Ttl. bllsht. Merrill Lynch edition

From Louise Story’s “The Reckoning” feature in yesterdays NY Times:

“A 30-something trader with a $180,000 salary got $5 million [in bonuses].

But Merrill’s record earnings in 2006 — $7.5 billion — turned out to be a mirage. The company has since lost three times that amount, largely because the mortgage investments that supposedly had powered some of those profits plunged in value.

Unlike the earnings, however, the bonuses have not been reversed.”

Sounds kinda like the Mafia. Except with the Mafia these people would have gotten whacked.

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Too many f*cking stores

“Our country has six times more retail space per capita than any other county,” said Ellen Dunham-Jones, director of the architecture program at Georgia Institute of Technology.”

“We’re just cannibalizing our existing stores by building more stores even when sales aren’t increasing.”

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Gifts that keep on giving

My books:

A bright future

Norwegian YouTube celebrity/animator Lasse Gjertsen: “I should have the most stupid tattoo I could imagine and this is the one.”

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Disneyland story

My Disneyland story ran today in the NY Daily News.

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HST on Letterman, 1988

“I’m an extremely stable person.”

Random Friday pic

Salton Sea, California

Volcano barnacles

These guys live their entire lives doing handstands inside their shells.

‘Tis the season

Yellowstone in Winter

The park is opening for the winter Monday. Here is Yellowstone’s most cold-resistant resident, thanks to his spindly legs.

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