Random Sampling?

Did you ever notice the "next blog" caption at the top of your page? Doi you ever click on it? It's cold in our apartment this morning and the HVAC man wont get here for a couple of hours, so for diversion I clicked on it several times.
There were a couple pages featuring friends and family photographs, one hosted by a bar showing people having a good time, one by a collector showing stuff he'd found that was in a foreign language, and various other miscellany, like road trip photos.
But easily, over half the pages were sponsored by runners that talked about conditioning and events. One page's header featured the comment,"Somewhere in the world someone is training when you are not. When you race him, he will win."

I guess I'm relieved that most peoples' blogs are not sbout what's wrong with the world and how powereless we are collectively and individually. What a bummer that would be. It would be nice if there were some blogs about how Christianity, Christian faith, ethics and charity will redeem the world, but I didn't find any of those. But the running thing was curious to me. Should I infer that this subculture embodies a community of sharing and caring, or that runners are obsessive types, who when not running are thinking about running?

My brother Mike and sister in law Molly are enthusiasts, always running, biking, or skiing, and not half heartedly. Their activities seem to make them very happy and appreciative of the environment, and also more conscious of now to manage a healthy life style than I would care to be. Given our close relationship and my respect for their achievements, I hesitate to ask whether there's something narcissistic involved.

So, I don't know. Perhaps if you click tne next blog caption repeatedly, you'll find a different pattern of occurrences.

PS I continued my research and may have to coorect my statistics. My next samle contained several bycicling blogs, a few shoe(?) blogs and more family and friend blogs. Still not a lot of pessimism/hope blogs, but I found this picture. Do you think it's photo-shopped?

Korea North vs South

The only Korean I've ever know personally worked at an accounting firm with me and was pleasant and pretty and does not personify my observation that the Koreans are a fractious lot, except that her parents were 7th day Adventists and did not feel that their daughters should succumb to a western lifestyle and certainly should not feel free to choose their own husbands.
My earliest recollection of a radio newscast was about President Eisenhower agreeing to a truce settling the Korean conflict, and I remember the names of Syngman Rhee as leader of South Korea and Kim Il Sung as leader of the communist North Korea.
Later my sketchy knowledge of that episode was fleshed out slightly by fitting the conflict into the cold war strategy of containment defined by American senior diplomat George Kennan, as not fighting the Soviet Union, but opposing efforts to expand their influence.
At the end of WW II the Japanese withdrew from Korea which they had invaded and controlled from early in the 20th century. The Russians moved in and occupied the northern half and the US had moved in and occupied the southern half of the peninsula. Both the great powers installed their clients in positions of power, then withdrew. After Rhee, who had lived in the US for 33 years before returning to Korea after the war, established a South Korean state, rejecting a UN proposed peninsula wide plebiscite, an election Kim Il Sung thought he would have won, the North Koreans invaded the South in June 1950, quickly over running Seoul and pushing the South Korean forces, and a contingent of American troops into a tiny southernmost corner of the country, maybe a hundred square miles around the port city of Pusan. Being reinforced by American forces from Japan, the South Koreans held on to this enclave, while General Doug MacArthur devised and implemented a strategy of an American led invasion at Inchon, a couple hundred miles north, close to the overrun capital of Seoul.

Being counter attacked in the south by a growing United Nations force and threatened with being cut off by MacArthurs invasion force the weakened North Koreans fled back across the nominal border, the 38th parallel. MacArthur pursued them, invading the north and advancing nearly to the Yalu river, the North Korean border with China. In October of 1950 Chinese communist forces entered the conflict pushing the UN forces south and again taking the South Korean capital of Seoul in January 1951. The retreat of the American forces in the frigid winter and inhospitable mountainous terrain was disheartening and a torturous ordeal for the UN (mostly American) forces. The UN forces reorganized defenses south of Seoul and counterattacked, regaining the capital in March of 1951. The war continued for two more years, but combat was localized around the 38th parallel, each side losing thousands of soldiers in attacks on objectives providing tactical advantage, both sides using massive artillery barrages to support their infantry in the costly battles.

A truce was signed in June of 1953, but a peace treaty was never negotiated. leaving the two Koreas in a state of war for the last 57 years. Occasionally the North Koreans undertake some aggressive action, like the shelling of the islands last week.

It would seem the South has prospered during the last half century while the North has not. The South has industrialized and is a successful exporter while the North has imposed a communist style planned economy, struggling at times to feed its people, but investing heavily in its military and developing an arsenal of nuclear weapons.

But political turmoil has continued in the South. Labor unions and students often engage in violent confrontations with the elected governments. Neither side seems really content or secure. Syngman Rhee was forced to resign in 1958, after alienating most of the country with autocratic policies that approached dictatorial government. Kim Il Sung held power until his death in 1994 and was succeeded by his son, Kim Jong Il, who is now reportedly ill and preparing to transfer power to his son.

