Malthusian

Coal, butter, rye, petrol... A once-in-awhile shortage of one commodity is an understandable market condition. Runs on several commodities simultaneously looks like a trend. This is why many experts consider this time to be different. It may be a painful decade as people are weaned off petroleum. Malthus' chickens are coming home to roost (to borrow a phrase from the news). See:

Japan tackling butter shortage amid higher raw milk prices, demand in Asia
Officials were hoping the shortage would subside with a planned price hike of the product by 8 percent to 10 percent beginning early May.

A Run on Rice in Asian Communities
...California rice farmers have begun planting this year’s crop of half a million acres, the high prices may prove only enough to cover their increased costs of fuel and fertilizer, industry officials say.

Bakers feeling pinch of short supplies
Rye flour stocks have been depleted in the United States, and by June or July there will be no more U.S. rye flour to purchase

Food price rise could last another two years
Products with the steepest retail price jumps were a 5-pound bag of flour, up 69 cents to $2.39; cheddar cheese, up 61 cents to $4.71 a pound; corn oil, up 58 cents to $3.01 a 32-ounce bottle; and dozen large eggs, up 55 cents to $2.16.

China Short Of Coal: 12-Day Reserve And Counting

Drivers are told not to panic buy as strike at oil refinery starts to bite
As the Forties pipeline - which supplies one third of the United Kingdom's oil and gas - began shutting down for the first time in its history yesterday, queues formed on forecourts in Scotland and northern England. Some petrol stations rationed supplies, while others were forced to close after running dry.

Gas and crude oil prices at GasBuddy.com:


Perhaps this summer will be the summer of hoarding as irrational conditions continue?

Past shortages and Malthusian predictions have been innovated out of, but what was happening is that the Population vs. Production graph was reset to expire at some other time in the future. This time climate change makes it different. In the end, nature wins. The energy shortages are being caused by the peaking of easily recoverable oil and it appears that a lot of the food shortages are rooted in an unprecedented drought in Australia.

Eating For Conservation

IHT - To save a species, serve it for dinner

Fascinating article about Gary Paul Nabhan who has written a book about North America's most endangered food traditions.

Absinthism = Alcoholism

Wired - Sorry, Absinthe Trippers: Scientists Say You're Just Really Drunk

Obama Is Right About The Gas Tax

SeekingAlpha - Gas Tax Holiday Is Populist, But Pointless

The idea of a “gas tax holiday” proposed by John McCain and embraced by Hillary Clinton may be politically popular but gets a resounding thumbs down from economists.

“Score one for Obama,” wrote Greg Mankiw, a former chairman of President George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, as reported by Reuters. “In light of the side effects associated with driving … gasoline taxes should be higher than they are, not lower.”

Economists said that since refineries cannot increase their supply of gasoline in the space of a few summer months, lower prices will just boost demand and the benefits will flow to oil companies, not consumers.

Hey Fatty - Eat Breakfast

If you skip breakfast not only are you ignorant but probably fat too.

NY Times- Skipping Cereal and Eggs, and Packing on Pounds

You don't have to follow a paleolithic diet to know the best way to eat is in the morning after a walk. This replicates the evolutionary ritual of searching for food in the morning then eating it. Otherwise, if you do not eat in the morning your body gears up for a lean day and slows down your metabolism so once you do eat something your body holds onto the food because by skipping breakfast you've basically told it "food is scarce so hoard whatever you get".

Here are my basic "health" rules:

- eat breakfast within two hours of waking up
- eat complex carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber for breakfast
- breakfast like a King, lunch like a Prince, dinner like a pauper
- use fruit for mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks
- strive for a 12 hour food consumption window so that your food does not linger in your digestive track while you sleep
- walk for a total of one hour a day
- avoid white things (sugar, bread, rice, etc)

* Dogs should always eat AFTER walks and playtime too in order to avoid stomach twisting.

And Michael Pollan, in his new book, gives these basic rules to eating:
"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
and via SeriousEats:
Michael Pollan's Twelve Commandments for Serious Eaters: Can You Live By Them?

