The Wire shout out

Sudhir Venkatesh, the guy profiled in Freakonomics for spending time with street gangs in Chicago for grad student work, recently fielded questions from readers of the Freakonomics blog.

Q: Do you think the HBO series The Wire gives an accurate portrayal of gang life? It is clear from the show (if it is as real as it seems) that traditional policing strategies are very ineffective.

A: I am a huge fan of The Wire. I actually watched Season Two with a group of high ranking gang leaders/drug dealers in Chicago, who desperately wished that the series producers would make a separate show about Chicago! Everyone in the room agreed that the writers did well to show the nuances in the underground economy.

Remember, season two was with the white people. Of course, the gritty accuracy was not good enough to get an Emmy nomination...

East Village Scene

On CraigsList, via DealBreaker:

Anyway, you brushed by me as I approached the bar--you looked up at me and said "hi, how are you?" I said, "Oh, you know, pretty good, closed an industry-changing M&A deal today. It's likely to double my bonus." Your reaction was not what I expected. I know that inside, you were indeed impressed, but the look on your face didn't quite evince the same sentiment. This, of course, caused me to panic. I quickly retrieved the BlackBerry from its plastic hip holster and began to type furiously. Being engaged in an important email discussion with several important Industry Leaders and DealMakers, I had no time to engage in further human contact. But that's too bad--maybe you could have saved me from this soul-destroying life that I've become hopelessly lost in.

DealBreaker also quoted Ben's article, quoting Ken Langone, re: private equity. He said it was the most clicked article that day. Why? Maybe it has to do with the subtitle - "...Home Depot's co-founder says private equity is pretty simple, 'kind of like sex'"