It absolutely is a violation, called "registration parking." A broker-dealer can only maintain the registrations of people who are associated with it AND acting in the capacity in which registered. While part-time work is perfectly legal, and it still would need to be a bona fide working relationship. Your paying for the privilege of being registered would be a great piece of evidence that it wasn't a bona fide relationship.

(And I am not your... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 12:22 PM on August 7, 2008

The above is correct generically, but don't forget that many MPs have earned and honorary distinctions personal to them which would alter or supplement how they are properly addressed in writing. Ask someone English (and polished) should your MPs bio page disclose any of these!
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 6:05 AM on August 3, 2008 marked best answer

You have nothing to worry about, because she has moved at least as far beyond you as you have her.

The reason why she "freaked out and ceased all contact with you" wasn't out of grief or anger that she would have nurtured for years and now wish to express flamboyantly.

It was because flakey-with-friends, life-of-the-party people like that are very superficial in their connections with anyone who isn't amusing to them right now, and... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 11:05 AM on August 1, 2008

...which means that anything she does to be fabulous at this party will be 100% about her and 0% about you ... and thus not to be taken personally.
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 11:06 AM on August 1, 2008

I want to second what zippy said. While there seem like good reasons not to fight to keep this particular client, you should certainly worry about why any 15-year client wanted to leave in the first place. In a competitive service business, your entire profit margin depends upon veteran customers, given the costs and uncertainties of selling new business.
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 5:54 PM on July 26, 2008

IANAIPL (I am not an IP lawyer), but:

Infringement is not the solution, particularly when there's so long a paper trail of your acknowledging the primacy of his copyright over your trademark rights. (Without your history of licensing you might have had some interesting IP arguments to make.)

Part A of a solution: resolve to repaint your awning. As painful as it may be partially to rebrand, you are never going to dig yourself out of the hole of... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 5:40 PM on July 21, 2008

By the way, you still need at least a quick consultation with a lawyer to make sure that the agreement with the repaint artist, or the buyout agreement with the original artist, effectively transfers the copyright to you. Artists and photographers have their own standard form agreements which they like but which can be tricky in terms of retaining some economic rights (or, worse, "moral" rights) in their work.
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 5:43 PM on July 21, 2008

WordPerfect has held on to the extent it has (and I think you overstate that extent, based upon the prevalence of Word documents I get from law firms) because in principle one never sits down to draft an agreement or pleading from a clean sheet of paper. You always start with a "model" (a past agreement or pleading) and adopt it. This can perpetuate documents, and their word processing file formats, in an evolutionary form for literally decades.

Legal... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 6:52 AM on July 17, 2008 marked best answer

You needed a lawyer the first time you talked to the company's lawyer -- who wasn't representing you, and was taking notes that in all likelihood will be handed over to the SEC and any other law enforcement agency that asks.

You now really need a lawyer. You will need to put down a serious retainer but you will get it back if you don't use the time. The time will be $500+ an hour if the lawyer is qualified. And worth every penny.
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 5:05 PM on July 14, 2008

6'2" and 200 pounds are basically ideal proportions in terms of standard business attire (if not for overstyled euro slimsuits), and a longer torso is one of the two basic fitting issues (the other being sloping or narrow shoulders) for height-weight proportionate men, which any competent suit salesperson and his tailor can address for you.

That said, probably the most important rule is that when it comes to men's business attire: there's no shabby chic and there is... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 9:10 AM on July 14, 2008

Tell us more about this "personal project." You say it won't earn out, yet it is "related" to your work. If by "related" you mean that you can reasonably expect to enhance your earnings, it may be worth it -- a long-term earn out. The interest rates and non-deductibility of the interest make credit cards an expensive source of educational capital, but that doesn't mean that they are always too expensive.
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 3:49 PM on July 13, 2008

This isn't a huge issue to worry about. In the copyright context, time-order of creation is way down on the list of things people argue about. Most important is who has the right to use a work whose creation and creator are undisputed (sale, licensing and work-for-hire issues), what degree of use and adaptation is fair use and is not, and what is copyrightable in the first place (certain common themes and devices are not copyrightable).
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 9:00 AM on July 13, 2008

If she's like most first-time novelists, even with major imprints, she's about to embark on a long author's tour under less than luxurious circumstances.

Something that eases the pain of that kind of travel might really hit the spot.

