Petesophizing...

Gary Vaynerchuk reviewing a bottle of red wine, the 2004 Razon Valascro:

hit a deer on the road...let it fall down....throw a bunch of cherries on it...take out your knife that you always have on you....cut the deer....bite it....that's the flavor profile

Pretty much accidentally I spent four years as a work-study student at Northwestern's Department of Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences. The professors there were "high quant" types, game theorists, and the department had a wonderful, international reputation, as did the entire business school during the MBA-crazed years 1980-84.

Once, one of the professors said to me, "Peter, you see that guy over there? He'll win the Nobel Prize for sure, if cigarettes don't get him first." It was Robert E. Lucas, who was a visiting professor from the U. of Chicago. He did indeed win the Nobel, in 1995, and happily he's still going strong (though coughing on a recent podcast available on EconTalk).

This week the Nobel went to Roger Myerson, whose office was a few feet away from the desk where I answered phones and did light office work. I didn't know him well, though I probably said hello to him several days a week for four years. I remember him as extremely shy, but kind--the picture of a professor with an obsessional attachment to his work, but notes of humor about himself.

It's great to see he now writes about electoral procedures, corruption, and the Iraq War, in addition to his more theoretical books and papers.

Photo by OmniNeon.

Tom Haudricourt writes today in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 10 Reasons The Brewers Lost The NL Central. Reason Number 1: "Blowing Leads". I could read no more. How do you get that writing gig?

Speaking of begging the question, I'm begging for questions.

What effect does having the figure of a lovable loser as the voice of the Brewers have on performance? I'm speaking of course about Bob Uecker, a constant presence over decades of flapping and flopping. Couldn't some pop psychologist address this? Ned Yost clearly exhibits some kind of self-defeating personality traits. Is he afraid that by winning he'll lose the love of Brewers fans?

This year's team couldn't hold a lead in the eighth and ninth innings, right after the Sausage Race (run during the seventh inning stretch). Does the Sausage Race carry a powerful secondary meaning like "we're idiots?"

Wait a minute, strike that. I see this year's team posted the best home W-L record in the Majors.

Does the Sausage Race carry a powerful secondary meaning like "WIENIES UP"?

And how do we duplicate that on the road?

Photo by compujeramey.