There was a t-shirt, kinda popular during the early to mid-90's, that had the famous Playboy logo bunny in the middle and, in big block lettering underneath, said 'I read the articles'. If that is true now, John Mayer is either a poser or a racist. Truthfully, he's neither, but he has a history of being very candid in interviews, which causes him trouble. When one does not use a filter on his out-loud voice, one will find trouble...
An excerpt from the interview, coming in the March 2010 issue from Playboy:
MAYER: ...My two biggest hits are “Your Body Is a Wonderland” and “Daughters.” If you think those songs are pandering, then you’ll think I’m a douche bag. It’s like I come on very strong. I am a very…I’m just very. V-E-R-Y. And if you can’t handle very, then I’m a douche bag. But I think the world needs a little very. That’s why black people love me.
PLAYBOY: Because you’re very?
MAYER: Someone asked me the other day, “What does it feel like now to have a hood pass?” And by the way, it’s sort of a contradiction in terms, because if you really had a hood pass, you could call it a nigger pass. Why are you pulling a punch and calling it a hood pass if you really have a hood pass? But I said, “I can’t really have a hood pass. I’ve never walked into a restaurant, asked for a table and been told, ‘We’re full.’"
PLAYBOY: It is true; a lot of rappers love you. You recorded with Common and Kanye West, played live with Jay-Z.
MAYER: What is being black? It’s making the most of your life, not taking a single moment for granted. Taking something that’s seen as a struggle and making it work for you, or you’ll die inside. Not to say that my struggle is like the collective struggle of black America. But maybe my struggle is similar to one black dude’s.
PLAYBOY: Do black women throw themselves at you?
MAYER: I don’t think I open myself to it. My dick is sort of like a white supremacist. I’ve got a Benetton heart and a fuckin’ David Duke cock. I’m going to start dating separately from my dick.
There is a list of comments to make here, but look at the tone. No shock value is gained, the interviewer goes on to ask him to name specific black women he finds attractive, then veers back to his time with Jennifer Aniston and their break-up. Mayer also spends much of the interview discussing his love of masturbation and how much of a 'douche bag' people find him to be. He also mentioned that he was addicted to Jessica Simpson, saying that sex with her was "...napalm. Sexual napalm." Mayer issued a tearful apology during a concert last night, admitting he hurt people that love him with his stupid remarks in this interview.
Society likes when people mess up, loves it when they apologize, then complains when their idols are not candid and 'real' enough for them. Kudos to Mayer for candor. Boo to Mayer for being a whiny douchebag with a racist appendage. The question remaining is whether he tries to date a high-profile black woman to clear his sexual resume of this blight of commentary, thus being a very 'douche bag' thing to do, or whether he just shuts up and plays guitar, finding new batches of young women going through puberty to forgive him. Time will tell...
The full interview is available here (free, with no nudie pics to mess up your work day)
http://www.playboy.com/articles/john-mayer-playboy-interview/index.html
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The NBA All-Star Game is this weekend, along with the commensurate dunk contest, HORSE contest and performers like those that should be playing the Super Bowl (Shakira, Alicia Keys) at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas. Er, 'North Texas', since Dallas could confuse people into thinking that it is Dallas, Arkansas or Dallas, Vermont, I suppose...
This weekend each year has attracted many celebrities, actors, artists and athletes from other major sports, leading to the NBA extravaganza being coined 'the black Super Bowl' by those in the media too cool to call it the NBA All-Star Weekend. While 7DB rests assured that David Stern does not appreciate that reference, one has to question the logic of holding it at a football stadium, even one with big screen scoreboards big enough to signal life on other planets.
The estimated attendance for the actual ticketed game is 92,000. That is disturbing, if only for the 84,000 of them that will be too far away to watch the game live, and instead will be reliant on the 60-yard long screen hanging above their heads to see it. Spending the hundreds (or thousands) of dollars on the entry fee to watch a really big TV seems out of reach for most of the NBA's fan base, and the precedent-setting nature of moving events to bigger and bigger buildings to generate more revenue must be succeeding at taking fans completely out of consideration when planning these debacles.
With the exception of hockey (for the un-initiated, it is a game played on ice by skating people trying to launch a small rubber 'puck' past a goalkeeper into a small net), no event is better live than on HDTV anymore. None. The 'experience' of going to a baseball game has been lost to these new stadiums building amusement parks in the concourses to distract the children who get bored watching the field for three hours to see 48 seconds of action take place. True fans cannot even see what pitch is thrown, nor whether it actually was a strike when the ump called it. Football is almost indecipherable from the field level if you have learned the game watching it on TV. Basketball is a great live game...if you are within about 100 feet of the court. That leaves out most of the estimated 20 million fans who watch NBA games on a regular basis on cable or local TV.
It leaves 7DB wondering, quietly in the friendly confines of Casa du 7DB, could professional sports 'jump the shark'? Will the need for a national pastime and venues funded by taxpayer subsidy be a novelty of the past? Few Americans (although fervent) embrace the passion of fans of soccer (er, 'Futbol') enough to want to spend $120 to sit six rows from the parking lot to see the green speck kick the white ball past the blue speck into the net, and no other sport in America draws a passionate fan base in enough numbers to warrant the money necessary to drive the sport into popularity. It won't happen soon, as many Baby Boomers will be spending their Social Security checks from money they 'earned' before going to while away their days at the Indians/Marlins afternoon games each summer, but soon after that there will be a void of people who will pay for something that they can see so much better from home. Yet another reason for the public to become hermits, I guess...
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Washington, D.C. has been inundated by record snowfalls these last few weeks, snowing in many folks and causing our federal government to shut down its non-essential operations for the last few days. Strangely, it seems that Congressmen are still gathering...
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The 2010 Winter Olympics are kicking off in Vancouver tonight. Opening Ceremonies are historically exciting and fun, then the Closing Ceremony is the usual anti-climax two weeks later. In the middle, much of the world will get to see some of what makes Vanocuver one of the most beautiful cities in the world, from the gleaming Olympic Village (built by private contractors who defaulted, then bailed out by the city of Vancouver at the potential cost of $1 billion, although that is Canadian money, so that may be Monopoly money as far as I know) to its beautiful vistas and extraordinary sporting venues. The skiing and snowboarding will be held in Whistler, B.C., about three hours away from Vancouver by bus, and that will provide even more scenic splendor for the HDTV set referenced earlier.
Connecting to an earlier thought, how do the Olympics keep happening? NBC is planning on losing $300 million, the City of Vancouver will need help from their federal government to not go bankrupt, and the athletes are not even paid. The number of folks willing to dedicate years of their lives to master the art of the luge must be waning, yes?
Civic and national pride have carried many of these sports through the technology explosion of the second half of the twentieth century, but reality suggests that these things will fade in our lifetimes, being replaced by "Survivor: Coral Gables" and a Howie Mandel-shaped robot hosting "Deal or No Deal" on Univision. Developing the fan experience in a profitable fashion is the future of sport, it seems. This realization makes the sports fan in all of us die a little each day...go enjoy the minor league baseball games and the lacrosse leagues while you can, folks.
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Will Brett Favre retire? Will he change his mind? Will he play for the Vikings next year? Yes, yes and yes. Next topic, please.
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Without going too deep into the science of it, it appears that global cooling has happened this year. Or global warming has been happening for the last 25 years, or that we were in danger of an Ice Age in 1975.
Statistics have been created for three reasons: to compare Babe Ruth to Hank Aaron, to count large stacks of money and to lie. None of these three can be considered valid to the vast majority of the world, so how does society find solutions? The answer, one that does not have a Wikipedia page, is common sense.
If something smells bad, it is probably not good for the air in high doses (think cow poop = methane). If something does not occur naturally, it may have side effects (i.e., Pamela Anderson's breasts). If somebody is making a crapload of money on it, the will to make it will supercede the previous two statements (fossil fuels, anybody?).
It will remain a challenge for generations to come to determine how to advance without by-product. The solution lies in not giving up on the challenge while monitoring personal waste. Pursue the future without laying waste to what surrounds you now. Recycle what you can, don't s**t where you eat, spay and neuter animals that were 'domesticated' before awareness of proliferation, refrain from burning plastics in the fireplace...all common sense. Quite simply, use your head, and Al Gore will fade away. And he'd be happy to do so, I promise...
Friday, February 12, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
The Saints went Marching, yada yada...
Usually the build-up to the Super Bowl and all of the requisite excitement would have warranted many, many blathering posts by now. Instead, that was left to those who will have to shut their cake holes for the next five months, since they can speak out loud of nothing that does not tie in to the status of Dwight Freeney's ankle without sounding like they live in their mother's basement and blog from a table next to their comic book collection and pricing catalogs. Instead, a playoffs-in-review:
J-E-T-S! Jets, Jets, Jets!
They played well. They have a rookie QB (Mark Sanchez, from USC). That rookie QB has a cutesy nickname (The Sanchize). That QB will probably go the way of Scott Brown, pose nude for Cosmo and run for governor of California in fifteen years. Nonetheless, it gave New Yorkers (er, New Jersey residents, since the team plays and practices in New Jersey) something to cheer for between shovel loads of icy sludge being flung from their driveways.
The Jets had the NFL's top-rated defense during the regular season, proving them to be a very good football team coached by a rather obese man (Rex Ryan) who casually mentioned in a recent interview that his daily caloric intake is 7,000. Per day. By himself. Holy s**t. It is very possible that we will see a cardiac episode replayed from multiple camera angles in the not-too-distant future...
In any event, that great defense and rotund coach got smoked like a pack of Kool's in the second half of the AFC Championship game by Peyton Manning and the Colts. Number one defense, meet Peyton Manning. Peyton, meet the Jets suddenly porous secondary and non-tackling linebackers and safeties. Enjoy each other.
Vikings, Favre, cut out hearts in the Heartland...again.
Malcolm Gladwell, renowned author of books like 'The Tipping Point' and 'Blink', is, among other things, an avid sports fan. 7DB wonders how he would 'thin-slice' the 2009 Minnesota Vikings season with Brett Favre at quarterback and Brad Childress as the head coach. With all apologies to Mr. Gladwell in advance, allow me to speculate:
The Minnesota Vikings have a long history of coming up just short in the Big Game, having lost the NFL's championship game four time since 1969, as well as having come up just short on three other notable occasions (1987, 1998, 2000). With this in mind, a reach out to a veteran field general makes good sense, as the assembled talent is on par with other premiere teams in the sport in all aspects other than quarterback.
Brett Favre is a quarterback who has won before, having won more games than any other NFL quarterback, including the 1997 NFL championship while employed by the Green Bay Packers. His devil-may-care style at quarterback is a high-risk/high-reward gambit, and it is one that the Vikings would be well-justified in taking on. So, why shouldn't they?
In the last two seasons coming into the 2009 season, Favre has ended his team's season with poor play during the playoff season. The 2007 Packers and the 2008 Jets both began making reservations for golf course tee times after Favre threw ill-advised passes that the opposing team caught to advance to the league's ultimate game. The high-risk/high-reward model brought these two teams that far, yet ended identically.
The Vikings have their own history with these types of defeat (Darrin Nelson's unfortunate fumble against Washington in 1987, Gary Anderson's first missed kick of the year in the 1998 game to qualify for the Super Bowl) and, if history can be quantified, these two entities match up perfectly to create another sad ending for their mutual seasons.
While very few of the players are the same from these examples, the one holding the football last seems to be the same. Viking fans should beware of this tendency.
Once again, I thank the mythical version of Malcolm Gladwell for his appearance.
As a Viking household, Casa du 7DB kept a skeptical distance from embracing this year's squad, despite a strong regular season and a rather efficient season from Favre (his best statistical season ever). The 'tipping point' came in the fourth quarter of the NFC Championship game against the eventual champions from New Orleans. After a solid showing by the Vikings defense, Favre and the offense began driving the ball at the end of the game, needing only a few yards to be in position for their reliable kicker to score the game-winning field goal. Some unfortunate play calls from the coaches left Minnesota with a third-and-two from about the 35 yard line of the Saints. A 52-yard field goal, while no gimmie, is very makeable for a veteran like Ryan Longwell.
This is the point in time. When a fan believes that everything in the balance can be changed by their behavior, despite being far removed from the field of play. No trips to the kitchen were allowed. The remote had to stay in the left hand. All of the anti-jinx behavior was in full effect...and then...
There is a picture in my wallet, taken at the holiday work picture day that big companies like my father's employer ran in the 70's. This one was taken in December 1976, coincidentally the last time the Vikings went to the Super Bowl, and the year Family 7DB attended a pro football game for the first time. All the images of being able to replace that photo in the wallet with one of Mr. and Ms. 7DB taken at the wedding filled the mind. 2009! Maybe this was the year, since all we did this year was so exciting and wonderful...wedding, moving into a big, new house...good luck charms, all of that...
Ms. 7DB says "Don't do it!", knowing of jinxes as a lifelong fan of the Michigan Wolverines football program.
