New Shoes in the Rain

Hello, friends.....hope your week is off to a good start. Eagle-eyed readers will note the title of today's comments, borrowed from a concert film and album featuring the late musical group Talking Heads.  One of the more inventive concert films I've seen, directed by the late, great Jonathan Demme.  I saw a show on the same tour from which these performances were taken, and it was quite something.   But that's not why we're here, is it? I'm in my mid 60's, so in my memory, when a Presidential administration felt the need to be less than truthful with the American people, there was a narrative created that more or less explained away the straight facts that the public already had in their possession (back when we all cared more, certainly) about a situation or a growing scandal or something equally difficult to hide. Now, though, our current President and those loyal to him simply say whatever suits them at the moment.  Take the present White House Press Secreta...

Happy Thursday, everyone…the work week is almost over! When I was a kid, I recall vividly coming to the realization that, in order to survive in this world, I was going to have know how to fight!  And I don’t mean gathering one’s inner strength and persevering, I mean actual physical fights! Suppose that was a byproduct of most of what we watched on TV in our household, lots of Western shows and movies, detective and police shows and movies and generally a lot of action.  Seemed to me that I was going to have to fight it out with people, and frequently, in order to get anywhere in this world!  Not only that, but quicksand seemed to be an imminent threat as well! Of course, none of that was true then or now.  “Fighting” in real life is more about sticking to one’s principles, standing up for one’s self and one’s family, too. Thank goodness! But let’s face it, life is full of contradictions, and it seems now that we are in the second term of President Trump, contradict...

Happy Friday, friends….we’re almost there! As things stand now, massive numbers of federal government employees are being laid off…or not.  Our President is going to force Ukraine to surrender to Russia…or not.  The U.S. gold reserve is still at Fort Knox…or not. Who knows about any of these things?  The chaos and confusion that seems to reign in Washington right now is pretty well beyond our individual control, and the circumstances keep changing to fit the latest stories that are circulating.  And the American people are seldom getting the full story or straight answers to questions asked of President Trump and other high-ranking officials. So we work on the things where we have some control and ownership.   For example, I have migrated from Twitter (now called “X” by its owner) over a year ago.  Over time many of the accounts I followed to keep up on things of interest migrated to Threads, which is connected to Instagram.  I enjoyed Threads for the ...

Greetings from Cleveland, Ohio, where my grandson and his team are competing in a regional hockey tournament!  So far they’ve won a game and lost one.  They’ll play again later and that will decide if they play in the upper or lower level of the playoffs.  Good luck to them! Cleveland is between five and six hours’ car travel time from our home in Lexington, but I am always struck by the differences between our home area and a large established city like this.  For instance, when we came into the main part of the city, we looked over to the right and in a low area could see a really old working factory.  I don’t know what they make there, but it reminded me so much of photos I’ve seen of Henry Ford’s original manufacturing plant in Detroit.  Smokestacks and that ancient look to it, like the same product had been made there for a hundred years. Looking out my hotel room window at the grounds of what I imagine is the headquarters of the Eaton corporation. ...

Happy Thursday, friends.  Almost to the weekend! I don’t have a theme for today’s post, as it’s really a collection of things I’ve seen, read, heard and experienced.  In no particular order…. I saw that Netflix is soon to raise prices for all of their various tiers of service.  Guess one could conclude that they have “won” the streaming wars, as they still stand head and shoulders above the competition.  We’ve had Netflix in the past, and after my wife and I concluded that we really didn’t have a lot of interest in what they offer on their service, we dropped it over a year ago.  We resumed our service for a few weeks to watch the Great British Baking Show (I know, but we both enjoy it) and then dropped it again after that show wrapped up. For comparison, I’ve been enjoying another free trial of Apple TV+ since the holidays, as that trial came with a generous Apple gift card that was given to me by my son and his family.  First thing we did was watch the fu...

Good morning, all!  I write from Indianapolis, Indiana, where the current temperature is -1 degrees!  With the wind chill it feels like -13! At least this area, where I’m working today and tomorrow, did not receive the multiple inches of snow that fell throughout the states along the Gulf of Mexico (that’s the name of that body of water, in case recent events caused any confusion)! So no question the story of the week is the inauguration of Donald Trump as President.  Because it was going to be a little cold in Washington, he ordered that the ceremony be moved indoors to the Capitol rotunda.  Or was it because a relatively small number of people were planning to attend it when it was going to be outdoors?  One wonders. Unfortunately, I watched his “official” speech after being sworn in, and never once did he address an actual issue or problem that regular Americans have faced or are facing right now.  It’s still all about grievance and whataboutism and how ...