Today's Tids Issue 2,777
Opening Stuff:
 
It's nearly impossible to recreate a perfect spontaneous moment.

Ah, the Oscars. A gathering of cultural icons. A spectacle. A mess. And a Red Carpet that's much too long. Oh yeah and that voice that kept screeching and screeching and screeching. Those mike poked stars who tried to mutter ever so clever answers. Are we having fun yet? How about all those comments about male star tuxedos. Inane. Then we went inside where the gowns and black suits were all atwitter and liltingly happy. Until, "This is the story of a man fighting to get back his woman, who's been subjected to unthinkable violence. Or as Chris Brown and Rihanna call it, a date movie." Oooooooo, murmured the audience. I laughed a the accuracy of the barb. Ok, MacFarlane was only ok. --Captain Kirk's appearance looked like a High School production. --I kept asking my self during the 007 tribute, when is something going to happen?. --They left off Andy Griffith and Larry Hagman in the Memorial segment. --Adele was the best moment of the show. --You can't help but like Jennifer Lawrence. --At least Nicholson didn't drop trow when introducing FLOTUS. --The two biggest presenter messes were MCarthy/Rudd and the Avengers who either stepped upon or forgot their lines. --I never get into best dressed discussions, but I thought Haille Berry's outfit was perfect. --Music was the theme, but I didn't feel it. Maybe because I fell asleep before the good stuff happened. Right? There was good stuff? Right?
Actual sign seen last week on entrance door to local Wal-Mart: "Did you leave your child in the car?" Civilization hasn't progressed that far from the caveman days, has it?

"Fries or salad?" That was the question. Fries or salad. Salad or fries. Fries. Salad. Hmmm. I think I'll pick fries. The good news is that I am finally able to override my Catholic guild at any moment. This is important. This morning, I learned that a study reported in The Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging, found that once people have passed the 75 year mark "A diet high in sugar and fat doesn't make a difference -- and overly restrictive diets may not improve health at all." In addition, the study said that mild overweight may be a benefit to healthy living for the older folks. Pinch me!

The Question:
Double "Q" day -- 1. So now we can add Seth MacFarlane to the list. Name the five Oscar night hosts with the longest durations. Bonus: Name the Ten Richest Cities in USA based on average percentage of households over $191,469 (That is bottom of Top 5% of national income distribution.) .

The Headlines:
--Stocks Rise On New Optimism For A Faster Growing Global Economy.
--Sequestration Nit Picking Dominating Beltway Burgs.
--Bob Woodward Is saying The Admin Is Pushing Out Lies About The Looming Cuts
--Syria Says It's Ready To Talk.
--US High School Graduation Up Significantly.
--New Winter Storm Bearing Down On Plains States.
--Oscar Winners: Argo, Spielberg, Lewis, Lawrence, Waltz, Hathaway.

Leading up to the big night on the West Coast, we had the wonderful Accenture Match Play Golf Tournament a little Southeast of LaLa. It was a nice win for Matt Kucher, a good guy.

Maybe the most significant announcement of the day comes from CEO of Mozilla, Gary Kovacs. You remember Mozilla, whose Firefox helped dismantle Microsoft's grip on web browsers. Well that Mozilla has announced it's first generation of Firefox OS devices, with CEO Cesar Alienta of Telephonica lashing out at "Closed operating systems (Read that Apple)". Da da da da da da... (In case you don't recognize that, it's the theme from Jaws).

Danica Patrick stayed up with the big boys for 499 miles. 5,180 feet. But, her inexperience showed, and she admitted a bit of a mental lapse during crunch time. She did, however, overcome a lot of innate negativism. For instance, I noticed that after she won the pole position, the odds in Vegas that showed 50-1 for the field average (All men), had her at 500-1. I looked it up again yesterday morning and Danica was 100-1 where the highest man was 20-1. The biggest slight though, came from James Franco who announced "Drivers and Danica, start your engines." I believe Danica always thought of herself as a driver, not a sideshow. The good news for sanity -- after the race several of the crusty ole boy winners said that she's going to make a lot of money racing this year. "We enjoyed racing with her."

