Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

“But what about the lurkers?”

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

They don’t have outfits that big. nor codpieces that small.

When I was faster i was always behind.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

There are times when telling just part of the truth is effectively a lie.

White supremacy is terrorism.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

The words do not have to be perfect.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Fight them, without becoming them!

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Random fun links and facts

Random fun links and facts

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With so much drama in the BJC, I thought we could use something like this:

 

  • I have nothing against the production and consumption of luxury goods, but it’s a sign of the times that Rafael Nadal wears a 525K watch on the court.
  • John Edwards’ baby mama has had quite the life.  Did you know that Rielle Hunter’s dad was involved with the infamous “horse murders”?  And that she dated Jay McInerney and was the inspiration for one of his characters?  Very good wiki.
  • Good interview with Balloon Juice favorite Jim Newell.  Best line (even though I don’t agree): “The only thing separating Ezra Klein from David Broder at this point is six feet of dirt.”
  • Is it just me or does “Call Your Girlfriend” sound exactly like Sting’s “Fields of Gold” (off his smash hit album, “The Tepid Heart“), at least at the beginning?

Share your own links and facts or talk about whatever.

Reader Interactions

176Comments

  3. 3.

    sb

    If I were an athlete of Nadal’s class and a 525k watch helped me play better, I’d buy it.

    And as long as we’re talking about anything, I love soccer but yesterday was *not* the match to try to hook non-soccer fans to the sports. Jeebus, what a boring game.

  5. 5.

    Violet

    Here’s a video of a surfing sheep. Yes, they cgi’d the sheep, but it’s done pretty well and it never fails to make me laugh. The baa-ing while on the surfboard gets me every time.

  6. 6.

    JenJen

    From the Dept. of Gossip, speaking of that homewrecker Rielle Hunter, according to Molly Ringwald’s Twitter feed, she *almost* had a three-way with Rielle and the other Brat Pack Lit guy, Bret Easton Ellis, back in the day.

    And that’s all I got.

  7. 7.

    Mark S.

    It’s not even a very attractive watch. And since most people where their watch on their non-dominant hand, I doubt wearing a watch has much impact in tennis.

  9. 9.

    Douglas

    Yeah, you can spend 525k on a watch that won’t interfere with your tennis play.
    …our you could just wear any other normal watch on your other wrist.

  10. 10.

    Gin & Tonc

    That watch for Nadal represents about 5% of his yearly earnings. It’s a $2,500 watch for someone making $50k/yr. Relatively expensive, but not obscene.

  11. 11.

    Linnaeus

    John Edwards’ baby mama has had quite the life. Did you know that Rielle Hunter’s dad was involved with the infamous “horse murders”? And that she dated Jay McInerney and was the inspiration for one of his characters?

    I did know that. I went through a Bret Easton Ellis & Jay McInerney phase back in college and read all of their novels that they’d written up to that point. I liked McInerney’s better, on the whole. Story Of My Life is entertaining, though not his best.

  13. 13.

    EconWatcher

    I don’t get all the Ezra-hating. The guy created a blog that you can actually learn from. He seems to care about facts and logic, he does actual research, and he’s generally progressive in outlook.

    He misfires occasionally, but even then, I think some people seem anxious to put the most sinister possible spin on it. (Example: When he mused as to whether policy under Romney could end up more Keynesian in the short run than under Obama, I sure didn’t read it to be a suggestion–tacit or otherwise–to vote for Romney, but rather a comment on the unthinking opposition Obama gets.)

    Can we wait for the guy to actually sell out before we harangue him for selling out?

  15. 15.

    Amir Khalid

    Nadal certainly doesn’t need a wristwatch on court. It’s not like he has other appointments on playing days, and might have to rush off for his next one. This is surely an endorsement deal where he charges the watchmakers big money to wear their product.

  16. 16.

    Violet

    @JenJen: Me too. I can’t believe Kristin Wiig got that massive sendoff and Andy Samberg got nothing. His digital shorts have been the highlight of SNL for the last however many years, with the exception of Tina Fey’s Palin.

  17. 17.

    smintheus

    The Montana ruling today proves Fallows’ point that SCOTUS is out of control. Montana has a history of exactly the kind of corruption that Citizens United asserted doesn’t occur anytime anywhere. The Court can pick and choose how to weigh competing laws against each other, but it cannot pick and choose which facts to accept. This is a lawless Court. The country needs to decide how to deal with that fact.

  18. 18.

    JenJen

    @Linnaeus: I, too, went through a Brat Pack Lit phase in college! I don’t care what anybody says, “The Rules of Attraction” is a damned good book (and it’s also the novel where the audience is introduced to Sean Bateman’s brother Patrick, of “American Psycho” fame).

    @Violet: I know!! And if you ever re-watch Wiig’s sendoff, check out Jason Sudeikis’ reaction. Word on the street is that he won’t be returning to the SNL cast either, and he doesn’t seem too happy in that clip. They’d be nuts not to re-sign him; he plays both Mitt Romney and Joe Biden.

  19. 19.

    Linnaeus

    @Amir Khalid:

    Yeah, I don’t understand why a tennis player would need a watch while on the court. If you need to know the time elasped during the match, etc., you can ask the officials for that.

  22. 22.

    Amir Khalid

    @Mark S.:
    Not everyone does that. I’m left-handed. I wear my watch on that hand. When I was playing tennis, I took it off.

  23. 23.

    Violet

    @Walker: There is something about Steampunk that freaks me the hell out. I can’t figure out why. It shakes me up and I visibly recoil from it. Very weird. I have no idea why it affects me like that.

  24. 24.

    Linnaeus

    @Walker:

    Anyone seen the new Steampunk clothing line by Prada? Fairly surreal.

    The late 1800s seem to be coming back in style to some degree. Around here, I’m noticing a lot more bushy beards and handlebar moustaches.

