I spent two days in Rhode Island this week and came away with two impressions: In the first place their woodworkers consider themselves so good at what they do that nothing of any value is ever milled west of the Hudson which means they even carve their shit before they take a dump; and in the second place considering they have - like - 2 electoral votes, they sure take their politics seriously considering they have basically no say in anything that happens in the rest of the country (and can I get an Amen for that?).

And now that I have alienated all 6 people who live in that state let me move on to the rest of my topic... which is something you never discuss in polite company. Politics.

Except, to be different, it should be noted that I don't like anybody and am probably bound to make the opposite point from what you just said just for fun. And therein lies my true political opinion.

I think I am about as fed-up with the political universe as any human being can be. And my opinion on any given topic will change its grounding from one day to the next - beyond a certain set of core beliefs. And these core beliefs are

1. Most people are just trying to live their lives, so get your stupid politics out of my face and go kneejerk to somebody who actually cares.

2. If you think the opposite party from you is filled with evil people who have evil motives and want nothing but evil things to befall innocent people for their nefarious evil purposes you are probably either a party hack or just another run of the mill jackass.

3. Your candidate is not going to save the world. Your candidate is going to stay in office as long as it profits his or her resume or legacy or pocketbook, after which (unless they are as big a jackass as you are and screw it up) they will benefit from the experience and not have to actually work for the rest of their lives. And the chances of them not giving a flying fuck about you will increase exponentially - if the seed for that existed anywhere to begin with.

4. Politicians who ever, and at any time, say the words "public service" in describing their motives are always crooks. This is axiomatic.

5. There's nothing in the least lovable about the Kennedy family. The Kennedy legacy is a myth. The Bush family is just weird and they're also everywhere you look. And who said it is okay to have political ruling families in a republic anyhow? Lines of succession exist in monarchies and last time I checked no President ever sat his ass on a purple cushion. Maybe I should check that more often?

And these 5 basic core beliefs are seasoned with the notion that whenever I see someone swooning or crying or shouting or shaking or pounding or yelling or spitting or hitting someone in the name of their politics I have the overwhelming urge to shake. them. wildly.

So people will be filling their lawns with placards and passing out brochures and wearing buttons and making total fools out of themselves from now until early November. And after that we will count seats and claim victories or express deep concerns over the future of the country and BLAH BLAH BLAH.

My political sentiment is simple. On national holidays and the like, when everyone is flying the stars and stripes and proclaiming their agenda as the true American Idea, I fly a flag as well. This one...


And you can ask Mrs RW if I'm telling the truth. She lives here.

Yet another observation "from the road."

Cell phones are great and one thing I've noticed is that we're always complaining about how other people are using them. It makes me wonder though. Everyone complaining about how they're being used but nobody changing how they use them.

When I visit customers my cell phone stays in the car. That, at least, is one iron clad rule I have. But after this last trip to Providence, Rhode Island I've come up with another.

Never talk on the phone while you are in the bathroom. Especially if that bathroom is in an airport.

In the first place that is just too much concentrated attention to what you are saying. Very very difficult for the people around you to zone you out when you're sitting in your stall yakking your head off while... while... well that's the other thing.

These devices are very good these days. They pick up everything going on around you.

"Hey Dave, I made it to your town!" Blop. "Did you get the papers from the Johnson deal yet (insert fountain sound)?"

So what exactly do you think you sound like to the person on the other end of the phone when you say "What does Kevin think about the deal? I hope he's satisfied this time" while you're sitting there spewing fountains and launching oil tankers?

I mean... come ON people!

Yes. I am here but not really here. And I won't be back from there until late Thursday night. But amongst all the other terrible things I am, I am at the very least a loyal member of the Roundtable and I know a good read before I see it. Yes sir ee.

And because of that I can say without reservation that our yet-another newest member will not disappoint you with this week's entry; which he hosts in all resplendent typicality.

Introducing, to some of you for the first time, John Sadowski. But don't click his link for the Roundtable until Thursday. If you click it before then, there's no telling what may happen!

It isn't a rant against computers or any new-fangled communication devices because I'm too old or stupid to deal with them - because I am using it right now to publish this post.

And it isn't a rant against any of the companies that foist technology on us whether we want it or not who are making money off us hand over fist, because the chances are good somewhere along the way a company I own stock in is actually making me money from it.

I just feel like saying screw technology. That's all.

And I realize that even harnessing the power of fire, at one time, was considered "technology", as is the wheel. But I don't care.

If it weren't for technology we wouldn't know what was going on on the other side of the world, and not knowing it wouldn't make things any worse off or better off than they are now. So what good is it?

See? Screw technology.

