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Fallout

Wednesday, July 03, 2002

• TITLE: "Fallout" The fallout from the misconduct of senior executives at major corporations is continuing unabated.

• "... Bankrupt ..." Here's the etymology of "bankrupt" from Merriam-Webster's Unabridged:

  Etymology: modification (influenced by Latin ruptus) of Middle French & Old Italian; Middle French banqueroute), from Old Italian bancarotta), from banca) bank + rotta) broken, from Latin rupta), feminine of ruptus), past participle of rumpere) to break

  Cool, huh?

• "... Sunday NY Times ..." Here's the link to the NY Times article about AT&T and others trying to catch WorldCom's performance.

  Note: The New York Times requires a subscription - it's free, but you have to give them some info. If you don't want to do this because of their (and your) cultural bias, don't follow this link. If you do follow the link, don't e-mail me to whine about your not wanting to have the Times know anything about you.

• "... gross margins ..." From the investorwords.com website:

  Gross Margin: Gross income divided by net sales, expressed as a percentage.

  (to answer your next question): Gross income: Total invoice value of sales, before deducting for customer discounts, allowances, or returns.

  (to answer your next question: Net Sales:Gross sales minus returns, discounts, and allowances.

• "... Bizzaro ..." From the Batman-Superman.com webpage:

  An imperfect duplicate of Superman created by Lex Luthor. Using a stolen strand of Superman's DNA, Luthor developed his own "Superman", a prototype for a line of super-guardians available to the general public. By dialing 555-LEXX, a person in trouble could have one of Luthor's guardians rescue fly to their aid anytime of the day or night - for a price.

  Unfortunately for Lex, it didn't work. The cloning process was unstable and the Superman clone mutated in form and mind into a grotesque parody of the Man of Steel dubbed a "Bizzaro" by a horrified Metropolis. Possessing bits of the original Superman's memory, Bizzaro set about imitating Superman's heroic actions with disastrous results.

  Trying to save an old woman from being struck by a bus, Bizarro did not quickly fly the woman to safety as Superman would have done, but punched the bus, sending it and its thirty-odd passengers crashing into the river! Several more fiascoes of this sort led Bizarro into a showdown with the real Superman. Superman won the battle and placated Bizarro by giving him complete jurisdiction of the moon.

  Now Bizarro patrols the moon much the way Superman patrols Metropolis. Still, Bizarro operates on his own warped logic, and he could return at any time to again make life hard on Superman.

  The fact that he has a crush on Lois Lane doesn't help any, either.

• "... Nero Wolfe ..." A series of mysteries written by Rex Stout. The series started in 1934 with Fer-de-Lance , concluded in 1975 with A Family Affair, and 70 mysteries in between. Wolfe was a gourmand who weighed, according to the narrator of the novels, Archie Goodwin (who provides a counter, er, weight to Wolfe much as Watson provides to Conan Doyle's Holmes), about a seventh of a ton.
  
  
          World War I Poster

  
  

•     Mullings' Catchy Caption of the Day:
  

  
  More evidence that the President's
  popularity is slipping on all fronts.

  REUTERS/Win McNamee ____________________________________________________________________________________