  25. 25.

    Violet

    @Linnaeus:

    The late 1800s seem to be coming back in style to some degree. Around here, I’m noticing a lot more bushy beards and handlebar moustaches.

    Well, we are in a robber baron era. Right timeframe.

  26. 26.

    Jager

    RE: Nick Gillespie on Bill Maher.

    Mrs J turned to me and said, “he dyes his hair, that color isn’t human.” And another thing, we live in SoCal and nobody wears a winter weight leather jacket in June.

  28. 28.

    catclub

    @Amir Khalid: You take off the watch so you do not sweat and damage the watch. If it is of any value. If it is just a plastic casio then who cares.

    also if the watchband is leather.

    I second the paid endorsement theory.

  29. 29.

    catclub

    @Violet: I think there is something in the new Batman movie you might not like, then.

    Just guessing from the trailers.

  30. 30.

    Steeplejack

    @Linnaeus:

    They have a big foot-high display at courtside that gives the elapsed time (as well as the time of day, in case you need to be someplace after your match).

    This is an endorsement deal. Nadal is getting paid to wear the watch.

  31. 31.

    Corner Stone

    @Amir Khalid: Exactly. Just like some golfers wear a $100K Rolex when they play the tour. They’re getting paid good money for the endorsement.

  32. 32.

    Hamilton

    Per Nadal’s $525,000 watch – apparently it was stolen by the hotel bartender! – take a look at this link from the same site:

  33. 33.

    Butch

    @Walker: Here in the UP, “fashion” is jeans and T-shirt or jeans and flannel, depending on season. Makes me glad to live here.

  36. 36.

    Linnaeus

    @JenJen:

    I don’t care what anybody says, “The Rules of Attraction” is a damned good book (and it’s also the novel where the audience is introduced to Sean Bateman’s brother Patrick, of “American Psycho” fame).

    I loved that book. It’s probably my favorite one by Ellis.

  38. 38.

    AA+ Bonds

    I agree that the comparison is unfair – Ezra Klein also lacks any qualifications to do anything, while Broder merely failed to live up to them

  39. 39.

    pragmatism

    buit dougj somehow, some way.
    keeps coming up with funky ass shit like every single day.

  40. 40.

    Southern Beale

    And that she dated Jay McInerney and was the inspiration for one of his characters?

    I did know that. During the 2008 primaries I was an ardent John Edwards supporter and a friend of mine who is good friends with McInerney told me I needed to be careful with my support for Edwards, that she “knew some stuff” from “a reliable friend” about Edwards, stuff that was gonna come out because it was too big not to come out. Of course I wrote it off as more Clinton-style “he’s a serial rapist!” hysteria. After all, I had wingnut friends telling me that their North Carolina buddies said “Edwards makes Bill Clinton look like a Boy Scout.” So I didn’t pay attention, like an idiot. I did pass on hosting a fundraiser at the house, but that was it.

    Well, after it all came out my friend told me that Jay and Rielle were still friends and that he had told my friend about the affair. This was months and months before the National Enquirer thing came out when she tried to warn me.

    I wish she’d been more upfront with me, because I gave the Edwards campaign a lot of money and I would rather have sent that money elsewhere.

  41. 41.

    Corner Stone

    That’s the first Fishbowl interview I think I’ve read. It will also be the last.

  44. 44.

    ReflectedSky

    @Walker: I’m enjoying everything about that story. Steampunk strikes me as a progressive repurposing of Victorian/Gilded Age tropes, but maybe it’s just cool-looking and I’m blowing smoke to excuse my enjoyment.

    Ezra is the political equivalent of middlebrow art; both have their place. I don’t think he’s as bad as Broder, although I also don’t read or respect him much these days.

    Why would anyone under 50 wear a watch? I teased my husband to stop wearing his so he wouldn’t look like such an old fogey. Couldn’t he just wear a nice bracelet if he feels an intense need to display his wealth on the court?

  45. 45.

    Violet

    @catclub: Yeah, most likely. I didn’t see the last Batman, so I’m unlikely to see this one. I still love the TV show Batman. Still my favorite.

  51. 51.

    Violet

    @SiubhanDuinne: I know! It really is kind of stupid, but it’s cute and always makes me laugh. Like I said, it’s the baa while the sheep is on the surfboard that never fails to get me.

  52. 52.

    Spaghetti Lee

    @ReflectedSky:

    Why should steampunk need to be politically ‘proper’ for you to like it? I don’t get that attitude.

    Not much going on over here. SCARCE Resources, the runs-on-donations recycling plant/used book repository where I volunteer got its funding renewed by the county, which is good. And if you live anywhere near Downers Grove, IL, I urge you to check this place out. It’s a wonderland.

  54. 54.

    David Koch

    @JenJen:

    according to Molly Ringwald’s Twitter feed, she almost had a three-way with Rielle and the other Brat Pack Lit guy, Bret Easton Ellis, back in the day.

    That would have made a hellva John Hughes movie.

  55. 55.

    joes527

    So, I had no idea what Call your Girlfriend was all about. Google sent me here. I eventually found someone named Robyn who has also sung this song, but the a cappella 3 part harmony in the original was much better than the Robyn cover.

    Though I thought that the margarine tub thing was odd.

  56. 56.

    Elmo

    @ReflectedSky:

    I’m 45, and I wear a watch all the time. Not old habit, either – I quit wearing one for a long time after I started carrying a phone all the time, and then I got tired of having to pull out my phone to check the time. So I went back to a watch.

    I love watches, btw. I don’t tend to wear jewelry to speak of, just an obligatory necklace – but I love watches.

  57. 57.

    Violet

    @ReflectedSky:

    Why would anyone under 50 wear a watch? I teased my husband to stop wearing his so he wouldn’t look like such an old fogey. Couldn’t he just wear a nice bracelet if he feels an intense need to display his wealth on the court?

