“Talent is God given, be humble. Fame is man given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.” --John Wooden

Today's Tids Issue 3,807

For Rejuvenation:

You’ll find some quotes sprinkled throughout this Tids. I was trying to find a title for his issue that would be meaningful with regards to the possibility of a Presidential performance emerging tonight. The speech isn’t really that important. It’s whether he stands tall and rises above his defensive rhetoric of the first five plus weeks. We have all heard the drone of budget speeches before, covering topics that have yet to be ground up in-between the grit of opposing aisles of Congress. I think what most people will be looking for is leadership. Will Donald Trump rise above the pettiness of himself and his opposition? That is the question for tonight. This is the center of the world stage.

The words of LalaPelosi have always confounded me. Now she sounds totally irrelevant, like she’s the reincarnation of Harry Reid.

A lot of people won’t be watching the Trump speech, and they will continue to wallow in the perceived comfort of ignorance. However, it’s not disinterest, but other interest. Yes, a big part of the reason is that according to brand new statistics on YouTube, people worldwide are spending One Billion hours per day watching videos! Holy crap! That is exactly 41.7 Thousand days of watching videos in one day. And that doesn’t even count all the time it takes peeps to make and upload videos. No wonder people don’t have the time to read beyond misleading headlines.

“To succeed in life you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone.” Reba McEntire

The Question:

Quick! What movie won best film Oscar one year ago in 2016? Bonus: Who said the words that a lot of people seem to like: “Work like you don’t need the money. Love like you’ve never been hurt. Dance like nobody’s watching.”

The Headlines:

--Trump To Make First Joint Session Of Congress Speech; Observers Are Wondering What Democrats Will Do.

--Sicilians Panicked As Mount Etna Blows In Huge Eruption.

--Markets Lower; GDP Holds At 1.9%; Target Takes A Beating After Lower Sales And Profits.

--SpaceX Announces Around The Moon Flight For Two High Paying Customers.

--Big Jewelers Like Kay, Jared Said To Be Sex For Promotions Hot Beds; Open Heart Neckless Seems More Symbolic Than Ever; Uber Engineering Chief Steps Down Over Sexual Harassment.

--US News And World/McKinsey & Company Report Names Massachusetts As “Best State In USA”. Exhaustive Study Has New Hampshire As Number Two. The Rest Of The Top Ten Are MN, ND, WA, IA UT, MD, CO and VT. Other New England States -- RI Number 21, Conn 12 and Maine 18. Bottom Five are LA, MS, AR, AL and NM.

I was reading some early history of Long Island last night and was amused by the 1749 establishment and building of the first Episcopal Church in Brooklyn (Brookland _ English; Breuckelen – Dutch). A bright guy suggested a lottery, just like we might today. They printed and sold 4,000 tickets at 20 Shillings per. That gave them plenty to build a very fine church near the all-important ferry to Manhattan. Something’s never change.

I never thought I would enjoy seeing the return of The Voice, as much as I did last night. It was just great to be entertained without opinions of world events. I think I smiled continuously for a couple of hours. The music was good and I even enjoyed the simple fun jousting of the judges. As you old timers know, the Tids has always reviewed this show. I generally don’t do much until the teams have been formed and the real completion begins. But, there were several very good performers last night, including a good “Sundance Head” (Last year’s Winner) knock-off who didn’t get a chair turn. But, I really liked a couple of much better than average country/folk singers -- Lauren Dusky and Stephanie Rice. Another young Country gal, 14-year-old Brennley Brown was good too. I was impressed with the power voice of R&B singer JH Chosen and enjoyed Johnny Hayes. Of those who watched the opener 56% thought it Awesome, 25% Very Good and 13% OK. Stay tuned.

I just hate those threats to Jewish Synagogues in 12 states yesterday. While it is early to know everything, it appears that they are generated off shore and it is part of a well-coordinated plan to scare.

Hollywood is lobbying congress to call for a special prosecutor for leading the investigation into the dreaded missed Best Movie announcement. Trump likes the idea of shifting the heat. I have not lost sleep over it, but gossip personalities are flittering around aghast. One opinion is that this may be the only Best film award winner in history that will be remembered a year later. (See Question above)

RI’s very Democrat Governor Gina Raimondo, an extreme Hillary supporter, came back from her visit to the Admin not in a dither. That sounds better. The presidents of black colleges were there the next day (Yesterday) and they heard the Prez say that he will help HBCU’s as part of his “New Deal for Black America” plan. A senior WH official said this group will “serve as a strategic partner to the president’s urban agenda.”  They appeared generally happy too.

On the above, the media spent more time reporting missteps like Kelley Conway’s pic on the oval office white couch, than some positive substance. Conway looked pretty out of context kneeling on an Oval Office white couch with her shoes on. But, that is the growing problem with much of the media, they underreport the meat in favor of twitter fodder.

“Laziness is nothing more than resting before you get tired.” – Jules Renard

To most people, Long Island seems to be a big overflow catch basin for NYC. But, the development of LI is more connected to New England. In fact, LI was in the beginning considered part of the Plymouth Colony. The easiest travel of the times was by boat as you might imagine, and it was relatively easy to sail from the LI North Shore ports to Block island, RI’s Narragansett Bay port towns, Connecticut ports and to Massachusetts’ Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and Buzzard’s Bay ports. The Dutch originally controlled western LI, but the English migrated over in the mid 1600’s from Mass, Conn and RI in New England after having big irreconcilable problems with their Religious leaders. So, LI grew with a culture based on New England and resisted commonality with Manhattan right up until the Brooklyn Bridge was built in 1898. 

The reason we have so many reported inconsequential uproars as news is simply because of the avalanche of crazed tweeters.

The Parking Lot: Chapter continues…

   Jared just stood there and looked at the apparently lifeless Lug. Who is this woman who has him wrapped around her finger. He shook his slowly and turned to see a Nancy who was once again on a distant planet or in another era. Her eyes were fixed on the window of Claudia Howland’s home.

    “Stay here a minute,” she finally said.

   “What about him?” Jared smiled meekly.

   “He shouldn’t bite anymore.” With that, she moved towards the house.

   Jared walked back a couple of step so the body of Lug was in-between him and the house. He felt better.

    The woods were silent, he could hear the small waves from the calm bay lapping the rocks on the shore to his right. Occasionally he would hear the screech of some animal from the wooded areas all around him. If he wasn’t so tense, this would be a perfect evening for s’mores.

   He was starting to feel better about this new caper, one eye on Lug and the other looking for Nancy. Finally, he saw her coming around the corner of the house, looking up at him. She put her finger to her lips and waved him forward as in, get down here but try not to be clumsy.

   Nancy grasped his arm and tugged him around the corner from where she had just come to small back door.

   Just as she opened the door a small bell rang out. They both froze, she with one foot inside he door. “Is that you, Oscar,” cam cry from the room adjacent to this one.

   Nancy looked back, “Say yes, and try to sound like our old friend.”

   “Yes.” With that Nancy was in the next room where Jared presumed she had seen Claudia siting.

    When he came to the door, he saw Nancy standing behind the woman with one hand over her mouth and the other around her neck. “We are not going to hurt you. We just want to talk. I’m sure you’d like to talk to me. In fact I wondered why you hadn’t called. After all, our families have been friends for years” The woman’s eyes seemed to relax a little.

“It’s not what you look at that matters. It’s what you see.” – HD Thoreau

The Answer:

I had forgotten that Spotlight won last year. Let’s see, Spotlight, Moonlight…. Maybe next we’ll have a chiller named Flashlight, a historic retrospect named Lamplight, an Abe Lincoln Biopic called Candlelight, and an all silhouette movie called Backlight -- where shadows depict people’s other selves. Bonus: Another winner form good ole’ Satchel Paige.

Well, let’s see what happens tonight.

“Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everybody else.”  -- Margaret Meade.

Amazing, Wonderful, Tremendous, Beautiful. Is that about it?

Issue 3.806

For Dave:

All mornings are magnificent, even those cold bitter days when frost crystallizes upon dormant trees and shrubs, bringing them alive, gleaming in the dawning sun. Now, the warmth is creeping in and the urge to walk deepens; to linger in the lanes of the colonial city, to feel the history of lives who trod the same streets and alleys; images of the past feed your imagination, blood rushes new life to a body just aroused from a deep satisfying sleep. And your legs keep moving, step by step by step. You love your quiet interlude before the people roam. Yet, you always enjoy the nod and smile from another plying the bricks and cobblestones just after the dawn.  You are one with others who also find the perfect place – morning.

Elgar’s 2^nd Symphony has some beautiful moments that could have be better. Or maybe the conductor in my version just couldn’t feel the potential. If I knew anything about music, I’d give them some tips.

Russia Agents Mix up envelopes At Oscars, Department:

Still feeling Russia ties from his role on Reds, Comrade Beatty pulls light of hand trick with Best Movie envelope. –Jimmy Kimmel did a good job last night. –I didn’t get the Streep joke until it was too late to laugh. –Many stars thought it very, giddy cool to wear ACLU ribbons last night. –Is there anything more inane sounding than the “Red Carpet” fashion gurus talking about the actor’s wearables; Especially about black tuxes for men? I could write a 3-act play about their attempt to describe a color. –These denizens of Hollywood obviously think they have been anointed by some supreme being. Viola Davis said “We are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life?” Does she mean life of luxury. The Academy loves to talk about art, but they only want to paint using green. If it doesn’t produce the green, it ain’t art. –“The Academy” obviously went over board to atone for last years so-called shunning of blacks by giving out three of the top awards to Viola Davis, Mahershala Ali and Moonlight. –Casey Affleck was really, really surprised. Or else, he was a good actor. –Generally, people enjoyed the Oscars this year, and most felt that while at times it looked like a Trump roast, the political nonsense was less vicious and far below expectations. Maybe this is the first sign of a better national temperament going forward.