The US and South Korean governments are not sure of how to deal with the North Koreans, mindful of the always present possibility of a million north Korean soldiers streaming across the border. They seem to be relying on the Chinese to exert some stabilizing influence, because the Chinese strategy is to achieve economic power and prefers stability to conflict. Also, in the event of war, the Chinese have to worry about a million North Koreans streaming across their border - not combatants but unwelcome starving refugees.

Why can't we all just get along?

Often one player, or one play, becomes emblematic

to fans of a sporting event. For Notre Dame fans the fouth quarter scoring drive which put ND ahead to stay was a thing of beauty for several reasons, partly because that scoring drive featured several runs by fan favorite Robert Hughes. Maybe I'll post a little more on that subject later.

Just now, I'd like to express admiration and appreciation to the Notre Dame defense. All the USC scoring came off ND turnovers, interceptions or fumble, within ND's own 40 yard line and the Trojans' only touchdown was scored after recovering a fumble on the 2 yard line, and took 4 plays to score. The defense never looked shaken by the repeated turn overs, they appeared resolved to deny Southern Cal the benefit of those take aways, holding them to field goals in the three other instances.

There were heroics from the offense too. Michael Floyd leading the first scoring drive, and blocking downfield for runners when not catching passes, Cierre Wood running 28 yards on a draw play with 30 seconds left in the first half to set up the second score, and freshman quarterback Tommy Rees who might have made mistakes contributing to those turnovers, but never looked shaken or uncertain in the face of a very good USC defense. And of course the unsung heroes are the offensive linemen, oft maligned but, like the defense, firm in their resolve last night, and playing their best game of the year.

But this is the image most Irish fans will recollect when they think of last night's game:

Lyrics

It may not surprise you to read that I like Irish songs, most all kinds, brave defiant songs of rebellion, sad songs of lost love and pretty girls, and uniquely Irish silly songs like this one, which I just linked on Facebook and thought I'd post here so you can see what makes me smile.

The Irish Rover

Traditional

On the fourth of July eighteen hundred and six
We set sail from the sweet cove of Cork
We were sailing away with a cargo of bricks
For the grand city hall in New York
'Twas a wonderful craft, she was rigged fore-and-aft
And oh, how the wild winds drove her.
She'd got several blasts, she'd twenty-seven masts
And we called her the Irish Rover.

We had one million bales of the best Sligo rags
We had two million barrels of stones
We had three million sides of old blind horses hides,
We had four million barrels of bones.
We had five million hogs, we had six million dogs,
Seven million barrels of porter.
We had eight million bails of old nanny goats' tails,
In the hold of the Irish Rover.

There was awl Mickey Coote who played hard on his flute
When the ladies lined up for his set
He was tootin' with skill for each sparkling quadrille
Though the dancers were fluther'd and bet
With his sparse witty talk he was cock of the walk
As he rolled the dames under and over
They all knew at a glance when he took up his stance
And he sailed in the Irish Rover

There was Barney McGee from the banks of the Lee,
There was Hogan from County Tyrone
There was Jimmy McGurk who was scarred stiff of work
And a man from Westmeath called Malone
There was Slugger O'Toole who was drunk as a rule
And fighting Bill Tracey from Dover
And your man Mick McCann from the banks of the Bann
Was the skipper of the Irish Rover

We had sailed seven years when the measles broke out
And the ship lost it's way in a fog.
And that whale of the crew was reduced down to two,
Just meself and the captain's old dog.
Then the ship struck a rock, oh Lord what a shock
The bulkhead was turned right over
Turned nine times around, and the poor dog was drowned
I'm the last of the Irish Rover

So much going on - where to start?

The big news lately has been our move around the corner to the first floor of a big house from the second floor of a bigger house. We may have given up a hundred+ square feet of living space, a LOT of closet space, and our precious little roofed porch, but somehow we seemed to have gained living space, and our lives are becoming more integrated since we have a more comfortable living room where we spend time together.

I commented previously, maybe here, maybe on Facebook, on how many Knights of Columbus activities required participation in the last couple months. At the last meeting the secretary announced he'd taken a job out of state and asked me to succeed him. The grand knight said I could but we'd have to obtain a letter of resignation from the other fellow and then accept nominations and have a vote. He asked me if I would mind continuing in my current post as well as assuming the new responsibilities. Fortunately someone pointed out that an officer can only hold one job at a time. Thank you very much. Yesterday I called Louie to check and see if the pancake breakfast was scheduled for today, because I had signed up to serve for a couple of hours. I was relieved and embarrassed when he told me the pancake breakfast was last week. More relieved than embarrassed.

I also have to think about registering for a tax preparer identification number this month before testing becomes a requirement. Doing so will so will exempt me from testing for three years, by which time I should have obtained sufficient continuing professional education credits to get my CPA license, and continue exempt from testing.

