SWCAMBORNE

Happy Passover

“Next year in Jerusalem.”

This year in Maui.

In large states public education will always be mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

I borrowed underwater photographs from other people and put together this group of representative pictures.  Click here to see 49 photos on Flickr

Simon at the cleaning station

Photo by Ray P.

The fish were varied but not abundant.  There were eels and lobsters and octopi.  And one of my contributing photographers took a close up of a Garden Eel.

Garden Eel

I have posted a group of photos of the land part of the Codger dive trip to Utila on Flickr.  Click Here to See the Album.

The closest we got to a whale shark.

The Deep Blue Resort exceeded expectations.  The town of Utila was past the end of the road, rustic and exotic.

The Codger Ten.

The Codgers were, as usual, exceptionally simpatico travel companions.  Lets go to Fiji next year.  See 47 Photos

I spent a bit of time at airports getting home from Utila.  On one leg of the flight my friend Henry L. talked himself into “Executivo Classe” and another person in our traveling group worried that they would be bumped out if Henry were given a seat.  Henry, a life long Democrat, commented that this showed:

“The difference between Democrats and Republicans.  Democrats think that first class is infinitely expandable and Republicans know better.”

My daughter Rebecca is a structural engineer so I was thinking about how one could make money engineering roads.  I came up with the idea of 100 Year Roads and thought I was brilliant.  Politicians and road builders and construction unions would love it.  100 Year Roads Company would be differentiated from all of the other highway construction companies.  They would build roads that would last for generations.  The money would roll in.

It sounded great until Rebecca pointed out that the needs of society change so rapidly that it is almost impossible to design infrastructure that fills the communities needs thirty years out.  Hundred Year Roads would almost certainly be a bad investment.  Too bad because it would be a great marketing concept.

A nice stiff baseball cap is every mans dream.  On our trip to the Philippines last year we inadvertently came across the formula for a hat stiffening spray.  We then created a name and marketing campaign for the product.  It is called

Aussie Rules Hat Stiffener

The tag line is:

“Stiffer is Better”

And the spokesperson is:

A very hot Australian Womens Surfing Champion

If you want  to try marketing this idea contact me and I’ll license the secret formula to you.

A sunset across the lagoon.

The Deep Blue Resort from the dive boat.

Really a nice place to dive and stay

In Boulder Colorado last summer we ate at a very good restaurant on a night that they had a price fixe menu with wine pairings.  The wine was being poured by a young man who was a very specialized wine distributor.  He bought wine from small vineyards in the Piedmont area of Italy and sold it to fancy restaurants in Colorado and he was making a living at it.

I used to think that because of the internet, distribution was not a growth industry anymore.  And certainly when the producers or the consumers are huge they don’t need the services of a middleman so big distributors are dying.  Proctor and Gamble don’t need distributors.  And neither does Walmart.  But a small restaurant in Boulder Colorado that wants a unique wine list does.  And so does a small wine producer in the Piedmont.

Not just wine.  What about cheese from New Hampshire, specialty eggs from Georgia, bananas from Costa Rica.  In India they grow more than 30 types of rice.  As far as I know only one of them, Basmati, is distributed and promoted in the US.  If I was young and looking for a business to be in I’d seriously look at specialty distribution.  It has a low barrier to entry and very high potential rewards.

A sure sign of Spring is that Trader Joes has daffodils

$1.39 a dozen

from Canada