Frank Kogan

Match 1.3 - 1961-1963: Do you remember when things were really hummin’

Mr. Acker Bilk! https://t.co/x2DRAF0foR
Chubby Checker! https://t.co/fm0El5a4CU
Little Eva! https://t.co/pTTPfMdnbG
The Beatles! https://t.co/bzecth2mP9

— Tom Ewing (@tomewing) April 11, 2020

The Loco-motion will always be downgraded for its superfluous hyphen (also the reason why Spider-Man will never be a top tier hero in my book)

— Peter Baran (@pb14) April 11, 2020

It was a different time

— αℓαη тяєωαятнα ✍︎ (@alantrewartha) April 11, 2020

"I was glad I had seen the cars in this natural setting, which was, after all, a kind of Plato's Republic for teen-agers."
--Tom Wolfe, "There Goes (Varoom! Varoom!) That Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby," Esquire, 1963

— Frank Kogan (@koganbot) April 11, 2020

The Cars That Go Varoom?

— Tom Ewing (@tomewing) April 11, 2020

We're Tigra and Bunny, and we like Varoom!

— Frank Kogan (@koganbot) April 11, 2020

Also:

Match 1.3 - 1961-1963: Do you remember when things were really hummin’

Mr. Acker Bilk! https://t.co/x2DRAF0foR
Chubby Checker! https://t.co/fm0El5a4CU
Little Eva! https://t.co/pTTPfMdnbG
The Beatles! https://t.co/bzecth2mP9

— Tom Ewing (@tomewing) April 11, 2020

At age 10 I found the title "Please Please Me" tremendously disturbing; even when I finally figured out the verb things, it still seemed like an irritating unwanted disturbance, like the Beatles themselves.

— Frank Kogan (@koganbot) April 11, 2020

And:

Match 1.4: ‘63 into ‘64: I felt so happy I almost cried

The Crystals! https://t.co/96LESIuOJD
Millie! https://t.co/B2SyAJkQB9
The Kinks! https://t.co/Oyatd2qNXP
The Four Seasons! https://t.co/BqLfRfbm22

— Tom Ewing (@tomewing) April 11, 2020

And then eight years later when I became a Kinks fanatic and was excavating their early recordings, my brother felt utter disdain overhearing the lyric, "The only time I feel all right is by your side."

— Frank Kogan (@koganbot) April 11, 2020

If you're wondering where I picked up my hand gestures and facial mannerisms, my brother, Richard, is the culprit. He demonstrates them here; also talks about the debt and the economy.

My brother is about to be hired at OMB* as a Senior Counselor To The Director "or some such title." Richard says that "senior" means that he's the oldest. The director-to-be,** Peter Orszag, is reported to be a country music fan - this from the New York Times of November 18, 2008:

In a June 2007 appearance on CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight," Mr. Orszag's paraphrase of a country star's hit song disarmed Mr. Dobbs, who was unsuccessfully pushing Mr. Orszag, as the Congressional Budget Office director, to validate his own views that illegal immigrants impose high costs on taxpayers. "Well, Lou, as Toby Keith would say, that's not how it is," Mr. Orszag said. The host, taken aback by the unlikely allusion from the bespectacled economist, replied, "You rock on, Mr. Director!"

(But Orszag wasn't paraphrasing the song, he was quoting it exactly. The title itself, not to mention the refrain, is "That's Not How It Is" - Toby's best song, by the way, though it was never a single, let alone a hit.)

Richard will work in the Old Executive Office Building, which is part of the White House aggregation of buildings (the White House is flanked by the Old Executive Office Building and the U.S. Treasury, with tunnels connecting them all). He says this probably means he can't wear blue jeans to the office or walk around in his socks at work.

I hope no one holds against him the ignorant things I say on this livejournal when I'm trying to understand economics.

*Office of Management and Budget.

**Orszag and a bunch of other cabinet nominees are slated to be confirmed this afternoon.

My brother Richard writes:

It turns out, entirely to my surprise, that I am the Center's "featured analyst" for today!

I didn't even know that such a thing existed.

Richard Kogan
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

http://www.cbpp.org/staff/richard-kogan.htm

How a liberal think tank gets money:

It hasn't just survived, it has thrived. The center has grown into a $13 million-a-year operation with a staff of more than 80, affiliated organizations in 21 states and a small but growing international division. Its money comes from some of the country's blue-chip foundations, including Ford, Rockefeller, MacArthur, Casey, Packard and Mott.

Front page of today's Washington Post business section. My brother is mentioned by name:

A Powerhouse For The Poor

"They have a wonk for everything," says my Post colleague, Ruth Marcus, who says that she can get "any number that ever appeared in any federal budget document at any time of day" by calling the center's budget guru, Richard Kogan.