The cigarette saga continues. Cigarettes go for $7 per pack at Kane County gas stations and more at the Cook County stations, Janett and I each smoke more than a pack a day. I have philosophical objections to spending more on cigarettes than on groceries. I just can't justify spending over $20 a day on cigarettes. But rather than quit we look for economies. (Readers will please recall that I started smoking in high school when a pack of Camel straights cost $0.25.)
A couple of years ago, at the time of a previous tax increase, Janett and I availed ourselves of the option of buying our cigarettes over the Internet from an Indian tribal reservation outlet in upstate New York for $27 per carton. Then, this option was closed by part of last year's health bill. So we began to buy the economy brand at a Speedway gas station for $3.75 per pack, but weren't happy.
This week we got a call from the distributor for the Indian outlet who told us we can buy a different brand for $13 per carton, because this brand is wrapped in tobacco leaf (or brown paper?) and is classed as a cigar but still has filters and menthol flavoring. So we ordered a couple cartons to try them out. I'll let you know how this works out, although I do worry about the excise tax police googling cheap cigarettes, finding this blog and uncovering my machinations.


PS re the dark Irish as Celts. A wiki article yesterday acquainted me with a volume of Irish legend that that recounts the invasion of Ireland by Celtic people from the Iberian penninsula. This contradicts my inference that the Celtic people were originally more widespread over Europe and were pushed to the remote corners by other tribal invasions. I still believe the Celts at one time to have been spread over more of Europe, but I'll have to look further into it.

PPS Regarding airport procedures, how many bombers have been caught by the TSA procedures that have violated the privacy of, humiliated, and delayed millions of travelers. Zero? Not a very good trade off, not a bad jobs program, though. As always we'd like to follow the money, and learn who had the friends in congress to persuade the government to buy these screening machines which the GAO had previously rejected. The TSA rep on TV in response to Kathy Crowley's questioning whether, since airline bombers have all originated oversees, imposing these searches at American airports while not imposing them on travelers boarding flights oversees seemed reasonable, could cite only Israel as a foreign country that engages in such stringent measures, letting slip that Israel uses profiling, presumably exempting Jews and targeting Muslims. OK, there's a model to emulate, except of course, that it's illegal.

Careful what you wish for

An article from the Christian Science Monitor.

Otherwise things are going OK with the move. We have a list of things to call the landlord about; furnace hasn't shut off for 12 hours but has been blowing cool air into the apartment, and at 33 degrees out we need more heat, and there was a sewer gas odor emanating from the basement yesterday. Then a few smaller things, we need someone (he or we) to call the city for garbage cans, we need a shower curtain rod, and would like to know when the washer and drier will be delivered.

Got to go. I'm going to pick up Mom's friend Carrie, who has volunteered to help.

partial repost of item from a couple years ago because of my mood.

The Dark Irish

The term generally refers to Irish with dark complexions and black hair. I heard it theorized once that they descended from sailors from the Spanish Armada who swam ashore and stayed in Ireland. I think it's the Celtic strain, the old Irish from before the fairer Gaels and later the Vikings invaded. Even though the Celts were spread all over modern Europe 2500 years ago the bloodline and culture remain purest in the remote corners of the continent, Galicia in Spain, the Vendee in France and in the west of Ireland. The music and dance of these regions reflects a common heritage.

But, the phrase to me brings to mind the darker side of the Irish psyche. The inclination to wish ill to the prosperous, to suspect that their misfortunes result from conspiracies against them and betrayal, and to turn bitterly on their fallen heroes.

I think so too

Blarney Green posted this at Rock's House. It touches on the core of my doubts about ND. That the school and the population it serves have evolved away from the working class roots and become effete

"Our problems for the last 8 years have gone far beyond scheme -- we changed from a tough team to a soft team. (One thing I will grant Bob Davie is that his teams weren't soft -- poorly coached, but not soft. But I digress...)

Scheme does play into whether or not you're tough. Weis had soft teams, and that softness was enhanced by the scheme (pass protect, finesse, etc.). Kelly seems to be paying lip-service to increasing our toughness -- and hell, maybe he means it. But you cannot morph a soft team into a tough one when they have to play this scheme.

Scheme isn't the only issue though. Our whole University is soft. Being a "Notre Dame Man" used to mean something -- there was pretty heavy emphasis on the "Man" part. Now it is meaningless, or it means you're a dork, or a rich kid with pussified ways and designer clothing. Our University leadership is not tough in any way, and so they don't breed toughness. All the stupid Disney-land shit we have to witness -- the fund-raising and pep rallies and the ability to buy an ND-logo-emblazoned Barco-Lounger for only a quarter millions dollars -- it all contributes. The fact that our coach has to schmooze stupid alumni clubs, and we can't tailgate properly because of fear of litigation, and "Legends" -- its all symptomatic of a deep malaise

ND is no longer ND. Its not even Stanford. Its less about character and more about GPA, less about being an athlete/scholar/leader and more about getting research dollars. ND doesn't breed toughness in its student body, why should we expect it in the football program?"

