tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46900070319507978702024-03-21T19:58:25.446-04:00Len'sLensThings important and trivial as seen through Len's lens.Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.comBlogger275125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690007031950797870.post-77972418047028817272011-09-27T16:21:00.003-04:002011-09-27T16:37:55.130-04:00Sometimes the answer is noThis isn't going to be a long post because there isn't a lot to say.<br /><br />The Boston Red Sox just don't seem to have the will to win. But it's more than that.<br /><br />God answers all prayers, all requests for help.<br /><br />Sometimes, He says no.<br /><br />How else do you explain the Sox losing as badly as they have to teams like the Baltimore O's. At this point, one would have to pick the Mets over these Sad Sacks.<br /><br />There are highly paid players who look as if they want to hit the ball, but just can't. There are those, like Dustin (the lunger) Pedroia, who play flat out all the time, when perhaps a little more finesse is needed. There are those who stand a the plate, facing a pitcher who could not find the strike zone with a guide dog, where I could stand there and work a walk, and yet feel compelled to hack at the pitch.<br /><br />Swinging at a pitch headed for the dirt is one thing, but swinging after the pitch has hit the dirt?<br /><br />It has to be divine intervention. Terry Francona, the manager, is where he is because his predecessor, Grady Little, left a pitcher in too long. So what did he do last night? He left Beckett in one pitch too long. Beckett was tired. The pitching coach had run out and there was a man warmed up, or close enough so that a prolonged chat at the mound by the coach and then by the manager would have allowed the bullpen guy to finish warming.<br /><br />But no....he leaves Beckett in for one last batter.<br /><br />Wham. Inside the park home run. Four runs. Time for the Brooklyn Dodger refrain."Wait until next year."<br /><br />So if the Yankees beat the Rays twice and the Sox manage to somehow win one, then the inevitable will be postponed for a few days.<br /><br />Unless, of course, God changes His mind.<br /><br />That's what miracles are.<br /><br />Until next time....<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://mindoflen.blogspot.com/atom.xml</div>Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690007031950797870.post-38991982272001151882011-09-19T15:37:00.003-04:002011-09-19T16:23:25.108-04:00It's time for reality in the U.N.Things are heating up in the Lens' world, both in serious and semi-serious orbits.<br /><br />First, we have the attempt by the Palestinian Authority, or at least the part of it governed by the Fatah party, to petition the United Nations for full membership. The PA, which rules the West Bank territories given up by Israel in 1992, says it needs this membership because Israel refuses to negotiate in good faith.<br /><br />That, my friends, is the dictionary definition of sophistry or, in a less refined milieu, pure bull crap.<br /><br />The PA, through its president, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Abu</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Mazen</span>, says Israel refused to negotiate in good faith two years ago because it refused to extend a 10-month moratorium on building new homes for Israelis. What pro-Palestinian outlets, including The New York Times, consistently fail to mention is that the PA did not come to the table until nine of the 10 months had passed.<br /><br />Then the PA sat down and the first thing it demanded was an extension of the moratorium. There were Israeli citizens waiting for homes and Palestinian workmen waiting to get back to work building them. So, Israel said no to this demand and the PA walked.<br /><br />Another piece of bovine defecation swirling around the cesspool of misinformation put out by the PA is the business of East Jerusalem.<br /><br />There is no such place. Never was. Jerusalem is and always has been one city over the past 3,000 years. In 1948, the Jordanian Army, the Arab Legion, took Jerusalem from the Jews who had lived there for thousands of years. In 1967, the Israeli Defense Forces took it, as well as the West Bank, back from Jordan.<br /><br />When Jordan ruled this territory, two things were true that are not true now. First, no Jews could go to Jewish holy sites in Jordanian-controlled Jerusalem or the West Bank. Secondly, there was not one peep about self-determination from the Arabs who were ruled by Amman.<br /><br />So, now we have to listen to <a href="http://zionistny.tripod.com/">Hanan <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Ashwar</span></a>i, that rich Palestinian liar, who spews her poison without any questions from American so-called journalists. She is given a free hand to spew her lies, half truths and flights of fancy. Why?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Put a sock in it?</span><br /><br />My other problem these days is the rapidly sinking ship called the Boston Red <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Sox</span>.<br /><br />Just now, they lost to the Baltimore Orioles, a team with one of the worst records in baseball this year. They are now only a game and a half ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays for the wild card in the American League.<br /><br />Yes, they are beaten up. Many of the stars such as Kevin <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Youkilis</span> and Clay <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Buchholz</span> are either playing hurt or not at all. Adrian Gonzalez suddenly can't hit. Carl Crawford, never worth the astronomical sum he is being paid, has a stiff neck. JD Drew, well, the less said about him the better. He's gone.<br /><br />Pitching is pathetic. The rotation is the sick, lame and old. Last night's game was horrible. A wild pitch, four passed balls. This guy won his 200<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">th</span> game. Enough. Isn't there anyone who can pitch in the farm system?<br /><br />And then there are the playing stars. David Ortiz seems to be the only guy who can hit, except for Marco <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Scutaro</span> and, not often enough, Dustin (the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">lunger</span>) <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Pedroia</span>. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Jacoby</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Ellsbury</span> is doing fine, but it's not enough.<br /><br />It's time, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Sox</span>, to get it going. If you cannot beat Baltimore, maybe it's time to rethink the hiring practices, get rid of the dead wood, and win some damn games.<br /><br />Until next time...<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://mindoflen.blogspot.com/atom.xml</div>Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690007031950797870.post-4861100953942125482011-09-09T17:13:00.003-04:002011-09-11T11:30:51.079-04:00Television doesn't add up to entertainment.I had some surgery on a foot (no, not to take it out of my mouth) a few weeks ago and, until very recently, I could not walk very much. I still am not supposed to, but cabin fever got to me.<br /><br />I did get a lot of reading done, and, I must admit, watched a lot of television.<br /><br />That is, I watched a lot of ads on television.<br /><br />Thank heaven for On Demand, where one can watch shows starting a day after they appear on cable. The great thing is that on some networks, one can fast-forward through the product ads, which seem to be in the minority, and the ads promoting shows on that network, which seem to be in the majority. In the newspaper business, we call those house ads. I will call them that here.<br /><br />A significant number of those house ads are promoting the very show one is watching at that time. Seriously.<br /><br />In doing the television watching, a couple of things present themselves.<br /><br />The first is that there are some pretty good shows on cable. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Closer, Burn Notice, Suits, Necessary Roughness</span> are all pretty good. Most are better than anything on the networks, where dumbness prevails and lack of talent is rewarded, along with more than a jolt of masochism.<br /><br />That having been said, the ads on television fall into two categories: dumb but harmless and dumb and not harmless.<br /><br />First of all, I declare that lawyers should never have been allowed to advertise. That's one of the results of the Federal Communications Commission being gelded over the last decades. These ads are an affront. If you have been hurt by anything, call a lawyer. If you were dumb enough to take anti-depressants while pregnant, call the law firm of Dewey Cheatem and Howe. The big, bad insurance company isn't giving you all you deserve, we will. You owe nothing (except fees which can mount into the hundreds if not thousands of dollars in some cases) unless we win. We will leave no ambulance un-chased. If you died because of bad surgical technique, call us.<br /><br />The next group that never should have been allowed to advertised is drug companies. If you have arthritis (most people over a certain age do) or pain or bad skin or flat feet or can't get an erection, take this medicine. This medicine can cause side effects such as bleeding, constipation, fainting, or, oh yes, death, but don't worry, call your doctor now. Can't get an erection, take this stuff but call your doctor right away if you suddenly can't see or hear.<br /><br />Lose weight, gain weight, be a great cook, anything you want, just send in $19.95. But wait! Why get one of the useless thing that won't work. Get another for the same $19.95 just by sending separate postage and handling for around $8. If you order three, then the postage and handling is more than the item. So send it back. Oh, so sorry friends. Postage and handling are not refunded. Either way.<br /><br />Do the advertisers think we are that stupid. Apparently, they do. And given the longevity of some of these ads, they just might be right.<br /><br />Have a great weekend and for those in the Tribe, a great Shabbat.<br /><br />Until next time...<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://mindoflen.blogspot.com/atom.xml</div>Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690007031950797870.post-71460714429055870172011-09-08T15:24:00.004-04:002011-09-08T17:22:36.478-04:00The utilities should be ashamedlThe rain has let up, at least for now. It looks as if the next Atlantic storm is going to hang a right and go on a vacation to England. The storm, Lee, that is causing all the problems for people in the Southeast and Middle Atlantic states, as well as upstate New York and Connecticut, is what steered Katia away from us and into the Atlantic on its way to England.<br /><br />We're not out of the woods yet, with Maria looking as if it will either hit or skirt Florida and Nate following Lee.<br /><br />We just got our electricity back in our synagogue on Tuesday, one of the last few dozen to be hooked up in New Haven. We had the work done on the building where the huge tree branch ripped down the wires Sunday. That was done last Tuesday night. Then we waited. Electrician called on Wednesday. Be right there. I called Thursday, told them we needed light so we could pray Friday night and Saturday. Supervisor said should not be a problem.<br /><br />Called again on Sunday after our congregation could not use the synagogue on Friday or Saturday nights. Must have been a misunderstanding, I was told definitely by the end of Sunday. Called again Monday morning. The operator said she would have to make up a ticket. Finally, early Tuesday, the wires that always had been hanging from the pole were connected to the wires that had been hanging from the building for nearly a week.<br /><br />Each day there was a promise made but not kept. Now the excuse it that the system UI uses to communicate to its crews is different from, and incompatible with, the system it uses to handle requests from its customers. And they say the utilities don't spend any money on infrastructure!!!!! A mom and pop business would be embarrassed to say they had such an old-fashioned and non-functioning communications system.<br /><br />The people at SeeClikFix have offered to be a conduit for the separate halves of the UI system. They should not have to. This is up to the company to fix this.<br /><br />That is, if it really is the problem. The real problem is the same one the city suffered last winter: thinking it could get through a major weather event with minimum resources and minimum planning. The utility has laid off a significant percentage of its crews to save money. The people it depended on to bail them out also were in the path of the storm.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" ><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">That helpless feeling</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">I am amazed at the thick heads demonstrated by television talking heads when telling people how to get information during a weather event such as Irene.<br /><br />Tune in your television. Wrong. No juice, no TV. Computers? </span>Yes, you can get a couple of hours from the battery, but without electricity to power your modem, how do you get the Internet, how do you get the stations' Web pages.<br /><br />Got a smartphone. Fine, for two or three house. With no electricity to recharge the battery, it goes dark all too soon. I know.<br /><br />That leaves battery-powered radio. Great. Except in New Haven.<br /><br />As I have said before, WELI, which had had a tradition of real news-gathering, is a cruel joke. By midafternoon, the announcers who had taken phone calls from people and tried to pass on whatever information they could glean from the totally overwhelmed electric utilities gave up, saying they had been on too long and needed a break.<br /><br />So what did we get on WELI for the rest of the storm? Sean Hannity. Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and other syndicated yakkers. Nothing from New Haven.<br /><br />WICC did a great job about Bridgeport. WTIC, another station that usually features the radical right, kept broadcasting news about the Hartford area. WCBS radio kept on 24 hours a day about New York.<br /><br />I knew more about what was going on in my daughters' neighborhoods in Manhattan and Queens than what was going on in New Haven.<br /><br />These guys should be ashamed.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Whether the weather</span><br /><br />It has to be hard to be a weather person. You are wrong even when you are right. I understand that.<br /><br />But why do weather people try to scare folks.<br /><br />You, as a weather person, know that Katia is going to miss the U.S. But you as a broadcast or television weather person don't say that at the top of the news show. You says, "Will Katia hit Connecticut? " and then we have to wait 23 minutes to find out what you should have said right away: Katia will not hit the state.<br /><br />Why can't we get a full weather report, at least for the rest of the day and evening, at the top of the newscast? If I'm ready to go out, I don't want to wait through five minutes of news, 10 minutes of ridiculous spots and three mind-numbing features about cats and people who walk their dogs while whistling before hearing if I need an umbrella.<br /><br />Until next time...<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://mindoflen.blogspot.com/atom.xml</div>Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690007031950797870.post-69213294180649975492011-09-01T17:49:00.003-04:002011-09-01T18:20:44.891-04:00It's great to see the lightIt is wonderful to have power again. Not political. Electrical.
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<br />After Irene blew through, we felt, and were, powerless. In every way.