The 7 newly discovered “Earth Type” planets are said to be in our neighborhood – even though 735 trillion miles away. With neighbors like that, who needs walls.

The universe must be really, really large. I wonder who thought of that vastness that never ends. Awesome.

Car lovers were over the top hysterical watching the all-electric Tesla go from 0-60 in just 2.8 seconds! Holy Nikola, Batman!

The Question:

Name five prominent celebs who died in car crashes. Bonus: While cars today look great and do magical things, there are a few that are still considered by Consumer Reports to have been built poorly, something you thought only happened in days gone by. Name five of the ten clunkers listed by CR.

The Headlines:

--Markets Open Lower; China Blue Chips Post Wort st dayb I twow Month; tech Stocks Sluggish.

--NBC Reports New Poll That Says Majority of Americans Think News Media Too Hard On Trump (WSJ/NBC Poll..

--Intoxicated Driver Drives Pick-Up Into Mardi Gras Day Parade Injuring 28; Intoxicated Marchers Continued Parade Ten Minutes After Accident Left Many Bloody In The Streets.

--Trump Hosted US Governors Dinner At White House While Actors Mention Him Occasionally At Academy Awards.

--Christians Fleeing Sanai Following “Chilling” Islamic State Threat.

--Oscar Winners: Davis, Ale, Affleck, Stone Moonlight, Chazelle.

--Samsung Shows Up At Big Mobile Exposition Without New Phone; “Not Perfect Yet,” says troubled maker Still Recovering From Exploding batteries; Apple Investigating Report Of Exploding IPhone 7.

--Actor Bill Paxton Dies After Complications From Surgery; Judge Wapner, Te First reality Star, Dies At 91..

--Trump To Break Another Long Time Tradition And Skip Correspondents Dinner; Says He Sees No Need To Sit There And Pretend He Is Enjoying It.

There has been a lot of discussion about how few people actually attend Oscar nominated movies. Maybe it’s because history tells us that many of the critical and academy favorites are boring.

A pretty bright guy named Matt Nichols has written a book about the decline of expertise. It’s somewhat about peoples’ new reliance on internet blips that cross their eyes. In the medical industry, for instance, when a person comes in asking for a remedy to a self-diagnosed illness, it is well known now in medical circles as, “Doctor Google Calling”. This book is an interesting look at today’s society in general where many personal decisions and reactions are based on partial or even worse, no knowledge. Nichols, a Naval War College and Harvard Adjunct Professor, says “US is a country obsessed with the worship of its own ignorance.” People learn to the point where their personal objectives are satisfied without understanding all of the ramifications that may reflect on the truth. People can easily see that they are incapable of a record setting pole vault but will not see or accept the difference between themselves and a highly educated fully knowledgeable person.

I recently saw some startling pictures that dramatize the potential destruction of sea level Miami as the ocean rises. South beach” will become “South Surf”. What will NBA players do then?

I laugh every time I hear some hoe buyer say they want “Midcentury Modern.” Hey, I was mid-century modern!

Actually, highly educated people are sometimes not as smart as the grandiloquence of sophisticated language makes them sound. But, that’s just me, an ignorant Tidster.

Is a Trump Roast anything like a rump roast. Considering what the longer tie hides, it must be good for a pot roast. I guess a Trump Roast is a rare piece of meat.

The Tids noted a couple of issues ago, that in NYC condos were becoming much the favorite over Co-ops. One of the reasons cited was that Co-op vetting was becoming too long and too extreme. My guess is that all of these NY Times readers were getting tired of having to smuggle in a lessor newspaper so they could get their daily dose of the real world in comics.

Is there anything more pretentious than the phrase, “The Academy”.

I don’t care how bad a duly elected American president may be or appear to be, you just can’t call for an impeachment within weeks of an election, mainly because you lost. This is really not how America works. This type of visceral reaction against the facts just shows how ignorant, or why so many want to remain ignorant, about the reality of what America is. Knowledge hurts feelings.

People who enter a country through proper channels are immigrants. People who sneak in, are house thieves.

Why is the Red Sox management allowing my player to play in the World Baseball Classic? It’s just a money grubbing series of games where the only thing I see is possible injury to my favorite players.

While as main stream media likes to portray it as grassroots people rising up and shouting at these town hall meetings, it is now pretty clear that the organization and concerted efforts to get people marching in the streets can be attributed to one group. It is called “Indivisible”, a group who put out the pamphlet guiding it all called “Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda.” (It was not “Common Sense” by TP)  It reads like a typical lesson plan similar to 60’s anarchists and others promoting peaceful “takeovers” outside elections. Two weeks after the Trump Inauguration, 3800 groups were identified as “Indivisibles” and declared their support for the movement. Info for this Tidlet was found in several different sources from the far left to the far right and everything in-between. The authors of the “Playbook” are former Congressional staffers Ezra Levin and Angel Padilla.

Baggy pants are coming back. As one young fashion follower said, “It’s nice to feel my thighs breathing again.” Personally, I have plenty of the pleated variety left over from the last baggy craze.  I always thought they looked better anyhow. Does this also mean that untucked shirts are next to go? Untucked shorts don’t hang well over puffy pleats. Are we also soon to see relaxed fit Yoga pants with pleats. Yoga is all about relaxation, isn’t it?

Dave Brubeck – True Mid-Century Modern, Department

I had a report from couple of knowledgeable sources about a concert featuring three talented young men, one being the son of Dave Brubeck, Chris and his amazingly talented pals Joel Brown and Peter “Madcat” Ruth. The group, Triple Play, most recently played this weekend up in Worcester at the venerable Mechanics Hall to a packed, appreciative crowd. My personal sources were mesmerized, with regularly dropping jaws. A reviewer described it as, ”Three amazing musicians playing a variety of instruments in a throbbing, energetic fusion of jazz, blues, folk, country and even classical riffs.”

In reality we all got better news when there were only 3 TV stations doing it. People went there to be informed of the latest, not to be entertained. Today real news, as Matt Nichols observes, has to fight against which Kardashian is pregnant.

I may be missing something, but when did the ole’ school colors become Black and Dayglow? Maybe when Nike and UnderArmor began paying big bucks for uniform contracts.

The Parking Lot: Chapter 80 continues…

    Jared could see Nancy’s brain working overtime as she sat quietly, her back against a large birch. She knew how to pic the comfortable bark, he thought as he wriggled against the rough pine bark behind him. ‘  

    He saw her head turned sharply, just before he heard a snapping of branches. He was hoping it was vicious animal instead of the Lug. The sound seemed to be following the path they took in, which according to his calculations would bring who or whatever it was directly to them. He eyed Nancy who already was into a squatting position. He hated when she squatted so comfortably, because it killed his legs. He got on his knees.

    The movement through the bushes stopped; perhaps the person listening to the sweat dripping from Jared’s face. He sucked in hos breath. The smartest ting he could do was to wait and follow Nancy. She motioned him to stay still and not move while she moved into a crawling position. “or not”, he thought. With a second she had disappeared. Was he supposed to be the bait?

   Jared heard a crash, and few guttural sounds mixed with some savory words. Another crushing sound. Then silence. Jarod rose to move towards the noise when the bushes started rattling again. With a new sense of strange energy, he darted into the bushes, pausing as he heard the movement towards his position. His heart was pounding and all he could see now was Nancy crushed, lying in mud, blood draining from her beautiful head. The movement got closer and the anger within pushed Jarod taller, ready to meet that immovable force. But, the image before him was small. Small like Nancy.  “Jared<” came a soft whisper. Let’s move. Nancy appeared, magnificently before him, hair messed and dirt on her cheeks, but definitely healthy and in control. Tears ran down his cheeks. He wrapped his arms around her. She pushed them away. Not now.

   The two moved to a position, now in the shadows by an el off the back of the house. “What just happened?”

    “I eliminated the Lug.”

    “Just like that?”

    “Yes,” she said smiling, and looking kind of contented, “Just like that. It’s an old family trick.”

The Answer:

I imagine a lot of people would pick Princess Diana first, but my mind drifted back to 1955 and the day James Dean died violently in a crash. I also thought of another princess and former movie legend Grace Kelley. Some others were Jayne Mansfield, Ya, Ya, Ya…manager Billy Martin, Fast & Furious star Paul Martin, artist Jackson Pollock, “Miracle on Ice” coach Herb Brooks, Um- er…Linda Lovelace, General George Patton, one of my all-time favorite singers Harry Chapin and actually many others like Sam Kinison, legendary boxer Jack Jackson, Pulitzer Prize author David Habersham and CBS News reporter Bob Simon. Bonus: You may be surprised at a few of these: Dodge Dart, Mercedes Benz CLA, Chevy Trax, Chrysler 200, Mitsubishi Evolution, Mazda CX9, Toyota Yari, Jeep Compass (Patriot Too), Fiat 500L and Ford Escape.

Take Five – it was along Tids:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmDDOFXSgAs