News and notes from around the interweb:
- Fascinating history, and true. JP Morgan Chase was founded by Aaron Burr… it was a water company, a regulatory dodge to circumvent protectionist legislation (Alexander Hamilton didn’t want competition for his own bank). It encompasses over 1,200 predecessor banks, and owns the pistols used in the Hamilton-Burr duel.
The history of bank mergers is fascinating.
JPMC is the result of ~1,200 mergers over 225 yrs, and started via a trojan horse into banking- it was chartered as a water company because new banks weren't allowed.
When it started in 1799, we already had regulations serving… https://t.co/DdxWLalDE4 pic.twitter.com/C1as1LME0p
— Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi) May 19, 2025
- I told you about Delta’s plan for new Missoni business class bedding, how the plan was delayed by tariffs, and even when the announcement was coming. So that makes the actual news a bit anticlimactic for me, hence just covering it here.
Credit: Delta Air Lines - “Service animal” If this dog were traveling as a proper ‘pet in cabin’ they’d be required to stay in a crate throughout the flight.
You know the parent is a real paWrent when they get that @americanair seat in first to just make sure you and your blankie have enough room#frenchie #travel #airplane #avgeek #firstclass #traveldog #fly #boeing #takeoff #airplanemode #goodboy #servicedog #inflight #frenchbulldog pic.twitter.com/K5TCfLcDr6
— Kevin (@KeventureCalls) May 18, 2025
- Why you shouldn’t wear rompers, shorts, or sandals on a plane
@cherdallas I'd never wear them on the plane but the Haviana's from @Revolve I am probably gonna order tbh #flightattendant #traveloutfit #creatorsearchinsights #greenscreen ♬ sonido original – SONIDOS LARGOS - Luxor and Treasure Island in Las Vegas sued over bed bugs.
Courtney Gully needed to be taken to a hospital by an ambulance after she suffered a reaction from being bitten by the bedbugs in the hotel. According to the suit, the Luxor refunded the resort fee with “further compensation” provided.
As for Bruce’s suit, the lawsuit said that after the hotel offered her a new room, she suffered more bites as there was another bedbug infestation in the new room, KSNV-TV reported. The lawsuit says that she “was again provided a card to follow up and told there was a pharmacy downstairs where she could get some cream. No further action was taken.”
- 25% bonus transferring Citi points to Wyndham through June 21. This is generally very low value.
- Holiday Inn Express & Suites St. George North – Zion has a ‘service fee’ even though as a Holiday Inn Express there is not very much ‘service’. The service fee is extra, above and beyond what is covered by the room rate. The sheer audacity of it, and not something you associate with Utah..!
If you look closely at Chase’s corporate logo, you can see it is in the shape of a wooden water main.
I was told this by a Chase executive.
I welcome correction!
I saw the pistols used in the duel, and as the linked article says the bank still has them. The book “Burr” gives a positive view of Aaron, though it is fiction and doesn’t get into the plot he was mixed up in to detach the western territories from the U.S. On the other hand the biography of Hamilton that the show is based on shows how amazing he was. The two men knew each other very well and worked together on legal cases. Towering people with a tragic story.
@Jay Gee “it was rumored that the octagon was a cross-section of water pipes once installed by the Manhattan Company. But Ivan Chermayeff [of the New York-based design firm Chermayeff & Geismar] refuted this ridiculous assumption himself.”
You need to publish standalone articles on the scam fees so that they show up in Google. Keep it up.
The founding of the Manhattan Company by Aaron Burr was genius.
I prefer Alexander Hamilton’s Bank of New York. And for those who enjoy history, please do visit Hamilton’s birthplace, (St. Kitts and) Nevis, where there’s a lovely Four Seasons (and a Park Hyatt, which Gary likes to post about, occasionally, and many of us here have redeemed points for stays).
There are days I wonder if bringing back public dueling is really such a bad idea. It might do much to restore civility…
@Denver Refugee — Uh, noooo…. increased public displays of violence is definitionally not ‘civility.’