10.16.2022 – not going to say

not going to say
I will reduce my income
to achieve this goal

Sorry to say it but after 20 some years in the news business I am not used to seeing someone, anyone, be honest in print.

Brutally honest.

In an article that everyone should read but too few people will, the New York Times quotes Eli Ungar, the founder of Mac Properties, which is based in Englewood, N.J., and owns about 9,000 apartments, including 2,000 in Kansas City, who bluntly laid out the economics of rental development.

“The folks who think of themselves as middle class and are feeling increased worry and pressure as rents go up faster than incomes, and the people who are most vulnerable in our society and desperately need housing that no developer can provide without a massive subsidy,” Mr. Ungar said. “As a citizen, I would be entirely comfortable with my taxes being higher to provide well-maintained housing for those who can’t afford it.

The question is how that is achieved, and market-rate developers are not unilaterally going to say, ‘I will reduce my income to achieve this goal.’”

As I do think this article is worth reading and I acknowledge that most folks haven’t figured out the never expiring free three day NYT accounts available at many public libraries, I have created a download version of the article you can access here.

10.8.2022 – wish what I always

wish what I always
wish when I see you – I wish
you would go away

In 1975 there was a made-for-television romantic comedy film named Love Among the Ruins.

For a made-for-television movie it had some heavy weight credentials as it was directed by George Cukor (Gone With the Wind, My Fair Lady) and starred Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Olivier and the script has some truly sparkling dialogue.

You can watch the movie here on YouTube and its worth the 90 minutes.

For my purposes today I focus on one short scene where Olivier is preparing to go into court and bumps into the opposing counsel and says simply.

I wish what I always wish whenever I see you.

And what is that? asks the other lawyer.

I wish that you’d go away.

I am SO TIRED of the current news cycle.

I am SO TIRED of the news that in any way focuses on the former occupant of the White House.

At this point, whenever I see his name in the headline I wish what I always wish whenever I see the name and that is I wish it would go away.

But then that is the game isn’t.

As Big Bill put it:

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time

This never ending story, creeping in this petty pace, from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time.

The former occupant of the White House might be a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage … but it has been so much more than just his hour.

How long until he is heard no more?

Make it stop.

Make it go away.

But then that is the game isn’t.

Draw out the agony and then offer a price, offer a settlement, offer something and then he goes away and is heard no more.

That is the game isn’t.

Somewhere in unrecorded time, someone’s pig was eaten by another man’s dog.

The pig man brought the dog man to court.

The dog man’s lawyer said to the pig man’s lawyer, ‘Let us not deal with court but settle this together. Dog man will give 10 pieces of gold for the pig. You take four for your trouble. I’ll take four for my trouble. And pig man gets 2 to buy a new pig and its all settled and we are all happy. Or I can file for a date in court … sometime next year.

And so it happened and settlement through litigation was born and the concept of beating justice by delay became part of human existence.

When Columbus landed in Haiti, he set up a gallows and a Cross and said, take your pick.

When the Colonists landed in North America, they built Churches and Court Houses and said, take your pick.

They started worshipping and suing each other right off.

It became the American Way.

The State of Georgia has 159 counties.

For the most part, all about the same, odd size, geographically.

Why?

When the state was mapped into counties, they were designed so that every county seat, where the courthouse was, was no more than 1 days horseback ride from anywhere in the county so every could get to court and sue someone.

File an action in Court.

Delay, delay, delay.

And Settle.

Truth, Justice and the American Way!

That is the game isn’t.

The art of the deal.

10.6.2022 – no matter how thick

no matter how thick
or how thin you slice it, it
is still baloney

On August 23, 1936, a book review in the New York Times was headlined, “Carl Sandburg Writes in the True Accent of the People; His New Poem Displays and Develops the Popular Sayings That Americans Live By THE PEOPLE, YES.”

According to Wikipedia, The People, Yes is a book-length poem written by Carl Sandburg and published in 1936. The 300 page work is thoroughly interspersed with references to American culture, phrases, and stories (such as the legend of Paul Bunyan). Published at the height of the Great Depression, the work lauds the perseverance of the American people in notably plain-spoken language. It was written over an eight-year period. It is Sandburg’s last major book of poetry.

Written in 1936.

Containing the sayings that Americans live by.

One of those lines is “No matter how thick or how thin you slice it, it’s still baloney.”

Published almost 100 years ago.

In the words of that old Virginia Slims cigarette commercial, “We’ve come a long way, baby!”

I watch the news.

I read the papers.

I look at the magazines.

All I can think is, No matter how thick or how thin you slice it, it’s still baloney.

Who knew you could say such a fine line of words and be quoting Carl Sandburg.

I can go down to the beach and stand with my feet in the Atlantic Ocean waves and face Algeria across the water.

Looking out, the entire country is behind me.

