and a few other photos:

Chicago – New Orleans – Madrid – Seville – Barcelona – Madison – Denver – Hong Kong – Shanghai

The opportunity to “love one’s neighbor” [1] pops up constantly.

Recently, while flying west, a very tall young man, with rather elaborate hair sat in the exit row window seat, just a short distance from my small abode.

We began chatting and I learned that he – I’ll call him “Cecil” – has been playing basketball abroad for several years. This trip – flying west – would end up in Hong Kong, his next sports port of call.

I found the conversation fascinating. Cecil had a wonderful opportunity to see the world via a sport he loved. I asked how he compared the States to his various temporary homes?

“Well, the biggest difference I’ve seen is that people in Europe always greet strangers. I can’t count the times that someone has said “buenos dias” to me, a complete stranger. That does not happen in the USA.”

Subsequently, I have tried – tried to greet everyone.

Oh, he was reading this book.

[1] The greatest commandment.

“Let the peace of Christ rule your hearts”. The My Verse app delivers a daily verse to your Watch, iPhone or iPad.

Kyle Smith

The friendly catalog-based clothing retailer known for unimaginative (I say classic), rarely updated (I say tradition-minded), boxy (I say unconstraining) apparel is these days in the grip of a fashion-forward Italian CEO named Federica Marchionni, and here the error of Lands’ End’s current path becomes apparent. Lands’ End is based in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, and should not be run by an Italian, someone who is fashion-forward or, especially, someone named Federica. Lands’ End is as unpretentious as a Ford-150. It should be run by someone named Mitch or Phil, and, no, I do not mean Mitchell and especially not Phillippe. Marchionni is given to describing the company’s proudly fashion-backward line as “ugly” and asks in meetings, “Who would wear that?” Dark rumors abound that Lands’ End will be buying ads in the September issue of Vogue, that celebrity photographer Bruce Weber will be doing shoots for its products, that weird-looking asymmetrical dresses that appear to have been splattered with blood by abstract expressionists will be the new focus of the company’s line.

This is as dire a situation as Budweiser being bought by Belgians. Indeed, it’s far worse; it’s as though Budweiser stopped making beer and reintroduced itself as an appletini manufacturer. Marchionni, whose previous bonehead attempt to inject sophistication was to ally the brand with leftist politics, must be fired immediately before Lands’ End turns into some sort of hideous would-be Pucci of Wisconsin.

Change is hard. I know nothing about fashion…

Newsweek:

industry, which right now is the fundamental engine for most of the internet wealth and all the businesses from Google to Facebook. Their billions are coming basically from advertising. I think it’s going to be very ripe for destruction because, in a curious way when we have this abundance of materials, commodity, everything, just super abundance, that the only scarcity we have is human attention, which is limited.

Ideas with Paul Kennedy:

Postcapitalism: A Guide to our Future. He’s also the economics editor of Britain’s Channel 4 television news, and a regular contributor to The Guardian and The New Statesman. He counts himself among a growing number of thinkers, economists, writers and activists — who, while rejecting the well-worn notion of ‘a class struggle leading to a socialist revolution,’ nevertheless believe that a more equitable society is possible.

I had a rather interesting chat with the minister, who, it turns out, spent time in Madison some years ago.

St. Nicholas Church website. Wikipedia.

Speaking of Madison, a Mini Cooper sported the “W” in a nearby parking lot: