Opening Stuff:
Did you ever stop to think how weird it is for the United States of America to be borrowing from China to give financial aid to countries who may or may not like us.
I like almonds quite a bit. I like em' to eat as a snack or toasted in green beans or atop chicken. How come then, I can't stand the taste of almond flavored cookies and other pastries?
Trump for Prez of a USA on the brink of bankruptcy makes sense. After all, who has had more experience at skirting bankruptcy than the Donald. Hair today, gone tomorrow.
The Question:
George Shearing, the great jazz pianist, died yesterday. Many of the great and most popular musicians of the 1950's were jazz pianists. Name five.
The Headlines:
--Weaker January Retail Sales Report Will Probably Send Stocks Lower Today.--Italy's Berlusconi Indicted In Prostitution Probe.
--Iranian Protesters Facing Sterner Resistance.
--Southern Sudanese Blame North's Khartoum For Thuggery That Has Killed Over 200 In Advance Of Freely Elected Independence.
--IBM's Watson Holds Its Own In Jeopardy Match-up With Two Top Humans.
--Egypt Labor Marches For Higher Wages, Better Working Conditions.
--Dogs Follow Models Into NYC.
Back to More Stuff:
How about some meat before we get to the meat. I'm liking pork scallopini this morn, and it is easy to do. From loin of pork boneless roast slice pieces of about a 1/4 to 3/8's inch. Dredge with flour and sautee 1/4 cp butter about 3 mins each side. Remove from pan and deglaze with 1/4 cup Madeira (Or red of your choice) wine. Pour resultant sauce over pork and serve with favorite veggies and pot. I might saute spinach for this one.
One of my reliable Chicago sources points out that the new 0-Man budget is the first step in a Troy-esque move back to the far left. Typically a place where the 0-man has been unless, as now, political necessity demands he feign a move to the center.
I focus on that proposed Obama cut of the Pell Grants for summer school. Why do they have a fund for summer school in the first place? Why weren't those valuable funds always being used to put a couple of more deserving students into college? And, hey summer school grantees...did you ever think that the summer is a time you could work and maybe offset some of your parents sacrifice to get you through school? I don't want to see the media putting up students complaining about not being able to attend summer school on the taxpayer. No sympathy here.
But then, weren't many of the Obama budget cuts intended to do just that -- Bring out whiners that the media will rush to film.
Where ever there is a big pile of Government Money, there will be somebody there with a way to misuse it.
Almost Near: Chapter 7 continues. --Samantha stood there and stared at that now mysterious door. Locked doors are alluring. And this one for Samantha, felt eerily meaningful to her life. A life that seems new to her now. Yet not real. She tries the knob again. It resists. I'll ask Tucker about when he returns she thinks.
At the bottom of the narrow stairway she turns off the light, and notices a bowl of keys hidden behind a stack of papers near the refrigerator. She takes the bowl without moving the papers, turns the light back on and moves up towards the tempting door at the top.
The fourth key she tried works. It turns. She holds her breath and listens for the sound of anything approaching the house. The knob turns and she shoves open the door. She has to turn sideways to get in through narrow passage.
The room looks to her like a museum honoring one person who may have worked there. A handsome desk surrounded by expensive antiques
was the focal point. The art on the wall was quite remarkable she thought. One artist who seemed very good at capturing the beauty of a special town that looked like here, but not quite. Nothing seemed out of the place.
Samantha pulled open one drawer to find papers neatly bound with those metal fold back style pins. She picked up one and it appeared to be a manuscript. Turning the blank cover page, she gasped. the words she saw said "Days with Aunt Ginny.".
I was going to write a little piece on CBS 60 minutes and how on Sunday I noticed their host trying to get the Egyptian Google Guy Ghonim to acknowledge that their hero 0-Man was significant in the collapse of the evil Mubarak regime. I was going to write that until this morning when I read a Chilean rebuttal to another piece which 60 Minutes did that essentially threw a wet blanket over the heartwarming rescue of 33 miners. I don't watch 60 mins often because basically I don't like the interviewers, and because their journalistic judgment and honesty standards make my hair hurt. Oh, BTW, Ghonim deftly turned the Q about 0-Man's contribution aside with a politically correct answer.
It is interesting to note that while politics is quite a bit less than all of the stuff I write here, most people think I only write about politics. Well maybe not today.
Have you noticed how people like Italy's Berlusconi and Charlie Sheehan think that that their behavior is perfectly normal?
Did you know that the Budget proposed by 0-Man yesterday would add $7.5 Trillion to the national debt in ten years. That is the size of China's total economy! Oh, in case you missed it, China yesterday passed Japan to become the number 2 economy in the world...at $7.5 Trill.
The Answer:
I had quite a collection of jazz Pianist albums in the fifties. I would go into NYC to see the wonderful, blind George Shearing and others. I personally liked Ahmad Jamal and Erroll Garner. But Dave Brubek was close behind as was Duke Ellington and Oscar Peterson. Other notables were Art Tatum, Count Basie, Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis, Bill Evans and Horace Silver. I still have many of those 33's, but I fear they are covered with mold in a basement somewhere.
The End:
If you have been paying attention over the past couple of decades you have probably noticed that politicians propose cuts in budgets which they know will get the most vocal response; A response that will surely lend it self to media soundbites. This time however, we may have to have more people crying in the wilderness. It's real.
I think tomorrow's Tids will be funnier, and no political negativity. Unless somebody does something stupid.
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