Again I say, let the sequestration begin. I don't think it will hurt the economy a nit. Even the liberal newspapers in reporting potential disasters for jobs and programs, use the hedging adjective "Risk of".  

A headline over the lead editorial in the Sunday Journal said, "Get moving on gay marriage." But never, ever have I read a headline in any section of the paper that said, "Get moving on ridding the state of union domination which is crippling every citizens' future." Including all union members.

Things we know:
Head Start is a government program that hasn't worked. Pouring tons of money into education hasn't worked and this has been proven repeatedly. Yet, 0-Man is proposing more new tons of money for an early preschool education to give kids a really head start. Of course it is mainly to help his Union friends. And, it also accomplishes what Dems often want to accomplish, take the eye off the ball. We have a cultural problem in America where more and more people are following the wrong leaders; where more and more people are acquiescing to bureaucratic nurturing. There are lots of smart kids in the US getting great educations and doing a lot with their knowledge. Every child in American has an equal opportunity to the same education, but unfortunately too many parents, and too many peers, can't see beyond their visceral stimulation, can't see that learning is the only thing that will give their kid, or buddy, a chance.

The reason Hollywood makes so many dumbed-down, violent, raunchy, inane movies is because people pay to see them.

In fact, these new movies are so dumbed-down, my Spell-Check would go to see em'.

The local pols are musing about the possible Republican challengers to the Dem trio in 2014. They call Senator Read, "Most Popular" Senator. I call him most enigmatic, a man with no apparent personality, who seems to shrink in the spotlight, without an independent, creative brain cell in his head who is firmly affixed to puppet strings of his controllers. Yet he gets reelected over the years because RI voters have become enamored with him bringing home mountains of defense jobs to the State. Bringing home what every state gets anyhow from the big Monopoly game in DC. So, exactly what does bringing home Government pre-cooked bacon do? It creates a dependency on the Federal goverment designed jobs. It's not "Snap" but its the next most addictive drug going. And, in many states, it keeps mediocrity in Government alive.

You begin to understand how hard it is for the Repubs and Dems to get together when you consider that the face of the Democrat Party Is the acerbic Debbie Wasserman Shultz.

Great! Just great! Now all the kids in the school yard will be singing, "We saw your boobs."

The Repubs, I mean the Conservatives, need some new super spokes-people. I thought this the other day, I think last Friday, when I turned on the radio and heard a rather authoritative voice talking sensibly with solid facts about how big business is continually skewered in America. He talked about all that businesses do for local economies, and that it is considerable; Often much more than state and local legislatures. He talked quietly, with a believable tone. He was the CEO of Whole Foods. Yes the supermarket darling Politically Correct eaters. A supermarket chain run by this guy who operates an excellent corporate enterprise. He was talking about what real business people do. Not the mythological business people, the scary bogeymen of Hollywood and Politicians. He was talking beautifully, until I heard, "So does that mean you hate Obama?". It was Sean Hannity screaming in. Trying to sensationalize good information, which perhaps would reach far deeper into the masses beyond the choirs. Credibility happens when the messengers are credible. Too many of the older Conservative messengers are much too hysterical. Frankly, I haven't listened to or watched Hannity for many years. And, Friday, he reinforced why I shouldn't.

The Answer:
1. Bob Hope with 19, had the longest tenure in a list of hosts that began with Douglas Fairbanks and included Will Rogers, and Walter Mathau. After Hope there is Billy Crystal with 9, Johnny Carson (5) and and Whoopie Goldberg with 4. Steve Martin had 3. Next is a list of Hosts with 2 -- Jerry Lewis, Jack Benny, Jack Lemmon, Goldie Hawn, Jon Stewart had two. After Hope there was Bonus: Number 10 is Napa, cal. The rest down to # One are Boulder Co, Boston, Thousand Oaks Cal, NYC, Trenton NJ (?), San Fran, DC, San Jose and Stamford Connecticut.

After blowing high profile gigs at the Oscars last year and Daytona 500 yesterday, what 's next for James Franco -- announcing President Obama's entrance into next years State of the Union speech.

I have yet to see an Academy Awards night that wasn't over-produced and under-executed. That's what happens when you take away the actor's scripts.