Tod bless the Gids.

Today's Tids Issue 3890

For doing your thing:

I’m a late bloomer. Oh, I had plenty of chances to do something with words long ago, golden opportunities presented to me on a silver platter. But, everything else was more important to me then, more peer satisfying than what is important to me now. It’s never good to look back, but occasionally when nobody is looking I take a sneaky peak at what may have been. And, it always boils down to words that never percolated in my youth. Of course, even as I strive I still exhibit signs of my youthful rebellion at learning of dangling participles and “Who versus Whom” by succumbing to conflicts due to CTD (Chronic Typo Disease). But, it’s never too late, is it. Yup, what you never did, is still nestled somewhere deep inside.

So, everything is going to be okay, now…right? The Repubs and Dems are in love. Will they fondly gaze across the aisle, once the great divide, as Chopin’s romantic melodies consume the house and Senate floors. Will hearts swell as opponents read their pleas to help Americans, their way. “Good idea” they will all say and then lean over and hug. The new congress looks pretty good to me.

The headline of the day below is about Amazon buying “Whole Foods. How “tomorrow” is that crazy headline! Triple Zowie!

The Question:

Spoonerisms are word plays in which letters or syllables get interchanged, i.e. “Slips of the Tongue” equals “Tips of the slung”. See if you can guess the common phrases from these four spoonerisms: “Tease my Ears”, “A lack of Pies”, “It’s roaring with Pain” and “Wave the Sails”. Bonus: Name the five most common grammatical mistakes.

The Headlines:

--Amazon to buy Whole Foods for $13.7 Billion; US Conditionally Approves Dupont/Dow Merger; Wal-Mart Buys Men’s Clothier Bonobos For $310 Mil.

--World Markets Higher On Greek Deal; US Markets Open Lower And Continue Down Through Morning;  US Housing Starts In May Down 5.5%, Building Permits Down 4.9%; Consumer Sentiment Down.

--Russia Claims It Has Killed ISIS Leader al-Baghdadi.

--Declining Candy Profits Will Have Giant Swiss Chocolate Maker Nestle Leaving USA Market.

--Trump To Limit Cuba Travel, Restrict Business Deals With Military.

--Mueller Latest Official To Be Irked By Media Leaks; Investigator Looking At Jared Kushner Business Dealings; Pence Adds Lawyer to Guard Against Data Overflow.

--Tennessee Fugitive Killers Caught; Home Owner Holds Pair At Gunpoint Until Police Arrive.

The mystery remains: Why is Scott Pelley still on CBS Nightly News after multiple media sources said definitively he was kicked off. Maybe he got down on his knees and pleaded his case to boss man David Rhodes saying he would be more respectful of honest reporting. He is one of those callous culprits who fed the misguided rhetoric machine. Last night, though, he ended the program pleading for the nation to stop the hateful nonsense. Nobody could be more helpful to that end than Mr. Pelley and his fellow news anchors and reporters. He will be watched. But, maybe that editorial last night was his swan song as “Hollywood Reporter” continues to speculate on his replacement. They refer to the May 31 “confirmation” of his exit. We’ll see.

I have been using Greece as a foil over the past couple of years, but it appears they actually did rise above the anger in the streets and put in the necessary austerity measures, which have now worked and have provided investors the confident to keep the great old country solvent. Congrats to to Greece. Can Providence RI be next?

Remember when the big National arguments were who or what is better: Crosby or Sinatra, Nestle or Hershey, Chevy or Ford, Spalding or Rawlings, Bazooka or Double-Bubble Jack Benny or Fred Allen. Oh well, things pass, and today it’s Nestle, which by the way, I always thought was creamier.

You wonder at times why Americans elect the politicians they elect. A new survey by the US Dairy Innovation Center says that 7% of Americans believe that Chocolate milk comes from brown cows! I’m not kidding. As reported in the Washington Post, that is 16.4 million Americans. But, we know that a lot of people don’t a lot about a lot, but certainly have opinions about what they don’t know.

Large percentages of Americans have not a clue about where food comes from. 40% don’t know that hamburgers come from cows and 30% don’t know that onions and lettuce are plants. And…the USDA says that the most popular vegetable in America are potato chips and French fires.

Reading Between the Lines Movie Reviews:

--47 meters down is the big Shark movie of the summer. There is always one. In this scary, dark film, two sisters on a Mexican vacation to get away from the heartbreaks are trapped in a shark cage they hope doesn’t break. Larger and larger sharks menacingly circle their potential tasty meal as the captain above works feverishly to get his mechanism working again. But, the oxygen is running low for the women, and they must get to the surface. Will they swim though the sharks? Decently thrilling.

--Some critics really love “the Book of Henry” and some have a problem with it. It is one of those complicated movies that requires paying attention. In other words, you have to feed yourself! Actually, audiences like it fairly well. The single mom is a waitress balancing lots of things including the brilliance of an inquisitive son. They discover a dangerous secret about the family next door, and Henry devises a complicated plan to solve the problem. Pay attention, you could like this one.

--There is not a chance I will see Rough Night with a so-called “good cast wasted”, about five women, friends from college who reunite at a Miami beach cottage for a wild bachelorette weekend that goes wrong. If you like raunchy, crass humor with lots of drugs this comedy drama is for you. Not me.

--The Folks Like Cars Three. You know the drill.

The Answer:

The four phrases are “Ease my Tears”, “A pack of lies”, “It’s pouring with rain” and “Save the Whales”. There are some people who are devoted spoonerists. Bonus: Number 1 is “There, their, they’re”. That is followed by “Your vs. You’re”, “Its vs It’s”, Incomplete Comparisons, Passive Voice, Dangling Modifiers, Referring to a brand or entity as “They” (Instead of “It”), Possessive Nouns and number 10 – “Affect vs. Effect”. One of my conundrums is using commas. Ok, now I have said it. I’m guilty. (Check out “Hubspot: Grammar Police: 30 of the most common grammatical errors.)

Wiles make a great seekend.  

Enjoy a few laughs, warm rays of sun and freedom from the inane, E-v-e-r-y-b-o-d-y!

Hug a Congress person!