Wheels coming off

If you were to believe eveything you read in the economic times of the world - any pub that yaks about how a sovereign is doing with its money matters you would conclude that there are a lot of spare wheels lying around. Take for example the headlines - Wheels coming off the CHinese economy; The US employment picture is much worse than you think - the wheels have come off the train; Indian economy grinds to a halt etc.. With all this braking and wheel coming off activity I suspect that there is going to be a lot of walking around going on? Could that perhaps reduce the pollution and lead to healthier citizenry that is less obese? Perhaps there is a silver lining to this dark cloud after all? But then the word MALAISE puts a damper on things. There is a lot of that too going on. Greek economic malaise spreads to Spain and Italy - this one seems to be happening faster than the previously mentioned Hanta epidemic. The entire Euro Zone seems to be on the brink of a serious correction - as they run out of options - no wheel seems to fit their caboose and the engine (Germany) wants no part of this train wreck. I suppose you cannot sell enough Greek yogurts or Italian Bruschettas or Spanish Paellas to import the Benzes and the BMWs. So something's gotta give...the world can live without yogurt but not the smell of a new German automobile. Enter the ECB with its promise to lend Euros to those that seek...this with string cheese attached. That makes the Italians furious. Someone had a bright idea to have 1 currency but 18 different owners forgot that not all trucks use the same set of wheels.

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New England is gleaming in the fall

This autumn the weather gods cooperated as we took a family trip in the northeast to see six states that qualify or makeup what is known colloquially in America as New England. Mass, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island (tiniest state in the union). The outing helped tally up the states we either lived in, visited or have worked in to 47. Guess which three have eluded this intrepid traveling family. Any rate the drive was all in about 1,800 miles and included some memorable geographic wonders or points of interest. Easternmost part of state of Massachusetts being one. Furthest drivable road east in Mass being another. Visit to all Ivy League schools (term harkens to a collegiate athletics conference and generally regarded as elite academic institutes of some repute worldwide) is another random bucket list item of which this trip afforded the chance to knock two more of the list. Dartmouth in Hanover, NH and Brown (and its sister institute the RISD - school f

Searching for a lavish 'fill in the blank with other adjectives and gender' in bed

Many of the readers of this blog have experienced this. Strange sounding messages popping up in your text or WA or emails all day long from some exotic sounding locale with an out of this world individual looking for love, sex, money or other paraphernalia to get a high. I mean granted that electronic spamming is a low cost enterprise and all but the sheer volumes and the variety in these exhortations is beyond imagination. Having a desire to engage you in some sort of sexual payola or invest in some arcane crypto scheme must be a profound algorithm that someone from Oklahoma to Odessa is cranking on through the night and watching one in a few million fall for. Otherwise this nonsense would not exist I suspect. It would be funny to watch the lifecycle of some such persona that creates said content and that of a prospect for this invite becoming an unwilling or willing participant. Then that whole thing could go on some social channel and earn likes and subscriptions for someone else a

Lakeside frivolities

We moved to the Charlotte area not knowing where exactly our new home would be. Turns out it was by a popular lake formed by the damming of the Catawba river which flows north to south in the Carolinas. Local electricity generation utility built a series of dams along the waterway for hydro and couple nuclear plants as well to supply the state grid. The lake our house butts into is Lake Wylie. While tract home build has picked up in the Carolinas the developer often carves out parcels that they can get their hands on leaving behind privately owned lots that the individual owner may not want to sell. Our house is part of a subdivision but backs into actual lake front yardage that has always been part of legacy family owned properties who chose to build a cabin or getaway and did not sell to a corporation wanting to build in the hundreds. As such we can see the water through the year but it does not afford actual water access. That privilege is to our neighbors who still maintain thei

Brown Motion

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