Is Facebook Killing Google? No, But…
When a few weeks back my friend and occasional interviewer, Henry Blodget, the CEO of Business Insider, tweeted word of a new BI piece defending Google (with the characteristically understated headline, “Like Hell Facebook is Killing Google”)...
The Sears Collapse: Conspiracy or Cluelessness…or Worse?
Since “Hellhound on His Trail” came out in the spring of 2010, I’ve had occasion to think anew about the many conspiracy theories that swirl around the story of the King assassination…a lot of perfectly sane people believe that Martin Luther Ki...
Why Eddie Never Hired “The Guy”
We’ve been poking fun at Sears—the Sears of Eddie Lampert, at least—since the inception of this virtual column in 2005. But now things are getting more serious, what with yesterday’s dreadful holiday sales report and store closin...
Shazam! From the Boss to the King to John & Paul (But Not George or Ringo, or Keef or Mick), Not to Mention Jessica & Nick, and Bob Dylan of All People…2011 Edition
2011 Editor’s Note: Back by popular demand, we’ll again try to keep this year’s update brief…but past performance would tell you not to hold your breath. Here goes. Our annual holiday music survey—highly biased, rankly unscie...
What ELSE S&P Threatened to Downgrade Today…
Research-in-Motion Motorola Victrola Talking Machines eToys Longtop Financial Greece Detroit Solar panel industry Herman Cain ‘N Sync Amy WinehouseAnything else we missed? Jeff Matthews
Auth...
His Magical Thinking: "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson
The NotMakingThisUp Book Review So how did a guy who was described by one of his closest friends as “reflexively cruel and harmful to some people” and by the mother of his first child as “an enlightened being who was cruel”; Who honed...
Apple: For What It’s Worth, Part II
“All I said was I liked the pen…”—Jerry Seinfeld, “The Astronaut Pen” We considered naming this follow-up to last month’s “Apple: For What It’s Worth” column after a different song than the Stephen Stills classic—something mo...
Apple: For What It’s Worth
Something’s happening hereWhat it is ain’t exactly clear—Stephen Stills, “For What It’s Worth” Something’s happening at Apple. We’re not sure what, but something’s happening. Yes, everybody knows Apple’s quarterly ea...
Gawker Gets It Wrong: The Cancer Did It
Gawker, which is just one of the many excellent reasons the New York Times keeps cutting staff (I have yet to see an article “tweeted” or “liked” by anyone under the age of 30 from the Times) carried the following inflammatory story yeste...
Chatter—Mindless Chatter
There was “chatter” in the markets on Friday that Wells Fargo—the large US bank of which Berkshire Hathaway is the largest shareholder—was going to make a bid for Morgan Stanley, the currently beleaguered US investment that has been the...
Thanks, Steve: Of Apple and iPads, Not to Mention "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs"
NotMakingThisUp has produced a number of virtual columns over the years which, tangentially or directly, involved the creations, both physical and corporate, of Steve Jobs. Those columns mainly, I admit, poked fun at Microsoft's various...
Hero or Hypocrite? “The Buffett Rule” Then and Now
“The first rule is not to lose. The second rule is not to forget the first rule.”—Warren E. Buffett, quoted by Carol J. Loomis, Fortune Magazine, 1988 Having recently celebrated his 81st birthday, Warren Buffett is not going soft...
