Happy 100, Fenway.

Today's Tids Issue 2,576
Opening Stuff:

How many of you remember clearly, as I do, that day when your dad and you, hand in hand walked into the bowels of a major league baseball base ball park. The hustle. The bustle. Your youthful eyes taking it all in with amazement. A wonderland of cacophony. With the smells of hot dogs and popcorn aplenty. And then, you and your dad start to walk slowly up that ramp through a dank tunnel until the sky at the end gets brighter and brighter. Finally you reach the top and out there before you is the greenest green you have ever seen in your life. Surrounded by thousands of people, all eager and happily awaiting the first pitch. And you just stand there in awe and think "I am the luckiest person in the world." It happens every time.

You have to love the line from this morning's "Close to Home" comic; "New study reveals that reading studies may cause heart disease."

The scariest aspect of North Korea's test of a long range missile is that it was in all likelihood paid for by Iran, and Iran will be the beneficiary of the results. Iran can develop an A-Bomb but without a launch capability is is pretty useless. Iran and North Korea are Parallel countries.

The Question:

1. Name five German Concentration camps. Bonus: What unusual baseball feat did catcher Scott Hatteberg accomplish in Fenway park August 4 2001?

The Headlines:

--Giant 8.2 Quake Hits Indonesia; Small Tsunami Follows; Officials Still Assessing Deaths.
--NK Fueling Up Missiles For Test.
--US Files Lawsuit Against Apple On eBook Price fixing.
--Public Support For ObamaCare Drops To New Low -- 39%.
--Gingrich Utah Primary Check Bounces.
--Alcoa's Surprise Profit Report Fails To Ignite Wall Street.

Our state is aghast at the fact that the Governor's son was caught by police trying to buy beer in a liquor store. Like I wouldn't have done that when I was his age. In fact , me and my buds at 16 were always welcome in bars. Kids haven't changed that much. We just have more laws and regulations, so it's easier for kids to appear to be criminals.

This is interesting. Obama fund raising is falling far short of the that promised billion. The juggernaut has become the little engine that couldn't. Part of the reason is that some of the dough is being sent to SuperPacs. The other part of the shortfall is the lower rates of contributions from the little guys in the hinterland. They are not convinced, according to reports, that supporting "O" is where they should put the money. It is also interesting on the SuperPac front. The big Repub Super Pac "American Crossroads" has received ten times the amount that the big Dem SP "Priorities USA" has received. Maybe the Prez shoulkd get out on the road more instead of slaving away in that office for the good of the nation. Oops, did I say slaving? Pray for me Ozzie Guillen and David Ciciline.

Our sleazy little incumbent Congressman/person David Ciciline solved the problem of the mismanaged Providence finances while he was Mayor, with a simple explanation. In his kick-off speech he said "I never should have used the word 'Excellent' when I said (While campaigning for congress) "Providence was in excellent condition". That was just his explanation for the lie. It didn't answer the bigger question -- his incompetence in office. But isn't that like Pols today. Unfortunately they know voters will buy anything. "Poor darling" his backers will say, "He used the wrong word". Shoot me.

The car industry is really in a state of turmoil, with company heads trying to get a handle on the best way to go into the future. Today, for instance, it was reported that only 35% of Hybrid owners went back to buy another hybrid. In the world there are 12 Million CNG (Compressed Natural gas) cars, but barely any in the US where gas is plentiful. The US is in the electric mode, but CNG is probably a better solution for consumers. And electrics, at least in this stage of their development, are fairly impractical. It seems to me that the best bet is develop higher mileage regular cars.

How many of you have seen the "Snopes Verified" email floating around now describing Malia Obama's spring break trip for she and 12 friends to Oaxaca Mexico. It also took 2 jets and twenty five Sevres Service Agents to make it happen. It has appeared nowhere but in the Canadian media. Just think of the uproar in the US press if it had been the Bush twins!

