There's not much of a point to this post. But, I have a meeting tomorrow to negotiate a potential joint venture between my US client and a foreign company. For the first time in my career I have to have a translator. I'm wondering how that will affect the dynamics. Should be interesting.
You will be thankful that this is the last installment of the travelogue.
The jazz brunch yesterday was pretty good. Not great music, but pleasant.
I then played a couple of hours of Pai Gow. I had discovered the pleasures of playing in the high limits room on Saturday night. Up until then, I'd played on the main floor betting $20.00 a hand with a $5.00 bonus bet (do a word search for Pai Gow on the blog if you want to know what that is). The minimum bet in the high limits area was $25.00, so it wasn't much of a jump in risk. In return, though all of the dealers I ran into at Harrah's were competent and friendly, the dealers in the high limits room were more so. In contrast to the crowded and noisy main casino, it was spacious and relatively quiet. Instead of the casino's 60's and 70's music theme (think Build Me Up Buttercup at high volume over a bad sound system) the piped in music was blues and jazz at a reasonable volume). Throw in the complimentary shoulder massage and it was a very pleasant place to lose money, though I actually came out ahead there.
At about 12:30 p.m. yesterday, I came to realize that I was "gambled out." My plane didn't leave till 4:45 p.m,. but I'd had enough. I caught a cab to the airport and got lucky, getting a standby seat (first class!) on an earlier flight. Home and asleep, on the couch at 9:00 p.m.
Now, back to putting out small fires.
Yesterday, I got caught up in Pai Gow and the only thing I did in a touristy way was dinner at August, owned by the Iron Chef wannabe discussed in the last post. I know, there were better options; but, it was really good.
I am in love with the Windsor Court, if I could work out of NO, I’d move in.
I’m typing this on my balcony, sipping coffee after having read the Times Picayune, not a bad paper.
Time to pack up, attend the hotel’s Jazz Brunch, play a little more Pai Gow and head for the airport.
So, I got in late afternoon yesterday. Bumpy last few thousand feet, not too bad.
First the hotel, the Windsor Court, is very nice. Harrah’s is paying for the “room,” which turns out to be a good sized one bedroom apartment, with foyer, dressing room, kitchen, and two balconies looking towards the French Quarter. Most of the buildings are three to five stories with little apartments and gardens on top. Very swank, as Big Rick would say.
The Casino is big, predictably noisy and has 7,328 one, two and five cent slot machines or maybe 500, one or the other. I never got to play Pai Gow poker as there was only one table and it was always full. I was left with roulette.
I had dinner at John Besh Steak, adjacent to the Casino. I’m told Besh was a challenger on Iron Chef America. I assume he lost. The space is very nice, as is the service. The food, not so much. I started with corn and crab bisque. Corn was present in abundance, no crab or crab flavor to be found, the base was a soup, not a bisque. Next up was flash fried soft shell crab on a cauliflower emulsion. My first flash fried food with an emulsion, and my last. Whatever flash frying is, is does too good a job. To my knowledge soft shell crab is not tough or chewy and it usually tastes like crab. This was more like an upscale Howard Johnson’s crab plate, nicely presented.
Gambling losses are minimal and I would be ahead had I not played “Rapid Roulette.” $200 in twenty minutes.
More as the trip warrants.
As I type, I SHOULD be getting in a taxi at the NO airport to my hotel. Rather, I'm sitting in my office as just as I boarded the plane this morning the pilot announced that the NO airport had no electricity.
Interestingly, all of the other airlines show as "on time," only AirTran has cancelled two flights, mine and another one at noon. I suspect, since there weren't many people on the flight that they are putting them all on a flight late this afternoon. Much more cost effective for AirTran ;and, much more inconvenient for the passengers.
On the bright side, I have six less hours during which to lose money.
this morning, I didn’t remember what happened about 8:30 a.m. a few years back at that time. I was late getting out of the house and didn’t think about it till about ten minutes to nine, about the time I was landing at the Newark airport that Tuesday.
If you want to read about what I saw and did that week, you can go to these links:
Part 1
Part 2 -- The Sheraton Prison
Part 3 -- Other Orphans
Part 4 -- Joe's Odyssey
Part 5 -- Coming Home.
If you just want to listen to a nice song, you can go here.
And though he doesn’t read the blog regularly, Happy Birthday middle brother!
It looks like I get to lose some money and eat some good food. From Nola.com a little while ago:
"In New Orleans, there's a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms on Thursday and Friday, accompanied by east winds between 25 and 30 mph, with gusts as high as 40."
Time to get my roulette and Pai Gow poker "skills" honed.
For the next two months victory will be a preoccupation with the candidates and a lot of us voters; though, the word has been around, been mis-used and is still being mis-used, for a few years now.
McCain is attacking Obama in ads for being willing to “lose” in Iraq to “win” in Afghanistan.
I’ve been writing this blog for, toward the end of this month, two years. I’ve done probably too many posts on the subject of the idiocy of our involvement in Iraq. Do a word search if you don’t believe me.
I’m still looking for someone, anyone, to tell me what winning, victory in Iraq, you choose the noun, means.
I am convinced that whomever is elected President, and whenever we “leave” (and that word is open to interpretation), we will lose in Iraq by any rational definition of the word.
The Kurds hate the Sunnis who hate the Shiites who hate the Sunnis who hate the Kurds who hate the Shiites. And the Sunnis don’t like the Kurds, almost missed that one.
Whether we “leave” next year, in 2010, you pick the year, the Iraqs will almost immediately go back to fighting with each other. The only difference would be that depending on what we mean by leaving, fewer of us would die.
Whenever we leave, Iraq and Iran will go back to the adversarial relationship they had back in the Eighties.
Al Qaeda? It will do what it’s been doing. The Saudis will pay off all of the players. The billions of dollars we spent and the lives we’ve lost in the last five years will have done nothing to change that.
So how do we define what we will leave, when we leave the Mideast, as victory when it will be the exact same place it’s been for the past forty or fifty years, with billions of dollars spent and tens of thousand of lives ended, with the notable exception that Sadaam is now taking a dirt nap? It's an expensive, botched hanging, nothing more.
I bitch and complain about a lot of things here. It's only right to praise when the occasional company does something well.
I ordered some wall mount speaker brackets from Crutchfield.com on Saturday at 6:45 p.m.. The site said they'd ship in two to three days. They arrived in my office today at 1:15 p.m.
Not bad at all.
Ike seems to be cooperating with my weekend plans. All of the computer projections (except one) are now heading due West towards the US - Mexico border - more than six hundred miles from New Orleans. Maybe I'll be able to lose the money I planned to lose.
Here's some "Men's Fashion" from the New York Times. The guy on the left got some of the same fabric that was used for some drapes when I was a little kid.
Ike appears to be determined to mess up my plan to lose money in New Orleans next weekend. The NOAA projection puts its eye about 150 miles SW of New Orleans next Friday at 2:00 p.m., when I’d planned to be finishing lunch at either Antoine’s or Acme Oyster.
A friend who works in disaster relief, sent me an Email saying I might be wise to change my plans. We’ll see what it looks like as the week progresses. I suppose I better make a “provisional” tee time for next weekend.
Here’s a piece today in the AJC about Bill O’Reilly sending a crew to ambush Cynthia Tucker, an editorial writer to try to embarrass her about an editorial she did about his disparate views on the fault of liberal and conservative parents when their daughters become pregnant:
O'Reilly Ambush
Here’s what Cynthia Tucker said:
Tucker Take
Here’s Jon Stewart on the same issue:
Stewart Take
I am really looking forward to O’Reilly trying to ambush Stewart, playing both ambushes, and then trying to give a no spin version of his idiocy. Maybe he can get Karl Rove on the show for his take on the issue.
It isn’t the five kids; she’d have the use of the Vice President’s mansion down the street from the White House. I’m figuring they have nannies, maids, tutors, etc. as needed. We’ll see if she fires the chef, as she said she did in the Alaska governor’s mansion, or tries to sell the daily limo on EBay.
It isn’t the daughter’s unfortunate condition and impending marriage. Let’s assume the kids are really dumb. That would just be a new second family fully in line with the tradition of other first families that embarrassed their famous parents. Various Kennedy kids. Billy Carter. The Reagan brother whose name I’ve forgotten. Reagan’s kids that he was embarrassed about, though for no good reason. The current Bush kids that did some of the stupid things that kids do. The list can go on.
It isn’t her insignificant “executive experience.” If you compare the four candidates, she has the most, as minimal as it is.
It isn’t even that she was for “earmarks” before she was against them. I don’t like earmarks; but I understand that they are a reality in politics.
It isn’t because she didn’t write the speech that she delivered last night. (The guy that wrote most of it has been writing Republican speeches for quite awhile now.)
I won’t be voting for Senator McCain and Governor Palin because the great majority of what they want to do is not good, from my point of view.
