Professor Steven Landsburg of the University of Rochester:

Writing in Slate:

All of which is pure speculation, and pure speculation can lead one badly astray. My colleagues and I have a little game we sometimes play at lunch. We pick a local business and estimate its profit. (How many customers do we see going in per hour? How much does the average customer spend? How many employees are there, and how much do they probably earn? And so forth.) Our conclusion has invariably been that the business in question is losing money fast enough to bankrupt anyone this side of Bill Gates. Yet after 20 years, most of those businesses are still there. The conclusion is that either most retail establishments are owned by eccentric billionaires, or there's something about retailing we haven't figured out.

He's got a book too, Armchair Economist: the Economics of Everyday Life (and other books).

Word is that private planes are going to be allowed back at Regan National in D.C. for the first time since 9/11. One of the requirements will be that they have an armed law enforcement officer on board. That seemed rather expensive to me. But then I realized that we're talking about private jets here, so it's not that much of a burden. Those suckers (the planes that is) are already pretty expensive.

Tardy Pope stresses connection between institution and Spirit during noontime remarks

"Vatican City, May. 16, 2005 (CNA) - Yesterday, a 20-minute late Pope Benedict greeted some 40,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the noontime Regina Coeli prayer, beaming about his ordination of 21 new priests immediately before, and discussed the profound relationship between the Spirit and institution of the Church.

"The Holy Father asked the crowd 'to please excuse me for the great delay. I had the grace to ordain 21 priests and such a harvest for God lasts quite a bit of time, therefore, thank you for your understanding.'"

See, Thomas, he does need that watch.

Jerusalem Post | Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World:

"Pope Benedict XVI has told the Israeli ambassador to the Vatican he intends to visit the main synagogue in Cologne, Germany, in August, becoming the second pontiff in history to visit a Jewish place of worship."

Well, Peter was a visitor of synagogues as well. So that would make at least three. I see this repeated in all sorts of news. What they should write is "the first modern Pope".

Wow. Aaron Brown of CNN is wierd tonight. Is he always that wierd? I've never watched his show before.

I have next Sun, Monday, Tuesday off. Thinking of going back to VA for the three days. Gotta check the bus and train schedules.

Having just come off my "weekend" and the first two day weekend I've had in about a month it feels very Mondayish to me tonight, even though it's Friday for the rest of the world.

I guess my silent roomate has departed, since my landlord/roomate has now moved into the other bedroom. Next time I see him I'll have to make sure he can still make the rent on the reduced circumstances, while at the same time not offering to pay more myself.

I went to Mass yesterday, Ascension, Holy Day of Obligation, at St. Rita in the Bronx. Which appears to have be an ethnically Italian parish when it built it's building around 1905 (St. Rita being Umbrian). It seems they never got beyond building the basement. The Church is only one level and you go down below grade to enter it. There are quite a few other parishes within 5-blocks or so. St. Pius V (not SSPV), is only about a block and a half. It'd be interesting to know what ethnic groups/migrations were at work here that the Church was never finished. It's not clear from the interior either if it was ever more "built" then it is today, e.g. pre-Vatican II.

There were no MC's in evidence at the 12 noon Mass. There's adoration there at their convent every M-Thurs. at 2:30, but I had to go to work (ok, so I didn't have all of the two days off, but it was just an hour long meeting with the brass) by 3:15 in Midtown. They also have adoration Sunday evenings, so we'll see how Sunday night is. I still hate making phone calls.

The Corner on National Review Online:

"MANHATTAN MUSIC [K. J. Lopez]
Passed along:

Fr. George Rutler invites you to a concert of music performed by Johannes Somary, on the occasion of the dedication of the Eileen Grady Manning Memorial Organ, at the Church of Our Saviour, 59 Park Avenue (at 38th Street), on Thursday, May 5, at 6 p.m.


Posted at 08:19 AM"