OF A GOLDEN AGE

Here’s what I’m reading today:

Ponzi-Scheme Suicide (from the New Yorker blog “Back Issues”), which quotes from and links to a 2009 piece on the storied history of Ponzi schemes. The thing is, cited suicide Ivar Kreuger is of much more moraled stuff than Ponzi and friends . . . Relatively speaking.

His suicide note began, “I have made such a mess of things that I believe this to be the most satisfactory solution for everybody concerned.” Two weeks later, accountants at Price Waterhouse declared his companies insolvent. He left behind widespread destruction. The venerable house of Lee, Higginson went bankrupt, and one partner had the decency to admit, “I suddenly knew we had all been idiots.”

How to Reboot Star Trek (from excellent Forbes blogger Alex Knapp), in which he lays out some scrappier, more relevant modern retakes on the Star Trek oeuvre.

What kinds of economic challenges arise in an era where money is obsolete because scarcity is obsolete? How are cultural conflicts and civil liberties issues resolved? Does the Federation have political parties? I think that there’s a real potential to tell some interesting stories that have never really been told on TV in a science fiction context. And the beauty of it is that this show can be cheap.

And finally, Rookie’s GREAT interview with Jeff Garlin, Can I Please Say This?, is loaded with useful soundbytes ranging from general good advice to the A.D.D.-specific. Here’s one:

The only time that it really doesn’t pay off to be open is sometimes when you’re in love with somebody, because you reveal yourself and if they decide they don’t like that part of you, that’s horrible, and it’s really hurtful and sad, and I’ve always hated that. But, you know, I am the way I am.

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