It costs and arm and a leg and a second mortgage on your house to go to a Red Sox game. I remember in the sixties going to opening day at Fenway and having a choice of any seat in the place for $7.00. And it was pretty much the same in the 70's

The anarchy of mobs will eventually take the government away from the people Deportment:
Halder says his office vows to review the Travon Martin case. Why are the Feds poking into a local murder/self defense investigation. Go away big government. You are really starting to bother me.

Almost Near: Chapter 67 continues. --The tone of this happy hospital room reunion became more serious as Sparrow and Audrey began to lay out what they knew. Samantha sat there alert, knowing that she would learn things about her resent self, where she had no memory of it happening. Sparrow looked over at Dante as he recounted the evidence they compiled about Tucker's appearances in Dalesford around the times of both the alleged suicide of Samantha's mother and the disappearance of her father. "Tucker in his deluded mind was doing two things," we believe. "First, he was protecting you by eliminating the threat from your father." Samantha's tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Are you Ok, Sam," The burly detective was soft and caring, loving, as he asked. She looked up and gave him a small smile and just nodded "Go on."
"My people now believe that he staged your mother's suicide to make you a more likable victim. A person under threat and abuse who was a lone fighter in a bleak world. That you fought through your life with a tyrant father and a weak mother. Someday we'll find the body of your dad, probably in an out of the way location like where they found your husband in Arkansas.
Samantha looked up -- "My mother protected me. She saw what my father could do to me, but she never let it happen." Her life was very clear to her now. My mother was strong, but looked weak to others. Maybe he killed her because she could see the real Tommy Lambert where I couldn't." Samantha needed a person she could hold on to right now. The strength of her mother during those years she had blocked out became clearer. She wanted to feel the goodness in her mother. She looked up at Dante as she thought about where she was and where she was going. It was much too soon to share this life I have just found with another person, she thought as her eyes raised to the ceiling.
"This Tucker, Tommy was one disturbed individual," Sparrow said summing up the moment. Samantha didn't hear him.

The Answer:

There were about 74 German prison camp locations. 11 were extermination centers and included Auschwitz, Treblinka and Belzec which accounted for 2.6 Million Deaths. Among the best known large concentration camps are Buchenwald, Dachau, Plaszow and Ravensbruck (Women only). Many 10's of thousands of deaths occurred in these Concentration -- "Labor" Camps. Tyranny can happen when people stop looking. Bonus: In consecutive appearance as a hitter, Scott hit into a triple play and followed that with a grand slam home run! You have to believe that will never happen again.

When things get tense, there is no more soothing sound than a radio broadcast of a baseball game on a summer's day.

SB Week Survival Kit.

Today's Tids Issue 2,520

Opening Stuff:

One thing you can take to the bank this Super Bowl week is that some newspaper or Internet site will publish a story about how to have a nutritionally healthy, Green, SB Party!

Over the years in this little column about everything and nothing, I have looked for and reported on human oddities. I am finding now that odd and weird have become the norm.

The Middle East seems to be at the point where the rest of the world was in 1636 before Roger Williams and John Clarke established freedom for all religions in Rhode Island.

This week the Tids management will help take you away from the onslaught of irrelevant SuperBowl information and favorite team angst by turning your stomach with an avalanche of varied and sundry equally annoying subjects.

The Question:

Who was the wealthiest President? Who have been the 10 richest Presidential candidates?

The Headlines:

--Florida Multi-Car/Truck Crash Kills 10, Injures many More; Observers Say Smoke Shrouded Area Looks Like End Of The World.
--Catholic Sunday Masses Across Country Included Letters Written To Protest Obama Dictates That Force Religious Non-Profit Groups To Offer Birth Control Under Obama Care.
--Romney Surging In Florida; Even More Conservative Panhandle Region Pausing Over Newt baggage.
--Greek Debt Wrangling Will Keep Stocks Lower.
--Over 400 OWS Protestors Arrested In Oakland Cal.
--"The Help" Dominates SAG Awards.
--Assad And Syrian Rebels In Open Fighting.
--RI Looking For Ways To Improve Fishing Industry.