.............of course, you know what happens now, right?.........
The Vikings promptly call a bad time-out, then send too many players into the huddle before play resumed, causing a five-yard penalty. Then Favre, who killed the Vikings for years as the QB of the Packers, kills the Vikings as the QB of the Vikings by throwing back across his body while running, making an ineffective pass that was easily intercepted by the Saints. If Favre fell down where he threw from, Longwell kicks for the win from 56. Damn.
Game was still tied, but momentum was in motion. Overtime was inevitable. Woulda bet all future earnings that New Orleans wins that coin flip and makes a field goal after driving 30 yards. Ugh. Stomach Punch.
I could go on for a long bit about whys and whats, but it is the destiny of that team. Ugh.
Saints and Colts turned out surprising, but heart-warming. Super Bowl MVP Drew Brees holding up his 18-month old son wearing itty-bitty headphones to not deafen him in that atmosphere will be the enduring image of that game, despite Peyton Manning looking like the bully down the street kicked him in the groin and stole his Bomb Pop. 7DB hopes that those who worked so hard to help rebuild New Orleans and the area after Hurricane Katrina were able to take time to savor some positive press about their city for awhile, before they have to go back to mopping up vomit from college kids during Mardi Gras this week. They deserve it.
--------------------------------------------------
Barack Obama is a record-setting President. He has made more speeches than the last 23 Presidents combined (rough estimate), and took shots at the Supreme Court during his State of the Union Address.
While admittedly playing a tough hand dealt to him by circumstance, the self-glorification tour of a populist President selling snake oil...er, health care...is not what those who supported a more moderate Democrat than Hillary in the primaries bargained for. Obama has proven to be an activist President with a liberal bent, and this will not serve the Congressmen and -women well when they run again after backing this dude. Sadly for the Republicans, the party is dominated by severely right-leaning people in the eyes of the media, so no apparent countermeasure is available at this time to dream about in 2012. Which leads us back to our 2012 naked Presidential candidate, Scott Brown...
(...more to follow on the pending Scott Brown / Sarah Palin videos being produced in the San Fernando Valley as we speak...)
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Some may have noticed that Seven Dollar Bill added a Support Haiti button on this very page. Hopefully, many of you have chipped in with a text to 90999 (write 'Haiti' in the text, and it sends ten bucks to the Red Cross for support) or via other means. Let us not make the mistake we have made in other lands, and forget about this catastrophe in the next news cycle.
This is a rare opportunity to rebuild a country known more for its flawed governments, corrupt business and civic leaders, and violent criminal history than for its natural beauty and passionate citizenry. Papa Doc and Baby Doc Duvalier were probably the only things most people between 25 and 70 thought of when the name Haiti was mentioned. Now the thought of 200,000-plus dead people and a country's capital lying in ruins with no war involved dominate the images.
As a policy, 7DB does not endorse foreign aid for most soveriegn counrties. Low-interest loans and trade deals can be good, but handouts generally do not work. In Haiti's case, however, the international community has the power to free a people trapped in poverty and political oppression with money and technology, and we as a global citizenry would be foolish not to seize the opportunity. Scratch the check, people...especially you folks in Iceland. You made us listen to Bjork, and this is a good way to pay us all back.
---------------------------------------------------
In closing, the differences between Northern and Southern California are multiple and stark. The biggest difference? Northern California suffers through four months of crappy weather and constant (albeit mostly mild) precipitation, then Southern California thieves the water to grow lush grass on their lawns while they go roller blading on the Strand. This makes SoCal feel and act entitled and makes NoCal (oops, it's called 'NorCal') bitter like Boston sports fans. No wonder they wanted to split this state in two...
J-E-T-S! Jets, Jets, Jets!
They played well. They have a rookie QB (Mark Sanchez, from USC). That rookie QB has a cutesy nickname (The Sanchize). That QB will probably go the way of Scott Brown, pose nude for Cosmo and run for governor of California in fifteen years. Nonetheless, it gave New Yorkers (er, New Jersey residents, since the team plays and practices in New Jersey) something to cheer for between shovel loads of icy sludge being flung from their driveways.
The Jets had the NFL's top-rated defense during the regular season, proving them to be a very good football team coached by a rather obese man (Rex Ryan) who casually mentioned in a recent interview that his daily caloric intake is 7,000. Per day. By himself. Holy s**t. It is very possible that we will see a cardiac episode replayed from multiple camera angles in the not-too-distant future...
In any event, that great defense and rotund coach got smoked like a pack of Kool's in the second half of the AFC Championship game by Peyton Manning and the Colts. Number one defense, meet Peyton Manning. Peyton, meet the Jets suddenly porous secondary and non-tackling linebackers and safeties. Enjoy each other.
Vikings, Favre, cut out hearts in the Heartland...again.
Malcolm Gladwell, renowned author of books like 'The Tipping Point' and 'Blink', is, among other things, an avid sports fan. 7DB wonders how he would 'thin-slice' the 2009 Minnesota Vikings season with Brett Favre at quarterback and Brad Childress as the head coach. With all apologies to Mr. Gladwell in advance, allow me to speculate:
The Minnesota Vikings have a long history of coming up just short in the Big Game, having lost the NFL's championship game four time since 1969, as well as having come up just short on three other notable occasions (1987, 1998, 2000). With this in mind, a reach out to a veteran field general makes good sense, as the assembled talent is on par with other premiere teams in the sport in all aspects other than quarterback.
Brett Favre is a quarterback who has won before, having won more games than any other NFL quarterback, including the 1997 NFL championship while employed by the Green Bay Packers. His devil-may-care style at quarterback is a high-risk/high-reward gambit, and it is one that the Vikings would be well-justified in taking on. So, why shouldn't they?
In the last two seasons coming into the 2009 season, Favre has ended his team's season with poor play during the playoff season. The 2007 Packers and the 2008 Jets both began making reservations for golf course tee times after Favre threw ill-advised passes that the opposing team caught to advance to the league's ultimate game. The high-risk/high-reward model brought these two teams that far, yet ended identically.
The Vikings have their own history with these types of defeat (Darrin Nelson's unfortunate fumble against Washington in 1987, Gary Anderson's first missed kick of the year in the 1998 game to qualify for the Super Bowl) and, if history can be quantified, these two entities match up perfectly to create another sad ending for their mutual seasons.
While very few of the players are the same from these examples, the one holding the football last seems to be the same. Viking fans should beware of this tendency.
Once again, I thank the mythical version of Malcolm Gladwell for his appearance.
As a Viking household, Casa du 7DB kept a skeptical distance from embracing this year's squad, despite a strong regular season and a rather efficient season from Favre (his best statistical season ever). The 'tipping point' came in the fourth quarter of the NFC Championship game against the eventual champions from New Orleans. After a solid showing by the Vikings defense, Favre and the offense began driving the ball at the end of the game, needing only a few yards to be in position for their reliable kicker to score the game-winning field goal. Some unfortunate play calls from the coaches left Minnesota with a third-and-two from about the 35 yard line of the Saints. A 52-yard field goal, while no gimmie, is very makeable for a veteran like Ryan Longwell.
This is the point in time. When a fan believes that everything in the balance can be changed by their behavior, despite being far removed from the field of play. No trips to the kitchen were allowed. The remote had to stay in the left hand. All of the anti-jinx behavior was in full effect...and then...
There is a picture in my wallet, taken at the holiday work picture day that big companies like my father's employer ran in the 70's. This one was taken in December 1976, coincidentally the last time the Vikings went to the Super Bowl, and the year Family 7DB attended a pro football game for the first time. All the images of being able to replace that photo in the wallet with one of Mr. and Ms. 7DB taken at the wedding filled the mind. 2009! Maybe this was the year, since all we did this year was so exciting and wonderful...wedding, moving into a big, new house...good luck charms, all of that...
Ms. 7DB says "Don't do it!", knowing of jinxes as a lifelong fan of the Michigan Wolverines football program.
.............of course, you know what happens now, right?.........
The Vikings promptly call a bad time-out, then send too many players into the huddle before play resumed, causing a five-yard penalty. Then Favre, who killed the Vikings for years as the QB of the Packers, kills the Vikings as the QB of the Vikings by throwing back across his body while running, making an ineffective pass that was easily intercepted by the Saints. If Favre fell down where he threw from, Longwell kicks for the win from 56. Damn.
Game was still tied, but momentum was in motion. Overtime was inevitable. Woulda bet all future earnings that New Orleans wins that coin flip and makes a field goal after driving 30 yards. Ugh. Stomach Punch.
I could go on for a long bit about whys and whats, but it is the destiny of that team. Ugh.
Saints and Colts turned out surprising, but heart-warming. Super Bowl MVP Drew Brees holding up his 18-month old son wearing itty-bitty headphones to not deafen him in that atmosphere will be the enduring image of that game, despite Peyton Manning looking like the bully down the street kicked him in the groin and stole his Bomb Pop. 7DB hopes that those who worked so hard to help rebuild New Orleans and the area after Hurricane Katrina were able to take time to savor some positive press about their city for awhile, before they have to go back to mopping up vomit from college kids during Mardi Gras this week. They deserve it.
--------------------------------------------------
Barack Obama is a record-setting President. He has made more speeches than the last 23 Presidents combined (rough estimate), and took shots at the Supreme Court during his State of the Union Address.
While admittedly playing a tough hand dealt to him by circumstance, the self-glorification tour of a populist President selling snake oil...er, health care...is not what those who supported a more moderate Democrat than Hillary in the primaries bargained for. Obama has proven to be an activist President with a liberal bent, and this will not serve the Congressmen and -women well when they run again after backing this dude. Sadly for the Republicans, the party is dominated by severely right-leaning people in the eyes of the media, so no apparent countermeasure is available at this time to dream about in 2012. Which leads us back to our 2012 naked Presidential candidate, Scott Brown...
(...more to follow on the pending Scott Brown / Sarah Palin videos being produced in the San Fernando Valley as we speak...)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Some may have noticed that Seven Dollar Bill added a Support Haiti button on this very page. Hopefully, many of you have chipped in with a text to 90999 (write 'Haiti' in the text, and it sends ten bucks to the Red Cross for support) or via other means. Let us not make the mistake we have made in other lands, and forget about this catastrophe in the next news cycle.
This is a rare opportunity to rebuild a country known more for its flawed governments, corrupt business and civic leaders, and violent criminal history than for its natural beauty and passionate citizenry. Papa Doc and Baby Doc Duvalier were probably the only things most people between 25 and 70 thought of when the name Haiti was mentioned. Now the thought of 200,000-plus dead people and a country's capital lying in ruins with no war involved dominate the images.
As a policy, 7DB does not endorse foreign aid for most soveriegn counrties. Low-interest loans and trade deals can be good, but handouts generally do not work. In Haiti's case, however, the international community has the power to free a people trapped in poverty and political oppression with money and technology, and we as a global citizenry would be foolish not to seize the opportunity. Scratch the check, people...especially you folks in Iceland. You made us listen to Bjork, and this is a good way to pay us all back.
---------------------------------------------------
In closing, the differences between Northern and Southern California are multiple and stark. The biggest difference? Northern California suffers through four months of crappy weather and constant (albeit mostly mild) precipitation, then Southern California thieves the water to grow lush grass on their lawns while they go roller blading on the Strand. This makes SoCal feel and act entitled and makes NoCal (oops, it's called 'NorCal') bitter like Boston sports fans. No wonder they wanted to split this state in two...
Monday, January 18, 2010
So much time has passed, I forgot where I left off...
...but I'll see if I can catch a thread and go from there.
"There are three points of view from which a writer can be considered:
he may be considered as a story teller, as a teacher, and as an enchanter.
A major writer combines these three -
storyteller, teacher, enchanter -
but it is the enchanter in him that predominates and makes him a major writer."
-Vladimir Nabokov
During the substantial time away from the blog, 7DB has been searching out where in the writing spectrum preferred authors fall. Where does Seven Dollar Bill see this going, if anywhere at all?
Then the realization hit that this was meant to be an outlet for the backlog of miscellany that builds up when one gets caught up in daily life. Holiday seasons and quality time with Ms. 7DB took time into new directions...and pleasant ones, at that.
There have been hints dropped before, but the time for a major project is at hand. 7DB will be attempting a long form bit of fiction, and will be soliciting information from samples posted periodically. As the rules of this space allow, all input is welcome, appreciated and consensually solicited. No immediate info on the topic matter, but it will be a fictitious coming-of-age story, and it will not represent anything like the Technicolor menageries that have been popping up in the Book Club-to-Cinema set recently. John Fante will be a cited influence...
Enough of the ramble...just a warning for what is to come in some random column posts in the future. Now on to the backlog of interesting topics:
*It is remarkable that the Tiger Woods saga has come and gone since last a key was struck here, but a car accident, prescription drugs, infidelity (-ies) and divorce just seemed too easy to touch on. So many angles, and none verifiable due to their subject being a recluse when not hawking Buicks and beating the stuffing out of the country club kids we all despised as children. Hell, Tiger bought himself a yacht and named it Privacy. Need more be said?