No I haven't given up on my quest for a million dollars and the memory of the quest always whacks me hardest on Sunday nights because I know I (sigh) have to go back (pout) to work in the morning because (slams drawer) I didn't win the lottery again (kicks dog). Oh. I don't have a dog. What was that I just kicked??

Anyway you know your old Uncle RW loves you and wants you to be prosperous and rich and happy. And you know he is always trying to find good investments for you since only people 2 years away from death or cowboy-buckle-wearing trailer park posers (... calm down... calm down...) ever win lotteries anyhow.

Well I've been watching something that is looking almost a little like one of those "too good to be true" scenarios, and am suspicious as all get out because I am an old investor who has seen all the tricks pass this way. But these instruments called MITTS are getting interesting.

Per "Investment U" (reachable by clicking the MITTS link) MITTS (Market Index Target-Term Securities) are probably the most trouble-free investments available. Here's the explanation:

Market Index Target-term Securities (MITTS), also known as equity-linked notes, are essentially bonds linked to an index or a series of stocks. MITTS investments are designed to do two things: 1) limit an investor's downside risk while 2) producing a return that's tied to the performance of a group of stocks. Initially created by Merrill Lynch, MITTS are traded on the New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange.

The enticing aspect of MITTS is that no matter what the outcome of the stock, investors are guaranteed to get their money back come maturity time. Should the stocks rise higher, investors get some of that upside return.

And the chart (happily supplied by MSN Moneycentral) demonstrates how they work.

At some point these were issued at a face-value of around $9.60 each, which Merrill Lynch promises to pay back regardless of what happens to the stocks they are tied to. So, you get your money back in full even if they flop. But if they gain (and since they are index-tied securities there is a solid chance they will) you get your original investment plus back.

I was raised to believe that if something sounds too good to be true it IS. Not "probably" is - just IS. Period. And I still believe it. MITTS seem to follow the dictum that small risk = small return. But if the return is all but guaranteed - what's your beef?

The chart above is measuring the current crop of MLMF, for which - for demonstration purposes - I have placed an order at Market Price for tomorrow morning for 150 units. We are going to "live-blog" the results and see what happens. I still have lots of questions, but my understanding leads me to believe that - since I am buying below the issue price, even if all it does is return to $9.60 I will still be up $30.

Let's see what happens.

See what I am willing to do for you guys? Why you don't DEMAND I be made Dictator is beyond me!

About three-quarters through the movie it dawned on me that there hasn't been one swear word and we are decidedly not going to have the obligatory sex scene. But outside of the really good scenery, authentic interior sets, and ultra-cool 1916 French aviator uniforms, the rest is - I'm afraid - nothing much beyond cliche.
Instead of developing the characters we get a series of quick vignettes at the start to introduce them all. You have to pay attention because from time to time (once they get their goggles on and their faces dirtied with early 20th century flying soot) it isn't always easy to tell them apart... except for the black pilot named Skinner and here entails my first rant.

The real black American flyboy was named Eugene Bullard. His father was a slave. He stowed-away on a ship to Britain as a lad. He joined the French Foreign Legion. He was decorated for bravery in the trenches. He joined the flying corps. He stayed in France after the war and married the daughter of the old French nobility. He started a nightclub in Paris. He knew Josephine Baker and Langston Hughes and Louis Armstrong. He worked for the resistance in France during the Nazi invasion. Shall I go on? This movie got his once also being a boxer right, but everything else wrong. And that was a disappointment. I hear there is a movie in the works about Bullard. Well there ought to be, seeing as how the man lived about fourteen lives compared to everybody else. But still you get the ignorant saying "Oh come on, was there really a black guy in the Lafayette Escadrille or are they just bowing to having the obligatory black guy?" GRRR.

History geeks like me will give themselves hernias watching WW-I German tanks moving up to a position in late 1916-early 1917 in blitzkrieg-style. WRONG. In the first place that would have been too early and in the second place when the Germans got tanks (well after the Allies introduced them) they didn't use them like that. But oh well. Blink and you miss it. I doubt that but for me anybody within a hundred miles would have seen that. But it's there just the same.

I will take my hats off to the art director (the person who creates the details of the physical world the actors populate). If there are any Academy Awards for this flick, this should be the only one. The sets were delicious with pre-1920 French memorabilia and accoutrement. The old phones. Even the paint on the planes and the look of the windows and doors. Takes you away. If only the actors they filled it with didn't seem like they were going to break out into a rap medley at any moment. The story itself is carried on with the obligatory male-bonding fistfight, the obligatory battle-fatigue-guy turns hero-in-the-end, and instead of the obligatory Red Baron we get the obligatory Black Falcon who is the obligatory evil German.

