Today's Tids Issue 3,503
Opening Stuff:
Through
cooling skies, the sunset emits an orange glow
across a soothing winterscape. Purple hills run down to meet black frigid seas.
Soft colors grasp for the remaining day’s light before the fiery orb dies in
the horizon far. I stand alone upon a jutting rock, sparkling ocean spray
breaking below; now feeling the breeze grow colder at my back, yet enjoying the
consuming warmth in my heart from the image of a master’s painting that will
never fade.
I’m
not a fashion mogul by any sense of the word, but last
night I saw a lot of expensive, pretty ordinary looking dresses on GG
actresses. Some dresses, to me, looked home made. Really. Is there anything
less meaningful in our world than the Red Carpets at these narcissistic events?
And Hollywood doesn’t like, Trump?
There
are artists in every profession. Some people just
paint better.
I’m
happy to see that plaid is now considered a new fashion
and décor trend. Personally, I have never stopped liking plaid. In fact, one of
the reasons I don’t like going to Florida is because I can’t wear my plaid
flannel shirts.
One
point three Billion! I could run for President.
The
Question:
Name five styles of traditional plaids. Bonus: Name five celebrities who played
college football. Double Bonus:
Sadly, David Bowie died last night after battling cancer for a year and a half.
David Bowie was not his real name. Why did he change it?
The
Headlines:
--US Stocks May Do Better Today Even As China
Falls Again; Bulls Still Fighting; Oppenheimer Slashes Apple Target from 155 to 120, On Disappointing
IPhone Future; Other Analysts Remain Bullish On Apple Even As They Reduce
Targets..
--Supreme Court To Hear Arguments That Challenge
Right of Public Employee Unions To Demand Fees From Teachers, Fire fighters,
Police and Other Gov Workers Who Decline To Join.
--Philadelphia Police Shooter May Be Just One Of
Many In Broad Group Going After Law Enforcement.
--New Report Says That Refugee Sex Attacks In Cologne
Germany Top 200.
--Home Teams Lose In All Four Wild Card NFL Games;
Next Week: Denver-Pitt, Pats-KC, Carolina-Seattle and Arizona-GB.
--Prez Will Close Gitmo Before He Leaves Office,
According To Staffers.
--Revenant, Martian, Mozart In the Jungle, Wolf
Hall Among Big GG Winners; Damon, DeCaprio, Stallone, Lawrence, Larson Key
Individual Winners.
--Wall Street Wants NFC Super Bowl Winner To Keep
Market Up.
I
was driving up the road towards Boston when in Fall
River I saw the future with the beginnings of the construction of a new Amazon
distribution center which looked like a small continent. The car radio was
telling me that in-store retail sales were actually pretty crappy this year,
and that we can expect giants like Macy’s to close stores and lop off employees
as the On-line buying continues to grow (15-23% next year). The good news is
that advances in Internet buying could put an end to developers gobbling up
beautiful green fields for mega shopping plazas we don’t need. Of course, that
would put construction people out of work. Are you beginning to get a picture
of what technology hath wrought? Also confusing the picture is the high rate of
returned goods from on-line purchases. It’s about 1/3 of all products
purchased, mainly because of the inability to see true colors and feel the
fabrics. (I say buy traditional plaid you know). This is a pretty big problem
when you consider shipping, often free for competitive reasons. Regardless of
these current glitches in cyberland, retail stores will continue to close
because on-line purchasing is becoming commonplace. Maybe we can put Middle
East refugees in closed malls. H&G could develop mall rehab reality shows –
the Property Brothers redo JC Penny.
Ricky
Gervais makes me laugh. But after he left his opening
monologue, it was like I was back in the basement with my kids putting on
little skits they made up when they 8 to 12 years old. How terrible was
Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Schumer trying to be funny, or Jonah Hill and Channing
Tatum in the opening minutes after Gervais. Good thing they are serving a lot
of Champagne to get the laughs.
Did
you read that Afghanistan is paying salaries to soldiers
who don’t exist, with the money going to officials with connections? It sounds
like Dem voting in Chicago.
While
Americans are going to the newly opened Cuban beaches; the
government in charge is luring officials from China, Iran, Russia and NK with
the Missile they somehow stole from the USA. Nothing like an open and free
Cuber.
There
is a big scandal getting bigger down here, and it is
conceivable it could have ramifications around the country. The St. George
School, a prestigious Episcopal private school that sits upon a magnificent
hilltop overlooking the ocean and uninhabited lands afar, is in the early
stages of a sexual scandal that is growing remarkably similarly to the priest
situation as redefined in the new movie, Spotlight. This one started with a
very small item in the paper about a women coming forward bout being molested
by an athletic department employee in the 1980’s. It was quickly dismissed in
the article as a thing of the past where the abuser, since dead, was fired
immediately. Of course sexual abuse cases should be reported to authorities.