Well...actually, yes. Those same country club kids-turned millionaires away from their inheritances are now feeling like firing away at the king of their sport. Many have teed off on Tiger's trevails, some for the infidelity and some for the arrogance that made him think he was above it all. Jesper Parnevik, the supplier of Norwegian nannies to PGA golfers as concubines, apparently, has decided that Tiger is a piece of crap. Jesper also decided that someone should care about his opinion. Someone feel free to tell Jesper to keep his trap shut until he quits housing 19-year old sets of voluptuous blonde twins at his house under the guise of employment as nannies, and also until he can learn that checkered pants, painter's hats and striped shirts look like he dresses in the dark.
The PGA Tour and its inhabitants are now being very vocal that all will be ok, even without Tiger. This mindset ignores the fact that purses have nearly tripled due to his presence, something that even Jack and Arnie cannot claim. Sponsors in a down economy have been dumping out of Team Tiger quickly since the events of Thanksgiving weekend, and their wild exodus from the PGA is pending if Woods elects to stay away for awhile. Ratings were dropping throughout the '90s until Eldrick showed up, and a similar decline will be witnessed again as the build-up to the majors begins next month. Is Davis Love III and Vijay Singh what people will tune in to watch?
When Tiger comes back, he and his caddie Stevie Williams will undoubtedly have ten hecklers ejected, arrested and flogged for yelling 'Philanderer!' during his backswing, then the inevitable destruction of all those uptight yuppie putzes he competes against will continue as if nothing has changed. His family life is a cyclone, he dates trashy golddiggers on the side and he's already lost more in endorsements than Michael Vick did upon his visit to the pokey. All of this with no crime committed. I will save the commentary on the hypocrisy of the public reaction, and leave it with an acknowledgement that he did to his children what his father did to him. That 'happiness' created the misogynist that works so manically that supposedly grown men tremble at the sight of him hitting a golf ball. It also created a billionaire cruising Perkins Restaurants for late-night hookups...sadness is all there is. Either that, or a membership to AshelyMadison.com
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Casa du 7DB recently became a Blackberry-free zone. The new Google phone made Ms. 7DB all googly-eyed, so the house is now filled with Droids instead of Emoticon smiley faces. The switch was prompted by improved browser capabilities, email management systems and a general relief that Research in Motion (RIM) will no longer get paid to create network outages from this house.
The business model is so unique that it bears mentioning one annoying facet: the consumer pays for the outages. If the satellite or cable goes out at the house, one calls TimeWarnerCastTv or whomever, and gets free HBO for two months as an apology. If the gas line provided no gas to power the water heater, the gas company would be out instantly to fix it. Blackberry outage? Yeah, we know about it...tough tulips. Call the provider, they blame RIM. Contact RIM, they say that the individual provider is responsible to credit back and outage time. Basically, they flip the middle finger at the consumer and shut off service if the bill is three days past due.
All in all, the HTC Droid Eris gets the Preliminary, Only Had it for a week and still Learning to Use it Stamp of Approval from this columnist, and no one under this roof will miss dealing with Crackberry issues ever again.
------------------------------------------------
In December, there was an interview on NPR (radio stations are limited in options near Casa du 7DB) of a woman who lives in rural Michigan. Joan Graham owns about 150 acres of property near Metamora, a bit north of Detroit. The picteresque property is a horse ranch with plenty of trees and streams and such, and Ms. Graham, having no heirs to be concerned with, wishes to donate the land to a conservancy that would protect the land for what it is...natural space.
(As an aside here, the nobility of the wishes of an 80-year old woman is remarkable and makes for a good story to remind us that possessions aren't everything. It gets creepy from here, though.)
Ms. Graham determined that, as a way to give back to Mother Earth, she would like to be buried on her property near a favorite tree. After sharing this wish with her chosen organization, the difficulties began, as no one running a charitable conservancy has any background in the mortuary business. There is also some legal issues to address, plus the general gross-out factor of some animals digging up her remains while a field trip of fourth-graders wanders a trail looking for a sandpiper to take a picture of.
To make things even murkier, this woman decided she would be willing to share the property with others wishing to be buried there, as long as they were not embalmed and could 'provide nourishment' to the fauna and wildlife on the property. This way, future residents of the area would be disinclined to develop the property, as it would be a sacred burial site...even though, to be sacred, it would denote a culture or religion, and no specifications on that have been disclosed, so...
This is one of many reasons why 7DB is against burial. Quit trying to own something in perpetuity. It is a large planet that existed for millions of years before you got here, and will keep spinning for a good while after you take leave. Be it cremation or something yet-to-be developed, return yourself to the minerals that made you. No culture can argue against not wanting to take up space for future generations. Plus, it is way less disgusting than attending a service surrounding a rotting carcass. If Ms. Graham wishes to preserve the property as a safe haven for animals and nature, three cheers to her for not being greedy. But leaving a shrine to oneself is counter to the altruism expressed with the gift. 7DB hopes she lives many more years and can find the answer she wants, while also hoping she sees the conflict in her current message.
------------------------------------------------
The NFL playoffs have been marching along, with four teams remaining at the time of this writing, include the personal fave of this columnist, Ye Ole Minnesota Vikings. Led by the world's oldest juvenile (with both good and bad connotations), the Vikings decimated America's Team (well, the 1977 version of America's Team, which was the Dallas Cowboys. I think the Patriots are now the owners of the moniker, as they have won a bunch, been caught cheating and are now hated like the Yankees are in baseball) by a final score of something like 3,518 to 3. Brett Favre threw a big Eff-You touchdown with two minutes remaining to hammer home the final score, then sprinted the field like a ten-year old.
It is hard to dislike his energy on the field. It is hard to argue with the results (13-4 so far). It is also hard to digest that this guy has retired three times in 41
months, and will probably do so again, just to avoid spring practice with the team.
--------------------------------------
*On a serious NFL note, Chicago Bears defensive lineman Gaines Adams, the former #4 overall pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers just three years ago, collapsed and died at his family home this weekend. He was 26, and died of a heart attack, believed to be caused by an enlarged heart that he may have had since birth.
7DB hopes that it is not something that could have been tested for in the battery of tests that the NFL puts its players through, as controversy near sadness like this just makes people angry. Twenty-six? That is just not right. Best thoughts and prayers to his family...*
----------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, the Sta-Puff Marshmallow Man has coached Favre's old squad, the New York Jets, to an improbable playoff meeting with the Indianapolis Colts next weekend. Rex Ryan's team wins with solid defense and a good rushing attack. His rookie quarterback, Mark Sanchez, has shaken the stigma of playing at USC and actually developed in to a non-losing NFL player (see: Palmer, Carson and Leinart, Matt). Sanchez is not good by any stretch, but has succeeded in not screwing his team with bad turnovers and sloppy play. All of this is for naught, as the Colts will treat them like a bird treats liner paper in a cage.
The real story of the playoffs, however, is the N'Awlins Resurrection. The New Orleans Saints are playing exciting, high-scoring football on offense, and playing opportunistic defense. All of this while now being a strong and vibrant city again, after Katrina's damage just five years ago...
Wait a sec. There are still hundreds of houses sitting in the same shape they were in after the water receded. Over a fourth of the population did not return. The mayor is still besieged by rampant crime and infrastructure problems, despite billions being poured into the city from the state and federal governments. At least Reggie Bush scored a couple of touchdowns with his girlfriend watching...
----------------------------------------------------
While on the topic of areas decimated by natural disaster, Haiti is f****d. This will be at least $100 billion and five years to bring back to functionality (although that term may be a vast improvement over what was there before), and there is no way to replace the estimated 140,000 people who have lost their lives, nor the potentially hundreds of thousands more still exposed to disease and little health care in the aftermath. A terrible, terrible situation that has shown many people to be of good character in immediate responses with resources and manpower that should make many proud to be from a place capable of such generosity. It will be a test of character for the Haitians, including the ones who dominate the taxi industry in coastal Florida. Those folks send money home via Western Union weekly, much as the Mexican produce workers (legal and otherwise) do in the West. So, for those visiting Orlando or Miami over the next few months, tip your cabbie well, as he is telling the truth that someone back home needs his help.
Then again, Rush Limbaugh can tell people that he already gave to Haitian aid by paying his taxes and everyone will point and decry him to be evil. While what he said is technically true (U.S. pledged $100 million the day after the earthquake struck), the part where he mentioned it to be good to contribute privately was not noted in the news reports. The topic came up as the White House announced they had created a way to contribute to Haitian aid via the White House website, and Rush was working with a news cycle that demanded he bash someone or lose sponsors (I'm guessing)...both sides look foolish for participating in that discussion, Rush for consciously trying to be 'edgy and controversial' and White House spokesman Robert Gibbs for calling Rush 'stupid' for reading the Executive's own press release. (Rush may be stupid for other reasons, such as oxycontin and opposition to gun control in prison towns, but this was not a proper use of terminology by a guy paid to handle wording well.) Just help the people and quit grandstanding, both of you, or I'm sending you to your rooms...in Port-au-Prince.
*The texting 'Haiti' to 90999 bit has already raised $10 million, ten dollars at a time. In a tough economy, that means one million people with cell phones kicked in a Hamilton to help. Be proud of America when it deserves it...
-------------------------------------------------------
With the forty-three other topics that rest on the 7DB list of grumps, one could safely assume more is to come soon. Many readers over the holidays mentioned that they noticed the impromptu sabbatical, and that is the kind of gratifying feedback that many aspiring writers never know. With hopes that all of you had good holidays with good food and better libations, I bid you adieu...until later this week.
"There are three points of view from which a writer can be considered:
he may be considered as a story teller, as a teacher, and as an enchanter.
A major writer combines these three -
storyteller, teacher, enchanter -
but it is the enchanter in him that predominates and makes him a major writer."
-Vladimir Nabokov
During the substantial time away from the blog, 7DB has been searching out where in the writing spectrum preferred authors fall. Where does Seven Dollar Bill see this going, if anywhere at all?
Then the realization hit that this was meant to be an outlet for the backlog of miscellany that builds up when one gets caught up in daily life. Holiday seasons and quality time with Ms. 7DB took time into new directions...and pleasant ones, at that.
There have been hints dropped before, but the time for a major project is at hand. 7DB will be attempting a long form bit of fiction, and will be soliciting information from samples posted periodically. As the rules of this space allow, all input is welcome, appreciated and consensually solicited. No immediate info on the topic matter, but it will be a fictitious coming-of-age story, and it will not represent anything like the Technicolor menageries that have been popping up in the Book Club-to-Cinema set recently. John Fante will be a cited influence...
Enough of the ramble...just a warning for what is to come in some random column posts in the future. Now on to the backlog of interesting topics:
*It is remarkable that the Tiger Woods saga has come and gone since last a key was struck here, but a car accident, prescription drugs, infidelity (-ies) and divorce just seemed too easy to touch on. So many angles, and none verifiable due to their subject being a recluse when not hawking Buicks and beating the stuffing out of the country club kids we all despised as children. Hell, Tiger bought himself a yacht and named it Privacy. Need more be said?
Well...actually, yes. Those same country club kids-turned millionaires away from their inheritances are now feeling like firing away at the king of their sport. Many have teed off on Tiger's trevails, some for the infidelity and some for the arrogance that made him think he was above it all. Jesper Parnevik, the supplier of Norwegian nannies to PGA golfers as concubines, apparently, has decided that Tiger is a piece of crap. Jesper also decided that someone should care about his opinion. Someone feel free to tell Jesper to keep his trap shut until he quits housing 19-year old sets of voluptuous blonde twins at his house under the guise of employment as nannies, and also until he can learn that checkered pants, painter's hats and striped shirts look like he dresses in the dark.
The PGA Tour and its inhabitants are now being very vocal that all will be ok, even without Tiger. This mindset ignores the fact that purses have nearly tripled due to his presence, something that even Jack and Arnie cannot claim. Sponsors in a down economy have been dumping out of Team Tiger quickly since the events of Thanksgiving weekend, and their wild exodus from the PGA is pending if Woods elects to stay away for awhile. Ratings were dropping throughout the '90s until Eldrick showed up, and a similar decline will be witnessed again as the build-up to the majors begins next month. Is Davis Love III and Vijay Singh what people will tune in to watch?
