Mysteries and mystiques.

Today's Tids Issue 3,741

For Pondering:

Where did you go. You were there and then you were not. Can things that should be, never be. Does time really change what is real? Where did you go. Why can’t I find you? I see you but I can’t find you. It should be simple, but it is not. I wonder, but I should not.

A reader sends in this: “The man who questions opinion is wise; The man who questions fact is a fool.” I would add that the man who questions a woman has totally lost his mind!

There are growing reports from eyewitnesses who say they have seen Bernie Sanders running through the streets of Havana in army fatigues shouting, “Me, Me, let me lead you.” At least he is younger than Raul.

How much longer can the stock market be “overbought”? That is the question pondered by many surprised at the surge. Typically, markets retreat when valuations get too high, but in many reports coming from Wall Street it appears that community is finding now, about a month after that election, that when they cut away from the manufactured hysteria, Trump is not so bad. The financial denizens see his policies as helpful overall to stocks, that perhaps China will do well despite his protestations, and they see different kind of thoughtfulness from the man than they had perceived earlier. So maybe, the people who drive the markets are comfortable for a while. Couple that sense of stability with traditional yearend efforts of institutional managers pushing for the most positive portfolio results, then I’d say Merry Christmas!

The Question:

During the power days of The Soviet Union, there were many communist countries in Europe, Asia and Africa, Today there are five communist countries. Name them. Bonus: England was a mighty Empire. Name five countries other than the US that were once under British rule.

The Headlines:

--Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge Tennessee Ravaged By Fires Pushed By 87 Mph Winds; 3 Dead, 14,000 Flee Fires; Residents Described Race To Safety As “Walking Through Hell”.

--As Iraqi Forces Enter Urban Areas, Battle To Retake Mosul Turning Into Quagmire; Millions Of Citizens In jeopardy.

--Trump Is Crafting Legal Documents To Take Him Totally Out Of Hs Business Activities.

--Carrier Reaches Deal With Trump/Pence To Keep 1,000 Jobs In Indiana.

--Syria Says Israel Rockets Exploded On Highway Near Damascus.

--Romney Praises Trump After “Long And Productive Dinner” With Prez Elect And Priebus.

--Falling Oil Prices Has Saud King Urging Residents To Look Towards A Future Without Benefits Of Boom Wealth.

--Kellogg Pulling Ads From Breitbart.

I hear that LL Bean has been investing heavily into producing cammo pants suits now that the word is out that post-election Hillary loves hiking.

Well, it has started. Yes the four month long parade of movie awards began last night with the National Board of Review naming “Manchester by the Sea” as the top film, and its star Casey Affleck as the best actor. BTW, the film was described as “Critically Adored”! Adored? Amy Admass was named best Actress for a her role in Arrival. She played that basic woman scientist among men seen often in B SiFi movies and I saw nothing exceptional in this one. Jeff Bridges won Best Supporting for Hell and High Water and Naomie Harris won it for Moonlight. The top ten films were: Arrival, Hacksaw Ridge, Hail, Caesar! Hell or High Water, Hidden Figures, La La Land, Moonlight, Patriots Day, Silence and Sully.

The headlines in the local big state newspaper were all about the Governor and her drive to lure business to the state. Yet in an article the day before, the same Newspaper was touting the success of its own Podcast which had become #1 on ITunes and was number two or three in several countries around the world, like Australia. The name of the podcast – “Crimetown”. Yup, that will get businesses flocking to center city!

Two cannibals are eating clown, One says, “Does he taste funny to you?” Thanks to TB who always comes through just when I think the Tids has reproduced every decent pun known to man.

Since good puns are becoming of hard to find, I’m thinking of a new effort on Jewish humor called The Yids.

That quote above about facts versus opinion is very relevant today in the aftermath of the election. I have seen many on the anti-Trump craze who at any cost are willing to avoid truths that may affect their opinions. There is always truth regardless of the opinions of the right or left.

By the way, Trump is one of those people who should always go to Snopes or other rumor analyzers before tweeting.

Of course several Dems including VP candidate Kane ran without facts after the Ohio State terror attack shouting wildly that guns must be banned. Of course, the only gun was used to stop cold in seconds a terrorist who had mowed down innocent pedestrians with a car and then proceeded to stab them with a knife. There are Facts, Opinions, and Ideologies.

