In Baja Mexico last week, I watched as brown pelicans, finally off the endangered species list, enjoyed a carefree existence diving for fish. Meanwhile, their oil-soaked relatives an ocean away, struggled, uncomprehending, with the inability to fly at all.

My regular trips to Florida to hang out with my parents, ages 90 and 94, always leave me with some insight as to what can make life enjoyable for really senior people (as distinguished from so-called "seniors" like me who get into movies and fly Southwest at special rates - but who don't feel all that old.)

The automaker Subaru sailed through the recession with record sales and increased market share according to a recent Bloomberg report. Why? "Our customers were not affected by the recession. They have a better financial situation," says one of their largest dealers. What is so special about Subaru owners? Are they immune to economic chaos?

They say the market climbs on a "wall of worry," and most of that worrying comes from the Nattering Nabobs of Negativism out there in the community of economists and short sellers. I spent a morning last week listening to Alan Beaulieu, a widely-respected and historically accurate economist and principal at the Institute for Trend Research. Folded up in my breast pocket was the latest newsletter from Norm Fosback of "Fosback's Fund Forecaster" fame and author of "Stock Market Logic."

Flying to New York for my son's engagement party a week ago last Thursday, I finished Scott Patterson's new book, "The Quants - How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It." Stepping off the plane, I learned that they had just done it again. Those "quants." They need a stake through the heart.

Referring to yourself, compare the difference between having to say, "That was certainly a dumb move," or the resigned expression of: "I woulda, shoulda, coulda." Of the two situations, most human beings feel that not doing anything and enduring the consequences is preferable to having taken an action that produced a bad result.

When my cousin opened a medical clinic in a remote Vermont town that serviced a broad, formerly doctorless area, people with untreated health problems came out of the woodwork.

In a casual conversation with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown the other day, I asked him if I was correct in my recollection that he was the last governor, Democrat or Republican, to say "no" to government employee pension increases. He confirmed that this was true, and that he had also been the last to say "no" to salary increases as well.

Natalie Cole blew the roof off Yoshi's in Oakland last weekend. In that intimate setting, it was like she was singing in our living room.

Her signature piece toward the end of the show is a duet she sings with her late father, Nat King Cole. As I sat there with goosebumps, marveling at this timeless bond between father and daughter, I found myself thinking about Social Security and how, in its genius, it links the generations.

The collapse of the financial services industry may have been just the catharsis that this country needed after gorging on tax cuts and an unrestrained free enterprise system. Like Warren Buffett says, "When the tide goes out, you see who's not wearing a bathing suit."

My "Man of the Year" award goes to Kenneth Feinberg, the government-appointed pay czar. He has capped annual pay at $500,000 for senior officials at all the banks that received our tax money, and now he is working on what the maximum salaries will be for the next level down.