    I’m under 50 and I wear a watch. I was required to wear one for a job I had once and I still wear it.

    I am currently going to a boot camp exercise thing and I seem to be the only one wearing a watch. It’s kind of funny how many of the 23 year olds ask me what time it is. They can’t hold onto their phones while they do the boot camp stuff, so they have no idea what time it is. As we get to about 45 minutes into the boot camp people are tired and want to know how much suffering they have left so they ask me.

  59. 59.

    Chris

    @ReflectedSky:

    Steampunk strikes me as a progressive repurposing of Victorian/Gilded Age tropes

    I’ve only dabbled in steampunk via a few popcorn B movies like Wild Wild West, but if they’re any indication, think you might me onto something.

    @Violet:

    I didn’t see the last Batman, so I’m unlikely to see this one.

    They had some rumors going around that this one’s going to incorporate some undertones from the Occupy Wall Street thing. Curious to see how that turns out, though I suspect it won’t be in a way that I like.

  61. 61.

    Brachiator

    It’s sobering to realize the degree to which Larry Ellison’s purchase of the island of Lanai isn’t just a rich man’s folly, but impacts the lives of lots of average people.

    The 3,200 people living on a rural Hawaiian island that will soon be purchased by billionaire Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison have a laundry list of what they’d like to see him provide.
    __
    Working-class residents on Lanai want stable jobs. Affordable housing. No onerous restrictions on hunting or fishing. A return to agriculture. Improved transportation to Maui, Oahu and other islands given an airport with limited flights. Even simple things like the reopening of the community pool. They hope he’s willing to sit down, listen to their concerns and be sensitive to the unique culture of Hawaii….
    __
    Current billionaire owner David Murdock, who led a shift from the island’s pineapple industry to luxury resort and home development, had been losing $20 million to $30 million a year, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser previously reported.

  62. 62.

    ReflectedSky

    @Spaghetti Lee: I was just teasing, as commenters above me were linking steampunk to Gilded Age oppression.

    @Elmo, @Violet — my dude agrees with you guys. I think he went back to wearing his. I stopped wearing a watch in my 20s, because it made me obsessive about time — I tried to squeeze more and more into my schedule and do things faster and faster, and it was exhausting. So instead I met him and enjoyed cribbing off the fact that whenever I needed the time, I could ask him. He did not enjoy this as much as I did. Then the world of cell phones arrived. A good phone armband holder is your exercise friend, IMO.

    I do think if he’s wearing a fancy watch on the court, it’s about wealth display, not time management. Maybe it gives him more confidence, because it reminds him of how successful he has been on the court.

  63. 63.

    NonyNony

    @ReflectedSky:

    Why would anyone under 50 wear a watch?

    I’m under 50 and I wear a watch. It’s a handy thing to have – you can’t always pull your phone out and check the time. Sometimes a surreptitious glance at a watch is what is called for. Also my watch battery never needs to be recharged and only needs to be replaced every other year or so. The same can’t be said of my phone.

    Now I don’t understand why anyone who carries a cell phone would carry a pocket watch, but I’ve seen a few younger folks doing just that. I like to point out that their cellphones are basically digital pocketwatches and suggest that they get a cellphone chain.

  66. 66.

    fbihop

    The Nadal watch thing reminded me of this from Manny Ramirez:

    During a 2002 rehab stint with the Red Sox’s Triple-A affiliate based in Pawtucket, R.I., Ramirez lost a $15,000 earring while sliding into third base to beat an oncoming throw, a rare example of Ramirez exhibiting hustle on the baseball field. Manny had the stadium’s grounds crew scour the dirt after the game for his lost jewelry, but to no avail.

  67. 67.

    Chris

    @Southern Beale:

    I find it hard to even keep track of all of them. I think there’s a certain class of wingnut that enjoys inventing their own conspiracy theories just to be a rebel not only against the Lame Stream Media but against their own media too. Had dinner with some people I knew from college some time ago, one of them a devoted wingnut who went “People who think Obama was born in Kenya are silly, but I still think it’s really shady that he hasn’t gotten rid of his Indonesian citienship.” (No parody, she was dead earnest).

    @Corner Stone:

    Large corporations and Mafia families are getting harder and harder to tell apart these days.

  69. 69.

    quannlace

    And that she dated Jay McInerney and was the inspiration for one of his characters?

    That is so funny. I read ‘Story Of My Life” If the main character was based on her…Phew…that must have been a fun relationship.

  71. 71.

    Corner Stone

    @Chris:

    Large corporations and Mafia families are getting harder and harder to tell apart these days.

    One offers to sell you protection, the other gets government protection. About the only difference I can tell, aside from scale.

  72. 72.

    Ripley

    The latest Musician’s Friend catalog showed up today (I know, right?). There’s a Gibson guitar in there for $17,500. That’s not a typo – 17 thousand dollars. For a guitar.

    This is some world we’re living in, isn’t it?

  73. 73.

    Violet

    Remember this from Washington Monthly yesterday:

    “Okay, we all know that there are major problems with some of their op ed columnists. First off, there’s David Brooks, that shallow, insufferably smug propagandist for the 1 percenters whose only interesting moments occur when he drops the genial nice-guy pose and shows us his snarling, viciously punitive, anti-working people side. Then there’s Maureen Dowd who, half the time, reads like she has the emotional maturity of Paris Hilton (though I will say that Modo’s recent columns about Jerry Sandusky and the Catholic Church have been spot-on). Finally, there’s Ross Douthat, a know-nothing hack with serial killer eyes whose creepy, misogynist sexual politics are positively medieval, and whose column has become one of my favorite hate-reads ever,” – Kathleen Geier, Washington Monthly.

    It got a Moore Award nomination from Sully. And it’s not because of the content. Oh, no, it’s because it’s not clever enough:

    Whatever happened to the art of insult?

