Random Observations

            I’m really, really tired of the post-Christmas commercials that proclaim, This is the sale that everyone’s been waiting for.  I haven’t.

I believe there are various competition categories for work crews on “slow moving maintenance vehicles on area roadways.” They must try and see which one makes the KYW traffic report first and gets credit for tying up the most lanes, creating the longest backup and forcing detours.

Speaking about KYW Newsradio. The station consistently airs stories followed by inappropriate commercials, as in running a story about health risks for elderly poor with inadequate home heat followed by a commercial for leasing a luxury automobile for ONLY $439 a month.

Remember when we’d make up funny names for people like Patty O’ Furniture, Chuck Steak, Art Deco and the like. I’ve always been taken with the names of real people that fit their lives.  For instance:

Fleet Street's newspaper industry recently set aside historic differences to join forces in an unprecedented assault against Rupert Murdoch's proposed takeover of satellite broadcaster BSkyB.  The companies petitioned the British business secretary whose name is Vince Cable.

America’s Transportation Safety Agency (TSA) has agreed to allow pilots to avoid screening and pat downs.  Some pilots have said they wouldn’t be carrying guns as they are pilots, according to TSA administrator John Pistole (pronounced pistol).

A recent action-packed movie called The Warriors Way features a sword-wielding martial arts character portrayed by actor Jang Dong Gun.

The editor of the trade publication PESCA MARINA, in Seattle, WA, is Guillermo Fisch.

Another trade publication out of Chicago, IL, THE NATIONAL PROVISIONER has an editor named Carl Swinehart.

A Nursery trade publication in Fort Worth, TX, GREENHOUSE MANAGER is edited by Mike Branch.

I recall reading a news account several years ago about a British naval destroyer shadowing a Russian submarine that had come too close to British waters.  The British ship was captained by Commander James Bond.

Then there’s the news that a Tel Aviv University team excavating a cave in central Israel said teeth found in the cave are about 400,000 years old and resemble those of other remains of modern man found in Israel. "It's very exciting to come to this conclusion," said archaeologist Avi Gopher.

As Mr. Ripley once said, “Believe It or Not.”

The Rich Are Different Than You and Me

            This post describes the rich as those making $250,000 a year or more. They’ve just received for Christmas an extension of generous tax cuts enacted during the Bush Administration.  The rich proclaim that $250,000 a year is too high a threshold, this said when they are making millions and billions. The rich are different than you and me.

Consider a recent auction of fine art at Christie’s Auction House in Manhattan. Five bidders vied to bring home Matisse’s monumental bronze sculpture of a woman’s back — “Nu de Dos, 4 État (Back IV)” — conceived in 1930 but not cast until 1978.  Superdealer Larry Gagosian won the sculpture for $48.8 million, a record for the artist and well above its $35 million high estimate. After the sale Mr. Gagosian said he had bid on behalf of a client whom he declined to name. Mr. Gagosian has bid in the past for Steven A. Cohen, the hedge fund billionaire, who was seen in a skybox above the salesroom at the auction. A skybox above the salesroom at an auction? Not a skybox at Yankee Stadium, or the home of the Dallas Cowboys or even ­­­but a skybox above the salesroom at an art auction.  The rich are different than you and me.

The new wealth exercising its muscle at such auctions is said to come from India and China, Japan and Brazil. But there’s still plenty of it here in the good, old U.S.A.  The rich are different than you and me.

Fashion sales for the affluent young remain strong as reflected in a recent New York Times article “Workwear Dresses Up for Office or Club.  Chambray, more comfortable and lighter than denim, gets kicked up a notch from its workingman roots in a Gitman Vintage shirt with button-down collar at Barneys for only $150.00.  Japanese-born designer Takeshi Ohfuchi’s homage to American vintage comes with wrinkles that are part of the look of its chambray shirt, $285 at Barneys.” Expensive jeans come with holes in them.  Now chambray shirts come with wrinkles.  The rich are different than you and me.

Take solace in the fact that you don’t have to be rich to talk trash. News from the advertising world now focuses on fashionable trash because it seems that Black is the new black, at least when it comes to trash. Hefty says it want to cash in on evolving trash-can colors with BlackOut, a new line of black kitchen bags that are about as stylish as trash bags can be.  They’re due to hit stores next month. Do the rich take out their own trash? 

Be Thankful

            We recently gave thanks at Thanksgiving for many things.  But being thankful didn’t end with the last plate of turkey leftovers      

Be thankful that you are not American international development worker, Alan Gross, a subcontractor from Potomac, MD., who has sat for one whole year in a Cuban jail cell.  He has reportedly been accused of spying but has not been charged with any crime. How has the United States responded? A statement from the State Department said His arrest and continued detention without charge violate I international standards of due process and judicial procedure.” The U.S. called the incident a “major impediment” to improved ties with Cuba.  That statement is said to be some of the strongest language used by the U.S. yet in the case. Some of the strongest language?  The poor sonofabitch has been sitting in a jail cell for a year and the best our Government can do it to make a piss-poor statement using what they called strong language? Be thankful you are not Alan Gross.

            Be thankful you are not Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, the two UC Berkeley graduates imprisoned for about a year-and-a-half in Iran.  The Americans were arrested by Iranian authorities while hiking a trail well-known to tourists that runs along an unmarked stretch of the Iran-Iraq border. Our Government has used strong language to try and get them freed.  Be thankful you are not Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal.

            Be thankful you are not unemployed, dependent on unemployment compensation and in limbo over whether Congress will act.  The White House has used strong language to try and convince Republicans to cooperate.  Be thankful you are not unemployed.

            The apparent trouble with our Government using strong language to try and get things done is that they were addressing those who are tone-deaf. That’s right tone-deaf.

            Just check out these recent headlines:

China Blusters On

The Communist government's appeal to Europe to boycott the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony is another reminder of its tone-deafness.                                                                                                                      (New York Times 11/09/2010)

Tone-Deaf in D.C.

Both political parties seem tone-deaf to the hopes and needs of an anxious electorate.                             (New York Times 11/09/10)

Rape is not Trivial, King tells WikiLeaks Julian Assange                                              Larry King, a scholar of the communications strategies of accused celebrities, tutored him on his tone-deafness.      (The New Yorker, 11/08/10)

While each headline focused on different issues and entities, Communist Chinese, political parties in Washington and sexual-assault allegations against WikiLeaks Julian Assange, the items referred to the concept of tone-deafness.

            Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines tone-deaf as being “relatively insensitive to differences in musical pitch.”  Wikipedia says that someone exhibiting tone-deafness is said to be unable to "carry a tune."       Maybe the U.S. President, State Department and rest of the Government ought to, in a hurry, figure out how to whistle a different tune that doesn’t sound like an old song-and-dance. You’ll be thankful if they do.