Three Reasons

Three reasons not to buy a new TV:
1 We already have three TV's, smallish, appropriate for my viewing habits
2 Janett's worried about money (that one's too easy)
3 We're moving in a week and it'll just be one more thing.

So today we went to Costco and brought a TV. They had a big display of Vizeo flat screen LCD's (redundant?) by the front door when Janett was there last week, and they were priced very reasonably. She mulled it over for a few days, then we googled Vizeo, the brand name, and the reviews were good. So off we went.

I'd had a couple of things I wanted to get done today, but volunteered to go along and help. A lot of husbands shop with their wives at Costco, maybe something in the Costco ambiance or profile appeals to happily married couples. Or maybe the other guys go along for the samples like I do. Today I had a gyro style cucumber sauce on a cracker, then a buffalo wing while Janett had guacamole. I complemented the buffalo wing chef so enthusiastically he said I could have another, but I didn't. Then I had a little piece of quiche. Then I had a something else I don't remember, then some kind of fried potatos that you bake in the oven and finished up with a new kind of Dorito chip and a few pretzel crackers. Very generous of them, but it worked out OK for everybody. Janett bought a three-pack of the guacamole and a big bag of the chips, and the guacamole lady told Janett she could probably get hired as a sample lady too if she wanted to.

Oh, yeah and the TV. Well, the display was gone, and we felt a momentary misapprehension but browsed the TV aisles and found the same models even cheaper, so we brought the next size larger screen for the same price Janett had been prepared to pay. And feeling like successful shoppers we splurged on a little insulated zipper front vest with faux fur trim for Janett, for those days when neither a sweater or jacket really fills the bill.

We checked out and, maybe this will surprise you, stopped for a late lunch on the way out of the store. (I can't pass up a polish sausage priced at $1 and Janett feels the same way about a slice of supreme pizza.) And as we finished, a good day got even better with a phone call from daughter Kim, residing now with husband Ross and baby Remy in Las Vegas. They commiserated briefly over sleep lost to a teething baby, and then Kim asked Janett to warn me that my Facebook had been compromised. Pause. Janett listens to Kim, then asks me if I called Mark an idiot. "I called somebody an idiot, and his name might have been Mark, but it wasn't our (son in law) Mark, and it was a comment on a yahoo news post, not on facebook. They both admonished me that I shouldn't call people idiots.

I checked when I got home, and yahoo news had apparently rejected my comment, but there it was on facebook. Andy replied to Mark's comment "Mark, you're an idiot."
revealing to my entire facebook community the sort of guy that lurks behind the affable mask.

play list

It's kind of a quiet cloudy Sunday. Janett and I went for a little ride just to get out of the house. We're still uncertain about our plans to move, but the realtor hasn't been able to show us the least expensive alternative (maybe the current tenant doesn't want to leave), so the house around the corner now seems our likeliest destination.
Yesterday Notre Dame lost to Navy,a mild disappointment, though in previous games including the few wins, the Irish haven't looked good to me. On the Notre Dame boards some posters are blaming the coaches, some the players. I'm blaming bad offense on the players and bad defense on the coaches. In any case our problems don't appear to be near solution, and now we'll have to worry about some of the better players recruited for next year beginning to hedge on their commitments.
I posted a couple of items to Facebook expressing my dismay about the current state of our nation. I won't get into it here. It's nice to express myself in facebook shorthand rather than with a longer blog, although I run the risk of annoying more readers there than here.
So I didn't really have anything to write about when I opened my blog today and decided to check my musical playlist. I'd lost the connection to at least eight of the previously linked songs, so I reconnected to a few of those, and addded links to a few different selections. Then I scrolled through the list playing only the first few bars of each song. That's a thing about my favorites, they got me right from the get go. The exception is Wildwood Flower by Reese Witherspoon which has a very nondescript opening. I might check to see if there's a version by the Carter family that starts with the melody, but I suspect the soundtrack version pretty well copies the original. Maybe I'll scroll through again to see if I think of something I missed. Then maybe I'll go read for a while.

PART TWO

Being interupted briefly to nibble cheeses and crackers while Janett and I watched an episode of a HomeTV show about how to rent an apartment, I did some reading. Alas, I didn't escape the internet but went to Wiki and read up on the First and Second Balkan Wars (1912-1913), and then on Serbia's struggle for independence in the first quarter of the previous century. The Balkan Wars were significant events in the lead up to the First World War.

Now, I'll try again to escape the internet.

PART THREE

Janett Prepared a fine dinner teryaki chicken, some kind of dirty rice also with bits of chicken, green beans, and little yellow potatos mashed with the skin on. Then we watched a most enjoyable Masterpiece Theater mystery presentation of a contemporary Sherlock Holmes. You can see why I feel I'm the luckiest man in the world.

