Here’s the latest addition to my Zippo collection. I believe it was released in 1998. Isn’t she a beauty?

Related: Bling!

I’ve gotten interested in collecting Zippo lighters and wanted to look at some old catalogs. A nutter site called Zippo Click apparently has back catalogs, so I filled out the first page of “registration” hoping to get at them. Only on the second page did they tell me that membership costs $20 a year. That was pretty crappy of them.

Anyway, as part of the registration you are asked, “What else do you collect?” Check out this list (and make note of how they spelled “porcelain”). Is this a club where I really belong? :-)

Jerry Yang’s recent letter to Steve Ballmer is painful to read. It’s a long, meandering, redundant pile of crap peppered with awful corporate jargon (leverage, platform, execute, scale, process). That terrible phrase, “maximize stockholder value,” appears not once or twice, but five times. And don’t get me started on “significant potential upside.”

Two particularly egregious bits:

“Our position is simply that any transaction must be at a value that fully reflects the value of Yahoo!”

How about adding another “value” in there? Our valuable position, maybe?

“Your comment that we have refused to enter into negotiations to conclude an agreement are particularly curious given we have already rejected your initial proposal, nominally $31 per share at the time, for substantially undervaluing Yahoo! and your suggestions in your letter and the media that you are considering lowering the value of your proposal.”

I’ve read this sentence six times and still don’t understand it.

Jerry Yang, please allow me to restate my position, so there can be no confusion. Shareholder value can only be maximized, and significant potential upside can only occur, when you hire a ghostwriter.

Good news for fellow baldies:

“‘It’s possible you could develop drugs to stimulate hair growth by activating this gene [P2RY5], or you could also block its activity as a method for hair removal,’ said Angela Christiano, a professor of dermatology and genetics at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, in a telephone interview today. About 25 percent of men begin balding by age 30, and by age 60 two-thirds of them are completely or partially bald, according to the NIH.”

Now they just need to find the genes responsible for fat and ugly, and I’ll be golden. :)

What Was I Thinking? by Elizabeth Kolbert

“The real mystery, it could be argued, isn’t why we make so many poor economic choices but why we persist in accepting economic theory … faced with certain options, people will consistently make the wrong choice. Therefore people should be offered options that work with, rather than against, their unreasoning tendencies. These foolish-proof choices are labeled ‘nudges.’

Instead of having to make the trip to the benefits office to opt into a retirement plan, employees should have to make that trip only if they want to opt out … To discourage credit-card debt, cardholders receive annual statements detailing how much they have already squandered in late fees and interest … To encourage energy conservation, new cars should come with stickers showing how many dollars’ worth of gasoline they are likely to burn through in five years of driving.”

Only nitwits need a nudge, no?

Kerviel affair shakes the ancien régime of corporate France

Very interesting… I had no idea about this:

“Rather than a rigid class system … admission into the École Polytechnique assures one a place in the elite. And that is one of the great ironies of the French establishment: while it enjoys the privileges associated with the elites of the United States, entry is, if anything, much more rigorously meritocratic, based on exams and ever-narrowing selection from an early age.

Indeed, getting into Harvard, which accepted 9 percent of its applicants last year, is a breeze compared with getting into the École Polytechnique.

Out of 130,000 students who focus on math and science in French high schools each year, roughly 15 percent do well enough on their exams to qualify for the two- to three-year preparation course required by the elite universities. Of those who make it through that, 5,000 apply to École Polytechnique, which is commonly called simply ‘X,’ and just 400 [ed. 8%, not much different from Harvard] are admitted from France.

Admission is based strictly on exam grades; there is not even an essay requirement or interview. And there are no legacy admissions, sports scholarships or other American-style shortcuts for getting into X.”

I wonder what percentage of students admitted to any Ivy League school are “legacy” nitwits.

On a semi-related note, make sure to read James Altucher’s recent column: College a waste of time and money for kids (discovered via controlledgreed.com). I don’t agree with everything that he says, but this suggestion is a good one:

“Take half the fee for one semester, give it to your kid, and tell him or her to start a business. Not every youngster has entrepreneurial sensibilities, but it’s always worth trying once.”

Assuming he doesn’t get into the crack trade, which would be my first idea.

Thanks for your patience while I was away during the Chinese New Year holiday. It’s good to be back!

TraderEyal gave me a kick in the butt by encouraging me to get a badger brush and some old-style shaving cream — something I’ve been wanting to do for years but have inexplicably been putting off.

On Eyal’s recommendation I got Vulfix’s best badger brush #406 ($50).

I got Cyril Salter’s almond-flavored shaving cream, which smells wonderful. ($19) You only need a tiny dab of the stuff to make mountains of foam, and I’m afraid it’ll go bad (can it go bad?) before I use it up — the tub is 250 ml or 6.7 oz.

I also got Musgo Real after-shave balm. ($23) It smells kind of “common,” but it’s very soothing.

I still use my old Mach 5 (aka “Fusion”) from Gillette; I’m not ready to go super hardcore yet with a straight razor or Dad’s old double-edged safety razor. Plus I have stockpiled enough Mach 5 blades to last at least three years.

I have very sensitive skin and try to shave only two days a week (Wednesday and Sunday). Even though I work among “suits,” I can get away with this schedule because they know I don’t need to be in the office; I’m there as a favor.

Before I shave I sit in the steamroom at my club for about ten minutes (55 degrees centigrade) and I lather up using the badger brush in there for around two or three minutes. Then I go straight to the sink and shave. I usually do three latherings, in part because the cream smells so good. Then I shower. After showering, I put on the Musgo Real after-shave balsam without drying my face with a towel (I never dry my face with a towel). They say you can use this balsam as a pre-shave lotion too, but I haven’t tried that.

Last thing I do is go and blow-dry my Mach 5 to make sure that it’s perfectly dry before packing it away.

What is your shaving routine like?

Me: What time will you come home?
The Wife: Bill has a conference call.
Me: (Pause)
The Wife: Bill is driving back to Beijing.
Me: OK, but what time will you come home?
The Wife: We’re having lunch here.
Me: (Pause)
The Wife: We should be finished with lunch around 1:30.
Me: OK, but what time will you come home?
The Wife: We will leave here after lunch.
Me: (Pause)
The Wife: (Pause)
Me: OK, but what time will you arrive home?
The Wife: Maybe by 3:00?
Me: OK, I’ll see you at 3:00.
The Wife: Yes, maybe.

15 happy years together and counting. :-)