Well, there's still the comics.

Today's Tids Issue 2,218
Opening Stuff:

This weekend looks like prime leaf time around here. Actually, there just isn’t anything bad about this time of year. The seniors have all moved to Florida, so the golf courses are playing fast again. I’m enjoying the comfort of corduroy pants as I crunch leaves on cool forest paths. The ocean glistens like a lover’s eyes. The air invigorates a body emerging from summer sluggishness. All in all, life is pretty fantastic.

Except for Juan Williams, who’s sudden boot by NPR is proving once again that the national gang of liberal intelligentsia are all for the 1st Amendment as long as what you are saying supports their beliefs.

When watching our current Congress at work, we should be taking a lesson from Mexico, a country that has seen an incredibly rapid deterioration after the criminals were allowed to run wild.

And…speaking of politicians, a magician is a “super duper”.

In addition to saving the future for pensioners, Sarkozy’s action on retirement age may have additional collateral benefits. For instance, the rude and culturally poisonous Lady Gaga has cancelled her Paris concerts in some kind of brain dead reactionary sympathy move. The French don’t know how lucky they are to be spared from that glitzy monotony.

The Question:
TV Guide just listed their favorite all time TV Families. They were in order Huxtables, Simpsons, Tanners (Full House), Sopranos, Partridges, Fishers (6 Feet Under), Bluths (Arrested Deelopment), Keatons (Fam Ties), Bunkers, Bradys, Conners (Roseanne), Seavers (Growing Pains), Waltons, Walkers (Bors & Sis), Cleavers, Jackson/Drummend (Diff Strokes), Ewings (Dallas), Barones (Raymond), Pritchetts (Mod Fam and Jeffersons. In a limited poll, viewers rated their favorites. Which of the above do you think came out on top? Name a show you think they missed.

The Headlines:

--Marlets Zig-Zag Waiting For G-20.
--Economic Growth Gage Falls To Six Week Low.
--Anonymous Person deposits $10,000 In Crisp Dollars In Memorial Donor’s Box And WTC Site.
--Cholera Outbreak Hits Rural Haiti; 142 Dead.
--Gulf Corals In Oil Spill Zone Appear Healthy.
--0-Man and MonicaMan Are Running Wildly Across Country To Save Out Of Control Congress.
--Verizon Profits Drop 25%; Beats WS Estimates; Investers Await Addition Of I-Phone..

Back to More Stuff:
If you have been watching the earnings report you might think our economy is based on companies that keep you idle, over feed you and put you back together fall apart. And you would be right. The bellwether industries this quarter are Electronics-Wireless-Computer-Internet, Fast Food and Health Care Products and Services.

Pakistan’s successful blockade of critical US supply transports hasn’t gone unnoticed by our deep pocket’s Congress and Admin. The US has increased military aid by $2,000,000,000! What a country.

Remember when Will Rogers said "I only know what I read in the papers"? Jeez, would he be in  trouble now!

Think about how much good the celebrities could do if they really understood the facts instead of reacting to some emotional artificial stimulus. Basically it just proves once again that actors are just good at reading other people’s lines. And these days their lines are being written by by people who don’t seem to like what America has been.

How come the pictures of shouting people I see in the French pension protest look like college students?

Silly State laws Department:
In Montana, it is against the law to have sheep in your truck cab without a chaperone! I wonder what that’s all about?


Reading between the Lines Movie Reviews:
--The trailer for Clint Eastwood’s latest “Hereafter” makes it appear as though it is entirely a Matt Damon vehicle. In fact it is three stories – Damon a psychic is looking for lava and a normal life without death; Cecille, a French TV reporter, is haunted by her near death experience; And Frankie McLaren is a foster child morning the sudden death of his twin brother. The stories eventually come together. You will find it slow and somber at times, but the end is uplifting in this movie that is spiritual and tends to support an afterlife. But then, what would you expect from an 80 year old director.
--I don’t like prison movies, so there is a high degree of probability that I won’t see “Stone” starring Edward Norton as a tough guy prisoner and Robert DeNiro as his very religious parole officer. For some reason, Norton has his sexy wife seduce DNiro thinking it will get him out of jail sooner. The religious DeNiro bends to the attraction quickly. Norton has regrets. It’s actually kind of an irritable movie.
--Woody Allen’s new little sex comedy “You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger” looks good to me. It has an all star cast including Anthony Hopkins, Josh Brolin, Naomi Watts, Gemmma Jones and Antonio Banderas among others. Watts and Anna Friel look for love in all the wrong places. The film which opens and closes with song “When You Wish Upon A Star” shows how people’s wishes for romance don’t always turn out to be the sweet dreams they had hoped for.

