Remember way back when you awoke all excited for some big outdoor event, looked out the window and only saw rain and dark clouds that seemed to go on for ever. Your life would never be the same, you thought. A tragedy of the highest order. And yet as profound and deeply hurtful as the tragic interruption of your hopes was, it had absolutely no effect on the rest of your life. Just thinkin'.

I see where WS is expecting a very good profit report from Apple, mainly because of excellent sales on the IPhone. I wonder if the fact that AT&T and Verizon subsidize the product to the tune of about $453 per has anything to do with it. So, the IPhone is a pretty neat product, but is it a pretty neat product for the money? How many would buy it at $653? That's what hap[pens when big Gov gets into business.

Normally each year I warn of the Ides of July, that time around the 15th of the hottest summer month when stocks seem to cool. It appeared that my oversight was going to be a lucky one as the market looked moderately robust for a summer, good earnings and all. Then came Friday, and that sinking feeling I always get just before the Red Sox August swoon. Unlike a rained out ball game or picnic, I never get over deep market retractions.

Have you ever noticed that at times Mahler sounds a little like Sibelius...or vice versa.

The Question:
Name five movies with Phillip Seymore Hoffman.

The Headlines:
--Confusion In Spain Has Global Investors Worrying; US Futures Down.
--Theater killer Holmes To Appear In Court Today.
--Syria Says It will use Chemical Weapons If Attacked.
--NCAA Fines Penn State $60 Million; Wins Between 1998 and 2011 Vacated.
--82 Killed In Iraq's Deadliest day This Year.
--Novel, "The Conscience", Returns To Tids After Writer's Block Delay; Write Proclaimed Sane.
--11 Killed, 12 Injured As "Pickup" Truck Loaded With Passengers Runs Off Highway In Texas; Illegal Immigrants Suspected.

I'd have to say that in the aftermath of the horrendous movie theater shootings, all of the politicians properly focused the nations attention where it should be -- in prayers for the victims and their families. Except of course, Mr. I-can-run-your-life-better-than-you-can, Mayor Bloomberg of NYC. The only person who leapt upon the bloody bodies of the innocent to shout out one of his political objectives. Creep.

If it was up to me, Gino Cappelletti would be in the Hall of Fame. He was a real AFL pioneer, leading the league in scoring for 5 of 10 years in the sixties, and the Pats all ten years. He went on to coach and then into the broadcast booth where he was part of my weekends (With another fave from the 60's Gil Santos) for over 30 years. I got to know Gino in those Nomadic early Pats' years when the NY Giants were still the kings of New England pro football. But, you wanted the Pats to make it; you ached for them as they went from Braves Field (BU) to Harvard Stadium to even Fenway before Billy Sullivan built a bare bones stadium in Foxboro. And all through those struggling years, Gino was the shining star. A real star for all the right reasons. Sorry to see you retire my man.
I was in Trader Joe's and while looking at their display of "Reduced Guilt" Snack food offerings, I thought, I have no guilt and never have.

A lot of Chocolate Chip cookie sellers try to entice you with the "More Chips" strategy. I always feel they are trying to hide bad batter with chocolate. Batter is the key to Chocolate Chop cookies. When a plate of cookies is passed, I almost always take the cookie with the least chips. So, if you like chocolate, sit to my left.

I see where the Obama campaign spent more in June than they took in. Hmmm...looks like a pattern to me. And they say Romney can't do a better job on the economy.

The NCAA said it's announcement about Penn State will be "unprecedented". That could mean that they have no rule within their charter that permits them to penalize "criminal" acts. Some sports legal minds feel the NCAA chief is reacting to media pressure as opposed to doing the organizations work. And, all that talk of a death penalty -- the death penalty can only be imposed on institutions on probation, which Penn State is not. My guess is that the NCAA is opening itself up to some legal retribution by the the Happy Valley University. Sports nuts think that the only reason people pick colleges is because of the power of their teams. PS was (Is?) a tremendous educational power too.

Remember when the proper pinkie was distinctively curled while delicately drinking a cup of tea. Well, that is a human morphing that didn't go to waste. Today it is a boon to eating while driving as one can steer with the pinkie while hold a cup in the same hand, and aIPhone in the other. Tis a marvelous thing that delicate pinkie.

Will shootings like the one in Colorado eventually turn the US  into a police state? A place where

David Thoreau of Walden Pond fame was a decent, slightly weird, socially inept citizen of old New England. The problem with DT are the people who follow him and create inane interpretations of his simple thoughts of nature. Of course, he has been a great influence on LL Bean sales Check out this scenery and some super human feats (http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=EEu42L0ufBY).

The Conscience: Chapter 4:
Boston: January, 1987.
(For your memories or those new to this, a Yankee boy goes to Alabama in the fifties with Southern fraternity brothers. he is dismayed at what he sees regarding treatment of blacks. At a Chuck Berry/Fats Domino concert he meets a girl, a friend of his friend, who suggests they get out of that sweaty mass of people. Beers in hand they stroll towards to the lake only to be obstructed by a 13 yo Black boy in the middle of the path. the girl "turns into a monster" berating the boy. Yankee boy steps in to say she shouldn't treat a person like that. She turns to him, fire in her eyes, shoving him, shouting you dumb Yankees don't know anything. He shoves back and she stumbles cracking her head on a rock. The black boy looks up saying "She dead Mister." The Yankee pulls her into the bushes, as the boy runs off. The next day, he returns and she is not there.)
  "One more, Jack, and I'm outta here."
  "You sure Mr. Morgan. You..."
  "Of course I'm sure, Jack. My body is crying out. Listen. Help me Jack, help me." Jack tried not to smile while he turned to pour another while I crept back into the deepest, blackest part of my mind. All I saw were eyes. Eyes imploring, They've been there from time to time, those eyes peering out of that alley. Those eyes that always say to me "I know", are there more often now. Today the eyes make me shiver. Other days those piercing, disturbing eyes are are comforting. The eyes of my partner in crime. But on days like today, the booze can't even hide them and the guilt.
  "This is your last Mr. Morgan. I'm just being your friend." Jack patted my hand. Why are people so good to me Wondered. I looked up and caught his concerned eyes. I smiled just as the phone in my pocket vibrated.
  "Oops. It's Evelyn." I turned around on the stool and put the phone to my ear. "Hi.."
  "Are you sober?"
  "Of course." Sobriety is relative.
  "It's time to come home."
  "Ok." I knew it was just a matter of time when she would stop telling me that. "Tell the kids I'll be their soon."
  "I love you." Why are people always so nice to me. Why do I turn around on the stool when Jack can hear many anyway.
 
The Answer:
I first remember seeing him in The Talented Mr. Ridley, where he was a guy you didn't know whether to love or hate. But he stood out playing against stars Matt Damon, Jude Law, Cate Blanchette and Gwyneth Paltrow. Prior to that hewas a supporting player in Scent of a Woman, Twister, Boogie Nights, Magnolia and The Big Labowski. The Big time came rapidly thereafter, including the Oscar for the annoying truman Capote role. Since then he was in The Savages and Synecdoche, New York. I liked him in Charlie Wilson's War and Before The Devil Knows You're Dead. Now he is a pick and choose Actor also dabbling in Directing. He is a dead ringer for a former friend and business partner who died young from alcohol.

I love Ernie Els, but my heart aches for Adam Scott. 

Happy fourth week in July!