Sweet Dreams of a YES on Prop 2

What is always left: the shoes.
Elderly Chinese guy just said: Vote Yes on Prop 2!

2759 Koi Jobless in Seattle

Koi by *DelMuro
Hat tip to Wagga for this find!

There's something fishy about letting fish give a pedicure. That's what the state says.

Pedicures by fish — the use of tiny, live carp to clean feet — has been deemed unsanitary and illegal in this state.

The state Department of Licensing issued a statement Thursday saying officials were "greatly concerned" that customers, in their quest for smooth heels, are willing to soak their feet in a tank of toothless fish that feast on dead skin.

Christine Anthony, spokeswoman for the department, said it's impossible to sanitize the live fish. "You can clean the tank, you can clean the water, but there's no guarantee that the fish aren't carrying something from the previous customer."
...State outlaws fish pedicures

Speaking of fish: Happy Fishnet Friday! TGIFF!

Hello Kitty Love. by *PlastikStars

Blue Killer 66 by ~DrTaker

Actual photograph of California going bankrupt

Supporterz

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE!
I'm seeking entries for 10 Reasons Why Casey Serin Sucks.
If your entry happens to win, your blog or personal agenda will be linked into my vast empire of fishnet blogs.
Woohoo! Win-win!

I think this kid is way cooler than KC, but they have a similar look.

Broadcasting Live with Ustream.TV

2759 Unique Carp Nibble Feet

Hat tip to wagga for this find sent with this subject line: Doctor fish are a kind of carp, and so are koi!

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (AP) -- Ready for the latest in spa pampering? Prepare to dunk your tootsies in a tank of water and let tiny carp nibble away.

Fish pedicures are creating something of a splash in the D.C. area, where a northern Virginia spa has been offering them for the past four months. John Ho, who runs the Yvonne Hair and Nails salon with his wife, Yvonne Le, said 5,000 people have taken the plunge so far.

"This is a good treatment for everyone who likes to have nice feet," Ho said.

He said he wanted to come up with something unique while finding a replacement for pedicures that use razors to scrape off dead skin...


Tiny Dog Has Been Barking Nonstop For 6 Years
In other animal-related news, hat tip to Ogg for this yappy dog find.

Keating Five and the S&L Crisis

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE!
We almost forgot about Tentacle Tuesday!

Since this doesn't seem to be getting enough coverage in the interwebs I thought I'd throw this historical reminder out there before returning to doggy blogging.
Here's one of the 5 politicos

who played a role in (Wiki entry below):
The U.S. Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s and 1990s was the failure of 747 savings and loan associations (S&Ls) in the United States. The ultimate cost of the crisis is estimated to have totaled around USD$160.1 billion, about $124.6 billion of which was directly paid for by the U.S. government -- that is, the U.S. taxpayer, either directly or through charges on their savings and loan accounts-- [1], which contributed to the large budget deficits of the early 1990s. The resulting taxpayer bailout ended up being even larger than it would have been because moral hazard and adverse-selection incentives compounded the system’s losses. [2]
The concomitant slowdown in the finance industry and the real estate market may have been a contributing cause of the 1990-1991 economic recession. Between 1986 and 1991, the number of new homes constructed per year dropped from 1.8 million to 1 million, the lowest rate since World War II. [3]

Perhaps because I love nice hotels and being on vacation, I'm thinking of Paul Auster's Hotel Existence for now.

One dollar koi and such

One dollar koi_new ver. side by *orudorumagi11
Other than a brief perusal of the NYT, I've been offline and fallen behind on my regular level of info-saturation. As I make up for lost time, I thought Mitchell’s recent comment was well worth highlighting for further discussion:
Mitchell said...
Pardon me for being boring but I'd like to brood aloud on this GSE bailout thing for a moment. It's all good; half the effect here comes from the conjunction of koi-eating octopi and mortgage securitization, right? So someone has to step up and post a comment as if this were just another housing-bubble econoblog. (Actually, it's just a lot more fun to talk about this stuff here than at the more serious places.)

So, at first it sounds bigger than subprime, much bigger. You have these two New-Deal-era institutions which own or securitize half the country's mortgages, $6trn worth. Those are their assets; but their liabilities, in the form of promised payments to bondholders, are just as big. And since housing prices are still falling, the value of their assets will shrink, and their balance sheets will end up massively in the red - which may add several trillion more dollars to the already huge ($10trn) federal debt.