Renting

Acquaintances know Janett and I are now engaged in seeking a new apartment. We've been very happy in the current premises, the second floor of a very large house, complete with a ten by twelve roofed porch where we could enjoy a pretty day, chat and drink coffee. Janett is somewhat agorophobic and sometimes has anxiety attacks, so the porch was an easy way to get out of the house without having to deal with people, and she enjoyed tending a garden of potted plants.
Our landlord, (like our previous landlord) apparently overextended himself in the boom days, and ran into trouble. He probably hasn't made a mortgage payment in a year and the building is on the the sherriff's auction block. Janett, while saddened, is accepting, suggesting that this is God's way of helping us cut our rental expense before we start relying on social security for most of our income in January.
We'd like to rent a two bedroom for under $900 per month. That may sound unrealistic but remember we live in Elgin where such things are possible. So far we've considered three options, having looked at 5 or six other options that were unsuitable due to lack of space, a ban on pets, or some other reason. The three options priced out at roughly $700, $800, and $900. I think yesterday we eliminated the middle option, an apartment in a four flat, nice building, nice neighborhood, nice landlord, but not overly spacious, priced a little below market due to the time of year. Janett had an anxiety attack while looking at the apartment which suggests she felt a little crowded.
The upper rent place is right around the corner from our current address, newly renovated, not quite as commodious as our place here, but on the first floor. We sent the landlord an application and expect to hear back any day now.
We're not hounding him because we haven't yet been able to arrange a visit to the third and lowest priced option, the second floor of an older home on the other side of the river. The building appears well kept, but is not as large as the more expensive unit. We've driven by a couple times and Janett says she likes the neighborhood well enough, and has a good feeling about it. The realtor says the former tenant has not turned in the keys, and she's arranging for a locksmith to come out and change the locks so she can show the place. I told her we had another application pending and would appreciate her calling to let us know as soon as the unit is available for viewing, which she said she would do.
I think we'd be happy enough with the premises around the corner, and it would be less expensive than our current residence since here we pay all utilities, and there would pay only for electricity, but it would be nice to feel sure we'd made the best choice. I guess we're a little nervous and unsettled, but not really stressed out yet over the search. One small concern is that the utilities here might soon be shut off since the landlord has stopped asking us for our payments and presumably has stopped paying the bills.:o(
We hope a few close friends and relatives will be feeling the need on Nov 1 to work off the snickers bars, and I suspect they would vote that we move to the first floor around the corner.

PS. The around the corner rental features a little room across the hallway from our front door, which would serve nicely as a home office should we want to spend an extra 50 or 60 dollars per month. Hmmmm?

UPDATE

Larry Lives. I went to IMDB and pulled up the Banger Sisters and found the screen credits, including "Man in bar", Larry Trask. I pulled up pictures, and they sure looked like our Larry, though a touch buffer, and credits were listed for this Larry as recently as last year. The earliest credits date back to the approximate time of Larry's move to the west coast. Unfortunately, no bio information on Larry Trask was offered.

So, either Larry Trask is our Larry and is still alive and getting by in Hollywood, or Larry Trask just looks like our Larry, who died in a car crash. Or neither. If I had subscribed to IMDB Pro I could have contacted Larry's agent and maybe requested biographical notes, but I didn't.

Maybe someone else who Googles Larry Trask will see this post, and perhaps have more information to share. Until then, let's go with the alive and getting by theory.

R Bar

is the one establishment I've had experience with (under 3 different names) over 2 (2 1/2?) decades. It came up in conversation today because Janett ran into an old friend and former owner at Target and he said he was reaquiring the bar and asked her to let any of the former clientele she ran into know the old management would be returning. His name is Stan, and he was the fourth owner in our experience there. He sold the bar 4 years ago to Ernie, the week-end disco guy, and we haven't been there since. Ernie's purchase of the bar was a small, but not insignificant, part of our detachment.

In the year and a half prior to his acquisition Ernie would DJ at the bar on week-ends, I wasn't sure why they needed a DJ since they had a pretty good juke box. Maybe because guys like to visit bars where girls hang out and girls like to dance and the girls couldn't dance to the music I'd play on the jukebox, so maybe it was all my fault.

But Janett missed the juke box music, too. And she would request Ernie play some of her favorites and was always disappointed. She had accepted that his hoochie mama dance retinue didn't include songs like John Deere Green or David Allen Coe classics like the Rodeo Song or You Never Even Called Me by my Name, but it didn't seem right not to be able to hear the Rolling Stones reminisce about The Girl with Faraway Eyes or Wild Horses. So I'd have to go over to Ernie a couple times a night and remind him he'd told Janett he was going to play some such song. We kind of got on each other's nerves.

When Ernie took over we assumed he'd like to attract a younger, maybe a more hispanic crowd, not native to West Dundee, but drawn from near-by towns, and we and a lot of the old patrons probably would not be missed. Also about that time we'd moved from Dundee to Elgin. We'd lived a short block from the bar in West Dundee and that contributed to our identification with the place. And about that time Janett's closest friend and partying partner, the wife of my good friend, became very ill and subsequently passed away. Then they made it illegal to smoke on the premises. So for a lot of reasons the bar lost our patronage, and we missed it less than we might have expected.

