The Not-So-Free Press 

I’ve been in the business of  selling newsletters by subscription since my Peace Corps days. The subscription business was always bigger than the general advertising business, but nobody knew it. When the internet became the thing around 2000, we changed from 90% paper to 90% digital in just a few years, but we continued with the subscription model because we realized it was perfect for digital marketing. And digital marketing was growing like crazy.

Since then, we’ve gradually seen our publishing competitors (newspapers and magazines) gradually shift from relying on advertising to subscription models.

The Wall Street Journal was one of the first major news sites to put up a “paywall” (as it’s called). Reuters, one of the world’s largest news publishers, is the latest.

According to an article from The Daily Upside that BK forwarded to me, they are relaunching their website to focus on business and financial news… and asking their readers to pay for it. (“It seems,” says BK, “like the media world is still trying to figure out what you guys figured out years ago.”)

After a “preview period” of 5 free articles a month, digital subscribers will pay $34.99. That’s what Bloomberg, Reuters’ main rival, has been charging – and Bloomberg expects to reach about 400,000 consumer subscriptions this year, up from 250,000 last year. The WSJ charges $38.99, and the NYT charges $18.42.

The article points out that “the ‘professional’ audience (aka, those with a corporate expense account) is a lucrative audience to target. And many publishers are beginning to see the value of stable subscription revenue…. In 2020, subscription news revenue grew 16% even as advertising revenues slumped heavily amid the pandemic. Overall, the subscription news economy has grown by nearly 500% in the past decade.”

To Buy or Not to Buy: Suzanne and I Compare Notes on 7 Paintings by Denis Nunez  

One of the fun things I like about collecting art with a partner is that you get to know one another’s preferences – generally and with respect to particular artists.

When Suzanne Snider and I are buying pieces of the most important modernist artists for our permanent collection, our preferences are almost always in total alignment. That’s because we have spent so many years studying these artists and their work that we know exactly what sort of images best represent them at various stages of their development.

It’s not so easy when choosing work by contemporary artists. These are living artists, few of whom have reached a level where they are traded by the large, international auction houses and collected by major international museums. In other words, there is no uniformity of opinion as to whose fame will endure and which of their styles and periods will be considered their best.

But that doesn’t stop us from forming our own opinions and having debates about the pros and cons of individual pieces.

Yesterday morning, Suzanne sent me 7 recently available pieces by Denis Nunez, a contemporary Nicaraguan artist that we’ve been keeping an eye on.

Rather than tell her, I asked her to guess which ones I liked (and might want to bid on) and which one I hated.

Here are the 7 pieces. (See if you agree with my favorites.)

Suzanne thought I would like #1, #2, #5, and #6. And knowing that I hate semi-abstract representations of attractive women, she guessed that I would hate #7.

She was very close. I liked #1, #2, and #6. And, yes, I hated #7.

From Letters of Note – “a reassuring reminder that 99.9% of people have at some point worried about, needed more of, and sometimes written awkward, angry, or amusing letters about, money.”

John O’Hara, letter to The New Yorker editor Harold Ross, 1939:

I want more money I want more money I want more money I want more money I want more money I want more money I want more money I want more money I want more money I want more money I want more money.

Edna St. Vincent Millay, letter to Poetry editor Harriet Monroe, March 1, 1918: 

Spring is here – and I could be very happy, except that I am broke. Would you mind paying me now instead of on publication for those so stunning verses of mine which you have? I am become very, very thin, and have taken to smoking Virginia tobacco.

Wistfully yours,

Edna St. Vincent Millay

P.S. I am awfully broke. Would you mind paying me a lot?

Dylan Thomas, letter to Purpose editor Desmond Hawkins, October 22, 1936: 

YOU PURPOSE PEAPOTS OWE ME A QUID FOR THOSE TWO POEMS. How are you? Try to remember to keep some lunch dates free for me when I come up to town in about a fortnight’s time. I’ve got some new poems and some new jokes and some new diseases, I’m feeling fine. A WHOLE POUND YOU PEAPOTS… MONEY, TINKLY MONEY, FOR GOD’S SAKE.

Robert Louis Stevenson (age 15), letter to his father, April 1866: 

Respected Paternal Relative:

I write to make a request of the most moderate nature. Every year I have cost you an enormous – nay, elephantine – sum of money for drugs and physician’s fees, and the most expensive time of the twelve months was March.

But this year the biting Oriental blasts, the howling tempests, and the general ailments of the human race have been successfully braved by yours truly.

Does not this deserve remuneration?

I appeal to your charity, I appeal to your generosity, I appeal to your justice, I appeal to your accounts, I appeal, in fine, to your purse.

My sense of generosity forbids the receipt of more – my sense of justice forbids the receipt of less – than half a crown.

Greeting from, Sir, your most affectionate and needy son.

