Familiarity.

 

 

 

Today's Tids Issue 6,116 

Large and happy: 

 

When meeting a good friend of yore, 

Maybe after ten, a couple of score.  

You find life has a unique way, 

Of making it feel like yesterday. 

 

 

Happy August E-v-e-r-y-b-o-d-y! Yeah, August -- the month when nothing happens. The fading days of summer. If you every played fall sports it reminds you mainly of eating dust on a steamy preseason practice field Yeah, not much happens August except maybe celebration of one of the most important events in American and World History. Victory over Japan day. Nobody seems to want to talk about the end of one of the most gruesome wars of all. When so many good Americans died on lonely Pacific Islands. A day that cerebrates a world returning to peace should always be cheered from the rooftops. Yeah, on August 14-15 Harry Truman announced that Japan had surrendered. And Americans were dancing in the streets. Littkerally dancing inthe streets and smiling at everybody passing by. Happy VJ day everybody. 

 

Trump is irate at Loyalist DC AG Jeanine Piro for following the law and having justice prevail. He should keep quiet.  

 

Judge:  

“I find you guilty.  

You are sentenced to ten years, 

Take him away boys.” 

Prosecutor mutters, "Poetic* Justice" 

 

The Question: 

Name the 20 largest US cities in 1900; Ten largest in 1950; 1o largest now. 

 

 

The Headlines: 

 

Markets Rise; Oil Prices Drio. Big Texhs Push Markets Higher, Except Apple.  

--SpaceX Stock Continues Free Fall; Quarterly Report Due Out After the bell Much Anticipated.\ 

--Wild Fires Erupt in Washington Forcing  60 thousand from Homes.  

--DT Says Iran Piece in Motion; Iran Says it is in Talks with Oman not US. 

--Blanche Formerly Withdraws Trump Fundings Plan to Improve Senate Approval Chances; Hold out Repubs Say they will Approve. 

--Missile Hits Crowded Russian Beach Near Crimea; At Least 7 Killed and 40 Injured; Russia Says it was Ukraine.  

 

Why don’t you ever see a hippopotamus hiding in the trees? *Because they’re really good at it. 

 

*That’s the Japanese originated short form of poetry called Haiku in case you didn’t notice.  

 

A great little study is the changing economics of the USA EV industry. It reflects the conflicts between capitalism and federal intrusion into a system that always works better when it works natrually. Detroit's move into EV was not a natural progression as it was infested with government subsidies. But our US legacy auto manufacturers are not only finding that costs are arising painfully, but demand is slipping rapidly as subsidies decline and international competition gets stronger. also the American public is increasingly looking at hybrids and plug-in hybrids as a better solution. And the sticker price is much more appealing, too. US auto companies still own profit's to investors regardless of how much the noisiest public opinion was pushing to go electric, The combo of high-ticket price and increasing manufacturing and component costs is anesthetizing an entire industry. 

 

I mean... I mean... how about them Red Sox! Are they resourceful or what, Boston fans are still trying to figure out where these players came from and who they are, but thcy have captured many a heart around here. And have sweot theeperts favoiret teams form teh Mighty Dodgers to the Ya, ya, ya’s. 

 

I’ve gotten to a point where real excitement is a new grill cover.  

 

There was time when you when out to eat and you were ok with occasionally paying big bucks for a little posh. And even then you were acutely measuring the quality against a percieved higher standard. But today, you are paying big bucks everywhere and often it is hit or miss. 

 

BTW, the new trend among the super-rich is not going out to restaurants at all, mainly to maintain privacy. They hire personal chefs. A good personal chef can make $300K a year. And you wanted to send your kids to medical school! 

 

What do you call a hippopotamus in a phone booth? Stuck.  

 

Some of these big fires cover an area half the size of the state of Rhode Island, That is why I’m praying for rain. And, who needs a sunny beach to look bad in a bathing suit. But I divert. Thise fire scenes are really scary. Politics aside, it does tell me that things they are achangin’. But I have always subscribed to the precept that the earth has been altering itself all by itself for millennia upon millennia.  

 

I don't trust the soon to be approved Attorney General. He is a lot smarter than I but trust is another thing 

 

The Red Sox-Dodgers game last night was national broadcast on NBC, The announcers talk too much, In fact at times they don’t even sound like they a interested in the game. I turned off the sound. You really don’t need it to watch a good baseball game.m Though I must say I did enjoy the sound of cheering for the Sox in Dodger stadium! 

 

Last night up in Providence where was a shooting on Coffin Avenue. 

 

The Answer: 

 Number One in 1900 was New York followed by Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Boston, Baltimore, Cleveland, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Detroit, Milwaukee, Washington DC, Newark, Jersey City, Louisville, Minneapolis and Providence. The majority of them were leading centers of Manufacturing. In 1950 we had New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland, St. Louis, DC and Boston. Today it is NY, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas and Fort Worth, When you have an East Coast centric mind like mine you have kick yourself in the butt to help grasp the dramatic cultural chamge and the significances of the differences between now and my youthful indoctrination. It's always good to kick yourself in the butt every once in a while.  

 

And in closing, from Ogden Nash, a word or two 

Who’s always worth more than a few: 

Behold the hippopotamus! 
We laugh at how he looks to us, 
And yet in moments dank and grim, 
I wonder how we look to him. 
 
Peace, peace, thou hippopotamus! 
We really look all right to us, 
As you no doubt delight the eye 
Of other hippopotami.