One thing I really don't like about the Internet is that when being intrigued by a headline I'm brought to a video story as opposed to a written story. I rarely listen to the video story but will always scan the written versions. Most of the time I find that the headlines are better than the "Rest of the story"!

The Florida political story coverage is becoming a little too heavy. I tuned into a couple of Cable News networks yesterday after hearing on the radio the news about a massive and particularly gruesome multi car accident on I 75 in Florida. All I got were the barbs and sniping of candidates crammed in between the pompous pronounce-iations of pundits. They managed to slip in 3 seconds or so about the Florida tragedy. A horrendous accident where at "Least" 10 lost there lives and others were badly injured. I think we have lost our perspective.

Good news for Michelle Obama...she did not kill the Twinkie all by nutritious herself. The burdensome Union contracts are the main culprit. There are over 100 separate contracts within the company, most inhibiting attempts at improving efficiency. Example: Instead of using one truck to deliver multiple brands to super markets the company is forced to use multiple trucks i.e. One for Twinkies, one for Wonder Bread. In addition to eliminating opportunities to be more competitive, the years of unrealistic contracts has produced a pension overload in the Billions of dollars. One that cannot be met.

There are a lot of cool things in this new world of technology, but one that amazes me every time I use it is wireless printing -- from DeskTop, laptop, IPad or smartphone. There's still a lot of genius goin' on around here.

If athletic teams would play with the precision teamwork of a symphony orchestra, they would be impossible to beat. Maybe the new generations of Bach, Beethoven and Dvorak could write the game plans. And orchestra members could teach subjugation of talented persona for the benefit of all.

Of course the big dichotomy is the jobs versus lower priced goods for consumers. Let's see, wages are going down and will probably continue to do so for a while. People with less cash in their pockets demand lower prices and sellers look for cheaper produced goods. In the US there are two ways to for US companies to accomplish this: !. Make them in cheap labor countries or produce them on highly automated machines that don't require people. Which of course means that the historic higher paying middle income jobs continue to evaporate. And people wonder why JC Penny just instituted a 40% discount on all merchandise. That's because the just passed so-called Boom Christmas sales season revealed that people mainly bought highly discounted products. And, that's the way it is, this January in America 2012.

Last week the traditional network news reports hailed the reported 2.8% GDP growth rate for December. "It's over. We're back!" What the gleeful faces didn't report was the opinions of most economists who said the 2.8 December brought the yearly GDP to a quite lackluster 1.7% and more importantly that much of the 2.8 came from the production that built up business inventories, which will necessarily slow the first six months at least, of 2012.

One of the latest "weirdness-is-taking-over-the-world" incidents is that insane reaction to a High School's choice the name Cougars for it's teams. This was for a new Utah High School in a state known for the wily felines in the wild and where one of it's Major Universities, BYU, is already known as the Cougars. The reason: It was considered insensitive to Women! Can you believe that? I can't. The authorities overrode the students own choice for that nickname and told them they would be known as the Chargers. To a person the students asked, "What's a charger". Editors Note: Since the incident, a well known Cougar, Demi Moore, has been sent to rehab. I guess she couldn't take the insensitivity. Help me, please!

I was pleased to see this morning that the Providence Journal followed the Tids lead in last Friday's bit about the lunacy of another grandstanding state law, this one banning cell phones in schools. A law the Editorial writer said would result in another unnecessary mandate from above where each school district would have to locate additional funds to enforce. They summed up with the sentence: "Red tape and mandates continue to swamp RI's local communities, as part of America's propensity to turn everything into a law." OK, Providence Journal. that's good...but how come you are so for Obama and so against anything Republican. That is mainly what Repubs are asking for -- Less regulations, less federal dominance, more freedom for individual states to act in the interest of their citizens.

"The Good Wife" was excellent TV last night.

The Answer:

Of course the Father of our Country George Washington was the wealthiest of all Presidents. However since he was never a candidate, this richest list is made up entirely by modern day hopefuls. There may be others like the Roosevelt's, Adams, Hoover, Jefferson or Kennedy who may have made the list if their wealth was calculated in today's Dollars. Number Ten is John Edwards! After the infamous Personal Injury Lawyer we have Rudy Guilianni, John Huntsman, Hillary (She did well after coming to the White House having never owned a home of her own), Al Gore, John Kerry, Mitt, Steve Forbes and Ross Perot.