Governor Palin made a joke in her speech last night about Obama wanting “terrorists” to have their rights read to them. She apparently doesn’t think the pesky first ten amendments to the Constitution mean much. My view is that no one accused of something is ”it” until a real court says they are. In my view, our government should treat people the way I would want to be treated, which doesn’t include being put on ice for years without the ability to get to a court. Governor Palin seems to have a lot in common with the current VP, Dick Cheney. Former Attorney General Gonzales. W. I find it interesting that other than Senator McCain’s insistence that we need to hang out in Iraq until we “win,” whatever that means, he actually, probably, isn’t Bush incarnate. From what she said last night, she wants us to think that she is.
Then there’s the pro-life or anti-choice stance, whichever version you prefer. If I were in a position having to consider whether to undergo an abortion, I probably would choose to preserve the life or potential life within me. But, I cannot understand someone that wants to, indeed, demands the right, to make that choice for someone else.
Guns. Great photo ops those dead beasts and drawing a bead with soldiers standing around are. If it were up to me, I’d restrict them as much as the current Supreme Court will allow. I know, if you ban guns, only the criminals will have guns. How about if you change what the real economic price of a gun is? Absolute liability for the manufacturer of a gun used to injure or kill someone. How many S&W’s, Glocks, etc., and at what price, will be sold? Over time, the current supply dwindles. Fewer accidental and intentional deaths. Not rocket science, not constitutional law, just, to my mind, common sense. (Read some economic law stuff from Judge Posner from Chicago, a conservative federal appellate judge. He might well be a Republican.)
Let’s talk about foreign policy. Governor Palin jabs at Senator Obama for being willing to talk to heads of state that oppose us without setting pre-conditions. We’ve had seven and a half years of a cowboy president that threatens and doesn’t talk, to no avail. The cold hard fact is that this is not 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990 or 2000. America is the lone “super-power” in a military sense, in the world. Use of that status, without the necessary concomitant of economic and moral super-power status in unavailing. Here, Governor Palin joins Senator McCain in playing big dog. “Victory in Iraq is in sight!” Bush has spent two terms redefining victory with McCain at his side. Palin makes three. Please tell me what a win means.
There’s more; but, you might see it’s clear that Governor Palin and I don’t agree on a lot of things. She seems to be Senator McCain with some charisma. Bad views, well spoken, do not a Vice President make.
I invite you, my conservative readers, you know who you are, to tell me I’m wrong in my views. Humor and glibness are welcome, accompanied by reasoned analysis.
You aren’t. I just switched, for now at least, to Firefox as a browser. I also thought I’d “subscribe” to some of your blogs. I’ll be damned if I can figure out how to do it. I did subscribe to a few sometime back and have now added them to my homepage; but, other than cutting and pasting each of your urls into the “subscribe” pop up, which I’m not going to do, I can’t figure it out (I haven’t tried really hard). So, how can I select the blogs from my blog folder in Bookmarks and send them en masse to Google Reader?
And, the Firefox experiment may be ending as when I tried to upload this post to Blogger, I got a bunch of garbage in the typing box and a big red ERROR above it. I'm entering this from IE7.
I will be eternally grateful for your advice, or at least for a week or two.
I hate light or bright blue ties, be they worn by Republicans or Democrats.
I've been watching the GOP convention for a couple of hours. There have been three black people that I've seen. No Asians. Some big hair, male and female.
I saw President Bush speak.
I'm not a Republican.
As you know, I'm not a member of a political party. Were I to join one, it would probably be the Democrats.
I just watched a video played at the Republican convention that was a tribute to a Navy Seal who dropped himself on a grenade, killing himself and saving two of his team members. Gripping. He is a hero. The video said nothing about Michael Monsour's politics. Some guy named Swindle just thanked him for his sacrifice, a member of his family is apparently a Republican and was there to receive the thanks.
What does this have to do with who should be the next President?
I'm watching FoxNews (sorry Fermi) and just saw George H.W. Bush walk into the arena. He's gotten old and infirm. Don't like his son and didn't have much use for H.W. politically; but, I never disliked him personally. I just realized that if W and I get to the point where I see him walking stiffly and infirmly, I just said I'd be happy. No I wouldn't.
Maybe there's a point that we can all just get along.
This morning, I remembered that I had a Netflix DVD in the home theater. It was in slot one of five. The other four opened easily, just not number one.
I won't bore you with how I got it out; but, as of about ten minutes ago, I think I broke it. I'm listening to TV sound as the ht box won't run the speakers.
So, I'm not going to spend what a BluRay costs. Any ideas on what to buy to play CD's and DVD's and run the speakers?
The title of the post may, or may not be appropriate, we’ll see.
This morning, rather than going to a parade, I went to the golf course. Probably more in tune with today’s country than I would like.
Then, I watched Hurricane Gustave thankfully fizzle it seems.
Now I’m watching what is passing for the Republican convention. I think the GOP did the right thing to downplay the politics; but, as the storm doesn’t seem to be a real threat, their appeal that they are “Americans” seems a bit flat. They played what seemed to be a good bet and lost.
Four Republican Governors who stayed in their states did video speeches, all acceptable, except for Rick Perry of Texas who inferred that only Republicans could have dealt with what turned out to be a Category 1 storm. Brownie, Chertoff (the first time around), George W and a few others would belie that view.
Then there was just Laura Bush and Cindy McCain. They spoke for a minute or two each and asked us to send money to the Gulf Coast states.
Just now, Senator McCain’s campaign said that he knew that Governor Palin’s daughter was pregnant when he selected his nominee. My thought is that Senator McCain showed quite poor judgment, not for choosing Governor Palin (though I think it was a bad choice for a number of reasons), rather that he knew of the bombshell and didn’t put it out in the open from the start. Lots of drama for no good reason.
To end on the title, we have labor and we have ownership. I don’t think it’s a good idea to focus on either. Each of us brings something to the table. The minute we focus on adversity, be we on the leveraged side or the downside, we miss a bet.
Enjoy your labors and your leisure. It won’t be long till Columbus Day is here.
In the order I think of them:
Age:
M: 72 (today, Happy Birthday)
O: 47
P: 44
B: 65
Abortion:
Mc: Life
O: Choice
P: Life
B: Choice
Houses:
Mc: Seven or so
O: One, though admittedly a nice one
P: Don’t know
B: One as far as I can determine
Education:
Mc: Naval Acadamy
O: Harvard Law
P: University of Idaho, B.S., Communications/Journalism
B: Syracuse University Law
Government Experience:
Mc: U.S. Senate since 1982
O: Illinois Senate for a few years;U.S. Senate since 2006
P: Mayor and Councilperson Wasilla, AK, dates not known;
Governer AK since 2006 (thirteen years total according
her sound bite on Fox News today)
B: New Castle County, DE council, 1970 – 1972; U.S. Senate
since 1972
Spouse:
Mc: Cindy, Beer Distribution, Multi-millionaire
O: Michelle, VP Community and External Affairs, U of
Chicago Hospitals (as of July 2007)
P: Todd, Production Operator in the oil business,
former commercial fisherman
B: Jill, Professor of English, Delaware Technical
and Community College
NRA Members:
Just Palin
Drilling:
Mc: No drilling in ANWAR
O: Confused and waffling
P: Drill in ANWAR
B: No drilling
Iraq:
Mc: Depends on when he’s talking – stay till victory
O: Get out soon, lately adding “responsible withdrawal”
P: Not known, 18 year old son deploying to Iraq in the Fall
B: Partition the country, though he isn’t talking about it much lately
Foreign Policy Experience:
Mc: Senator, talks a lot
O: Senator, talks a lot
P: Councilperson, Mayor, Governor, may well talk a lot,
probably until now not much about foreign policy
B: See above
Executive Experience:
Mc: None that I know of
O: Editor in Chief, Harvard Law Review, CEO of some
community organizations
P: Mayor, Governor
B: None that I know of.
Let the spin begin.
(Apologies for the formating, it was fine till Blogger messed with it.)
Dahlia Lithwick, at Slate.com, thinks so. I’ll trust that she’s right on the facts, if she is, no one at the convention is talking about the Bush Administration’s assault on the Constitution and law and John McCain’s support of it.
Guantanamo. Warrantless wiretapping. Political firings and hirings at the Justice Department. Cheney, Pflame, Scooter. What’s his name Gonzales who was the Attorney General and his misadventures with law and the Constitution.
Maybe the Dems have it right and the bulk of us don’t much care about the niceties of the Bill of Rights when mortgages, fuel and food are going South on us. But, even if those are the issues that will draw in the most voters for the Dems, wouldn’t an appeal to those who care about the niceties bring a few more votes?
Damn, I forgot that Obama voted to give immunity to the telecom companies that did the actual wiretapping. Never mind. Some messiah.
As of a few minutes ago, at about 7:00 p.m. EDT, we have a black American man as the nominee for President of the United States, as the result of a motion for his nomination by acclamation by a white American woman who lost to him.
Some history happening.
So, I'll throw it out for your thoughts. The LPGA is going to require its golfers to be conversationally "proficient" in English by next year, or face fines. The rationale given is that the tour is dependant on sponsor money, and sponsors sponsor less when the golfers can't interact with them.
