Some Things Never Change

Because it is Friday:

(From Hannah's tumblr; H/T DF)

A classic-- "The Wild Rover" performed by The Dubliners:



Then The Dubliners and "The Irish Rover":




Don't forget to clap along! :)

Today is Friday, the day I plan to finish the draft of my what-is-to-be my most widely read paper-- a white paper, to be exact. A white paper is a position paper. What am I taking a position on? Oh you'll never guess. I can't think if I've ever mentioned it before...

1031 EXCHANGES.

Oh yes. Please, contain your excitement. Although, really, I am excited. This paper is forcing me to write completely for a different audience: people who own trucking companies. Not academics. Not 10 second attention span news readers. My readers will be thousands of businessmen who do not fiddle faddle with politics and the he-said, she-said. They just want to know how the new laws and regulations are going to affect them. They want to sustain their business and be successful in the short and long-term. 

The trucking industry is getting hit hard these days, especially by the EPA. Do you know the trucking industry is the third largest employer of people in the country? And do you know that 7 percent of trucking companies have gone bankrupt in the past three years? And do you further know that if companies do 1031 exchanges, they do not have to pay one cent in taxes on their like-kind exchanged goods? 1031 exchanges have been around since 1921 but when the economy is good, people are not always looking for ways to save. And that's where my white paper comes in; it's going to be issued to thousands of trucking company owners and their financial advisers, giving them the ins and outs of 1031 exchanges, which is better known in real estate circles.

So that's what I've been working on the past month.

I've also been listening and watching things like this: I love, love, love how this little kid conducting Beethoven-- he gets so excited! (And sometimes stays on beat, too):





Also, the testimony of these two collegians is so encouraging and beautiful:



St. Mary's - College Station, TX from OneBillionStories.com on Vimeo.


(H/Ts to Aggie Catholic)


Today marks one week and a day until half a Baker's Dozen Hillsdale people descend on my house for B and Z's wedding...! I've been dress shopping, because I have another Kappa wedding in December, so DF and I have been pursuing the good and the beautiful at J.Crew. The colors we like best are "spiced wine" and "vintage blue." Something like this:

or this:

Not terribly exciting, I know, but decisions, decisions...

Happy Friday!