Now hold on! - says the counterargument. Yes, houses may fall a lot further in value, but the GSEs own the mortgages, most of them originated pre-2005. A decline in the paper value of the house does not affect the value of the mortgage, unless it increases the risk of default, and that should only apply to people who have already tried to cash in a large part of the alleged value of their house, e.g. by taking out home equity loans. Which will be some of them, but overall the mortgages owned by the GSEs are a whole lot more reliable than the subprime ninjas were, right? So maybe their asset base won't decline too greatly in value after all.

But consider this (says the counter-counter-argument): this is the year of the great food and fuel crisis, in which the price of everything basic is going through the roof. Even if we ignore the effects of asset deflation, the simple increase in the cost of living is going to affect the ability of many people to keep up the mortgage payments, and some of them are going to default.

That's where my ability to argue with myself runs out, because to go any further you need some numbers for prospective default rates and I don't have them. Maybe someone at Calculated Risk does. Meanwhile, I'd like to point out the amazing facts about who the GSE bondholders are, i.e. the people they owe that $6trn to. It seems bizarre that the Chinese and Russian central banks should each own a slice of the American mortgage market, supposedly just as valuable as 10% of their entire national economies. It seems bizarre, and yet I feel that if I keep digging, eventually I'll come upon some set of relationships which sum up the totality of the global economy: who owns what, who owes what. It'll be like when Neo first gets his "Matrix vision". And then, as the world's foremost financial shaman puts it, the money will burn in my head forever after.
July 14, 2008 5:44 AM

dollar kois by *orudorumagi11
Don't miss the dollar toilet bowl featured at Edgar's Toilet!


Koi Pond by *orudorumagi11

Happy Semi-Vegan Saturday and Sunday!

Well, I've been busy offline falling backwards (not forwards like Casey) into the bay today (fully clothed) and pondering a sweet deal sans functional toilet. Currently watching The Stranger for the umpteenth time...

Noodle Casserole by ~vickangaroo

Brought to you by Wagga: this intriguing recipe that may help Casey gain a few pounds!

Semi-vegan Veggie Casserole

1 lb. fresh white mushrooms.
2 tablespoons butter.
1 8-oz.box frozen green peas, thawed.
1 can Cream of Celery soup.
3/4 cup milk.
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese.
Salt & pepper to taste.
1/2 cup crushed potato chips.

Wash & slice mushrooms. Saute in butter until tender.
Stir in peas & continue to cook for 2 minutes.
Meanwhile blend remaining ingredients in well-greased baking dish (except for potato chips), then combine mushrooms & peas. Sprinkle with potato chip crumbs. Bake 30 minutes @ 350 degrees.

Serves 4-6

Vegan Variation:
Substitute olive oil for butter, build a roux with 1 1/2 tablespoons of
cornstarch or
flour whilst sauteeing the mushies to build body, quench with 3/4 cup of
water
(or white wine!), and substitute tofu for cheese.

Variation kc
Use Vegan Variation, pour 1/2 of combined mixture in baking dish. Add layer of shrimp, beef , chicken, pork, crab legs or all of the above.. Cover with remaining mixture. Sprinkle with potato chip crumbs. Bake in eight ovens until the power is turned off.

Salt Lake City Variation:
Make Standard Variation, pour 1/2 of combined mixture in baking dish. Add layer of 2759 pieces of Koi ( A type of fish). Cover with remaining
mixture.
Sprinkle with potato chip crumbs.
Bake at room temperature until the housing market recovers.

Comments.:
This Friday Staff lunch was (as always) well received.
It tastes good or you will be fired!
Peas with Pearl Onions are a good alternative.
The dish turned out a little watery with a slightly gray color. A little flour or cornstarch during the sautee would be good, & be careful not to brown the mushrooms much. I did. I somewhat overdid the ground black pepper - hurt the color, I should try white pepper & a schosh of sugar. Next time I will experiment with olives, onions & peppers, and, of course, canned Tuna or Salmon.

Stolen from: a Tamar Meyers novel. (Just Plain Pickled to Death)

my waffle song by ~Firecave
Woohoo!






Grooving further on the latch key kid 70's: