Locator: 48857ARCHIVES.
Target / Ulta: wow, that didn't last long. The two will end their in-store partnership next year (2026). I wonder which of the two was more disappointed with how the relationship worked out.
Investors winning: the US stock market is now twice as big as the entire US economy. I thought the US stock market was the US economy.
Debbie Downer is not impressed. See social medial comments.
US ports since Trump has become president. Color me really, really, really impressed. Link here. This should be a stand-along blog. We'll see later.
Look at the three ports on the west coast -- they each saw a huge surge in volume while the east coast ports all saw a decrease in volume -- pulling forward from China all those products to beat the tariffs -- and now Trump has extended the deadline for another 90 days. LOL.
Finally, Barbie, link here. This, too, should be a stand-along blog. We'll see later.
This is really a cool story. From the linked article:
Mario Paglino and Gianni Grossi, designers who turned Barbie dolls into one-of-a-kind works of art that sold for thousands of dollars, including one that fetched more than $15,000 at a charity auction, died on July 27 in Italy. Mr. Paglino was 52; Mr. Grossi was 54.
The Italian news service ANSA reported their deaths, in a car collision with another vehicle that was going the wrong way on the A4 Turin-Milan highway.
The two men, who married in New York City in 2022, lived and worked together in Novara, west of Milan. They were celebrities in the global Barbie doll-collecting community, which is vast and has numerous Facebook groups, some with more than 100,000 members.
Depending on their interests, fans “buy Barbies that have been created by Mattel, or they buy limited-edition and one-of-a-kind Barbies that doll artists make,” Kim Culmone, the head of design for dolls at Mattel, said in an interview.
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The Book of the Day
My Winter on the Nile, Charles DudleyWarner, c. 1876.
The three wise men:
- Charles Dudley Warner. Wiki.
- 1829 - 1900; lived through the US Civil War; friend of Mark Twain; probably co-wrote with Twain
- both Twain and Warner wrote about their journeys to the Middle East, though they did not travel together
- one can ask ChatGPT to compare and contrast the two.
- shared stories while living in Hartford, CT
- they co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today; the only book Twain co-authored; although there is some suggestion Twain had a major role in editing (perhaps even writing parts of US Grant's memoirs.
- US Grant: 1822 - 1885 (almost exact contemporaries)
- Mark Twain: 1835 - 1910 (came along a bit later but still of the same generation)
It's interesting that Twain is the one Americans remember, while Warner is long forgotten. ChatGPT explains why.
As for me, I prefer what little of Warner I have read over that of Twain.
My Winter on The Nile: my hunch -- Warner's description of Egypt, the Nile, Cairo (1870s) have not changed much in 150 years.
The best part of Warner's Winter on the Nile: the language of the Mideast. Etymology of many words the English language has appropriated. Example(s) later.