1. "Don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food."
2. "Avoid foods containing ingredients you can't pronounce."
3. "Don't eat anything that won't eventually rot."
4. "Avoid food products that carry health claims."
5. "Shop the peripheries of the supermarket; stay out of the middle."
6. "Better yet, buy food somewhere else: the farmers' market or CSA."
7. "Pay more, eat less."
8. "Eat a wide variety of species."
9. "Eat food from animals that eat grass."
10. "Cook, and if you can, grow some of your own food."
11. "Eat meals and eat them only at tables."
12. "Eat deliberately, with other people whenever possible, and always with pleasure."

Tragedy Of The Anticline

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is halting development of new wells in order to preserve a source of wealth for future generations. The king of the United States is ravaging Wyoming as quickly as possible.

Casper Star Tribune - Too many wells on the Anticline?

For background see Wikipedia's Tragedy Of The Commons entry.

The metaphor illustrates how free access and unrestricted demand for a finite resource ultimately structurally dooms the resource through over-exploitation.

When Did Liz Phair Say That?

Madonna is driving the boat. We're all just on water skis

Looks like this first appeared in the Montreal Gazette story 'Madonna still has plenty of blonde ambition'.

But if you search for the quote it has no history prior to this article. Seems like a plausible thing for Liz to say but it seems to me to be a fabrication.

Make Your Heart Go Flippity-Flop

Via Restaurant Widow - The Great Best Burger in Ohio – Not Just Columbus – Goes to Lima::the Kewpee

Now that the Huddle is gone The Kewpee is the last remaining Lima food institution.

The downtown Kewpee location is very unique. See: ChefMoz: Kewpee Hamburgers

This Kewpee location in downtown Lima, Ohio, opened in 1928, is the only remaining example of the "original" Kewpee building architecture. The original parking lot had an operational car turntable, prior to the expansion of the parking lot. Former Lima residents sometimes return to the city just for a visit to Kewpee Hamburgers.

This Is Peak Oil

Via EVWolrd - Saudi King's Quiet Bombshell

The Saudi Arabian king has ordered new finds to go untapped for now in order to prolong the wealth of the Kingdom; meaning there's not much more there.

Chef Symon Gets An Additional Show

Via SeriousEats - Michael Symon Taking Over Food Network's 'Dinner: Impossible'

Now I'll watch it...

The Bamboo Bike

This just may be my next bike, made from bamboo and hemp fiber wrapped joints.

Calfee Design Bamboo Bike

Obama Has A National Lead Of 20 Points

Newsweek - Poll: Obama Pulling Away

Men Are Awesome

LAT Op - Men who explain things

What Of Wyoming?

NYT Op - Recovering From Wyoming’s Energy Bender

Land Of The Free

On the heels of the DNA collections from innocent people. Via Reason.com, WaPo - U.S. to Insist That Travel Industry Get Fingerprints

The U.S. government today will order commercial airlines and cruise lines to prepare to collect digital fingerprints of all foreigners before they depart the country under a security initiative that the industry has condemned as costly and burdensome.

Yes, They Do Get Away With More

PhysOrg - Study Suggests Why Parents Stricter With Older Children

Yep - He's Our President Of Morale

Via TheAtlantic.com bloggers. Bush claimed we're winning up to the mid-term elections -
Apr. 11, 2008 - Full Transcript of ABCs Martha Raddatz Interview with President Bush

RADDATZ: All during that period -- April, May, June, July -- when things were really going downhill, people were talking about there being civil war.

BUSH: Yes.

RADDATZ: .You were saying, 'We're winning. We have a plan for victory. We are winning,' up through October.

BUSH: Well, there was -- I also recognized -- I think if you'd go through the -- kind of fully analyze my statements, I was also saying, "The fighting is very tough, it's -- you know, the extremism is unacceptable. The murder is unacceptable."

And you know, it's very important to be realistic.

RADDATZ: But the overall thing -- when you say, "We're winning," you know what the American people hear. You know how that will play.

BUSH: Well, yes. I think we -- and I wanted -- that's as much trying to bolster the spirits of the people in the field as well as -- look, you can't have the commander in chief say to a bunch of kids who are sacrificing either, "It's not worth it," or, "You're losing." I mean, what does that do for morale?

"I Have Got A Pretty Finely Tuned Internal Clock"

"Which is actually why I'm such a good natural percussionist." -George Michael Bluth

PhysOrg - Intelligence and rhythmic accuracy go hand in hand: People who score high on intelligence tests are also good at keeping time, new Swedish research shows. The team that carried out the study also suspect that accuracy in timing is important to the brain processes responsible for problem solving and reasoning.