British Naval Officer, letter to a creditor, 19th century: 

I am in receipt of your “Final Demand” for payment of my account. I have to inform you that my normal practice concerning the settlement of debts is to place all of my bills in a hat once a month, from which I draw out two or three for payment. I have followed this procedure with regard to your bill. However, if I receive another letter from you, Sir, the tone of which I consider to be rude, your bill will not be put in the hat at all.

How good are you at identifying common flowers? 

I’ve spent 5 years and a small fortune developing a botanical garden. That experience has taught me a good deal about trees and plants – so I foolishly thought, when I took this test, that I would do better than I did. I got only 4 right. How many can you identify?

8 Worthy Thoughts About First Love 

I have a special home in the city of my heart where my first love resides. I didn’t build it. At least, not consciously. I found it many years later.

My first love was not my greatest love. Or my most enduring love. That real estate belongs to K. But that first adolescent experience of loving was deep and affecting. It lifted me up and it brought me down harder than anything I had ever experienced as a child.

When I think of it now, which is not very often, it has a special significance that I cherish. It comes to me like a small gift from the past, something delicate and valuable, something fragile but enduring. As a memory, it’s a gentle souvenir of not just a cherished someone else but of the younger, more vulnerable person I once was.

Dr Mardy – I don’t know who he is, just that he publishes a blog on quotations – says, “Our memories of the past can be quite sketchy, but there is one thing almost all people vividly remember: the experience of first love. Whether it happened during the relative calm of childhood or, more commonly, during the turbulence surrounding early adolescence, the experience of a first love seems permanently etched in people’s memories. In old age, when so much has been forgotten, there it is, ready to be recalled and experienced, generally with great pleasure, and often with a hint of sadness.”

Here is a selection of quotations about first love that Dr. Mardy uncovered from the past:

* “The magic of first love is our ignorance that it can ever end.” – Benjamin Disraeli

* “How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics
so important a biological phenomenon as first love?” – Albert Einstein

* “Among all the many kinds of first love, that which begins in childish companionship is the strongest and most enduring.” – George Eliot

* “When first we fall in love, we feel that we know all there is to know about life, and perhaps we are right.” – Mignon Mclaughlin

* “First love is a momentous step in our emotional education, and in many ways, it shapes us forever.” – Laura Miller

* “First love is only a little foolishness and a lot of curiosity.” – George Bernard Shaw

* “The first experience can never be repeated. The first love, the first sunrise, the first South Sea Island are memories apart, and touched a virginity of sense.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

* “We always believe our first love to be our last, and our last love our first.” – George Whyte-Melville

Charges, No Charges –  You Decide 

Charges: 

An officer involved in a fatal shooting in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, will face charges of second-degree manslaughter, prosecutors announced. Twenty-year-old Daunte Wright, a Black resident of the Minneapolis suburb, was killed by officer Kim Potter during a traffic stop Sunday afternoon, April 11. Potter, a 26-year veteran of the force, claims she mistakenly pulled her gun instead of her taser as Wright attempted to flee. Experts say such mistakes are rare, with documented instances occurring about once a year.

No Charges:

The US Capitol Police officer who shot dead an Air Force veteran during the tumultuous events on January 6 will not be charged, the Department of Justice announced. Mark Schamel, a lawyer representing the officer, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement: “This is the only correct conclusion following the events of January 6. The lieutenant exercised professionalism and fantastic restraint in defending and protecting members of Congress.” Terrell Roberts, an attorney for the family, said, “I find it to be baffling given the circumstances that it’s a clear case of shooting an unarmed person without any legal justification, but I have no idea what went into their decision.”

In introducing Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan, some pundits explained that the actual cost would be nothing because of the “multiplying effect” on such programs – i.e., the programs would result in increasing the GDP by a factor of 4 to 5. That apparently has happened in the past. But will it happen again this time? Bill Bonner doubts it and, in this article, provides data that indicate it might have exactly the opposite effect.

Things You Can Do (or Could Have Done) in Nicaragua That You Couldn’t Do in the USA 

* Nearly die climbing a cliff you shouldn’t have climbed (because you are too stubborn to believe advice about how dangerous it is).

* Get a haircut for $3.

* Surf all year round in one of the best surfing destinations on the Pacific Ocean.

* Make a comfortable Nica-style living working as a part-time English teacher, yoga instructor, fitness trainer, or IT technician.

* Get your car stuck in the mud and have a local farmer haul it out with a team of oxen.

* Buy a small beachfront lot, in walking distance of a five-star resort, for $80,000.

* Have a four-course steak dinner at one of the best restaurants in one of the world’s “best preserved Spanish Colonial cities” for less than $10 per person, including wine.

* Hire a Spanish tutor for $5 an hour.

* Engage in small talk at a cocktail party in 3 or 4 different languages simultaneously.

* Buy a six-year-old an elementary school start-up kit, including a backpack, notebooks, pencils, pens, and a ruler for less than $20. Add a bespoke school uniform, new shoes, and a calculator for another $25.

