"Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded" supposedly Yogi Berra offered this brilliance regarding a popular restaurant. I'd like to offer my own Yogi-ism - There is about a 50/50 chance I won't send this to you.
It's the Sunday before Christmas Deb's getting ready to go to church and I'm at the keyboard with a neck that smells like Ben Gay. OK not real Ben Gay some generic that Deb buys. The generic smell is however better than the 'real' Tiger Balm that Deb rubbed on my neck that smelled so loudly of 'real' mint that I was constantly looking around for the chewing gum to make sure I didn't have some stuck on me. With a sore neck ya don't want to be looking around!
The music is a mix of uptempo blues mostly 'cause I need the rhythm to pull this writtin' out of my head. The song playing right now is Two-Headed Woman written by Junior Wells but this version is performed by Willie Dixon. If Youtube pulls up the song for you let it drag you down the musical road with Junior Wells. Junior Wells is a road worth traveling down but a CD I don't own. To at least touch upon this century my stack is rounded out with Eric Clapton - BLUES, some KEB' MO" , and aptly named Jimmy Smith - dot com blues.
I'm not sure the reason for the sore neck but I can tell you the literal moment it arrived. That semi conscious moment before I got up yesterday I turned my head. That's it, that's how it happened doc I swear. A combination of balms and Ibuprofen seemed to work the kink out physically and I went to bed last night thinking that was that and Yay! I'm not old and decrepit.
But no Moosebreathe, once again right at that transition from the world of dreams to the 'real' world I turned my head on the pillow and a pain shot from my neck up to my brain and down to my toes. Hello again old friend what are you trying to tell me as I roll out of bed ? Is Timmy stuck in the well again? No, OK maybe you want me to remember in my waking state the disturbing dream (not a nightmare just disturbing!) I was enmeshed in before waking - Hmmm is that it?
Humorously, the last song on the CD is a studio track of Willie Dixon doing and redoing a dozen takes of the song by Otis Rush My Love Will Never Die I don't want my neck pain to be a karmic studio session trying to lead me to a subconscious understanding but if it is it is. Thus today I write (and maybe send it to you we'll see).
Let me begin on a marginally garden related note. As I said it's late December it's cold and dry and the only thing alive in the garden is that tenacious Arugula (A weed I tell you!) Thus the only 'garden' is scraps and notes on my desk of thoughts on what I'll plant next spring plus a few Butternut squash and various things that Deb and I put up or preserved along with some garlic that is trying hard to sprout. It's winter baby! But it's also Christmas and my brother and his wife sent a care package of goodies from their farm in upstate NY. We're talking Quince jelly and salsa but most importantly we're talking maple syrup. I mean real Maple syrup. I mean real they made it from their own trees Maple Syrup!
I tell you this because it was part of my disturbing dream last night. In the dream I was using the Maple Syrup as a metaphor to explain to the dream nymph (no she wasn't pretty Deb - OK maybe a little!) why what she was doing was fundamentally wrong. Understandable but wrong. Not intentionally wrong but unintentionally deeply destructive. See the dream nymph was a consultant working for a company that was taking over the company I had a little part time job with. She had explained that by ephemeralizing the processes of the company the new company would save consumers money. The productivity increase would in effect be the profit for the new owners while they lowered price. Boy that little nymph sure knew my Libertarian soul. But dream Doug knew something deeper.
I knew I didn't need this 'dream' job but others did and they were scared. I tried to offer the analogy of the auto to the nymph. Where once we people paid cash for cars but only so many people could afford to buy 'em this way. So some smart fellow created financing a car first with 3 year loans and later with 5,7 and longer term loans allowing more people to buy more and more cars while owning less and less of them. Profits were up and Detroit was pumping out good paying jobs with those cars. Still, there was more productivity to be gained in the 'car buying process' which was captured by the smart folks who said why buy when you can lease - and there are tax advantages too! Again, more car 'buyers' owning less but wait there's more. Some smart fellow realized the process could be further ephemeralized by understanding that people didn't need to 'own' a car at all enter Uber. But Uber still needed drivers who 'owned' cars till of course someone said, you drive it I'll 'own' it and lease it to you. Of course that can only last till someone realizes that drivers are expensive and a self driving car can do it cheaper. Than only some company owned by the 1% will 'own' cars and our ability to travel will be enserfed to them. Unfortunately the dream nymph was a millennial and only half listening as she checked her phone and said thinking like that was what cost all those jobs in Detroit.