The thing that gets me is that why fictionalize the characters? Bullard, as mentioned above, and guys like Raoul Lufbery don't need the embellishment. Oh and there were TWO lions as mascots, not ONE damn it. Don't ask me how I know this. I just do.

Yet for all its obligatory fluff I had fun. The computer animated dogfights were technically marvelous at first, but by the third or fourth dogfight we need more. We need to get inside these crates and to get the feel of just how those planes vibrated. For one thing, they vibrated far too much to get three pistol shots off to kill someone in mid-air. But he was from Texas so there ya go.

I can't imagine depiction of war without so much as one cuss word, but I think they did a very daring thing by not having the obligatory sex scene. Hell. Everybody knew they didn't have sex in 1916.

Anyway that's Flyboys. A lot of mayhem, but no cussing or groping.

Lafayette Escadrille Insignia

The tickets for Christmas Carol arrived today and it reminds me that next thing you know it'll be October and then there's Thanksgiving and Christmas will be on us.

Years ago I used to just roll my eyes over all the Christmas hype but, in my decrepitude, I've learned to just roll with it instead. Getting older - if you're doing it right - affords one a certain amount of peace of mind about stuff that negatively energizes others. And one of the ways Mrs RW and I roll with it is to take a weekend in the city after Thanksgiving and just totally DIVE into our old hometown's "downtown" Christmas extravaganza (That's a funny thing about native Chicagoans - what everybody else would call the Loop, we just say "downtown").

Last year we had breakfast under the tree at Marshall Field's just like always but - as anyone from around here knows - the big controversy even last year was that Marshall Field's was bought by Macy's. So we're not at all sure we're going to be able to do our usual Saturday morning champagne and waffles under the tree this year. Any other Chicagoans hear whether it is happening this year?

But we'll walk amidst the festive streets with the lights and the shop windows and the trying to ignore the people screaming the "f word" to their girlfriends for no obvious reason. This year we're staying at the famous Allerton Crowne Plaza, which is the location of the famous Tip Top Tap.

Anybody who has ever spent any time "downtown" has seen that sign on top of the Allerton in the dark that calmly announces the location of the TIP TOP TAP, but not many people have been up there. It was the hottest skyrise lounge in Chicago during the 1940s and 1950s.

So we see what happens with this Macy's fiasco. Then spend the day walking all around the city. The Saturday restaurant is still undecided, but the evening ends watching a good old play about a good old feeling over a good old day.

Breakfast Sunday and back home we go - full of Christmas cheer. And I swear - it was the tickets that got me to this frame of mind, not the fact that there is ice on my deck from the hail we just had.

UPDATE: see comments re: Tip Top Tap.

No. You really don't.


Cracks me up............A Guilty pleasure..........Fits right here.


Little known gem........."Interior rhythms"........Don't care what you think.


I saw her first..................Strangely fits here.

Suzanne, the Roundtable's newest member, is wondering about her what ifs.

And if you had joined the Roundtable when we asked you you'd have all this traffic like the rest of us. But you don't because you didn't. And if I could find it I'd post my sticking-tongue-out smiley.

If I believed in smilies.

Which I don't.

But what if I did? Ever think of that?

I don't watch that show where well-known people who should never be seen below the waist get some hapless partner and have to do their dance moves in front of a bunch of judges I never heard of. And I don't watch the show where the chubby English nanny slaps dumbass American parents around. I don't care about racial groupings on some tropical island doing stupid pet tricks in order to earn sticks and fire and toilet paper. And I am actually kind of proud to say that I have never spent even 1 second watching the show where all these people dance and sing and tell jokes and become big raging stars if Paula Abdul, some hairy guy in a calypso shirt, and their black friend (who obviously bravely dies somewhere in the movie) like them.

I don't like all the half hour court shows where populist judges decide petty little cases between trailer trash cousins. I can't stomach the idea of people eating worms and bug eyes while dangling from helicopters flying upside down over the pachyderm house at the zoo. I LOVE chefs but am convinced they are not all like the overwrought prima donnas that pass for chefs on cooking challenges. And though I really and truly like what the Fab Five does in the way of helping out straight shleps find their groove (and take my own notes when no one sees me) I'd still like to see "Straight Scene for the Boy Queen" as an alternative - just for yucks.

But I will admit without reservation to being a cigar-smoking, football-crazed, steak-eating capitalist who sets time aside to watch Project Runway and has for three seasons now.

I think clothes design and fashion - though they have difficult connotations with some people - are an art form on the level with music and painting, theatre and literature. I seriously do.

Plus I want Michael to win. Because he's the best.

So BLYEH!!

Barbary Corsair: "Arrr! Ye hath sayed that Islam be a religion of violence. So sayeth the infidel in his ignorance! Now ye must DIE for ye insults! Arrrrrrrrr!"