When Tiger comes back, he and his caddie Stevie Williams will undoubtedly have ten hecklers ejected, arrested and flogged for yelling 'Philanderer!' during his backswing, then the inevitable destruction of all those uptight yuppie putzes he competes against will continue as if nothing has changed. His family life is a cyclone, he dates trashy golddiggers on the side and he's already lost more in endorsements than Michael Vick did upon his visit to the pokey. All of this with no crime committed. I will save the commentary on the hypocrisy of the public reaction, and leave it with an acknowledgement that he did to his children what his father did to him. That 'happiness' created the misogynist that works so manically that supposedly grown men tremble at the sight of him hitting a golf ball. It also created a billionaire cruising Perkins Restaurants for late-night hookups...sadness is all there is. Either that, or a membership to AshelyMadison.com
------------------------------------------------------
Casa du 7DB recently became a Blackberry-free zone. The new Google phone made Ms. 7DB all googly-eyed, so the house is now filled with Droids instead of Emoticon smiley faces. The switch was prompted by improved browser capabilities, email management systems and a general relief that Research in Motion (RIM) will no longer get paid to create network outages from this house.
The business model is so unique that it bears mentioning one annoying facet: the consumer pays for the outages. If the satellite or cable goes out at the house, one calls TimeWarnerCastTv or whomever, and gets free HBO for two months as an apology. If the gas line provided no gas to power the water heater, the gas company would be out instantly to fix it. Blackberry outage? Yeah, we know about it...tough tulips. Call the provider, they blame RIM. Contact RIM, they say that the individual provider is responsible to credit back and outage time. Basically, they flip the middle finger at the consumer and shut off service if the bill is three days past due.
All in all, the HTC Droid Eris gets the Preliminary, Only Had it for a week and still Learning to Use it Stamp of Approval from this columnist, and no one under this roof will miss dealing with Crackberry issues ever again.
------------------------------------------------
In December, there was an interview on NPR (radio stations are limited in options near Casa du 7DB) of a woman who lives in rural Michigan. Joan Graham owns about 150 acres of property near Metamora, a bit north of Detroit. The picteresque property is a horse ranch with plenty of trees and streams and such, and Ms. Graham, having no heirs to be concerned with, wishes to donate the land to a conservancy that would protect the land for what it is...natural space.
(As an aside here, the nobility of the wishes of an 80-year old woman is remarkable and makes for a good story to remind us that possessions aren't everything. It gets creepy from here, though.)
Ms. Graham determined that, as a way to give back to Mother Earth, she would like to be buried on her property near a favorite tree. After sharing this wish with her chosen organization, the difficulties began, as no one running a charitable conservancy has any background in the mortuary business. There is also some legal issues to address, plus the general gross-out factor of some animals digging up her remains while a field trip of fourth-graders wanders a trail looking for a sandpiper to take a picture of.
To make things even murkier, this woman decided she would be willing to share the property with others wishing to be buried there, as long as they were not embalmed and could 'provide nourishment' to the fauna and wildlife on the property. This way, future residents of the area would be disinclined to develop the property, as it would be a sacred burial site...even though, to be sacred, it would denote a culture or religion, and no specifications on that have been disclosed, so...
This is one of many reasons why 7DB is against burial. Quit trying to own something in perpetuity. It is a large planet that existed for millions of years before you got here, and will keep spinning for a good while after you take leave. Be it cremation or something yet-to-be developed, return yourself to the minerals that made you. No culture can argue against not wanting to take up space for future generations. Plus, it is way less disgusting than attending a service surrounding a rotting carcass. If Ms. Graham wishes to preserve the property as a safe haven for animals and nature, three cheers to her for not being greedy. But leaving a shrine to oneself is counter to the altruism expressed with the gift. 7DB hopes she lives many more years and can find the answer she wants, while also hoping she sees the conflict in her current message.
------------------------------------------------
The NFL playoffs have been marching along, with four teams remaining at the time of this writing, include the personal fave of this columnist, Ye Ole Minnesota Vikings. Led by the world's oldest juvenile (with both good and bad connotations), the Vikings decimated America's Team (well, the 1977 version of America's Team, which was the Dallas Cowboys. I think the Patriots are now the owners of the moniker, as they have won a bunch, been caught cheating and are now hated like the Yankees are in baseball) by a final score of something like 3,518 to 3. Brett Favre threw a big Eff-You touchdown with two minutes remaining to hammer home the final score, then sprinted the field like a ten-year old.
It is hard to dislike his energy on the field. It is hard to argue with the results (13-4 so far). It is also hard to digest that this guy has retired three times in 41
months, and will probably do so again, just to avoid spring practice with the team.
--------------------------------------
*On a serious NFL note, Chicago Bears defensive lineman Gaines Adams, the former #4 overall pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers just three years ago, collapsed and died at his family home this weekend. He was 26, and died of a heart attack, believed to be caused by an enlarged heart that he may have had since birth.
7DB hopes that it is not something that could have been tested for in the battery of tests that the NFL puts its players through, as controversy near sadness like this just makes people angry. Twenty-six? That is just not right. Best thoughts and prayers to his family...*
----------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, the Sta-Puff Marshmallow Man has coached Favre's old squad, the New York Jets, to an improbable playoff meeting with the Indianapolis Colts next weekend. Rex Ryan's team wins with solid defense and a good rushing attack. His rookie quarterback, Mark Sanchez, has shaken the stigma of playing at USC and actually developed in to a non-losing NFL player (see: Palmer, Carson and Leinart, Matt). Sanchez is not good by any stretch, but has succeeded in not screwing his team with bad turnovers and sloppy play. All of this is for naught, as the Colts will treat them like a bird treats liner paper in a cage.
The real story of the playoffs, however, is the N'Awlins Resurrection. The New Orleans Saints are playing exciting, high-scoring football on offense, and playing opportunistic defense. All of this while now being a strong and vibrant city again, after Katrina's damage just five years ago...
Wait a sec. There are still hundreds of houses sitting in the same shape they were in after the water receded. Over a fourth of the population did not return. The mayor is still besieged by rampant crime and infrastructure problems, despite billions being poured into the city from the state and federal governments. At least Reggie Bush scored a couple of touchdowns with his girlfriend watching...
----------------------------------------------------
While on the topic of areas decimated by natural disaster, Haiti is f****d. This will be at least $100 billion and five years to bring back to functionality (although that term may be a vast improvement over what was there before), and there is no way to replace the estimated 140,000 people who have lost their lives, nor the potentially hundreds of thousands more still exposed to disease and little health care in the aftermath. A terrible, terrible situation that has shown many people to be of good character in immediate responses with resources and manpower that should make many proud to be from a place capable of such generosity. It will be a test of character for the Haitians, including the ones who dominate the taxi industry in coastal Florida. Those folks send money home via Western Union weekly, much as the Mexican produce workers (legal and otherwise) do in the West. So, for those visiting Orlando or Miami over the next few months, tip your cabbie well, as he is telling the truth that someone back home needs his help.
Then again, Rush Limbaugh can tell people that he already gave to Haitian aid by paying his taxes and everyone will point and decry him to be evil. While what he said is technically true (U.S. pledged $100 million the day after the earthquake struck), the part where he mentioned it to be good to contribute privately was not noted in the news reports. The topic came up as the White House announced they had created a way to contribute to Haitian aid via the White House website, and Rush was working with a news cycle that demanded he bash someone or lose sponsors (I'm guessing)...both sides look foolish for participating in that discussion, Rush for consciously trying to be 'edgy and controversial' and White House spokesman Robert Gibbs for calling Rush 'stupid' for reading the Executive's own press release. (Rush may be stupid for other reasons, such as oxycontin and opposition to gun control in prison towns, but this was not a proper use of terminology by a guy paid to handle wording well.) Just help the people and quit grandstanding, both of you, or I'm sending you to your rooms...in Port-au-Prince.
*The texting 'Haiti' to 90999 bit has already raised $10 million, ten dollars at a time. In a tough economy, that means one million people with cell phones kicked in a Hamilton to help. Be proud of America when it deserves it...
-------------------------------------------------------
With the forty-three other topics that rest on the 7DB list of grumps, one could safely assume more is to come soon. Many readers over the holidays mentioned that they noticed the impromptu sabbatical, and that is the kind of gratifying feedback that many aspiring writers never know. With hopes that all of you had good holidays with good food and better libations, I bid you adieu...until later this week.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Why the Gold Standard Jumped the Shark
As 7DB has been watching gold prices soar while the rest of the economy struggles back in fits and starts, an interseting question arises: Do investors actually know what they are buying when they buy commodities?
Many can recall Gordon Gecko, played masterfully by Michael Douglas, from the movie Wall Street in the '80s. The line everyone recalls form the movie is "Greed is good.", but another line may apply to today's investors buying things they don't understand.
"The most valuable commodity I know of is information."
When stocks went all topsy-turvy, people were convinced by their half-wit investment counselors to get out of the market and into commodities. Truly, what am I gonna do with a pork belly? My freezer is already full of turkey for Thanksgiving...where am I gonna store those?
Jokes aside for the moment, several thousand investors have money in sugar and sugar futures, and 7DB can guarantee they do not know about how approximately one in eighteen of the workers producing that sugar (from beets, in America) are slaves. Real slaves. Debt bondage, kidnapped from another country, even homeless people trucked in, plied with liquor and cheap drugs, then worked seven days a week, twelve hours a day.
The morality of money has always been of interest to this columnist, as too many actions are driven by the need for it, and even more alarming is the number of actions driven by the sheer want of it. The economic downturn has been attributed to investor greed and these made up 'credit default swaps', which are more or less insurance for investors against...loans going bad that were made and packaged by others who don't wish to reap the rewards of those loans.
A Reader's Digest breakdown: 7DB loans another lonesome blogger $1,000 at 10% interest, payable at one hundred dollars per month until paid off. That $100 in profit requires 7DB to wait eleven whole months to make a measly one hundred dollars, so the loan is sold to Bank X for $1,030. 7DB makes a profit, Bank X gets free money for doing nothing, and the terms of the loan do not change for the borrower. This is standard stuff.
Bank ABC thinks that Bank X is going to screw up the loan, so it buys insurance on the loan from AIG for the $1,000 loan for a total of $200. When Bank X tries to insure itself against the loan defaulting, their insurance is also $200. When the loan does default, due to the economy being unstable or what-have-you, Bank X and Bank ABC get paid $1,000 each from AIG. Bank ABC's involvement is on a credit-default swap.
So, to reset: Original loan maker makes $30, Borrower received $1,000 and never paid it all back, Bank X lost only $230 and Bank ABC made $800 for doing nothing. AIG loses $1,600 on the premise that most of the time, these loans get paid back. When everything goes sour too fast, AIG is too exposed, and the U.S. taxpayers step in with a few hundred extra billion, and all is paid in full.
Makes sense? Not to anyone without years in the business and to no one who does not have a bit of Gordon Gecko in them.
Hence, the broker can sell his clientele on commodities. Platinum trades at $1400-plus per ounce, gold trailing slightly at around $1150 as of this writing. The only applications of these rare metals that most people are aware of are sold by places that put the metals in a little blue box and mark it up 1500%, all in the hopes of some physical or emotional interaction with its recipient. These metals, like many other commodities, are up hundreds of dollars in these past few years, gold alone being in the plus an astounding 156% since 2005.
The question is: what are people buying when trading in this? Gold is trading at $1100-plus, but the local jeweler is probably paying about $350 an ounce for it. The melt places available online or by mail are paying in the low-$400's. Where do any of these come to a 'trading' number of $1100? It retails for more, but that is due to design and overhead from the distributors (Jewelry Mart, etc.), so there is no actual place that this commodity trades for this number outside of Wall Street.
All of this brings up the point of this diatribe, being there is one major investor whose name is well-known and whose policies on investing are proven and sound. Warren Buffett operates Bershire Hathaway, effectively a holding company that has shares trading for $103,000 per share. No splits, no 3.25-for-1.75 stock swaps. Just a stock that gains value all the time. The Class B stock, available for a far more reasonable $3,400 per share, gives investors a readily attainable way of benefitting from Buffett's strategies.
What are they? Buy stock in stuff that one can understand how it works and what it does. Buffett's most recent acquisition target was not sexy to most investors. He bought a railroad company. Burlington Northern, the biggest on the block, for $34 billion (yes, with a 'B'), knowing that these 'commodities' need to be transported somehow.
Berkshire Hathaway, without boring readers with too much minutiae, own parts of insurance companies (GEICO, with the little Aussie gecko), banks (Wells Fargo, U.S. Bancorp, M&T), consumables (Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods) and retailers (Wal-Mart) not to mention Nike, CostCo, Johnson & Johnson...you get the idea. All household names, all products and services that everyday life uses.
Want to prevent another fallout in the world's economy? Buy stuff you understand. Simple, isn't it?
------------------------------------------------------------------
Some stoner-looking kid won the National League Cy Young Award, given to the best pitcher in baseball each year. Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants won his second consecutive of these, even though he looks like a fifteen-year old skater punk.
Lincecum won in a very close vote over two teammates who both could have won individually (and may have cost each other by splitting loyalty voting), Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter of the Saint Louis Cardinals. (Check this link to see Lincecum throw a ball with what looks to be a mini-hula hoop around his neck. http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=453311)
While the tall, skinny skater boy would appeal to Avril Lavigne fans around the world, the thoughts at Casa du 7DB revolve around the other two top vote-getters. Cardinals fans right now must feel a bit like Democratic voters in 2000, when Ralph Nader split the voter block and allowed G.W. Bush to make a very competitve election out of what would have been a runaway for the Inventor of the Internet and Savior of the Environment, Oscar and Nobel-award winner Al Gore.
