From Smart People to Sarajevo

1.  From the November 27-28 Wall Street Journal:
Economic Smarts
Economists are more likely than average citizens to view trading with other nations as a win-win scenario, to prize the efficiency of markets and to see recessions as cyclical downturns rather than systemic collapses. Some research has found that the more education people have, the closer they move to this economist's-eye view of the world. A new study suggests that, even more than education, intelligence itself leads citizens to "think like economists."
The researchers wanted to tease out the independent effects of intelligence and education. They made use of the National Opinion Research Center's massive General Social Survey, which includes demographic data, queries about economic attitudes and (for half the respondents) a short vocabulary quiz, which the authors treat as a workable (if not ideal) test of intelligence.
The authors found that intelligence supplanted education as the primary predictor of whether one took an economist's typical point of view. Education moved into second place, followed by party identification (Republican) and recent growth in income. The correlation between the views of intelligent people and professional economists offers "another reason to accept the 'economists are right, the public is wrong' interpretation" of differences in opinion, these economists argue.
"Intelligence Makes People Think like Economists: Evidence from the General Social Survey," Bryan Caplan and Stephen C. Miller, Intelligence (November-December)"

That must be the most insightful and brilliant bit of research ever done.  Well, OK, maybe the Principia was better.

2. In the last week, I celebrated a birthday, Thanksgiving, and the arrival of our Christmas Tree.  The Raiders were also crushed for two weeks in a row.  It is left as an exercise of the Reader to determine whether this is a net increase or decrease in happiness.

3. We traditionally get our tree on the first Saturday in December, which the Clever Reader will note was not in the last week.  Lily, however, vetoed our the Traditional Date of the Christmas Tree Arrival.  It seems that Lily would rather attend the Formal Dance for her High School (said dance is named for reasons I do not fully understand a Cotillion.  Nothing occurring at said event will resemble a Cotillion in the least, so why the name?  Why not just call it "Gathering of a bunch of Awkward Teenagers"?), which for reasons that elude me was scheduled for the first Saturday in December.  December!  Really, now.  Didn't it occur to anyone that maybe December is already full of social engagements?  And so, my daughter whom I love has decided that Tradition is less important than a misnamed social gathering of the same people she already sees five days a week.  And moreover, she had to buy a new dress to attend said event.  Apparently Lily has not read enough Thoreau: "I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes."

4. In unrelated news (or if there is a relation, then it is better left unarticulated), a book review:  The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories, by Tolstoy, translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky.  We read a few of these stories for my tutorial, and I finished the book mostly because I like finishing books.  Tolstoy has a reputation as a great short story writer to go along with his reputation for writing two of the best long novels ever written.  The stories here are good, no doubt about it.  But, I am still left with my fundamental dissatisfaction with short stories.  I cannot figure out why short store always leave me a bit flat.  I can recognize their brilliance; I see the point; but even still.  And it isn't shortness that leaves me unsettled--I can really appreciate an excellent play and I enjoy poetry.  Short stories are, when I think about it, my least favorite literary form.  Why should that be?  I honestly have no idea.

But, if you like short stories (and you should), then this isn't a bad volume at all.  They probably aren't great when you want an emotional lift unless you are the sort of person who gets an emotional high from seeing other people in misery before dying.  Lots of dying here.  Lots of bleakness.  Russian are a very depressing lot.  It must have something to do with the weather.  Or maybe it is because their national beverage has no flavor.

5. And speaking of Russians and Christmas:  I recommend to you the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.