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<br />No matter what title you give it, hurricane, tropical storm or extra-tropical storm, it did a lot of damage. We were not prepared. We were told to get a battery radio. Check. Flashlights. Check. Ice. Right. Get out the old direct-wire telephone, the one that attaches directly to the plug and does not require electricity to work. No caller ID, but so what. Hot water. Took care of that 20 years ago with a gas heater. City water, so no need to fill the bathtub. Grille in the back so food can be cooked before it spoils.
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<br />It would have been better if I had had better timing about having foot surgery so I could walk the neighborhood and commiserate with the neighbors, and that makes the feeling of isolation worst. But after the third day, there was work to be done and Starbucks in Orange had electricity and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">wifi</span>. It became office central and they sold a lot of coffee and other stuff.
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<br />We really did not suffer because the house was dark. We had little damage outside and quite a bit of food had to be tossed, but we were lucky.
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<br />That does not mean that we should have been treated like serfs by the utility companies.
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<br />The worst part of the experience was the lack of information. The idiots on television had told us to tune in for updates. How do you do that without power? Yes, my trusty laptop had three hours or so of power, but that did no good if you could not get onto the Internet. Sure, we could have set up a 3G <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">hot spot</span>, for only for a few minutes until the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">smart phone</span> ran dry of juice.
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<br />On the day of the storm, the disc jockeys at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">WELI</span> tried to relay information until 1 p.m., then back to the syndicated (and cheap) right-wing <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">yakkers</span>. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">WELI</span>, news radio, is a cruel joke. I wish the FCC had some teeth so we could get their license pulled. Licensed as caretakers of the public good my left cheek.
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<br />Calls to United Illuminating (another cruel joke) were answered with, in other words, "none of your business." The city's emergency information center staff members tried hard, but they had no information to relay. The electric or the nonelectric company had told the city one or two days more, then stopped telling them anything at all.
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<br />Finally they got the bright idea of looking for fixes that could put many <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">people</span> on at once. My whole neighborhood lit up the same moment I did. After four days.
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<br />Our junior senator, Dick <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Blumenthal</span>, said he would conduct an investigation.
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<br />I wonder why the electric company doesn't have sensors installed one the poles or connections to identify ones that are out. Why not get a satellite photo of the area. They are expensive but also sharp. Do something.
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<br />These companies should be punished for not preparing for the storms that always come. Laying off a large percentage of its work force is not a way to prepare for anything except to rake in large amounts of money. Don't blame the stockholders. Blame the officers who pay themselves huge bonuses for keeping us in the dark. And powerless.
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<br />Until next time...
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://mindoflen.blogspot.com/atom.xml</div>Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690007031950797870.post-683813825130988542011-05-02T01:27:00.002-04:002011-05-02T02:10:16.296-04:00A decade later, the face of evil is no moreIt was a hell of a year, 2001.<br /><br />We had returned from Israel in the spring. There, we had heard the bomb blasts from our womb of safety in the Old City of Jerusalem, had ventured out each day with a sense of adventure, a sense we were making a difference to the embattled nation and especially to its struggling merchants, both Jew and Arab.<br /><br />Back at work at the newspaper in the New York suburbs, I looked with shock a the photo of what remained of a Jerusalem pizza shop where mere days before we had waited for the bus and had passed on the opportunity to eat in that Jaffa Road restaurant, not because of safety but because of the chain-store pizza.<br /><br />It was a calm summer until that day, that terrible day, Sept. 11. I worked nights, so I slept past the first plane slamming into the World Trade Center. My wife awakened me. I showered as the second plane hit. Of course, the scene was repeated again and again and again on the television.<br /><br />Get to work. That's the overarching goal of any news person during a disaster. Through the space shuttle disaster, floods, hurricanes, more blizzards than one could count on two hands, it was the same. Get to work. Be there fast.<br /><br />Our Subaru wagon was two years old and I had no idea how fast it could go until that day. The needle went from 80 to higher along the Merritt Parkway. There were cops on the roadside, but they must have decided anyone going that fast on that day had somewhere important to get to. They didn't move.<br /><br />We had an extra to put out, and we did with phoned in stories from the scene, that horrible scene, first of the plane hitting the building while the other smoked. Then came the staff photos from the wreckage, that horrible skeleton of buildings where thousands of lives ended. That great photo of the firefighters putting up the flag, Mount Suribachi all over again scores of years later. We had one great photo, but the people at a New Jersey paper promoted theirs better, were minutes ahead in sending it to the wire services, so theirs won the accolades.<br /><br />The photographers came back, covered with this strange, clinging white dust. What do you think that is, they ask. Don't think about it, we say.<br /><br />When you are a desk jockey supervising reporters and photographers, your first duty is to the reader, but your most important duty is keeping your people safe. That day, the paramount job was no physical safety, although that was important and there were lots of things that could harm you at the site. The principal concern was psychological safety, keeping those kids from asking too many questions, like about what was that stuff clinging to their clothes and skin and hair.<br /><br />The company quickly brought in psych counselors for the kids and the older folks in the newsroom. We got advice from colleagues in Oklahoma City, who had gone through the first massive terrorist act on American soil since World War II. They sent advice and "we got through it and you will, too" messages. But looking at the faces of those reporters and photographers, you knew is would be years, if ever, before the nightmares stopped.<br /><br />And that name started to surface. Osama bin Laden. This tall, skinny guy with the beard who said he was the force behind this terrible act. He was the target, all those years ago. We went to Afghanistan to get him. We got distracted into Iraq. We got that guy in Iraq, but always seemed one step behind Osama bin Laden.<br /><br />We finally did get him. The president told us in an announcement just as May Day ended. May Day was a traditional day of revolutionaries and anarchists and, I guess, terrorists and it was Osama's last day. I love irony.<br /><br />To those Green Berets and Deltas and Seals who got this bum, Well Done. I hope he saw his son die before his life ended. I hope he realized in his last seconds that he was over and we're still here. Yes, there will be more attacks, like those in Marrakesh, Morocco, where my wife and I had stood last year by this great plaza that was teeming and alive and loud and a little scary at night.<br /><br />But those terrorists already had lost. The king of Morocco said the blasts would not stop reforms he had promised. The people would be a little freer no matter how many bombs these horrible people set off.<br /><br />Yes, we got Osama. Obama si, Osama no. We can all breathe a little easier. The head is off the snake. Yes, the body will whip around for a while but eventually, it will die. They always do, thank heaven.<br /><br />Until next time...<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://mindoflen.blogspot.com/atom.xml</div>Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690007031950797870.post-5015597041591402062011-04-15T17:36:00.003-04:002011-04-15T18:08:42.126-04:00Len's Law -- If you bother to pass a law, mean itHappy Friday. Time for another edition of Len's Laws.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Len's Law:</span> If you bother to pass a law, mean it.<br /><br />The Connecticut General Assembly is again working to put some teeth in the distracted-driving law. It may cost around $500 and you may lose your license for a day if you get caught.<br /><br />The chances of you getting caught aren't really too good, though. The hands-free driving and no texting while driving are really DUH laws. Nobody should do these things. But they do. I'm not sure how many people are stupid enough to text while driving, but stand on any corner and count the number of people yakking on their phones as they pass. Usually, it's more people talking than not. That's been my experience.<br /><br />The state is trying to authorize cities and towns to install red-light cameras to catch the two or three drivers who pass through an intersection after the light turns red. Maybe those can be used to catch those yakking on their phones.<br /><br />While you're at it, why not make eating, reading (no kidding), shaving, putting on make-up and fiddling with the radio illegal while driving. See where that gets you. I'd like to see the public hearing on that law: Ronald McDonald, The Burger King and Rachel Ray for Dunkin Donuts would be waiting to tell who this law is wrong, bad and unconstitutional.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Len's Law:</span> If you bother to pass a law, mean it (Take 2):<br /><br />Congrats to Congress on the weak-kneed, lily-livered law they are working on to cute the mortgage mess. Again, they are hiding under the desk.<br /><br />Putting the fox in charge of hen safety has never worked. Putting the mortgage industry in charge of cleaning up the mortgage mess won't either.<br /><br />Please don't listen to the do-gooders who say everyone deserves to own their own homes. It's what put us on the edge of the next Great Depression. If you can't afford to buy a house, you should not be allowed to buy a house. If you are too addle-brained to know if you can afford to pay $1,000 a month for a house, then someone needs to tell you you can't afford it. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae used to do that. Somebody needs to do it again.<br /><br />Yes, living in a house with a yard and some trees and grass is nice. But not everyone can afford that. The rest of us shouldn't be sent down the financial rabbit hole because bankers are too greedy to know the difference.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Len's Law:</span> Let's get real on Facebook. It's a great social networking site. We knew our daughter and her now-husband were getting serious, even though we were 5,000 miles away, when they changed their status on Facebook from single to "in a relationship."<br /><br />But Facebook isn't a substitute for human interaction. Some independent (right!)<a href="http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-releases-same-hormone-as-cuddling-2011-04"> "All-Facebook) http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-releases-same-hormone-as-cuddling-2011-04</a> Facebook site says being on Facebook is the same as cuddling. It releases the same chemical into the brain as cuddling.<br /><br />You know -- maybe that's what's wrong these days. Too much Facebook and not enough cuddling. Facebook certainly has its place, but not between cuddlers.<br /><br />Have a wonderful weekend. For Christians, have a wonderful Palm Sunday and for those in the Tribe, a great Shabbat and a meaningful Passover<br /><br />Until next time...<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://mindoflen.blogspot.com/atom.xml</div>Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690007031950797870.post-79258987380412675012011-04-08T12:01:00.007-04:002011-04-08T12:41:48.907-04:00Len's Laws -- a Friday Feature Second Edition<span style="font-weight: bold;">Len's Law:</span> Advertisers must drop the word "available" from their ads.<br />Don't tout something that costs extra. The car you are talking about, the one that costs less than the competition, doesn't have all those features in it. I love the ad that says, in big, bold type, the car costs $27.900. In baby type, "As shown, $39,800." With "available all-wheel drive" you can laugh at snow. But don't forget next winter that you were too cheap to go for the "available" all-wheel drive and snow is laughing at you. Why not just say how much the car equipped with all the stuff we were touting will cost and let the customer figure out if all those toys are worth it.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Len's Law</span>: Don't say something is free when it's not. Free Credit Report Dot Com. If you have the word "free" in your name, you should be giving something out free. Free Credit Report Dot Com <span style="font-style: italic;">will</span> give you your credit score and credit report free <span style="font-style: italic;">if</span> you pay them $15 a month. Huh? Reports are free with enrollment in some credit watching company's service. That's fine...there are people who need this service. So say so. Don't have people singing and talking about your free credit report and then have the announcer mumble "Free with enrollment in..."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Len's Law:</span> Be careful with people's information. How brain dead do you have to be to collect vital financial statistics and then have some dunderhead take the information out of a secure environment because he wants to work at home? And how brain dead do you have to be to delay letting people know for a month and a half while you conduct an investigation? You don't take your time letting people know that their financial information is at risk. It gets worse because you are not a bank where people voluntarily give you their information but a hospital where you take this information to make sure you get paid.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Len's Law:</span> If you are a news organization, try to be fair and not stupid. First, in fairness, let me say David Avigdor is my friend. That doesn't change what I am about to say.<br />A certain on-line news site in New Haven was covering the trial of some people who were charged with being part of a mortgage-fraud scheme. Most of the coverage by one reporter was fair. He told both sides and kept the purple prose to a minimum. Then another person, an editor no less, covered final arguments. "When a mortgage scam mastermind was handing out “bags of money,” David Avigdor “did not receive any cash,” his lawyer claimed in a last-gasp attempt to defend the attorney and rabbi’s reputation." Last-gasp attempt to defend? Final arguments <span style="font-style: italic;">are</span> the last bite at the apple for lawyers, but last-gasp has connotations that give an unfair taint to a story. Then a headline saying the jury could not agree. The jury had met for less than a day and send out a note asking for instruction about what to do if they could not agree. They never said they could not agree. Not yet, anyway. If you can't be fair, stay out of federal court, or any court for that matter. And if you think phrases such as "last-gasp attempt to defend" belong in a news story, perhaps you should ride your bike to a shoe store and apply for a job. You don't belong in journalism. You belong selling shoes. Not that there's anything wrong with that.