Today's Tids Issue 2,944
Opening Stuff:

Is it any wonder why people love sports? They're exciting, entertaining, athletes often making plays beyond imagination. The thrill and the reward. Even when you're low or even just plain down and out, it's never over. There always a chance to come back from the deepest gloom. Like yesterday in Boston when Tom Brady lofted a perfect pass and Kenbrell Tompkins made a sensational catch to win in the final seconds. Or later when a lackluster effort by Red Sox was elevated to a heart stopping win with the sweet swings of Ortiz and Saltimacchia bats. There's always hope. Never give up.

Idealistically, not raising the debt ceiling should signal to the world a return to sensibility and the need for universal sacrifice to get there. Realistically, a corrupted world economy craves pouring more good money after bad to salvage an artificially buoyed financial community.

Once again RI farmers have beaten them all from throughout New England* in raising the biggest pumpkin! Rhode Island: The Thanksgiving State -- Biggest pumpkins and biggest turkeys in the state legislature. *RI routinely wins biggest pumpkins in the country, usually against farmers from Illinois, which coincidentally has the biggest turkeys in the State House.

In case you missed it, the newest released Gas and Oil production numbers have the United States of America passing Russia as the largest in the world producer. Put a fence around the Middle East.

The Question:
What do you think are the Top Ten best Broadway Musicals of All Time

The Headlines:
--Budget, Debt Ceiling Negotiations Go Nowhere Over Weekend; Repub Sen.Portman Predicts Debt Deal By Thursday.
--Americans Fama, Hansen And Shiller Win Nobel Economics Prize For Analyzing And Forecasting Asset Prices.
--Iran Nuke Talks In Geneva Hopeful.
--al-Qaida Back In Charge In Iraq.
--Sarah Palin Back On Campaign Trail Stomping For NJ Senate Candidate Steve Lonegan; Lonegan Has Cut Lead Of Celebrity Dem Booker In Half.
--Mass Evacuation Saved Thousands Of Lives In India Cyclone.

Mark Zuckerberg just spent $30 million to buy four houses, er mansions, surrounding his own, for he acknowledges...Privacy? FaceBook has just announced it is changing a key privacy feature that will expose 100 Million people to the world in which they don't want to be seen. I guess you have to have money to hide these days.

As bad as the Republicans may be behaving in the eyes of many, an all Dem Congress with Dem President after 2014 would be a National disaster.

Phrases I could do without are, "Best ever Mac 'n cheese" and "On Steroids", which is often used in sentences like "Mac n' Cheese on steroids". And besides, nobody made macaroni and cheese like me ole' Mom!

This shut down scenario is really quite interesting. Just one short history chapter ago, a lot of Republicans were elected to stop the onrush of an ever encroaching big government. In the House there are actually many who are voting on principle, like doing what they were elected to do. How novel! The problem is that while many Americans see a need for the importance of reversals in the decline to a lower standards America, they weren't quite ready for the pain it takes to get there. So while Dems and libs like to call Tea Party legislators "Whackos and extremeists" I think of them as the only honest people in Congress.

"Nomorobo" is a new service available to people tired of robo-calling for products and services or illegal phoning to foist scams -- which reminds me that the the most annoying robocaller here in RI is Congressman David Cicilini.

As you get older you continually look for signs that your body is functioning well. I thought seeing my fingernails growing nicely, consistently was a good omen until somebody told me that fingernails continue to grow after you're dead. Yeah,.. but not with orange Cheetos dust.

Over the past couple of days, 80,000 cattle were frozen to death on the plains of South Dakota. Just in case, you are keeping score on global warming.

The baseball playoffs generally prove that good pitching can stop a steamroller offense in it's tracks.

Weekend News: In Iraq 15 people at a vegetable market were killed in a car bomb blast. In Peru, 14 people were killed when a bus ran off of a mountain road. These news items, like so many today, aren't surprising at all. As sad as they are for families left to grieve, they happen all of the time. We  live in a statistical world. Everything whether good or bad is inevitable.

The Answer:
There's always room or argument here, but here is a list I have found and at which you can throw rotten tomatoes if the mood moves you. #1 is a surprise to me, even though I liked it -- Gypsy! After that we have My fair Lade, Dweeny Todd, Guys and Dolls, Fiddler on Roof, Oklahoma, Cabaret, West Side Story, Music Man and A Chorus Line. Te next ten are Chicago, The Fantastiks (Must be an "In-Cri=owd thing as aalways underwhelming to me), Show Boat, Carousel,Company, Sunday in te park with gerge, The King and I, Little Shop of Horrors, How to Succeed... and Nine. Big hits Les Miz and Phantom are 52 and 59, behind something called Urinetown at 29! Something to do today, check out rest o list:

Yesterday I was driving down Broadway here when just past the big Catholic Church a woman driving a pick-up darted out in front of me. She stopped, I stopped. There was no danger only the rush of surprise. She stared at me and then feverishly began making the sign of the cross. I was thinking, wait one minute...God doesn't save us from stupidity, the big government does. That's the real separation of Church and State. "Big "G" giveth free will and small "g" taketh away.

Don't stop at vegetable markets. It could be bad for your health.