The left loves to attack the super wealthy and Wall Street, but millions of retirees and big labor pension plans rely heavily on the success of the markets growing money. Millions of charities receive donations from the profits generated on that street. Of course, to all of the Tids readers the reaction to this Tidlet will be, “Duh!”. But somehow that simple rational message isn’t told enough to the misinformed. Maybe they should teach it in schools. Maybe they should teach a lot of stuff about America in schools.  

The Answer:

The giant of course is China. Though Communist, it has been  latching onto capitalist models to improve their ability to grow wealth. Next is Cuba followed by Laos, Viet Nam and North Korea. Bonus: First there are the Dominions like New Zealand, Canada, Ireland and Australia. There are numerous territories now independent, Like India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, South Africa, Nigeria, Myanmar, Kenya, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Egypt, Bahamas and Hong Kong. There were 64 counties in all. The remaining British colonies are Bermuda, Anguilla, Gibraltar, Falkland Islands and of course, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

I didn’t have much to say to day, and that is a mystery. I’ll have to look into that for tomorrow. Where am I. Why am I not here?

My heart bleeds red…and white and blue.

Today's Tids Issue 3,740

For the flag waving in chilly morning skies:

I watched the frost fade slowly from the grassy plain as the sun rose from its evening nap and pushed long shadows across the 35 degree fields. There is something entirely brilliant about a morning of near freezing temperatures in November. Even my fading eyes seem to see forever in late Autumn’s glistening skies. The clarity reveals the large American flag flapping in 10 knot breezes, standing tall before the seas that lay beyond; reflecting crystalline spray. The cold does not penetrate as I feel the warmth of God’s glorious world and that flag looming before it representing the magnificence of our founding visions of perfect freedoms and proud independence.

Beep. Beep, beep, beep. Beep’s here, beeps there, everywhere a beep-beep. This is our new society with warnings about something everywhere. Intruding often on peaceful contentment. Did I forget to turn off an appliance” Is an appliance turning on, and what will it do? Is that a warning sign or a completion sign? I’d like to get back to my own intuitiveness. The beep is becoming like the bleeping government.

The Question:

Name 3 operas of Puccini and three operas of Verdi.

The Headlines:

--Plane Carrying Brazil “Fairy Tale” Chapecoense Soccer Team Goes Down Columbia Killing At least 76, 5 Injured.

--USA GDP Growth Revised Upward; Outlook For World’s Largest Economy Appears Quite Healthy; Stocks Off To Slow Start..

--Oil Prices Fall On Word That Iran Will Not Cut Output; Cyber Monday Sales Crush Estimates; US Home Prices Break Record For September.

--Tennessee Wildfire Forces Residents To Flee Areas Around Great Smoky Forest And Tourist Area Gatlinburg.

--Trump Names ObamaCare Foe Tom Price To Head Health Department; Trump Staff Continues To Blast Romney.

--Rosie Says She Meant No Harm By saying Trump’s Son Baron Looks Autistic.

Duct tape could make America a better place – over the mouth of Rosie O’Donnell and around the Donald’s twitter fingers. Sometimes you don’t need the Supreme Court or The Hague to come up with reasonable solutions.

Sports Things: All eyes may be on the Bahamas his Thursday through Sunday as Tiger Woods makes his first appearance in nearly two years. He says he is very nervous and quiet anxious. I’m sure the competitors are also the same, wondering how good that great player will be. This is an 18 player field with all of the Bigs. –Remember when The Davis Cup was about as big a sporting event that existed? Over the weekend Argentina beat Croatia to win the coveted world title. Remember when it was always USA and Australia? –RI woman soccer players Stephanie Ribiea and Mckenzie Meehan are two of the best college players in the land. Steph, is tried for the top place among all scorers. –Kyle Irving was a great NBA player for Cleveland before Labron arrived, and still is.  – The final * for men’s NCAA soccer championship are Providence, North Carolina, Denver, Clemson, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Louisville and Stanford.  –Then Baseball contract negotiations will be the next big away from the field sporting event. This highly paid group of athletes wants to make sure they are not short circuited by new league rules.

Being an accomplished Typo-Man like me has its advantages. For instance, I can easily read all of those indecipherable auto-corrected texts that come over my electronic transom.