<br /><br />Have a great weekend, y'all, and for those in the Tribe, have a great Shabbat.<br /><br />Until next time...<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://mindoflen.blogspot.com/atom.xml</div>Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690007031950797870.post-55185204536215858502011-04-06T16:07:00.003-04:002011-04-07T10:07:12.487-04:00No, it's not free and how 'bout those Huskies<span style="font-size:130%;">Free credit report isn't free<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">I do wish Comcast would stop carrying the "Free Credit Score" promos on its main page. It's a lie.<br /><br />Everybody's getting into the act, including the federal government. Each year, each person is entitled to a free credit report. You need to go to the FTC Web site <a href="http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/freereports/index.shtml">http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/freereports/index.shtml </a>and request it. Don't go to one of the sites that say they'll show you how to get to your credit report. If the site has a ".com" in it, don't go there.<br /><br />So, the government, for a change is telling us the truth but not the whole truth and nothing but the truth. You <span style="font-style: italic;">can </span>get your credit report there, but if you want your credit score, you have to sign up with a commercial service.<br /><br />Same thing with those tacky ads on television. Free Credit Report Dot Com does<span style="font-style: italic;"> NOT</span> give you a free credit score or free anything else. The announcer in the ad mumbles that you get the score with enrollment in their service. There also is baby type on the screen that says that.<br /><br />I think the service is $14.95 a month. That's about $180 a year. For some people, that's a lot of money.<br /><br />Some services, like American Express, will give you access to your credit report and one credit score free. That's part of the service. But AmEx only will give you your score in one of three rating services. If you want to see the other two, yes, you get it. Sign up and pay.<br /><br />I guess you only get to know for sure when you try to take out a loan or buy a car or mortgage a house. Then you can ask the banker or dealer to run your scores. I'm sure they'll be happy to comply as long as you are serious about buying what they have to sell.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">How about those Huskies<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Yes, it was a dirty game. Who cares. The Connecticut Huskies are the rulers of the men's basketball world.<br /><br />I love irony. At the start of the season, the women's basketball team was all it. Moore was three-time all everything and compared to Holdsclaw and Taurasi and Bird and Lieberman. The men's team was picked 10th in the Big East and already had a space reserved at the NIT. They weren't supposed to go anywhere. Rebuilding year.<br /><br />So, here we are in baseball season with the Final Four down to the Final One, and guess who is cutting down the nets. And guess who just couldn't get it done. Irony.<br /><br />Yes, the UConn men beat a team who would have lost to the Little Sisters of the Poor, but who cares. They had to play some pretty mean teams to get there: five games in five straight days in the Big East, no bye in the Big Dance. They worked for the chance to beat Butler. Kentucky was supposed to bring them back to reality and send them home.<br /><br />Didn't turn out that way. More irony. Ms. Moore, Ms. everything didn't come back from Indianapolis with the team. She was off picking up yet another award while her teammates were taking what had to seem like the longest plane ride in history. Bad time to have a bad game.<br /><br />Speaking of irony, Geno Auriemma was very politic when he talked about the officiating in that game. It was played in Indianapolis and not far from where Notre Dame is. When asked about it, Geno said the refs could have called some fouls one way or another, and they called them against the Huskies. A team that seldom was in foul trouble was called for being near another player. Notre Dame players were giving the UConn players whacks that you could to time for. Refs were like Sgt. Schultz: "I see nothing, <span style="font-style: italic;">nothing</span>."<br /><br />Geno didn't complain. He just had <span style="font-style: italic;">that</span> face. You know, the one that says, "If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck" it's bad officiating.<br /><br />Until next time...<br /><br /><br /></span></span><br /></span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://mindoflen.blogspot.com/atom.xml</div>Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690007031950797870.post-3373661983886400972011-04-03T17:37:00.003-04:002011-04-03T18:05:19.594-04:00Surprised they fell for itHappy Monday.<br /><br />I'm surprised at The New York Times. They fell for yet another Palestinian public relations trick.<br /><br />Sunday's front page featured a fairly well-researched think piece about how Israel is facing a vote in the United Nations that, the writer concluded, result in the U.N. General Assembly recognizing a Palestinian state in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel may be between a rock and a hard place, the piece concludes.<br /><br />Fine. It's a legitimate point, if not a terribly realistic one. The United States and some other countries have said that a Palestinian state only can come about through negotiations, not actions by the U.N., which is notoriously anti-Israel.<br /><br />But the photo that accompanied the story was a complete fabrication. It purported to show Israeli soldiers, armed to the teeth, staring at peace Palestinians praying over a piece of land they said was taken from them illegally by Israel. Arabs praying in the face of armed Israeli soldiers.<br /><br />The problem is that the shot was obviously taken with a long, long lens. High-powered lenses compress shots. Watch a baseball game. It looks as if the batter is a few feet from the stands when, in fact, he's many yards away. It looks like the on-deck circle is a few feet from home plate when it's not.<br /><br />Same thing here. The long lens compressed distance in this shot. The Israelis could have been the length of a football field away from the Arabs. And how would the Associated Press photographer know that these people were going out to pray if the Palestinian world-class public relations people hadn't told him and probably told him where to stand.<br /><br />Now, even if the photographer fell for the PR ploy, I'm surprised the photo desk at the Times did. They know better...or should.<br /><br />You have to give the Palestinians credit for good PR.<br /><br />A few things about the story, if you please. First, everyone, including Ethan Bonner, the story's author, mentions the Palestinian position that they will not negotiate with Israel while Israeli building goes on in the West Bank. Bonner knows better about the peace negotiations. The Israelis had agreed to a 10-month moratorium on building in the West Bank to get negotiations going. The Arabs never came to the table for nine months. They showed up for the 10th month and stalled, then called for a continuation of the moratorium.<br /><br />Never mind the obvious cynicism. Who got hurt by that? The Palestinians who worked on the projects. I know a guy who was one of the builders who had to stop working during the moratorium. He tried to keep his work force, mostly Palestinians, employed but had to let some of them go. The workers were the ones hurt.<br /><br />Again, half truths and innuendos from Palestinians. And photographers who fall for them.<br /><br />Until next time...<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://mindoflen.blogspot.com/atom.xml</div>Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690007031950797870.post-54927670322260035782011-04-01T18:39:00.002-04:002011-04-01T18:58:15.365-04:00Len's Laws -- a Friday featureIt's late and there is little time, but you all can look for a Friday feature called Len's Laws. The idea is stolen from New Rules by that other guy on HBO.<br /><br />This week, we'll pick on <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">television</span>.<br /><br />Len's Law: Television news people are forbidden to use the word, "actually." They seem unable to give a report without that word. Using the word "actually" signifies that the reporter or anchor is surprised by things like crooks being dumb, druggies robbing donut shops (where the cops are) and mayors trying to curry favor with their bases (in New Haven's case, <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">super liberal</span> bike-riders.)<br /><br />Len's Law: Television weather people are only allowed to promo their forecasts once. After that, they must give the whole forecast, not ask if there will be a foot of snow and say the answer comes at the bottom of the program. This comes after they promoted the forecast at the top of the news show. One promo per news show.<br /><br />Len's Law: Stop using <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Chickenman</span> as a promotion. "He's everywhere, he's everywhere" belongs to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Chickenman</span>. Channel 3 is not everywhere.<br /><br />Len's Law: Television channels and cable providers cannot promo themselves during their shows. I'm watching Law & Order; you don't have to tell me to watch Law & Order. If you can't get legitimate advertising spots, then run public service announcements. You're supposed to run them anyway.<br /><br />Finally, Len's Law. Jon Stewart has to stop saying he's Jewish. He's not. Maybe he was born Jewish, but he has relinquished his right to tell anybody about this Jewish roots because of his backstabbing of Israel and anything really Jewish. He criticizes Israel for what's going on in the West Bank and Gaza, but says nothing about what's going on in Sudan, Chad, a half-dozen former Soviet republics, just about every Arab country in the Middle East and North Africa (Egypt and Morocco excepted). Jon carps at the United Nations, but acts just like the U.N. Israel is held to a higher standard, the one U.N. member forbidden to join the Security Council, but expected to live by its rules.<br /><br />Have a great weekend and for those in the Tribe: a great <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Shabbat</span>.<br /><br />Until next time...<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://mindoflen.blogspot.com/atom.xml</div>Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690007031950797870.post-73372478753361790572011-03-30T16:19:00.007-04:002011-03-30T17:12:01.398-04:00When will they ever learn<span style="font-size:85%;">It</span><span style="font-size:85%;">'s like meeting an old friend, getting back to writing in this blog.<br />They tell me blogging is old-fashioned, that Facebook, Twitter and the like are the in things, now.<br />Good. I like blogging.<br />In future blogs, I'll record what happened in the past year. For those who, for reasons passing understanding, am interested in why I am no longer with the New Haven Independent and why I am no longer aloof from political commentary, all will be revealed. Suffice it to say one thing has everything to do with another.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Why start again now?</span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:85%;">I've been sitting down for days now, trying to think of what a good return post would be. I didn't want to start on April Fool's Day. And a subject came up that needed my touch.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">They'll never learn<br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:85%;">W</span><span style="font-size:85%;">e are coming out of a recession that cost many, many people dearly. Mc, too. We are recovering. Our life's savings, pension, and the rest are recovering, but we'll never get it all back.<br /><br />So, may I ask, why do we want to start it all over again? Here's what I'm talking about.<br /><br />Proposed mortgage regulations bring back former, and sensible, rules on mortgage underwriting. These are in essence what the rules were before the folks at Fannie Mac and Freddy Mac started sniffing glue or whatever addled their brains.<br /><br />Under these rules, the proposed borrower would have to put down 20 percent, provide proof that he or she can make the payments required and do other things that make giving them the loan a good bet.<br /><br />At the same time, banks that didn't want to adhere to these rules would have to keep a percentage of those loans in their portfolios, to have, as it is said, "some skin in the game." Mortgage brokers and bankers would no longer be able to do mortgage deals that were doomed to fail, walk away with their origination fees and let the market worry about the consequences. They would stand to lose if those mortgages went south, so they would be more careful about to whom they made loans. There would not be the "I don't have to outrun the bear; I just have to outrun you" atmosphere that permeated the mortgage game.<br /><br />The absence of those rules is what started the mortgage mess. People who realistically could not afford to live in anything north of a refrigerator crate were getting mortgages on houses costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Or people were getting loans on houses that they could afford, but then taking out second mortgages and equity loans to buy cars, take vacations or what have you. Then, when they got sick or lost their jobs, they lost their houses.<br /><br />In any case, the Wild West atmosphere of the mortgage market was one of the main causes of the recession. Millions of people lost jobs, lost homes, lost hope. It will take years to recover, if we ever do.<br /><br />You would think the new rules would be welcomed. But no! There are those, do-gooders who say the rules would keep people with limited incomes from buying homes.<br /><br />They're right. It's supposed to. Not everybody can afford a home. It's too bad, but in a non-Socialist society, that's the way it is. People who had no business buying homes bought them, lost them and took millions down with them. Seniors lost a lifetime's worth of savings. People starting families lost jobs.<br /><br />Now, these do-gooders want to take us down the same path.<br /><br />When will they ever learn?<br /><br />One of the things I want to do this time around is to keep these shorter, and on one subject.<br /><br />Until next time...</span><br /></span></span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://mindoflen.blogspot.com/atom.xml</div>Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690007031950797870.post-34537109576637190752010-06-08T18:17:00.003-04:002010-06-08T18:49:02.558-04:00Helen Thomas was a great reporter, but now it's overOne of my most cherished possessions is a set of two original photographs: one of Richard Nixon standing at the door of the helicopter as he leaves the White House for the last time as president, the other of Nixon sparring with a young Dan Rather.<div><br /></div><div>They are both autographed by Helen Thomas.</div><div><br /></div><div>I acquired them at a Society of Professional Journalists auction in 1986, and bid on them with the proviso that Helen sign them. She agreed and I bought them. They are original prints that were used in the Baltimore Sun. They are framed so Helen's signature is visible.