Heh.

The more I see the things that are happening in the world the more and more I become convinced that the world needs me to take over - and soon. My decision to become dictator of the entire world, as announced earlier, really needs to get into high gear. The world is going to hell in a handbasket and needs a calm, cool despot to take the reigns before you all kill each other over the stupid shit that is getting you worked up around here lately. 600-year-old-quotes and killing little nuns and all. Shame on you. You people all need to calm down before you end up getting everybody killed. And I mean NOW.

So far in the world under my thumb all architecture will be changed to Miami South Beach art deco, and our forces will dress in the style of the Polish Army from the 1930s - which is brooding and unique but sort of comic opera. You know, enough to cut your throat out quite efficiently but you'd like it. Honest!

The next thing to decide on is what style of dictator I should be. We do have choices. Hitler not being the model for me, and saying Franco and Mussolini are out because they are just too obvious (besides which we've stolen Italy's fascisti stamp designs for the post office) leaves me with some interesting models...

----------------------

Oliveira ruled Portugal I think about the same time as Franco. I think he was considered to be an economist-type. More prone to business suits than military display. I'm not sure if he threw anyone into dungeons and such but I personally like the good hair this guy had. I think the appearance of a benevolent academic whose opponents regularly disappear has some genuine appeal for me.

----------------------

Galtieri goes to the military outfit and I'm not sure how many people disappeared in Argentina when he was in control, but the thing that gets me about him is that when he was finally deposed he went on a twenty-year bender, literally living in a small Buenos Aires apartment and drinking a lot and people left him alone. Not very sociable, but it is just such a weird finish to a dictatorship there's some appeal there too.

----------------------

All kinds of stories about Albania's Enver Hoxha. He kind of looks like somebody's philosopher grandfather doesn't he? I didn't put up the picture of him with his sweater sleeves tied around his neck waving at the kiddies. There's a certain homespun goofiness going on with this guy. I think he put a lot of people in jail but - looking at him - they had to have been really really bad, no?

----------------------

Yeah I don't know. Trujillo is just too banana republic if you ask me, but history has shown that fattened old men with bad eyesight in white military uniforms seem to stick around for decades if they have to, and the tourist industry is a lot worse off whenever they leave the scene. I'm just not sure I'm the uniform type. Those glasses have come back in style, though, I notice.

----------------------

I think I'll leave it open to you folks. Which model do you guys think? We want to do this democratically, after all. Er....

I've explained my disease before, and every once in a while I have a relapse.

To summarize for those of you who are too busy to click a reference link that would be "something-something-temporary-reverie-something-itis". Otherwise known as being nostalgic for a time you didn't live in.

I have very strong feelings, and pictures of things in my head I cannot explain, particularly centered from 1890-ish to 1920-ish. I look at photographs from this era of street scenes and old ball games and interiors and it is like I can smell the day or hear the voices. Anyway most people just sit there gaping at me when I try to explain it but it doesn't matter.

Once upon a time I belonged to a very much currently discredited sect in which past lives were a part of the deal. During that time we supposedly uncovered the source of these feelings being an actual life lived through the era which culminated in my participation in a group known as the Lafayette Escadrille.

According to the "data" the reason I have these pictures and sounds and smells of things from the era is that that they are "memories." What makes it all the more interesting is that instead of visualizing myself as some great hero in those days (the thing where there are 8,000 people who claim to be Napoleon and no one ever scrubbed floors in a "past life"), according to the data, I came into the Escadrille at the end, flew two missions and saw no action before it was disbanded. Well... that would be me all over, wouldn't it?

The other night while flipping channels I got caught up in a little promo for a movie I know I'm going to see so I may as well accept the fact and surrender to it. The promo for Flyboys hit me right square in the chops. And even reminded me of Eugene Bullard, who lived one of the most remarkable lives of anyone on the planet in any century you could name.

Anyway this is a post about the movie and my personal excitement over it, just so you know. Officially I am suspicious of the idea of past lives and have very strong doubts about the whole thing. It certainly doesn't fit into my current worldview. I have always had a well-developed imagination and a voracious capacity for history. The Lafayette Escadrille captured that imagination when I was a boy and as a 5th and 6th grader I couldn't get enough of building plastic models of Spads and tri-wing German fighters.

And I'm just expressing my delight and anticipation over the film. I don't know. Maybe it's a dog. Somehow I think I'm probably not going to care, though.

Even from amongst some of my friends both in "real life" and here online I sometimes get razzed about the fact that I am a Christian and all. Sometimes the comments are funny and other times they're pretty insensitive and still other times they're just insensitive and are meant to be. I guess some Christians have really hurt some people out there in the world and they feel they have to get back at them.