So I tried a more millennial approach Real Organic Maple Syrup. I told her about the off the chart taste of my brother's gift. I also told her about how six kids could slather pancakes and waffles with Log Cabin 'maple' syrup without breaking my parents budget back in the day. I told her about how some smart fellow had realized that corn syrup and something called Fenugreek gave the same sweetness and smell without the cost of real Maple Syrup. Course government regulators said you could only call it Log Cabin Syrup but work the label just right and people will buy the brand! Now corn syrup became a thing and some folks read labels. So some smart fellow at Log Cabin created "LOG CABIN - ALL NATURAL" NO HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP * NO ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS * NO ARTIFICIAL COLORS * NON GMO Delicious authentic taste", put it in a little plastic jug that looks like those $15 pints of Maple Syrup that no one can afford to buy and sold it for half that. Thing is there ain't no maple syrup in it - Brown rice syrup, sugar, and brown sugar. Thing is you can market anything and you can ephemeralize the thing right out of the thing but are we better off. Would you as Yogi almost said eat at that restaurant if the essence of the restaurant had changed? And why does real maple syrup costs so damned much ?
I was about to tie all this together for the dear little nymph when the pain shot through me and I got up. So let me end this pain in my neck by telling you. Once upon a time smart folks were constantly figuring out how to improve productivity and the world as a whole actually benefited. This was called capitalism. That has changed. In 1971 Richard Nixon closed the gold window and oddly just eighteen months later began a long and continuing schism (If you've read this far read this link, it's important! Mind you I think their 'solutions' are completely off the mark if not the danger I would hope to avoid.) between wages and productivity. Gold backed currency might have had it's flaws but it allowed all members of society to reap the benefits of productivity gains. Unbacked currency gives it's benefits first (which is dramatically important!) to those who get it first. This group that get it first has come to be called the 1%. That benefit has been compounding since 1971. At some point if people keep loosing jobs to productivity gains and can only afford shoddier and shoddier versions of Real Maple Syrup we become no better than serfs and will either revolt or vote for anyone who at least verbalizes their frustration. This is not Capitalism this is crony capitalism. Doug A.
It's the Sunday before Christmas Deb's getting ready to go to church and I'm at the keyboard with a neck that smells like Ben Gay. OK not real Ben Gay some generic that Deb buys. The generic smell is however better than the 'real' Tiger Balm that Deb rubbed on my neck that smelled so loudly of 'real' mint that I was constantly looking around for the chewing gum to make sure I didn't have some stuck on me. With a sore neck ya don't want to be looking around!
The music is a mix of uptempo blues mostly 'cause I need the rhythm to pull this writtin' out of my head. The song playing right now is Two-Headed Woman written by Junior Wells but this version is performed by Willie Dixon. If Youtube pulls up the song for you let it drag you down the musical road with Junior Wells. Junior Wells is a road worth traveling down but a CD I don't own. To at least touch upon this century my stack is rounded out with Eric Clapton - BLUES, some KEB' MO" , and aptly named Jimmy Smith - dot com blues.
I'm not sure the reason for the sore neck but I can tell you the literal moment it arrived. That semi conscious moment before I got up yesterday I turned my head. That's it, that's how it happened doc I swear. A combination of balms and Ibuprofen seemed to work the kink out physically and I went to bed last night thinking that was that and Yay! I'm not old and decrepit.