Have some extra dough for Super Bowl Wagering? Here's some bets you can get: Odds on whether or not Kelly Clarkson's belly will be bare - 3-1; What color will be Madonna's hair when she begins the show; Will she be wearing fishnet stockings. How many times will the cameras show Peyton Manning; Giselle Bundchen; Tom Brady's son. How many times will they show David Tyree's 2008 SB catch. Let the nuttiness begin!

John 3:16

Today's Tids Issue 2,506
Opening Stuff:

Bain Capital, and Romney's involvement, is being assaulted by the weak of mind, generally not capable of understanding, or wanting to understand, the function of business and capital in the US economy. Private capital is how an economy exists without Government intervention. Separation of Biz and state and the creativity and innovation it fosters, is why the US catapulted forward in the 19th and 20th Centuries...creating millions of jobs; the envy of the rest of the world. The negativity towards this very basic component of American greatness, and the propagation of misunderstanding to a mostly uninformed public of by all people fellow Republicans including the so-called "wise one", Newt, is unfathomable to me. I can see how the disingenuous White House would leap upon the tough side of making businesses work, but fellow Republicans? It is a travesty at many levels.

Oh yeah, and the Prez and henchmen will continue the assault on Romney's business practices, but now they can accuse and disparage using Newts words. Disgusting.

Everybody would probably admit that the end of the Denver-Pitt game was thrilling beyond the usual excitement. Maybe, even among atheists. But, what impressed me was the aftermath and the media exposure. The usual suspects were more in awe, more respectful of the moment and the man than they normally are when overt religious enthusiasm is part of their story. They seem to see a good guy who works hard, who believes. And frankly, I felt many of them also felt something positive in their hearts.

The headline read: "47 from 23 Countries Sworn in as US Citizens." The system works and always has. And, everything is legal and genuine. And people who hate illegal immigration love it.

The Question:

Who were the core members of the Steeley Dan band? Name three of the best known songs.

The Headlines:

--NH Primary Deadlocked After Dixwell Notch; Moderates Huntsman and Romney have 2 votes each. Newt and Ron Paul tied for second at one vote each.
--Wall Street Looks To Up day After Positive Earnings From Alcoa.
--National Debt Now Larger Than Total Of All Goods And Services Produced In US.
--Hyundai Elantra Wins "Car Of Year" Award At Big Auto Show.
--Syria Prez Cites ABC News As Leading Foreign Meddler; Says Walters Interveiw With Him Was Deliberately Edited To Distort.
--Admin Chief-of-Staff Daley Fired.
--Alabama Completely Dominates LSU Winning NCAA BCS Championship; People Wonder What Playoff Would Have Produced.
--New Jersey GOP Senate leader collapses, Dies On Senate Floor.
--Missing 21 Yo. Son Of GB Packer's Offensive Coordinator Joe Philbin Found Dead In Icy River.

Oh, BTW, the White House invested billions in GM, and is now touting a turn-around that happened mainly because of plant closings, firing employees and reducing wage scales. In case you are interested.

The NH race is all about how strong the rest of the slate can finish behind Romney. When you combine a big NH win with what was for Romney a very strong showing in the Conservative Iowa caucuses and the endorsement from Niki, it appears that the Mittster will come out of South Carolina nicely too.

Hey, Twinkies is going out of business! Thanks Michelle "No fun Eating" Obama. Another good business goes by the wayside along with its jobs because of nanny state fanatics. How many more?

If life was always fair, than maybe we could understand it better. But, alas it is encumbered by misinformation, misconceptions and misgivings, and that is why the logical and pragmatic have so much trouble dealing with it.

The cast of Jersey Shore should never be allowed to go outside beyond their own brainless public. It's embarrassing for the country. Some Islamist would take tapes and show it to their Muslim masses --"This is America; This is why we will rise!"