Most times I don't say anything at all, but from time to time I will speak up and say something about it. I am very happy to be the kind of Christian who doesn't fall in line with madcaps like Falwell and Robertson and all those beef jerkies. I find no intrinsic value in spending time or energy listening to them.

But I think it is just part of living in a free society.

I guess I just don't understand why the very same people can't muster up the balls to say the same thing about other religions in general or even Islam in particular. I mean here we have yesterday churches being bombed and all these Muslim guys shake their fists and scream and yell over something the Pope said. I mean - Jesus Cur-IST people!

But oh well. I guess nothing in Islam is open for review. I suppose self-evaluation is not in the Koran.

Sigh.

Guess I'll have to do this heavy lifting too.

Yes I can be monsterously boring sometimes, especially when the subject turns to money. So I don't expect a whole lot of comments on this, though I'm happy to see people are reading. But the thing is I have been an active "investor" for over twenty five years and there are some things that bother me because the uninitiated get RIPPED OFF if they aren't careful. To my way of thinking there are few things worse than stealing from people who have worked hard and done all the "right" things. Child molestation and selling used cars come to mind. But, sorry to say, most stock trading companies - online and traditional - are really no better than thieves. And they accomplish this larceny both by their acts of omission, as well as their customers' willingness to remain ignorant of some obvious facts of life. I can say this because I have been at the exact source point of what I am talking about. I once had a broker tell me that a certain stock was going to be good for the long term and the following month it went bankrupt and I later discovered most people in the financial world saw it coming. He didn't do anything illegal because the stock was my idea, and he was just happy to make the sale. He probably didn't know what was happening. But he should have.

He got his commission with me going in, and he got his commission with me going out of that stock. In the meantime I lost a couple thousand dollars. So I know from where I speak. And this is a classic example of exactly what I'm talking about.

There is only one book I know of that Warren Buffet ever endorsed. That was Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor, written in 1949 and updated by Graham devotee Jason Zweig. And I only wish to God I had discovered this book fifteen years ago. I would have been much closer to my goal if I had.

Had I known the cumulative effect of some of my actions relative to stock trading I would never have done them. But let's start out by making a list of activities I no longer participate in because they have been money losers. Had I owned the book before I engaged in them I would have known this. But the crazy thing is until Graham "held my nose to the page" and showed me the numbers, I would have never noticed.

1. IPOs. Initial Public Offerings. Banks and funding institutions are the only ones who get a new stock at the "underwriting" (original) price. By the time it is released to the public the biggest "run up" is already in the past. And for every Microsoft that starts at $21 and increases exponentially over time, there are thousands that turn out to be losers. Zweig thinks IPO should stand for "Insider's Private Opportunity." Don't bother.

2. Day Trading. Because we aren't lucky, you and I will probably net a loss buying and selling stocks based on their price alone once you consider commissions and the higher rate of tax you have to pay for short term capital gains. Huh? Uh-huh. Most people don't think about that. The fact is if you sell a stock before you own it a year any money you make from it is taxed at a higher rate. Yes there are people here and there who have made a fortune doing this (though their names don't come as easily as Buffet's, come to think of it). For every one of those there are thousands - maybe tens of thousands - who maybe break even or end up losing money. Not to mention the percentage of people who lose everything. What irks me is that supposedly responsible stock brokerage houses LOVE this for the simple reason that every time you buy and sell they make money. And they don't care if you are or not. The fact is that human nature can't train itself to buy and sell correctly in this environment. You simply have to be lucky, and that's the upshot of the whole activity. A day trader sees his money in the RED and dumps it because it didn't increase in two hours. He doesn't actually know what the company makes or anything. So why should he have the patience to wait out a downturn?

3. Caring "What The Market Did Today". One of Zweig's best annotations on Graham's work is the idea that you have to train yourself to answer what are basically meaningless "market questions" with the term "I don't know and I don't care." Because you are investing for the long haul and putting money into your investments on a regular basis, rain or shine, year after year (don't buy a stock you aren't ready to hold at least 5 years) questions like "How'd the market do today?", "Will bonds outperform stocks?", "What's the next Microsoft?", "Will the market crash?", and the like should have one answer. "I don't know and I don't care."

I always get a kick out of television financial reporters who say things like "the market was down today because of news of a rise in oil futures for November." Wait a minute. Was the whole market down because of that? Is that the reason the DJIA lost 40 points? The answer is no. Commentary like that is speculative bullshit meant to window-dress the broadcast. Obviously somebody made money on those futures, and some stocks were up despite what "the market" did. Baloney!

