Bartleby the Economist!

Our universally acclaimed  Governor has promulgated a budget clawback executive order, which was passed on to us individual OU faculty without any guidance about which parts, if any, apply to us.

What applies is an open question because State appropriations only provide 15-20% of OU's budget, thus limiting what can be clawed back.

The parts that have attracted faculty attention are these bits:

So the question is, do I have to notify the State in writing when I renew my Econometric Society membership?

Or, if another school or organization pays my expenses to come and give a seminar (which I have coming up at least 3 times next semester) do I have to inform the State and get permission from the Governor?

I'm not sure who to blame most, Fallin for the unparseable XO, or the OU administration for just forwarding it to us with no interpretation or guidance.

However, in this matter, as in most other such cases I have encountered along my life's journey, I will practice my usual passive civil disobedience.

Bartleby the Economist!

Yikes! I married a free-market nut

Mrs. Angus goes full libertarian in her interview with the American Institute for Economic Research.

Here's one bit to whet your appetites:

Q: What’s the most important economic concept for the average person to understand?

A: Just because the market isn’t doing a great job at something doesn’t mean the government can do it better.

Amen, sweetheart, amen.

Governments gone wild

1. Jailing moms for lying about their residency to get their kids in a better school

2. Felony prosecuting oil companies for killing a bird

3. Setting a goal of doubling exports, but refusing to bring several completed PTAs (that would definitely expand our exports) up for a vote in Congress

Have a favorite? Have other nominees? Tell us about it!

Okies: Behold your Governor

Mary Fallin has a plan for ending Oklahoma's drought:

“I encourage Oklahomans of all faiths to join me this Sunday in offering their prayers for rain,” Fallin said. “For the safety of our firefighters and our communities and the well-being of our crops and livestock, this state needs the current drought to come to an end. The power of prayer is a wonderful thing, and I would ask every Oklahoman to look to a greater power this weekend and ask for rain.”

Wow. Wouldn't you be praying to the same God who SENT THE DROUGHT TO BEGIN WITH? Aren't you asking the Deity to admit his/her mistake and change course? How exactly to you phrase a prayer like that? Do you have to promise to quit doing the bad stuff you did to have the drought come your way? Aren't you just supposed to pray for the strength to deal with the path the Deity in his/her wisdom has put you on? Doesn't Fallin run the risk of getting us all turned into pillars of salt or something for our impudence?

If this doesn't work, what's next, rain dances?

Men's Brains and Women's Brains

"Every one of those little blue balls is a thought about something
That needs to be done, a decision or a problem that needs to be solved.

A man has only 2 balls and they take up all his thoughts."

(Nod to the LMM)

Such a deal!

I am not sure in how many other NBA cities you'd see this (from today's game vs. Heat):

When I die, I'll be Sooner dead!

Going to Go Blind....

I have to have cataract surgery, in December. Not a big deal, and with the new lens my eyesight should be dramatically improved. No more glasses. Yippee!

Anyway, while we were driving, the LMM asked what the recovery would be like. I jokingly said that the doctor had said it would really help my eyesight if I had a lot of sex.

She stared out the window, and then said, "Well I guess you are going to go blind then, one way or another!"

Yikes... I must be a bad influence.

My Dinner with Angus (and the Lovely Ms. Angus)

So Angus put together a first rate supper here at House d'Angus. Afterwards, the sitting / tea drinking / storytelling began.

Angus and I, affected by the decaf tea no doubt, began to bare our innermost souls. Each of us confessed our deepest, most intimate fear, which interestingly happen to be identical.

Leeches.

Ticks we can deal with, broken bones, fire, all fine. But no freakin' leeches, please. Gives us nightmares.

So...Ms. Angus immediately tells a story of a missionary she had heard about, in Africa. A large leech apparently crawled onto him.

And into his eye.

It latched, and managed to get to the back of his eye. "Like it was going to go into his brain," she said.

Angus and I are staring at her. We have bared our manly vulnerabilities, and she is going to go THERE?

Immersed in her story, she continued: "They had to pour hot sauce into his eye. Hot pepper sauce. He was screaming and thrashing around, and they had to tie him down. They kept putting more pepper sauce into his eye, and he was screaming. But they were afraid the leech would go into his brain."

Angus and I are holding onto each other and making little whimpering sounds.

She goes on. "Finally, the leech couldn't stand it, and the pepper sauce was burning it. So it came out." Seeing us staring at her, she said, "What? What did I say? Did I mention it was going to go into his brain?"

I am going to dream me some tremulous dreams, I'm afraid. Ms. Angus won this round.

Just So You See What I'm Dealin' With Here

The LMM comes out of our bedroom at the beach condo, wearing the gauzy little things that women wear in summer. She sidles up to me, and I catch a hint of sultry perfume.

She puts her arms around me, and says, "I was thinkin'."

Me: "Really? Thinking what?

LMM: "We might get really crazy tonight."

Me: (speechless, amazed, etc.)