You Are What You Eat

NYT - What’s for Dinner? The Pollster Wants to Know

Sidebar includes links for "you might be a Obama/Clinton/McCain supporter if..."

I don't fit into any of the camps.

A First In Car Reviews

This is the first car review I've seen that suggests waiting for the diesel version.

NYT - 2009 Acura TSX: A Redesign Waiting for Diesel

There will be more.

Bananas For A Boy

Truth in old wives' tales on the sex of babies

No One Likes The 2008 Farm Bill

CS Monitor - Farm bill: making America fat and polluted, one subsidy at a time

Have You Driven A Ford Lately?

2008 Ford is like the 1998 Apple. Poised for greatness if the product line can only be streamlined.
Ford Eyes More Cuts As Recovery Advances

A Star at Toyota, a Believer at Ford

In Surprise, Ford Swings to Profit

When Steve Jobs came back to Apple he focused on two lines, a consumer portable and a consumer desktop and a professional portable then a professional desktop; but there must be attrition before there can be growth.

Why does Ford have different models in the US and UK? Why is there a Taurus X, Edge, Explorer, Expedition, Escape, and soon the Flex - but the Focus wagon gets canceled? And yes, the Mercury brand is superfluous.

I'd rearrange the product line with a small, medium, and large version for each segment by taking the best of the North American, UK, and Australian lines.

More to come...

Is You Is, Or Is You Ain't

McCain's constituency?

Not if you're a veteran or a woman. See:

Thanking Our GIs:Better benefits, including a college education, would reward troops and entice recruits.

Disappointingly, Sen. John McCain, presumptive Republican candidate for president, so far declines to back the measure. He seems to be responding to concerns of the military brass that enhanced educational opportunities could negatively affect retention rates. Not only is it wrong to want people to stay in the military because they have no alternatives, but such thinking ignores the advantages enhanced educational benefits offer in recruitment. To meet recruitment goals, the military has offered bonuses and lowered some of its standards. Imagine being able instead to promise possible recruits a first-class college education.

McCain opposes equal pay bill in Senate

Republican Sen. John McCain, campaigning through poverty-stricken cities and towns, said Wednesday he opposes a Senate bill that seeks equal pay for women because it would lead to more lawsuits.

The "Screw Em" Incident

HuffPost - Hillary Clinton On Southern Working Class Whites In 1995: "Screw 'Em"

Nothing To See Here - Move Along

WSJ - Putting Capitol To Good Use

Over the last 50 years, the S&P 500 has averaged a 14.5% annual gain during Democratic presidencies, compared to a 10.6% gain under Republicans.

This Is What Peak Oil Looks Like

IHT - Gas tops $3.50 a gallon in U.S. for first time

WorldChanging - What Does Oil's New High Mean?

World crude oil production has actually fallen from 73.8 million barrels per day in 2005 to 73.2 million barrels per day in the first ten months of 2007, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. This makes 2005 the peak year for world oil production so far, though it is too early to know if this will turn out to be the all-time high.

In 2007, crude oil production declined in some of the world’s largest oil-producing countries— including Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, Nigeria, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela—due to a combination of geological and political factors.

I Have To Think The Founders Would Frown Upon This

So long innocent until proven guilty... we're all criminals now.

Canada.com - Canadians suspected of offences at the U.S. border will be ordered to provide DNA samples starting later this year.

WaPost - U.S. to Expand Collection Of Crime Suspects' DNA

The policy will substantially expand the current practice of routinely collecting DNA samples from only those convicted of federal crimes, and it will build on a growing policy among states to collect DNA from many people who are arrested...

..."Innocent people don't belong in a so-called criminal database," said Tania Simoncelli, science adviser for the American Civil Liberties Union. "We're crossing a line."

Bye-bye Bisphenol

A story that has been developing for several years is now tipping. MSNBC - Nalgene to phase out hard-plastic bottles

NYT - A Hard Plastic Is Raising Hard Questions

This is in response to Canada banning BPA containing baby bottles.

In searching for a stainless steel replacement I think I found a winner from Guyot Designs.

Instant Mayonaise?