</div><div><br /></div><div>I loved Helen Thomas because she was Helen Thomas, a feisty, no-nonsense reporter who asked the questions that so many would not ask. </div><div><br /></div><div>She also kept her personal life and opinions out of her work. I didn't know she was Lebanese, and didn't care. When I think of Lebanese, I think of Danny Thomas, the beloved comedian who started the St. Jude Cancer Research Hospital that treats all children, Israeli, Lebanese, whatever. </div><div><br /></div><div>Recently, however, Helen began to let her opinions about the Middle East come out in a nasty, biased way. As a Lebanese, she might be more upset that Syria has used that nation as cannon fodder. The actions of Hezbollah have brought death and destruction to that nation. Years ago, the actions of Yasser Arafat brought war to the Paris of the East, Beirut. </div><div><br /></div><div>Christians and Muslims fought bitterly for years and the U.S. got involved, much to its regret.</div><div><br /></div><div>But I don't remember Helen Thomas spewing venom at that time. When she asked a question, it was straight, with no adjectives or hyperbole. </div><div><br /></div><div>Now, however, it is different and in the past few years, since leaving United Press International (or did UPI leave her?), she has let her personal opinions gush forth with bile. The end was inevitable.</div><div><br /></div><div>To say Jews should go back to Germany, back to Poland, and then laugh. That doesn't make sense.</div><div><br /></div><div>I think Helen Thomas has lost the ability to think clearly. She certainly has lost the ability to speak responsibly. </div><div><br /></div><div>It was time to go and certainly Hearst encouraged her to resign. Whether they demanded her resignation or not I don't know or care. She is out of the spotlight and she can spew her bile wherever she ends up. </div><div><br /></div><div>I won't speculate about why Ms. Thomas' brains seem scrambled lately. </div><div><br /></div><div>But as for the pictures on my wall, they will stay there. They were signed by the Helen Thomas of 25 years ago, not the one who did not have the good sense of her old nemesis, Nixon, who knew when to quit. </div><div><br /></div><div>Helen did not and so much the shame. I hope history is kind to her because for most of her career, she was a courageous and talented reporter, not a crone who didn't know the value of silence.</div><div><br /></div><div>Until next time...</div><div><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://mindoflen.blogspot.com/atom.xml</div>Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690007031950797870.post-49068831107477474352010-02-11T17:03:00.002-05:002010-02-11T17:34:15.640-05:00Good health to Clinton; WCBS blows itA chill ran down my back as I read a CNN bulletin that former President Bill Clinton was hospitalized with chest pains. I then read the comments on the CNN page.<div><br /></div><div>UPDATE: It turns out he had two stents placed into an artery and he is in good spirits and looking forward to getting back to work. Whew!<div><br /></div><div>The guy will rank as one of our best presidents for any number of reasons. He took the Reagan-Bush deficits and turned them into surpluses. He kept us from going into a stupid war, for a few years at least, until his successor...well, let's not get into that.</div><div><br /></div><div>Hillary Rodham Clinton, the secretary of state, also is pretty bright, knows how to get things done. I keep hearing second thoughts from people who backed our current president, saying Hillary would have the same bright ideas as Obama, but would not wimp out when it came to pushing them through the Congress. </div><div><br /></div><div>How is it that a man can have a huge plurality in both houses of Congress but we stalled by a few naysayers. Dear Barack: You need to use that bully pulpit to hit some people over the head. Chinless Mitch McConnell just says no. I guess he's channeling Nancy Reagan.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>What is WCBS thinking?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>News radio out of New York, WCBS (the only news radio we have in New Haven is WELI, which promos news but delivers none) is offering coupons to reduce the cost of parking one's car in Midtown and the Theater District.</div><div><br /></div><div>What are they thinking?</div><div><br /></div><div>The ad has two people talking about coming into New York from the burbs. One says, "Let's take the train." It's cheaper than driving. Not so, says the other person. We can get a break with a coupon from WCBS.</div><div><br /></div><div>There you go. There aren't enough cars in Manhattan. I thought the whole idea was to promote mass transit so there are fewer cars blocking the streets in Manhattan and getting into stupid accidents because of bad driving or just plain selfishness. </div><div><br /></div><div>It's bad enough that WCBS spends two minutes of every eight on traffic reports to help people who may well have alternate, cheaper, certainly less polluting sources of transportation into the city. Now, these nitwits are making it easier and cheaper to bring more cars into the city.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sign!!</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Where's all the snow?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>I gotta do this. My brother-in-law and his family lived for close to 30 years in Niskayuna, N.Y. Where is that, you may ask. It's near Albany. Near the snow belt.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, when his wife got a job hundreds of miles south, he sold his house and moved partly to get away from the snow. To Bethesda, Md. Where they have welcomed three feet of snow in the past week.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sometimes, it just doesn't pay. Anyway, he lives in an apartment and soon will live in a condo, so at least he won't have to shovel. </div><div><br /></div><div>It happens. My friend Carole Miller, she of the Oregon Ducks, decided she'd had enough of New York winters and moved to North Carolina about 10 years ago. She brought the snow and ice. Or so it seems.</div><div><br /></div><div>In any case, how about those weather forecasters on television?Brutal Weather Headed Our Way. Not. Schools were canceled. Meetings called off. I originally had two meetings Wednesday: Both were canceled. </div><div><br /></div><div>So, what happened? The foot of snow turned into three, maybe four inches. With the mid-February sun, all the shoveled sidewalks now are dry. I guess it could be worse; They could have forecasted four inches and we could have gotten the foot. But the way the weather yakkers were carrying on, all the models were converging on us getting whacked this time.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm rooting for the jet stream to stay just where it is. Let is snow in Washington. They're used to snowing each other.</div><div><br /></div><div>Until next time...</div><div><br /></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://mindoflen.blogspot.com/atom.xml</div>Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690007031950797870.post-19960675584150081872010-02-01T15:20:00.005-05:002010-02-01T16:24:34.297-05:00Warm memories of the Blizzard of '78Happy Monday. <div><br /></div><div>I see that at least one TV outlet, local public television, is planning a retrospective on the Blizzard of 1978. I don't know why now. It's not an even anniversary, but the storm started 32 years ago on Feb. 5. Channel 3 insists on calling it Storm Larry, because they name storms. Easier to remember, I guess.</div><div><br /></div><div>I was there, in the middle of it. Remembering it is pleasant for me...it was a positive experience. It also reflected a bygone era when newspapers gave a damn about covering news and their employees. </div><div><br /></div><div>My poor wife, pregnant with our second child and stuck home in Moodus with a 2 1/2 year-old doesn't remember it fondly at all. </div><div><br /></div><div>It was funny afterward but not then...she was out shoveling snow because she thought I was coming home that first night. I was trying to call to tell her I was not coming home for at least two days and probably three. She couldn't hear the phone because she was shoveling. This, remember is before cell phones.</div><div><br /></div><div>As for me, it was an adventure. Pete Zanardi, a talented sports writer and editor who lived in Chester, used to carpool to work with me. That day, his editor had told him he could stay home, but he drove in anyway with me so I wouldn't have to drive the 50 miles alone. That's a friend! He kept up a steady stream of conversation so I wouldn't think about the disaster that was occurring all around us. He even brought along a pint of brandy just in case we became stuck. More about that later.</div><div><br /></div><div>So off we drove from Chester picking up Route 9, a four-lane limited access road that would lead us to the Connecticut Turnpike (Route I-95) and New Haven, where we both worked for the late, lamented Journal-Courier morning newspaper. </div><div><br /></div><div>There was a cleared lane -- that is one that had only a few inches of snow in it, and we soon caught up with the plow that had cleared it and followed it down entrance ramps and up exit ramps. The radio, WELI which, at the time, actually covered news, was saying I-95 was a mess with cars littering the road. Not true. I'm glad we didn't listen. We lost the plow in Old Saybrook, but by then, we were almost at I-95.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, we drove slowly along the turnpike, stopping to pay the tolls in Madison and Branford. We drove down an entrance ramp to I-91, up a few one-way streets the wrong way and into the newspaper's parking lot. We had made it.</div><div><br /></div><div>At the time, the New Haven Register and Journal-Courier were at Orange and Audubon streets, now a parking lot. </div><div><br /></div><div>Inside, it was barely managed chaos. We, who drive 50 miles, were assigned hotel rooms at the Park Plaza and listened to phoned excuses from people who lived 20 blocks away how they didn't dare try to get to work. We all had assignments...mine was signing off on pages as they made their way to the composing room. I was to be the last one out, but everyone waited for me. Nobody from the newsroom was left to their own devices. A few production people had to sleep in a convent that shared the block with the paper. They didn't have a good time.</div><div><br /></div><div>We put out the paper. There were stories, some the usual stuff, some really bizarre. The funniest was from a photographer -- I can't remember who. Gov. Ella T. Grasso had closed the state highways. It was illegal to drive on them, unless you were piloting an emergency vehicle, but reporters and photographers were out there anyway. </div><div><br /></div><div>One camera jockey came back laughing so hard he could hardly breathe. He was driving in on the closed I-95 when he approached the Branford tolls. As he slowed, a hand came out of the toll booth. The road was closed but the state still was collecting the quarter tolls.</div><div><br /></div><div>We put the paper to bed. In the left hand column was a ruler as tall as the news hole -- about 18 inches, with a headline that said "It Snowed This Much." That was the brainchild of Bob Granger, the news editor, a man so beloved because, in spite of a Draconian management style, he never told a lie. Can you imagine: a boss who, if he tried to lie, his tongue would fall out of his head?</div><div><br /></div><div>Reporters and photographers went out and got remarkable stories and photos. They told the story of the blizzard from macro and close-up perspectives. These people were the best.</div><div><br /></div><div>Granger was famous for another headline. He had been ordered to juice up the headlines, so, when a man shot five people to death in a West Coast Chinese restaurant, the headline wrote "Chinese Diners Served Hot Lead." The bosses left him alone after that.</div><div><br /></div><div>Another great head from the J-C. When Felix Frankfurter had to replaced on the Supreme Court, Connecticut Gov. Abraham Ribicoff let it be known he was interested. The headline was "Abe Relishes Frankfurter Role." Those were the days!</div><div><br /></div><div>Back to the storm. </div><div><br /></div><div>In order to collect for ads, the paper had to be published, which meant printed and distributed somewhere. We rode the six or seven long blocks to the Park Plaza hotel in delivery trucks, about 10 to a truck. The bottle of brandy rode with us for the two blocks that it lasted. </div><div><br /></div><div>Speaking of booze, there was a copy boy, it was said, who was given the following order from Managing Editor Bill Guthrie. "Here's $200 cash. Go to the liquor store. If you come back with change, you're fired." Remember, this is 1978 money.</div><div><br /></div><div>The paper had bought up every hotel room it could. The bosses cared about the reporters, editors, photographers, and the rest. In other papers, people had to sleep on their desks. Not New Haven, Not then anyway.</div><div><br /></div><div>The delivery truck drivers told us they couldn't stop for fear of becoming stuck in the snow, which was still coming down too fast for plows to keep up. So we lined up, paratrooper style, stand up, stand in the door. We tossed out our bags, tossed out a few packages of papers, and jumped into the snow. No casualties.</div><div><br /></div><div>On the way through the hotel lobby, we were accosted by businessmen offering obscene amounts of money for our rooms. Nobody even thought twice. Forget it.</div><div><br /></div><div>We shared rooms, but the party was in the boss' room. One hell of a party. It spilled over into the hallways on the 17th floor. There were stories....if you know Mary O'Leary of the Register, ask her about her night. She was just trying to get some sleep -- she was quite pregnant -- but her roommate had other ideas. </div><div><br /></div><div>The next day, we slogged our way back to the paper on foot along Church, Elm and Orange streets. We were kicked out of the Park Plaza because the Ice Capades show, which had reserved the second night, showed up. They had driven in from Canada and wondered what all the fuss way about. A foot and a half of snow is a spring day up there.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, we all transferred to the Howard Johnson's on Long Wharf. The booze, or what was left of it, made it, too. More drinking. Then, on the third day, our cars were plowed out and we drove home, tired. </div><div><br /></div><div>My wife, by the way, wasn't interested in hearing the stories. She was too tired from shoveling a space in a driveway and keeping it clear so, if I could get home, I would have a place to park.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, there's the inside scoop about newspapering and the Blizzard of 78. It was good training, because about 15 years later, there was another blizzard in another state and I had to run the paper and make sure the staff was housed properly, which I did. But that's another story.</div><div><br /></div><div>Until next time...</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://mindoflen.blogspot.com/atom.xml</div>Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690007031950797870.post-70280065975082866742010-01-22T11:31:00.002-05:002010-01-22T12:06:16.428-05:00Surprise, surprise, surpriseHappy Friday.<div><br /></div><div>I don't have much time today, but a couple of things need saying. So I'm saying.</div><div><br /></div><div>That Martha Coakley got her clock cleaned in Massachusetts should be a surprise to nobody who was paying attention. So, the tale of the Democrats snatching defeat from the very jaws of victory goes on and on. And I can't even blame Dr. Howard Dean, the former DNC chairman, for this one.