I've observed that the crowd frequenting a bar seems to turn over every five or so years, so in our 20 plus years I guess we'd gone through three or four generations, and I'd survived the shifts in pretty girls and young scrappers pretty much with my grand old man status in fact. I'd even given up the pool table for the Golden Tee Game. But even without the advent of the Ernie years, maybe I was beginning to feel like it wasn't really my place any more.

Still, we'll probably call a few friends and go back to congratulate Stan, and to lift a glass to Larry and Celia, the spirited 30 somethings who owned the bar. then the Scot's Inn, when we'd first dropped by. They sold the bar and moved west because Larry wanted to be an actor, and legend has it, Larry even got a part in a movie, The Banger Sisters, I think. The legend goes on that they were killed in a car wreck not long after. The movies credits identified Larry as "Man in bar" Fair enough.

PS I think Rule 1 in Stan's "How to Run a Bar" book would be to hire really pretty bartenders, so if you like really pretty bartenders drop in and see.
.

Randall Road

A drive on Randall Road in the northwest suburbs of Chicago leaves me with a feeling of incredulity. From Lake in the Hills to Crystal Lake, a stretch of more than five miles, shopping centers and strip malls line the six lane highway. On the same road, further south there's another similar stretch from St Charles to Aurora, as well as a shorter strip in Elgin and South Elgin, in between the two longer stretches. I haven't done the numbers, but I feel there must be a thousand retailers in shiny new stores(most built in last eight years), and hundreds of dining places. Fast food chain outlets dot this twenty mile drive and a $10+ entree restaurants are commonplace. Maybe the thousand is an overestimate, but is not hyperbole.

Commercial real estate developers and mall management companies are suspected of being in financial difficulty, but with a couple of percent interest rates, they've mostly survived so far. Again an undocumented estimate, but I don't think I observe a vacancy rate of 10% along the entire stretch.

My question is how is this retail expansion supported in a declining economy? 20% comes to mind. The top 20% of income level families are the target market, and Randall Road runs through communities featuring this demographic. (roughly household incomes over $92,000, I would guess the top 10% to have income in excess of $135,000)
It might also be observed that the current economic downturn has adversely impacted a lot more mid-level wage earners that it has the higher earning segment.

The corollary to this thesis is"What about the other 80%? I have not thought these numbers through, but in another post re Malaysia I referred to superfluous workers. My concern is that 50% of the American population (guessing at household incomes less than $45,000) are not only superfluous workers but marginalized consumers as well.

PS Thank goodness for Aldi's

Genoa City

Driving home from a wedding in Lake Geneva at 2 AM last night, I was trailed for a few miles on Rte 12 and eventually pulled over by a Genoa City WI policeman. Dating back to the time a younger drinking age was in force in Wisconsin than Illinois tales abound of unfortunate traffic stops in this area. I'd had a few drinks, but I've been stopped in a lot worse stages of impairment, and never even been asked to perform a road sobriety test, so I wouldn't have been very nervous except I'd left home without my wallet. A back up squad car arrived as the officer approached my window. The policeman said he'd stopped us for a faulty brake light, and asked for my license, which I explained I'd left at home. He took my name and Janett's driver's license and went back to his car to run a check. He eventually returned and asked if I knew my license was expired. I told him no, but that my birthday was 3 days ago, so it was possible. He was being pretty low key about it, so I still wasn't getting very nervous. It was a relief, though, when he said that he and the other officer would be leaving and no tickets would be issued, and it would be left to my judgement whether to continue on the road. I said thanks, adding that I would like to get home, and he repeated that was up to me. So we drove on home.

I could have been charged on several counts, including the brake light thingy, and could have been subjected to the sobriety test, which might have been disagreeable (though I do occasionally practice reciting the alphabet backwards). Without a license to surrender for bond we would have had to go into town and I probably would have been in the lock-up for a few hours til Janett could recover enough to drive to an ATM for my bail, all in all a real nightmare. So I was grateful for the young man's discretion and forbearance.

This morning I googled "Genoa City WI police" to see if there were comments indicating if others had the same kind of positive experience that I'd had or whether I was particularly fortunate. I found links to several blogs and facebook pages of surprisingly attractive 20-somethings. And they mostly recounted traumatic life stories involving bad romantic choices and mysterious deaths. What had I stumbled across? Was Genoa City the 21st century Spoon River? Unfortunately, no. I eventually linked to a site that identified Genoa City as the fictional setting for a soap opera named the "Young and Restless", and the blogs and facebook pages are apparently for the benefit of aficionados of the series. Mixed emotions again since for a moment I'd felt like maybe a visit to the lock-up in the small Wisconsin town could have been very interesting.

It appears to be a pretty day through my window.