Adam Wainwright was a closer for the Cardinals at one point, brought in to shut down any hopes of a rally in later innings of games to guarantee the victory. His aspirations (and robust success) as a starter very well could have cost Carpenter the Cy Young, and the $250,000 bonus that went with it. (Carpenter did get a $100k bonus for finishing 2nd, as did Wainwright for finishing 3rd in the voting.) While it may seem an insignificant difference to multi-millionaires, the long-term monies lost to Carpenter by not winning that award could be tens of millions on the free agent market.
No matter. I am sure that Lincecum will build a sweet halfpipe in his yard and let all his bros come and shred on it. Congrats, kid...
------------------------------------------------------------
***7DB note: A short post today, with a weekend column coming and two columns next week before all eight (8! We're growing!) readers take the long weekend off for mass tryptophan consumption.
Things that 7DB has to be thankful for: a lovely new wife (the aforementioned Ms. 7DB), a lovely new home filled with cool animals in a different city than where the last 18 years went by, a phenomenal new family of in-laws and cousins, oh my!, the Official Brother of 7DB and his fantastic wife and stepson, cousins and aunts and uncles scattered acorss the nation (making the 7DB voting bloc of considerable clout in Washington in 2012...YES WE CAN!) and many friends and extended (read: non-blood relative) family. From the 7DB family to yours, Happy Holidays...
Many can recall Gordon Gecko, played masterfully by Michael Douglas, from the movie Wall Street in the '80s. The line everyone recalls form the movie is "Greed is good.", but another line may apply to today's investors buying things they don't understand.
"The most valuable commodity I know of is information."
When stocks went all topsy-turvy, people were convinced by their half-wit investment counselors to get out of the market and into commodities. Truly, what am I gonna do with a pork belly? My freezer is already full of turkey for Thanksgiving...where am I gonna store those?
Jokes aside for the moment, several thousand investors have money in sugar and sugar futures, and 7DB can guarantee they do not know about how approximately one in eighteen of the workers producing that sugar (from beets, in America) are slaves. Real slaves. Debt bondage, kidnapped from another country, even homeless people trucked in, plied with liquor and cheap drugs, then worked seven days a week, twelve hours a day.
The morality of money has always been of interest to this columnist, as too many actions are driven by the need for it, and even more alarming is the number of actions driven by the sheer want of it. The economic downturn has been attributed to investor greed and these made up 'credit default swaps', which are more or less insurance for investors against...loans going bad that were made and packaged by others who don't wish to reap the rewards of those loans.
A Reader's Digest breakdown: 7DB loans another lonesome blogger $1,000 at 10% interest, payable at one hundred dollars per month until paid off. That $100 in profit requires 7DB to wait eleven whole months to make a measly one hundred dollars, so the loan is sold to Bank X for $1,030. 7DB makes a profit, Bank X gets free money for doing nothing, and the terms of the loan do not change for the borrower. This is standard stuff.
Bank ABC thinks that Bank X is going to screw up the loan, so it buys insurance on the loan from AIG for the $1,000 loan for a total of $200. When Bank X tries to insure itself against the loan defaulting, their insurance is also $200. When the loan does default, due to the economy being unstable or what-have-you, Bank X and Bank ABC get paid $1,000 each from AIG. Bank ABC's involvement is on a credit-default swap.
So, to reset: Original loan maker makes $30, Borrower received $1,000 and never paid it all back, Bank X lost only $230 and Bank ABC made $800 for doing nothing. AIG loses $1,600 on the premise that most of the time, these loans get paid back. When everything goes sour too fast, AIG is too exposed, and the U.S. taxpayers step in with a few hundred extra billion, and all is paid in full.
Makes sense? Not to anyone without years in the business and to no one who does not have a bit of Gordon Gecko in them.
Hence, the broker can sell his clientele on commodities. Platinum trades at $1400-plus per ounce, gold trailing slightly at around $1150 as of this writing. The only applications of these rare metals that most people are aware of are sold by places that put the metals in a little blue box and mark it up 1500%, all in the hopes of some physical or emotional interaction with its recipient. These metals, like many other commodities, are up hundreds of dollars in these past few years, gold alone being in the plus an astounding 156% since 2005.
The question is: what are people buying when trading in this? Gold is trading at $1100-plus, but the local jeweler is probably paying about $350 an ounce for it. The melt places available online or by mail are paying in the low-$400's. Where do any of these come to a 'trading' number of $1100? It retails for more, but that is due to design and overhead from the distributors (Jewelry Mart, etc.), so there is no actual place that this commodity trades for this number outside of Wall Street.
All of this brings up the point of this diatribe, being there is one major investor whose name is well-known and whose policies on investing are proven and sound. Warren Buffett operates Bershire Hathaway, effectively a holding company that has shares trading for $103,000 per share. No splits, no 3.25-for-1.75 stock swaps. Just a stock that gains value all the time. The Class B stock, available for a far more reasonable $3,400 per share, gives investors a readily attainable way of benefitting from Buffett's strategies.
What are they? Buy stock in stuff that one can understand how it works and what it does. Buffett's most recent acquisition target was not sexy to most investors. He bought a railroad company. Burlington Northern, the biggest on the block, for $34 billion (yes, with a 'B'), knowing that these 'commodities' need to be transported somehow.
Berkshire Hathaway, without boring readers with too much minutiae, own parts of insurance companies (GEICO, with the little Aussie gecko), banks (Wells Fargo, U.S. Bancorp, M&T), consumables (Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods) and retailers (Wal-Mart) not to mention Nike, CostCo, Johnson & Johnson...you get the idea. All household names, all products and services that everyday life uses.
Want to prevent another fallout in the world's economy? Buy stuff you understand. Simple, isn't it?
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Some stoner-looking kid won the National League Cy Young Award, given to the best pitcher in baseball each year. Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants won his second consecutive of these, even though he looks like a fifteen-year old skater punk.
Lincecum won in a very close vote over two teammates who both could have won individually (and may have cost each other by splitting loyalty voting), Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter of the Saint Louis Cardinals. (Check this link to see Lincecum throw a ball with what looks to be a mini-hula hoop around his neck. http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=453311)
While the tall, skinny skater boy would appeal to Avril Lavigne fans around the world, the thoughts at Casa du 7DB revolve around the other two top vote-getters. Cardinals fans right now must feel a bit like Democratic voters in 2000, when Ralph Nader split the voter block and allowed G.W. Bush to make a very competitve election out of what would have been a runaway for the Inventor of the Internet and Savior of the Environment, Oscar and Nobel-award winner Al Gore.
Adam Wainwright was a closer for the Cardinals at one point, brought in to shut down any hopes of a rally in later innings of games to guarantee the victory. His aspirations (and robust success) as a starter very well could have cost Carpenter the Cy Young, and the $250,000 bonus that went with it. (Carpenter did get a $100k bonus for finishing 2nd, as did Wainwright for finishing 3rd in the voting.) While it may seem an insignificant difference to multi-millionaires, the long-term monies lost to Carpenter by not winning that award could be tens of millions on the free agent market.
No matter. I am sure that Lincecum will build a sweet halfpipe in his yard and let all his bros come and shred on it. Congrats, kid...
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***7DB note: A short post today, with a weekend column coming and two columns next week before all eight (8! We're growing!) readers take the long weekend off for mass tryptophan consumption.
Things that 7DB has to be thankful for: a lovely new wife (the aforementioned Ms. 7DB), a lovely new home filled with cool animals in a different city than where the last 18 years went by, a phenomenal new family of in-laws and cousins, oh my!, the Official Brother of 7DB and his fantastic wife and stepson, cousins and aunts and uncles scattered acorss the nation (making the 7DB voting bloc of considerable clout in Washington in 2012...YES WE CAN!) and many friends and extended (read: non-blood relative) family. From the 7DB family to yours, Happy Holidays...
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Leggo my Eggo...or I'm gonna kick your a**!
Apparently, it has finally come to pass: there are not enough Eggos to go around. The wildly popular breakfast waffle is in shortage for the foreseeable future, due to flooding in Kellogg's Atlanta bakery. Estimates to catch up on inventory shortage put mid-2010 as the target point.
So, to reiterate, the world will be down on their Eggo's until late spring. Maybe those folks who notice this will be able to mix in some fruit or a bit of exercise during this unfortunate shortage. Perhaps the intake of bready, doughy food that can be eaten with one hand while negotiating traffic en route to work with the other hand will be reduced enough for traffic safety and flow to improve. Possibly, there could even be a Eggo Flip Flop Choco Nilla Waffle reduction that could cause some of America's more corpulent children to throw a fit just long enough to burn some of the 200 calories per serving (before syrup) that these gut bombs contain.
Nahhh. USA! USA! Make more fat kids who don't give a crap in class. USA!
( http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/108191/leggo-your-eggo-theres-a-waffle-shortage )
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The Charlotte Observer recently printed a list of salaries for NFL quarterbacks for the 2009 season. Eli Manning of the New York Giants led the list with a $16.25 million salary for the year, followed by USC grad and Cincinnati Bengals QB Carson Palmer, trailing by a mere $80k. Eli won a Super Bowl a couple years back, and Palmer has his team in front of his division, so some of those are justifiable. Let's visit the ones that aren't.
67-year old Brett Farveverevrvrrve (eighth-highest salary, $12.5 mil) leads the league with a 107.5 passer rating and his team is 8-1. That one is good. Sage Rosenfels (28th, $3.82 mil) is the man that was brought in to start for the Vikings before Favre un-retired again. That one is not good. Jake Delhomme of the Carolina Panthers (23rd, $6.08 mil) has thrown thirteen passes to opposing players, and his team is horrible. But the winner (or, Biggest Loser) is...former Bronco Jay Cutler.
Cutler whined his way out of Denver, prompting the team to trade him to the Chicago Bears. Cutler demanded (and was given) a shiny new contract that pays him $14.67 million, fourth-highest in the league. This year. The fourth-year quarterback has managed to lead the league in one category: interceptions, with 17 thus far. He has also guided his team to a sterling 4-and-5 record.
Cutler has joined many athletes in contributing to the founding of the Crabtree Corollary. Athletes who believe they are bigger than the team games they play end up stinking up the joint, negatively affecting the fan base, and generally souring people on the sport they play. Next up, 7DB fave Larry Johnson, now a member of the Cincinnati Bengals. Watch LJ knock the Bengals out of the playoffs in the first round after creating a cancerous atmosphere in their locker room, then leave a comment on the bottom of this column to commemorate said event.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Congressional Budget Office has announced their estimate of the House's health care package to save America costing approximately $849 billion over ten years. After the ten years, some folks are anticipating it paying back small portions of the outlay to the federal government.
Without going into the merits (or lack thereof) of the bill, the idea of this plan eventually putting money back into the tax coffers is laughable. I seem to recall state governments around the country saying that state-run lotteries would 'supplement' education funding, then slowly pulling away the funding that the lottery would supplement, then slowly pulling away portions of the lottery revenues to 'payback' the state for its educational overruns, then blaming lottery officials for not meeting revenue targets. All the while, educational standards suffer, and teachers and support staff are paid like burger flippers. Is there any doubt that this will come to pass with health care? Any at all?
I wish I could have submitted budgets for projects at work and told them they could make money in ten years, knowing full well that cost overruns are acceptable and probable. Then again, I wish that puppies could fly, and that hamsters could do accounting. Oh wait...the CBO.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
There is a company, probably one of many, that will vet names of babies for people for a fee, making sure the children are not inadvertantly named something that would expose them to ridicule. While not touching the last names proferred, first names are often misinterpreted or chosen because they 'sound nice', and this can cause problems. Today's Translation in Great Britain is here to solve this problem.
Many remember the Chevy Nova, a muscle car produced in the 70's by GM. The Nova had a 'shooting star' marketing campaign and sold fairly well, but not so well in Mexico. Why, you ask? Simple. 'Nova' in Spanish means 'no go'. Therefore, GM was trying to sell a car entitled 'no go' to a seemingly skeptical public. Same idea behind naming babies.
For example, America's favorite couch-jumping idiot and his new wife had a baby. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes elected to name their baby Suri. There is a bit of a problem with that name, it seems...
"It sounds incredibly nice, but in Japanese, we found it means pickpocket," said Jurga Zilinskiene, Today's Translation's chief executive, whose first name means "farmer" or "earth worker" in Greek.
Suri also means "turned sour" in French, "red" or "fire" in Farsi and "horse mackerels" in Italian - not exactly the words parents want associated with their little darling.