CS Monitor - Magic in the kitchen: instant mayo: A kitchen experiment ends in delicious success.

1 organic egg
1/2 teaspoon prepared mustard
A dash of cayenne, chili powder, or even paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons cooking oil, divided
1-1/2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice

Put first 5 ingredients plus 2 tablespoons oil in a blender and mix well. Remove the center portion of the blender lid and slowly pour in 1/4 cup oil and then lemon or lime juice. At this point, you may need to stir the mixture with a spatula – but turn off the blender first! Add another 1/4 cup oil, blend, and stir again as needed. Store unused portion in the refrigerator and use within 2 days.

The Scarlet Letter

MSNBC - Democratic rivals discuss God at faith forum

"I believe the potential for life begins at conception," Clinton said...

...Asked whether life begins at conception, Obama said he didn't know the answer.

"This is something that I have not, I think, come to a firm resolution on. I think it's very hard to know what that means, when life begins. Is it when a cell separates? Is it when the soul stirs? ... What I know, as I've said before, is that there is something extraordinarily powerful about potential life and that that has a moral weight to it that we take into consideration when we're having these debates."

CBSNews - Obama's Unlikely Anti-Abortion Supporters: Washington Post: Anti-Abortion Lawmakers' Backing May Help in Pennsylvania, Indiana

As firmly as Casey (Pa.) and Roemer (Ind.) have adhered to their opposition, Obama has never supported a single measure that would curtail access to abortion -- even under controversial circumstances. But Casey and Roemer have chosen to ignore Obama's legislative record, and are promoting the Democratic presidential candidate to their antiabortion allies as someone who could achieve a new consensus on the issue. "He has the unique skills to try to lower the temperature and foster a sense of common ground, and try to figure out ways that people can agree," Casey said, although the freshman senator added, "On this issue, it's particularly hard."

Sounds like Senators Casey and Roemer want to move the country towards some sort of consensus. Similar to what I first read about in the April, 2007 Atlantic article A Separate Peace.

Another Sign Of A Bad Economy

IHT - Alberto Gonzales, the former attorney general, is looking for work

It Isn't Prositution, It's 'Reproductive Currency'

Startling new research shows people trade sex for other things - Just like penguins and other primates, people trade sex for resources

This Is What Peak Oil Looks Like

Paul Krugman at the NYT - Oil numbers

There are two basic facts that would seem to explain a lot about what’s happening to oil prices.

First, Gross World Product growth has accelerated — from 2.9 percent in the 90s to almost 5 percent in recent years, according to the IMF. All of this is because of growth in emerging economies, largely China.

Second, world oil production has stalled — after growing around 1.6% a year in the 90s, it’s been basically flat for the last three years.

So we’ve got rapidly growing demand due to industrialization in Asia colliding with stagnant supply, basically because oil is getting hard to find. (The demand shock is probably even bigger than the GDP number suggests, because China’s economy is highly energy-inefficient).

Chow.com Interview With Alton Brown

Crushing Bones with Alton Brown

Mitch Hurwitz News

Arrested Development cast to voice Fox animated show

Liz Phair In Progress

Liz is making all kinds of news. See:
Liz Phair To Reissue Critically Acclaimed Album

"Exile in Guyville," which had been out of print, will be made available in a digital format for the first time. The reissue also will be released on vinyl as well as on CD. The album will feature four never-released songs from the original recording sessions.

Phair also filmed a 60-minute documentary, "Guyville Redux," which be released on DVD as part of the reissue package. The DVD features an introduction by Dave Matthews, founder/co-owner of ATO Records, which is releasing the "Guyville" reissue package.

The Billboard Q&A: Liz Phair

I'm also excited about the way the re-release turned out. Alan Light did the liner notes, and I've been meeting with artists about the packaging for the 2.0 version. There are three bonus tracks, but there is a good minute separating them from the rest of the record. It was cool to go through my closet and find the songs -- some are from [demo] "Girly Sound" but they are very much of the "Guyville" era.

Liz Phair rocks a book review

Flash back to 1994 and tell me that the Exile in Guyville girl would be writing a review of the book by that guy from Galaxie 500 for no less than the Gray Lady of the NY Times, and I would have tried to take away your crack. And yet, the review is good — I mean a good read. And it seems that the book is, too.