ButI haven't really sampled the weather. I've been preoccupied with Janett's first real Quickbooks client. Jose took the call and relayed to us that the client wanted to be set up on Quickbooks, and we assumed that meant installing the program on his computer, selecting a chart of accounts and maybe entering beginning balances. As it turns out, the program was already installed with a workable chart of accounts. What the client really wanted was to be told how to do things appropriately for their unique business, especially how to account for inventory, sales. and costs of sales, as well as how to generate appropriate transaction documentation in a fast paced environment. We'd met on Thursday and Friday evening I sent them a few pages of recommendations on how to proceed and pointing out a few potential complications. Saturday I sent another page, clarifications and explanations of items included in the Friday letter which I thought would be helpful to non-accountants as they reviewed the first letter over rhe weekend.
I woke up at 3:30 this morning with a better idea for one step in the process, and a couple of questions, so I sat at my computer and typed in notes on the possible improved procedure and the peripheral questions, and went back to bed for a couple of hours. I'm thinking of emailing them a note of the amended procedure today. Not that I assume they're at the computer on a Sunday, checking their emails, but to update them at the earliest possible moment in order to give them time to think about it a little before we speak tomorrow, and in order they have written notes in front of them when we speak.
I think we've done enough work to justify Janett's standard "set-up" charge, but I don't know if they'll like my recommendations, or consider our proposing a plan to be the kind of work they anticipated being billed for. I think if they appreciate our recommengations and don't object to the bill, the question will remain as to how much additional help they will need catching up on the several months they've been operating with manually prepared sales documents and trying to keep their records on excel sheets. Also, things like sales tax provisions will require a little tinkering, since they probably thought they were selling a service and proceeds weren't taxable, which is only partially true.
Don't mean to bore you with the details, but it's an interesting experiment in light of Janett and my attempted collaboration (which is every bit as complicated as learning about customer relations).

Maybe, another good thing about blogging is that it

may prove to be therapeutic; may help me to get in touch with myself. What's the psychological name for what I am experiencing? An episode? And would the term be, disassociating?
I know, ND losing a couple of close games in the last minutes may have something to do with me feeling dislodged. But selling corned beef sandwiches at Irish Fest last week end, roasted corn on the cob at Heritage fest this past week end, and tootsie rolls to people a couple mornings in between? Why am I doing things I never did before?
I've stopped going to Huffington Post, because they post provocative captions that elicit all kinds of moronic responses, and the provocations and the morons both annoy me, and I generally sense that the commentors might not have read the articlein the first place. I can't even go to Facebook without remembering the simile of the internet as the drunken librarian who won't shut up. But TV is even more disturbing. The five o'clock local news is the closest thing to a real news show on all 100 24 hour stations, and even they tend to sensationalize. The dramas are even worse, contrived and implausible story lines, devoid on meaningful dialogue, but long on featured actors and actresses striking their favorite cold blue steel poses for minutes of each show. Also, what's with these full color renderings of what bullets, blades, and blunt objects do to a victims vulnerable anatomy. How cold and callused do they wish us to become? And don't get me started on flash backs and flash forwards. The Office is my last refuge.
I can't afford to try to discuss the economy or the political environment except to say I'm a lttle worried for all of us. Personally, life is a somewhat out of kilter as well. We may be moving next month because our landlord stopped paying the mortgage last year, and the sheriff is scheduled to auction our building off. Not unreasonably, the landlord also stopped paying the utilities a couple of months ago, and we got a warning from the city that they're going to shut off the water the day after tomorrow. I went to our downstairs neighbor to propose we go halvsies on the arrears to keep the water flowing another month, and she, matter of factly, informed me that her son took a call from the gas company last week and that they said they were going to shut off the gas. WTF, people?
Maybe, it's just me, rapidly approaching my 65th birthday...no, it's more than that, but age may have something to do with it. Tonight I saw an ad for an apple NANO, or something like that, and I didn't know what it did, and they didn't tell me. They didn't tell me anything, but there was a song, something about wanting a girl with a short skirt and a long jacket.
I'm going to retire for the evening with my newly arrived edition of the Atlantic, (Thanks, Kim). And I do feel a little better.

PS I omitted reference to the constancy of God, and our security in Him, because i didn't want to obscure that reality with my disoriented perspective. After mass on Sunday, though, I saw a bird nesting on top of the cross on top of the steeple, and in my mind wanted to compare notes with him on why we were each there, looking for some awareness shared that would reassure me.

I Write Like Arthur C .Clarke

Sorry, I tested my writing on someone else's page and don't know how to link to the page here where you might insert a sample of your own writing for analysis. If you'd like you could go to Kim or Lauren's pages and give it a shot.

PS would you say Arthur Clarke is a good writer?

