Andrew Ross Sorkin 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--and How It Shattered a Nation

I confess that because this was a Christmas gift from a progressive relative, I had some misgivings. It does seem to take a traditional view of what happened: too many people who could not afford to buy stocks using margin accounts, which when prices fell caused widespread margin calls, which caused immediate selling pressure, which caused a feedback loop of margin calls and more panic selling.  While catastrophic for ordinary people in over their heads (like Winston Churchill) and some speculators who lost millions more than they had, what really sank the economy was the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930.

Where the book is weak is money supply discussion. The Austrian school argument about N.Y. Fed Chair Strong inflating the money supply 1920-28 to bail out the Bank of England is not examined although he acknowledges that inflation in the 1920s played a part in creating the bubble.

Where it is strong is describing the people involved in the disaster: their quirks, their weaknesses, their greed and sometimes their well-intentioned efforts to prevent the disaster and then to alleviate it. That many of the speculators and political figures who created the Federal Reserve System were Democrats who tried to blame Hoover as a distraction from their roles in this is not subtly mentioned. Hoover comes across as a well-meaning person who got stuck with a mess properly blamed on Coolidge, Harding, and a lot of greedy, shortsighted speculators.

I am about halfway through.

Why Was Our Dog So Desperate to Get in Front Yard?

Rhonda saw a buck in velvet as she descended the driveway and Lillie is definitely more wolfette than Canis familiaris.

Forensic Astrology

Apparently, some of Clancy's defenders are relying on this. What is it?

Forensic astrology is a specialized branch of astrology that applies astrological techniques to investigate past events, solve crimes, locate missing persons, and profile suspects.  It utilizes event charts, horary charts, and natal charts to analyze planetary alignments and zodiacal degrees for clues, rather than predicting the future.

Key aspects of this practice include:

• Chart Analysis: Practitioners examine specific houses, such as the 7th house for perpetrators or the 8th house for death and transformation, to determine motives and outcomes. 

• Techniques: Methods include analyzing angular planets, mutual receptions, and fixed stars like those in the Via Combusta zone to identify danger or violence. 

• Applications: It is used to map disappearance points, trace timelines for missing persons, and interpret crime scene data, often appearing in crime fiction and true-crime analysis. 

• Resources: Notable texts include Forensic Astrology for Everyone by Caroline J. Luley and Exploring Forensic Astrology by B.D. Salerno, which detail methods for amateur and professional astrologers. 

The Headline Was Disturbing

 8/20/26 CNN:

FBI raids former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s home, seizes devices in probe tied to sexual assault claims

The clarification in the article got us out of naughty land:

Federal agents seized electronic devices from former Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell at the San Francisco airport on Saturday and then raided his home in Washington, DC, the next day as part of an ongoing probe connected to sexual assault allegations, sources familiar with the investigation told CNN.[emphasis added]

Postpartum Depression

 Earlier this year, I blogged about Lindsay Clancy's suit against her doctors for failure to properly treat her for postpartum depression. So far, my mass murder research has found 112 mass murders that were clearly postpartum depression and 261 that were likely caused by postpartum depression. This is just stupid. She is not a victim. She is not disputing that she killed her children. There is nothing inappropriate about trying her. She has a very strong case for not guilty by reason of insanity.

We can grieve for the father and the deranged mother. But wearing pink, a politically charged color?

Home Warranty, Air Conditioning

At our Caldwell house, we had purchased a home warranty plan from American Home Shield. We were not impressed. When the dishwasher failed, it was not a crisis so several days for them to get a technician out was okay. The replacement went okay.

The second incident disappointed us muchly. The well pump failed and we could not seem to impress upon the Third World support team that this was a serious matter. For all we knew, they may have assumed we could just go to the village well. (Okay, I am being sarcastic; more likely, what they pay third parties to take a look left them with few vendors.) 

After several days of flushing toilets with irrigation canal water and using bottled water for drinking, cooking and washing dishes, they agreed to let us hire our own well company. We had already made the appointment. Then we discovered that well pumps were limited to $1500. That will get you a very dedicated illegal with a long straw.

It was only $5000 to replace the well pump. The technician from Burgess Pump & Well (who I can highly recommend), explained that it was too small a pump for the motor, which they ran at too high a voltage to overcome this. While it let them come in below responsible well drillers, it meant less than three years of life. American Home Shield sent us a $1400 check ($1500-deductible).

For this house we picked the well-rated First American Home Warranty. The HVAC technician found frost at the compressor, which usually indicates a Freon leak in the system. As this unfreezes, the system starts working again. This explains why it started working again many hours later. 

She also explained the repair process. First American has them check for a Freon leak. If that solves it, great. Only afterwards will they look at replacing the compressor. She indicated previous owners may have suffered this same problem and an HVAC tech told them the compressor needed replacing. They would, of course, have not spent that much money.

T-Mobile

We got a great deal on 1GB Internet and mobile service from Spectrum. We called to switch from T-Mobile. They tried to talk us out of it with a lower rate for six months, gave us a transfer PIN, charged us for not completely paid off phone and told us the phones were unlocked. Spectrum could not transfer over our numbers because the phones were still locked.  After two trips to T-Mobile retail store, multiple useless calls to T-Mobile support, and two trips to Spectrum store, all was resolved.  William at Spectrum store and after some initial resistance, Heather at T-Mobile store fixed it, but what a long involved process.

Yes. My 1GB Internet is actually delivering 920Mbps. Really huge images such as from newspapers.com and Chronicling America just flash up.