Friday's child is loving and giving

In the spirit of Friday's child, then, let me give you each a few links.

The task of a link farm is both to amuse and to instruct.

First, under amusement, The Onion explains that there is a way to wipe out the US national debt. Hail, Octavia! William Wolfrum finally settles the "birth certificate" matter exhaustively. And Comedy Zone collects some vintage Woody Allen quotes.

Second, under instruction. Sam Antar, the former CFO of Crazy Eddie and in that capacity a crook, has turned to warning about white-collar crime, on the principle that "it takes one to know one" or something. Here is what he has to say about the internet retailer, Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK). Meanwhile, Rolling Stone tells us that Guitar Hero has a David Lee Roth dominated understanding of Van Halen. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. lost about $3.4 billion in the first half of 2009, and Murdoch takes this as evidence that information wants to be more expensive.

Thirdly, some links both amuse and instruct in equal measure. The CJR explained back in June that reporters should not be content to live and die like gerbils. That was well in advance of the appearance of a movie establishing that gerbils are really spies. Finally, Doonesbury sets us right about politicans and their affairs.

Music

With a friend's encouragement, I went this weekend to a performance of two classically trained guitarists, Mark and Beverly Davis.

They performed a wide range of folks songs, some from the British isles, some from Spain ... some recent compositions inspired by Chinese poetry.

It was excellently done. Here's a plug for them, accordingly.

There's a CD of their material, Ayres and Dances for Two Guitars, recorded by Signature Sounds, Pomfret, CT. You can order it through the following website:

www.markmdavis.com