Efficiency can be detrimental to your happiness.

Today's Tids Issue 3,708

For Featherbedding:

Today after accountant’s churning, Wall Street begins eying earnings. Yes it is the season of yearning, for results quite discerning, with the hope we will be learning, that negative numbers we’re spurning, That the results companies are returning, will set the markets afire - burning. Negative forecasts overturning, to eliminate collective concerning. Thanks folks, I’m adjourning

One of my biggest problems these days is managing to put on my jeans without my toenails getting caught in the hem. That takes a lot of time away from pondering global warming.

There’s many a Saturday when watching NASCAR just seems to hit the spot.

It seems to me, as I watch presidents, candidates and economic analysts promote prosperity using data based on historic productivity values that probably ended around 1973, that US may have to reset their base growth standards. Oh, that post WWII economic bonanza had enough oomph to make GDP growth appear healthy perhaps through the 1990’s. Of course that was aided by the smoke and mirrors economy of the .Com explosion that deteriorated rapidly when valuations went to Pluto. The point here is that we probably entered a new style growth era in the eighties that was still riding on a cloud actually produced in the fifties and sixties. To expect a USA now swimming in a global rip tide to revert to a manageable 4-5 % annual increase similar to the USA vacuum era is problematic at best. And to expect any new style growth to involve massive job creation is to forget that increased productivity in the new technology world probably results in fewer broad based decent paying jobs. Its complex, but there are too many facts out there often overlooked by seekers of votes who hold out promises that basic economics can’t fulfill.

Do you realize that The USA was attacked last week four times by an Iran backed Houthis group; that Putin, in response to a US announcement of massing a cyber-attack, said that they are willing to go to war; that Putin has publicly recalled all of his citizens from around the world to come to the safety of mother Russia in the event of a world war; that NK tried to launch another intercontinental missile; that nuke nations India and Pakistan are shooting at each other? And our presidential races and media are talking about groping.

The Question:

Who do you think are considered the five greatest composers of operas?

The Headlines:

--Market Opens Lower, Even As Manufacturing Rises For Third Month.

--Iraq with USA backup Launches Campaign To Oust ISIS From Mosul; Humanitarian Groups Warn That Over A Million Citizens Could Be Subject To Devastation.

--Trump And Clinton Condemn Bombing Of Repub Headquarters In NC.

--Poll Numbers Have Clinton Looking Stronger.

--Bank Of America Leads Beginning Of Q3 Earnings Season With Strong 7.3 % Increase.

--Assange Wiki-Leaks Internet Link Has Been Severed By State Party; Contingency Plans Activated.

--Now A Federal Crime To Bring Galaxy 7 Aboard Plane.

--Philippine’s President Making Trip To Woo China; Long Time US Ally Looking To switch Allegiances, Say Far East Watchers.

A friend of mine tells me of the scene during the final days of Arnold Palmer’s life. The friend was standing by a window among several nurses, all watching a close friend of Arnold’s lean down to hear a few last words from the great man. The friend watched the man rise, now with a small grin on his face. “What did he say,” the friend asked. The man answered “Arnold wants me to make sure the PGA follows through with his suggested golf lexicon change, calling a “bad Lie” a “Hillary.” The nurses were giggling.

Verdi’s Te Deum is pretty good Sunday morning listening.

Duh Headline of the Weekend Department:

Providence Journal Endorses Hillary Clinton For President.” The paper has been endorsing HC 24/7 for about 15 months.

I’ll tell you what really bothers me – chefs sneaking jalapenos into what used to be good regular food. I would call that culinary illegal immigration.

If anybody is responsible for Trump’s decline it is the man himself. It’s not because of things he said or did or didn’t do 10, 20, 30 years ago, but his larger than life image of self that directs his energy to petty bickering. He has missed opportunity after opportunity to act like a real potential president while not destroying the relationship with the masses tired of politics and Washington as usual. He doesn’t seem to understand changing the subject, being current.

Did you see where a Podesta email complained that the San Bernardino shooter wasn’t a white man. I always thought Podesta was a creep. If Hillary really wants a high road campaign, she should fire him

I never pack away summer stuff until around Thanksgiving. My legs just seem to work better in shorts.

But then, The Pilgrim’s Chorus from Wagner’s Tannhauser always sends chills up my spine.

By the way, the Trumpster’s inferior use of words just makes it easier for the enemy to respond. Like Friday and Saturday when he said “Rigged election” and what he described was “Prejudiced national campaign environment”. That allowed Dems and Establishment Repubs alike to issue statements like “we have complete confidence in the election process and the unrestricted freedom to vote which is so precious to the nation and all Americans.”

Obama wouldn’t have coordinated the timing of the Mosul offensive to coincide with the final debate and national voting day, would he?. And hand out T-Shirts to the military: “Win one for The Hillster”.

Maybe he’ll stand in central Baghdad on November 5th before a giant sign, “Mission ISIS Crush Accomplished.’

If I bought everything I needed at BJ’s on Monday. I wouldn’t have anything to do on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

High productivity’s great for profitability but not necessarily for high employment.

Is it me, or does it seem that there are more NFL injuries now than ever before. And this as the NFL brass each year introduces more rules governing play and hitting. Maybe getting back to free-wheeling football will allow layers to react and perform more naturally.

And, how about those officials calling minor bumps and unintentional brushes of face masks et al as major penalties. Whatever happened to judgment? We used to live in a world where people understood the level of intent before banishing an accused to lower than life status.  Let’s hope the government doesn’t follow the NFL. Or that Roger Goodell becomes a Supreme Court Justice.

You have to wonder how many of these campus demonstrations are led by young law students hoping to build a resume.

I remember as a young “executive” being told that if I write a letter in anger some afternoon, to put it in my desk drawer and reread it in the morning. Maybe Twitter should issue automated warnings as a service to some of their unhinged aficionados.

You’d think the Tids would feel more triumphant considering I’m listening to great Operatic choruses while I write.

The Answer:

It is agreed that the greatest Ten composers are alphabetically Berg, Britten, Donizetti, Handel, Monteverdi, Mozart, Puccini, Rossini, Richard Strauss, Verdi and Wagner. Other’s with a lot of support are Bellini, Berlioz, Bizet, Glinka, Gounod, Lully, Massenet, Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky. Note, No Beethoven. I guess he just wrote Overtures! Picking the best is probably a matter of personal taste. One list of the 5 best has it Mozart, Rossini, Wagner, Verdi and Puccini, all indeed very popular. A NY Times music critic Anthony Tommazini has Alban Berg as writing the two greatest operas – Wozzeck and Lulu. There’s room for discoveries.

You are the best. Just remember that. What more can I say. I’m outta here.