The first punchline about this that came to mind involves The Church of Scientology welcoming a pickpocket into the fold, then realizing they are over the limit. Resisting those jokes, realize that this little girl will probably have enough issues to overcome due to her very...um, 'interesting' parents, but to now add on being named for something sour in French, and something called a horse mackerel in Italian just seems like piling on.
Which is what we're here to do.
Suri can always go hang out with Apple Martin, she of Gwyenth and Coldplay's Chris fame, and Zuma Rossdale, from Gwen Stefani and Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale. This may help her to feel more normal...unless she travels to Kyoto.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Lastly, to summarize the real estate market nationwide, and more specifically in cash-strapped Detroit, Michigan, the deal of the century recently took place.
The Pontiac Silverdome, once home to the Detroit Lions and many major concerts and events, was recently sold for...$583,000. Thousand. Barely a half a million. A building paid for by the citizens of Michigan to the tune of $55.7 million just 35 years ago, sold for peanuts, just to get the $1.5 million in annual upkeep expenses off of the books of the city of Pontiac.
Councilman Everett Seay said he expects someone -- possibly a prospective buyer turned down in recent years -- to file a lawsuit to block the sale.
"The citizens of Pontiac deserve better," Seay said. "This is pennies on the dollar (of what it cost). It goes to show how bad times are ... Worse, we don't even know who bought it."
The sale was executed by sealed bid, leaving an unnamed Canadian company as the winning bidholder. The Canadian company is planning to bring a soccer league or franchise to the building, but no one can contact the new owners, as no one knows who they are yet.
I have a newly found affection for Michigan, having recently married one of its most beautiful citizens, but I cannot doubt that the city of Pontiac is reeling for reasons of its own doing. It is named after a defunct automaker, for pete's sake! If Pontiac, MI took on a new moniker, perhaps one that would be attractive to the new soccer team, they could start in to a new future. Maybe call themselves Manchester City, since they have a good reputation for soccer...just don't use that silly 'FC' in front of the name. FC East Detroit doesn't have a good ring to it.
So, to reiterate, the world will be down on their Eggo's until late spring. Maybe those folks who notice this will be able to mix in some fruit or a bit of exercise during this unfortunate shortage. Perhaps the intake of bready, doughy food that can be eaten with one hand while negotiating traffic en route to work with the other hand will be reduced enough for traffic safety and flow to improve. Possibly, there could even be a Eggo Flip Flop Choco Nilla Waffle reduction that could cause some of America's more corpulent children to throw a fit just long enough to burn some of the 200 calories per serving (before syrup) that these gut bombs contain.
Nahhh. USA! USA! Make more fat kids who don't give a crap in class. USA!
( http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/108191/leggo-your-eggo-theres-a-waffle-shortage )
---------------------------------------------------------------
The Charlotte Observer recently printed a list of salaries for NFL quarterbacks for the 2009 season. Eli Manning of the New York Giants led the list with a $16.25 million salary for the year, followed by USC grad and Cincinnati Bengals QB Carson Palmer, trailing by a mere $80k. Eli won a Super Bowl a couple years back, and Palmer has his team in front of his division, so some of those are justifiable. Let's visit the ones that aren't.
67-year old Brett Farveverevrvrrve (eighth-highest salary, $12.5 mil) leads the league with a 107.5 passer rating and his team is 8-1. That one is good. Sage Rosenfels (28th, $3.82 mil) is the man that was brought in to start for the Vikings before Favre un-retired again. That one is not good. Jake Delhomme of the Carolina Panthers (23rd, $6.08 mil) has thrown thirteen passes to opposing players, and his team is horrible. But the winner (or, Biggest Loser) is...former Bronco Jay Cutler.
Cutler whined his way out of Denver, prompting the team to trade him to the Chicago Bears. Cutler demanded (and was given) a shiny new contract that pays him $14.67 million, fourth-highest in the league. This year. The fourth-year quarterback has managed to lead the league in one category: interceptions, with 17 thus far. He has also guided his team to a sterling 4-and-5 record.
Cutler has joined many athletes in contributing to the founding of the Crabtree Corollary. Athletes who believe they are bigger than the team games they play end up stinking up the joint, negatively affecting the fan base, and generally souring people on the sport they play. Next up, 7DB fave Larry Johnson, now a member of the Cincinnati Bengals. Watch LJ knock the Bengals out of the playoffs in the first round after creating a cancerous atmosphere in their locker room, then leave a comment on the bottom of this column to commemorate said event.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Congressional Budget Office has announced their estimate of the House's health care package to save America costing approximately $849 billion over ten years. After the ten years, some folks are anticipating it paying back small portions of the outlay to the federal government.
Without going into the merits (or lack thereof) of the bill, the idea of this plan eventually putting money back into the tax coffers is laughable. I seem to recall state governments around the country saying that state-run lotteries would 'supplement' education funding, then slowly pulling away the funding that the lottery would supplement, then slowly pulling away portions of the lottery revenues to 'payback' the state for its educational overruns, then blaming lottery officials for not meeting revenue targets. All the while, educational standards suffer, and teachers and support staff are paid like burger flippers. Is there any doubt that this will come to pass with health care? Any at all?
I wish I could have submitted budgets for projects at work and told them they could make money in ten years, knowing full well that cost overruns are acceptable and probable. Then again, I wish that puppies could fly, and that hamsters could do accounting. Oh wait...the CBO.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
There is a company, probably one of many, that will vet names of babies for people for a fee, making sure the children are not inadvertantly named something that would expose them to ridicule. While not touching the last names proferred, first names are often misinterpreted or chosen because they 'sound nice', and this can cause problems. Today's Translation in Great Britain is here to solve this problem.
Many remember the Chevy Nova, a muscle car produced in the 70's by GM. The Nova had a 'shooting star' marketing campaign and sold fairly well, but not so well in Mexico. Why, you ask? Simple. 'Nova' in Spanish means 'no go'. Therefore, GM was trying to sell a car entitled 'no go' to a seemingly skeptical public. Same idea behind naming babies.
For example, America's favorite couch-jumping idiot and his new wife had a baby. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes elected to name their baby Suri. There is a bit of a problem with that name, it seems...
"It sounds incredibly nice, but in Japanese, we found it means pickpocket," said Jurga Zilinskiene, Today's Translation's chief executive, whose first name means "farmer" or "earth worker" in Greek.
Suri also means "turned sour" in French, "red" or "fire" in Farsi and "horse mackerels" in Italian - not exactly the words parents want associated with their little darling.
The first punchline about this that came to mind involves The Church of Scientology welcoming a pickpocket into the fold, then realizing they are over the limit. Resisting those jokes, realize that this little girl will probably have enough issues to overcome due to her very...um, 'interesting' parents, but to now add on being named for something sour in French, and something called a horse mackerel in Italian just seems like piling on.
Which is what we're here to do.
Suri can always go hang out with Apple Martin, she of Gwyenth and Coldplay's Chris fame, and Zuma Rossdale, from Gwen Stefani and Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale. This may help her to feel more normal...unless she travels to Kyoto.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Lastly, to summarize the real estate market nationwide, and more specifically in cash-strapped Detroit, Michigan, the deal of the century recently took place.
The Pontiac Silverdome, once home to the Detroit Lions and many major concerts and events, was recently sold for...$583,000. Thousand. Barely a half a million. A building paid for by the citizens of Michigan to the tune of $55.7 million just 35 years ago, sold for peanuts, just to get the $1.5 million in annual upkeep expenses off of the books of the city of Pontiac.
Councilman Everett Seay said he expects someone -- possibly a prospective buyer turned down in recent years -- to file a lawsuit to block the sale.
"The citizens of Pontiac deserve better," Seay said. "This is pennies on the dollar (of what it cost). It goes to show how bad times are ... Worse, we don't even know who bought it."
The sale was executed by sealed bid, leaving an unnamed Canadian company as the winning bidholder. The Canadian company is planning to bring a soccer league or franchise to the building, but no one can contact the new owners, as no one knows who they are yet.
I have a newly found affection for Michigan, having recently married one of its most beautiful citizens, but I cannot doubt that the city of Pontiac is reeling for reasons of its own doing. It is named after a defunct automaker, for pete's sake! If Pontiac, MI took on a new moniker, perhaps one that would be attractive to the new soccer team, they could start in to a new future. Maybe call themselves Manchester City, since they have a good reputation for soccer...just don't use that silly 'FC' in front of the name. FC East Detroit doesn't have a good ring to it.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Hot Bloggin' on a Friday Night...
While Ms. 7DB watches some show designed to make women between 25-45 whimper silently into their Chardonnay (if it is a Private Practice, why is it on national TV???), it seemed like a good time to catch up on the rest of yesterday's topic matter...
It brings no small amount of pleasure to the 7DB household to watch the misery of the Green Bay Packers fan base as their Hall of Fame-bound quarterback plays for their rivals and kicks the snot out of them. It does not change, however, how much the Minnesota Vikings fans should dislike having Brett Favreverevevrvre as their quarterback.
Without boring those of you who read my columns and do not follow sports so much, having Brett Favre at the helm of the Vikings is similar to Tom and Jerry teaming up to get Spike to stop hitting Tom with a trash can lid.
For those of you born after 1980, the Favre/Vikings parallel may be better described as having P. Diddy produce Tupac's album after Notorius B.I.G. was shot and killed.
For those of you with very little in the way of pop culture references, the Favre/Vikings situation compares well to Nancy Pelosi becoming a spokesperson for Fox News.
For those born in my grandfather's generation, it is the same as having Winston Churchill invite Joe Stalin to run for British Prime Minister after the Marshall Plan took effect.
For those who are sick of analogies, I will stop now.
For those of you who aren't, more will be posted in the comment section of this blog.
It pains any true Viking fan to cheer on someone who has caused so much turmoil for this team over his 18 years in the NFL. This Benedict Arnold leaves 7DB feeling...well, British. (those of you born after 1980 should Wiki this reference) It is just too difficult for the Viking fans of lore to cheer on a turncoat rival.
All of the Packer fans who read this column can take heart in the fact that Favre usually starts showing up on the injured list right around this part of the year. At that point, vengeance will be theirs, but the Packers next play the Vikings sometime deep into the fall of 2010. So, Packers fans can stick it. :)
For those of you born after 1990, the Favre/Vikings equivalent would be LC deciding that Brody would be cool to date if Blake Lively ever gives up on him. Or something equally inane.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Enke is a name that most of the readers of this column will not recognize. He played soccer for a living, making him even less likely to appear on the radar of the average American. Don't feel guilt for this, as many are still not sure soccer is a sport.
Enke (Soccer stars, known as 'footballers' around the planet except for America, often pick their first or last name as their common moniker. The reason this doesn't work in the U.S.? There would be forty-seven 'Joe's and 'Smith's. It does work for the NBA, as many players in that game have unique names...but I digress.) was a top-tier goalkeeper for Hannover 96 in the major circuit known as Bundesliga in Europe, as well as the leading contender to be the keeper for the German National team in the prestigious World Cup coming up. Professionally, it appeared that Enke had it all coming together.
On Tuesday, two days after helping his team to a 2-2 draw against Hamburg, the thrity-two year old Enke walked off of a train platform in front of a regional express train. His wife disclosed after this horrific event that Enke had been battling depression for at least six years. His first daughter, Lara, was born in 2004, meaning that his wife was pregnant in 2003...six years ago. Lara was not long for this world, as a congenital heart defect tragically stole her from her family at the age of two. The couple adopted baby Leila in May of this year.
(Pause for dramatic effect.)
I am angry. At everyone involved. Enke's wife knew he was depressed for six years? How did a man with access to the best of health care in all of Europe not have an opportunity to seek help for this? 7DB refuses to pin this to the weakness of socialized health care, but...what the heck? Even worse, how did Robert (not ENKE, the athlete...but Robert, the father) check out on his new baby daughter Leila?
While readily acknowledging limited understanding of mental illness existing outside of these two ears, 7DB has little patience for those who take responsibility for those who need help, then quit on those responsibilities. Enke was ill and needed help...but wtf?! Someone failed Robert...either his wife for not forcing him into a situation of help, his various teams for not doing a psych profile on an athlete who plays a position that demands solitude, or the system that allowed him and his wife to adopt a child without a psychiatric evaluation. There are too many places along the way that a 32-year old man can find the support he needs when things are bad. 7DB will probably be the only American who wonders why no one will answer these questions.
Then again, he played soccer, so maybe there was something else deeper that was wrong with him...
(What? Too soon?)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The two Bear Stearns executives, Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, recently put on trial for conspiracy and fraud (and a de facto trial of the financial system) were acquitted in a Brooklyn, NY courtroom this past Tuesday. The acquittal upset many folks reading or hearing about it, and even more of those reporting on it. And those people are very wrong to be mad.
If the worldwide financial meltdown hadn't happened, this case never would have been pressed. If the feds didn't also have the folks at Countrywide and AIG in their sights, this case would have been handled in a much quieter fashion. The federal court system is currently holding show trials on behalf of an angry America. The public needs to know that someone is responsible for their pensions and benefits being slashed, their friends and loved ones being unemployed, the economy's struggles...that somewhere the blame rests on something that can be pinpointed.