</div><div><br /></div><div>Coakley was so certain she would win over this upstart state senator that she phoned it in. She expressed surprise that somebody actually wanted her to go out and campaign. What, shake hands in the cold outside Fenway Park? Unthinkable. </div><div><br /></div><div>Back to that old saw again....you gotta ask. You all know the story told by the late Speaker of the House Thomas "Tip" O'Neill, who got killed in his first race for Boston city council and went to his landlady for a hug. He said to her, "At least you voted for me." She said she hadn't and when he asked why, she said, "You never asked me."</div><div><br /></div><div>I guess that was lost on Ms. Coakley. Also lost on the Democratic brain trust, or brain rust, in the Bay State was how stupid it was to run on the health plan. People vote for their own self-interest. Massachusetts already has a great health plan, so this argument went thud. </div><div><br /></div><div>So now, thanks to the GOP's marching in lockstep to the tune played by Mitch McConnell but written by the radical-right crazies on Fox News, the rest of us won't get a great health plan, or any plan at all.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Don't show your tefillin</b></div><div><br /></div><div>It gets stranger and weirder in the air.</div><div><br /></div><div>An observant Jewish kid got bored on an airplane going between New York and Lexington, Ky., so he decided to pray. So, he stood up, put on his tefillin, and started praying.</div><div><br /></div><div>The flight attendant on the plane freaked, didn't know what that was all about, thought the kid was strapping explosives to his arm and head, and the plane landed in Philly. The cops and feds swarmed on to the plane and, not being the cultural wasteland that the stewardess obviously was, figured the thing out. </div><div><br /></div><div>Thank heaven, nobody panicked and starting shooting .</div><div><br /></div><div>First of all, this was from New York. People in New York are pretty culturally savvy, so I have to figure the flight attendant was from Bugtussle. And the kid's rabbi in White Plains was weasel-wording the whole thing, telling Jews it's OK to pray but don't put your tefillin on in public. Can you imagine what would happen if somebody told Catholics they shouldn't make the sign of the cross. Unimaginable. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Rich guys prevail</b></div><div><br /></div><div>The latest poll shows that the two rich guys from Greenwich, one for each party, are leading the governor's race. Ned Lamont and Tom Foley, both guys with nearly unlimited budgets, are in the lead for the governor's race. In addition, some guy from Wallingford whose name escapes me is running for secretary of the state. But he doesn't know the name of his office. He kept saying secretary of state. If you don't know the name of the office you are seeking, don't seek it.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, in other words, politics as usual in Connecticut.</div><div><br /></div><div>And can you imagine what effect the Supreme Court decision letting loose the corporate coffers on the election system will have on all of this? </div><div><br /></div><div>But in all of this, the weekend comes. It should be great weather wise. So, everyone have a great weekend and for all in the Tribe, a good Shabbos.</div><div><br /></div><div>Until next time...</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://mindoflen.blogspot.com/atom.xml</div>Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690007031950797870.post-59346103697357820492010-01-15T15:18:00.003-05:002010-01-15T16:07:02.695-05:00The Ides of January hath comeGood MLK Day. Today is the iconic leader's real birthday, but we'll be celebrating it on Monday so the bonus babies on Wall Street and city, state and federal workers have a long weekend.<div><br /></div><div>For the financial bonus babies, that means another day without them screwing up the financial system. </div><div><br /></div><div>MLK, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., had the shoulders the rest of us are standing on in the fight for equality for all. He worked when it was still dangerous to be for equality for all and against such things as separate bathrooms, restaurants and the rest. King, with the inspiration of President Kennedy inspired and President Johnson, got the work passed and we are all better off for it, even if we are Tea Party types or Sarah-ites. </div><div><br /></div><div>That's one thing we don't have today. We have a president to inspire us, but we don't have anyone to get the stuff through the Congress, like LBJ did. We could have had Tom Daschle, the former senator, who could have strong armed the health insurance reform through, but we lost him to some chickencrap about taxes. </div><div><br /></div><div>A friend who has been a bastion of liberal causes is starting to say that perhaps liberals have helped screw up the world. Perhaps.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>AT&T: Shut up already</b></div><div><br /></div><div>It would be hard for me to put into words my upset, actually anger, at AT&T's claims against Verizon. </div><div><br /></div><div>AT&T claims that only AT&T phones allow you to talk and surf the Web at the same time. That's because their system supports the iPhone. Hopefully, that will come to an end this summer when, one hopes, the wonderful Apple phone will be available to Verizon customers. </div><div><br /></div><div>But anyway, it's not such a big deal. Since you are probably going to be driving a car at the same time, maybe just being able to do one function at a time is safer. </div><div><br /></div><div>But AT&T's 3G, third generation, coverage area is so anemic that the only thing many of these iPhone customers are able to do is redial their phones and wait for a Web signal. So, AT&T, shut up already. Nobody's buying. And, friends at Apple, I love your products (this blog is written on one), but hate that you put your own profit ahead of your customers' good. </div><div><br /></div><div>Please fix that by offering the iPhone on Verizon as soon as you can.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>All that baby type</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Since I am ranting against things on television, let me get going on the baby type at the bottom of almost any ad. You know, the little paragraph with words much too small to read and displayed for such a short time that you didn't have time to read, even if you could see it, which you can't.</div><div><br /></div><div>The ads go by on television, and a claim is made. Then comes those paragraphs of legal weasel-wording that the claim is only good (this is an exaggeration, but not by much) on alternate Tuesdays between 3 and 4 in the morning when the wind is from the west at more than four by less than six miles per hour.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>How is this allowed? </b></div><div><br /></div><div>A claim is made from a lawyer that you pay no money unless you win. The tiny type saying you are responsible for all expenses, costs, copying costs, phone charges and staff time no matter what, lasts a nanosecond on the screen. </div><div><br /></div><div>The claim that the car has all this great stuff is countered by the wonderful word "available" in tiny type. The car starts at $23,000 -- the tiny type that appears for three seconds says "as shown, $39,990."</div><div><br /></div><div>How is this allowed?</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Think, then change</b> </div><div><br /></div><div>Let's change gears. It is possible that Susan Bysiewicz is not ready for prime time?</div><div><br /></div><div>She is the secretary of the state (pronounced BUYsowitz everyplace but New Britain, where it is pronounced BySEVitch) who was running for governor and is now running for attorney general, who was for the state's public funding scheme when she was running for governor but won't use it running for attorney general where, one would suspect, she would be spending less.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now she is asking the present attorney general whether she has been a practicing lawyer in Connecticut long enough to run for attorney general. </div><div><br /></div><div>Maybe the time to worry about that was before she announced.</div><div><br /></div><div>Hey, even Hamlet, in the guise of longtime Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, (you know, to run or not to run, that is the question) has settled on an office to seek -- Chris Dodd's Senate seat. Maybe she should sit down and think about what she wants to do, make up her mind, and than announce.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's not as if the election were next week.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Made it though another week</b>.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is a long weekend for some of us...all government and quasi-governments (like the post office) are closed. Have a great week.</div><div><br /></div><div>But think about two things -- Dr. King and his work, and those poor, poor people in Haiti.</div><div><br /></div><div>We should all pitch in and help. Give through your church or synagogue or someplace you trust. Stay away from charities with large administrative ratios. You don't need to fund some bureaucrat's $300 grand a year salary or Jimmy Carter's anti-Semitic rantings. And, believe it or not, there are scammers out there, so watch out.</div><div><br /></div><div>And thank God or fate or whoever or whatever you believe runs the world...there but for the grace....go we.</div><div><br /></div><div>Have a great weekend and for those in the Tribe, a great Shabbos.</div><div><br /></div><div>Until next time...</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://mindoflen.blogspot.com/atom.xml</div>Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690007031950797870.post-61068314811880868902010-01-08T15:09:00.002-05:002010-01-08T15:54:40.051-05:00New directions for a new yearHappy New Year<div><br /></div><div>So, it's twenty-ten, as it is being called instead of two thousand and ten. I'm surprised it took that long for the shorthand to kick in. </div><div><br /></div><div>First of all, it's not the new decade. When the Christian calendar was started, there was no year zero. Zero as the start of a numbering process only started with computers, I think. Boy, is this subject is boring or what? Enough.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Training wheels on mass transit</b></div><div><br /></div><div>There are some new things kicking in, and at least one of them is a really positive development. </div><div><br /></div><div>The state Bond Commission, which is controlled by the governor and does what she wants, today (Jan. 8, 2010) approved $26 million for double tracking work and other improvements on the rail line that goes from New Haven to Springfield, Mass., by way of Hartford.</div><div><br /></div><div>That means plans for real rail service north of New Haven are on the front burner. They are talking service as often as every half hour during certain weekday hours. This is huge. For decades, my wife worked in Hartford and had to commute each workday from New Haven.</div><div><br /></div><div>She had two choices. (Don't say bus...nobody has that much time.)</div><div><br /></div><div>She could drive or subscribe to a van pool. She tried to van pool for a while. It didn't work out because her job didn't allow her to be on the van the same time each day.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, for most of the two-plus decades, she drove. Now, her successors might have a choice.</div><div><br /></div><div>Everyone who has been to Europe, not on a bus tour, has experienced the transit system. You can get from anywhere to anywhere else by public transit. That's not the case in Connecticut.</div><div><br /></div><div>But it might be better soon. </div><div><br /></div><div>The release talking about the rail improvements said, in part:</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> "</span>Current plans for NHHS (New Haven, Hartford, Springfield) line call for bidirectional service between New Haven and Springfield running Monday through Friday on a 30-minute peak period schedule.</div><div><p class="PreformattedText">"The proposal would add several new stations and enhance the Windsor Locks station with a bus connection to Bradley International Airport. Local bus service elsewhere would be reconfigured to connect with passenger stations."</p> <!--EndFragment--> </div><div>In other words, you can get on a train in New Haven and ride to Bradley without having to worry about traffic, weather, tractor-trailer crashes closing I-91 for hours. Until the folks in New Haven wake up and allow Tweed-New Haven Regional Airport to be something more than a private-plane field with a few commercial flights to Philadelphia, this is great news. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Briefly</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>CBS</b> has announced that Morgan Freeman will introduce the CBS Evening News with Katie now that Uncle Walter has a desk in that great newsroom in the sky. That means all three major network news shows are being introduced by actors. Apropos, isn't it? </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Talk</b> about irony. The Atlantic Monthly, which features articles so long that one's eyes glaze over and you lose interest long before you reach the end, is running an article in the January/February issue saying that one of the reasons for a lack of interest in newspapers is that the stories are too long. Arggggh.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Journal-Register Corp., </b>publisher of newspapers including the New Haven Register, has a new boss. He's John Paton, who comes from ImpreMedia, which bills itself as the largest publisher of Hispanic papers in the nation. He also has a reputation for knowing how to use multi-media in newspapering. That's important for an industry where some papers think that if something appears on their Web sites before getting in the paper, then the paper has scooped itself. The JRC went through a prepackaged bankruptcy proceeding last year and sold itself to a number of banks who turned from lenders to owners. Robert Conway, the former CEO who guided JRC through its bankruptcy, told me during one of the final hearings that he didn't foresee any more layoffs in New Haven. Here's hoping the new guy has the same feeling.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, have a great weekend and, for those in the Tribe, a great Shabbos. </div><div><br /></div><div>Until next time...</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://mindoflen.blogspot.com/atom.xml</div>Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690007031950797870.post-45605141776604472972009-12-28T16:03:00.002-05:002009-12-28T17:09:49.132-05:00Happy Monday.<div><br /></div><div>I hope all who celebrate had a wonderful Christmas and, before that, those who celebrate had a great Hanukkah. </div><div><br /></div><div>Boy, this month went by quickly. There was some snow and some rain, a lot less than people in other parts of the nation did. We here were lucky....my daughter, son in law and grandchildren came for a few days and Andrea and Mike did most of the shoveling. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>See Avatar</b></div><div><br /></div><div>If you haven't seen the new flick, Avatar, do yourself a favor and see it. See it in 3-D...the flat-screen version has to be like kissing your sister compared to the 3-D experience.</div><div><br /></div><div>The critics who said it was like seeing Star Wars and Jurassic Park for the first time were underselling the movie. It's like nothing you've seen before. It also has a plot line that carries the movie. There are no special effects...it is all one long special effect.</div><div><br /></div><div>Just go see it. You won't regret the time. And kudos to the folks at the Connecticut Post 14 Cinema De Luxe in Milford for keeping the senior Wednesday rate going for this film. If you are over 60 years old, you can see any film all day Wednesday for $4.50, including Avatar in 3-D.