Biblical Pigskin Department:
I'm a Little worried about this Saturday's contest between my beloved Pats and the miracle man and his formidable Denver team. January 14? Hmmm John 1:14 -- "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth". I wonder.

New Amendment Department:
I was reading about the Supreme Court decision to take up the Stephen Tyler suit urging more casual raunchy swearing on TV. The first amendment protects lots of evil or things in questionable taste like pornography, gambling and other negative ingredients potentially destructive to a healthy, civilized society, as long as it has socially redeeming consequences. Well, I think the next Amendment should be "Freedom of Eating." Or should that read "Freedom From Persecuting happy larger people: From? Of? It's tricky little word choice.

Almost Near: Chapter 57 continues. --"Hi Audrey Johnson. I'm sitting here with Samantha Wilcox who you also may know as Samantha Jergens."
"I have never met her but know a lot about her."
"That's not important. You don't have to talk. Just listen." Audrey sat up. Now tense, aware. "Samantha just finished talking to an assistant to a lawyer named Dante who just awoke form a coma after a hit and run accident. Where are you?" Sparrow interrupted his town train of thought.
Audrey began to worry more. Come out with it she thought. "I'm in a middle of nowhere restaurant north of Little Rock with Tucker Louttite, a friend of Samantha."
Audrey heard silence on the line, then muffled voices in the background. "Is he with you now?"
"No, for some reason my suspicious mind told me to take this call in the ladies room."
"Ok, that's Good." We have just learned that the lawyer says it was Tucker who ran him down and left the scene." Audrey paled. She turned again to the door. She found it hard to breathe.

The Answer:

--Bard College graduates Dan Fagan and Walter Becker (Dubbed "Manson/Starkweather of Pop") were a couple of songwriters living in Brooklyn who first gained a little fame with a Barbra Streisand song "I mean to Shine". The duo started as traveling musicians with Jay and the Americans. Their songs it was determined were much too complex for most musicians so a producer named Katz urged them to start their own band to play their own music. Some early hits were Do It Again, Dirty Work and Reelin' In The Years. The most memorable early hit was Rikki Don't Lose That Number. Some others were bad Sneakers, Black Friday, Doctor Wu, Peg, Deacon Blues, Josie and Chain Lightening. The duo was more about writing lots of ingenious music for albums. They didn't particularly like traveling and in fact Fagan had a serious case of Stage fright.

The world is an incongruity.

Keep it in balance.

Today's Tids #2,441
(Written 10/12

Opening Stuff:

I read an interesting Letter to Ed this morn about technological advances and personal character. The author cited Steve Jobs: "(My Success) is not to be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other peoples actions." The author finds that a narcissistic observation as shortsighted and an insult to all of those who laid the groundwork for progress that enabled people like Jobs to make new advancements. But the bigger notion in opposition to the debilitating effects of the rejection of dogma is that, "Ultimately the great achievements in technology are liberating and contribute to the progress of mankind only if they are joined to the attitudes of purity, honesty and faith...". The depth character in a society is found far beyond it's material achievements.

Government jobs analysts probably fail to recognize that while there are more available private sector job openings than one would be led to believe by the political rhetoric, the private sector unlike the Feds they can only afford to hire people who can actually do the work.

Speaking of a person who has the best possibility of stimulating a logy private sector jobs economy, the Mittster looked very comfortable in the mostly economics, rather bland debate at Dartmouth College last night. Perry didn't blunder, but he also didn't score either. The panel seemed to treat the entertaining Cain as the frontrunner spending an abundance of time going after his 9-9-9 plan. he mainly shrugged-off their comments. Michelle became even more minute. Actually the Christie endorsement of Mitt preempted the entire debate.

Daily Question: The Netflix disaster "Quickster" collapsing under consumer pressure in just 23 days happens to be the worst new product introduction of all time. Name ten other big time flops.

