The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
Baby Blanket
So one day my sister in law Becky – who is expecting a baby girl in December – tells me that she needs baby blankets. No one will think she needs baby blankets because she has already had a baby. But she does.
I point out that she is having the first girl in the family since me (or her on her side of the family), and she will be up to her butt in baby blankets any day now.
“Maybe,” Becky said. “But they will all be pink.”
So true.
I am not a crafty person. Wish I was. But I do require something to do with my hands during the Bears games or I will get so loud the neighbors will call the police. I can crochet, but I only do one stitch and it isn’t any good. Finished it today during the third quarter:
You can see very clearly that it is uneven. And I just noticed that you can tell where one skein ends and the next one starts. I seem to remember my mother once saying something about dye lots. But at least it isn’t pink. It is really too heavy to be a crib blanket. I figure it will be her Rolling on the Floor blanket. Alex had one of those – a brightly colored fleece. Here are the stitches:
Now I am going back to Snoopy latch hook kits. I’m on deadline before Christmas.
Baseball
Now that it is over, I can talk about it:
I root for both the Cubs and the White Sox. If they happen to be playing each other, I root for the Cubs. Unless it really, really, matters to the Sox and doesn’t at all matter to the Cubs (statistically). Then I would say nothing. But that would never happen – they play each other mid-summer.
I was hoping the Cubs would go all the way this year. I wasn’t expecting it. I have been saying, “This team is never going to break my heart again,” for a very long time. I want to say it started in 1984.
But with both the Cubs and the Sox in, there was an interesting conversation at work:
If the Cubs and Sox were in the Series together, and you had two decent tickets, what would be your price to sell as opposed to go to the game?
Discuss.
Are Garbage Disposals Green? Enough?
Here is one I hadn’t thought of before:
MSN, where I spend my whole life, had a blog article on garbage disposals. Apparently, there has been a question of banning them to avoid the pollution to our water/sewage systems. Here was the conclusion:
“The research is unambiguous about one point, though: Under normal circumstances, you should always compost if you can. Otherwise, go ahead and use your garbage disposal if the following conditions are met: First, make sure that your community isn’t running low on water. (To check your local status, click here.) Don’t put anything that is greasy or fatty in the disposal. And find out whether your local water-treatment plant captures methane to produce energy. If it doesn’t—and your local landfill does—you may be better off tossing those mashed potatoes in the trash.”
Huh. You can read the full text here. There was also a link to a related article in the WSJ. Check out this picture of how Sweden fertilizes its golf courses:
That Chihuahua Movie
Whenever there is an animal movie, the rescue movement worries that people will run out and buy that breed. Because they do. Dalmatians. St. Bernards. You know.
So Best Friends is getting ahead of it by using the Premiere as a teaching moment. Here is what I learned:
Chihuahuas are the 5th most-posted breed of dog for adoption on Petfinder (after Labs, Shepherds, Pit bulls and mixes of those breeds).
So I am doing my part by posting their ad, above. And you can read more about it here.
I will not be going to see this movie.
Buffett Weighs In
I love Warren Buffett. His very simple explanation for how he got rich – which is to do the opposite of what everyone else is doing in the market – has comforted me during every mini-crisis seen in the economy since I started earning my own money. He also totally changed my view of our tax system by saying that on a percent of income basis, he pays less in taxes than his receptionist. He did the math. You know, scribbled on a pad at her desk one day.
And just today I read this article at CNNMoney.com and felt a bit better than yesterday. Now, I would say we should do that bailout just because Warren Buffett says so, but the article also talks about his idea for bringing private investors in to help the federal government do it. I don’t know if it would work or not, but I am happy that he is thinking, he is talking and he is offering up something positive while the whole world is freaking out. He has good things to say about the Treasury Secretary and the Chair of the FDIC.
And. And. Here is my favorite part:
“In a subsequent interview with CNNMoney.com, Buffett said he wasn’t interested in placing blame for the crisis.
“I don’t worry too much about pointing fingers at the past,” he said. “I operate on the theory that every saint has a past, every sinner has a future.”
He said the problem boils down to widely-held assumption during the housing boom that prices could only go up. And while the theory’s flaws are all too apparent now, the misconception is understandable, said Buffett, pointing to previous asset bubbles going back centuries.
“There are not bad guys in that situation,” said Buffett. “It’s a condition of human nature.””
I don’t say that no one is to blame; I say that everyone is to blame. Even we holier-than-thou “I pay my bills every month” people contribute. Yeah. We pay our bills every month. But one car accident, one lost job and …well. If I may throw one more platitude out..There but for the Grace of God go I. Suze Orman would smack me for my spending habits.
Buffett noted that the longer we wait to do something, the more expensive it will be. I suggest that we, the voting public, have made Congress afraid to take action. That our rage against the “fat cats” is paralyzing them. I move that we all shut up, go home, and spend the weekend watching the 500 channels on our great big HDTVs. Unless you have playoff tickets.