Well, there are but 15 days left on The Voice. Last night proved to be quite entertaining, opening with the near perfect singing of Billy Gilman and in between being treated to a very personable and talented We. Some of the best stuff, though, came from Sundance, Christian and Brenden Fletcher. Ali got a lot of adoration but I thought she was a little screechy. Personally, I like Courtney, but again she started out singing well, and then proceeded into overdrive to a point where she can’t keep up with herself. Josh isn’t bad and comes across as a good country singer who will do well as an opening act. Aaron totally picked the wrong song and at times he looked like he knew he shouldn’t be singing Rocket Man. I thought he was dreadful. I personally liked Austin, but it appears he will be one of the bottom four vying to be two of those not cut with Aaron, Courtney and Josh. Courtney and Aaron will probably go. So I’m going to go back and replay the two best performances of the night, Sundance Head with “Me and Jesus, and Christian Cuevas with “Million Reasons.”

I think that Sundance is building a following as his last night’s performance of Me and Jesus was the number one song on ITunes downloads. Other Voice contestants did well too with four more in the Top ten – Brenden Fletcher (3), Billy Gilman (4), Christian Cuevas (7) and We McDonald (10). Of the rest, Ali hit #15, Josh #42, Austin #45, Aaron #72 and Courtney was at 146. Lots of Gilman and Sundance older “TV” efforts are now showing up on the ITunes list too.

I had one of those moments last week, you know the kind when your heart crumbles realizing you don’t really live any more in the world that will be. Yes, despite my strongest recommendations, my grandson opted for a flat brim hat instead of a good ole’ rolled brim hat! Arrrrrrrrrrgggh! Actually, he’s so cute that he looked good in it anyhow. The real problem was that he chose a Seattle Seahawks hat over the Pats, but with a twinkle in his eyes that’s said gotcha Grandad – I am My own man. I think I am raising a curmudgeon.

Dictionary .Com names it’s word of the year. It came to fame when 0-Man and others in rants used it to demean a huge part of the population who believe strongly that controlled immigration is far better for a great country that the chaos of illegal immigration.

Old people have many views of millennials, but one of them probably isn’t that the younger generation are also Marlboro Men and Women  just like them Yes , the young people have Marlboro cigarettes soaring again, up to a 46% share of market. It appears that Newport and Camel Ciggybutts were making a run at the leader, but the old guy on the big horse said giddyap and left hem in the dust as he road into the evening sun.

I don’t normally put in “The (Tids) Headlines” statements attributed to Donald Trump knowing that they will probably change or be proven disjointed.

The Answer:

For the great Giacomo Puccini we have 13 operas the most famous being La Boheme, Tosca, Madman Butterfly and Turandot. Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi wrote 15 Operas including his best Known Aida and Il Travatore, Falstaff and Alzira.

Somebody just isn’t teaching too many people what the stars and stripes really stands for. Left leaners demeans patriotism as a character flaw, but banding together for the good of all under fair and balanced laws should be the objective of all in humankind. I don’t get burning of flags, but I understand that you probably have no chance of a reasoned conversation with those that do. Give me my flag and let me wave it high with  and snare drums rat-tatting urging me on. Lifting up my voice, “My country tis of thee, sweet land of liberty…”

The frost melts away as the sun takes the day.

Today's Tids Issue 3,739

For Frosty the Snowman

I think that advertisers are going for peace and understanding this Christmas. Three commercials in a row I saw Saturday – Coke, Apple and Mercedes -- displayed soft settings with beautiful emotional music and featured reactively giving to others unselfishly, no place like home and young beautiful innocent love. They all got to my goosebumps generator. Maybe it will become a National trend.

Some day in the future there will be a nostalgic clamoring to get back to the charm of Analog. And somebody will make money jumping on the bandwagon.

Mike Peters describes it as “Black and Blue Friday”. I could call it, America loses its mind day. Scenes of mall brawls remind me of what it may have been like when cavemen battled over a prehistoric animal carcass. Everything in the world has advanced except civility, it seems. Peace on earth, good will towards men. Yeah, right.

One of the reasons that education is more important than ever is because so many of the new middle class jobs and those of the future require thought process skill sets instead of manual capabilities.

It has been pretty obvious that the way they determine the NCAA Football Championship has been a big charade governed by big TV money. It doesn’t get any weirder today with the fact that the Bowl pickers are trying to choose between Michigan and Ohio State, while neither of them are in their own league’s championship – that being played between Penn State and Wisconsin. I think that says a lot --sexiness over common sense.

The Question:
There are six types of US Navy ships remaining. What are they?

The Headlines:

--Stocks Lower As Investors Cash in; Some are Concerned About Consumer and Financial Stocks.

--Cyber Monday Sales Expected To o Lower As Early Sales Suck Form Big Annual Day.

