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. :-)

I believe the recent spate of mass murders (Omaha, Colorado Springs, etc.) can be directly blamed on the canned holiday music now being piped into elevators, shopping malls, and other public spaces. Even here in Beijing, on the short elevator ride up to my office, I’m assaulted by “Jingle Bells,” “Silent Night,” and “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” which fill me — a normally cheerful, friendly, and optimistic guy — with violent rage.

Past Its Prime: TV ad buyers re-think mass-market model

Isn’t this a great graphic for trend followers and culture watchers?

When I grew up in rural New York State, we got one channel: NBC (WKTV-Utica). Cable came to town in 1982 (I think) and then we had eleven (?) channels to choose from. I think hundreds of channels are now available in the small village where I lived, but I don’t know because I stopped watching TV in my teens.

The elite power that the big three broadcasters had to enforce a kind-of middle-class mediocrity is gone. And what do we have in its place? Rupert Murdoch’s vast fortune was built on giving the people what they want: white trash bleating, berating and beating each other (think Springer, Cops, etc.), World’s Scariest Car Chases, so-called “news” with constant terror and disaster alerts keeping the little people on edge — this is what Boobus Americanus always wanted but never got from the old elite.

Think of the fat, rich, old white guys (like Bill Paley) sitting in their huge offices in New York paternalistically “protecting” the public… bye Bill!

One amusing thing is that PBS, the “high-brow” broadcaster, is largely taxpayer-funded. Alistair Cooke sitting in his wood-paneled library, next to that roaring fire… wasn’t that set all paid for by Exxon (if I remember correctly)?

Anyway, I’m rambling… nice chart though, no?

– via Kedrosky –

Free Yale College Courses Debut Online

The URL for Open Yale Courses is: http://open.yale.edu/courses/

• Astronomy 160: Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics, with Professor Charles Bailyn
• English 310: Modern Poetry, with Professor Langdon Hammer
• Philosophy 176: Death, with Professor Shelly Kagan
• Physics 200: Fundamentals of Physics, with Professor Ramamurti Shankar
• Political Science 114: Introduction to Political Philosophy, with Professor Steven Smith
• Psychology 110: Introduction to Psychology, with Professor Paul Bloom
• Religious Studies 145: Introduction to the Old Testament, with Professor Christine Hayes

I’m already taking the Modern Poetry class and plan to take all seven courses.

The Secret to Raising Smart Kids, by Carol Dweck (rhymes with dreck)

“We found that intelligence praise encouraged a fixed mind-set more often than did pats on the back for effort. Those congratulated for their intelligence, for example, shied away from a challenging assignment—they wanted an easy one instead—far more often than the kids applauded for their effort. (Most of those lauded for their hard work wanted the difficult problem set from which they would learn.) When we gave everyone hard problems anyway, those praised for being smart became discouraged, doubting their ability. And their scores, even on an easier problem set we gave them afterward, declined as compared with their previous results on equivalent problems. In contrast, students praised for their effort did not lose confidence when faced with the harder questions, and their performance improved markedly on the easier problems that followed.”

Yeah, the kids who had their back patted for effort didn’t “lose confidence,” but they still couldn’t solve the difficult problems that followed.

(Aside: Did taxpayers underwrite this “six-module ‘Brainology’ interactive computer program”? You can bet they’ll pay for it!)

There are problems with this besides the awful jargon, “fixed mind-set” and “growth mind-set.” Obviously you want to encourage every kid to work hard to solve problems, but… demonstrating my “fixed mind-set,” I think there are four types of people:

1. Smart & Hard-working
2. Smart & Lazy
3. Dumb & Hard-working
4. Dumb & Lazy

The dumb, hard-working kids can do as well or better than the smart, lazy kids but they’ll never touch the smart, hard-working kids, no matter how much you pat them on the back.

The real question is what motivates a smart person to be hard-working as well? Can you teach somebody to be hard-working?

“… great accomplishment, and even what we call genius, is typically the result of years of passion and dedication and not something that flows naturally from a gift.”

Wrong. Great accomplishment is almost always the result of passion, dedication, and a gift. Just ask Tiger Woods.

Three questions I ask myself as the pretty boys check me out on the street, staring at my midsection:

1. Is he admiring my fairly flat tummy? or
2. Is he judging the size of my “package”? or
3. Is he enamored of my fabulous farrier’s belt?

Unlocking the Benefits of Garlic

“… eating garlic appears to boost our natural supply of hydrogen sulfide … which acts as an antioxidant and transmits cellular signals that relax blood vessels and increase blood flow. The concentration of garlic extract used in the latest study was equivalent to an adult eating about two medium-sized cloves per day. In such countries as Italy, Korea and China, where a garlic-rich diet seems to be protective against disease, per capita consumption is as high as eight to 12 cloves per day.”

I eat a bulb of pickled garlic (糖蒜) every day (probably eight to twelve cloves), which is a habit I picked up from living in northern China. Eating raw garlic will give you killer breath and sweat, but the pickled stuff doesn’t. I’m not sure if the pickling reduces or eliminates the benefits of eating garlic, but I’m betting it doesn’t.

(As everyone knows, dairy products are the root of most B.O.)

Had these three thoughts:

1. Exclusive and expensive aren’t the same thing. (On the way to the gym)
2. Italian soccer is more entertaining than Italian opera. (At the gym)
3. China’s money supply growth must be huge because for the zillionth time when I took money out of the ATM I got twenty freshly printed, consecutively numbered 100 yuan bills that were all stuck together. (Coming back from the gym)