LMM: "Yeah, I was thinking we could lock the doors, have a few beers...."

Me: (!!!!!YEAH? YEAH?!!!! still can't speak)

LMM: "And then we could have some more beers, and then get totally kinky, and NOT RECYCLE THE BEER BOTTLES!"

Sigh. She was just messing with me. I am, in spite of my complaints about the system, pretty serious about recycling.

For immediate release: OU gets a new supercomputer

Now my Matlab programs will fly!

God hates Oklahoma

Wow people, that was a close one! Mrs. Angus, Mr. Tooty, and myself spent late yesterday afternoon and early evening hanging out in our bedroom closet listening to the tornado sirens (which was ok til the power went out), while all hell broke loose outside.

One of my favorite quotes from the National Weather Service yesterday was: "This storm likely to contain damaging hail of baseball size or greater"

I wondered if there was a such thing as baseball sized hail that was UN-damaging, and also doubted that hail could get that big.

Regarding my doubt, here is a photo posted by a local Facebook friend (thanks JPP!)

Yikes!

Just So You See What I'm Dealing With....

People meet me, and my wife, and everything seems normal. You have to understand what I'm dealing with here.

The LMM has a cousin / aunt (for Italians in RI, it's hard to tell the difference) who sent us this. Thanks, Shirley!

THE DIFFERENCE IF YOU MARRY A RHODE ISLAND GIRL

The first man married a woman from North Carolina . He told her she was to do the dishes and house cleaning. It took a couple of days, but on the third day, he came home to see a clean house and dishes washed and put away.

The second man married a woman from Florida . He gave his wife orders she was to do all the cleaning, dishes and the cooking. The first day he didn't see any results, but the next day he saw it was better. By the third day, he saw his house was clean, the dishes were done and there was a huge dinner on the table.

The third man married a girl from Rhode Island . He ordered her to keep the house clean, dishes washed, lawn mowed, laundry washed, and hot food on the table for every meal. He said the first day he didn't see anything, the second day he didn't see anything, but by the third day, some of the swelling had gone down and he could see a little out of his left eye, and his arm was healed enough that he could fix himself a sandwich and load the dishwasher. He still has trouble sitting down, though. (Note: Last line revised, in response to comments)

Sophie's Choice

Oh Norman, so sweet, but so cruel.

People, we have a thing in April called the Norman Music Festival. And wonder of wonders, both Dirty Projectors, who made my 2009 album of the year, and Leon Russell who is the absolute nuts are playing. And it's free. And it's an easy walk from my office.

Wow.

So what is my beef?

THEY ARE BOTH PLAYING AT THE EXACT SAME TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How can this be? What kind of cruel joke is this? Do the Dons of Norman think no one could possibly like both the DPs and Leon?

How wrong they are, people, how wrong they are.

I am not making this up. It is a two day festival and there are no other acts nearly this good playing (sorry Evangelicals, you're good but not that good). Yet there it sits in black and white on the event's webpage: Sunday night, Main Stage 9:30 pm Dirty Projectors. Sunday night Jagermeister Stage 9:00 pm Leon Russell.

This is epic FUBAR, people.

Crap like this never would have happened to me if I had lived in the 1880s!

Any advice?

The culture that is Oklahoma

People, you just can't make stuff like this up! enjoy.

Wow, we really have our work cut out for us

The big news in Norman is that Tommy Mason-Griffin Esq. a 5' 9" freshman basketball player who was named 3rd team all big 12 is quitting school to go pro.

Really.

He announced it on his facebook page as follows:

"on a mission...its a official dat i am leavin skool and enterin draft so if yue see me and ask me y i aint doin anotha yr yue mite get ignored."

People, can I get an LOL?

Here is a further analysis, and here is another.

After a promising start, Jeff Capel's program appears to be in total free-fall, and we educators appear to be badly failing at our jobs (don't blame me, I only teach grad classes).

The OKC: where we take our processed meats VERY seriously

I am not joking:

Police say a fight over Spam led to a sledgehammer attack.

Investigators said it happened at a southwest Oklahoma City home when Howard Jones thought his roommate ate his Spam.

Officers said the men argued and then Jones hit him in the head with a sledgehammer....

Police arrested Jones on suspicion of assault.

I can only imagine what would have happened if it had been braunschweiger!

Just so you know

Source is here.

Stupid Okie tricks

I wonder how many KPC readers are familiar with this quaint Oklahoma New Year's tradition:

Oklahoma City police arrested a Midwest City man early New Year's Day after his ex-girlfriend said he kicked in her door, fought with her current boyfriend and used his rear end to smash her television set.

Gives new meaning to the term "buns of steel", eh?


Hat tip to Jack Hobson and his facebook friends.

   

A bad week for Icons

First Paul Samuelson, then Arthur Goldberger and now Oral Roberts have died this week. Oral was 94 and apparently an Okie.

Sphinctered by the man

People, this is not what you want to encounter when you've gotten up at 7:00 am on Saturday to get some labwork done:

Obamacare! Come save me!