  78. 78.

    The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge

    Totally out-of-touch old fart here, but…what’s the genesis of steampunk? The Difference Engine? Or is it older than that?

  79. 79.

    Violet

    @ReflectedSky:

    A good phone armband holder is your exercise friend, IMO.

    Not a single person in my boot cap wears an armband thing for their phone I think it’s because we’re doing so many difference things, running around, getting onto the ground and back up, team activities, pair exercises, weights, etc. I don’t think a phone would be safe. Someone would end up knocking it or bumping it and it would get damaged. The first thing everyone does once bootcamp is over is to check their phones, but no one has them out at all during it.

  81. 81.

    Mike

    A $525,000 watch? What the hell is in it, plutonium? Is it an atomic watch? I’ve got to go into business making stuff for rich people. Take a nice watch, spruce it up a bit, and sell it for 100,000% markup. There is absolutely no physical reason how a watch could be so expensive. Even if it is emblazoned with diamonds in every nook and cranny, it still wouldn’t raise the production cost to such a level. The guy who made that watch is making out like a bandit. The material and labor cost for that watch is certainly less than 10% of the price, probably less than 5% or even 2%. That’s obscene markup.

    I guess that’s the weakness of the 1%. It’s important for everyone to see how much they spend, even if that money is thrown away.

  83. 83.

    Chris

    @Corner Stone:

    One offers to sell you protection, the other gets government protection. About the only difference I can tell, aside from scale.

    “Scale” wise, in its glory day the American Mafia was huge. And if you consider them, the Italian mob and the French mob a conglomerate (lot of cross-polination there), that’s a global business empire that most legitimate companies could only dream of matching.

    I hear they’re not doing as well these days though, poor guys.

  84. 84.

    red dog

    Since my time in the USN in the 60s where you always knew the time by the bells I have never worn a watch. I find that when anything is time sensitive there will always be a clock or timekeeper around. Life is great when you do not need a timepiece to tell you what’s going on.

  85. 85.

    J. Michael Neal

    @Violet: It weighs about 3/4 of an ounce, which means it weighs about 60% of a troy ounce, which is what gold is measured in. So if every bit of mass of that watch is gold, then that means that the cost of materials was about $900.

  88. 88.

    Hypatia's Momma

    @J. Michael Neal:
    It probably keeps accurate time in the vacuum of space and the deeps of the ocean. You know, in case Galactus or Aquaman should challenge him to a tennis duel for the fate of the Universe.

  89. 89.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    I remember Henry the Hawk – a lovely animal though not as lovely as the Drucks had him priced. It was a horrifying series of events, and some big names in the business have been banned from the sport as a result. So I guess my answer is I did know that Reille Hunter was known as Lisa Druck – and she was a little flaky then also.

  94. 94.

    Culture of Truth

    It wards off tigers. Laugh, but have you ever seen Nadal attacked by a tiger?

  95. 95.

    Martin

    @Violet: Nah. It weighs 20g. The spot price for gold right now is $52/g. That’d be $1000, even if it was nothing but gold.

    The watch is probably relatively expensive to make. A 20g analogue watch (self winding?) that can tolerate the shock of being on a pro tennis player’s primary hand is a non-trivial thing to do. The material cost of the watch is likely irrelevant – even though it certainly includes lots of exotic materials more expensive than gold to get to that weight and durability. The real cost of the watch is the fact that they probably had to make dozens or hundreds of them in order to work out how exactly to make it.

    So let’s say it cost $500K in R&D to build it, employing lots of pretty high-paid watch builders, mechanical engineers, materials engineers, and such. If the material cost of the watch was $10, you might expect to sell 50,000 watches as a mass-market item, and you could add another $10 to the cost of the watch, and sell it for $70, covering materials, labor, R&D, etc.

    But let’s say the materials cost of the watch is $1000. You won’t sell 50,000 at that price. You might sell 500 at that price. Now you need to recoup another $1000 in R&D per unit, driving the price up to $2000 per watch minimum. Reconsidering, you now might only sell 100 at that price, adding $5,000 per unit for a $6,000 watch, etc.

    This is effectively a one-off watch at the moment, so it bears the full R&D cost. If showcasing it generates interest in the watch, they might put it in production at $10K if they get 100 orders.

    Same principle applies to lots of things – sports cars, etc. Economies of scale are increasingly important things as material costs and cost of machining stays low or drops. Nadal didn’t pay $500K for the watch. The watchmaker puts it on his wrist in a prominent tourney, proclaims that it cost $500K to make, everyone goes ballistic over the cost, posts lots of pictures an commentary about this expensive watch, watchmaker gets TONS of free advertising, and now the orders are vastly more likely to happen. Mission accomplished.

  96. 96.

    Jennifer

    I wear watches because there are so many cool looking watches. I’m particularly fond of the Android watches with the bright colored faces. My favorite one cost $40, so I’m not getting the half-mill watch on the court. As Reflected says above, that’s about wealth display. Though again, I fail to see the point – he’s a sports star, so his contracts have been reported in the press; everyone already knows how much money he has. To my view, any filthy rich person who puts on this type of display is merely trumpeting their own insecurity and stupidity about the value of money.

  99. 99.

    scav

    Elements of Steampunk have got to have been around for a good while. McGann’s Doctor is fairly steampunky and that’s 80s, no?

  101. 101.

    Hill Dweller

    Nadal has been wearing the $500,000+ watch for a few years. He has a sponsorship deal with Richard Mille.

    Federer has a sponsorship deal with Rolex, and seemingly wears a new model at every tournament, although not on court. While he might not have a single watch that costs as much as Nadal’s Mille watch, I bet the combined value of Fed’s watches is more than $500,000.

  102. 102.

