
March 28, 2023
“BRILLIANT!” - The watch press Many of you know that I ran my own public relations firm for about 25 years. Our clients were mostly technology companies....
Ten Conversations My Mom and Dad Never Had…
March 20, 2023
Bill’s new Internet-connected coffee machine is a big hit around the house. My wife Elizabeth (EK) likes to mock my fondness/penchant/reliance/obsession with...
Living Vicariously Through Friends…
March 13, 2023
“Buy this book or we’ll shoot your dog.” I won’t shill for money in this newsletter, but I will shill for friends. Especially if those friends give me money....
“The Sun is the Same in a Relative Way, But You're Older...
February 27, 2023
The title and subtitle of this post are lines from “Time”, from Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” album, which turns 50 this year and is maybe the...
Repairing the World…
February 3, 2023
Fix the World! Happy New Year! (He wrote, on February 3…) I resolved to keep up a regular cadence of writing in 2023. Unfortunately (or fortunately,...
Random Year-End Thoughts…
December 30, 2022
(Bill’s ingenious retirement plan) Sometimes I have an idea that turns out to NOT be enough of an idea to sustain an entire post. It just sits in my iPhone...
Covid: Missed Three Years by THISSSS much
December 21, 2022
“Could you BE more positive???” Yep. For some reason, I thought that if I made it this far, I was somehow ordained by God/Allah/Buddha/The Giant Turtle Who...
“Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail"
November 18, 2022
“Can I get a room with a view?” - E. Holmes It’s Friday, November 18, 2022, 8:00 PM. A couple of hours ago, a federal judge in California sentenced fraudster...
The Pretend World of Cryptocurrencies
November 9, 2022
Crypto investors give it another go Remember cryptocurrency? It was, is and always will be the “next big thing” in currency. A quick refresher (or primer for...
The Deed is Done: Musk Owns Twitter
October 28, 2022
Elon Musk completes Twitter purchase (Image: Amblin/Universal) As you have no doubt heard by now, Elon Musk closed his purchase of Twitter on Thursday night,...
Elon Musk: “I have 44 billion reasons to NOT testify under oath.”
October 5, 2022
So, the Elon Musk/Twitter dance took an unexpected twist yesterday when Musk said that he was going ahead and buying Twitter after all. Just a reminder of...
Paging Mr. Kozak Redux: Never Mind
September 28, 2022
Remember when I was crowing about how tech savvy I was by repairing my own laptop and making my seventh-grade shop teacher proud? Yeah, well, never mind. For...
Healthcare: The Price is Definitely NOT Right
September 16, 2022
…“Ventricular tachycardia and a potentially ruinous amount of medical debt, Bob!” “Contestant #3: Is the price for a cardiac catheterization HIGHER or...
The Idiot Algorithms
August 29, 2022
The author tries to unsubscribe from marketing emails (Image: Warner Bros.) I have posted in the past about how, for the time being, I am not at all worried...
Paging Andy Rooney
August 10, 2022
NPR introduces new co-anchors For those of you who are too young to remember, Andy Rooney was an old (I think he was born old) curmudgeon who had a weekly...
Summer Update
July 13, 2022
Any minute now… I started this newsletter in January, so I decided to go back and review some of what I wrote to see if it held up. I say “some” because I...
The Decline and Fall of a Breakfast Icon
June 27, 2022
Last week, Kellogg’s, the iconic cereal manufacturer, announced that it was breaking itself up into three separate companies: Cereal, snacks and plant-based...
Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day…
June 23, 2022
Why does everything take so long these days? We used to get shit done in this country. Now, everything takes FOR-EVER. First, some historical facts for...
The Language of Viruses
June 14, 2022
A flu virus that gives you the flu (Image: CDC) “Language is a virus.”- Laurie Anderson The other day in the shower, I had a thought. (I do some of my best...
5 Reasons My Dog is Kind of a Dick
June 7, 2022
If you are a friend and/or a regular reader of this newsletter, you know that we are sort of dog people. Well, maybe a bit more than “sort of…” We (my wife...