Depending on your budget, you might consider:

* high-end noise filtering headphones,

* a portable DVD player (less annoying and battery-straining than playing... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 9:47 AM on July 11, 2008

You should not mention it in your application package (cover letter, resume, other required materials) simply because it is not a qualification. If there will be many applicants to this job, anything in your package which raises potential disqualifications, even if only to rebut them as such, will simply make it easier to hit the delete key on you.

However, I strongly disagree that the gap will never come up. While it is short, it is... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 6:33 AM on July 4, 2008

The whole point of the power of attorney is that you can sign in your grandmother's name -- so she takes the loan and not you. Similarly, it gives you the ability to write checks on her bank account, etc.

A reverse mortgage isn't a bad idea in principle, but they are very expensive, and if your mother is near death they aren't any kind of long-term solution, since her death will mature the obligations and might force a sale under very unfavorable... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 5:55 AM on July 4, 2008

sell the second house. Hopefully you aren't having to sell your pockets!
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 5:56 AM on July 4, 2008

In all likelihood, COBRA is your best bet. For the same quality of coverage (amount of coverage, deductibles, exclusions, network, etc.) group is always cheaper than individual. The only way an individual premium will be lower than your COBRA is if the quality is worse -- probably much worse. Having a history of claims can only make it worse.

However, you still may be able to come out ahead with private if there are certain aspects of the group plan you can give up.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 4:36 AM on June 29, 2008

People who slam the slow progress in "responsibility" at BIGLAW either don't know what BIGLAW does or think what BIGLAW does is unimportant. If you know, and regard as socially and economically important, the kinds of deals and cases that BIGLAW handles, you will know that it takes a number of years of learning and experience to be able to run one properly, just like it takes many years of criminal experience to (for example) first chair a capital murder or a RICO case. Because of... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 2:41 PM on June 28, 2008

Don't just look at public schools! Many of the best private schools have large financial aid budgets, and work overtime to find deserving smart kids who will attend for a tiny fraction of the $50k+ average tuition plus contribution of full-fare families.

Another important reason to consider going private: if your daughter isn't an ace test-taker, her chances of getting into Stuyvesant are minimal, and I believe that Hunter actually admits at the 7th... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 3:07 AM on June 24, 2008

Don't go too far in the other direction. People do fulfill emotional needs their partners can't provide for on their own and do do practical things for their partners (and for others to whom their partners are obliged) that their partners can't do, or do as easily or as well, themselves.

However (and perhaps somewhat contra twirlypen) some of these needs aren't going to be obviously mutual or collective, and certainly you can't have an accounting that... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 7:53 AM on June 19, 2008

If immersion isn't practical for you right now, or your skills are too deficient to make much use of an immersion-light approach, consider enrolling in a good college foreign language program as an extension or non-matriculated student.

A program like that should have at least five hours of classroom time and several hours of required language lab time a week. Unlike the total joke that it is the standard secondary school / high school foreign language instruction... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 9:16 AM on June 18, 2008

First, the market size who can't get their business done in customary hours is even smaller than the raw numbers of 9-5 workers (which is itself a minority of the consumer population. Many 9-5 workers have spouses or other people to run their errands for them and/or are free to take time off to attend to problems. Quite rationally, they prefer to have their spouse do, or to do it the expense of their company, than to do it themselves at the expense of their personal free time.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 8:55 AM on June 18, 2008

You need to be very careful with any deal whereby the seller (in effect) refunds you part of the purchase price.

First of all, in the short sale context that value that the seller is giving you (the boat, car, appliances) is value that he is presumably representing to his mortgage lender he doesn't have the ability practically to give. Indeed, he may be hiding those assets from his lender so that the it will accept his short sale proposal in the first place. Were... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 5:31 AM on June 14, 2008 marked best answer

I should say about appliances, that it really only applies to appliances of material value which are not customarily included in a sale -- which, come to think of it, doesn't leave many appliances left.
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 5:33 AM on June 14, 2008

New York is (perhaps?) unusual in that there are two huge projects -- the Chelsea projects, and the Amsterdam projects near Lincoln Center -- which are in ultra-prime neighborhoods. There are non-project buildings 100 feet away in every direction where condos sell for $5 million and apartments rent for $10,000 a month.

Those projects create some interesting features and challenges from a standpoint of public service, retail landscape, and law enforcement.
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 5:14 AM on June 14, 2008

While you shouldn't ignore it, there may not be much you can do to keep from occasionally recurring.

