Today's Tids Issue 3,120
Opening Stuff:
There’s really
nothing much better than the pervasive aroma of ocean salt water in
the air.
It just envelops you with calm, even as the ocean roars in storm driven
rage; pounds incessantly the shore. I feel so alive when the cooling
winds blast my body with
salty spray. I just let it cling like a soothing balm.
How fragile is this
economy when snow and cold can send it reeling back into the dark ages. Now
in the 17th, 18th and even 19th centuries I could
expect snow and a little cold to be a problem, but in 2013? So, does this all
mean that when global warming completely envelops our societies that we’ll never
have another downturn?
I was talking to a
guy yesterday who told me that his dad was so practical and strict, that
for his 7th Christmas he got a shovel.
The Question:
A movie Critic named Mary Kelly has picked the worst actors
and actresses. Name the top Ten. Bonus:
Which 7 states do you think are those getting younger in average age?
The Headlines:
--May Economic Numbers Only See
Autos As Positive; Much Of Increased Average Income Went Into Savings And Not
Shopping; Market Skids Seriously On Softer Than Expected Economic Data And Word
Of Increased Interest rates..
--Applications For New Unemployment
Bennies Remain Unchanged At 312K.
--Legal Experts Say That Boehner
And US House Probably Can’t Sue Obama For “Kinglike” Proclamations; The
Problematic Issue Is A Requirement Proving “Real Harm”, Where Harm Is In the Eye
Of The Beholder.
--Large Decline In Health Care
Spending Main Culprit In Dramatic First Quarter Economic Slowdown.
--IRS News: Learner Tried To
Audit GOP Senator Grassley For Political Purposes.
--Honeymoon Over For Fed’s
Yellen; Critics Say She Should Focus More On Inflation Than Jobs.
--Injun Group To File Lawsuit
Against Cleveland Indians.
--Benghazi Gunman Kill Prominent
Libyan Feminist Leader, Salma Bugaihis..
--Explosions Rock Nigerian
Shopping Mall.
--Kerry Warns Of Escalation
After Syria Planes Bomb Sunnis.
--Dozens Of Teens Hospitalized
During Boston Avicii Concert; 36 Of 86 Brought To Hospital; Drug Use Appeared To
be Involved In Sicknesses.
The Supreme Court
verdict yesterday on the case about
Network broadcast thievery was a good one, favoring content developers over
technology. In the Aereo case, they said the company infringed on copyrights
when they essentially stole network broadcasts without paying for the content. Aereo’s
technological achievement could be praised if the end result wasn’t so similar to
any other master criminal who robs or scams cleverly using an innate ingenuity.
A little apology is
in order this morn for some sloppy editing yesterday, especially in that Tidlet
about coal. Those black nuggets cultures are a microcosm of the US economy, and
are now under assault by agenda driven politics. It is a gritty profession that
pays well often masking to region inhabitants the importance of education. The
workers are governed by a substantial union that seems to fight improvements in
safety. And of course the end result for
many has often been a horrible, killer disease. What bothers me is it is becoming
another classic example of the divisive “I’m right, you’re wrong” politics. It
should be – “lets figure this out so we can evolve new technologies for the
future without wiping out industries and killing families”. Or something like
that.
CNBC just announced
that it had beautiful RI at the bottom of their list for places to bring a
business. (Note the rest of the bottom five included other New England states,
yes NE, the birthplace of US industry – Conn 46 and Maine 45. The top NE state
was Mass at 25.) The problem here will never end, because the unions running
the state legislature are so strong and unyielding to the needs of all the
people. If you think I’m hopelessly reconciled to stagnation and decline, just
consider that this morning it was announced that 46 RI Senators and Representatives
are running unopposed. Sam,e ile’, same ole’.
A new plan, it
says, has Pope Francis and Bill Gates saving the world! Have they told Putin
about that?
The takes longer
to write in this new world, mainly because of constantly looking up the spelling
of complicated Middle East names.
I just thought of a
great name for a restaurant specializing in Flatbread Falafel and Fattoush –Middle
Eats.
Uh-Oh…the big election
campaign money now seems to be coming from groups involved in housing, real
estate and development. That could mean a new raping of our green rolling
hillsides, and I don’t like it. Now, if it were to rebuild cities and towns and
malls on land already ravaged by thoughtless redevelopment, I’m for it.
