Miscellaneous musings, 6 Nov 2011

• On a local newscast I saw that a few Oklahomans expressed surprise at the damage from the state's recent string of earthquakes. I'm surprised there wasn't more damage, considering the region doesn't have a quake-safety mentality like more seismically active areas.


• I wandered through a local gourmet food plaza and discovered a pork specialty store that imports lardo, the cured and flavored pig fat that originated in Italy. It's expensive -- not as much as the truffles in a nearby stall, but enough to keep me from buying it on impulse. Still, I hear it calling to me: people have compared it to fine butter when it's melted on toast. I'm lipophobic but butter and buttery substances slip through my defenses.


• I will never understand why anyone (aside from close friends and relatives) gives a damn about the trial of Michael Jackson's doctor. At Thanksgiving I will give thanks that daily coverage has ended.


• I'm ambivalent about the Occupy protests: I share the anger, but I don't see what the protests have accomplished or will accomplish other than showing that a lot of people are, well, angry. I'm sorry, though, that I missed publicizing Saturday's Bank Transfer Day effort. While BTD's Facebook page notes "the Bank Transfer Day movement was neither inspired by, derived from nor organized by the Occupy Wall Street movement", the groundswell of popular dissatisfaction with big companies in general and big banks in particular fuels both efforts.


• My hunch, by the way, is that even with prior warning, credit unions probably had a hard time handling even the modest number of people wanting to move their money Saturday. I therefore suggest that you take the spirit of the BTD message to heart and move your money this week. The point, after all, wasn't for Saturday to be the only day to move your money out of a big bank: the point was to move your money out of a big bank, period. And credit unions are not your only option: there are smaller local banks that might be worthy of your patronage, too.


• Speaking of credit unions, it's worth remembering they're run by human beings, just like big banks, so credit unions are not immune to stupidity, incompetence, or malice. A credit union to which I belonged had its operations taken over by a federal agency due to unspecified problems, and eventually the assets were transferred to a larger credit union. (Regrettably, I didn't inquire as to the nature of the problems. I wish I had, because holders of accounts at credit unions are not merely customers: they're more like shareholders, and I have a hunch they're entitled to more information about the institution than account holders at a bank.)