</div><div><br /></div><div>One of the compensations of aging.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Health-care screw-ups</b></div><div><br /></div><div>One of the non-compensations of aging is being in the barrel for the battle over health care.</div><div><br /></div><div>There are a few things that are strange and stupid about the bills that have come out of the House and Senate.</div><div><br /></div><div>The first is, thanks to our friend Joe Lieberman, there will be no opening of the Medicare rolls to those from 55 to 65 years of age. I worked for Joe's election in 2006. I apologize. I was wrong. The reason I volunteered to help him win his seat was that he was an honest man, true to his convictions. And he was. I don't know what changed, why he changed, but I cannot say that about him any more. </div><div><br /></div><div>He campaigned for the concept that one of the best ways to insure people of a certain age was to allow them to access the Medicare system years early. Now, all of a sudden, he's against it and holds the entire idea of health-care reform hostage until he gets his way. </div><div><br /></div><div>I don't see the problem. Yes, having these new Medicare recipients will cost money, but first it will bring more money into the system. Medicare recipients pay close to $100 a month each. So billions of dollars will enter the system right away.</div><div><br /></div><div>Lieberman and Ben Horse's-Patoot Nelson of Nebraska were able to hold the bill up to ransom because not one, not one Republican supported it. On top of that, we have to listen to that hypocrite Mitch McConnell talk about fighting health-care reform because Republicans are the party fighting for the nation. All of them, all in lock-step. </div><div><br /></div><div>The GOP is the party of politics uber alles, politics over all. So let's not talk about how the GOP is the party of the people. It is the party of the insurance companies, of big pharma, of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the others who have spent tens of millions of dollars fighting any kind of health-care reform.</div><div><br /></div><div>Answer a question, please. How many people could we have insured with the money spent fighting for a system that insures huge profits and little else?</div><div><br /></div><div>One of the things that is being thrown on the altar is the so-called Medicare supplement or Medicare Advantage plans. Yes, insurance companies are taking huge profits from these plans, lavishing perks on their executives and partners that most of us will only see on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. </div><div><br /></div><div>But they also deliver some sensible services to the people who pay for them.</div><div><br /></div><div>For example, Medicare, for reasons passing understanding, doesn't pay for yearly physicals. Medicare Advantage (MA) plans do. That way, problems can be caught early, perhaps preventing life-threatening, and expensive, conditions from taking hold.</div><div><br /></div><div>MA plans also pay for gym memberships. People who exercise get sick less, as a whole.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, it would seem that MA plans should be kept, but stripped of the huge corporate profits. But that won't happen. Large Georgetown condos cost money. Look, I don't know if Lieberman is in the insurance companies' pockets. I hope not. But I haven't heard a good reason he changed his mind on health care. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Terrible Ten</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Since it's not likely that I'll write again before the secular New Year, which initiates the next decade, I have found a good list of mistakes made in the past one. </div><div><br /></div><div>Thanks to Peter Cohan at DailyFinance.com. He writes: </div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; ">While it's always easy to see in hindsight, this disastrous decade could have turned out differently were it not for 10 horrible decisions that took place from 2000 to 2009. Here are my picks for this dubious distinction:<br /><br /><ul style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 25px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; "><li style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Al Gore's decision not to request a recount of all Florida votes. </strong>Al Gore won the popular vote count in 2000 by more than <a href="http://quest.cjonline.com/stories/122200/gen_1222007544.shtml" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(40, 139, 203); ">500,000</a>, and the results in Florida were close -- leading to a <a href="http://political-analysis.org/vfraud/id11.html" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(40, 139, 203); ">partial recount</a>. Gore <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/12/13/bushgore-usat.htm" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(40, 139, 203); ">could have demanded a recount of all the Florida votes</a>, which might have kept the election away from the Supreme Court. Though <a href="http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~gpomper/FloridaRecount.doc" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(40, 139, 203); ">some think</a> a statewide recount would have tipped Florida to Gore, we'll never know how much better or worse a Gore presidency might have been.</li><li style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">The Supreme Court's decision to in effect elect George Bush.</strong> This decision was a <a href="http://political-analysis.org/vfraud/id11.html" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(40, 139, 203); ">historic hijacking</a> of a democratic process in which a country's citizens elect a leader, rather than its Supreme Court. Granted, the Florida voting was a complicated mess, but this outcome set a terrible precedent and led to what some argue was the <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/9961300/the_worst_president_in_history" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(40, 139, 203); ">worst presidency</a> in American history.</li><li style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">President Bush's</strong><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> decision to ignore warnings of a terrorist attack in the summer of 2001.</strong> Bush received a Presidential Daily Brief in August 2001 titled <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/10/august6.memo/" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(40, 139, 203); ">"Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the U.S." </a>He also appeared to ignore people who <a href="http://slate.msn.com/id/2098861/" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(40, 139, 203); ">who tried to warn him</a>. If he had heeded those warnings, it's at least possible that 9/11 could have been averted. He did not, and thousands died.</li><li style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">President Bush's </strong><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">decision to let Osama Bin Laden escape in December 2001.</strong> The battle of <a href="http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2009/01/14/bushs-legacy-letting-bin-laden-strike-america-and-failing-to-b/" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(40, 139, 203); ">Tora Bora</a> could have led to Bin Laden's capture as he tried to flee into Pakistan. The U.S had him surrounded but failed to reinforce the position. So the architect of those terrorist attacks escaped.</li><li style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">President Bush's</strong><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> decision to invade Iraq. </strong>Bush <a href="http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2007/09/06/bush_wmd/" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(40, 139, 203); ">knew Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction</a> (WMDs) and no tie to the 9/11 attacks, but he made both claims to justify going to war against it. Six years later, no Iraqi WMDs were ever found, and Iraq still doesn't have a flourishing democracy. But <a href="http://usliberals.about.com/od/homelandsecurit1/a/IraqNumbers.htm" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(40, 139, 203); ">4,370 U.S. soldiers are dead (plus untold thousands more Iraqis) and $800 billion</a> worth of taxpayer money has been spent for that war.</li><li style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Government's failure to regulate Wall Street.</strong> The idea that free markets would regulate themselves was strongly promoted by former Fed Chairman <a href="http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2008/04/26/why-securitization-must-end/" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(40, 139, 203); ">Alan Greenspan</a>, and during the decade that view prevailed in the White House. The result was to allow a weakly regulated $10 trillion mortgage-securitization industry to grow unchecked. And that led to millions of homes entering foreclosure; the end of Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers; and very nearly a global financial collapse.</li><li style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Government's decision to let Lehman Brothers go bankrupt.</strong> History's biggest bankruptcy -- the $639 billion failure of Lehman Brothers -- was avoidable. While it might have been temporarily satisfying to let the market exact its pound of flesh, that decision to let Lehman Brothers collapse in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/business/16reconstruct.html?_r=1&ref=business" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(40, 139, 203); ">September 2008</a> rapidly eroded confidence in the capital markets. And if people had lost all faith in that, the social order may have collapsed.</li><li style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">President Bush's decision to more than double the national debt.</strong> During Bush's tenure, the national debt increased from <a href="http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/will-higher-interest-payments-cost-the-u-s-its-empire/19258685/" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(40, 139, 203); ">$5 trillion</a> to more than $11 trillion -- and it has since risen to $12 trillion. This decision to borrow so much money early in his tenure boosted the federal deficit to record levels and severely weakened the U.S.'s financial position. Adding to that weakness were the president's $1.3 trillion worth of tax cuts -- <a href="http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/08/14/another-legacy-of-president-george-w-bush-massive-income-inequ/" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(40, 139, 203); ">32.6%</a> of which went to the top 1% of earners.</li><li style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Banks' decision to use too much debt and to mismatch assets and liabilities. </strong>Banks borrowed way too much money during the decade, and that made them extremely vulnerable when their leveraged bets went against them. At some points, Wall Street borrowed as much as <a href="http://seekingalpha.com/article/97299-leverage-101-the-real-cause-of-the-financial-crisis" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(40, 139, 203); ">$30 for every dollar of equity</a>. And Wall Street's decision to borrow short -- meaning the big firms needed to refinance their balance sheet every week or month -- and lend long -- meaning they got repaid over the course of many years -- put the Street's daily survival at the mercy of the very short-term commercial paper market.</li><li style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><strong style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">The SEC's failure to stop Bernie Madoff. </strong>As the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/30/AR2009103003678.html" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(40, 139, 203); "><em style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Washington Post</em></a> has reported, the SEC had numerous chances to stop Bernie Madoff's $60 billion Ponzi scheme during the decade -- although it turned out that his deception had gone on for decades before that. The SEC's ongoing decision to not pursue Madoff and his fraud cost many people their life savings.</li></ul><div>Thanks, Peter. Lots to think about.</div><div><br /></div><div>And to all of you, great readers, thanks for hanging in and have a great new year. Stay sober if you are driving. Remember, New Year's Eve is amateur night on the roads.</div><div><br /></div><div>Until next time...</div></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://mindoflen.blogspot.com/atom.xml</div>Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690007031950797870.post-60404231160027813642009-12-04T15:16:00.002-05:002009-12-04T15:59:39.760-05:00There goes another oneHappy Friday.<div><br /></div><div>First the ad. Unpaid, of course. If you like the Three Stooges, nyuk nyuk yourself over to the Jewish Community Center at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 6. Prof. Faye Ringel, who is an expert on the Stooges, will hold forth about them. There's a Klezmer musical program as well.</div><div><br /></div><div>The best part is the cost: FREE. It's sponsored by the Jewish Historical Society (I'm a vice president). Come. Laugh. You'll enjoy. It's not fingers in your eyes. Yes, of course, it is. Nyuk, nyuk.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>There goes another one</b></div><div><br /></div><div>I heard from a former colleague at The Journal News, Gannett's daily in Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Duchess and Orange counties -- basically everything from New York City north to Catskill the mountains. The news was not good. </div><div><br /></div><div>Those who have been faithful readers know I toiled there for the better (or worse) part of 15 years through blizzards, September 11, war, more war. You get the idea. Most of the time, I had a lot to say about what went into the paper and where it went. </div><div><br /></div><div>Then, about eight or nine years ago, a new group was sent by the geniuses at Gannett, you know the company whose stock went from $100 a share to single digits. That group. They did such a good job and TJN that circulation was nearly halved under their stewardship. </div><div><br /></div><div>In 2005, they offered early retirement to, if I remember, 27 people. 25 took it. As for me, you can still see the scorch marks on the carpet. </div><div><br /></div><div>In August, this group made everybody apply for their jobs. Out of, I think, 150 people or so in the newsroom, 25 didn't even bother applying. Another 75 were shown the door. </div><div><br /></div><div>So, now they have decided to sell the building, print the paper in New Jersey, and fire just about everybody in production and circulation -- more than 160 people. This after closing down its production operation in Rockland County, selling its building there and moving the few editorial and sales people left into other offices. </div><div><br /></div><div>They probably will do the same thing in Westchester, my source says. Either they will lease back some space in the building or move the once proud operation with five bureaus and 12 editions to a little office somewhere. </div><div><br /></div><div>I guess maybe the new regime isn't so smart after all.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Disconnect by Ma Bell</b></div><div><br /></div><div>There's a war going on between AT&T (Ma Bell for those too young to remember one huge telephone company connecting the entire nation, seamlessly, and conducting wonderful research projects) and Verizon, which started out life as New York Telephone.</div><div><br /></div><div>The third part of this mess is Apple, makers of Mac computers (used to call them Macintosh, for from whence the apple reference comes). Apple put out the iPhone, a wonderful instrument whose Achilles' heel is that it operates on 3G. For those who don't know, 3G is Third Generation. The folks at Apple partnered with AT&T, probably because they had the biggest network of coverage.