Direct NYT link - Black Postcards: A Rock & Roll Romance - Dean Wareham - Book Review
I wonder if Liz was not hinting at something more with this line - The weight of the accumulated past begins to take its toll. (I eagerly anticipate the day when Liz decides to write her own memoir)

And she turned 41 on April 17th.

Celebrity Horoscope for Liz Phair:
Aries is easily bored and needs constant refreshment of new fuel. They are strong initiators and like to complete a project rapidly and keep on traveling. They always want to be number one or to be the only one working on a project. Aries has a courageous spirit which encourages confidence in others. They are romantic and prefer the chase to the long haul relationship.

Opinion On The Proposed 2008 Farm Bill

LA Times - We'll reap what we sow

What can we citizens expect if the proposed $300-billion farm bill is signed into law? Federally subsidized feed -- corn, soybeans and cottonseed -- for animal factory farms that spread disease, greenhouse gases and dangerous working conditions wherever they set up shop. (Farm bill "environmental quality" programs will even pay up to $450,000 for the construction of lined "lagoons" to be filled with lethal concentrations of manure.) The continuation of America's obesity campaign, which ensures the cheapest and most widely available foods are made up of such high-calorie ingredients as high-fructose corn syrup, refined flours, saturated fats and unhealthy meat and dairy products. And more federally backed exports of California's water -- in the form of cotton and rice, mostly sold overseas.

But here's the one that's really hard to stomach. More than $4 billion in permanent disaster assistance to growers in the Northern Plains. The brainchild of Montana Democrat and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, this is essentially a trust fund to guarantee income to farmers plowing up prairies and grasslands -- lands prone to drought and erosion -- to plant corn and wheat. Many observers fear a second Dust Bowl.

Easy Cooking

The NYT on cooking with the microwave - You Use It Every Day. But Can You Make It Cook?

And here is a person who is documenting their everyday use of the slow cooker in A Year of CrockPotting

BLDGBLOG Interviews KSR

This is a long and fascinating interview - Comparative Planetology: An Interview with Kim Stanley Robinson

Interesting Recent Health News

Links from PhysOrg:
Evidence lacking on health benefits of drinking lots of water
A recent look at what is known about the health effects of drinking water reveals that most supposed benefits are not backed by solid evidence. The findings indicate that most people do not need to worry about drinking their recommended 8 glasses of 8 ounces (“8x8”) of water per day. The editorial is published in the June 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

Keep on running: Lack of exercise when young may lead to heart disease

Oatmeal cancer claim questioned

Fermented And Distilled Sugar Cane Juice

I've never heard of this beverage but it sounds interesting.

IHT - Allure of cachaça spreads to U.S. from Brazil

Transportation News

In the news:
Diesel’s second coming

Railroads are expanding at a record clip

"If You Strike Me Down I Shall Become More Powerful Than You Could Possibly Imagine"

My thoughts on why Senator Clinton should concede the nomination: A Senator Obama, stung by a stolen presidential nomination, would outshine a President Hillary Clinton. And if Hillary Clinton were to lose the presidency to McCain it would mark the end of the Clinton era.

Basically, she cannot fairly win the Democratic presidential nomination at this point. But she delusionally thinks Obama cannot win (See: Richardson endorsement still irks Bill Clinton: Meantime, Hillary reportedly told Richardson that Obama can't win). I cannot imagine Obama ever saying this about Clinton.

Another Peak Oil Example

This is heralded as a "huge" discovery. MSNBC - Government says huge oil fields in N.D., Mont.: Up to 4.3 billion barrels in Bakken shale, some in industry skeptical

An Internet search shows the United States consumers 21 million barrels of oil per year. Meaning 4.3 billion barrels of oil is only a 205 day supply for the United States.

Meaning this oil field won't make much of a dent in the global oil supply problem. To be significant recoverable oil from this formation would have to be an order of magnitude larger.

This is why people say the biggest oil discovery will be conservation of existing stocks.

For more information see the Bakken Shale blog.