In the Town of King NC (Pop 6,000) the ACLU acting on complaint by one citizen got an injunction against the display of a Christian Flag at a veteran’s memorial. 63 year old Ray Martini, an Air Force Vet, was irate. He decided to put the flag back out there. He then set up camp beneath it to guard it. He has received food and blankets from towns across NC and from many other states. The town is now awash with fluttering flags. The same Christian flag hanging from hair salons, barbecue joints, general stores—well, just about anywhere in the town. Except government buildings. I’m wondering if it is the same single citizen who when living in East Greenwich had a seventy year old memorial to a good doctor, a cross, removed from a triangle at an intersection. Send a note to Ray!

I was surprised to see the cover of the October 4 Time Magazine with the feature story headline: “How the first nine months shape the rest of your life.” Could this traditionally abortion supporting editorial staff be having a change of heart?

In the first line of a predominantly anti-Republican rant in the Providence Journal’s editorial support of Barney Frank, they say: “Recovery from the financial crisis requires ‘intelligent’ leadership. The entire editorial reads like something you might hear from Lady Gaga or Rosie.

In case you missed it about Barney’s Babies, Fannie and Freddie, it was reported this morning that the terrible twosome needs another $215 Billion. I love that intelligent leadership.

The Answer:
The two that “the folks” seemed to like best and which were significantly ahead of the rest were The Huxtable’s and The Keaton’s of Family Ties. Also doing quite well were the Cleavers, Barone’s and Seaver’s, and they were followed by the Partridges, Bunkers, Brady’s, Walton’s and Conner’s. I think they left out My Three Sons and 8 is Enough. And, if you are really old you might throw in Father Knows Best! All the rest were so-so or worse.

The End:
If the press stopped following ideologies and started thinking again, we might have a chance of getting this government back in shape. If this formerly august group honestly interpreted the truth of candidate statements, ignored blatant dirty tricks and stopped being blind cheerleaders, maybe intelligent people would start running for office again.

Some of these Republican and Tea Party candidates say some of the dumbest things I have ever heard.

It’s in the music.

Today's Tids Issue 2,215
Opening Stuff:

Isn’t it great how God’s system uses Fall to reduce the average temperature by a few degrees each day so you can slowly adapt from the hot summer to the cold Winter! I love it when a good plan comes together.

I love music. But, then who doesn’t. Some are mesmerized by rhythmic beats. Others by emotion stirring, rhapsodic melodies. Me, I like discovery. In classical music there is always some thing new to discover even after listening to one piece it many times. I love inventiveness which can be found in Folk or heavy Rock or Jazz. I detest repetitive, pop trends; The sameness in over commercialized popular fads. And that goes for Mozart too…who I find as tedious as the monotony of the latest Disney wonder child. But, then why would anybody care what I thought. After all, music is personal.

You just have to love German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Her comment about the German experiment in multi-culturalism as having failed completely was in support of a Central Bank Director’s observation: “The country is being made more stupid by poorly educated and unproductive Muslim immigrants.” Why can’t we have politicians who are unafraid to tell the truth? She went on to say, “We feel tied to Christian values. Those who don’t accept them don’t have a place here.”

The ugliest bigots I have seen in a long time are those creating extreme prejudice against fat people. A steady stream of “Obese” stories has a tendency to characterize this group of probably honest, giving and loving human beings as lower that drug dealers and just above child molesters. Somebody has to step up and stop the profiling (Oops, bad choice of words) of these hardy and happy eaters. I think it has something to do with the super egos of skinny health nuts.

The Question:
After I finished that childish tirade about the unfair condemnation of the amply proportioned, all I could think of was the phrase, “I kick sand in your face”. To what does that refer?

The Headlines:

--Bar Too High For Apple; Investors Penalize Shares 6% Even After record Earnings Performance; 4.2 Million iPad Sales Beat Mac computer Sales, Failed To Reach Analysts Hope For 5 Mil.
--Bank Of America Posts $7.7 Billon Loss On Special Charge; Goldman Posts Good Gain But Warns Of Changing Operational Culture That could Affect Future; IBM Echoes Similar Concerns About Future Revenue Streams..
--French Retirement Protests Take More Violent Turn.
--California’s Crystal Cathedral Megachurch Enters Bankruptcy One Time TV Powerhouse Owes $43 Million.
--Saudi Arabia Warns Europe Of New Threats From Yemen al-Qaida.