    The Red Pen

    Freeper QOTD (I know, there are really too many to choose from):

    How was it decided that the Supreme Court should exist? These people are chosen by Presidents, who obviously have their own agendas. These judges serve for life with complete control – long after the Presidents leave office. They answer to no one.
    ..
    The Supreme Court makes decisions and the laws that they rule on affect all of our lives. That, in itself seems to be against our rights under the Constitution of the United States.

    Ignorance so pure it’s almost beautiful.

  104. 104.

    Brachiator

    @Martin:

    But let’s say the materials cost of the watch is $1000. You won’t sell 50,000 at that price. You might sell 500 at that price. Now you need to recoup another $1000 in R&D per unit, driving the price up to $2000 per watch minimum. Reconsidering, you now might only sell 100 at that price, adding $5,000 per unit for a $6,000 watch, etc.

    Supposedly, there were only 50 of this particular watch made. But the who point has little to do with recouping R&D costs and everything to do with vanity.

    From a web site hawking various models:

    “In the same way that Godard initiated the “New Wave” in cinema, Richard Mille has turned the conventions of prestige watch making upside down by coming up with a revolutionary concept to meet the high expectations of a handful of wealthy enthusiasts, ready to pay any price for their dream watch. Unique design, high-tech materials, and ultra-innovative architechture, every detail makes a Richard Mille watch an exclusive timepiece full of character and a look that is instantly recognizable.”

    the list price for watches on this site varies from $60,000 to $475,000.

    Apart from the marketing crap (you can buy a watch that mere mortals could never afford), it is hard to see how any of these watches are better than a cheap Timex.

  105. 105.

    scav

    @Hunter Gathers: Oh great, now I’m losing complete decades

    ETA: oh, yes, Thanks for finding it for me and bringing it back. I shouldn’t be off wandering the streets alone without it.

  108. 108.

    burnspbesq

    @Mike:

    That’s obscene markup.

    What’s obscene about it? If someone is silly enough to pay that much, why shouldn’t the manufacturer oblige them?

  111. 111.

    Brachiator

    @The Red Pen:

    RE: How was it decided that the Supreme Court should exist?

    Ignorance so pure it’s almost beautiful.

    I blame Marbury v Madison.

  112. 112.

    General Stuck

    ignore if already posted upthread

    Lamest Klucker excuse evah

    Cherokee County, GA Sheriff Roger Garrison (R) insisted to WSB-TV that he “has no affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan, despite old photos that surfaced showing him wearing a robe and hood.”

    He says he wore the costume to a Halloween party “long before he took office.”

    Halloween party. yea, right. Klan of the Vampires.

  113. 113.

    Hypatia's Momma

    @scav:
    Have you checked behind the couch cushions?

    I, too, am losing decades but in a different sense: The sevenkittens have reduced me to babbling and *squee*ing. (I’d let my mom know about this regression to a younger state but I’m afraid that might trigger some horrific flashbacks and that woman has suffered enough.)

  114. 114.

    Martin

    @Hill Dweller: A Rolex typically weighs about 6x as much as this watch. Wearing it during the tournament is quite a marketing point toward those consumers who dislike the boat anchor feel of a Rolex.

  117. 117.

    Brachiator

    Adios Chelonoidis abingdoni

    Lonesome George, last of the Pinta Island tortoises, dies
    __
    Lonesome George, the last surviving Pinta Island giant tortoise, has died at his home in the Galapagos Islands. Scientists believe he was more than 100 years old….
    __
    The giant tortoises of the Galapagos helped Charles Darwin formulate his theory of evolution after he visited the islands in the 1830s, on his five year voyage aboard HMS Beagle.
    __
    At the time, the super-sized reptiles were common, but the introduction of wild goats, which ate the vegetation that formed their diet, and the hunting habits of passing sailors — left them on the brink of extinction.

  118. 118.

    Hill Dweller

    So, Johnny Depp allegedly went through a mid-life crisis, spent the better part of 2 years drunk, and left(or she left him) his long-time French partner and mother of his children, after paying her $150,000,000.

    I almost felt a tinge of sympathy for him, until I saw he is shacking up with smokin’ hot Amber Heard, who happens to be bi. FU, Johnny Depp.

  120. 120.

    Corner Stone

    @Hill Dweller: Johnny Depp could walk into the science station on Antarctica and somehow find a supermodel to get it on with.
    Nothing to feel sympathy for there.

  121. 121.

    Jennifer

    @burnspbesq: Of course someone’s willing to help part the fool from his money. Does that excuse a very wealthy person for being an asshat with his money? Only in the narrowest sense, IMO, that sense being that it’s his money and his business to spend it as he pleases. But seriously we are not far from Richie Rich land here – people with so much money that they only way they can get rid of it is by building a house out of gold with diamonds for windows and other nonsense. It would be a good thing in my view if we got to the point where instead of people being upset because an idiot destroys a $100,000 handbag on a stupid reality show they get upset about the fact that the $100,000 handbag exists, and the only reason it exists is because there are enough people with more money than brains or values who will spend $100,000 for a handbag just because other brainless overmoneyed twits know how much it cost. $100,000 for a purse is sick when there are people in your city that can’t get medical care.

    I like nice things as much as the next person, but unlike the MOTUs, I’m not insecure enough to really give a shit what the stranger in the car next to me at the stoplight thinks about the car I’m driving. This country is organized around the principle (these days) that everything should be set up to grease the skids for wealth accumulation by those who already own almost everything, and about half of the population thinks that’s how it should be. But it’s not even good for a lot of the people who are winning. Think Michael Jackson – those hundreds of millions of dollars allowed him to indulge all his psychological issues instead of getting help with them, and lead to him dying decades earlier than he would have if he’d had less money and been forced into learning to actually cope with the real world.