The article I read, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/27/sports/golf/27golf.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin, points out that 45 Koreans play on the tour, some of whom speak little or no English. Though I don't closely follow the LPGA, I do know that Korean players are usually a big component of the leader board (top ten/twenty) in tournaments.
So if I'm the CEO of Dave's Blog, LLC and I've sponsored the Rather Than Working tournament at Legacy Golf Links in Smyrna, there will be a pro-am round to kick off the weekend. The Pro's, playing with the Ams, who've paid hefty bucks to play, will be made up of a lot of players who can't talk with my big spending guests, who just might be less likely to sign up next year, making me less interested in next year's sponsorship.
That said, American athletes wander around the world not speaking the local languages. If I had a Spanish edition of the blog, held my En Vez de Funcionamiento tournament in Madrid and Tiger and Phil showed up with no ability to speak Spanish, am I or my guests going to be disappointed? Probably not.
So, is this a matter of provincialism or the LPGA's need to promote a second tier sport?
You’re a Democrat. You chose one of the candidates, be it Biden, Gravel, Dodd Edwards, Kucinich, Richardson, Vilsack (I had to look him up – former Governor of Iowa) or – DRUM ROLL!!! – Clinton.
Your candidate loses to Obama. In the case of – DRUM ROLL!!!!!! – Clinton’s supporters, you apparently hold a grudge, encouraged for a long time by your ousted candidate, against the guy that that beat you. You don’t get no respect, damn it!!!!!!!!!!!!
We want her debts paid. We want Florida and Michigan seated, though it doesn’t change the result. We want prime time for an entire day of the convention. We want a roll call vote. What do you mean, you’re going to stop at New York so she can release her delegates and ask for nomination by acclamation? I’m from Texas, I want to cast my vote!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You get everything you asked for except all of the campaign debt, and, as it’s reported now, the full roll call debt. You’re still disrespecting us as women. How dare you. We’re not going to vote. We’re going to vote for McCain.
Give me a break. Anyone, man or woman, who voted for Clinton, is an absolute idiot if they don’t vote for Obama. What is their point? They’d rather have McCain in office?
So, they high-jack a convention to make a non-point to the detriment of a candidate that agrees with their views.
Stupid people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Most of the talking heads have little pilot’s or receptionist's microphones. Seems like a throw back to Janet Jackson or MC Hammer at a point in their “careers.”
The mike part and stem on Fox are kind of pink/flesh colored. CNN has gone with a bigger mike part that’s black along with the stem and earpiece.
And, James Carville is one goofy looking dude.
I know, that’s two observations; but, they're both non-political.
I’m in the midst of my annual gorging on tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, radishes and green onions. Bacon and tomato sandwiches accompanied by the other vegetables, there isn’t much better.
It would probably even be OK with Miracle Whip rather than mayo on the BT’s.
Some background music for you: Ella and Louie.
I watched exactly none of the Olympics.
As I type, I’m watching Fox News talk about the Democratic Convention. Compelling stuff so far. The reporters have shown and talked about two ladies’ attire. And the issue of whether Barack, Bill and Hillary can reign in the latter’s dissatisfied supporters is being aired.
So far, so boring. I’m going to save my tolerance for watching Biden’s and Obama’s speeches. Biden is entertaining, I’m looking forward to his gaffes this Fall. Obama is a great speaker. Agree or not with what he has to say, he says it well.
I’m off to see what is in the DVR hard drive.
I check out Pogue's Posts at NYTimes.com on semi-regular basis, today being such a day. There was a piece that defended Windows Speech Recognition over Dragon Naturally Speaking.
I had no idea Vista had a voice recognition program. I tried Dragon years back and found it clunky. I wonder if the Vista program is worth the effort. Any thoughts?
First, condiments. My friends and I lead rich, full lives. Big Rick, Big Tony and I were talking at the neighborhood place today. There was some disagreement on acceptable condiments. Generic catsup and mustard, rather than name brands, are OK, though we differ on the viability of yellow rather going with some sort of spicy version. Rick says the good stuff is preferable on everything but a hamburger. Tony and I went with the good stuff for everything. Rick likes Miracle Whip over mayo, I think it's a Southern thing. Tony and I insist on mayo, and only Hellmann’s.
Then there’s the grilled cheese sandwich. I’m basic here. Kraft or generic American slices. Butter the bread on both sides and toss into a frying pan. Rick goes for Velveeta with some Miracle Whip. Tony didn’t weigh in on this one. We didn’t talk about it; but, I’m not a believer in add-ons here. No tomato, onions or the like.
Finally, there are pickles. I like kosher dills and bread and butter. Rick only goes with B&B. Tony at this point was paying no attention.
I'm off to the kitchen. Dinner is grilled cheese (my way), some pickle spears, I'm not sure which variety, and maybe some spinach. I know the last doesn't fit into the post; and, it probably doesn't go with the GC and pickle, but, I like it.
Your thoughts are welcome.
We are putting a missile “defense” system in Poland to protect against “rogue states” like Iran.
Draw a line from Iran to Poland and then keep running the line, it goes somewhere between Canada and Greenland, then left of the North Pole. If Iran has an ICBM that can hit the US, or we fear that it can develop one, the place to put defensive missiles is North Africa or Spain.
Along the Poland line is part of Europe. If we are protecting Europe with this system, why not put it in Germany, France, Britain, etc.?
Or cut the missiles off at the get go, put it in Israel or Iraq.
Oh, the line from Russia to the US runs right through Poland. We still have ballistic submarines and probably some other stuff no one talks about. Just why do we need missiles (Defensive!) in Poland?
Russia is getting a little crazy. We are adding to its paranoia.
Yesterday's NYTimes published an editorial, The Corporate Free Ride. It railed about corporations not paying their fair share of taxes.
Geez! I've posted about this before, here's one more go at it.
No corporation in the history of the world has ever, ever paid a penny of tax that it hasn't collected from the pocket of a person. A corporation is a "person" by virtue of law. In reality it is a package of paper that allows a group of people to conduct business and shield their assets from liability for the "actions" of the corporation. In theory, and in practice, this promotes investment.
When a corporation sells a product or a service it gets money from a person of the two-legged variety. It charges for its costs and tacks on a profit. Those costs include the money it has to pay to the government - taxes. Increase the amount of the taxes, and the corporation incurs an increase in its costs and, if the market allows, increases its price to the person. If the market doesn't allow it to cover the increased cost, in time it goes out of business (or moves to a country with lower costs).
In either case, the end result is a two-legged person paying the tax or suffering the losses resulting with the bankruptcy or job loss due to the corporation's offshore move.
The NYT editorial is a classic example of what is wrong with us. "We" need money. So we, in the persons of our elected representatives, stick another tax on businesses, businesses that increasingly have to compete with businesses around the world. Businesses in places that do not exact as high a tax burden. US businesses fail. Jobs and money flow out of the US. The trade deficit worsens. The downward spiral continues.
Want to reverse the cycle? Stop taxing corporations. Foreign and domestic investment increases. Imports decrease as goods and services originating here are less expensive. Jobs increase. Exports increase. The trade deficit over time becomes a surplus.
And taxes, now paid by two-legged people? They are transparent. They still are being paid and the amount paid by you will increase; but, the amount you pay for products and services, no longer burdened by taxes, will go down. A wash. And, you know what your government is costing you. If you aren't happy about that cost, you go about letting your representatives know about it.
I know, it's a crazy idea.
The question was raised in a bit different way earlier this year in a post I did about voting in primary elections.
Now I'm wondering just what the population of real live independant voters is. Here in Georgia in a primary you have to "declare" to vote in either the Dem or GOP primary, as is the case in some other states. But, here, in the general election, you go in, look at the ballot and make your decisions.
I don't know, that I know of, anyone that is a member of the Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Green, etc. party by volition. Are you? Why? Do you give money? Participate in get out the vote stuff? Again, why?
My bet is that a large majority of the electorate may call themselves something, but have never formalized the relationship. That being the case, I'm interested in why. If an all encompassing political belief is worth having, shouldn't it be backed up by action?
The 20,000th person to visit this site, as measured by Sitemeter.com, was someone from Houston, Arkansas who did a Google search for “alcohol on sunday oklahoma” at 4:43: 09 p.m. today, staying for “0 seconds.” Getting ready for a road trip I guess. Appropriately, given the title of the blog, they were getting ready, rather than working, while surfing from something called Windstream Communications. An example of one of Google’s algorithm’s failures based on a couple of posts I’ve done on Georgia’s stupid liquor laws.
The next person to visit the site was Jay, checking to see if I’d responded to his comment on my last post about the decline of the AJC. I haven’t, I’ll get around to it. Keep clicking to see.
