Today's Tids Issue 2,807
(Four New Tid's Informational bonanzas posted 4.5.2013 -- Between 3:40 PM and 3:58 PM}
Opening Stuff:
These recent shootings of drug enforcement lawmen and prosecutors looks a lot like Mexico oozing North.
The Rutgers coach Mike Rice certainly appears to be the mentor from hell. But some of his players say that what the world saw was a "Worst of" Highlights video. A couple the boys said, that while he went beyond conventional motivational techniques at times, he was a players man who helped them well beyond the court -- in academics and life challenges. There's a couple of points here. First we don't need a national big time coach inspiring some of the knuckleheads who bully kids at the lower levels, regardless of how biased the video may have been. So it was good the hammer fell hard. Second, while the coach did these things, it was made worse by a "Highlights" real. Maybe it didn't tell the whole story, like so often where the media leaves out key elements of stories to fulfill an agenda.
The Question:
Everybody at one time or another has probably watched Roger Ebert review a film. What do you think he considers the top ten films of all time.
The Headlines:
--Economy Adds Mere 88K Jobs, Lowest In 9 Months; Unemployment drops A Percentage Point; Markets Open Considerably Lower.
--NK Warns Embassies In Country Of Possible Conflict.
--To Get Budget Deal, Obama Expected To Put Cuts To Social Security And Other Entitlements On the Table; Higher Tax From House Would Remain Criticle Element To Agreement.
--Pope Frances Takes New Hard Line Against Sex Abuse And Sex Abuse Priests.
--Most Economists Say Various Conflicting Factors Create Economic Enigma.
--Federal Judge Edward Korman In Brooklyn Orders Restrictions Removed From "Morning After" Pill; Says Age Nor Prescription Availability Should Bar Any Of Reproductive Age..
--Latest Courthouse Shooting In Mississippi Leaves Two Dead.
--Immigrant Maid Who became Heiress To Gigantic Johnson & Johnson Fortune, Dead.
--China Rounding Up, Killing Birds To Stem Spread Of New Flu.
Two farmers were talkin' when one asks the other, "How many cattle you got there?" The second farmer scratches his head, "199...well 200 after I rounded 'em up."
A town I used to live is concerned that Main Street maybe not safe for pedestrians, in the wake of two accidents. The problem is simple, people cross streets without looking because of the silly laws put in place giving walker/talkers the right of way on roads built for cars. Responsibility is a two way street.
An informed reader notes that while we can tally up an impressive list of "Electric" style cars, their gleaming exterior does not fully tell the inside story: The cost of producing and distributing electricity, and it's relative inefficiencies that produce energy losses; the cost of pollution effects in the manufacture and disposal of lithium batteries.
Things they don't teach in Illegal Drug Distribution School:
When your car is packed with cocaine, heroin or marijuana et. al., do not speed or go through stop signs and red lights. Do not drive with broken rear lights or hidden license plates. This does not apply if you are Hispanic, Asian or black, which licenses you to get off because of racial profiling.
One of the things I used to say about our country was, at least we don't have killings in the streets or lunatic mobs on the steps of government.
I may have to tune out American Idol. Lazaro in the top three made no sense. We have five women left, each of whom can be the best of the lot on any given night. And, then Lazaro, the lone male who continually forgets words, whines that he has never heard of a song he is singing and complains he hadn't enough time to practice -- which several times have been a gross exaggeration, or is that a lie? After next week there rightfully should be five women left. But the young girls who don't seem to know music or ethics will vote for superficiality. And, I don't see that either. Maybe the Judges should, instead of having a "Save", be given the right to vote somebody off who doesn't deserve it.
Reading Between the Lines Movie Reviews:
--The big release is Jurassic Park in 3D. Same movie, better effects.
--The second big hyped flick of the week is Evil Dead, another remake of an 80's film. It is a typical horror film where kids, in this case 20 somethings, gather in an out of the way place for fun only to find a Book of the Dead and unwittingly release demons that proceed to kill off the group members, probably starting with those of least moral character leaving only a couple of valiant heroes making it to the end. Lotsa blood and body parts.
--The Company You Keep is a Robert Redford Directed film about an upstate NY, successful lawyer who is also a single father. His beautiful life is shattered when it is discovered that he was once a member of the radical Weather Underground, when he was accused of being a trigger-man in a bank robbery years before. He is forced to go on the lam to prove his innocence, and along the way seeking old friends for help, he meets drug dealers, assorted bomb throwing leftists, Viet Nam vets, FBI agents and Republicans pondering the legacy of the 60's. Could be decent if it isn't liberally political.
--The Trance is about an art heist that goes wrong. The thief in his escape gets knocked on the head and forgets everything. The mob wants the art but as they say, you can't get hot fudge from a stone. They hire an hypnotherapist who delves into his mind and discovers the lines between truth, deceit and suggestion begin to blur. I wonder what that means.
The Conscience: Chapter 18.
"Hi beautiful. Or should I say, Ciao mia bella mogie."
"Cut the Italian Crap." Ah yes I thought, Evvy is still the matter of fact woman who leads me cautiously through life. "But, I am missing you. Even slobbering, staggering you. So, what's going on?"
"A lot of stuff. It's really hard to tell though. I've only been here a couple of days now and much of it has been just trying to gain confidence of the woman I'm forced to deal with." I thought forced was a good touch. "She seems Ok," yeah like she's fantastic, "and I believe you would be proud of me."
"Hey, you sound pretty sharp. What's Genoa like?
"I have only seen the commercial waterfront, all business."
"Yeah right, the waterfront and the inside of the mini-bar!"
"Well sure, that's a given." I patted my chest pocket. "This situation is even weirder, I'm beginning to believe, than an old friend calling out of the blue to give me $25K."
"I'm still nervous for you. Are you being set up? Is the money a consolation prize in a game where you will be left holding a bag of shit." I smiled at that. "That's what I think about when I wake up in the middle of the night." Some times a lunkhead like me forgets what he has."
Don't worry, I'll be careful. I'm going to meet the owners in a couple of hours for lunch. This is a real family place. I love you, and I'll be back soon. Alive and safe."
I hit off, feeling a little ache in my heart. I shook my head, and called Jason.
The Answer:
According to Ebert, here's a list to put into your Netflix Queue: Vertigo, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Tree of Life, Tokyo Story. Raging Bull, The General (1927 Buster Keaton), La Dolce Vita, Citizen Kane, Apocalypse Now and #1 Aguirre, Wrath of God. Aguirre, according to Ebert is one fo the great haunting visions that tells the take of the doomed Pizarro expedition in Peru looking for the lost city. "Men haunted by a vision of great achievement, who commit the sin of pride by daring to reach for it, and are crushed by an implacable universe." So there!
Music today is about how people dress, get immersed in fog and smoke and zapped by lasers. And of course, body movement. Or, is that course body movement.
Go ballroom dancing this week end, and rediscover.
Your youth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z51nfIOXmfU
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