    At some point, the desire for further wealth accumulation and the need to show it off teeters over the cliff into the nonsensical, as in the case of people worth tens of billions. You could take away 90% of their wealth and it wouldn’t change the way they live in one iota. They wouldn’t have to sell a single plane, yacht, house, car, or give up spending all day shopping in ridiculously priced designer boutiques. And yet they need more, and our guiding principle for the past 30 years has been that the primary purpose of government is to help them get it.

    It’s all deeply sick.

  122. 122.

    shortstop

    Well, I need a new casual watch, for the reasons outlined by others (can’t always pull my phone out for reasons of discretion or athletic activity). How about some recommendations to go with Jennifer‘s Android endorsement? Must be cool looking and under $100, and under $75 is even better, because while I don’t think I have that weird metabolic thing some people have that makes watches stop running, they never seem to last very long for me. (Maybe because they’re all under $100? Discuss.)

  124. 124.

    Hypatia's Momma

    @Jennifer:

    Think Michael Jackson – those hundreds of millions of dollars allowed him to indulge all his psychological issues instead of getting help with them…

    That’s not particularly fair to Mr. Jackson, who was surrounded by enablers. You can’t even think to seek help if everyone around is always telling you that you’re wonderful. He wasn’t “indulging” anything; he didn’t know there was anything wrong.

  126. 126.

    Jennifer

    @Hypatia’s Momma: Eh, I don’t buy it.

    People with money surround themselves with people who don’t nag them. Money is a great tool for buying the cooperation of people who will enable you to keep doing whatever things you do that you really should stop doing.

  127. 127.

    Rafer Janders

    @ReflectedSky:

    Why would anyone under 50 wear a watch?

    Good point. When I’m scuba-diving, swimming, kayaking, sailing, playing squash, surfing or running, it’s far easier to pull out my cell phone to check the time than it would be to glance down at the waterproof watch on my wrist.

  129. 129.

    Rafer Janders

    @ReflectedSky:

    Then the world of cell phones arrived. A good phone armband holder is your exercise friend, IMO.

    As I mentioned above, in quite a lot of sports you can get very, very wet. I wouldn’t recommend wearing your phone armband holder into the pool, river or ocean, for example.

  132. 132.

    Hypatia's Momma

    @Jennifer:
    Michael Jackson was -very- young when he became super-famous and super-rich. I strongly doubt he ever had a chance to develop normally, or a normal life, NOT surrounded by sycophants.

  133. 133.

    Martin

    @Brachiator:

    Supposedly, there were only 50 of this particular watch made. But the who point has little to do with recouping R&D costs and everything to do with vanity.

    Well, it depends on your perspective. Businesses like this are about recouping their R&D costs. And there’s significant risk building luxury devices for small markets, because the sell-through rate in the market is very, very sketchy outside of established brands like Ferrari (not to mention the costs associated with that market). Volkswagon lost money on every $2M Veyron they sold. But it was probably a worthwhile effort for the company because the R&D benefits will spill over from Bugatti onto other brands and the costs will be recouped there. So yes, VW was depending on the vanity of the folks that would drop that kind of cash, but vanity wasn’t what drove VW to make the car.

    That’s not a defense of the folks that would drop that cash. There’s no societal benefit to a 20g watch to carry over to anyone else. But I wouldn’t admonish Mille for taking a risk on the market and making it work. That’s just the converse of supply-side Jesus anyway. Markets are demand driven. Not just for cheeseburgers which require people have a working wage to keep the economy going, but also for way the fuck expensive watches. Always focus on the demand.

  135. 135.

    Rafer Janders

    @burnspbesq:

    What’s obscene about it? If someone is silly enough to pay that much, why shouldn’t the manufacturer oblige them?

    Hard as it may be to believe, some people have standards of moral worth that go beyond market economics.

  136. 136.

    The Red Pen

    @Rafer Janders:

    When I’m scuba-diving, swimming, kayaking, sailing, playing squash, surfing or running, it’s far easier to pull out my cell phone to check the time than it would be to glance down at the waterproof watch on my wrist.

    Dude, Diablo III is out. Why would anyone under 50 do any of those things (which I’m pretty sure do not involve playing Diablo III).

  138. 138.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Quick suggestion, anyone who receives a fwd,fwd,fwd, e-mail that originates from a @reagan.com e-mail address, delete it without reading. It is for the best (for your blood pressure that is).

  139. 139.

    Brachiator

    @Martin:

    That’s not a defense of the folks that would drop that cash. There’s no societal benefit to a 20g watch to carry over to anyone else. But I wouldn’t admonish Mille for taking a risk on the market and making it work. That’s just the converse of supply-side Jesus anyway. Markets are demand driven. Not just for cheeseburgers which require people have a working wage to keep the economy going, but also for way the fuck expensive watches. Always focus on the demand.

    I recall that some merchandise sold by Saks 5th Avenue sold at a much higher markup than merchandise sold by Gimbels even though it was exactly the same and made in the same factory. Saks customers expected to pay more.

    I don’t see Mille as taking a risk on a market. I see them as giving suckers what they want and charging a high premium for it. That’s also how markets work.

    I don’t begrudge them this. But I have no particular reason to believe that $525,000 of R&D costs are built into this watch or others in their luxury line.

    Not just for cheeseburgers which require people have a working wage to keep the economy going

    Apparently this applies to more than cheeseburgers:

    The New York Times story, by David Segal, packed with data on Apple’s retail arm, opened with the example of a Salem, N.H., Apple store employee named Jordon Golson, who sold about $750,000 worth of products during his best quarter while earning $11.25 an hour.

    Apple has sweetened the deal for its employees in terms of wages and discounts. Don’t know what the people who assemble or sale the fancy watches make.

  142. 142.

    burnspbesq

    @Rafer Janders:

    Hard as it may be to believe, some people have standards of moral worth that go beyond market economics.