* Encounter wild monkeys, rare birds, a boa constrictor, and even a puma on a nature walk within Rancho Santana’s 1,700+ acres of forested preserves.

* Travel (first on horseback and then by foot) through nearly 1,000 acres of dense forest to find the source of a river.

* Start your own craft brewery for less than $10,000.

* Get a massage for $15.

* Sponsor a kid’s college education, including tuition, transportation, and food, for $80 a month.

* Buy and build your very own cigar bar, on the beach, for less than $150,000.

* Be asked to judge the swimsuit competition of the Miss Nicaragua contest.

* Hire two full-time caretakers for your aging parent for less than $500 a month.

* Buy and build a quaint, four-cabin, bed-and-breakfast for $150,000.

* Meet personally with two of the country’s last three presidents.

* Hire a full-time housekeeper for $250 a month.

* Buy 1,700 acres of prime beachfront property for $400,000, divide it into several hundred lots, and sell just one of those lots, 20 years later, for $600,000.

* Watch an amazing sunset almost every single evening. (See below.)

3 Facts, 3 Numbers, 3 Thoughts 

THE FACTS

* A man was sent to jail for referring to his daughter as “she.” A British Columbia man was arrested for referring to his 16-year-old transgender child (who was born female but prefers male pronouns) as “she,” “her,” and “daughter” in an interview with The Federalist. He was charged with contempt of court for violating a gag order that had stated (among many other things) that he “shall not… publish or share information or documentation relating to [the child’s] sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation.” His “freedom of speech” defense failed.

* George Washington was one of America’s first entrepreneurs. Before he became president, believing that mules were the future of American farming, Washington decided to go into the mule-breeding business. There was one problem: Mules are bred by crossing a male donkey with a female horse – and the best donkeys came from Spain. The only way to export them legally required an order from Spain’s King Charles III, an expensive process that Washington bypassed by using his personal connections with influential people to get to the king. It took four years, but eventually paid off. Washington got his donkeys and successfully bred a large herd of what would ultimately become the draft animal of choice for the agricultural South.

* The Washington Post fabricated a Trump story and tried to cover it up. The words “find the fraud” made the rounds when the paper attributed them to Trump, along with claims that he told Georgia investigator Frances Watson that she would be a “national hero” for doing so. But it didn’t happen. WAPO quietly made the correction on March 11, saying the former president had been “misquoted.”

 THE NUMBERS

* $6.6 billion ‒ the net worth of rapper, fashion designer, and producer Kanye West. If true, this would make West the wealthiest Black man in American history. However, it is mostly based on a $4 billion valuation of his Yeezy shoe/apparel line, a calculation that (as pointed out by Forbes) is theoretical.

* $20 billion – the amount that Intel, the tech corporation, announced it will spend to erect two semiconductor chip factories in Arizona. This comes during a global chip shortage that China has attempted to capitalize on with factories of its own (in hopes of overtaking the US in production). Intel’s intention is to become a chip “foundry,” or manufacturing partner, for other chip companies, a market that it estimates will be worth $100 billion by 2025.

* $2.9 million – the amount of money that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s first-ever tweet sold for at auction. The tweet, which simply reads “just setting up my twttr,” turned 15 years old on the last day of bidding (March 21). Dorsey tweeted that he would convert the proceeds to Bitcoin and donate it to GiveDirectly, a charity for people living in extreme poverty in Africa.

THE THOUGHTS 

* “Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.” – Oscar Wilde

* “It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” ‒ Thomas Sowell

* “There are two types of confidence. Delusionary confidence, which comes from coddling, and genuine confidence, which comes from accomplishment.” ‒ Michael Masterson

Interesting Facts About the History of Wrestling 

Most of the following are from a series of columns written by the late Bob Dellinger, wrestling historian and former director of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

* Wrestling, mankind’s oldest and most basic form of recreational combat, traces its origins back to the dawn of civilization. Carvings and drawings estimated to be between 15,000 and 20,000 years old, found in caves in southern Europe, illustrate wrestlers in hold and leverage positions.

* Wrestling was the most popular event in the ancient Greek Games, and lists of Olympic wrestling winners have been recorded since 708 BC.

* One of the most famous of the Greek wrestlers was the philosopher Plato, who won many prizes for wrestling as a young man. His real name was Aristocles, but because of his success, he was given the name Plato, meaning “broad shoulders.”

* Wrestling clearly has no single point of origin. More than 160 traditional or “folk-lore” variants are recognized by the International Amateur Wrestling Federation.

* Wrestling has been popular in the Orient for at least 20 centuries. And in Europe, during the Middle Ages, it was considered a knightly skill.

* In both North and South America, Indians included wrestling in their sport activities long before Christopher Columbus set foot in the New World.

* At least 13 US presidents were wrestlers, including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt.

* Wrestling is one of only three sports mentioned in the Bible. (“And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.” – Genesis 32:24, King James) The other two are endurance running and boxing.