Turning around and I face the entire country all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

I want scream, “WAKE UP CANTCHA!!! GEE WHIZ”

The next line in the poem is, “I would if I could and I could if I would but if I couldn’t how could I, could you?”

I guess I will just turn away and look out.

At least I can see the sun rise.

If I said the poem, The People, Yes, was a bit nonsensical, it would only serve to make it more fit for reading today.

10.1.2022 – 1st one thousand wins

1st one thousand wins
hail to victors valiant
those stay, champions

I first wrote this haiku in 2019.

Just a few weeks ago I updated this post.

Then Michigan went off and went undefeated and is now 11 wins away!

Back in September, 2020, I wrote:

At that time, Michigan had 953 ALL TIME NCAA College Football Wins

With 47 more wins, barring any sports tragedies (as opposed to those real life tragedies), Michigan will be the first team to record 1,000 college football Wins.

Then COVID hit and backed up things as Michigan had but 2 wins in 2020.

When will this game happen and who will it be against?

Sorry to say that the BIG TEN has messed this all up by expanding and there are only 3 announced games for 2023 and nothing as yet for 2024.

But we can still speculate.

PIE IN THE SKY, Michigan wins their next 19 games, that would mean they win the National Championship this year for a total of 10 wins which means, again this is winning ALL THEIR games, Michigan’s 1000th victory would be in Game 9 of 2023.

I think that maybe 7 more wins this year (Including a BIG TEN Championship and beating Darth Vador Earl Bruce’s team) and another 10 wins next year means that the 1000th win would come early in 2024.

Oddly enough, looking a the math, with 981 wins since 1896, that is an average of only 7 wins a season.

Of course it must be pointed out that for 40 years the norm was a 9 game season.

ANYWAY, hang on to your maize-and-blue fedora’s as this is gonna be interesting …

Back in 2019 I wrote this:

If Michigan went the next 47-0, they would win 3 Big Ten Titles, 6 College Playoff Games and 3 National Championships and on Sept 3, 2022, a victory over UCLA would be win 1,000.

We know that won’t happen.

A possible 47-9 over the next 56 games put Michigan in position to win their 1,000th game on Sept 30, 2023 at home against MSU.

Not only a Michigan Great but our neighbor for years in
Grand Rapids

I went through a 47-9 record and picked the games but its pure speculation.

In compiling this record, over 4 years, I have Michigan going 2-1 in the Big Ten Title Game but 0-2 in the College Playoffs.

All speculation but I predict the 1,000th win will come in the 2023 season.

Should be a big party but planning on this will be like planning on winning the Stanley Cup at home in Game 6 … how do you plan for a win?

I also attached the above info a spread sheet so you can make you own predictions …

michigan-1 Download

9.16.2022 – but the truth that

but the truth that
nobody knows does nothing
to settle debate

In an article about the US and World economy, Mr. Paul Krugman used some very interesting words when discussing the ecomony.

Mr. Krugman, according to his short bio, joined The New York Times in 2000 as an Op-Ed columnist. He is distinguished professor in the Graduate Center Economics Ph.D. program and distinguished scholar at the Luxembourg Income Study Center at the City University of New York. In addition, he is professor emeritus at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.

He is, all at the same time, a distinguished professor and a distinguished scholar as well as a professor emeritus which should be good enough for anyone.

Mr. Krugman’s latest observations appear in the NYT Opinion piece, Who’s Afraid of the Consumer Price Index?

Like any good opinion piece on economics, Mr. Krugman uses all the standard terms like inflation expectations, Bureau of Labor Statistics, consumer prices, alternative formulation, immaculate disinflation, significant cooling off, job vacancies, higher unemployment and the ever popular, temporary phenomenon.

Entirely appropriate and expected use of language.

But unexpectedly Mr. Krugman also uses the terms If you still believed, I guess and But the truth is.

If you still believed.

I guess

But the truth is.

NOW that is a gutty enconomist.

Mr. Krugman wraps up his piece with this paragraph:

But the truth is that nobody knows for sure, and the fact that a hot economy is still producing heated inflation does nothing to settle the debate.

Mr. Krugman wraps up his piece with these paragraphs:

The good news, sort of, is that the Fed seems to know what it doesn’t know. It’s talking tough on inflation, as it must to retain credibility, but it’s also talking about looking at the “totality of the incoming data,” which means that it’s prepared to ease off if and when inflation is clearly coming down.

My guess is that this moment will come sooner than many think. But we’ll just have to wait and see.

But we’ll just have to wait and see.

But we’ll just have to wait and see?

I would like to refer Mr. Krugman to Chance the Gardener in the old movie, Being There.

Mr. Gardener said: As long as the roots are not severed, all is well. And all will be well in the garden. In the garden, growth has it seasons. First comes spring and summer, but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again.”

In the movie, the President listens to this and says, “I admire your good, solid sense. That’s precisely what we lack on Capitol Hill.”

BTW, the movie Being There was released in 1979.

We’ll just have to wait and see.