Better than Christmas

Arpad, shown here with booty from a past hunting season, is a firm believer in the generosity of the universe.

It's getting to be the favorite season of Arpad, Great Pyrenees and chief of security at Goat Rope Farm. From his perspective, it's way better than Christmas.

Instead of just one Santa Claus, the woods this time of year are full of gift bearers armed with hunting rifles, shotguns, and bows who seem to come for the express purpose of leaving offerings for the lucky canine.

At this time of year (and through the winter) he is apt to disappear on foraging runs and emerge from the woods with any number of hides, bones, or internal organs of dead deer.

I noticed the official opening of his blessed season this weekend when he showed up with a dirty snout and no interest in his regular food. I can hardly wait to see what he drags home next.

STIGLITZ ON THE GLOBAL PROTESTS. Here's a Nobel laureate on the protest movements that have swept the world this year.

Sneak preview:

...unfettered markets lead to economic and political crises. Markets work the way they should only when they operate within a framework of appropriate government regulations; and that framework can be erected only in a democracy that reflects the general interest – not the interests of the 1%. The best government that money can buy is no longer good enough.

MAD MEN AND NOSTALGIA discussed here.

THIS IS THE BRAIN on cooperation.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED