THE OLD TABLE

We had a simple dinner this evening. We sat around the “kitchen table” that has been in constant use since we have been together, nearly 20 years, and before that by my family since 1940.

From 1940 until the 1980’s, it was where the meals were served on the farm, at least three per day (it was the custom to have “lunch,” the fourth meal, at 4:00 in the afternoon since it was late by the time the milking was done at night). There weren’t many celebratory meals, that was not the way things were done. Mostly, just hearty food, ordinary meals.

It is beginning to show its age, nearly 80 now. The top has a bit of a crack, it has been refinished multiple times, the last when Linda stripped several coats of paint and refinished it when we were in San Carlos. A ceiling lamp fixture fell on it and left a divot. The chairs are needing repair. There is a metaphor there, probably, as I approach my mid 70’s.

Do people retain, repair, reuse the objects of daily life today? I’m not familiar with others, but not many drive a nearly 20-year-old car, either. We read about the government employees that were not paid and suffered during the recent shut down, and I wondered why none of them had enough ready cash savings to withstand a financial setback.

The average Federal worker makes $84,000 per year. Many, I assume, are two-paycheck families, as is the way Americans operate today. But no food? Not able to pay for daily living for a few weeks?

Wonder how many of them have ancient tables and old cars?

That is a real “old fuddy-duddy” thing to wonder about, isn’t it?

ROGER'S GONE

Loss of a friend

It might be stretching it to call Roger a friend. Does it qualify if I haven’t seen him for 50+ years? I’m going to persist in that conceit, though.

Roger and his brother lived on the farm that was directly west. “Louie’s place.” He was two years younger than me, we were pals and then they moved away and I didn’t renew the acquaintance until high school.

He was a freshman, I was a junior, he played defensive end and I was the corner linebacker. The opposition found out early that if they swept that end, they could send three blockers at me…seems Roger, a skinny freshman just flat-ass disappeared! He became an excellent athlete, but that was not his shining hour and I got the tar beat out of me that season.

Move to next season. I was a senior, it was the first date with the girl who became my spouse for nearly 25 years. It had rained for days, the field was sloppy and it was raining hard the whole game. We were ahead by a touchdown, the Silver Creek QB went back to pass on the other side from me, and when he threw it, it kind of squirted up in the air and I intercepted at the 2 yard line. My coach nearly had a stroke as I ran past the bench. I guess my eyes were the size of saucers and I was running as if the demons were after me.

Well, I collapsed in exhaustion in the end zone, it would have been the longest interception return in Nebraska that year, but Roger in his enthusiasm pushed a kid from the back. They said it was 10 yards behind me. I couldn’t see. Hell, at this point, I can tell the story any way I want…nobody remembers and the ones that would remember are either senile or dead.

I remember my future wife when I came out of the locker room and we went to Columbus for a burger. Wet, wet wool sweater (cheerleader stuff) and hair plastered down. I was no prize.

Roger died in October 2016, his wife was kind enough to email me. I had found an address and sent a letter. He was a character, I regret that we never had contact for all those years. Going to his house to listen to the 45-rpm Claude King recording of Wolverton Mountain at highest volume…over and over.

Riding around in the 1938 Ford he got when his grandmother passed. It was ok, except that the front seat, a bench, was not attached. When he accelerated, we flipped back. He kept hold of the steering wheel, brought us back and his foot hit the accelerator and we went back. Laughing and laughing. At the Rodeo Grounds.

I often marvel that I reached maturity the things we did with dangerous stuff.

Well, he’s gone. No more swapping stories. Maybe later.

NUDIST RESTAURANT...AND WALLS

Nudist Restaurant…and walls.

“We will remember only the good moments.”

The Daily Skimm reports that the only nudist restaurant in Paris is closing because who wants to eat in a restaurant full of naked people. The answer: apparently no one.

NOTE TO SELF: ask that question ahead of time?

On a far distant note: Senators Schumer and Pelosi (also Clinton) voted in favor of the 2006 Secure Fence Act. $50 Billion. It passed 80-19 and President Bush signed it. Later amended to remove parts of the second fence, apparently the money was squandered spent.

The obvious question for any American is how people can be so untruthful and disingenuous? But another question—one of the “truth” websites rates this “half true.” Why? Because the bill was passed in a pressure environment where it was the lesser of two evils. Like today isn’t a bit pressured?

Does that fit Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s (AOC) “morally right” agenda? Sorry, girl, what you may consider morally right (stoning someone? Killing anyone who doesn’t believe in the Koran?) isn’t a good guide, especially since that has changed and been debated over and over for centuries by every culture.

Slavery was considered not only an economic necessity but morally right a while back. There were 380,000 Africans captured and imported to the US. There were 4 million sent to Brazil. Of course, the sugar plantations needed lots of them since about 10% died every year due to the heat and the work.

AOC apparently learned very little during her education.

DAVID EINHORN

DAVID EINHORN

The billionaire had a bad year, down 34% in 2018.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/hedge-fund-all-star-david-einhorn-posts-his-worst-year-ever-losing-34percent-in-2018/ar-BBRI1l8?ocid=spartandhp

He hasn’t done well in the last several years, as it turns out, and the article doesn’t delve into the “asymmetry of numbers” issue that becomes very important when you have large losses. An example—when you lose 34%, you have to make 50% to get back to even.

One of the measures of a good money manager is how they perform in down markets as that performance defines the long term.

Note that Einhorn recently became a critic of Tesla, “…comparing the electric car maker to his famous call on Lehman Brothers.” Must have been reading my blog from a few years ago?

A/N: I was first disgusted with the Tesla phenomenon (aka, begging at the government trough) in 2013 or 2014, and first wrote about it here in 2017. Then, the stock was in the upper $300’s and market cap an astounding $60 billion. Today, it is down 8% as they missed their delivery targets, and market cap is about $57 billion.

If you go back and read old blog posts on the subject, it seems that Elon Musk has received $176 billion in subsidies for the wind power business. Couple that with the electric car fraud, and we may be comparing him to some of the most prominent and damaging shysters in the history of the US.

David Einhorn was heralded as a genius. That star has been tarnished. I’m predicting the same for Musk.