There are entities in the "financial world" set up just to take your money. And they can do it legally. Don't let them. Nuff said.

Okay the video quality of this one isn't so great, but get it started for your background music and then read on K? K.



Ok... Once again business is taking me away from you loonies folks for a couple of days. Thursday and Friday will find me in Detroit where I will be talking to my customers and getting them ready for

A. The way the Bears are going to clock their upstart Lions and
B. The way their Tigers are falling like a wet leaf

But for all my kidding I actually like Detroit a lot. It is the legendary home of Motown, and Motown means a lot to me. In the frosty old days of junior high (late 60's) there were mean little hoodlum "Greasers" and ethereal brown-shoed "Climbers" and then there were four or five of us who liked Motown from the midst of our painful Whiteness. The Greasers all went to Viet Nam or jail, the Climbers became hippies and - well - the rest of us kind of just stayed somewhere over by there. Somewhere.

But the Motown Sound remains such a part of my little White Life I'll never give up on it. The above is by Junior Walker and the All-Stars. My my MY.
-------------------------------------------------


And once again I'm going to miss the Thursday Roundtable which will be held at S.K. Waller's place. I know I've been letting the troops down by not showing up as much but mostly they don't need some dowdy old conservative relic hanging around toying with their liberal illusions superlative observations. Heh.

So go on over to Steph's and join in. I'll see youse on the flipside.

...That I don't want to work anymore.

I'm tired of working. I'm sick of getting up in the morning and shlepping off in the dark and near dark half the year to be at someone else's beck and call. I want to be at my beck and call. I want to know what "beck" means. I think it's beer. I like beer. But not as much as I like wine.

I'd like to drink wine and not go to work. Just sit there and read and drink wine. And calcify my arteries with duck and venison and kangaroo and ostrich. Screw work.

I'm tired of not winning the lottery and having to turn in early on Sunday night just when I start to relax. Boom - go to sleep so you can get up and go to work. Quit reading, switch on the alarm clock and turn out that DAMN LIGHT!

Then you go in and they tell you this and they tell you that and THIS isn't good enough and THAT could be done better. And we need to get one of THOSE.

And so I go get us one of THOSE and everybody dances around (woo hoo) like they did a great thing and somebody looks at me and says "now we need one of THESE."

You drive home and the next thing you know you have to turn in and set the alarm and put down that book and turn out that damn LIGHT I SEZ!

I don't want to work anymore.

That's enough for now... gotta turn in. Work tomorrow.

Sunday mornings are the ultimate time of the week for me. Especially in or nearing fall when, after a summer's worth of sometimes manic activity, a man can concentrate on the more spiritual aspects of life and living.

Whatever definition you choose to put into the concept of God, or however your thinking goes when you broach that subject, Sunday mornings seem to be a special time for sort of re-acquainting yourself with that side of your nature.

Thoughts of family, peace, forgiveness, are all a part of the larger view. A person can settle into a quiet center and block out the pains of the day and the stress of the work-a-day world..



It's a time where, in quiet study, a person - indeed, the whole world - can, if it wanted to, rethink the old ways and approaches to one's relationship with others.

Frequent visitors to Chasing Vincenzo know, by now, that I have been what is known as a "convinced" Quaker for years now. And though this affiliation sometimes puts me at political odds with my fellow worshipers, the truth is I have always been curious about ways less traveled, third answers, a separate view from the norm. And for a person who, in his life, non-violence has not always been his first option - I can't tell you the personal serenity and benefits that association has given me.

I feel I have been truly blessed, especially in the way that I interact with my fellow man.



Here in Chicago our Sunday morning has dawned gray and fall-like. Rain overnight has wet the streets and put a cool, damp glaze on the greenery. Here and there a shock of yellow or red just coming visible in the inner parts of a tree.

And so on completion of this post for your quiet benefit, I will turn away from this high tech avenue and carry myself to meeting as in the old days, where we will sit in perfect quiet as Friends have done for well over 300 years even with war and hatred pounding the doors of the meetinghouse. And we will hold to a third way, devoid of troublesome dogmas and the unreasoning demands of literal fanatics - who will be the death of us all if we're not careful, anyway. And move to a quiet center to help order the rest of the week. God's quiet people.

May God give you peace this day.

Tonite we are back on the search for Vincenzo. With schedules and work and what not - especially the what not - we haven't had a chance to try any of the local food palaces for a while. So tonite we're going to a venerable old suburban Chicago stalwart.

I hear you have to dress for dinner.

Back from the tropical dilapidation of Florida, having survived the testosterone-crazed avenue otherwise known as I-95 where I lived for the last three days (the rule of thumb is the closer one gets to Miami on the I-95 the more your chances of being killed for no good reason are).