--Islamic Sate Gone As Mosul Citizens Adjust To New Life; Intelligence Officials Fear Increase In ISIS Attacks Astound The World

--Weekend Shooting Permeate Downtown Cities Of KC and NO.

--Trump Somewhat Berserk In His Recount Tweets; Recounts Unlikely To Change Much, As Trump Margins Are all Over 10K; Hill Campaign Says Their Investigation Found No Evidence Of Hacking

--Cuban Communist Castro Resigns From Party, Permanently At 90; American Ousted Cubans Cher In The Streets; Some World Leaders Have Trouble Being Diplomatic.

I usually can find something decent to say about the deceased, but all I can think of for Fidel was that he effectively sucked delusional USA liberals into supporting a system that didn’t work and mired Cuban citizens in hopelessness. Not to mention the torture and debasing of people.

Instead of over regulating which that may hinder innovation and creativity, a better way of safeguarding USA consumers from the evil deeds of nefarious Wall Street denizens would be to impose a no loop-hole, do discretion set of mandatory jail sentences for all infractions of distrust large and small, regardless of the stature of the perpetrator – from the lowliest clerk giving away inside info to the top of a financial institution creating an atmosphere of get away with wat you can. Self-regulation will work if the weasels can’t buy their way out with a fine.

Data Scientist has moved u[p out of nowhere to become the third hottest job classification in the USA. Colleges are jumping on that newest of career bandwagons. The early adopter in the field will be in demand. But, it isn’t for everyone – it takes mega brains to do it.

Now Obama has opened up Cuba for tourists. For what, to gawk at a failed society.

You know that Winter around here isn’t very far away when you read that Up at Killington Ski area they held a World Cup Ski meet yesterday! Yikes.

Personally, I like to spell Berserk with “Z”. Berzerk just sounds crazier to me.

Obama was hard pressed to tell the truth about the now deceased Castro, well known for torture, repression etc, saying that history would record and judge the enormous impact of Castro”. History for Cubans stopped when Castro stepped in. Our weasel congressman Cicilline was trying to walk a tightrope too. But USA socialist Jill Stein, said it all for her left wing backers paying up to fund recounts in Wisc, Pa an Mich: “Fidel Castro was the symbol of the struggle for justice in the shadow of Empire. Presente!” And up in Canada, PM Trudeau Jr. practically did backflips extolling the virtues of a dictator who cast a pall over a once vibrant nation. So basically, the left thinks torture is good when one of theirs has turned it into an art form. If it’s art, then it is culturally good.

A U Michigan fan friend of mine says he went to church yesterday for a “Wolverinanovena”, which he hopes will help for next year. Maybe he could get Kaepernick to inspire the team get down on their knees…this time for a positive reason.

Maybe the Hamilton cast’s next big musical adventure will be “Castro”.

The Tea Party has been unfairly mischaracterized by the left leaning press. So it will be interesting to see how they treat another congressional block known as the “13 Leaders of the Socialist Movement in Congress”: Nancy Lala-Pelosi, David Cicilline, Barbara Lee, Matt Cartwright, Jan Schakowsky, Mark Takano, Bernie with a Capitol “B”, Sheila Jackson Lee, Raul Grijalva, Michael Honda, Keith Ellison, Rubin Gallego and Mark Pocan. So if you hear something sounding seemingly rationally prosaic from these mouths, run away as fast as you can.

Remember when getting on your knees meant praying to God. Now it means denigrating the flag. Making America great again could mean getting on your knees again for the right reason.

My new Weight loss game is putting a bag of chips or Cheetos about an arms length reach away. I stop eating when my fingers can no longer reach the salty bad boys. Unless, I shift my hips a little further towards the temptation.

I think a lot of people will be happy to see my generation disappear so they won’t have to listen about how great and beautiful things were in the Fifties.

One of the worst things that happened to America was the Urban renewal movement of the middle 60’swhen big developers sued Gobs of HUD money to destroy comfortable downtowns, replacing them with gallerias and a other massive blights. Now they are trying to figure out who to get rid of these now blots on the community.

The Answer:

There are six classes of ships but within those classes especially in Cursers  and Destroyers there are some real old fogies just hanging on. The classes are Aircraft Carriers, Amphibious Assault Ships, Cruisers, Littoral Combat Ships, Destroyers and Submarines. I expect to hear from my navy friends.

I just came back from playing golf. It was a magnificent, warm 35 degrees. You can’t beat it!