And that is just silly, isn't it?
The case was built around accusations that these two execs planned to defraud thousands of investors out of millions of bucks. The truth is probably closer to the idea that they felt like they either a) screwed up and people were losing their money, or b) that things out of their control were driving the market, and that they had to tell their investors to hold on until they could figure out how to fix it before they took their money to another investment house. Simple case of C.Y.A. gone bad.
Dumb? Yes. Criminal? Possibly. Malicious? No. Instead of trying the charges they knew they could hit, the Feds tried to hit them on all the counts they could muster. It backfired, and now they have an issue about what they can and can't try to do against future defendants. Stupid for federal prosecutors, but grooves right in to the show trial concept.
As time goes by, the economy will recover and eventually outpace where things were when it all went bad. As it does, people will want to move ahead with their lives. Bernie Madoff will be a slightly humorous footnote, AIG will go back to running commercials and having the general public wonder 'What the heck they do anyways?' about them and things will move forward. To get us there, we need blood. Even if it's from the wrong place.
Anyone who has had money in the market or a 401(k) in the last ten years has likely benefitted from the credit default swaps and mortgage-backed securities that history will point to as the source of our misery in 2008 and 2009. There were few complaints about the highly complicated way these profits were made, but lotsa griping when that same money was lost. Guilt like that is a complicated thing.
The easy solution is the show trials of a few of the 'greedy' people that still made money when everyone else was losing. (Don't mix Madoff in with these folks, as he was a pure thief. He didn't even pretend to try to invest moeny. He stole from Peter to pay Paul. And himself.) Trials of this nature went on with regularity before the financial crisis without so much as a peep out of the mainstream media.
Total bloodlust. Don't buy the hype. The economy will be ok in less than two years...just hang tight.
-------------------------------------------------------------
There is a feature about Cat Ladies on 20/20 tonight. Ms. 7DB had two when we met, three now, plus two lovely puppies. Some of the women in this feature have over 100 cats in a two-bedroom house. If Ms. 7DB were awake right now, instead of asleep on the couch with a book on her lap, the 7DB Universe wonders what would be said of this segment.
It brings no small amount of pleasure to the 7DB household to watch the misery of the Green Bay Packers fan base as their Hall of Fame-bound quarterback plays for their rivals and kicks the snot out of them. It does not change, however, how much the Minnesota Vikings fans should dislike having Brett Favreverevevrvre as their quarterback.
Without boring those of you who read my columns and do not follow sports so much, having Brett Favre at the helm of the Vikings is similar to Tom and Jerry teaming up to get Spike to stop hitting Tom with a trash can lid.
For those of you born after 1980, the Favre/Vikings parallel may be better described as having P. Diddy produce Tupac's album after Notorius B.I.G. was shot and killed.
For those of you with very little in the way of pop culture references, the Favre/Vikings situation compares well to Nancy Pelosi becoming a spokesperson for Fox News.
For those born in my grandfather's generation, it is the same as having Winston Churchill invite Joe Stalin to run for British Prime Minister after the Marshall Plan took effect.
For those who are sick of analogies, I will stop now.
For those of you who aren't, more will be posted in the comment section of this blog.
It pains any true Viking fan to cheer on someone who has caused so much turmoil for this team over his 18 years in the NFL. This Benedict Arnold leaves 7DB feeling...well, British. (those of you born after 1980 should Wiki this reference) It is just too difficult for the Viking fans of lore to cheer on a turncoat rival.
All of the Packer fans who read this column can take heart in the fact that Favre usually starts showing up on the injured list right around this part of the year. At that point, vengeance will be theirs, but the Packers next play the Vikings sometime deep into the fall of 2010. So, Packers fans can stick it. :)
For those of you born after 1990, the Favre/Vikings equivalent would be LC deciding that Brody would be cool to date if Blake Lively ever gives up on him. Or something equally inane.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Enke is a name that most of the readers of this column will not recognize. He played soccer for a living, making him even less likely to appear on the radar of the average American. Don't feel guilt for this, as many are still not sure soccer is a sport.
Enke (Soccer stars, known as 'footballers' around the planet except for America, often pick their first or last name as their common moniker. The reason this doesn't work in the U.S.? There would be forty-seven 'Joe's and 'Smith's. It does work for the NBA, as many players in that game have unique names...but I digress.) was a top-tier goalkeeper for Hannover 96 in the major circuit known as Bundesliga in Europe, as well as the leading contender to be the keeper for the German National team in the prestigious World Cup coming up. Professionally, it appeared that Enke had it all coming together.
On Tuesday, two days after helping his team to a 2-2 draw against Hamburg, the thrity-two year old Enke walked off of a train platform in front of a regional express train. His wife disclosed after this horrific event that Enke had been battling depression for at least six years. His first daughter, Lara, was born in 2004, meaning that his wife was pregnant in 2003...six years ago. Lara was not long for this world, as a congenital heart defect tragically stole her from her family at the age of two. The couple adopted baby Leila in May of this year.
(Pause for dramatic effect.)
I am angry. At everyone involved. Enke's wife knew he was depressed for six years? How did a man with access to the best of health care in all of Europe not have an opportunity to seek help for this? 7DB refuses to pin this to the weakness of socialized health care, but...what the heck? Even worse, how did Robert (not ENKE, the athlete...but Robert, the father) check out on his new baby daughter Leila?
While readily acknowledging limited understanding of mental illness existing outside of these two ears, 7DB has little patience for those who take responsibility for those who need help, then quit on those responsibilities. Enke was ill and needed help...but wtf?! Someone failed Robert...either his wife for not forcing him into a situation of help, his various teams for not doing a psych profile on an athlete who plays a position that demands solitude, or the system that allowed him and his wife to adopt a child without a psychiatric evaluation. There are too many places along the way that a 32-year old man can find the support he needs when things are bad. 7DB will probably be the only American who wonders why no one will answer these questions.
Then again, he played soccer, so maybe there was something else deeper that was wrong with him...
(What? Too soon?)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The two Bear Stearns executives, Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, recently put on trial for conspiracy and fraud (and a de facto trial of the financial system) were acquitted in a Brooklyn, NY courtroom this past Tuesday. The acquittal upset many folks reading or hearing about it, and even more of those reporting on it. And those people are very wrong to be mad.
If the worldwide financial meltdown hadn't happened, this case never would have been pressed. If the feds didn't also have the folks at Countrywide and AIG in their sights, this case would have been handled in a much quieter fashion. The federal court system is currently holding show trials on behalf of an angry America. The public needs to know that someone is responsible for their pensions and benefits being slashed, their friends and loved ones being unemployed, the economy's struggles...that somewhere the blame rests on something that can be pinpointed.
And that is just silly, isn't it?
The case was built around accusations that these two execs planned to defraud thousands of investors out of millions of bucks. The truth is probably closer to the idea that they felt like they either a) screwed up and people were losing their money, or b) that things out of their control were driving the market, and that they had to tell their investors to hold on until they could figure out how to fix it before they took their money to another investment house. Simple case of C.Y.A. gone bad.
Dumb? Yes. Criminal? Possibly. Malicious? No. Instead of trying the charges they knew they could hit, the Feds tried to hit them on all the counts they could muster. It backfired, and now they have an issue about what they can and can't try to do against future defendants. Stupid for federal prosecutors, but grooves right in to the show trial concept.
As time goes by, the economy will recover and eventually outpace where things were when it all went bad. As it does, people will want to move ahead with their lives. Bernie Madoff will be a slightly humorous footnote, AIG will go back to running commercials and having the general public wonder 'What the heck they do anyways?' about them and things will move forward. To get us there, we need blood. Even if it's from the wrong place.
Anyone who has had money in the market or a 401(k) in the last ten years has likely benefitted from the credit default swaps and mortgage-backed securities that history will point to as the source of our misery in 2008 and 2009. There were few complaints about the highly complicated way these profits were made, but lotsa griping when that same money was lost. Guilt like that is a complicated thing.
The easy solution is the show trials of a few of the 'greedy' people that still made money when everyone else was losing. (Don't mix Madoff in with these folks, as he was a pure thief. He didn't even pretend to try to invest moeny. He stole from Peter to pay Paul. And himself.) Trials of this nature went on with regularity before the financial crisis without so much as a peep out of the mainstream media.
Total bloodlust. Don't buy the hype. The economy will be ok in less than two years...just hang tight.
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There is a feature about Cat Ladies on 20/20 tonight. Ms. 7DB had two when we met, three now, plus two lovely puppies. Some of the women in this feature have over 100 cats in a two-bedroom house. If Ms. 7DB were awake right now, instead of asleep on the couch with a book on her lap, the 7DB Universe wonders what would be said of this segment.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
This love triangle was just spacy...
NASA has continued to shovel off the fallout from the bizarre love triangle involving astronauts Lisa Nowak and William Oefelein. Oefelein was dismissed from the space program this week, returning to the armed forces from where he came.
Oefelein, a married man, had an affair with Nowak while having a girlfriend on the side, one Air Force Captain Colleen Shipman. Nowak became aware of the extra relationship, believing that a man should apparently have only one extramarital affair at a time, and responded like any sane woman would. She tried to kidnap Shipman, while packing a BB pistol and an air hammer. Nowak was arrested at the airport when the kidnapping was foiled by the victim...rolling up her car window and driving away.
Nowak drove non-stop from Orlando to Houston to catch this woman at the Houston airport. This is where it gets weird.
To get there faster, Nowak reportedly wore diapers so she would not have to stop. I repeat: She wore diapers to be able to not stop driving to catch a woman that she believed was having an affair with her lover, who was married.
Now, most of my seven readers have been jolted at some points in their love lives. Breaking up is never easy to do, to be sure...and maybe we have had the thoughts of some sort of revenge on the third party as the emotions sort out. I can tell you that driving by someone's house to see if they are home is waaaaaaaaay different than to cross two time zones with weapons to try to abduct someone from a highly-secured area like an airport.
Doesn't the rage fade when you hit, oh I dunno, Tuscaloosa? Maybe Birmingham? The thoughts "This is crazy! What am I doing?" should have happened somewhere in there, right?
Oh, by the way, Nowak was married during the affair, too.
So, if you cheat on your spouse, and the person you are cheating with is also cheating on their spouse, should you be surprised when they in turn cheat on you? Shouldn't you expect it, or at least note the possibility of it? I sincerely hope that NASA studies the effect of space travel on morality after this escapade. Or, at least, gives the rights to Vivid Video for a proper re-enactment video for those who are so inclined...
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As noted in this space, Penn State grad and Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson is an idiot. The team has acted accordingly, first suspending the idiot for his homosexual slurs on his Twitter feed, then releasing him outright when the suspension ended.
The now-former Chief was baited into an online war of words with 'fans' of his Twitter feed, then raised it (or, more accurately, lowered it) to a battle of slurs. When given a chance to respond to the media after this came to light, Johnson used the same slurs that brought up the issue to begin with.
Two thoughts: One, I hate to be accurate in predicting the stupidity of athletes. Professionally, I saw it up close, and it never fails to come true from the guys who play sports for money and take it as a sign that they have 'something special' to offer. They do offer something special...on the field, between the lines, when the clock is running. Afterwards, they should be very, very careful, as all eyes are on them, waiting for a mistake. Truthfully, it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
Larry, for the record, you told that Twitter user that 'U can't stop me getting paid.' I believe he did. Dummy. Pull your act together, and see if the Canadian Football League can use a washed-up running back that likes to slam minorities.
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In another instance of 7DB being both accurate and possessing fortune telling-skills, please note that the San Francisco 49ers have proven me right once again. When 49ers WR Michael Crabtree began his preposterous holdout to demand being paid more money than his draft position warranted, 7DB introduced the Crabtree Corollary, suggesting that the bad mojo generated from such a move would backfire, plus the loss in earnings would be significant.
Crabtree ended up signing a contract for the same money he was offered after he was picked 10th in the draft. He did so after the 49ers came off their first loss of the year, a nailbiter against the Minnesota Vikings, that was lost on the last play of the game. Since he signed his contract, the 49ers are 0-4.
Hopefully for all involved, Crabtree discovered that he acted badly on the advice of an agent who may have different interests than young Michael does. Either that, or a young, greedy kid got smacked in the mouth to the tune of $2 million in lost salary. Either way, I'm good with it.
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There will be more said in this space about the horrific events that took place at Fort Hood this week, but at first blush there are two glaring things to note:
1) Asking a man of faith to prepare young men and women for battle against people of said faith can be tricky. Asking them to do so in a climate charged with a xenophobic media and already marginal ethics makes for a bad formula. No matter what a man can say to your face, getting people riled up with veiled hints that faith drives the fury will make that prophecy come true.