Merge lanes on your right are an opportunity for people going 35 miles over the speed limit to pass you and then jam on the brakes because they're stuck in traffic just like you - but hey! At least they're one car ahead now.

Florida has the largest population of old leather skinned white guys that weigh 60 pounds and have big white beards in the world. I think there is at least one of those guys every three blocks. Some of them ride old bikes. Others are talking to 6 foot rabbits. With bikinis. And there always seem to be younger versions in training.

I have some great customers down there (none of which are originally from Florida). It is a great place to visit.....

I have no doubt that if boring ever became sexy I would be the old cat's last meow. With my adventure books and cigars, talking to you as if I'm twenty years older than you or something, and my three piece suits and index funds, I have to be the boringest guy going. Hate me / love me, you have to admit I am true to myself.

Hey - wake up over there.

Yes this is an Amazon ad to your left here and no I don't care if you click it and buy it through this blog. I don't care if you copy the title and go off and buy it from a real live store. But if you are in any way serious about your future you will eventually end up with this book. Maybe not now. Maybe not in ten years. But sometime. And when you do you will - like me - kick yourself for walking by it so many times. And if you are one of those altruists who just can't imagine actually investing in things because of some great imaginary hyperbole rattling around in your head, EXIT HERE.

I'll continue for everybody else...

All we need to understand is that this book (originally published in 1949) is the one book the day-trading, can't-miss, whatever-works, egg-on-the-speculator crowd would hate for you to have. Because if you had it the rapid-fire sell/buy/sell/buy commissions they are making off of you would disappear. Along with every gimmick "system" and herd mentality news report - they'd be history.

Ends up the truth is that great investments are BORING. Make your investments and then go live your life for Christ's sake! But if the market-watching trade papers and magazines published what actually works they would run out of headlines and catch-phrases after about three issues.

So while I am in Florida trying to drive the economy, you think about this book. At 600 pages you may still be reading it when I get back.

Let's make money. Then all the saints among you can just give it away ok? Sheeesh.
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Note that while I am away the Roundtable continues. This week senor prego has the floor. I have no idea what he will talk about Thursday, but his last few posts have been well worth the reading. He's a very good writer, and he'll grow on you too. DOWN BOY!

Later this week I'm off to Miami for three days on business. That's business I sez. Plenty of building and rebuilding going on there.

Funny thing is that nobody who is actually from Florida works or owns a regular business in Florida. Most native Floridians run crack and meth labs in the swamps and drive around balls to the wall in big wheelers are busy with other things. Just about every customer and potential customer I will see will originally be from someplace else.

But the greater Miami area is very pretty. The last time I was down there the ocean was a crystal blue and I (somehow) managed to finish work early the first day and had a steak at a little bistro right on the beach, just basking in the sun and reading my newspaper about how Florida's school test scores hit rock bottom again (The headline read Keeping the DUH in Florida). Ahh - life was good then.

I do a lot of traveling and lately I've started to pick up on an old past-time that Americans used to enjoy a lot more than they do today. The adventure book! Stories of travel and exploration. Timbuktu! The Orient! Great sea epics of discovery to the Antarctic! Doesn't seem to be much in demand anymore. We look at a chapter where the writer is explaining his decisions about what supplies to take and immediately start yawning... "where are the snakes on this %$#&ing plane??" Life is just too fast. We don't seem to want to dwell and revel in details like that anymore.

Oh well... our loss I suppose. I am taking Anne Morrow Lindbergh's 1935 classic air saga "North To The Orient" when I go Wednesday morning.

Nice to have some adventure on these boring old trips of mine. May as well live vicariously. Nothing ever happens on these trips, after all...

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SEPT 4 2006 AT 1100 AM EDT...1500Z...THE CENTER OF TROPICAL DEPRESSION SIX WAS RELOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 16.3 NORTH...LONGITUDE 42.7 WEST OR ABOUT 1235 MILES...1990 KM...EAST OF THE LESSER ANTILLES.

THE DEPRESSION IS MOVING TOWARD THE NORTHWEST NEAR 12 MPH AND THIS GENERAL MOTION IS EXPECTED FOR THE NEXT 24 HOURS.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 35 MPH...55 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER GUSTS. THE DEPRESSION COULD BECOME A TROPICAL STORM LATER TODAY OR TONIGHT.
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Oh well....

The article of a similar name at the MSN advisory site does its job well in giving you the ten basic items, but these are only obvious. A white Oxford button-down shirt, shoe trees, dark pair of jeans, black lace-up shoes and so forth.

By now this should all go without saying. I can't believe you have traveled this far with me in my Chase and not at least picked up the use of sunglasses and an overnight bag!