Letters

As I grew into my 30's and 40's, I would be impressed with women I knew who continued to correspond with friends from college or from even earlier in life. I don't know men who do so, which may not be a fair basis to generalize. But the virtues implicit in correspondence always struck me as virtues of a passing age, friendship, honesty, an air of permanence through fluctuating environments, a wish to communicate, making one's self known, while supporting the other through informed affection, and, not least, having a command of the language and adequate penmanship. Not that I got to read the ladies' correspondence. That was just what I sensed and revered

I would have thought a good letter should read like a mini-essay, crafted, and have a point or make an observation. The year's chronology tucked into a Christmas card, while informative, did not qualify. On the contrary, the brief history dissipates the air of permanence, or should I have said timelessness?

I suppose this gentle envy and nostalgia were what led me to post to a blog page. My posts are often rambunctious, lacking in gentility and refined thought, but still I am corresponding, (and circumventing the penmanship requirement). Why haven't I posted lately? I guess, because I felt I had expressed all my opinions, and was becoming strident in my insistence on my point of view prevailing.

But because I stopped coming here, I stopped visiting other's sites. This evening I read three months worth of daughter Kim's blogs, and enjoyed her style and content, including etchings and photos and the in the moment accounts of life far away. I felt a little bad not to have been more attentive. I suppose I could simply resolve to come to read more often, but that would violate the time honored first tenet of corresponding. To get a letter, send a letter. I guess, I'll resume posting.

Hi there.

I stumbled across this Onion Sports Network article today. It's a year old and shouldn't be taken to have anything to do with the "new" Bryan Kelly coached Irish.
In light of last year's disappointing season, we can look back and laugh.

Small, Unathletic Walk-On Injures 9 Starters In Notre Dame Football Practice
September 3, 2009 | ISSUE 45•36

via @TheOnion - Small, Unathletic Walk-On Injures 9 Starters In Notre Dame Football

SOUTH BEND, IN—During Wednesday's afternoon practice, 17-year-old Brian Novak, a 145-pound walk-on for the struggling Notre Dame football team, injured nine starters, including third-year quarterback Jimmy Clausen, junior wide receiver Golden Tate, and 295-pound defensive lineman Ian Williams.

, who had virtually no organized football experience prior to joining the Division I team, has injured a total of 24 players since his arrival in South Bend, prompting many to question whether or not the Fighting Irish have another disappointing season in store.

"I'm not really that fast or strong or anything," said Novak, adding that of his friends back home he's "not even close" to being the best football player. "But during my first practice with the team I was playing linebacker—or it might have been defensive end—and I got past the big blocker guys no problem, then somehow broke [starting halfback] Armando Allen's leg with a tackle. That's the first tackle I've ever attempted in my life."

"I'm not trying to hurt them or anything, but in general I would say everyone here is a lot slower and weaker than I thought they'd be," Novak added. "I can only bench-press about 90 pounds, but all the players gather around to watch me lift."

According to members of the coaching staff, the former high school yearbook editor is by far the team's most athletic player, despite Novak's inability to do more than two pull-ups or jog a mile without walking. During an intrasquad scrimmage last Sunday, he recorded eight interceptions, rushed for 225 yards, and ruptured the Achilles tendon of safety Sergio Brown with what appeared to be a fairly slow-moving, awkward juke move.

"When I play with these guys I feel like I did when I was a camp counselor playing dodgeball with my campers," said the 5-foot-7 Novak, whose athletic resume consists of two weeks on his high school lacrosse team. "I can pretty much overpower anyone, anytime. It's really fun, but I'm not actually learning anything about football."

Though he reportedly promised Notre Dame's head coach Charlie Weis he would "take it easy" on the rest of the team until the season opener, Novak broke the arm of 302-pound center Dan Wenger during tackling drills last Monday, and fractured starting linebacker Brian Smith's skull on a 14-yard touchdown run in which Novak dragged Smith 10 yards into the end zone.

While Novak went 0-4 in field goal attempts during Sunday's scrimmage, he was the only Notre Dame kicker to get the football up into the air.

"He's really powerful and fast," 255-pound defensive end John Ryan said of Novak."I'm glad he's on our team because looking at the guys we have, he's our only hope if we want to beat USC, Nevada, or really anybody."

"He's a much better leader than Jimmy [Clausen], that's for sure," Ryan added. "Better quarterback, too."

Recently, Novak has even been spotted giving coach Weis several tips about his strategy and tactics.

"Until Brian, I never thought about how establishing the run could create opportunities for us downfield," said Weis, who has led the Irish to 15 losses in their last two seasons. "Novak was telling me about something called a 'fake handoff,' which is like this fake run thing, but then you pass it. I would assume that's illegal, but he's proven himself to be an amazing football player, so I trust him."

According to Novak, when he committed to Notre Dame, he had no intention of walking onto the football team, being more interested in the school's theater group. But when assistant head coach Rob Ianello saw the freshman tossing a football around campus, he knew instantly that Novak would be a valuable addition.

"He was catching the ball," Ianello said. "Like, actually catching it."

Despite the team's recent injuries, and the fact that its best player is admittedly "really terrible" at football, former Notre Dame head coach and college football analyst Lou Holtz still predicted the Fighting Irish would go 12-0 this season and win the BCS championship.