Apple Brittle -- July 2, 2018

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I recently posted a note titled, "Apple Brittle." I stand by the story, so I really, really appreciate the story below. 

From MarketWatch: why AAPL is still a good buy at $200/share.

My wife and I gave our first son an Apple II computer for his ninth birthday. When he opened the box, I took the instructions and he took the computer. He had it up and running before I finished reading the instructions.

Legendary mutual fund manager Peter Lynch said that some of his biggest winners came from going to a mall with his daughters, giving them some money, and seeing where they spent it. He argued that, “ If you like the store, chances are you’ll love the stock.” His shopping strategy might be justified by the argument that new stores fly under Wall Street’s radar. 

How interesting.

I bought an Apple II computer, also. I blogged about this a long, long time ago. We were in Germany at the time. I came home with the Apple II. I placed our two young daughters on either side of me and showed them how the computer worked. They, too, learned how to use it immediately. I don't recall any instructions. If I remember correctly, one turned on the computer, watched it boot up, and then began "using" it.

In fact, if I remember correctly, the instructions came on a single 3" by 6" glossy card with three graphics:

• how to attach the power cord to the computer
• how to plug the power cord into the wall outlet (we had 220 V in Germany; worked fine)
• where to find the on/off switch on the computer

They still both use Apple products ... and lots of them ... laptops, tablets, iPods, iPhones, AppleWatches. And the products still don't come with instructions.

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Edmund de Waal's Four White Hills

The hills:

• Mount Kao-Ling (Jingdezhen,  China)
• Meissen (Dresden, Germany)
• Tregonning Hill (Cornwall, England)
• Ayoree Mountains (Carolinas, Georgia, USA)

From SmokeyMountainNews:

An excellent account of Wedgwood’s interest in and use of the clay is provided by Bill Anderson — a retired Western Carolina University historian — in an article titled “Cherokee Clay, from Duche to Wedgewood: The Journal of Thomas Griffiths, 1767-1768.”

Published in “The North Carolina Historical Review” (1976), Anderson relates that Andrew Duche — a Philadelphia Quaker who had established himself in Savannah in 1737 — was the first potter in the English-speaking world to make porcelain, and that “Moreover, he was making it from clay secured from the Cherokee Indians.”

From this source and others, Wedgwood became aware of superior kaolin deposits in the “Ayoree Mountains” deep in the Cherokee back country. The Cherokee may have used the clay — which they called “unaker” (for white) — to some extent in their own pottery, but were more interested in mining mica as a ritual and trade item.

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Starbucks Play Place

You know McDonald's is in trouble when families start using Starbucks for play dates for their pre-school children.

I cannot make this up. This is a fairly typical Starbucks, maybe a bit more space than many, but it has now been taken over by three families, grandmothers (or aunts), parents, and their pre-school children.

They are locals, not travelers just passing through. It started about two weeks ago when the grandmothers (aunts?) first started coming here. I guess they liked it so much, they now bring their adult children and their grandchildren.

Watch for a splash pool outside your local Starbucks any time now.

It looks like it's time for me to mosey on over to McDonald's where it will be a whole quieter. LOL.