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now the folks at Apple are pretty smart, but they apparently didn't read the fine print in AT&T ads, which says 3G not available everywhere, or weasel words meaning that. It turns out that 3G isn't available nearly anywhere.</div><div><br /></div><div>A few weeks ago, a federal group -- i don't remember if was a judge or a commission, turned away a suit by AT&T against Verizon for a chart in Verizon's ad showing Verizon's 3G (read fiber optic) coverage as being in most of the nation, where AT&T's was pretty sparse in comparison.</div><div><br /></div><div>To be fair, the judge or whoever told Verizon it had to explain that the sparsity was in AT&T 3G coverage, not total coverage, which is pretty near everywhere. In its latest ads, AT&T fails to come clean about that -- it just says coverage, not 3G coverage.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, that leaves people like me, who would love to have an iPhone, in a quandary. I don't want to spend $400 or so for a phone that only works to its full potential in a small percentage of places . Now, I guess I have to wait to see if Google's Droid phone is as good as Verizon says it is.</div><div><br /></div><div>Apple: You screwed up. Admit it. Say it...say it. </div><div><br /></div><div>You still make one hell of a computer. These words are being written on one. Now if I can only find a wire to connect my beloved Mac Book to the monitor I just bought.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Snow joke</b></div><div><br /></div><div>It looks as if we may get our first snow this weekend. Had to get the headline pun out of the way. Please, please television folk: Don't say it's winter's first snow. Winter is still more than a fortnight away. What's a fortnight? Look it up.</div><div><br /></div><div>Have a great weekend and, for those in the Tribe, a wonderful Shabbos.</div><div><br /></div><div>Until next time...</div><div><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://mindoflen.blogspot.com/atom.xml</div>Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690007031950797870.post-75227690137918212042009-11-24T18:47:00.005-05:002009-11-24T19:38:27.789-05:00What to be thankful forHappy Thanksgiving week.<div><br /></div><div>If you were looking for the weekly rant Monday morning, I'm sorry I missed. I've been a little sick. Nothing much, as it turns out, just a cold.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, what do we have to be thankful for this Thanksgiving?</div><div><br /></div><div>First of all, health, family, love, belonging, working, not being dependent on others.</div><div><br /></div><div>The good sense to leave Gannett four years ago and not having to go through the horrible situation those left at that wretched company have to go through. The company's bottom line is getting better, the stock is going up a bit and these yakkers on television say it's because advertising is coming back. Baloney. The bottom line is rising because the company has fired half the staff. </div><div><br /></div><div>The ones who are left are those who got the company into the horrible shape it was in in the first place. </div><div><br /></div><div>But I digress. Things to be thankful for.</div><div><br /></div><div>Personally, it's a wife who puts up with me, kids who have are really good people and those who are married have married really good people and are raising children who are really good people. So what if two of the boys are hellions. </div><div><br /></div><div>I also have been able to support myself and my family with my labor and still am in no danger of needing anyone else's help. Sure, the savings has diminished, but it's coming back. </div><div><br /></div><div>I'm thankful that the University of Connecticut football team was able to get itself together to be Notre Dame, one of the great programs in the nation. Yes, the Fighting Irish are not having a great year, but UConn also is suffering after losing one of its stars to a horrible and unnecessary murder. But this was a great win and everyone in Connecticut should be proud.</div><div><br /></div><div>Things to be thankful for. Share yours, if you wish.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Black Friday</b></div><div><br /></div><div>There is something to be said for racial memory, that memory with which we are all imbued depending on one's background.</div><div><br /></div><div>For example, Jews talking about the Holocaust are sharing a set of thoughts that need not be expressed verbally. It's a base that every Jew, from Orthodox to secular to converted away, still shares. </div><div><br /></div><div>Christians have that about Christmas. There is a set of values and beliefs that go without saying, that are buried in your consciousness. It's like instinct.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, never having been a Christian, I don't get it when it comes to Christmas. I've gotten into trouble because of it. Once, when I was in charge of the Monday paper in Westchester, there was a fire. Nobody was hurt, although a few people were left homeless. Nobody died, nobody was injured, so I put a photo on the front page and ran the story and photos big on the local section front. The photos were good, but not prize-winners.</div><div><br /></div><div>On Monday when I came into work, I was pilloried for not using the story on the front page. How could I? What was the big deal? Nobody was hurt. But, I was informed, the fire destroyed several families' Christmas presents. The children might have to face Christmas with no presents. Why didn't I blow out the front page with the story and start a collection to buy Christmas presents for these children?</div><div><br /></div><div>I still don't get it. That's me. No racial memory of Christmas. To me, the whole thing about Christmas is a story about a certain guy who was the basis of a worldwide belief system. Giving gifts seems secondary, but that's all you hear about. </div><div><br /></div><div>I still don't get why every last radio station has to play nothing but Christmas carols on the eve and the day, why every television station has to run sappy movies.</div><div><br /></div><div>And I don't get Black Friday.</div><div><br /></div><div>Last year, some poor guy was killed trying to stem the tide of manic people trying to buy Christmas presents. People show up at 4 in the morning, 5 in the morning. Still, in spite of that horrible tragedy. Stores are trying to mitigate the danger, but won't halt the practice. </div><div><br /></div><div>I guess I'm not the only <a href="http://www.comcast.net/finance/forwhatitsworth/4085/blackfridaysdirtysecrets/">one</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>From now, actually for about a month now, people are running around buying Christmas gifts for people they don't even like. And each person gets multiple gifts.</div><div><br /></div><div>When I was much, much younger, I had the opportunity to spend Christmas with the family of a girl I knew. I was shocked. I brought one gift. These people, who were not in the best economic circumstance by any means, must have showered each other with a dozen gifts each. </div><div><br /></div><div>To be completely truthful, friend wife and I once stood on line at midnight at the late and much lamented Comp USA. The line was long but moved quickly. We got a portable hard drive and a couple of thumb drives. It wasn't too bad. But other people were just starting their day, talking about going from place to place starting at 4 in the morning.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sorry. I just don't get it.</div><div><br /></div><div>But in any case, have a great Thanksgiving. </div><div><br /></div><div>Until next time...</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://mindoflen.blogspot.com/atom.xml</div>Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690007031950797870.post-8363252024540016792009-11-15T17:35:00.003-05:002009-11-15T18:15:49.183-05:00The pause that refreshes in so many waysHappy Monday.<div><br /></div><div>In the past week, we've (my wife and I, not the royal we) have been fortunate to see all seven of our grandchildren -- and their parents, of course.</div><div><br /></div><div>That's truly a pause that refreshes.</div><div><br /></div><div>The little ones, in our case ranging from less than six months to eight years, have such a joy of living, such an optimism, such a positive slant on things -- whatever the problem, mommy and daddy can fix it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Their problems can all be fixed. Yes, we've been fortunate. Even in our little one, who was undergoing surgery at the age of one week, is gaining by leaps and bounds, his chipmunk cheeks and round tummy showing the effects of parental love, good food and the best in medical care.</div><div><br /></div><div>I know we've been fortunate, after seeing what happens to neglected, unwanted children or those born with medical conditions that are beyond the scope of science and medicine. </div><div><br /></div><div>So, with all the complaining I do, both in writing here and verbally to friends and family, I really do know how blessed I am in so many ways.</div><div><br /></div><div>They say the children will lead them. Let's say the children inspire us to make sure we act in a way that will keep them headed on the path to much health, happiness and success.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Number, please</b></div><div><br /></div><div>That doesn't mean I'm going to stop bitching. Heaven forbid.</div><div><br /></div><div>Ask me what I was doing for hours today. Let me tell you.</div><div><br /></div><div>I was programming the phone books on two phone systems, one home and the other cells. Why? Because we now have to dial an area code for all phone calls, even to people who live next door. So, one has to sit here and put 203 in front of all my presets. </div><div><br /></div><div>Connecticut is getting two more area codes, I guess they are needed because of the proliferation of cell phones and other devices.</div><div><br /></div><div>Google is getting into the act with the Droid, a version of the iPhone that works on Verizon. AT&T has the iPhone sewn up, at least for now. Once that gets going, along with other phone systems, including the one that has pigs eating pork in its ads, the numbers will sell out like tickets to UConn women's basketball.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm sorry the iPhone isn't available on Verizon. I'd buy it in a heartbeat. The people who have it are having way too much fun.</div><div><br /></div><div>But, I've heard horror stories of AT&T's lack of coverage. A woman who works at Yale in downtown New Haven says since she switched from Verizon to AT&T, she can't make or receive calls. A person with whom I used to work was shocked one day a few years ago when she called her husband in Bethel, a town in Connecticut near Danbury, to open the garage so she wouldn't have to go out in the snow. You guessed it: No service.</div><div><br /></div><div>Well, I'm going to wait a while before even looking at the Droid. I want something that will work internationally, and something that will work well. Even the IPhone had problems (I'm not sure if you can change your own battery even now), so let someone else beta-test it.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'll stick to my years-old Samsung that I got for nothing or next to nothing. It makes calls, received them and in a pinch, I can text with it. And it never, or almost never, loses calls.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>How dumb is this?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>The Hampshire Gazette is the daily paper in the Amherst, Mass., area, named after the county, not the college.</div><div><br /></div><div>It contained a story that is hard to believe, but I am assured is true. </div><div><br /></div><div>The good people of Amherst, Mass., in Representative Town Meeting assembled, have issued an invitation for two residents of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to live among them. No, not the Cubans, the guests of the government. In other words, suspected terrorists.</div><div><br /></div><div>They say that those who move to Amherst should not be convicted of terroristic acts against the United States of America. One of those is a former Russian soldier who said he didn't get a fair shake in the Russian Army because he was a Muslim. He could not get Halal food (that's the Muslim version of kosher -- no pork), and was not allowed to pray.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, how did he come to the attention of the U.S. at Gitmo? According to him, he ran away to Afghanistan. The Russians were on his tail, so he made up a story that he had been in training in an al-Qaida camp so the Americans would arrest him, not the Russians.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, off to Gitmo he went. But there, instead of being patted on the back, he got locked up. </div><div><br /></div><div>So on the force of this tale, which has my BS meter working overtime, the good people of Amherst invited him and a buddy to come live among them.</div><div><br /></div><div>This guy is either dangerous, or a complete idiot. So are the naive people of Amherst who don't seem to think things through. </div><div><br /></div><div>I'm told that the invitation will only take force if the State Department goes along with the gag. That make me confident beyond measure.</div><div><br /></div><div>God bless fools and do-gooders.</div><div><br /></div><div>Until next time...</div><div><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://mindoflen.blogspot.com/atom.xml</div>Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690007031950797870.post-13994513693796964832009-11-08T18:36:00.004-05:002009-11-09T01:34:17.003-05:00Things ain't what they used to beHappy Monday<div><br /></div><div>OK, here's the old codger ranting again about how things are not what they used to be. <div><br /></div><div>Well, yeah. This week, things seemed to be not so good- all along the spectrum. There was nothing earth-shaking like my computer blowing up or other catastrophe. </div><div><br /></div><div>It was the little things, like commercials. There were these two pigs eating a ham steak. That's so wrong for so many reasons, none of which had to do with my not eating meat in general and pig meat in particular. For the life of me, I can't remember what the spot was trying to sell, but that image was just so bad, so wrong.</div><div><br /></div><div>Last week, we went into a store, one that is heavily advertised as a place that one remembers from childhood. Children, believe me when I say there was a time when department stores actually had people who helped you find what you wanted and knew their products.</div><div><br /></div><div>I shave with an electric shaver. I don't really like it, but Jewish law says you can't use a blade so I do it. My wife bought this shaver for me and it's probably the best around. It came with a device that charges and cleans the shaver. To do the cleaning, it uses a fluid, an expensive fluid. So, off we go to this store. </div><div><br /></div><div>Now, you will probably notice I haven't used the name. That's on purpose. I'm not really afraid of libel because I'm telling the truth, which is an absolute defense, but because it's not worse than other stores. </div><div><br /></div><div>So, I went to this store because I had bought this fluid in this place when the store had another name. That store could trace its roots back to G. Fox & Co., a store that once had a policy that a customer was to be greeted with a minute of entering a department. Really. </div><div><br /></div><div>So we went to this store last week to seek out the fluid. They didn't have it. They had the shavers, but not the fluid. I asked the children whom the store paid, probably at minimum wage, to be in this department. Now I could say that these kids were dumb, which probably is not the case. I could say they could care less about the customer, but were just interested in this conversation they were having. That would be true.