Today's Headlines:

--Slovakian Agreement On EuroZone Financing Has Stocks Up Early; Deterioration In Italy Could Be Next Big Determent To Stock Momentum.
--Wal-Mart Same Store Sales Up For Third Straight Month!
--Blackberry Outages Spread To North America.
--Prez Loses Big On Senate Jobs Vote; Key Dem Senators Defect And More Promise To Vote Against If The Bill Moves Froward.
--Chrysler, UAW Agree On contract.
--Biden: Nothing Off table After Iran Rooted DC Assassination Plot.
--U Rhode Island Economists Say State's Economic Indicators Have Fallen To Lowly 42; Index This Low is Evidence Of Extremely sluggish, No Growth State Economy.
--28 Killed In New Iraq Internal Disruption.
--Repubs Push FTC To Ease Sanctions Against Food Companies And their Advertising To Kids 2-17.

I see where last week's Nobel Peace Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is in an intense battle to retain her Liberian presidency against also Harvard educated rival Winston Tubman (Nephew of former Liberian Prez William Tubman). Apparently the population is very dissatisfied with Sirleaf's inability to provide a better life, electricity, running water and jobs.

Here's a good Life Maxim: Don't elect Nobel Peace Prize winners to important higher offices.

The big discussion on the early morning radio sports show today is the sports experts horror at non-active Red Sox players during the game sitting in the locker room eating chicken, biscuits and gravy! Frankly, I applaud the players and have an new sense of admiration for their choices in life. Instead of caviar and champagne, they crave gravy!

Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed happiness over the Wall Street protestors raging around the US as the "beginning of the ultimate toppling of capitalism in America. He gloated saying "(The USA's) corrupt foundation has been exposed to the American people." So the Islamists sense that people on the streets will bring down WS far more effectively than planes into buildings. Lets see, now the protestors have the backing of Michael Moore, Susan Sarandan, The Public Employees Unions and the Ayatollah. How can they go wrong.

Of active PGA players, Briny Baird and RI's Brett Quigley are the two golfers with the highest career earnings (Nearly $12 Mil) who have never won a tournament. Does anybody care.

A reader filled me in on the derivation of the word cranberry after my musing a couple of days ago, "What exactly is a cran?" This astute observer of relevancy tells me that it was coined by none other than our beloved Pilgrims who described the look of those bushes in bogs laden with hanging reddish berries as appearing to look like a "Crane", those magnificent birds of the wetlands. "Crane" became "Cran" during the great recession of 1689 when the extra ink for the "e" became too expensive.

My biggest complaint about the 0-Man campaign jobs Proposal is that it just continues to abet the bad management practices of state and local governments. With the prospects of bailouts in the air, people will continue to make make bad risk choices -- and that includes politicians, financial and business corporations and people in their comfy homes. And this all continues to lead to the final destruction of personal accountability and responsibility. It is the ocean silently eating away at seawalls protecting safe harbors.

I can easily see for the future a US military with far fewer people and a lot more cool gadgets. I can see a future where the US won't be rushing in to put down skirmishes around the world.

Almost Near: Chapter 44 continues. --"So you're the guy who entrapped my quiet little newspaper, drawing us all into a murder investigation." Tucker just stood there stone-faced, looking at this Editor, unemotional, kinda gruff, tie askew, sleeves rolled up; sitting there, eyes boring into Tuckers; confident, unrelenting but not arrogant. Audrey standing by his side elbowed him as if to say don't let him beat you down.
"Well Jess, I can call you Jess, right Jess." Audrey looked at Tucker now in a new way. He seemed different than that loveable bumbler.
"You are lucky I came along. This is a great story at so many levels which it seems to me you have yet to figure it out. Your visceral reactions seem that of a small minded politician or dead ended middle manager, not a leader of people with great minds like Audrey." Tucker turned to her and smiled, pleasantly? Sarcastically? Triumphantly? None of the above?
Jess's mouth hung open. He turned towards Audrey who stood there with a similar expression of disbelief.
Tucker didn't flutter an eyelash. "So, I'm glad I got back before you did something rash. Did either of you do anything to minimize the police suspicions of Samantha? Did...'
"Ok Tucker," Audrey's face was red. Jess relaxed back in his chair to watch the action he could see coming. "When did you start under appreciating the only friend you seem to have lately, expecially now that your dizzy ex-girlfriend's brain is flutterinfg somewhere in outer space." Audrey stopped short, realizing that her anger made have pushed her too far. Then she thought, did Tucker push me on purpose?

