Orel Family

Springsteen in Columbus, April 21, 2024 There are times when words and pictures really can't do justice to the thing just witnessed. For example, a total eclipse of the sun . Or when Bruce Springsteen gets really good.  And now, within an easy drive to Ohio, I've been blessed to experience both of these in a span of less than two weeks. Bruce was originally scheduled to play Columbus on March 9, 2023, but it was postponed to September 21st due to an undisclosed illness. All three of the March shows rescheduled to September were then rescheduled again when Bruce's peptic ulcer disease forced postponement of all 2023 shows after September 3rd. The Columbus show last night was the final make-up date. Solo all night. Columbus, April 21, 2024 Nothing against last year's shows: I went to three of them consecutively, and I had a great time. But the setlists were static, the ticket prices were high, and despite the high  performance  quality, the shows seemed somehow less than ...

The Diamond at the End of Totality I wore my shirt from Cedars of Lebanon in 2017 . That was my way of communicating I'd seen a rotal eclipse brfore. That invites the inevitable question, "how did it compare?" Look at the sun! (with eclipse glasses) For one thing, this time I knew it was coming. This time, it was reachable with a relatively short drive from home. This time, Aaron wanted to see it, and was willing to fly in from Baltimore to see it with us. This time, Ezra decided he wanted to see it too, wherever we were going with Aaron. This time, Lori's mother decided she, too, wanted to witness it, and would come with us wherever we went. This time, I somehow managed to convince several friends that pinholes and eclipse glasses are nice and it's pretty awesome to see a 99% eclipse, but really, there's just no substitute for totality. Beginning of partial, just before 2pm. But also, this time would be in early April. The eclipse path would come well within ...

The pig butchering operation on LXEH shown by the share price and volume on March 21st, 2024 The scam is called "pig butchering," and for a little while this past winter, I was set up to be a pig. I'll cut to the end first, and then explain: In the end, I was not butchered, not this time, anyway. But I saw it happen to others in real time. How My Experience Began Around January 16th, I saw an ad on Facebook. In it was a picture of Bill Ackman and his wife, and a caption describing some investment club that Ackman was heading up. Ackman is not only a fabulously wealthy hedge fund manager, he's also very active on X, where his very public efforts helped bring down the presidents of both the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University last fall. While I wasn't terribly fond of his tactics in those efforts, I respected his results with Pershing Capital well enough and figured this might  just be the sort of thing he'd do. Anyway, I figured I had nothing to ...