Back to More Stuff:

The French protests about raising the retirement age by two years is a good warning of how economies can run amok under socialist systems. Where the growth industries are public employee jobs. Rhode Island has exactly the same problem.

Two of my all-time favorite short pieces are Prokofiev’s Symphony #1 (Classical) and Benjamin Brittain’s “Young person’s Guide to the Orchestra.”

One of Bill Keane’s kids wonders why if Oranges are called Oranges, lemons aren’t called “Yellows”.

A reader who with his wife produced a 300 recipe cookbook, sent me this recipe for Swedish meatballs – Which is one of the great receptors for perfect brown gravy. In a skillet sauté til golden 1/3 cp onions in 2 tbs butter. In bowl mix 1 egg, ½ cp bread crumbs and ½ cp milk. Let stand 5 mins. Now add 1 ½ tsp salt, 2 tbs sugar, 3/8 tsp Allspice, ¼ tsp Nutmeg, 1 lb ground chuck, ½ lb mild pork sausage and the buttery golden onions. Mix well. Heat 2 tb butter in same skillet. Mold meat mixture into ¾ “ diam balls. Brown well on all sides and place in casserole. Now the Grrrrr-avy! In fat left in skillet, stir in 3 tbs flour, 1 tsp sugar, 1 ¼ tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper. Slowly add 1 cp water and ¾ cp heavy cream and stir to thicken. Had meatballs and heat well. Ho9w great is that!

Yesterday’s Providence Journal ran large photos of the two guys battling for faire Patricks form congressional seat. The caption in large print under Dem Cicilini’s pic said “Roots run deep.” And, all I could think of was that his father was the chief lawyer for Raymond Patriarca (Ruthless boss of the New England Mafia) and that today his Brother is the mob lawyer.

Anchors Aweigh Department:
For years I have thought that East Greenwich Rhode Island was the birthplace of the US Navy. After all, in front of the Town Hall (One of the five Original Colonial RI State Houses) there is a hefty bronze plaque that says so. But lately the big discussion in the papers around here is a coming event where experts will actually declare which was first – Providence, Philadelphia, Whitehall NT, Machias ME and Beverly or Marblehead Mass. What! No EG. A travesty. But here’s the facts. To combat British raids at seas, the RI Assembly meeting in east Greenwich on June 12 1775 commissioned two ships, the Katy and the Washington. (Two ships by definition is a navy.) Stephen Hopkins brought the RI document to The Continental Congress who accepted it October 13 as official for launching the first U.S. Navy. Of interest, the Katy was renamed Providence which, as most of you should know, became the ship of John Paul Jones. So let’s hear it big for East Greenwich.

Scary Department:
A minister from a church in a more depressed part of Providence was speaking a week or so ago to another congregation in a church in the upscale East Side near Brown University. One of the topics was the increase in homelessness. Now…pay attention. The husband and wife minister team said that it was well known in their area that taxis from Connecticut arrived there on a regular basis depositing homeless in this neighborhood of Providence. Because the benefits were greater here in this near bankrupt state than they were in one of the richest sates in America. It’s like the underground railroad of your except very different. I remember when people used to migrate to find better jobs. Now they do it to find some ting for nothing. And the beat goes on.

The real question is: Who is paying for the taxies? It is accomplished if you noticed by putting an “I” in taxes!

Everybody wants the US to improve its trade deficit. Of course that means selling more goods and services overseas. To do that, US companies must be competitive. That is, get the costs out, which means lowering the wages of labor or automating to decrease the number of workers. So if you are wandering where the middle class went, you have to look no further than the expanding global economy.

When you think about all of the daily errors we encounter from people in the service industries, maybe it is a good thing that we don’t build cars any more.

In two consecutive nights on TV I saw Jerry Brown stumbling and bumbling his way through a public appearance followed by ex wrestler Governor Jessie Ventura in a megalomaniac “Duh” explanation of the country’s current state of affairs. And I looked them both and thought that “Yikes! – We are being taken over by has-been political hacks with pony tails!

The Answer:
Kicking sand in the face was the opening to the famous Charles Atlas comic strip ad for his muscle building business. It’s about an embarrassed skinny kid who gets his girl back after going to CA Muscle school and flattening the big bruiser. Today the skinny kids just write nasty things about large people. Less sweat.

The End:
So, if God has this plan to help people adjust to temperature, do you think that the promotion of Florida for the Winter is a Muslim anti Christian plot?

I love to blow my own horn. Many things I hear described as new on news talk shows have often been previously explained in The Tids. Pay attention.