The basic problem is that there isn't one collector or one bad debt -- there are many of each. Every time your same-name-deadbeat defaults on a new obligation, and every time an old defaulted claim is sold or transfered, there's a new person, office, and/or company assigned to the debt, and your history of complaints and corrections is either ignored or not even... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 7:50 AM on June 11, 2008

Insurance like this is very unlikely to be worthwhile -- the premiums will be massive relative to the benefits, or the exclusions so broad as to make few claims allowed.

This isn't a conspiracy: any policy like this is going to suffer so severely from adverse selection (the tendency for people to buy policies when they expect to have a claim) that it would be hard for it ever to pay off were the coverage in any way generous.

What's funny is... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 1:26 PM on June 4, 2008

You need to distinguish economics from ideology.

While there many different ideologies which apply and misapply economics, there is surprisingly little partisanship among economists when they do economics. Agreement tends to be widespread on the core mechanics of the creation and transmission of wealth, while controversy tends to focus on theories which underly the mechanics and epiphenomena around them. Most importantly, you will never predict what a PhD economist... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 10:16 AM on May 31, 2008

You could certainly fight penalties were any assessed (as opposed to interest) and you could also ask for a payment plan if it would be hardship to pay the full amount now, but the deferred amounts would bear interest.
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 5:07 PM on May 30, 2008

"Green to gold" programs which encourage clerical , production, and support employees to demonstrate potential and interest in professional or managerial careers, and provides the promising candidates the education and/or experience needed to transition.

A limo service and/or nearby hotel account privilege for people working exceptionally long hours -- pretty common in New York, Chicago and Washington where people often commute by mass transit, but to my mind... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 5:01 PM on May 30, 2008

I do not recognize the credential, and moreover I have never seen it on a resume that I recall. And I see a lot of resumes. This makes me dubious.

I'm a tad skeptical that reputable MBA programs would award any kind of credit in lieu of coursework for this kind of credential, given that I'm not aware of (for example) any such credit being awarded for the significant work and test hurdles required to get the CPA or CFA.
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 11:46 AM on May 27, 2008

If by "competitive" you mean a scholarship of $25,000 or $30,000 a year, than by all means go unless you're giving up some great opportunities to do so. St. John's is an entirely respectable law school whose graduates immediately (if they have very high grades) or eventually (if they work hard and prove themselves great lawyers) establish fine careers in New York. The school is off the beaten path in Queens, but that's not a bad thing: fewer distractions, cheaper cost of living.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 4:47 AM on May 26, 2008 marked best answer

This is a basic question for corporate strategy, so it is going to have as unlimited a set of answers as "how do Presidential candidates generally seek to get 280 electoral votes."

I think that most of the approaches fall into two basic baskets: analogy and survey.

Analogy: the analyst looks at the history and present practice of the company and peers and identifies successful changes and initiatives which he argues are comparable in... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 4:31 AM on May 26, 2008 marked best answer

You should not bail. With the low miles you drive, your energy and (potentially) depreciation savings from swapping to a more efficient car will never make up the cost of buying the new car and making your Explorer loan whole.

The environmental impact of the swap would be perverse. You'd move your low-efficiency Explorer to someone who would put more miles on it and you'd take the high-efficiency replacement out of the hands of someone who'd put more miles on it than... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 9:35 AM on May 23, 2008

Many iconic images from movies never appear in the movie because they aren't literally from the movie.

They were instead shot on an ordinary camera by the set's still photographer. The 24 fps shooting of the actual movie camera doesn't produce ideal still photos from a technical perspective, and that's to say nothing about the actual set-up of a shot being right from a movie perspective but not framed or lit right for the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 5:02 AM on May 22, 2008

Barron's is a great weekly resource for what's happening in the markets, very accessible to and useful for the individual, but sophisticated enough to be useful and influential to professionals as well.
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 1:51 PM on May 21, 2008

I grew up in bucolic small town in California and have been in New York for ten years and doubt I'll leave.

With that said, I must say that the only people who stay working or living here happily are those who have a compelling reason to be here above anywhere else: the center of mass of their friends and family; work that can be done only here or is better paid or easier to get here than elsewhere; or some kind of truly absorbing hobby which is at... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 1:29 PM on May 20, 2008

Unemployment eligibility requires that you be involuntarily unemployed and actively seeking equivalent work. Your plan would seem to fail both legs of that analysis, and badly enough that you might even be singled out for rough handling for submitting a bad-faith application.