The Obama Brand

Newsweek - Expertinent: Why the Obama "Brand" Is Working

Is Obama's stuff on the level with the best commercial brand design?
I think it's just as good or better. I have sophisticated clients who pay me and other people well to try to keep them on the straight and narrow, and they have trouble getting everything set in the same typeface. And he seems to be able to do it in Cleveland and Cincinnati and Houston and San Antonio. Every time you look, all those signs are perfect. Graphic designers like me don't understand how it's happening. It's unprecedented and inconceivable to us. The people in the know are flabbergasted.

What does that say about his campaign?
My feeling, in my own narrow sphere as a professional graphic designer, echoes a little bit what Frank Rich wrote in his column on Sunday, where he was talking about Hillary Clinton's argument that Obama doesn't have the experience to run the country properly, and how you only needed to look at how her own campaign has been managed to see the flaw in that argument. I sort of see the same thing. I'm not sure that the commander-in-chief proves his mettle by getting everyone at his rallies to set their signs in the same typeface, but as someone who knows how hard that is, I'm very impressed.

The specific choices are also made in really good taste and I'd say to certain degree they also philosophically align with what his position is.

Pica Points To Other Problems

DiscoverMagazine - Eating Paper in Search of Missing Nutrients

In this case pica indicated celiac disease.

More Tea News

PhysOrg - Green tea helps beat superbugs

Lavinia

CS Monitor book review - 'Lavinia': Ursula Le Guin champions Vergil's neglected heroine

In one of the more impressive displays of feminist reconstruction since Margaret Atwood wrested Penelope out of the hands of Homer, National Book Award-winner Le Guin has rewritten the last six books of Vergil's epic poem to create a rich life of the mind for the Latin princess.

Wikipedia: Lavinia

Nanny State

Cato - The Hillarys and the Huckabees

Hillary Clinton and Mike Huckabee are classic examples of two strains of big-government thinking in a country that otherwise prefers small government. Hillary is the quintessential nanny-state liberal who is determined to have the government take care of adult Americans the way parents take care of children. Huckabee wants the government to stamp out sin and make us all do God’s will as he sees it

The Incredible Edible Egg

Gourmet.com - A Dozen Eggs

It is a profile of 12 different eggs used as food. And it answers my question of why turkey eggs are not used in cooking very often.

Bad Economic News Today

SeekingAlpha.com:
Payrolls Drop - And You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet

Merrill Lynch: Per Capita Recession Began in Q4

NY Times:
81% in Poll Say Nation Is Headed on Wrong Track

Break It On Down. Heaven.

MSNBC - Pioneering breakdancer ‘Frosty Freeze’ dies

BSG Season Four

The final season finally begins tonight, and back on Fridays thank goodness.

Feel the love from Wired.com:
Cylon Mania Blazes Back in Battlestar Galactica

Why Battlestar Galactica Must Self-Destruct

And watch BSG for free from the new web service Hulu.

An Unknown Homo Species?

Discover Magazine - The Extinct Human Species That Was Smarter Than Us: The superintelligent Boskops had small, childlike faces and huge melon heads.

This sounded suspicious to me. A simple Google search confirmed it.
See: The "amazing" Boskops

Clinton Is To Bush

Bush #43 is to Bush #41 as Hillary Clinton is to Bill Clinton - in that the most valuable trait for the current President and Senator Clinton is inner circle loyalty while the latter was more pragmatic.

See:
The Clintons And Loyalty

My Atlantic colleague Joshua Green has written often about Hillary Clinton's inner circle, and one of his broader conclusions is that its members value loyalty to Clinton more than they value other, more politically valuable traits, like competence and creativity. A decade of scandals, real and fake, hostile media coverage, and "traitors" like George Stephanopoulos have left a core of stalwarts who would never and will never desert, abandon, or to second guess the ambitions of Bill and Hillary Clinton.

For some reason this reminds me of the 'Three Amigos':

El Guapo: Would you say I have a plethora of pinatas?
Jefe: A what?
El Guapo: A *plethora*.
Jefe: Oh yes, you have a plethora.
El Guapo: Jefe, what is a plethora?
Jefe: Why, El Guapo?
El Guapo: Well, you told me I have a plethora. And I just would like to know if you know what a plethora is. I would not like to think that a person would tell someone he has a plethora, and then find out that that person has *no idea* what it means to have a plethora.
Jefe: Forgive me, El Guapo. I know that I, Jefe, do not have your superior intellect and education. But could it be that once again, you are angry at something else, and are looking to take it out on me?