Within a few weeks the list of the abused mushroomed to 40, and now there is a
full fledged, very serious investigation. It isn’t hard to believe that
somewhere out there in schools in many states, other students have felt the
shame and will come forward, just like they did in the Catholic Church once the
Boston story broke. I’m wondering if the movie was the motivator here.
Unfortunately
in the many small societies like churches, school and
colleges, the population there generally reflects the demographic behavior of
the population at large. That’s just the way numbers work.
One
of the things I work to avoid when writing is the
overuse of the word “then”. If you can replace “then” with a little thoughtful,
creative phraseology, your prose well always flow little better.
Why
do I get this feeling that if Hillary becomes president
we’re going to get a lot of whining if things don’t go her way? Maybe it’s
because that’s what she was doing on Face the Nation yesterday morning.
Jordan
Spieth proved pretty conclusively yesterday in Hawaii,
that he is the real thing, and will be winning tournaments for a long time.
But, as the official golf season opens, I expect some other hot new comers to
start their rise to the top. It is just the way it is today.
I
see where a Hawaiian Congressman is proposing that
the august members wear flowered and gaily colored shirts loosely, unbelted on
Fridays. May be we do need something to shake them up down there in their marble
temple. They could wear clown suits for the other four days! Did I say “Gaily”?
Can you ay that anymore? Donald Trump is making me feel daring again.
Now
that the rush is over and regular people with brains are
going to see what this Star Wars thing is all about, the general opinion not
colored by publicists is that it is pretty average, and that Carrie Fisher
sleepwalks through the entire production. This is also how we elect average
ineffectual presidents – smothering the thought process with hoopla.
Was
Channiing Tatum named after Tatum O’Neal, or vice
versa?
You
have to wonder if “The Good Wife” will have to give
equal time to Repub candidates under the “Equal Time” Rule.
The
latest “Hillary Effect” in Hollywood seems to be
remaking old movies with women replacing men in the lead roles.
The
Parking Lot: Chapter 40.
Fred was
sitting in a cold dark basement. They hadn’t hurt him, but they knew he was
severely compromised by their intimidation, threat of death. They could easily
see that beneath his bravado there was an avowed, lifelong coward. They
probably felt he would easily sell out his friends for a good offer. He would
consider not dying a very good opening bid on their part..
Yet, this
Nancy was getting to him. There was something special about her – resolve,
creativity and courage all wrapped up in a beautiful package with a great wit.
If her family of yore was anything like she is today, he could understand how
her ancesters may have accumulated so much land.
Then he
said to himself, “But Fred, you are such a sleezeball that you are probably thinking
more about the land you might get than Nancy herself, and her friends. Nah, he
argued with himself, you’re changing. You’ve seen the error of your ways.” He started
laughing as he realized how weird he was sounding. Then he stopped abruptly, felt
his body clench, when the heavy metal clang of a latch opening a heavy steel door
stirred him back to his current position of hopelessness.
The door
opened and he saw the glint off the blade of a large cleaver like knife as one
of the goons entered ahead of Rackovic. He clenched his hands balling them in
to fingerless fists and shoved them into his pocket, thinking, Nancy isn’t that
good.
The
Answer:
The most familiar plaid is Tartan which includes many
other Scotch types like Black Watch and Royal Stewart. Others most popular for clothing
designers are Tattersall, Windowpane Check, Madras, Gingham and Glen Plaid. Bonus: Mr. T, Mark Harmon (Pretty good
QB at UCLA), Phil Robinson (Louisiana), Brian Denehey (Columbia), Nick Nolte,
Carl Weathers, Mathew Fox, %#&@ *&%$##, Dean Cain, John Goodman, Dr.
Phil, Tommy Lee Jones (First team All-Ivy at Harvard), John Wayne, Ed O’Neil,
Burt Reynolds, Ronald Reagan, Gerry Ford and Dwayne Johnson ( Note: One of Dr. Phil’s
North Texas teams lost 100-6. His teammates were happy to have a budding
psychoanalyst to console them) Double
Bonus: David Bowie was born Davy Jones, and at the time he was getting
going in the music business, there was a popular musical group called The Monkeys
featuring Davy Jones. He didn’t want the confusion.
(%#&@ *&%$## = Bill Cosby)
Wishing David a good journey:
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