Twitteration, Nation.

Today's Tids Issue 3,877

For Simple Laughter:

I don’t quite get this anger from Trump about Merkel. It seems his biggest complaint is that Germany is “bad” because they are good at what they do.

We should always think of wrinkles as where smiles have been. –Mark Twain

Interestingly though, most European economic observers, like Mervyn King Former Governor of the Bank of England and Marcel Fratzscher President of Berlin’s DTW support Trump’s criticism of the German surplus saying: “The Criticism is right -- Germany’s trade surplus is excessive”; “President Trump is right when he identifies a problem with current international trading and monetary relationships.” Sometimes it isn’t what he says, but most times it is how he says it. With The Donald, you can generally write from both sides of the spectrum and be absolutely correct at any given moment.

Each night it became harder and harder to watch CBS nightly News. It appears that the very smug Scott Pelley’s boss knew that too, because Scott has been moved off the show, now back on 60 mins permanently. The shows ratings were declining rapidly, and it must have been because more and more reasonable people noticed the anchor’s apparent distaste for fair reporting. Pseudo-intellectualism can carry you just so far.

Let’s just hope the developers of Auto-Driving don’t base their engineering on the “Auto-Correct” concept – the original “ass out of u and me” technology.

I don’t believe I have ever laughed at anything that Kathy Griffin has said. She was always one of those “comedians” that made me cringe. Now she is just plain ugly, and I am meaning the soul, not the face.

The Question:

What was the real name of the man known as “Deep Throat” during the Nixon ordeal. Bonus: What are the five fastest growing cities?

The Headlines:

--Markets Open Higher On Gains From Techs And Health Care, But Turns Red Mid-Morning After Oil Prices Drop;; Michael Kors Company Closing More Stores.

--At Least 780 dead, 300 wounded In Kabul Bomb Blast; Car Bomb Wreaked Havoc Inside Afghan Capitol’s Diplomatic Ring”.

--Trump Now Expected To Pull US Out Of Paris Climate Deal.

--US Missile Successfully Brings Down ICBM In New Test; Boeing And Raytheon Technology Combine To Give Confidence To US citizens Against Possible Attacks..

--Auto-Correct Confuses Latest TrumpTweet, Helping “Covfefe” Reach Viral Status; Nobody Knew What It Meant, Including Tweeter.

--Tiger Keeps Nike After DUI Arrest; Now Alcohol Involved; Likely Ut Was Pain Killers Prescribed After latest back Surgery.

--Uber Fires Former Google Engineer Who Has been Accused Of Stealing Technology From Former Boss.

An excellent movie aficionado tells me that “Berlin Syndrome” is the scariest movie she has ever seen.

Oh yeah, and Kathy Griffin used the basic celebrity apology, “I made a mistake”. She meant to do it just like every other celeb who says they made a mistake when caught, and her amoral compass said to her, “Go for it.”

Do you think they will ever start the NBA playoffs?

Some day in the not too distant future media will awaken from its current era of hysterical frenzy to find that it has eaten itself alive from the inside out. (See Scott Pelley, above)

I think the Trump communications department needs to add somebody who is funny.

I think that the latest trend in these Netflix, Amazon style “Original” series is to promise in the opening scenes something nefarious, but spend ninety-five % of the time forcing audiences to watch dysfunctional families drivel, with absolutely no characters to like. It’s like who cares that somebody dies or is under suspicion for murder – they deserve it.

The Business lunch is fading fast, even they say, for executives of big restaurant chains! The delivery of meals to offices is growing fast as the current status of urgency in business leaves no time for doddling over martinis and beers, and whatever food fits in between.

I mean, How many stories about LaBron James can you read while waiting for the playoffs.

Uber strikes me as one of those companies that feels it is so smart that it doesn’t have to behave like the rest of a civilized society.

“Kilroy Was Here” is one of those quirky little incidents that unified thousands upon thousands of Soldiers and Sailors and Airmen during WWII. Managers of anything spend millions developing inspirational slogans, but the best are usually those that just happen, and grow organically. Kilroy was an inspector at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy mass. So, rivets weren’t inspected twice resulting on additional costs, he would put “Kilroy was here” and the funny little drawing of the big nosed gent peering over a wall next the rivet mass. Soldiers and sailors on these troop carrying ships would see James Kilroy’s work and replicate in battle areas around the world. Over time it was found on rocks and walls from Guam to Berlin. And yes, it was even seen written outside Osama Bin Laden’s last home.

The Answer:

Mark Felt, a former FBI operative was “Deep Throat”.  Bonus: You won’t recognize many of the fastest growing cities in America. Most are suburbs of giant cities like Houston, Dallas and Austin Texas. Yes the south population is growing at a 9.4% rate. The rest of the country grew at a 0.7% rate. The West was 7.3%, the Midwest 3% and the very mature Northeast a meager 1.8%. The fastest growing cities are Conroe TX, Frisco TX, McKinney TX, Greenville SC, Georgetown TX, Bend Or, Buckeye AZ, Bonita Springs FL, New Braunfels TX, Murphreesboro, TN, Lehi UT, Cedar Park  TX, Meridian ID, Ankeny IA and Fort Meyers FL.

Google had a survey to determine the most misspelled word for each state. In RI it was Liar!

See you all tomorrow.