The only way through I could imagine it would work (and IANYL, of course) is if the new offer letter forces you to waive important rights you now have or in other ways makes the new job... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 12:23 PM on May 20, 2008

You need an expert -- and not just any expert, but an expert in North Carolina judicial elections.

Every state with judicial elections has a unique package of laws and legal ethics rules that govern how candidates can raise money, how their supporters can raise money (often different in the two cases), and what candidates or their supporters (ditto) can promise in terms of future conduct on the bench. As a general matter, these rules bear only an incidental... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 3:29 PM on May 18, 2008

Unless there's some kind of "fun in New York" angle here, your sister should ask for at least $800 a week. She simply breaks the mold on virtually every dimension. (One regularly pays $650 a week for someone with good references and a real love for kids, and for that goes without the driver license, college degree, and native-English-speaking that your sister offers.)

She shouldn't discount for being provided a place or for having some groceries bought.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 3:20 PM on May 18, 2008

Do you actually like these people in spite of their flaws, or do their flaws cause you to dislike them? If the latter, there's no law about how often you have to see them.

That said, more isolation than you'd otherwise prefer is no solution. There isn't one thing that your relatives do or believe that infintely more influential peers on the schoolyard won't do or believe, and lead your kids into doing and believing, unless you arm them with values, prudence and... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 2:56 PM on May 6, 2008

Be cool. You've asked for the job as best you could, and that's good, but the main sell you needed to make was years of performance, demonstrating (hopefully) strong professional skills and managerial potential. Doing a lot more now may only run the risk of un-selling.

That's the main reason not to worry about your competitors' moves, as well -- they're known quantities and not likely to change anyone's opinion with any pitch no matter how smooth. Another point is... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 2:44 PM on May 6, 2008

While fauxscot's basic ideas or sound, it's important to note that life insurance is not intended to create instant estate, or to settle debts, but quite the opposite. One of the main points of it is to create a pool of money that bypasses one's estate and goes directly to the beneficiary, immune from one's creditors.

(There are exceptions: one's estate can be made the beneficiary of one's life insurance if you want, and creditors... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 10:01 AM on May 6, 2008

There isn't a simple answer.

Oil trades in dollars and in dollars is up 75% or so since early 2006, but converted to euros is up only 40% and converted to yen and sterling is up 60%.

The main force in the depreciation of the dollar versus euro and (somewhat less severely) sterling and yen hasn't been supply and demand for oil but U.S. fiscal and monetary policy.

The main force in the appreciation of oil has been supply... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 5:38 AM on May 2, 2008

The key to succeeding in a group-of-applicants interview is knowing why they want to interview applicants in groups.

There are three kinds of jobs where a group-of-applicants interview makes sense .. The most common is jobs which are heavily team oriented, to the point that you rarely originate or execute anything of your own. More rare: leadership jobs where "cool kid" quality is essential and can be measured by ability to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 10:41 AM on April 22, 2008 marked best answer

Just want to second what Your Time Machine says, and amplify it: not just the resume, but many other aspects, of the job search process are different in other countries, and you need to learn how to do as the Romans if you want to get a job in Rome (literally or figuratively).

For example, your age and your marital status, things which in the US are bad form to volunteer and illegal for an employer to ask about, are required content in most Western European resumes.
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 3:11 PM on April 13, 2008

Timing won't stop anything that is meant to be. A good relationship is consistent with achieving any outside goal or priority -- indeed, there's no job or goal which doesn't become easier to achieve with the support of a partner. (Have you ever wondered why it's so common for people to get married just before going off to war or starting medical school?)

However, there's nothing to drag you down from achieving an important goal like a... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 1:37 PM on April 11, 2008

This is a job for Craigslist rideshare. With gas prices I bet he'd have luck at least one way, to soften the pain of connecting local buses.
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 4:22 PM on April 7, 2008

The best way to justify whatever you are doing, if you feel you must justify it, is in affirmative terms.

Nobody but a jerk objects to the propositions "I'm staying in Ithaca because I've got a great job" or "I'm moving to Chicago because I want to study improv."

On the other hand, you'll sound at best shallow, and possibly worse, if you couch your decision in negative terms -- home is uncool, your current friends are... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 9:21 AM on April 1, 2008

Or, per aheckler's link, you can get married! How could I have forgotten about that one.
posted to Ask Metafilter by MattD at 4:59 AM on March 29, 2008