Which brings us to the next person, number 20,002, coming from AJC.com, clicking in from the kind link to the last post from Scott Freeman, a Creative Loafing (Atlanta’s weekly “alternative” paper, with a daily online presence) writer. CL does a daily online post called Atlanta blogs today. I’m one of the links today. Thanks. The AJC person stayed for a minute and 53 seconds: a speed reader. I got several longer looks from AJC people earlier in the day, the highlight being a visit from someone from Cox Newspapers in Washington, DC. They all came via the link from Creative Loafing. Again thanks, Scott, the folks at the AJC are paying attention to you; and, you got me a good share of the 51 hits and 106 page views so far today.
To all of you who wander past on a regular basis, thanks. For those of you visiting today from the Creative Loafing link, thanks, come back and I invite you to visit some of the people who comment and who are listed in the Recommended sidebar. Some good writing is available at the click of your mouse.
...other than maybe Big Rick, Bill, Fermi and maybe Jay. I read the first of the new "better" Sunday print papers today. Fact reporting is down, editorial content is down, and down in quality. As I suspected in my last diatribe on this subject, "Sunday Living," with it's filler pieces, wedding announcements and other fluff, is present in its full glory. (Someone named Judith Martin says "It's OK to tell drugstore about misspelled signs." Rick, the Funny Papers are all there.
UPDATE: I saw my first "two" page version of weekly editorials. It's really only a page of editorial content, a half a page of letters to the editor and a half a page of announcements about things to interest the "thinking reader," museum exhibits and the like.
So this is it for the AJC and this blog (unless I find something else to make fun of.) Here's the real EMail I sent today to the AJC Editor, Julia Wallace:
Ms. Wallace,
From what I've read in the paper and online, you are the public face of what I think is the ill-advised latest downgrading of the AJC. I read my first Sunday paper under the new cost cutting regime this morning. (I only get the print edition on Sundays.) On a good day, meaning the paper is fully worth reading, it takes me something less than an hour. Your new regime product took less than half that. What you are calling editorial content is too narrow and does not meet the quality level of what a metropolitan newspaper should minimally meet. Kind of glorified blogs were all I saw today other than what you've kept from the old format. Contrary to what the paper says readers want, traditional readers of newspapers want what a traditional newspaper has always offered, intelligent, in depth, factual and editorial content. (I'm not at all concerned with bias, I read what your paper offers and many others.) You appear to be getting rid of both.
Your evisceration of @issue, cutting weekly editorial content by a third, the 'USTodayification," (coupled with your total reliance on AP for all but the few stories your remaining staff can write) of the rest of the paper, and more that you are aware of, make what was a marginal paper, totally unacceptable.
I'll continue to read the paper online, because you're are all I've got for what remains of "full" coverage of local and regional news.
My subscription to the Sunday paper ends next Sunday, an interesting coincidence. I'll let it go because it has no "value added," other than the feel of newsprint with coffee, over the online edition. I'll just have to be careful to keep the coffee cup away from the keyboard.
All this said, I'm sad that your business is going the way that it is going. What has been a regular part of my life, is going away. I'm not convinced that it is necessary, given Cox margins; but, it is Cox's business to run as it wishes.
Regards and Regrets,
Dave
Having posted earlier today, in part about the silly serving size of a Big Kahuna Giant, a few minutes ago, as I started to get hungry and think about the careful preparation of the second two “servings” of my Big Kahuna, I wandered into the kitchen to turn on the oven to pre-heat it to bake some frozen French fries (no oil, healthy, don’t argue with me).
I started looking at the nutrition labels of stuff.
I like Lay’s Stax. They are a better version of Pringles. Serving size according to the plastic container is 13 “crisps.” First, why aren’t they a chip? Well, I suppose that is actually truthful as I think they make a soup of the potatoes and form them into “crisps.” Anyway, 13 crisps, allowing for the broken ones, are about an inch thick. A serving?
OK, let’s go healthy. You ever buy one of those little “individual” cans of vegetables? I do. My spring peas, just examined, are TWO “approximate” servings, even though the can is labeled as individual. This is healthy stuff. The whole can is 8.5 ounces. I'm only supposed to eat approximately half of it?
Just so you know, I’m not a big guy. I’m not a big eater. Rick, Bill, Jay, Hedy, tell them.
Some years back when I was traveling a lot, I was on a Delta jet from Atlanta to Philly at just about sunset (at 30,000 feet). It was quite pretty. Anyway, I was bored. My laptop was out so I started writing about what I was seeing. (Before there were blogs, I used to "blog" Emails to friends from hotel rooms.) The sunset, the turkey sandwich that Delta used to serve on every flight before it got out of the turkey farm business (Didn’t know that did you! Delta didn’t used to be an airline. From the evidence, there were a couple of guys back in the way back when that had a bunch of turkey farms. They couldn’t sell all the birds, so they started an airline, Delta, so they could get rid of the excess birds by way of dry sandwiches. I think their last name was Biscotti.)
Ahem! So one of the things I was looking at on the flight was the empty water bottle from my complimentary “meal.” On the nutritional label it recited that it had no calories, no carbs, no saturated or other fats, cholesteral, sodium or protein. Serving size? “Approximately one bottle.”
(This downsizing of serving size actually makes sense for one product, though it isn’t food. Have you noticed that paper towels are being perforated at about 50 or 60% of what they used to be? For many jobs, makes for the perfect size.)
OK, to wrap this up, want to know how many fries you get in a serving? Three ounces, or “about 18 pieces.” Does that count the bits that constitute about 10% of what you shake out of the bag? I throw those away. My guess, I had about 5 ounces, pig that I am.
Finally, I am adding this after initially posting this. You get one, count it, one, Archway oatmeal raisin cookie in a serving. Right. I'm not going to look at the serving size of the milk I'm going to drink with my four servings of cookie.
A while back I did a post about Five Guys, the hamburger chain. Much not to like there, to my mind. Pos, not taking my advice, put visiting it on his to-do list. He was able to check it off yesterday. Maybe next time he'll listen to me.
This is next time; and, at the risk of insulting Pos's hometown expertise, I'm going to wax poetically about the Jersey Mike's Big Kahuna Giant hoagie. The link will take you the Jersey Mike's Menu (do not click on the Nutritional Information icon, it will take away some of the pleasure you seek).
Jersey Mike's, as is evident from its name, can't claim Philly origins. But, it puts out some great subs, king among them - the Big Kahuna Giant. Something over a foot long and stuffed with steak, mushrooms, onions, cheese and peppers, wrapped in foil, if you get it to go. Good, good stuff. (This sub of beauty provides four, count 'm, four servings according to the nutritional info you shouldn't look at; so, don't feel too guilty. (That being the case, I'm not sure why they cut it in half rather than quarters.))
Not much poetry there. Try the sub, it'll sing to you.
I hadn't heard this one till today.
Some years back Ryan Klesko played for the Braves. For a reason I can't remember, he was moved from first base to left field.
He was not a natural outfielder. Slow would be the operative word. Not experienced in judging ball trajectory would also be an accurate comment.
During a game he, or one of the announcers said "fly ball to left, always an adventure." Skip on another occasion said, when Klesko missed an easy fly, "Klesko is running the right route, they just need to get the ball to him."
Well, As of today, Thursday, the 14th, this post turned out to be all wrong. Sorry.
This morning I heard Scott Slade, the news anchor for WSB radio here in Atlanta lead a story about "Russia's crackdown on Georgian…." Not attack, not invasion. Crackdown, as in the school principal having enough of rowdy students and imposing strict discipline.
President Bush said he was "deeply concerned;" but, he still plans on a two week vacation in Crawford.
Senators McCain and Obama tut-tutted with slightly different spins on what needs to happen and then sniped at each others' spin.
Nicolas Sarkozy continued his jet set role as a world crisis mediator brokering a ceasefire. He seems to be quite a bit more effective than was either Henry Kissinger or Jessie Jackson in the role.
With three oil pipelines not operating in Georgia, the price of a barrel of oil continues to fall.
All in all, this may not be a bad way to deal with future regional crises.
Regular readers will have followed the paper theme this last week or so. Now that I’m done with newsprint, I draw my, and your, attention to news websites.
I regularly read NYTimes.com, AJC.com, Creativeloafing.com and Slate.com. Less regularly, LATimes.com, Washingtonpost.com and ReviewJournal.com (the last a guilty pleasure and the worst site I’ve seen in a long time.)
What should a news website have and not have?
Pop ups and unders – a big no for me, though I don’t get many (because my software blocks them or the sites have given up on them?).
Interstitial ads – if I’m using the wrong word, what I mean is the “pop up” that you get when you first get to the site (AJC.com) and the “pop up” that you get when you click on an article, and are sent to an ad. Both are self-defeating, at least for me, as I spend my time looking for the “click here to close” icon, which the AJC continually moves. Who thinks that I, or anyone else looks at the ad? A minor irritation, when NYTimes.com gives you an interstitial and you want to click back to the home page, you have to click twice to get there. Get an intern to fix that in the software. Thank you.
“Hover” icons. Again, this is my word. I’ve learned not to move my cursor over words that are underlined. Why do they think I’m going to go to an ad in an article that’s entrance is the word auto, Chicago, or some other “key word” the ad people think I might be interested in? I’m not.