But there are some items that may be easy to overlook. Let's be sure and add these as soon as possible, shall we? No man's closet should be without them.

1. A cardboard box you haven't gone into in at least eight years.
Every man needs one of these in his closet. It contains... God knows what for God knows why... but you haven't gone into it in years and there's no telling what kind of stuff is in there. AND DON'T GO IN THERE EITHER! Women enjoy men of mystery. If you pull out those old maps of Iowa and the bank statement from 1986 the mystery will be gone! Leave it in there and move along.

2. High School Yearbooks
Nobody exactly knows why everyone keeps these things after one's twentieth reunion, but there they are all the same. No closet is complete without them. And if you have lost yours you really have screwed up this time. Then again they may be in the cardboard box. In a pinch you can always say they are. If anyone asks. Then you can change the subject. Whew. Another faux pas averted.

3. Virtually threadbare blue jeans with holes in them
Yes, I'm afraid women will never understand this. And this is only really a problem if you happen to live with one. A woman, that is. Because they will not under any circumstances allow you to keep said trousers, and so when you have to paint their walls or dig their landscaping you have to do it in perfectly good jeans without holes, which will thereafter be ruined. The existence of these special jeans is paramount! Fight for the right. That is all you need to know.

4. Likewise - WORK SHOES
A corollary to #3 above, which also suffers under the same constant threat of female invasion, are old shoes. Old shoes are VITAL, especially for doing the same said work in the above section. One way to combat this is to get yourself a pair of steel-toed shoes. In the first place that is a sensible thing to do for heavy chores and in the second place women think steel-toed shoes are somehow magically important. I say this because they WILL NOT TOUCH THEM once the are told what they are. It's magic. I can't explain why this is so. But trust me on this one. Learn my secrets!

And finally,
5. Wires and cords from appliances and media you no longer own
Because... you never know.

Anyone think of anything more? Seems like a profound list to me.

I was going to make a caption contest but was suddenly siezed by the spirit of Tristan Tzara. Therefore I have nothing to say at this point.

In which World War 2 army should you have fought?
created with QuizFarm.com



You scored as Italy. Your army is the Italian army. You love your country but you're actually not much into the war your leaders want you to join in. Take it easy mate, you can always wait for the twists of fortune and eventually join the side that is winning in the conflict.


Via Tinkertytonk

Here in the States we are kicking off the Labor Day Weekend. This is supposedly the last gasp of summer even though in most parts of the country there are still weeks of nice weather left. The real reason we are touted with the holiday's meaning is to prep us for the Real Holiday Buying Season just a few months away. And so you see, it is still all a corporate racket run by monied interests back East.

That intro is in recognition of the large number of visitors we get from overseas who may not be aware of our American customs. And I thank you all for your continued interest.

Therefore in keeping with the American character as it is understood by the rest of the world I shall now solve all the world's problems, ignoring my own in the process.

Issue 1 - Trouble In The Middle East
I am convinced that the reason there is so much trouble in the Middle East is that people there simply do not know how to dress for anything but combat and strife. One detailed review of the mode of dress in the region leads me to see exactly what the problem is: Couture.

Simply put, the region needs a dress code. If all the fellows there were required to wear three piece suits they would be less inclined to get dirty. And if they were white three piece suits, so much the better. Before you laugh me off consider this; you've tried everything else and it hasn't worked in 6000 years. I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'...

Issue 2 - Global Warming
On the issue of Global Warming - after considerable consideration and consultation with the world's foremost authorities - there is only one way out of this potentially devastating problem that I can see. There is far too much sober reflection on this matter to ignore.

To summarize, then, it should be obvious that the way out of the problem is wine. Plants are essential to providing human beings with a key component of the life cycle; oxygen. We need to expand the production of wine to produce more natural gases into the atmosphere. As a side benefit with more people drinking wine in a short period of time there will be less people driving wasteful automobiles. In twenty years we should, in this way, begin to substantially reverse the warming trend globally. And I'll drink to that!

Issue 3 - Crime
It has long been known that the basis of crime is often desperation and a feeling of low self esteem. When you have nothing to win you have nothing to lose. When you have nothing to lose any desperate means make sense. Therefore crime is not a sociological issue, it is a psychological one.

And the best way to improve one's self-esteem is to keep your shoes shined. A man who shines his own shoes is a man you can trust. He is someone who shows good attention to detail. Plus it should be noted that shining one's shoes is a habit acquired over time that becomes part of a personal regimen. And ORDER is what we are after. Men should be required to keep their shoes clean.

There you have it. Dress well. Drink wine. Shine your shoes. And all is right with the world.

I know, I know - so simple. Right under our noses all the time. That's where the answers always are, old boy. Right under our noses...