Econ 101
May 31, 2022
There’s an old joke about economists (or lawyers. I can’t remember, but for the purpose of this post, it’s about economists): A physicist, an engineer and an...
Vangelis: Synthesizer Genius
May 23, 2022
Vangelis, London, 1982 (Alamy) Vangelis died last week. He was 79. Vangelis (real name Evángelos Papathanassíou) was one of my musical heroes. You know his...
Paging Mr. Kozak!
May 18, 2022
When I was a wee lad of 12, we graduated directly from the sixth grade straight into the high school. They called 7th and 8th grade “junior high school”, but...
Amazon’s Last-Mile Conundrum...
May 10, 2022
The trajectory of Amazon’s core retail business is nothing short of astonishing. Originally a bookseller, Amazon is now “the everything store.” During its...
On Monday Morning Quarterbacking…
May 5, 2022
As a former radio guy, I never really understood sports talk radio. Granted, I never really cared about sports that much either, so maybe I am not an...
Musk Makes Market Manic!
April 26, 2022
So, Elon Musk is buying Twitter. Probably.I barely use it, so I am coming at this not as a lover/user of the product, but as an observer of the news and...
CNN+: How, Actually, Does this Happen?
April 21, 2022
<Cue James Earl Jones> “THIS is CNN+!” CNN is killing its brand spanking new streaming service, CNN+, after a month. As a bit of a news junkie, I was...
A Few (More) of My Favorite Things
April 14, 2022
Bill goes for a hike Wow! I’ve actually come up with two posts about things I like. Shocker. I mean, I like things like… Ferraris and private jet travel and...
Let’s Talk About the Worst Business in The History of Capitalism
April 8, 2022
A recent conversation with a friend and the news this week that JetBlue wants to acquire Spirit Airlines got me thinking about the worst business in the...
Modern Medicine Giveth and Taketh Away
April 6, 2022
Many aspects of modern medicine are nothing short of astonishing. If you need proof of how spectacular medical science is, look no further than the Covid...
Things I Like
March 29, 2022
“All the good ideas have been taken.” - Some guy who I made up but speaks the truth A few years ago Karin, a good friend and one of the coolest people I...
Ode to a Puggle
March 21, 2022
This newsletter about is whatever strikes my brain as interesting at any moment. Usually, that is something related to what’s happening in the world. This...
Permanent Daylight Saving Time: The Sequel
March 17, 2022
“Godfather: Clemenza missed the meeting. He forgot to set his watch ahead.” (Photo: Paramount Pictures) There is an axiom in Hollywood (so I’ve heard) that...
Theranos: Fraud as Entertainment
March 7, 2022
Since 2014, I have been following the rise and fall of Theranos, the fake-fraud-criminal-hoax blood testing company that scammed some of the dumbest money...
The Human Race Can’t Evolve Fast Enough
March 2, 2022
Cable TV viewer, circa 2064 Healthcare experts talk and write about why humans (and more specifically American humans) are so obese. A prevailing theory is...
The Value of Anything
February 18, 2022
About a decade ago, when I was still on Facebook and we used to have heated, but civil discussions about interesting things (as opposed to the effluent that...
I Am Not Watching the Olympics…
February 10, 2022
A winter Olympic curling iron When I was a kid, the Winter Olympics were appointment TV. Skiing especially. Ingemar Stenmark, Vreni Schneider, Annemarie...
If Only I Were THIIIIS Much Smarter…
February 3, 2022
The reason you are reading this is because I quit Facebook for good last year and for some reason, you still wanted to hear from me. And I still wanted to...
Get To Know an MVNO!
February 2, 2022
(Photo: iStockphoto) Remember when which wireless phone company you were on mattered? Maybe it still matters to you. It shouldn’t, despite that the big three...
Prologue: The Joy of… Nothing
January 27, 2022
At the outset, let me state for the record that I am not depressed. The title of this first post is not meant to imply that I take no joy in anything....