In Which the Mayoress Reveals Her Platform

I woke up at 6:30am today, a Sunday, and found myself mentally summarizing my stance on every issue.  I know, what?

So, in the tradition of Sunday morning punditry, Meet the Pressler:

In Which the Mayoress Uses a Metaphor

Seriously, guys - I don't think anyone knows how to fix Wall Street.  Further, if anyone did know, the system of our elected officials needing to raise a trillion dollars for every election sort of precludes them from reigning in the industry that supplies a huge proportion of that funding, right?  More on that here.

It just occurred to me that my last encounter with a finance guy more or less sums up the past two years in the American economy: after a drunken evening we returned to Goldman Partner's ostentatiously large Tribeca penthouse where he started off promisingly then fell asleep at the wheel.  Next day: dismissive text not acknowledging the fail. 

Indicative, right?

Facebook & Privacy

I posted this article on my FB page yesterday (general summary: "If you’re going to do stupid shit, make sure you do it without cameras present. If you’re an idiot, and let cameras in, or if you get drunk and tweet, THIS ISN’T FACEBOOK’S FAULT.") and liked the debate that ensued.

Here you go. Ross gets italics so you can get a sense of his British accent.

That's a Pretty New Arts Degree You Have

It may be too late for the class of '10 and those of us who chose this insane career path out of love for the arts, but maybe those high schoolers out there whose parents haven't blocked access to my blog can be forewarned (thanks to Thomas Cott for the tip):

Arts majors have three of the Top 10 lowest-earning college degrees

Posted on Yahoo.com's HotJobs website

There's no denying the value of a college education: According to recent U.S. Census surveys, the median salary for college grads is more than $20,000 higher than that of people with only a high school diploma. And the unemployment rate for people with bachelor's degrees is almost half the rate for people without. But some degrees are worth more than others, as PayScale.com shows in its 2010 report on the earning power of bachelor's degrees. No surprise, engineering degrees continue to be top earners -- and (also no big shocker) you have to go pretty far down the list before you see the liberal arts well represented. But there's more to choosing a major than comparing dollar amounts. We salute and congratulate the graduates whose interests (and hard work) have led them to the following degrees -- the lowest-earning degrees on PayScale's list:

#10. Drama (starting annual salary: $35,600; mid-career annual salary: $56,600)
# 9. Fine arts (starting annual salary: $35,800; mid-career annual salary: $56,300)
# 8. Hospitality and tourism

# 7. Education

# 6. Horticulture

# 5. Spanish

# 4. Music (starting annual salary: $34,000; mid-career annual salary: $52,000)
# 3. Theology

# 2. Elementary education

# 1. Social work

Today in Sports

Football
Can someone explain to me why they didn't release Invictus this year instead of '09? It seems obvious, what with the World Cup being this year AND in South Africa. Marketing slam dunk. I mean, goal. My best guess is because it's too unrealistic that SA would win the World Cup. Let's be honest.

Basketball
Why is it just now the Eastern/Western Conference Finals? When I was your age, the final-finals were the first week of April. I remember because that's when I wore my Clyde the Glide Bart shirt in 7th grade that Fox soon pulled because the maker didn't have rights to reproduce Simpsons images. This was before eBay, clearly.

Baseball
I met some lovely gentlemen from the Panama Metro baseball team this weekend. As you probably already know, they are currently in game 4 of the national championship playing against Bocas del Toro, who haven't been in the finals since 1960. It's a regular Yankees-Red Sox '04 situation! Panama Metro was expected to sweep but Bocas took it in game 3, which I'm sure has absolutely nothing to do with my meeting and drinking with the players the previous night.

Are We Obsessed with Happiness?

Something hasn't been sitting well lately. The older I get the more I feel like I need to have accomplished, and everything around me seems to reflect this puzzling message, when shouldn't we have figured out more as we age, not less? And as a result, be more content, joyful, even... gasp! Happy??

Apparently I'm not alone.

Cartoons = Death

Well, well, well. Guess who's pissed at South Park again? I'm not going to go deep on this one because I don't want to be on any extremist's shit list and because other people are already explaining the ridiculousness better than I could, but I think you can all imagine where I stand on this issue.

Note to Mohommed of Revolution Muslim:
a) American are not "more worried about missing their favorite TV show than they are about the world," we're worried about our DVR not recording it.
b) Triscuits? Come ON. Cheez-its 4eva.

Wall Street: We Are All Fucked

Yesterday Obama gave a speech urging Wall Street to behave better. Right. Good luck getting people to make less money, have a harder time making the same amount of money, or any other such strategy. This is not a time for kumbaya, it's time to make some tough laws and Wall Street can deal with it.

Of course, since finance pretty much runs the show in capitalist America, it's pretty unlikely that anything significant will happen, or at least with significant support. Take New York, for instance. Every reader of this blog knows where our dear mayor gets his billions, and it ain't taxpayer money. There is zero incentive for local or even state support for finance regulation. Word is that Senator Schumer is being pretty cool about it, but definitely not Paterson.

Obama: this isn't health care where it makes sense to try to get everyone to agree. Lay it down and make the banks get it together. (For now, until they figure out the next way to defraud us.)

NY Times Social Q's Sucks

I love advice columns. LOOOOVE. If I could write one I'd be the happiest clam in the raw bar plateau. But I don't. So I'll critique.

Today I finally realized what doesn't sit right with me about the relatively new New York Times Style column "Social Q's." The advice tries harder to be cute than to be helpful. But more than that, Philip Galanes only (kinda) answers the questions asked (he's too busy making cute pronouncements rather than sticking to the story, much like how Family Guy hides behind non sequiturs while South Park artfully works its points into the plot), unlike The Divine Dan Savage, who not only fully answers the query at hand but provides teachable moments for all of us, whether we can relate to the exact issue described. THAT is how a good advice columnist advises.

What's Your Ideal NYC Neighborhood?

Check this out! As part of their neighborhoods issue, New York magazine has this cool tool for finding your perfect hood match based on several lifestyle factors. Perfect for me since I'm apt hunting... and if I just look at the green results, which are for Brooklyn, it's pretty accurate to where I'm already looking. Nice job NY Mag!

LOL from The Onion

Shout outs to Brad Holbrook (anchor) and JJ Adler (director), both clients of Pressler Collaborative!


Man Attempts To Assassinate Obama, 'But Not Because He's Black Or Anything'

Erin Reads My Blog

Last night Erin mentioned that she reads my blog, which was super flattering. I was genuinely surprised as I have no idea who, if anyone reads this, and Erin is one busy lady! So thanks Erin, for the inspiration to post more regularly.

If you guys ever have ideas, articles, etc for Meet the Pressler - PLEASE let me know and I will do a corresponding post!