Tulip

It was actually the week before they were supposed to be open, but because we were all there, they did have kind of a sneak peek behind the scenes, a soft opening for, for the advisors to go visit.

So are there regular cruises that go during like soft opening of Tulips for like anybody? Can anybody go take a regular cruise during the soft opening?

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

So you can do any of the soft openings.

Now, what we did for ASTA was a little bit different just because we have to be able to speak to everything.

So in order for us to speak to Tulips or Christmas or the Rhine, whatever it might be, we have to be able to go and have that exposure and experience.

But yes, absolutely.

When that season opens, oh my gosh, anybody can book and go and experience.

Let's call that surfing the web for information, okay? But one of my things is just that maybe we should be, like on the Stuff You Should Know podcast, be a little less eager to judge sometimes some of the details, knowing that at the top level you're getting the whole story wrong right and i'm not saying that they got it wrong i'm not saying that they don't have the right to criticize someone doing something in some story or some event in history you know i'm obviously criticizing some people who are my contemporaries uh but i've just heard so many of those in those stories in some of those episodes that seem kind of judgmental and here we are when i'm listening to an episode that It's like, I thought there was going to be a reveal.

You know, they were going to kind of tell the Tulip story and then say, hey, and by the way, not in recent months, but in recent years and decades, we have come to understand that Tulip Mania was less of a mania and more of like a Tulip hiccup.

But it never came.

It was kind of just presented as the whole thing was the crazy, crazy experience that it was, and it really wasn't.

Whenever one rushes to produce more of something because prices are rising, the resulting oversupply can eventually drive prices down.

And during the Dutch recession, Tulip media between 1634 to 1637, speculation pushed prices for certain rare tulip bulbs to extraordinary levels.

And when buyers stopped paying those prices, the speculative market collapsed.

So historians debated the extent of the economic damage and the lessons about speculative pricing remains relevant.

The longer term hold folks, much more focused on multiples and then, you know, exit going in basis.

Yeah.

And the reason why I brought up the Tulip comparison is because a lot of people got into the Tulip business in the last five or 10 years of actually going out and doing a lot of their own development.

They're not developers.

"Ms.

Tulip, everything does not need to be okayed by you.

Your time of wrecking the economy of a country has passed," snapped a snapdragon.

"I'm just saying that she could be a weed," the tulip said haughtily.

"I'm not a weed," I said over the turmoil.

The iris retook charge.

"Tulip is right.

Pedigree matters." "After all," the tulip said loftily, "we are in a bed with a Rothschild orchid." "And the Queen of the Night," sighed the tea rose worshipfully.

can't eat tulips.

Can you chip some of them?

Between the two, purely because Tulips never had any function at all.

Tulips.

Data centers may have some function for a while until the technology changes and suddenly they're going to be as out of date as a horse-drawn carriage.

Kodak.

They want the pleasure of possession and sometimes the satisfaction of having recognised an opportunity before everyone else.

The Tulip offers all of these desires in a remarkably neat package.

You return to your counting house before evening and place your notes beside the larger ledger.

The contrast makes you smile.

The winter season has changed the character of the city.

Outdoor gardens are quiet beneath the cold and the earth gives little indication of what rests below it.

Tulip bulbs themselves are dormant and for much of the season the flower exists chiefly as an expectation.

This makes the conversations around them strangely abstract.

Um, and so the common ones, um, we're in the fall season right now.

The common ones are tulips and daffodils.

Um, we've got some hyacinths in there.

So there's products that are, like, deer-resistant if you live in an area like me where the deer are just gonna come out and make a salad bar from your garden.

It's very personal.

It's very meaningful.

So we, we have partnered with the National Breast Cancer Foundation, and we are, we are now offering pink ribbon tulips.

So when groups fundraise and when they sell the pink ribbon tulips, not only will they earn the 50%, but it also will contribute to our, um, the National Breast Cancer Foundation's mission of helping women now.

A very sad end to what was one of the most promising voices on the scene.

We'll hear Helen's killer and fun recording of a tune called Tulip or Turnip.

Then we'll swing to another forgotten gem, the voice of Frances Faye.

Frances was a popular cabaret and show tune singer from the days gone by.

Helen Carr, Frances Faye, a back-to-back swing on the underrated side of the street right here on I'm Old Fashioned on jazz.fm 91.

[gentle jazz music]

Tulip or turnip, rosebud or rhubarb.

Fillet or plain beef stew.