Having to click again after having “clicked” to the article, which turned out to be a tease. Creative Loafing here in Atlanta is bad about this. I find an article I want to read. I click it. I then get a paragraph or two and have to click again to get to the full article. The NYTimes does this too. There I’m assuming that article length is part of the problem. Or, in both or either case, are they looking for “clicks” to build their traffic; or, to speed up the site? Whatever the reason, it’s annoying.
Having gotten to the end of the article, especially if I’ve had to click several times to get there, why isn’t there an icon to take me back to where I started on the home page, rather than having to click back page by page?
I said that the Las Vegas Review Journal site is the worst. I probably is. The graphics are terrible. It duplicates almost all of the articles under categories that to really match up with the subjects. The list goes on. But the most annoying site is Slate.com. Go there if you like. As you move your cursor, the page changes in ways you don’t want it to change. Clicking on an article can be an adventure if you don’t move the cursor exactly ninety degrees right and then exactly south. It re-headlines articles to make you think you’ve not seen them before.
I’m not a Webmaster; but, these glitches seem obvious to me. How to make web news pay isn’t obvious. That will be the challenge to all of these sites over the next few years, not my ergonomic bitches. Yes, I know that isn’t the right word, but it seems to work for what I’m thinking.
I did a paragraph within the last week about maybe not re-upping for the Sunday AJC.
The last post was about phone books and the fact that they are outdated other than for leveling seriously caddy-whompous tables, getting a bail bond, a hooker or the power company during a power outage.
So today, I got up as usual, got some coffee and arranged the paper, the “paper” paper, into its component parts – roughly ¾’s ads and coupons and ¼ article sections (composed of roughly 2/3’s articles and 1/3 ads). Since I didn’t have a lot of time to get to the golf course, I skipped the normal reading order and didn’t get to “@issue,” the AJC’s Sunday opinion section until after golf, at lunch.
@issue, is going out of business after today, the two senior editorial writers informed me in “A note about our new pages.” Cutting through the propaganda, here’s what they said and didn’t say.
The “new pages” are fewer than the current pages. Daily, the AJC prints two pages of editorial content, one local and one national, and a page of letters to the editor/other editorial content. These fifteen pages a week will be cut to ten, “the norm across the newspaper industry.” Interesting word that industry.
The current Saturday paper has only one editorial page “Saturday Talk,” two-thirds letters and the rest an apologia from the paper’s ombudslady. It is now going to be called “Community Voices.” Maybe we’ll get rid of the apologies.
Why is a major city newspaper killing its Sunday opinion section? It isn’t the paper, it’s us: “With time-starved readers demanding a simplified and more easily navigable newspaper – and newsprint costs soaring – we have decided to discontinue the [section].”
What focus group did I miss?
“I’m time-starved and stupid. I can’t find the third section of the Sunday paper.”
“You are? You can’t? We’ll just cut the content and move it to the end of the Section A. Can you find that?”
“Well maybe, I’ll try. At least I’ve got all day Sunday to look for it.”
So newsprint is up. Exxon-Mobil makes something like a 10% profit. The newspaper “industry” makes northward of 20%.
What’s left of the Sunday AJC? The page with advice to the lovelorn, teenagers, etc. The page with sewing tips, genealogy and pet news and sports memorabilia price. The page and a half of wedding announcements. A lot of AP stories and easy to navigate, simple local reporting.
Seems I don’t have much of a reason to read the Sunday “paper” paper other than the pleasure of the feel of now very expensive newsprint. I just have to make sure to not spill the coffee on the keyboard, it’s less forgiving than paper.
Raise Your Hand…
if you’ve done anything with a “Yellow Pages” or one of its clone phone books in the last five years other than put it in the trash (hopefully the recycling bin).
I read an article today (and for the life of me, I can’t remember where) that talked about a move in a few areas of the country to allow people to easily “opt out” of receiving phone books. Did you know that there is a phone book lobby? It is predictably against such laws. Why you ask. It seems the phone book biz grosses something like $15 billion a year.
Another hand raising exercise. Does your employer (or if you’re self-employed, do you) advertise in the Yellow Pages or one of its competitors? Who are all of these businesses that spend $15 billion a year?
How do you find the people with whom you do business? My bet is that it isn’t by letting “your fingers do the walking” unless they are tapping on a keyboard. Even there, I don’t very often use the “Bellsouth Real Pages” which is in my Favorites (I just clicked it and found out that it is now Whitepages.com, with no reference to Bellsouth or AT&T, which shows how long it’s been since I used it).
The best “phone book” is Google. Type the name of the business or the type of the business. Add an area and there on the first page of the results you will find what you want, with a map, hours of business and their offered products and services. Oh, and a phone number.
I wonder if they have categories for smoke signal companies, buggy makers and flintlock rifles in the “Yellow Pages.”
Today's installment:
It's no Hell Comes to Frogtown; but, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is unashamedly bad and proud of it. I'm about a half hour into it. Dewey started out making a big mistake, cutting his more talented brother, Nate, in half, neatly at the belt line with their father's machete.
Right now, Dewey is on a bill with the Big Bopper, Buddy Holly and Elvis who talks a bit like Bob Dylan. Dewey gets to close the show.
Updates to follow, maybe. A quick one, Sam Cooke just appeared and is introducing Dewey to marijuana.
OK, an hour in, it's a low rent This is Spinal Tap/Forrest Gump.
Dewey's been through Roy Orbison, Dylan, rehab, met the Beatles in India and now I think he's about to do some Brian Wilson while he's sitting on a trampoline with his father, his family and Jimi Hendri. Yep, it's Pet Sounds.
That is all. If you spend your money on it, it's your fault.
Pos, at Niagaran Pebbles, did a post today bemoaning the fact that he has equaled his entire 2007 post output only to find that I was four posts ahead. Make it five. (In quantity, I’m a bit ahead of last year’s output.)
That surprised me when I read it, as I had the feeling that the Blog has been slowing down: me, readers, comments and quality.
In order of slowing categories:
I find myself thinking about posting, or thinking about a particular subject for a post, and, that’s about it. Too much thought or research, not enough meat in the idea, no way to make it humorous, resulting in a lot of throw away stuff.
Readers, as measured by Sitemeter, are down 20% last month, though over a year’s time they are constant at a thousand a month. Big Rick says I have 20 readers that check in on a more than regular basis, having little else to do. (He admits he falls within the category.) Comments seem to be light. Summer vacation? Get with it please, I’m about 200 hits away from 20,000. That means that the twenty of you have really been wasting a lot of time since September 2006.
Then there’s the fear. Is quality down? I was talking to someone that reads the blog on an irregular schedule. “You tell great stories,” she said, “unless you do the political stuff.” Truth told, the quality is down. I dash off posts. Quality requires more time for gestation and patience to polish, two things that I don’t have much experience with.
So, for another metric, I just went to wholinkstome.com. It tells you if someone has linked to your blog, obviously. The more links from people who get linked to, the cooler you are. It also gives you your Google PageRank and Technorati and Alexa ratings. Whenever I check, Google ranges between not rated and a five. Alexa has me dropping about 400,000 in the last three months; but, over those three months, I’ve averaged its 1,644,757th most popular blog. Technorati is on a downward slide, currently at an eleven. Congratulations to Jeni at Downriver Drivel: she’s perking along at a 540 on Technorati. Some of my other readers and commenters: Hedy 23, Thomas 36, Milena 24, Ron 45, Kvatch and Co. 95, Sonja 21, Jim 32, Curmudgeon 55.
So, here’s some stuff for the bots: sex, nude, nudism, nudity, au natural, starkers, Federal Judge Song (I’m the number one source for it on Google, ahead of the site I linked to in 2006 – figure that out), Obama, McCain, Olympics, Downriver Drivel. That last ought to do it.
Not yet time to quit the day job.
Work with me here. Freddie Mac (a quasi-governmental version of "Joe's Bank") announced today that it was cutting its second quarter dividend to five cents a share (down 80% from the first quarter). Oh, and it also announced that it lost $821 million in the second quarter, to bring its losses for the past twelve months to over $4.6 billion. Its assets have a negative $5.6 billion "value."
So, if I have this right, I could own a share in Freddie Mac (up 6.9% at yesterday's close) worth $8.04 (down 80% in the last year) and get five cents every three months, twenty cents a year or 2 1/2%, on the price of my share for my stupidity in buying the stock. Where's the five cents coming from? Why your pocket, remember Congress just passed a bill to guarantee $5.5 billion in borrowing by Freddie Mac.
Finally, here's another tidbit to help you sleep. Freddie Mac and its sister, Fannie Mae own or guarantee more than $5 trillion in mortgages, half of all home loans in the country. Freddie has a negative value so it is functionally bankrupt. I can't find the numbers; but, I assume that its sister isn't in much better shape. So, we have $5 trillion dollars in mortgages sitting around, secured by bupkus. My guess? The "subprime crisis" is about to become much bigger. I hope the Chinese make a lot of money on the Olympics, we're going to need it.
Fannie Mae, Freddie's sister, not to be outdone, announced today, August 8, 2008 (08/08/08) that it lost $2.3 billion in the second quarter and reduced its divident from 35 cents a share to 5 cents.
Regular readers will remember that I visited Biloxi this Spring and enjoyed a weekend of gambling, eating, imbibing and being adopted by Asians while playing Pai Gow Poker.
Harrah’s apparently appreciated my business as I get an Email and a flier in the mail about twice a month with free nights, free food and other stuff. (Note to Harrah’s: Being a special guest at the Jackie Collins book signing in Biloxi is not quite the draw you might think. You might want to tweak the computer program.)
Since I’m not a high roller, my offers were for free nights, Sunday through Thursday, not days that really work for me, as, desipite the title of the blog, I have to work.
Then last week, I got a flier that offered me two free nights, any night at Harrah’s New Orleans, plus about half off at the hotel’s steakhouse. I bit.
The interesting thing about the casino is that it isn’t attached to the hotel, it’s across the street. From what I gather it was finished early last year. Before that, “guests” were put up at the Hilton, Sheraton, Loews, and Windsor Court. There was no room at the Harrah’s Hotel and they gave me my choice of the other hotels. The very nice reservation lady and I chose the Windsor Court, across the street from the casino.
So, beyond the obvious gambling, and taking advantage of the cheap steak one night, suggestions will be appreciated. The last time I was in the Big Easy was in about ’96 or ’97, and then only for the day. I went to the Aquarium and had lunch at Antoine’s.
I’m thinking of taking the trolley around, taking the cemetery tour and maybe walk down Bourbon Street, though the latter, at a time that the street would be hopping, isn’t within my security comfort zone.
Skip Caray, one of the Atlanta Braves' broadcasters, son of Harry Caray and father of Chip and Josh Caray (all baseball announcers), died yesterday at the age of 68 while sleeping.
Caray was a Braves announcer from the early Seventies until his last game a week or so ago.
He had the uncanny knack of being able to tell viewers and listeners the home town of every fan that caught a foul ball at a Braves game: "and there's a great catch by a fan from Valdosta, Georgia." There is no evidence that he was ever wrong.
Back when the Braves were really bad, in a game lost in the early innings, he told listeners that they could turn off the radio and go to bed if they promised to patronize the sponsors.
He did the pre-game fan call in show for years, and was openly irritated when asked to explain the infield fly rule (for the 345th time).
When the Brave's catcher, Brian McCann was a rookie a few years back Caray commented after McCann only reached first on a line drive that hit the wall, "he has deceptive speed - he's slower than he looks."
Back when I was traveling a lot and TBS carried all the Braves games, I knew I could count on watching the Braves and listen to Caray, Pete Van Wieren, Joe Simpson and Don Sutton in whatever hotel I was stuck in.
He was one of the last "homer" announcers. "We" won and lost. The umpire robbed "us" on that play. Though, from today's AJC: At one point, "Ted Turner told him he was being too tough. Caray pointed out the team's last-place record. 'Good point,' replied Turner, then the Braves' owner. "Say whatever you want.' And he did."
Over the past four or five years TBS reduced the number of Braves games it carried each year, until it quit entirely, I believe, last year. A couple of years back it reduced the number of games Carey was assigned to, going for a more neutral, "national" broadcast. Thousands of complaints by fans brought him back to a full schedule. I don't suppose a letter campaign will work this time.
or a mélange of things that don’t amount to a post.
I got an invoice from the AJC for my next year of Sunday papers. $99.00. That amounts to a discount of $5.00 off the newsstand price. I remember doing this last year, when their offer was even more ludicrous. I also remember that I ignored them and that the offer got better. AJC, I am in the process of ignoring you.
Why am I pleased by the fact that I paid $2.78 a gallon for gas today?
Since the price is really $2.789, is the pump really calibrated not to screw me out of 1000’th (is that the way you write it?) of a cent per gallon? Where did the “.9” come from?
I’ve been spoiled living in Atlanta in the Nineties and the O’s until ’04 as the Braves just plugged along winning for the most part. At this time of the year, we were always a buyer in trades rather than the seller we became this year. A bunch of us went to the game last night to see a 9 – 0 loss to the Brewers. Hot, steamy, bad baseball, coupled with $7.00 hot dogs, $6.50 beers and $4.50 waters, a great way to waste a Friday night.
A week ago tomorrow, I was an amazing golfer. This morning, not so much as they say. Someone tell me a pull is a good thing.
I’ve not read this article at NYTimes.com; but, I did look at the pictures below the lead. It seems that us men are wearing shorts to work. I on occasion wear shorts to work, on a rare occasion. Two of the lawyers in the office do it much more often than I do. When we wear them, we obviously aren’t going to court. We aren’t meeting clients. They’re worn on a very hot Atlanta day when we are lounging in our offices. They are the same shorts and shirts we wear on weekends.
A couple of years back I flew to Destin, Florida for the day to attend a meeting. The lawyer for the entity involved was wearing khaki shorts and a golf shirt. A bit odd, but it was way hot; and, Destin's a beach town.
Two of the three pictures leading the article show guys in short “suits”: one has a jacket with matching little shorts. The other goes for the casual blazer over white little shorts. Really dumb looking as seen by my now older eyes. They remind me of my middle brother and me in our little kid suits with shorts in a picture taken on an Easter Sunday many, many years ago.
I’m going to read the article now. If I change my opinion in any way, I’ll give you an update. Don’t count on it.
Last month I flew from Atlanta to Dallas and back. I had a mediation on a Thursday and Friday. If the case didn’t settle, I had a deposition on Monday. So I scheduled my return for Tuesday. I was pleased by the $209 fare.
Since I had to be ready for the deposition, I had a wheel bag full of paper in addition to a shoulder bag with clothes.
The first gotcha was the $25 charge for the second checked bag. That’s $25 EACH way, or $50, or just under 50% of the original fare.
Then, since we did settle the case at the mediation, I flew back on Saturday morning. That cost an extra $170 between the change fee and the fare differential. So we are up to $479, or about 240% of the original fare.
Delta announced today that it is doubling the second bag charge: I paid $50, it’s now $100. It is also charging stupid amounts for heavy baggage and an astounding $175 to check a piece that is between 62 and 80 inches, translation: golf clubs and skis.
I know the airline business is sucking; but, people aren’t going to pay these prices. My solution in the future: paper will be replaced by DVD’s with .pdf files of the paper and my friend in the shipping business will get a baby windfall for shipping golf clubs when necessary.
Looked at a bit differently, Delta is giving me a deal. I just spent $30 today to send two pieces of paper (admittedly nice bond) in a cardboard “envelope” that weighed more than the paper, from Atlanta to Anchorage via UPS “second day air” which is not guaranteed to get there on the second day. Fermi, pull out your calculator and tell me what it would cost to send me and two bags by UPS.
The silly thing about the UPS cost is that I sent the two pieces of paper as a .pdf attachment to an Email that got there a couple of seconds later; but, since it was a legal thing, I needed to be able to prove that the recipient actually got the paper.
We need to spend a lot of money developing the real Star Trek transporter. Again, Fermi? Fermi?
Slapshot came up in a couple of your blogs this month.
I’m watching an interview with Quentin Tarantino who was talking about what is good about bad movies.
My nomination is Hell Comes to Frog Town, starring the inimitable, Rowdy Roddy Piper. I never saw it at a theater; but, I watched it, half asleep, many times on Gilbert Gottried’s (an unrecognized genius of stupidity) Up All Night.
As near as I can tell, in the last week or ten days, I’ve taken on five new matters.
I like the actual doing. Kind of.
Do you have a parallel to my personality disorder?
I like getting all the facts together and figuring out what the best path to get the best result is. Once I’ve done that, I don’t like following the path, as I’ve already decided where it is going to go.
As an example, in law we on occasion write “briefs” – legal arguments that are submitted to the Judge who will decide who is right. I like mulling the issues over, thinking about the legal theories and latching on to the right argument. Then I have to do the research to find the statutes and court decisions that I know are out there. Drudgery. I know they are there; but, I have to physically find them and incorporate the “citations” in the brief.
But, where I plan to go is never quite where I end up. The only way I can crystallize my thinking is to write or talk. I start out SSW and before I know it, I end up tacking to the SW. Who knew, before I took the writing or talking trip.
Before a deposition or a hearing, I do my preparation. I outline the facts and the law (for a hearing). Then I start asking questions or making my argument; and, I NEVER follow the outline. As you are asking or arguing, things change. What wasn’t known, suddenly becomes obvious.
So what am I saying? Doing rather than pondering focuses my mind? Doing creates the intellectual equivalent of the athletic “zone?” Whatever it is, it works for me by paying the bills.
So tomorrow, some more pondering, drudgery and epiphany. Epiphany is fun.