</div><div><br /></div><div>I asked this pair if they knew who sold the fluid, and of course they didn't. That didn't bother me as much as the attitude. Why are you asking us? Why are you bothering us? </div><div><br /></div><div>Fortunately, another customer said he had had the same problem and had found the fluid at Wal-Mart, where I refuse to shop, and Bed, Bath and Beyond, where I found it. </div><div><br /></div><div>Since I'm on this kick, here's a few other things that crawled under my skin this week.</div><div><br /></div><div>Newspapers. Here's a cute monograph on what happened to <a href="http://www.splicetoday.com/politics-and-media/what-it-means-when-a-city-loses-its-paper">newspapers</a>. I don't agree with everything he says, but on most points. And, by the way, </div><div><br /></div><div>Elections. Last week in New Haven, we had an election for mayor and the Board of Aldermen, which is the city's legislature. About 18 percent of the people voted. That was a joke, as was the ticket. There was no organized opposition to the longtime mayor. It's not that the mayor is doing a bad job. He's not. It's that there was a lot of time and money wasted on the election. There are 30 seats on the board, and there were real contests for two of them. </div><div><br /></div><div>Bosses. Craig Dubow, the head of Gannett, my former employer, has a 20 percent approval rating among his employees, the few that are left. That probably has a lot to do with his dismal rating.</div><div><br /></div><div>The fun part of this is that he is only the 21st most reviled boss in the nation, according to Glassdoor.com. The guy who runs LexisNexis has an 8 percent approval rating. As Maurice Chevalier sang in Gigi, "Oh, I'm so glad that I'm not young anymore."</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Veterans Day</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>I hope some of the young, blond and banal are reading this. That's what I call what passes for television news anchors these days. </div><div><br /></div><div>So, here it is again. This is Veterans Day. It used to be called Armistice Day, that day when The Great War ended. This is not the day we honor just dead veterans. That's in May. </div><div><br /></div><div>So, please don't get it wrong again. Wednesday is the day when we honor all veterans, even those who are still alive -- especially those who are still alive. If you want to honor just dead vets, you have to wait until spring. Got it? Probably not.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Health care</b></div><div><br /></div><div>I can't figure out why doctors, of all people, are against the health-care bill passed this past weekend by the House. The American Medical Association is for the bill, but doctors I know are against it. They also say the AMA doesn't represent them. Strange.</div><div><br /></div><div>A couple of things. The bill is thousands of pages long, and most of that is gobbledygook that doesn't mean much to many people. It doesn't mean much to me.</div><div><br /></div><div>There are two points I want to make, and then you all can have a tea party on my lawn if you want. </div><div><br /></div><div>Point One: The administrative cost of private insurance is about 35 percent. The administrative cost of Medicare is 3 percent. So much for an expensive public option.</div><div><br /></div><div>Point Two. It's not that uninsured people are getting no medical care. That's not true. They are not getting preventive care, which means when they do get medical care, it's usually drastic and costs lots of money. People who have no medical insurance come into the emergency room for everything from hangnails to heart attacks. </div><div><br /></div><div>The problem is that those with hangnails are taking up time and space that could be used for real emergencies. You know, that's why it's called the emergency room. </div><div><br /></div><div>So, instead of them paying say $75 for the hangnail in the doctor's office, we pay $500 in the emergency room. Notice I said we pay, not the patient pays. We, those lucky or old enough to have insurance, pay with higher premiums because insurance companies pay higher rates that include write offs of those charges rung up by those without insurance.</div><div><br /></div><div>Making insurance possible for people who cannot afford insurance now spreads the cost out a little more. It makes sense. Do you hear that, Senator Lieberman. </div><div><br /></div><div>Now, don't get me started on that guy.</div><div><br /></div><div>Until next time...</div><div><br /></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://mindoflen.blogspot.com/atom.xml</div>Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690007031950797870.post-16547964115108587352009-11-01T11:35:00.002-05:002009-11-01T12:27:07.028-05:00Happy Monday. Hey, I don't think anyone will be reading this on Sunday, so why not get the wishes out a day early. <div><br /></div><div>Welcome to Eastern Standard Time. One would think that with an extra hour of sleep, one would be bright eyed and bushy tailed. Not so. Even though we avoided the usual lets-see-how-late-we-could-stay-up-because-there-is-an-extra-hour stupidity, Sunday was a lazy, lazy day. </div><div><br /></div><div>It's November, the month of Thanksgiving. The family of five turkeys that had spent much of their mornings in our backyard has disappeared. Smart. Even though we wouldn't harm them, for many reasons, some of our neighbors might see them as an escape from having to pay two or three bucks a pound at the supermarket. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Silly season </b></div><div><br /></div><div>Usually, the silly season is defined as the few weeks leading up to an election. Not so in New Haven. There is voting on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009, but it's not really an election. There are two or three wards, out of 30, in which there is a real contest. The race for mayor is a joke, with three independent, ill-financed, undefined candidates vying for second place against a longtime mayor running a professional, well-financed campaign. </div><div><br /></div><div>The mayor has spent money sending flyers and four-color printed post cards many times. I guess he has money and many good reasons to spend it, mostly because legally he has to. (By the way, keeping with the usual practice of commenting on issues on which I report for the New Haven Independent, there will be no endorsements for political office.)</div><div><br /></div><div>The silly season around here has to do with driving, walking, biking and other forms of locomotion.</div><div><br /></div><div>Last Friday, I was stuck behind a left-turning car at a light on a major city road. The car turned just as the yellow light appeared, so I decided to sit and wait for the next green light. Count five seconds or so, a car goes through the light, now red. Count five or six more seconds, and another car goes through the intersection, followed closely by another. By the way, I shouldn't say car -- two of the three were SUVs. </div><div><br /></div><div>For reasons passing understanding, once the weather starts to turn and the Thanksgiving - to - New Year's season is upon us, people start driving as if the other cars on the road were apparitions placed there for their amusement. </div><div><br /></div><div>People act crazy. I'll bet that if you could see into their cars, you would see them, eyes glazed and teeth clenched. I don't get it. This is supposed to be the season for good will toward all people, not get out your will, you'll need it.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Pleasant memory</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Friend wife and I took a couple of days off last week and traveled to Old Cape Cod. We have loved the cape since before we were married, nearly 38 years ago, but mostly go to the Outer Cape -- Eastham and north. </div><div><br /></div><div>This time, we went to Falmouth, a picturesque town on the upper cape, which means the southern part of the cape.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is a beautiful, 10-plus mile bike trail called the Shining Sea Trail that goes from Woods Hole, a one-industry (marine research) village to North Falmouth. It's flat, paved, off-road and a joy to ride. Last Monday was a perfect day for bike riding -- cool, a bit of a breeze, clear but not severe clear. </div><div><br /></div><div>We chatted with a few fellow riders, some of whom were our age or older. There seemed to be a more relaxed atmosphere than on the Cape Cod Rail Trail, the 26-mile plus trail that leads from Dennis into Wellfleet. I don't know if it's the season, the place or just dumb luck, but we had a ball riding and chatting.</div><div><br /></div><div>Falmouth is a more concentrated place than say, Eastham, which really doesn't have a downtown. It's an easy-walking town, although the tourist-agency maps tell you to stay off the main streets if you are biking. Good idea.</div><div> <iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzLNNn1i4fX6zQu_2bwgcWJFdnKXM0hr6KKdFztltmSd0oX-VFFYy0xZU8KqHXLRTRVVqOqLnxm1JWcwDYA1g' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div>While we were walking along, past a large and well-maintained school and library complex, we came upon a lake. It was an hour before sunset, the light was perfect, and we stopped to take some photos of the lake. We saw this duck couple, one male and one female, having dinner. </div><div><br /></div><div>They didn't seem to mind that we were taping their dinner feeding, so enjoy.</div><div><br /></div><div>I think it mirrors people -- it doesn't matter how many times you have to go in circles, the objects is to get that morsel for which you are vying. Take that any way you wish.</div><div><br /></div><div>Have a great week. And even if it is a ridiculously uncontested election, get out and vote. It'll keep you in the habit for when it does count.</div><div><br /></div><div>Until next time...</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://mindoflen.blogspot.com/atom.xml</div>Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690007031950797870.post-32751577123972420892009-10-23T15:40:00.003-04:002009-10-23T16:21:46.049-04:00C'mon, Connecticut Magazine. Get realHappy Friday.<div><br /></div><div>I know it's a lot to ask for, but wouldn't it be great if the Filthy Swine, otherwise known as the New York Yankees, were to repeat the Chokes on Us, the worst choke in the history of sport, this year and lose to the L.A. Angels in the American League payoffs. </div><div><br /></div><div>I saw the look on some of the Yankees who were on that fateful team, that "no, not again" look, as the Angels clawed back after the Yanks clawed back, and then went on to win, sending the Yanks back home to the new stadium and the virgin lawn. That's the lawn that other teams had not danced on. The Red Sox, in 2004, had danced on the old stadium lawn.</div><div><br /></div><div>Maybe now, it's the Angels' turn. Wouldn't it be nice...</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Page 2</b></div><div><br /></div><div>I know it's hogwash, but the Connecticut Magazine ranking of the state's cities has gotten my goat. </div><div><br /></div><div>The magazine, in its November issue, ranked many of the state's cities and towns on the following categories: education, economy, cost of living, crime, leisure/culture. </div><div><br /></div><div>I think New Haven got a bum rap. Here's why.</div><div><br /></div><div>OK, New Haven, like all cities, has crime. Some of it is fun to report, like the guy who robbed a downtown <a href="http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2009/10/dye_exploded_th.php">bank</a>, got covered in red <a href="http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2009/10/strange_expensi.php">dye</a> when the pack went off (notice, please, that I didn't say he got caught red-handed) and got caught while waiting to pay for a soda. </div><div><br /></div><div>Most crime, however, is hurtful to the victims and the general community. But reading the statistics doesn't give you the whole picture. I think the city deserves more than a next-to-last rating for the work the chief and his officers are doing trying to contain it.</div><div><br /></div><div>For education, the magazine used mastery tests and other scores, you know, like No Child Left Behind did. Wrong. How about the moves the city is making to bolster its education. All my kids went to New Haven schools during most of their elementary and secondary school careers. Two of them went to Russia on exchange programs, another went to Eastern Europe on a program. All went to college and two earned masters degrees. Not so bad. Don't blame the education system for the lack of parent involvement. Having Yale here doesn't hurt. Many high school kids take courses at Yale and Southern Connecticut. Not so shabby.</div><div><br /></div><div>Cost of living, no problem. Leisure drew a first-place award, as it should. New Haven has as many cultural opportunities as any city its size -- and many a lot bigger -- in the nation.</div><div><br /></div><div>The one that really gets my goat is Economy. The survey gave New Haven 14 out of 17, with the highest number being the worst. This is really stupid. What's the criteria? A score issued by the state that rates population, per-capita income, equalized grand list per capita, unemployment rate, mill rate and per-capita aid for children.</div><div><br /></div><div>New Haven has a lot of nontaxable buildings, the highest in the state, between Yale, Southern Connecticut, other colleges, hospitals, and the like. It said adjusted equalized grand list that might take some of that into account. It should say so.</div><div><br /></div><div>But, Charlie and friends at Connecticut Magazine, get out of Trumbull and take a drive to New Haven. You could have stopped by coming back from that eating junket you all took to the casinos. </div><div><br /></div><div>The place is a forest of cranes. The new cancer center, the Gateway college project, the 360 State Street project, the buildings along Route 34 corridor including all the research buildings, the new research building that will start construction as soon as the state gets off its butt and turns over the Lee Connector to the city. Come on. Is there a place in the state as busy? I don't think so.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, Charley, I think you know better. So, like the Dodger fan of yore, I'll wait until next year.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Page 3</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Our friends at Gannett, my former employer, saw profits tumble 53 percent, but results still beat raised expectations, helped by cost cuts. The company's operating expenses fell 14 percent in the third quarter, according to a published version of the company's release.</div><div><br /></div><div>Well, it didn't hurt that, at the Journal News, which forced all staffers to reapply for their old jobs, 22 said the hell with it and refused to reapply. In this economy, that is saying something.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, if you think you have it bad, think of having it so bad you would walk away from your job. Or, as someone told me years ago, consider starvation as a viable alternative to working there.</div><div><br /></div><div>That guy was wrong when he said it in 1991, but he'd sure be right now.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Page 4</b></div><div><br /></div><div>It's Friday. It's supposed to be weepy, but who cares. It's the weekend. Gave a great one and, for our friends in the Tribe, have a great Shabbos.</div><div><br /></div><div>Until next time...</div><div><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://mindoflen.blogspot.com/atom.xml</div>Mind of Lenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111803628016891383noreply@blogger.com2