Layng quietly in fields

Layng quietly in fields
Glstening lights

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

“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.


No comments:

Post a Comment