    That’s fine, and they’re welcome to have them, so long as they don’t try to impose them on others who don’t share them.

  143. 143.

    burnspbesq

    @shortstop:

    Burnsie’s single other measure of appropriateness or advisability.

    There you go again, engaging in psychoanalysis of people you’ve never met. Omnisicience must be a real burden. I don’t know how you handle it.

  144. 144.

    shortstop

    @burnspbesq: Apparently someone merely expressing his personal opinion is enough for you to feel imposed upon, our delicate little flower.

    @burnspbesq: Just going on 95 percent of what you post here, old fellow. No omniscience required when you have only about five now-predictable things to say and these are two of them.

  146. 146.

    Brachiator

    @Hypatia’s Momma:

    Michael Jackson was very young when he became super-famous and super-rich. I strongly doubt he ever had a chance to develop normally, or a normal life, NOT surrounded by sycophants.

    True enough, but after a time, the life of a super-famous and super-rich person becomes their normal life.

    And though it is not about wealth, can you imagine having to pay attention to stuff like this because you have married into the British Royal Family?

    Although she is the future Queen, as a former commoner Kate must show reverence to the ‘blood princesses’. This means she is expected to curtsey to those born royal, such as Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie – both in public and in private. The rule only applies when her husband, Prince William, is not present.
    __
    In his absence, she must also curtsey to other blue-blooded women in the royal household, including Princess Anne and Princess Alexandra, the Queen’s cousin.
    __
    She must always curtsey to the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, whether William is present or not.

    And this woman has courtiers and staff, not friends, whether she wants them or not. A generous helping of sychophants comes with the job.

  148. 148.

    Rafer Janders

    @burnspbesq:

    Uh huh. And can you point out where exactly Mike was trying to impose his values on you? Other than by, you know, simply sharing his own opinion? Because otherwise I can’t understand why you think that’s an on-target response.

  149. 149.

    MCA1

    @Jennifer: Good rant, and agreed. It’s not that there are companies willing to go sell crap like this to the uberwealthy that pisses me off. It’s that there are enough people on the planet in the middle of a severe global economic downturn who can afford to spend half a million dollars on a fucking wristwatch, that it’s a sound business idea for Richard Mille to make such a watch, that pisses me off. A more extreme example was in the news last week, when a single man just bought an entire Hawaiian island. He had the equivalent of the aggregate annual income of 10,000 median American households just sitting around waiting to be used to purchase 1,400 square miles of paradise. I don’t care if he turns it into the world’s greatest nature sanctuary and nurses a bunch of near extinct species back to life while developing new superplants to feed the world’s population there. That he can actually buy the island without even putting a legitimate dent in his overall financial net worth is simply not the sign of a just society.

  151. 151.

    Spike

    @sb:

    And as long as we’re talking about anything, I love soccer but yesterday was not the match to try to hook non-soccer fans to the sports. Jeebus, what a boring game.

    You say that as if there were another kind.

  152. 152.

    shortstop

    Meanwhile, still hoping for some cheapass watch recos from you brilliant people. Like Rafer Janders, I spend a lot of time in the water, but unlike Rafer, I don’t wear a watch when I do it. Also too, I tend to lose small belongings. So cheap reliability is my mantra.

  154. 154.

    Brachiator

    @amk:

    So when will william start looking for his camilla parker ? I predict coupla years.

    Who know?. Aristocrats, like athletes and some others, seem to easily separate marriage for duty vs what you do for fun, but who knows whether his mother’s problems with the royals has affected William’s view of himself and his values.

    @MCA1:

    A more extreme example was in the news last week, when a single man just bought an entire Hawaiian island. He had the equivalent of the aggregate annual income of 10,000 median American households just sitting around waiting to be used to purchase 1,400 square miles of paradise.

    As I noted earlier in this thread, along with the purchase of the island comes responsibility and risk.

    The 3,200 people living on a rural Hawaiian island that will soon be purchased by billionaire Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison have a laundry list of what they’d like to see him provide.
    __
    Working-class residents on Lanai want stable jobs. Affordable housing. No onerous restrictions on hunting or fishing. A return to agriculture. Improved transportation to Maui, Oahu and other islands given an airport with limited flights. Even simple things like the reopening of the community pool. They hope he’s willing to sit down, listen to their concerns and be sensitive to the unique culture of Hawaii….
    __
    Current billionaire owner David Murdock, who led a shift from the island’s pineapple industry to luxury resort and home development, had been losing $20 million to $30 million a year, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser previously reported.

    Of course, he could just say that the residents are the responsibility of the state, but I don’t know that this would be more just.

  155. 155.

    Corner Stone

    Call me an elitist snob, but I find the company name “Cheapoair.com” to be more than a little off putting.

  156. 156.

    Amir Khalid

    @Spike:
    Believe it or not, there are non-boring football matches. There are also matches that fans talk about, commemorate, and even argue over for decades afterward. Same as in any other sport.

  158. 158.

    different-church-lady

    My bet is he was given the watch by Rolex. He might even be getting paid to wear it.

  159. 159.

    different-church-lady

    I’m not so worried about a tennis champion paying half a mil for a watch. I’m more concerned about my neighbors paying 10k for a crappy roofing job or 40k for a car.

    Why? Because the latter things influence what the market will bear in ways that affect me directly while the former doesn’t.

  160. 160.

    Rafer Janders

    @shortstop:

    Try the Timex Andros watch, currently available via J. Crew, and less than $200. I wear it all the time in the water, and you can swap out the watch strap as desired. Water-resistant up to 100 meters.

  161. 161.

    shortstop

    @Rafer Janders: Thanks! You can really get a decent water-resistant watch under $200?! Maybe I’ll start wearing one in the water after all. Will it survive my 1Time Airline plane going down?

  164. 164.

    Mnemosyne

    @amk:

    So when will william start looking for his camilla parker ? I predict coupla years.

