Compelling reason for a salary cap

Ostensibly, this is a genuine receipt for a genuine meal eaten at a genuine restaurant in New York City. The meal was for six people, lunch, paid for by Russian billionaire, Roman Abramovich.  I think the image will blow up if you click on it, but if it doesn't, or you don't want to, know that the total is $47,221.09.

Of course, that includes a $7,300 tip (that's one food service job I could imagine taking).  And they whooped up that meal, with 7 bottles of wine for 6 people (rounded on the receipt to a simple $5,000 a bottle).  So it was clearly some kind of celebration, worth spending a bit extra on. (If they'd limited themselves to 2 bottles of wine, and stiffed the wait staff for a mere 15%, the lunch would have cost a mere $14K, roughly. Tsk tsk, the direct costs of louche behavior. If they skipped wine and drank only water -- at $12 a bottle -- lunch for six would have cost a prohibition-friendly pittance of $2,275.)

The receipt/report is currently viral on the Interweb. I got it from TYWKIWDBI, who got it from Buzzfeed, who in turn seems to have gotten it from someone's personal blog.  So I'm aiding the spread of its viralicity by posting here. Pandemics everywhere you look.

Mostly, it leaves me speechless, thinking of the Gilded Age and Edith Wharton novels. Of course, it may not be genuine as reported.  And a USA salary cap would not affect Russian billionaires, presumably (although I'll bet there are some out there who argue that a cap would destroy the global economy, and thus no more Russian billionaires, either).  And, note that there was a heinous $3250 paid in unfair taxes to evil government.

Think how this kind of excess is good for the economy.  The wait staff got a chunk o'money (but not much more than the cost of a bottle of wine), and any restaurant that is selling "large water" for $12 is clearly making a profit. This is simply tourism dollars being earned. See how the free market system works!

The Wonder of a Cross-cut Shredder

Ever since I became a sole-proprietorship company, my junk mail has increased threefold. Not only do I get offers of credit cards for myself, and credit cards for the company (my employees), I get two or three offers a week for company-related materials: calendars with my logo on them, pens with my company name, business cards, t-shirts, subcontractors, etc. etc. etc. The good news is that I have a really cool time management calendar for next year (free), and a nifty pen (also free).

Anyway, I finally bought myself a shredder. I have been fearing that one of these nights, one of the out-of-system homeless people who systematically go through our recycling every week will get paid a tidy sum to pick some mail out of the trash and hand it to someone who has the resources to steal my identity or my company's identity. And the shredder is great. I got one that does credit cards and CDs too -- so the credit card offers can go to the abattoir without even opening the envelope, and if I ever decide to throw out my backup CDs and DVDs, I know there will be nothing to be stolen off of them.

I finally orchestrated and managed and reinvested my IRA monies today. It has required serious attention, and quelling of deep panic -- on the one hand, I have so little, if I make a grave mistake and invest in a mutual fund that resides metaphorically on the San Andreas Fault of Mutual Fund, California, I haven't really changed my retirement situation substantially. On the other hand, I have so little I don't want to lose another cent. Yes, I do have a little tidying up left for tomorrow, one more set of shares in another mutual fund to resolve, but *sigh* it is essentially done.

I celebrated by shredding 7 years of monthly statements of the funds I used to own (and which were not gaining much at all). On a statement dated February 2002, I found a stickie note to myself: "Consider re-distributing dollars in money market." That's a 5-year record I hope never to break.

This photo was taken by Molly last week, in the afternoon sun on the porch, before the rains started. Now that I've got the research and the big decisions behind me, and if the rains recede for a few days, we can return to getting projects done around the house. Thru these rainy days, Andrew has been working similarly on deep-cleaning his studio, and rearranging it so that he can return to the paint-making and mixing for the dining room mural. Soon, soon...