Either way, I am going to let the House do what it has to do and suspend judgment until it is time to judge.
Banned Book Week
As many of you know, it is Banned Book Week. The American Library Association has lots of stuff about it on its website. My personal opinion is that banning books is just silly, kind of like protesting movies. Having said that, I rather think we should pay more attention to what is being taught in schools. For example, Illinois District 225 managed to graduate me without ever having assigned To Kill A Mockingbird. I finally read it when I was 30 and Mayor Daley launched One Book One Chicago. My mother wants her tax dollars back. I just want to know what in hell was so important for us to read – in the Honors English program – that we weren’t ever assigned To Kill A Mockingbird. Because if it was Candide or Lord of the Flies, I want my tax dollars back, too.
Anyway.
This video was on the ALA’s myspace page. I found it cute. And scary. If this entire list of books had been banned when I was a kid, I swear I would be illiterate.
Lunch at Starbucks
I walked over to Wendy’s for lunch, but the line was headed out the door. Crossed the street to that Italian place it found it had closed. I didn’t feel like hiking to Corner Bakery on the off chance there was a table available at that time of day. So I went in to Starbucks.
I had heard that they had expanded the menu to try to bring in the lunch crowd, but I was not optimistic. I ordered the cup of oatmeal and a passion fruit iced tea and picked up a fruit and cheese tray. It was $8 and change.
It was a pretty small serving of oatmeal, but it came with dried fruit, nuts or brown sugar. I just went with brown sugar. The oatmeal was more solid and less watery, which is how I like it, but I know some people like to drown oatmeal in milk. I was good and hot.
The cheese was fine, the grapes were questionable. The apple was not cored properly, which is a big pain when they do not offer up proper utensils. Have you ever tried to cord an apple with a plastic spoon? It was also served with a few slices of some kind of bread that looked like the organic version of a Christmas fruit cake. That is about how it tasted, too.
Verdict: This worked in an “emergency situation”, but I will not by any means be making a habit of it.
It Is That Time of Year Again
51 degrees. When I switch from nylon stockings to tights, take out the little gloves and consider the real coat. When I defy the Green Gods of Energy and drive with the windows down and the heater on. Because I like it.
This morning as I left for work, I found the coat. But it was all crumpled on a chair in the hallway. How long had it been there?
In the pocket were a lip balm, those cheap lightweight gloves, some loose change and a receipt for lunch on April 8, 2008. Dominick’s Cafe. I had a cup of soup, a bag of chips and a small drink.
I obviously forgot to take it to be cleaned last spring.
I took the little gloves and wore a fleece.
It is Our Own Fault
MSN Money has an article today called 7 Tips: Surviving a Financial Panic. Besides the usual “don’t mess with your 401(k)” and “build an emergency fund” advice, there was a section on “Keeping historical perspective”. I require perspective. Can someone please draw me a “how bad is it” chart comparing now with 2002 and the Great Depression? Anyway, I liked this bit:
“Want to know whom to blame? Well, it wasn’t just the greed-is-good Wall Street moguls and deregulation-happy politicians who led us to the precipice, according to Guillen, the Wharton professor. He thinks we all have lived beyond our means. We have spent more than we’ve saved. We’ve wanted to own homes at any cost. Investors haven’t been satisfied with fair returns on their money. They’ve wanted to make killings.
“Wall Street is to blame, but don’t forget that everyone was very happy to take part in the big party,” Guillen explains. “We are all responsible for what happened.”
Let’s keep all this in perspective. To be sure, the Great Depression was far worse than today’s situation. Then, unemployment ranged as high as 40%, compared with 6% now. Interest rates are still low today. The economy is experiencing weak growth but not the full-blown contraction witnessed during the Depression.”
Here’s how I feel: my 401(k) has taken a beating, but I still have a good job and my mortgage is manageable and I do not otherwise carry debt. We lived through the Great Chicago Floods of 2007 and 2008. I am counting my blessings.
Foster Birds
Manu, the Foster Amazon, is pending adoption! His new family is scheduled to come pick him up on Sunday the 12th. I talked to his new mom, and she asked a million really good questions. She works at home, so he will be out of the cage all day long. And he will be an only bird, which I know he will appreciate. I am happy to say I believe this is a great home for him.
I mentioned that the Refuge was pretty badly flooded, so I decided to bring another bird home. Cobalt, who I believe is called a peach-faced love bird, came to the us with Precious the blue crowned conure (I really don’t know if I have these species right).
I brought Cobalt home because he came in a little cage that is smaller than my TV. So I didn’t help with the space problem, but I can give him his anti-biotics twice a day, which is a big pain. And it is one less cage to clean onsite. Now that I think about it, it gives the Refuge some counter space back.
This is new for me because I don’t know a thing about little birds. I managed to get him out for a bit, so here are the pictures.
Cobalt is not even up on the website – but I just sent my pics to the Webmaster!
The Next Dark Age 