Between the raindrops, a glimpse of sun.

Today's Tids Issue 4.629

Easier than we think:

It’s great to be back and feel the hopefulness of a new week.

Some national observers commenting on today’s life interruption are resorting that new, but getting real tired fast, phrase. “It’s the new Normal”. In this case, there is nothing normal about it. There’s nothing normal about humans not interacting. There is nothing normal about sitting in a room for months. There is nothing normal about being afraid to shop for life’s necessities. There is nothing normal about refusing to hug somebody you love. If some are willing to accept this as potentially normality, then I pray for the world.

Isn’t it amazing that for a lot of people Las Vegas has become the Centre of the Universe?

Talk about black holes.

A lot, a I mean a lot of pieces have to come together to have our society reassemble life again. But I know we can all put this puzzle back together, if we take our time, if we don’t overreact to positive news. If we stay focused on an insidious enemy.

From a really good, old friend: “2019 – Stay away from negative people. 2020 – Stay away from positive people.

The Question:

Chess is a good game to play when you have lots of time. Who are considered the five greatest all time chess champions? Bonus: A survey listed possible attributes or activities as they may apply to being related to being a good Christian, from Praying to Caring for others. It asked which are most important. What do you think are most he important activities or attributes of a good Christian? See the answer to find out how your ideas match up with the answers of 1300 people.

The Headlines:

--After A Weekend of Financial Mulling, Markets Choose Lower.

--State, National And Business Officials Discussing Rollout Strategies To Reopen Economy.

--Trump Re-Tweets Out About Firing Fauci.

--Vicious Tornadoes Destroy Parts Of Mississippi; 18 Known Deaths To Date; Northeast Expected To Endure Very High Winds And Possible Widespread Power Outages.

--trump Showing Eagerness To Restart Economy Quickly In May; Health Officials Warn To Take It Slow; China Shows New Cases For First Time In 5 Weeks Following Restart Of Economy.

--Taiwan Begins Playing Baseball Again.

--Goldman Sachs Says We Have Met Bottom. Abandons Bearish Outlook; Barrens Lies Opportunities For Disney, Berkshire-H, Softbank, Verizon and Facebook.

--UK’s Boris Leaves Hospital, Tests Negative; Trump Pal And Real estate Mogul Stanley Chera Dies From CV.

The death totals seem to be slowing, as the latest national totals from the last three days show significant decline. The States with the most deaths/100,000 are NY 48, NJ 26, Louisiana 18, Connecticut 15, Michigan 15, Mass 11, DC 7, Wash 7, Ill 6, Col 5, Ind 5 and VT, Ga, Md and Nev 4.

BTW, all of those new “Y is the new X” phases are generally from somebody or a group with an agenda to replace something from the past with something that may or may not be good for the future.

Legalizing Marijuana in many states has been a big hit.

The new dilemma facing Governors is how to make being laid off feel less attractive. With all of the new Unemployment benefits, millions of people are making more money being idle. AOC is probably loving it. Now the Govs want to increase income for those currently doing necessary work, or more important, incentives to get workers to return to jobs that would quickly rebuild the economy. We are seeing in one month a glimpse of an economy run by a government.

Are stock markets lower this morning because they didn’t have Friday to take the air out of a good week?

I watched five straight hours of “Chopped Champions” on the Food Network Saturday. It was the closest thing I have found that resembles watching a golf tournament on a weekend. To be honest, I would have probably eaten but 5% of what is saw. Well, more accurately I wouldn’t have been tempted to dive into what I saw on the plate before me.

Day 7 at home, and the dog is looking at me like, “See? This is why I chew the furniture.”

It’s hard to find a good meat and potatoes and gravy cooking show.

Some wily old Wall Streeters are not really happy with the Fed action last week. They say it was tantamount to nationalizing the US economy. Some of them are saying, “There is no bond market, there is no stock market, there is no free economy. It’s just a bunch of computers going through their programs”.

A new poll says that the “Average” American doesn’t think that the Covid relief package is enough. Honestly, seriously, how could the average America know what is enough?

A basic quandary lately is waking every morning with aches and pains and now wondering if it is Covid, or just what I have been experiencing every morning for years.

The Answer:

# 10 all time chess champion is Emanual Lasker, next is Mikhail Botvinnik followed by Vladimir Kramnik, Viswanathan Anand and at #6 Anatoly Karpov. The top five are Magnus Carlson, Jose Raul Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine. #2 is Garry Kasparov. That must mean that Bobby Fisher of the USA is #1. Which most likely bothers a lot of people who thought that the Karpov/Kasparov matches were the ultimate. But despite his unraveling later in life, the expert I drew upon said that Bobby had the greatest mind of all. Better than “Deep Blue”? Bonus:  The Number One attribute for a Christian according to respondents was “Showing Love and Caring for Everyone”. #2 was “Being Charitable and Helping Others”. #3 was “Being Forgiving”. #4 – “Praying at Least Often” – by a hair beat out #5 -- “Always Being Honest. The bottom three were “Spreading the Word of God”, “Knowing the Bible” and “Strictly Abiding by the Ten Commandments”. Dems were best at being Charitable and Caring, while Repubs were best at Praying, Knowing the Bible, adhering to the 10 and Spreading the word. The others were tied. There was little difference in results between men and women.

Remember, “I wouldn’t touch him/her with a 6-foot pole?” Hmmmm. Who knew?

Well, here we are entering another stay at home week. Talked to a couple of humans in the open fresh air yesterday. It didn’t feel weird at all. It seemed like the old normal.