    Actually, IIRC poor Diana was the rebound woman after Camilla dumped Charles and married someone else while he was on a tour of duty with the Navy. It seems to have been a veddy British aristocracy thing, with Charles sleeping with the married Camilla both before and after he married Diana and Camilla’s husband having a long-time mistress of his own (whom he eventually married after he and Camilla divorced).

    IOW, it was an unholy mess, and I can’t entirely blame Diana for reacting very badly to the whole thing. One can only hope that William is smart enough to avoid that kind of disaster.

    And, yes, I’m embarrassed that I knew all of that (though Wikipedia helped refresh my memory on some of the details).

  165. 165.

    Mnemosyne

    @Rafer Janders:

    That would make one hell of a TV commercial for the watch, though. (Holding up a severed arm in a field full of crash debris): It takes a licking and keeps on ticking!

    What, me feeling morbid today? Perish the thought.

  166. 166.

    shortstop

    @Rafer Janders: This is taking place at the end of two much-dreamed-about and long-awaited weeks in the Botswana wilderness. If we go down, we go down…beats sitting in our own pee in a nursing home, not knowing our own names. But I still would like to know who the hell thought that was a good name for an airline.

  167. 167.

    Rafer Janders

    @shortstop:

    That sounds fantastic. Have a great time! And if you’re going to Botswana, read a few of Alexander McCall Smith’s amazing No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency books beforehand.

  168. 168.

    shortstop

    @Rafer Janders: Thanks — it’s not for a few months yet. We are wildlife fanatics, planning a lot of our travels around fauna, and this will certainly be the acme of the apex. I’m not actually worried about 1Time, despite my clucking. We’ll be on some tiny bush planes and I’m not even concerned about those.

    I read a couple of those books a few years back. If you’ll forgive the pun, they were a little too precious for me. But Tswana culture is fascinating. Have you been to southern Africa? I know you travel extensively.

  169. 169.

    Brachiator

    @Mnemosyne:

    Actually, IIRC poor Diana was the rebound woman after Camilla dumped Charles and married someone else while he was on a tour of duty with the Navy. It seems to have been a veddy British aristocracy thing, with Charles sleeping with the married Camilla both before and after he married Diana and Camilla’s husband having a long-time mistress of his own (whom he eventually married after he and Camilla divorced).

    Can you really call Diana a rebound woman if Charles continued to bang Camilla after she has married someone else? More bounder than rebound, I think.

    And Diana was chosen to produce an heir and a spare the way one of the Royals would buy a brood mare.

    Of course, there is a bit of irony here if Harry is more Hewitt than Windsor.

  170. 170.

    MCA1

    @Brachiator: I thought from your first note on the issue way upthread that we were on the same page on this news, though now I’m not sure.

    The fact that buying the island means buying the problems that come with owning an entire island upon which 3,200 people currently live doesn’t change the basic stunning fact that Ellison’s buying the entire island (or that he’s buying it from another megabillionaire who apparently could afford to burn through $20M annually on it). Not to mention that he’s well within his rights to tell everyone there to piss off and move back to Honolulu if they don’t like that he’s turning the Lodge at Koele into Jurassic Park The Real Thing. Or more realistically that he’s just not concerned with their pleas about increasing airport capacity or the public pool and they’re on their own. It’s not that it’s now his responsibility to take care of those people, or not uproot them and their lives (and I don’t think it is), but that it’s within his power to do or not do so. The State of Hawaii is irrelevant in this context, as it actually doesn’t have this level of power. Or, to the extent it does, that power is granted by the people and is administered by elected officials under threat of not retaining their elected positions if they don’t listen to the demands of citizenry. Larry Ellison’s not the Governor of Lanai. He’s actually more powerful than that – he’s the owner of Lanai.

  171. 171.

    Tonal Crow

    On the “Republicans have become fully self-satirizing” front, She canna take much more ‘a this, Captain:

    It sounds like a hoax, but it’s apparently true: The Loch Ness Monster is on the science class syllabus for kids at Eternity Christian Academy in Westlake, Louisiana.
    __
    As reported by the Herald Scotland (which must track all Loch Ness-related news), a school that will receive tax-payer dollars, will teach kids that the mythological sea creature is real in order to debunk the theory of evolution….
    __
    According to the Herald, one textbook, Biology 1099, reads, “Are dinosaurs alive today? Scientists are becoming more convinced of their existence. Have you heard of the ‘Loch Ness Monster’ in Scotland? ‘Nessie’ for short has been recorded on sonar from a small submarine, described by eyewitnesses, and photographed by others. Nessie appears to be a plesiosaur.”
    __
    Starting in the fall, thousands of schoolchildren will receive publicly funded vouchers to attend private schools, some of which are religious. Religious schools in Louisiana will receive public funding as part of a push from Louisiana’s governor, Bobby Jindal, to move millions of tax dollars to cover tuition for private schools, including small bible-based church schools. Money will fund schools that have “bible-based math books” and biology texts that refute evolution.

  172. 172.

    Rafer Janders

    @shortstop:

    I read a couple of those books a few years back. If you’ll forgive the pun, they were a little too precious for me.

    Ah, but not for me. I’m all about the precious and twee.

    But Tswana culture is fascinating. Have you been to southern Africa? I know you travel extensively.

    No, only eastern Africa, mainly Kenya, Tanzania and Somalia. I have family in South Africa, so have been meaning to go. Goal is to go within the next two years.

  174. 174.

    shortstop

    @Rafer Janders: SAA has a nonstop to Joburg from JFK. Also from Dulles, which is where we’re grabbing it, and that one leaves at a better time than the NY version.

  175. 175.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @J. Michael Neal: I don’t know why you can’t get it from the link, but go to YouTube and do a search for Henri 3 Vet and it should show up for you.

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