8-4-12 Hodgepodge

Pinboard Down

Since becoming a father, I have had far less time for blogging than I once did, to the point that I sometimes joke about not even following my own blog. One consequence is that I rely heavily on the normally very reliable -- and all-around outstanding -- Pinboard bookmarking service to track, annotate, and organize links to possible blogging fodder for later use. I make especially heavy use of the service for my Friday and Saturday roundup-style posts. I export the contents of my account to an HTML file each week as a data backup, but the contents of the file are nowhere near as convenient to use as through the site.

Sometimes, you don't fully appreciate what you have until you have to make do without it.

Update: While checking links just after publishing, I learned that Pinboard was already back on line.

Weekend Reading

"Our government and educated intellectuals (psychiatrists included) have frankly turned many of us into a bunch of babies." -- Michael Hurd, in "Is PTSD who you are?" at DrHurd.com

"After more than 11 years, this is my last column for Smartmoney.com." -- Jonathan Hoenig, in "The Closing Bell" at SmartMoney

"[K]nowledge and trade are not gifts from the collective--let alone gifts that come with undefined strings attached. They come from the past and present achievements of other individuals." -- Don Watkins, in "President Obama vs. My Grandfather" at Forbes

Thank you, Mr. Hoenig!

I have enjoyed following Jonathan Hoenig's column since discovering it a few years ago and will miss it.

To My Old Master

Apparently, a satirical masterpiece became popular on the web -- but escaped my notice -- not too long ago. The blog Letters of Note provides the following background:

In August of 1865, a Colonel P.H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee, wrote to his former slave, Jourdon Anderson, and requested that he come back to work on his farm. Jourdon -- who, since being emancipated, had moved to Ohio, found paid work, and was now supporting his family -- responded spectacularly by way of the letter seen below (a letter which, according to newspapers at the time, he dictated). [links in original dropped]

Like site editor Shaun Usher (who will be putting out a book of letters like this in November), I find myself unable to decide on an excerpt that could begin to do the letter justice, so do stop by his site to read it in its entirety

--CAV

Updates

Today: Added update to first section of post.