Quiz Answer: Of course everybody thinks first of the king of product disasters, the symbol of corporate failure -- The Edsel. But it actually took three years to close the factory doors on that one. Then I think of "New Coke" which is right up there with Quickster, being pulled in 77 days. In between those two is HP's IPad competitor "Touchpad" which hit the bricks after a mere 43 days. The other notables are RJ Reynolds Smokeless Ciggies, Google's Lively, JooJoo (Inferior Ipad Competitor also know as CrunchPad), Mobile ESPN, Orbitz Soda, Microsoft Bob, McDonald's Arch Deluxe (To appeal to Urban Sophisticates and at cost of $100 Mil, most expensive flop in history), Pepsi A.M. and Crystal, Cosmopolitan Yogurt, HD DVD, Coor's Rocky Mountain Spring Water, Joost (An inferior predecessor to Hulu) and finally we're back to Edsel the most notable, but obviously not the quickest to fail.

The best way to solve a lot of problems is to walk away and come back to see amazing possibilities you never saw the first time.

That is the much better alternative to rushing it through only to come back to see glaring errors that will never go away.

Listen to the roar.

Today's Tids Issue 2,415
Opening Stuff:

Life seems better when the Rhode Island Symphony comes to a town. Any town. It's more, much more than the grand music. It's the gathering of people. Like it was when the families and kids and music lovers gathered at old Eldritch Field in the middle of downtown East Greenwich, the town that gave birth to the US Navy. Nobody cared what anybody looked like, they just consumed the smiles on each others faces. Every race, ever gender, every political persuasion gathered in the melodies and savored the peace of the night exactly the same way. If they couldn't, God help them. You always know it's a great night when people leaving are saying almost unison, "Why don't we do things like this more often".

Sunday Newspapers are better when football is back on the sports pages.

In the politics just get weirder and weirder department, how about a 2012 clash featuring Hillary, Trump and GOP'er. Some Execs are starting a Trump Third Party movement! Hillary could win that one.

If you don't throw wild thoughts onto the table, new ideas'll never get there.

Obama supporters keep repeating that the Prez is focused like a Laser beam on the jobs problem. I like that. "Laser Beam" Obama. What better? He is so singularly focused that he misses the realities affecting 2/3's of the Country. Is laser beam just a contemporary way of saying "Head in the sand"?

The Question:
1. Every time I think of the planes flying into the towers on September 11 2001, my heart stops and my stomach turns over. It is the one of great American tragedies that have occurred in September in the last century. name the other one? 2. Bonus Q: Who is Iva Ikuku Toguri?

The Headlines:

--Euro-Doubt Has World Stocks Falling While WS Rests; New Italian And Greek Questions And Political Defeat In Germany Casts Clouds.
--Hurricane Katia Looks To Be On Deadly Path Towards East Coast; Experts Expect It To veer North And Away Leaving heavy Surf On beaches And Rocky Coasts.
--Possibly Peace Deal In Libya Breaks Down As Daffy Forces In key Stronghold Reject Rebel Offer.
--RI Gov. Chafee-Lite's Admin Payroll Up (25.25%) From $1.94 Mil To $2.43 Mil; New Gov Has Encouraged New Kinds Of Taxes To Bail Out State.
--MS Sans Lewis Expects To Raise More Than 2010.

"Oh no! It's raining on our Baseball game!": "The rain stopped! Who did you call, Charlie Brown? The weatherman?" "No, Dial-a-Prayer."

Are all of these storms really larger, or do they just look larger becasue of all that red swirling stuff they now show on TV?

Apparently the big popular phrase around here in the post-Irene days -- "Congratulations on your Return to Power." is being Tweeted around the world. Gadhafi was seen ordering a big "Return to Power" Cake! How about that social networking.