Speaking of the White
House urging the crash and burning of coal as a prime “Very affordable”
energy source, I have to relate a story of another “I’m against it, and the
facts be damned” situation. One day a
bearded guy showed up at my house, while the crystal clear ocean pounded upon the
rocks across the way, wanting me to sign a petition urging the cessation of a
possible development of a deep water port at Quonset. Of course, I had an
opinion, and guess what, he listened. We talked about an hour, and he seemed to
understand the concept of perhaps working everything out for the benefit of
all. I probably didn’t change his mind much, but continuous conversations
between so-called violently opposing parties might eventually erode the rocks
between them, like the never relaxing ocean carves and softens craggy stones
along the shore.
Tonight is the NBA
draft, and as a huge Celtics fan, I’m looking for Larry Bird to walk through
that door. I really don’t know these players well, like I used to when they actually
hung around campus for more then a year. The so-called experts say the class is
very deep and very good, but I didn’t see any resurrection specialist out
there. Many are too young, too immature, in my estimation, to actually carry a
team on their backs to a championship. Good pieces, but not the panacea. I’d
like a big trade, and was excited about Kevin Love, but I’m thinking that is
not going to happen. I guess tonight, I’ll just get out a bag of puffy orange
you-know-what’s and cross my stained fingers.
The Conscience:
Chapter 47 -The Last Bottle.
I sat staring at
an unopened jug of cheap Vodka on the table in front of my ragged leather couch.
The heavy envelope in my lap contained two toms=ns of divorcé papers. It was a
sad pile of legalize, but I guess I was happy for Evvy, who I still loved just
as I had the first day I saw her; that face, the way she walked in and talked
to the girls at the front of my high
school classroom. I smiled at the scene in my head. And felt the same tingle.
She deserved a
life without me, the me she only thought she knew. The me of a thousand secrets
and another reality hidden by booze. I only wondered if it was hard for Ev to
push the button that sent the printers pouring out paper. I touched the pile
and lifted it, feeling the heft. The papers didn’t tell me anything.
The phone rang,
and I stood, the pile of woe sliding from my knees to the floor, scattering. I
figured it was James again trying to pay me millions ot work for him. I just
wasn’t ready, but then I couldn’t really say why I wasn’t maybe, I thought I
had to greive about my inept past a little longer.
“Hello”, I said in
a moderately intelligent voice. I was about to say, “no James…”
“Mr. Morgan, you
sound so aware.” The laughter in Angelica’s voice conflicted with the papers on
the floor.
“Buongiorno” I said
smiling. “I have been practicing, just in case you called.”
“You are doing very
well, Jeffery Morgan. I am very happy to hear your voice.”
I could tell. She
is just so honest in her emotions. “So what brngs you back into my life,” I said,
probably without thinking as usual.
“Oh,” she
started, “I could say I missed your voice, but I have never forgotten your
voice.” She paused, maybe wondering if she had spoken without thinking. But, I
thought she had said it perfectly. She was good at making old men feel young. “I
am firmly situated down here at Bernard, Mr. Smith is letting me and my
Grandfather run the company just as though we still owned Biglietto Panfilo.”
“James is a smart
man.”
The Answer:
Some of these picks may astonish you, but according to the Mary
Kelly most are low on the good acting poll because the actor is generally just
playing him or herself. In other words they are always the same no matter the story.
On some of them, Kelly will give them credit for “Redeeming work” in Parenthesis.
Number one for bad is Cameron Diaz (Redeeming – “My Best friends Wedding”).
Next is Katherine Heigl (Redeeming – Grey’s Anatomy) and then Meaghan Fox (Call
of Duty: Ghosts – Commercial), Jonah Hill (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), Michael
Cera (Scott Pilgrim vs. the world), Gwyneth Paltrow (Sylvia), Adam Sandler
(Spanglish), Angelina Joli (Girl Interrupted), Vince Vaughn (Wedding Crashers)
and #10 Carey Mulligan (Pride and Prejudice). You can figure out your own “Redeeming’s”
for the next ten baddies – Scarlet Johansson, Sylvester Stallone, Zac Efron, Jessica Alba, Willa and Jaden Smith, Julia
Roberts, Jessica Biel, Robert Pattison and Jennifer Anniston. Bonus: The youthful seven are North
Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Hawaii and Alaska. The two
states with the highest percentage of folks over 65 are Florida and Maine;
Lowest Alaska and Utah. Women were the Majority population in 40 of 50 states.
I have to get started
on another serialized novel, the fifth, for the Tids. Maybe I’ll try to
make this one meaningful to society. That kind of writing seems to sell
regardless whether or not it is interesting or entertaining. The last one, in case you missed it, was about
a decent guy who once had convictions about treating underdogs in society with humanity,
but fell into the alcohol pit because of his own lack of courage. I thought it
was pretty good. But then somebody has to read my stuff.
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