2) How does a man live on a military base (recently transferred there from an East Coast base) and then take to arms against men and women that he eats, sleeps and socializes with? There is a deep-seeded truth that we have yet to see, either in a radical background from the alleged killer or an atmosphere of chaos and tension that served as a tipping point. It is vital to the interests of the nation and its military that this is rooted out and exposed to daylight.
If people are not given an explanation for what made this event happen, there will be an even louder chorus of distrust coming from those who believe that even having a military causes it to go find wars to sustain itself. No benefits can be taken from an ill-informed public when it comes to the murder of those we train to defend a way of life.
The thoughts and prayers of the 7DB family go out to those who were lost in this tragedy.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Jennifer Lopez is suing her first ex-husband to stop the release of a 'honeymoon tape'. The tape is purported to include Lopez in various states of undress, plus includes a verbal disagreement between Lopez and her mother.
First things first. What kind of honeymoon includes anybody's mother? The thought of a mother being near a video camera within the same time zone as a honeymoon should be horrific to anyone who is married or wishes to be someday. (shudder)
Secondly, this suit has a history. Lopez has already blocked in court a tell-all book from the first husband, one Ojani Noa. Since he is the only former or current spouse of Lopez' who was not famous, she wants to make sure he gains no notoriety off of her past with him.
As it turns out, Noa is trying to sell a film about his life story. He has eleven hours of footage, and someone got in his ear and told him to get paid off of it. Lopez has been granted a temporary restraining order blocking the release of the video. Noa's comments, you ask?
"It's a movie about my life," Noa said outside court. "They're trying to ruin my life again ... She don't want me to succeed and that's the problem." (thanks to Kansas City Star.com)
Noa is obviously a scholar of high esteem. He will also lose this, and hopefully leak the video out anyways, just to piss Lopez off. She's not nude in any of it, according to reports, so the case behind it being 'damaging to her career and reputation' gets a bit more difficult to prove. Nonetheless, anyone with aspirations of a career of fame and fortune should be wary of anyone holding a video camera. Also, Lopez is a publicity hound of the highest regard, who has only become reclusive after marrying her third husband (not counting Ben Affleck, whose wedding to her was called off hours before it was to take place) in 2004.
I believe I speak for many when I wish that Mrs. Noa-Judd-Almost Affleck-Anthony-Lopez would just go play with her mad stacks of money and stay away from a camera or a microphone for awhile. Please?
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A Northwest Airlines pilot and co-pilot apparently fell asleep while flying a plane. While normally not too disturbing, as the pilot and co-pilot are by protocol to take turns getting rest on long flights, these two flew past their target city by hundreds of miles!
If it was a small airport, maybe you could understand them missing the runway and having to turn around or something, but it was Minneapolis! Very, very big airport, I can tell you from experience...oh, and one of their corporate hubs. Do you think any bosses were there to meet the pilots when they came off? They better have been. Since the airlines recent merger with Delta, customer service has been reduced to referrals to Delta's website, and their pilots are either overworked or undercaffienated. Feel free to throw some coffee onto the plane, boys....yeesh.
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The Berlin Wall fell 20 years ago this week, a lasting reminder of what was a horrific early 20th Century in Germany reduced to rubble by the hands of the citizenry. President Reagan told the leader of the then-Soviet Union "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall!" and the people then did.
Can you imagine building a wall to split a city like Berlin? Anecdotal stories of people escaping to the West during the wall's construction, dodging bullets from sniper towers as they ran, populated the youth of 7DB. The most amazing part was what happened over the next 40-odd years after the wall was built.
The pictures from both sides of Berlin are equivalent to black-and-white versus high-definition televisions. Dreary, plain mass housing and buildings not repaired from World War II to one side, ancient and glorious architecture, bursting with color and life, that has survived many wars on the other. One example of a lesson learned: no one my age or younger could imagine doing that to a great city ever again. Gooooo progress!
And now, finally, after his life was extinguished tragically some 45-plus years ago, John F. Kennedy could finally be the jelly doughnut he dreamed of being.
(Dangit. I was gonna let the reference go, but I fear some of my readers may not have been taught the historical point during their schooling. JFK travelled to West Berlin as it was then referred to, and proclaimed in a speech that 'Ich bin ein Berliner'. It was meant as a chant of solidarity with the Germans, but translates to 'I am a jelly doughnut'. There. Conscience cleared.)
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New post tomorrow, including fun stuff about Bear Stearns, the Green Bay Packers being absolutely terrible and a suicide-by-rail that has shocked the sports world, but not America, as soccer is not a sport here. See ya soon.
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Oefelein, a married man, had an affair with Nowak while having a girlfriend on the side, one Air Force Captain Colleen Shipman. Nowak became aware of the extra relationship, believing that a man should apparently have only one extramarital affair at a time, and responded like any sane woman would. She tried to kidnap Shipman, while packing a BB pistol and an air hammer. Nowak was arrested at the airport when the kidnapping was foiled by the victim...rolling up her car window and driving away.
Nowak drove non-stop from Orlando to Houston to catch this woman at the Houston airport. This is where it gets weird.
To get there faster, Nowak reportedly wore diapers so she would not have to stop. I repeat: She wore diapers to be able to not stop driving to catch a woman that she believed was having an affair with her lover, who was married.
Now, most of my seven readers have been jolted at some points in their love lives. Breaking up is never easy to do, to be sure...and maybe we have had the thoughts of some sort of revenge on the third party as the emotions sort out. I can tell you that driving by someone's house to see if they are home is waaaaaaaaay different than to cross two time zones with weapons to try to abduct someone from a highly-secured area like an airport.
Doesn't the rage fade when you hit, oh I dunno, Tuscaloosa? Maybe Birmingham? The thoughts "This is crazy! What am I doing?" should have happened somewhere in there, right?
Oh, by the way, Nowak was married during the affair, too.
So, if you cheat on your spouse, and the person you are cheating with is also cheating on their spouse, should you be surprised when they in turn cheat on you? Shouldn't you expect it, or at least note the possibility of it? I sincerely hope that NASA studies the effect of space travel on morality after this escapade. Or, at least, gives the rights to Vivid Video for a proper re-enactment video for those who are so inclined...
-------------------------------------------------------------
As noted in this space, Penn State grad and Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson is an idiot. The team has acted accordingly, first suspending the idiot for his homosexual slurs on his Twitter feed, then releasing him outright when the suspension ended.
The now-former Chief was baited into an online war of words with 'fans' of his Twitter feed, then raised it (or, more accurately, lowered it) to a battle of slurs. When given a chance to respond to the media after this came to light, Johnson used the same slurs that brought up the issue to begin with.
Two thoughts: One, I hate to be accurate in predicting the stupidity of athletes. Professionally, I saw it up close, and it never fails to come true from the guys who play sports for money and take it as a sign that they have 'something special' to offer. They do offer something special...on the field, between the lines, when the clock is running. Afterwards, they should be very, very careful, as all eyes are on them, waiting for a mistake. Truthfully, it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
Larry, for the record, you told that Twitter user that 'U can't stop me getting paid.' I believe he did. Dummy. Pull your act together, and see if the Canadian Football League can use a washed-up running back that likes to slam minorities.
-----------------------------------------------------------
In another instance of 7DB being both accurate and possessing fortune telling-skills, please note that the San Francisco 49ers have proven me right once again. When 49ers WR Michael Crabtree began his preposterous holdout to demand being paid more money than his draft position warranted, 7DB introduced the Crabtree Corollary, suggesting that the bad mojo generated from such a move would backfire, plus the loss in earnings would be significant.
Crabtree ended up signing a contract for the same money he was offered after he was picked 10th in the draft. He did so after the 49ers came off their first loss of the year, a nailbiter against the Minnesota Vikings, that was lost on the last play of the game. Since he signed his contract, the 49ers are 0-4.
Hopefully for all involved, Crabtree discovered that he acted badly on the advice of an agent who may have different interests than young Michael does. Either that, or a young, greedy kid got smacked in the mouth to the tune of $2 million in lost salary. Either way, I'm good with it.
---------------------------------------------------------------
There will be more said in this space about the horrific events that took place at Fort Hood this week, but at first blush there are two glaring things to note:
1) Asking a man of faith to prepare young men and women for battle against people of said faith can be tricky. Asking them to do so in a climate charged with a xenophobic media and already marginal ethics makes for a bad formula. No matter what a man can say to your face, getting people riled up with veiled hints that faith drives the fury will make that prophecy come true.
2) How does a man live on a military base (recently transferred there from an East Coast base) and then take to arms against men and women that he eats, sleeps and socializes with? There is a deep-seeded truth that we have yet to see, either in a radical background from the alleged killer or an atmosphere of chaos and tension that served as a tipping point. It is vital to the interests of the nation and its military that this is rooted out and exposed to daylight.
If people are not given an explanation for what made this event happen, there will be an even louder chorus of distrust coming from those who believe that even having a military causes it to go find wars to sustain itself. No benefits can be taken from an ill-informed public when it comes to the murder of those we train to defend a way of life.
The thoughts and prayers of the 7DB family go out to those who were lost in this tragedy.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Jennifer Lopez is suing her first ex-husband to stop the release of a 'honeymoon tape'. The tape is purported to include Lopez in various states of undress, plus includes a verbal disagreement between Lopez and her mother.
First things first. What kind of honeymoon includes anybody's mother? The thought of a mother being near a video camera within the same time zone as a honeymoon should be horrific to anyone who is married or wishes to be someday. (shudder)
Secondly, this suit has a history. Lopez has already blocked in court a tell-all book from the first husband, one Ojani Noa. Since he is the only former or current spouse of Lopez' who was not famous, she wants to make sure he gains no notoriety off of her past with him.
As it turns out, Noa is trying to sell a film about his life story. He has eleven hours of footage, and someone got in his ear and told him to get paid off of it. Lopez has been granted a temporary restraining order blocking the release of the video. Noa's comments, you ask?
"It's a movie about my life," Noa said outside court. "They're trying to ruin my life again ... She don't want me to succeed and that's the problem." (thanks to Kansas City Star.com)
Noa is obviously a scholar of high esteem. He will also lose this, and hopefully leak the video out anyways, just to piss Lopez off. She's not nude in any of it, according to reports, so the case behind it being 'damaging to her career and reputation' gets a bit more difficult to prove. Nonetheless, anyone with aspirations of a career of fame and fortune should be wary of anyone holding a video camera. Also, Lopez is a publicity hound of the highest regard, who has only become reclusive after marrying her third husband (not counting Ben Affleck, whose wedding to her was called off hours before it was to take place) in 2004.
I believe I speak for many when I wish that Mrs. Noa-Judd-Almost Affleck-Anthony-Lopez would just go play with her mad stacks of money and stay away from a camera or a microphone for awhile. Please?
--------------------------------------------------------------
A Northwest Airlines pilot and co-pilot apparently fell asleep while flying a plane. While normally not too disturbing, as the pilot and co-pilot are by protocol to take turns getting rest on long flights, these two flew past their target city by hundreds of miles!
If it was a small airport, maybe you could understand them missing the runway and having to turn around or something, but it was Minneapolis! Very, very big airport, I can tell you from experience...oh, and one of their corporate hubs. Do you think any bosses were there to meet the pilots when they came off? They better have been. Since the airlines recent merger with Delta, customer service has been reduced to referrals to Delta's website, and their pilots are either overworked or undercaffienated. Feel free to throw some coffee onto the plane, boys....yeesh.
------------------------------------------------------------------
The Berlin Wall fell 20 years ago this week, a lasting reminder of what was a horrific early 20th Century in Germany reduced to rubble by the hands of the citizenry. President Reagan told the leader of the then-Soviet Union "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall!" and the people then did.
Can you imagine building a wall to split a city like Berlin? Anecdotal stories of people escaping to the West during the wall's construction, dodging bullets from sniper towers as they ran, populated the youth of 7DB. The most amazing part was what happened over the next 40-odd years after the wall was built.
The pictures from both sides of Berlin are equivalent to black-and-white versus high-definition televisions. Dreary, plain mass housing and buildings not repaired from World War II to one side, ancient and glorious architecture, bursting with color and life, that has survived many wars on the other. One example of a lesson learned: no one my age or younger could imagine doing that to a great city ever again. Gooooo progress!
And now, finally, after his life was extinguished tragically some 45-plus years ago, John F. Kennedy could finally be the jelly doughnut he dreamed of being.
(Dangit. I was gonna let the reference go, but I fear some of my readers may not have been taught the historical point during their schooling. JFK travelled to West Berlin as it was then referred to, and proclaimed in a speech that 'Ich bin ein Berliner'. It was meant as a chant of solidarity with the Germans, but translates to 'I am a jelly doughnut'. There. Conscience cleared.)
----------------------------------------------------------------
New post tomorrow, including fun stuff about Bear Stearns, the Green Bay Packers being absolutely terrible and a suicide-by-rail that has shocked the sports world, but not America, as soccer is not a sport here. See ya soon.
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