Just what Rhode Island needs -- More administrators.

When you look at a lot of individual companies, it appears that the economy is doing quite well. The real problem may be that the economy is just not big enough any longer to produce jobs the American way. Oh, it has the capability of producing piddling jobs for ever and ever. But, the continuing encroachment of new technology upon the manufacturing as well as the service sectors will tend to make those jobs more piddling. Tis overtime reducing average income and the discretionary spending necessary to support piddling jobs. Then the Gov will step in and pay more and more to people to do less and less, further reducing discretionary spending. Sounds like the potential for a bad couple of cycles.

I worry when I first see new neighbors all dressed from head to toe in black.

Could-get-very-interesting, Department:
That suit brought by the US of A on behalf of Fannie/Freddie against 17 of the financial bigs could make for some great morning reading. The suit basically accused the "Bigs" of fraud in the selling of allegedly known Toxic investments to the big Gov mortgage houses. What will be revealing will be the defense arguments which could expose complicity on the part of the Quasi-Gov behemoths. This is a conspiracy mongers dream come true! There will be lots of squirming going on.

I was researching the expected $23Bil+ unfunded pension liability for GM prior to the upcoming IPO thinking there may be a good story there. I hit a roadblock when some financial WS experts said it would have little or no effect on the much anticipated coming out party for the once proud biggest company in the world. Wait a minute...did I say Wall Street expert? Uh, oh!

Stock Tip: The Movie "Contagion" is going to be great for the sale of Purell Hand Sanitizing Dispensers. That is, if Wall Street still worked that way.

Supply and Demand was always a nice, simple economic model upon which companies and consumers alike would make rational business and investment decisions. But rampant speculation techniques made possible by lightning fast computers has done away with that logic, effectively taking opportunity and sensible planning out of the hands of business and home owners. Of course house flipping was one of the more repugnant money grabbing fads of the last decade. Most speculation adds significant amounts of cost with no increased value... and puts tons of dough in the pockets of a few.


All of a sudden it seems like everything in the world is happening on September 6!

I thought that one of the great travesties in recent history was Fed bureaucrats forbidding Boeing from building a plant in Carolina because it was a "right ot work state.". It's scary for the future of America to think that the exec branch has forgotten the premise of what made the country great and has gained that much unfettered power that it can circumvent private entities from making rational decisions.

Brian Bassett seems like a guy with a heart.

People I don't read about: Winners of food eating contests.

Almost Near: Chapter 38. --Audrey didn't press the children. They were responding to her, more than she could have hoped. Yet she, a reporter, found it surprisingly easy to walk away without asking more. The heaviness in her heart was telling her to leave them alone.
She rose almost immediately after they began to cry after telling of Bounty. She wrapped her arms around them and found them willing to snuggle deeply within a stranger's caress. The three stood still, posed in a sculpture like moment, not moving; comforting, each other. Audrey found difficulty to break it up. She looked up and saw Florence staring, little rivulets of tears on her cheeks.
These two little girls would need a lot of help. She knew it. It is why she didn't press sleeping with Daddy. When she felt the sobbing diminish and a sense of calm within them, she released the two and stood back. And looked at them as if they were her own. She could tell they didn't want her to go.
"I'll be back tomorrow. Your Aunt Florence is a good person and will take good care of you."
"We know that." Did they say everything in unison, Audrey wondered.
Within minutes, a drained Audrey was rushing down to her car. To what? Sit and cry her eyes out? She wondered.
She felt the vibration from her cell phone. She it pulled out as she reached the main sidewalk, and instinctively looked back at the house. It was a text, "Call your office."

The Answer:
1. For some unexplained reason, forty-four years ago Ford decided to introduce the Edsel to an unsuspecting American Public. The reaction was one of horror. 2. Iva Toguri was "Tokyo Rose". There is much evidence pointing to he the fact that she was coerced to utter anti-American sentiments, as opposed to Rachel Maddow who does it from the heart.

Only 110 shopping days left til Christmas! The Tids: Working to build a better economy.