{"id":4263,"date":"2010-12-23T11:06:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-23T19:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=4263"},"modified":"2010-12-23T11:06:00","modified_gmt":"2010-12-23T19:06:00","slug":"news-chum-stew-for-the-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=4263","title":{"rendered":"News Chum Stew for the Holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ah, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.urbandictionary.com\/define.php?term=Virtual%20Friday\">virtual friday<\/a>. The day of the week to share a bunch of lunchtime news chum links that have defied categorization. So take a deep breath&#8230; we\u2019re jumping in&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i>From the \u201c<b>In The Holiday Spirit<\/b>\u201d Department:<\/i> A number of articles related to Saturday\u2019s holiday (and I don\u2019t mean Shabbat). Let\u2019s start with gifts. Everyone loves gifts, although <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/blogs\/money\/2010\/12\/21\/132203873\/the-tuesday-podcast-making-christmas-more-joyful-and-more-efficient\">as Planet Money points out, they are an incredible economic waste if you are given something unwanted<\/a>. So what to do? Well, you could give gift cards. Many folks are doing that: in fact, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stltoday.com\/business\/local\/article_d389c19e-2afe-59cf-8d90-09e9d4f8bdca.html\">gift cards are more popular this holiday season than ever<\/a>. But beware&#8230; for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fresnobee.com\/2010\/12\/20\/2204909\/gift-cards-hardly-a-foolproof.html#storylink=mirelated\">that gift card is worthless if the company goes under<\/a>, as <a href=\"http:\/\/fresnobeehive.com\/news\/2010\/12\/more_on_what_happened_at_claim.html\">some folks in Fresno found out<\/a>. ETA: Of course, what is one of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/la-fi-food-gift-20101223,0,6677581.story?page=2\">the most popular gift cards: grocery stores (a reflection of our times)<\/a>.\n<p>Taking a page from something closer to the origins of the holiday, USA Today has a nice piece on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/news\/religion\/2010-12-23-1Ashepherds23_CV_N.htm\">the life of a shepherd today, and how it is very close to what it was in biblical times<\/a>.  Of course, shepherds then didn\u2019t work on restricted work visa, with three-year contracts. Still, if you want to learn about a job most Americans do not want to do (or why we still import people to do some jobs), it is well worth reading.<\/p>\n<li><i>From the \u201c<b>It\u2019s The Economy, Stupid<\/b>\u201d Department:<\/i> A few articles all related to economic aspects of things. First up, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/autos\/la-fi-hiltzik-20101222,0,1339450.column\">a nice interview with the owners of <i>Casa De Cadillac<\/i> in Van Nuys about what they have had to do to weather the recession<\/a>. The Ventura County Star has a nice piece on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vcstar.com\/news\/2010\/dec\/22\/fees-bloat-cost-of-entertainment-tickets\/\">the bloat added to ticket prices by outlets such as Ticketmaster<\/a>, and how a number of venues are fighting it with their feet.  The LA Times has a nice article on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/la-fi-1222-grandparent-economy-20101222,0,358726.story\">grandparents and giving, and how they often give and give and give for their grandchildren<\/a>. The NY Times has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/12\/23\/technology\/personaltech\/23basics.html?_r=1&#038;hpw\">a nice piece on retro-electronics: manual typewriters that serve as keyboards, laptop cases disguised as old books, etc.<\/a> Lastly, in the mergers and acquisitions area, <a href=\"http:\/\/dealbook.nytimes.com\/2010\/12\/23\/leonard-green-offers-1-6-billion-for-jo-ann-stores\/?hpw\">private equity firm Leonard Green is purchasing Jo-Ann Fabrics<\/a>; what I found interesting was that Leonard Green also owns The Container Store, David\u2019s Bridal, Del Taco, Petco, Sports Authority, Tourney, Neiman Marcus and Whole Foods Markets.\n<li><i>From the \u201c<b>Dead Presidents<\/b>\u201d Department:<\/i> An interesting article from the LA Times on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/nationworld\/world\/middleeast\/la-fg-israel-banknotes-20101222,0,1237090.story\">the fighting taking place regarding Israel\u2019s currency: specifically, who should be portrayed on the bills<\/a>. Some want dead political figures. Some don\u2019t, including the families. Some want dead poets. The compromise doesn\u2019t seem to be making anyone happy. But Israel\u2019s not alone. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/2010\/12\/23\/3277739\/thats-kate-middleton-critics-slam.html\">Brit\u2019s are upset about the image of Kate Middleton on a new coin<\/a>.\n<li><i>From the \u201c<b>Exposing Problems<\/b>\u201d Department:<\/i> An interesting piece in the NY Times about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/12\/23\/education\/23college.html?hpw\">the technical limitations of the common college application<\/a>, specifically how it cuts off text with arbitrary limitations without warning. The LA Times talks about a more problematic exposure: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/la-me-critic-20101223,0,5916605,full.story\">a new restaurant refused service to a food critic and posted their picture on the web because they didn\u2019t like the reviews she wrote<\/a>.\n<li><i>From the \u201c<b>A Miracle Happened Here<\/b>\u201d Department:<\/i> If we\u2019re going to celebrate miracles this season, how about this: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2010\/HEALTH\/12\/22\/aspirin.history\/index.html?hpt=T2\">a miracle drug that came from the bark of a tree<\/a>.<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ah, virtual friday. The day of the week to share a bunch of lunchtime news chum links that have defied categorization. So take a deep breath&#8230; we\u2019re jumping in&#8230; From the \u201cIn The Holiday Spirit\u201d Department: A number of articles related to Saturday\u2019s holiday (and I don\u2019t mean Shabbat). Let\u2019s start with gifts. Everyone loves <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=4263\">Read More &#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-chum","category-lj-xfer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}