SIX over; and I was so happy that I played again and shot, while dying in ridiculous humidity, thirteen over.
I am, for the day, one kick ass golfer.
I went to Knoxville, Tennessee yesterday for some meetings and drove back this afternoon.
I don’t do much highway driving; so, though I’ve had my current car for going on three years, this was my first drive over a hundred miles in it.
On the way North, I put it on cruise at 65 mph and filled it up before starting back today. 27 mpg! On the way back, I set the cruise at 70 mph and got right at 25 mpg!
I’ve discovered how to get this kind of mileage day in and day out (rather than my normal around town 21 mpg):
NOTICE TO EVERYONE WHO IS NORMALLY BETWEEN ME AND THE NORTHBOUND ENTRANCE TO I-85 ON NORTH DRUID HILLS ROAD AT ABOUT 8:00 A.M. AND TO THE GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION:
Stay where you are till I go by, just sit there; and, GDOT, turn all the lights to green for a measly minute or two as I make my way.
Ya’ll do it for W, what am I, chopped liver?
Back at the end of May, John McCain invited Barack Obama to visit Iraq with him, knowing that Obama wouldn’t accept the “invitation.” The McCain campaign then made much of the fact that McCain has been to Iraq a bunch of time over the course of the war and Obama had only been there once, in 2006. Since Obama had been there much, he obviously wasn’t interested in the facts and was thus unfit to be the commander in chief, or something like that.
So, this week Obama has been to Iraq, Afganistan, Berlin, Paris and is about to land in London, all the while being treated to adoring crowds, massive media coverage and obliging world leaders.
McCain spent the week visiting a German restaurant in German Village in Columbus, Ohio. As put by an article I read, and can’t now find “Obama visits countries. McCain visits restaurants.” I would add, “and whines about the disparate press coverage.” And, he went shopping with a nice GOP lady who complained about food prices.
I know campaigns ebb and flow; but, McCain did a really poor job this week, low-lighted by his attack on Obama for seeking election at the cost of “losing” the Iraq War.
If McCain keeps up his dismal efforts, Obama can do as he’s done for months, coast on platitudes.
as to whether Bret Favre plays this year for the Packers, Minnesota, or an Atlanta flag football team.
He’s all the rage on ESPN and other sports channels these days. The august Commissioner of the National Football League, Roger Goodall, has opined that the matter of his status should be resolved before training camp starts this weekend.
For those of you that don’t know the ins and outs of this matter, don’t worry, it isn’t important. Focus your attention on the fact that Senator McCain has accused Senator Obama of wanting to “lose a war rather than lose a political campaign.” Other than the fact that the statement is nonsensical, it appears that we are fully into the silly season of the campaign. Say and do anything and see if it sticks.
Come to think of it, it is kind of like following sports news.
Back in the early Eighties, I spent the weekend at my cousin’s house in Ocala, Florida. Saturday, he and his wife got a baby sitter for their then infant son and we “did the town.” Nice dinner somewhere, and then, on to the Ocala Holiday Inn for music.
Yes, I know, Holiday Inn, bad lounge singer. Not always.
I won’t tell you the name of the act just yet. They were set up in one of the ballrooms. We were seated about midway back. The lights went down in the room and up on the stage. And we heard the most amazing sounds, of the then unknown, Miami Sound Machine.
One of the best lounge acts I’ve ever seen. Why bring this up now? I watched the now Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine on TV in a concert at Caesar’s Palace.
She and they have still got it.
Last year the AJC cut its circulation area and cut a bunch of reporters, shifting many of what were left into its online offering. It abandoned national and international news to AP, saying it was going to focus on local news.
It just announced that its news staff will be further reduced to 350 (from last year’s 500).
That local angle? Now, it is cutting all of its area sections, which now appear a couple of times a week.
It is planning a revamped Sunday paper that will appear sometime early next year. Rumored to be gone is the opinion section called @Issue.
So, what is left? Copied national news. Copied international news. Reduced local news. No editorial section. (Rick, there is no threat to get rid of the funny papers.) Sudoko apparently will survive. The AJC still puts Parade Magazine in the Sunday package, thank God (heavy sarcasm).
I suppose I am as much to blame as anyone for this. I get the Sunday paper because it is part of my life. I don’t buy during the week because I read it online or get it in print to read at lunch (there's usually one laying around at the restaurant). Even there, I’m guilty lately. The newsstand price was just increased to seventy-five cents. I, for the most part, don’t buy it now because, I’ve read most of it online and don’t want to pay the extra quarter. If I want to read a newspaper at lunch, I’ve been buying USAToday – mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
Readers like me, were the heart of newspapers in print. Readers like me, are leaving newspapers in print. And I’m pissed because, as we abandon them, they are abandoning us.
This post was longer, and arguably better, before the computer shut down because the battery died because I forgot to plug it in and the %#!&*(^ battery died and I only have Word 2000 on this computer which doesn't save as it goes like Word 2007 or 8 or whatever it is that I have at the office. Supply your own punctuation.
Anyway. Lawyers and their clients, sometimes should be shot. There's a guy in New York that bought a 12" sub from Subway last month. He bit into it - and nothing happened. But, he saw that in a part of the bread that he'd not got to, there was a 7" knife baked in. He says he saw the knife before "anything happened." But he did get a stomachache. He and his lawyer have filed, or are about to, file suit seeking a million bucks as damages.
As a lawyer, I offer my humble apology.
HAH! I found the original post deep in the bowels of Word. You get two for the price of one. Here's the original:
The First Thing We do, Let’s Kill All the Lawyers
The full quote from Shakespeare is of course:
“CADE Be brave, then; for your captain is brave, and vowsreformation. There shall be in England sevenhalfpenny loaves sold for a penny: the three-hoopedpot; shall have ten hoops and I will make it felonyto drink small beer: all the realm shall be incommon; and in Cheapside shall my palfrey go tograss: and when I am king, as king I will be,--
ALL God save your majesty!
CADE I thank you, good people: there shall be no money;all shall eat and drink on my score; and I willapparel them all in one livery, that they may agreelike brothers and worship me their lord.
DICK The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.
CADE Nay, that I mean to do. Is not this a lamentablething, that of the skin of an innocent lamb shouldbe made parchment? that parchment, being scribbledo'er, should undo a man? Some say the bee stings:but I say, 'tis the bee's wax; for I did but sealonce to a thing, and I was never mine own mansince. How now! who's there?”
Of course if you want chaos, have no rules: but, sometimes it makes sense to kill the lawyers and the clients.
I caught a bit of Fox News earlier. They interviewed a “victim” and his lawyer. The victim went to a Subway last month in New York. He ordered a 12” sub. Baked into it was a seven inch knife. He didn’t bite down on the knife. He did get a stomachache. (There’s a vague allegation of the metal contaminating the bread that made its way into his stomach.) And he did get a lawyer. And they did sue Subway. (Said lawyer, according to a Google search, is running for the New York City council this year.)
Anyway, said victim and said lawyer are seeking $1,000,000.00 from Subway for the man’s stomachache. (My thought is that the resulting alleged stomachache is more the result of the need in most states for a physical injury to predicate a claim for pain and suffering than any actual physical injury. Again, I’m sorry for my profession.)
Said victim and said lawyer waxed on about it being a case about public food safety. Said victim opined that food safety in restaurants was important in New York because “people can’t eat at home three meals a day.”
I just finished a mediation. My proposed settlement of this important piece of litigation: the victim gets ten years of free subs at Blimpy or Jersey Mike’s, his choice (I’d take the latter). The lawyer gets the publicity she garners in the next couple of days, for better or worse, seeing that that’s what she is in it for in the first place.
Georgia is conducting primary elections today. Campaigning has been very low key.
There are five candidates seeking to run as a Democrat, and almost certainly lose the November election to Republican Saxby Chambliss. One of them, Vernon Jones, the current chief executive of DeKalb County in Metro Atlanta, drew some negative press when he sent a mailing that showed himself and Barack Obama together. The problem? They hadn't been together - he photo-shopped two individual pictures to create the meeting. Senator Obama felt compelled to state publicly that he wasn't sure who Jones was and that he was not endorsing Jones. I'll sit this one out and see who survives.
Two Democrats are running to unseat Democrat Sheriff Thomas Brown in DeKalb County. Aldranon English, when asked why he's running said "I plan on competing with other law enforcement agencies outside of DeKalb County to bring in new business and residents back into our communities." Huh? Tony Scipio also wants the job: "I will provide and maintain proficient, effective and qualified Law Enforcement Services throughout the Jail Facility, Court Services, Criminal and Civil Process, while increasing the clarity and image of the Sheriff's Office and maintaining the quality of life for all citizens of DeKalb County." I guess he's the capital letter/osmosis candidate. The incumbent, Thomas Brown, actually made sense in his statements leaving me nothing to make fun of. I guess he's my guy.
The herd was a bit puny this year. I won't bore you with my culling in the other races. I used a similar process. Syntax or logic problems, you're outta here. Too many capital letters, adios. Use of the word transparency, good bye. Still too many candidates that I don't know enough about. I guess I'll leave some blanks on my electronic, chadless ballot.
Back on May 1, I wrote this post:
“I just powered up the Dell laptop. I got a popup, not identified as from Dell, that told me that my battery may be ‘nearing the end of its useful life.’ It gave me the handy option to click a button and buy another battery. Now I'm wishing I'd clicked it and confirmed that Dell had planted a little ad in the software, rather than clicking ‘don't show me this [garbage] again.’ The computer is just over a year old. I’ve used the battery, rather than the power cable, maybe ten times.Just how stupid does Dell think I am?”
Well, Dell apparently knows that it put a lousy battery in the laptop and was just giving me a heads up on what was about to happen.
I flew to Dallas last week. The day I left, my latest Netflix movie arrived, Stardust (recommended). I loaded it into the laptop on the plane, plugged the earphones in, and enjoyed the movie – for about forty minutes – until the battery died.
I charged the battery up that night. Forty-five minutes of juice was the result.
This is my third laptop, its predecessors being a Dell and an IBM. The batteries in both lasted as long as I had the computers, about three and four years respectively.
Now, Dell is selling computers with a battery that lasts a little more than a year. Dell’s price for a replacement - $134 – is about 15% of what I paid for the laptop. My next laptop probably won’t be a Dell.
I’m in Dallas and have been since Wednesday. I just finished my mediation mentioned in this space awhile back; and, wonder of all wonders, we settled our portion of the case at a reasonable, though not wonderful, number. It is said that a good settlement is one where both sides walk away unhappy. We did better than that.
So, the good news, I don’t have to stay through the weekend and take a deposition on Monday. The bad news, we didn’t finish early enough for me to make a getaway today; so, I’m ensconced in the Comfort Inn at Mockingbird and the Stemmons Freeway – feel free to drop by if you’re in the neighborhood – there’s nothing else to do.
The big choice is trying to find a good restaurant for tonight. There’s a Crowne Plaza next door as a fallback. I’m thinking Italian.
Regular programming will resume over the weekend or first of the week.
this guy and not smile at least once, I'll send you a dollar:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY
Milena, a citizen of the United States of America, just wrote this. Yes, there's a link to the post, go there and put her on your list. If your lazy, read below. She seems to be what I was talking about in the positive part of my last post.
On becoming a citizen of the United States of America
Two days ago there were one thousand nine hundred and eleven of us at the ceremony. We represented 110 of the 195 established countries of this world. We were all ages, all stages of life between the young and the old, all conditions of living between the healthy and the infirm, all the mirrored disparity of the affluent and the poor.Our skins reflected the gamut of our racial spectrum. Our attire reflected the respect which we'd thought to bring to this day. We came in the company of our families, by the hands of our husbands, holding on to our wives, flanked by our children, supported by our close friends.
It was a day marked by an atmosphere of expectancy and of relief. It was grounded in the sensation of imminent completion, in the anticipation of an awaited final step in the road to naturalization.There were flags painted on the walls, anchored ceremonially in the stands that stood on the auditorium floor, there were representations in plastic and balsa of the most conspicuous symbol of Americanism, held in our waving hands. In lapels I saw small metallic likenesses of the bald eagle, a dollar bill, red and blue stars; someone sported an I am an American pin, God Save the USA even read the ink of one man's tattooed arm.
For the long hours of wait until the ceremony of oath-taking took place, a musical potpourri of John Philip Sousa marches and Louis Armstrong singing What a Wonderful World had been put together before the rousing impulse of Anchors Aweigh gave way to yet another repeat of the moving America the Beautiful. I have no idea what the cheesy theme song from the movie Dirty Dancing was doing in the play roster but what it lacked in patriotic credentials was more than compensated by the mental distraction of its sing-along charm.
Concession stands sold the most American of food fares: hot dogs, hamburgers, fries with ketchup, sodas and, because this is Texas, there were breakfast burritos; and because this is the US, the little girl said, "they don't taste as good as McDonalds mommy," and because I have yet to taste a McDonalds burrito, I could neither confirm nor deny the veracity of her discerning taste.
When the judge officiating this ritualistic induction into the privileges of US citizenship walked into the room, we all rose except for those too frail or too sick to stand. Amongst them, Lorenzo Medina, aged 95, who sat in a wheelchair while his granddaughter held a home-made sign with the words Congratulations! and Finally! stenciled in black for all to understand the longed for arrival of this day in her grandfather's life.An honor guard of four boy scouts, the youngest of which had a brother and a father becoming citizens in this particular ceremony, marched to the center of the floor from where they saluted the judge and then the sole INS lawyer who was there to represent our collective interests before finally turning to us, the audience of applicants. This courtesy they gave felt symbolic, fraught with the intangibleness of a moment that never banked on its power, nor the emotion it did not know it could engender. Many teared up at this small token of pomp. It felt cosmic in the way that cosmic happenings seem to have no reason because they just simply are.
Afterwards, we all sang the National Anthem. All together we pledged allegiance to the Flag. As one voice we renounced our previous nationalities and promised to protect, honor, defend and obey the Constitution of the United States. We swore we would bear arms for our adoptive country. We said it would be our privilege to do so and just like that, after all the swearing and pledging, it was suddenly done.Invisibly, we were now citizens who were readying to empty a large stadium, citizens who were receiving an official document to confirm the validity of our changed state.
Citizens who climbed into their cars to go home to the routine of those same days we lived in before we were made - citizens. Citizens because the judge said so and because his word is the law.In my car seat, I sat staring at my shiny certificate. It told me nothing new, I felt nearly the same even as I understood that this proof of my citizenship proved something to others, rather than to me. That's because, for many a year, I have been a non-official citizen of this country as much as I will always be an official citizen of the Panama that saw me born.
I do not need a paper to remind me of those truths the way I do not need a sworn oath to make me be faithful to the honorable freedoms and ideals I uphold because, I believe in them so. And yet, like Mr. Medina, I mentally tacked on a finally to this moment. After 23 years of living here as the daughter of a diplomat, as an international worker and a married resident, I am now finally, a citizen in my own right rather than a sanctioned dweller. There is a resolution of sorts within that journey if only because it marks the official end of my being considered a foreigner in this land I call my home.
I celebrate that important shift in perception on this Fourth of July day. I hope it was a good one for you also. A safe Independence Day to all of you, no matter in what country you may be.
Milena
(The paragraphs are mine as Blogger sucks at copy and paste.)
You’ve heard a bit of this poem by Emma Lazarus that is inscribed on the base of the statue:
Pony tail.
I'm in the midst of watching a Ken Burns documentary on one of the local PBS stations on the history of the said statue. One of the opening images was of the lady's head, looking over her left shoulder. There it was, something I've not seen before. Her hair flies out from "behind" the statue.
You always see her from the front, mostly looking up from the ground, or from a distance, full figure, from a distance. All, never show her backside, so to speak.
So I've gone on a search on the internet. The picture above is the closest to what I saw on TV.
I stopped at a chain upscale burger place, Five Guys, for lunch today. It reminded me of why I don't go to these places.
"Hey guy, welcome to Five Guys, how you doing?"
"Good, thanks."
"Ah, that's a beautiful thing."
I heard that constantly for the next twenty minutes.
"All of our food is cooked well done" read the signs plastered everywhere.
That, I found out, included the french fries and the hot dog, which they had split in half (sacrilege) and grilled way too long.
I first ran into this well done obsession ten or so years ago on a trip to South Carolina. I'd checked into the hotel late and the only thing open to get something to eat was the bar. I ordered a burger, medium, and was told that South Carolina had passed a law that required restaurants took cook hamburger at least medium well. The Five Guys, Fatburgers, In-N-Out Burgers of the world now protect themselves from liability (damn lawyers) by serving hockey pucks.
I can get a well done Wendy's burger for a buck and make it edible by slathering on mayo, mustard and ketchup. Why pay Five Guys four bucks for the same thing (not considering size difference)? And be annoyed by the constant patter while I'm eating.
Senator Obama, in his continuing quest to capture conservative and moderate votes, announced "his proposal to get religious charities more involved in government programs ….[giving] $500 million per year to provide summer learning for 1 million poor children to help close achievement gaps for students. He proposes elevating the program to the 'moral center' of his administration, calling it the Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. " NYTimes.com, July 1, 2008.
I suppose this is no different than his move from being a pro-NAFTA free trade advocate to advocating publicly (versus privately in communication with Canadians) to renegotiate the treaty to woo union votes; or, his switch from opposing the Bush Administration's revision of the FISA law to immunize phone companies to appeal to more conservatives and moderates with a national security bent; or, his conveniently forgetting that he used to think that the DC gun ban law was constitutional to draw in some of the NRA crowd (or more likely, to mute its opposition).
Senator Obama is not America's political savior. He is not going to, and has no intention of, transforming American government. He is a left-of-center politician that would govern very much like a guy that he doesn't get along with too well: Bill Clinton.