But no Moosebreathe, once again right at that transition from the world of dreams to the 'real' world I turned my head on the pillow and a pain shot from my neck up to my brain and down to my toes. Hello again old friend what are you trying to tell me as I roll out of bed ? Is Timmy stuck in the well again? No, OK maybe you want me to remember in my waking state the disturbing dream (not a nightmare just disturbing!) I was enmeshed in before waking - Hmmm is that it?
Humorously, the last song on the CD is a studio track of Willie Dixon doing and redoing a dozen takes of the song by Otis Rush My Love Will Never Die I don't want my neck pain to be a karmic studio session trying to lead me to a subconscious understanding but if it is it is. Thus today I write (and maybe send it to you we'll see).
Let me begin on a marginally garden related note. As I said it's late December it's cold and dry and the only thing alive in the garden is that tenacious Arugula (A weed I tell you!) Thus the only 'garden' is scraps and notes on my desk of thoughts on what I'll plant next spring plus a few Butternut squash and various things that Deb and I put up or preserved along with some garlic that is trying hard to sprout. It's winter baby! But it's also Christmas and my brother and his wife sent a care package of goodies from their farm in upstate NY. We're talking Quince jelly and salsa but most importantly we're talking maple syrup. I mean real Maple syrup. I mean real they made it from their own trees Maple Syrup!
I tell you this because it was part of my disturbing dream last night. In the dream I was using the Maple Syrup as a metaphor to explain to the dream nymph (no she wasn't pretty Deb - OK maybe a little!) why what she was doing was fundamentally wrong. Understandable but wrong. Not intentionally wrong but unintentionally deeply destructive. See the dream nymph was a consultant working for a company that was taking over the company I had a little part time job with. She had explained that by ephemeralizing the processes of the company the new company would save consumers money. The productivity increase would in effect be the profit for the new owners while they lowered price. Boy that little nymph sure knew my Libertarian soul. But dream Doug knew something deeper.
I knew I didn't need this 'dream' job but others did and they were scared. I tried to offer the analogy of the auto to the nymph. Where once we people paid cash for cars but only so many people could afford to buy 'em this way. So some smart fellow created financing a car first with 3 year loans and later with 5,7 and longer term loans allowing more people to buy more and more cars while owning less and less of them. Profits were up and Detroit was pumping out good paying jobs with those cars. Still, there was more productivity to be gained in the 'car buying process' which was captured by the smart folks who said why buy when you can lease - and there are tax advantages too! Again, more car 'buyers' owning less but wait there's more. Some smart fellow realized the process could be further ephemeralized by understanding that people didn't need to 'own' a car at all enter Uber. But Uber still needed drivers who 'owned' cars till of course someone said, you drive it I'll 'own' it and lease it to you. Of course that can only last till someone realizes that drivers are expensive and a self driving car can do it cheaper. Than only some company owned by the 1% will 'own' cars and our ability to travel will be enserfed to them. Unfortunately the dream nymph was a millennial and only half listening as she checked her phone and said thinking like that was what cost all those jobs in Detroit.
So I tried a more millennial approach Real Organic Maple Syrup. I told her about the off the chart taste of my brother's gift. I also told her about how six kids could slather pancakes and waffles with Log Cabin 'maple' syrup without breaking my parents budget back in the day. I told her about how some smart fellow had realized that corn syrup and something called Fenugreek gave the same sweetness and smell without the cost of real Maple Syrup. Course government regulators said you could only call it Log Cabin Syrup but work the label just right and people will buy the brand! Now corn syrup became a thing and some folks read labels. So some smart fellow at Log Cabin created "LOG CABIN - ALL NATURAL" NO HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP * NO ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS * NO ARTIFICIAL COLORS * NON GMO Delicious authentic taste", put it in a little plastic jug that looks like those $15 pints of Maple Syrup that no one can afford to buy and sold it for half that. Thing is there ain't no maple syrup in it - Brown rice syrup, sugar, and brown sugar. Thing is you can market anything and you can ephemeralize the thing right out of the thing but are we better off. Would you as Yogi almost said eat at that restaurant if the essence of the restaurant had changed? And why does real maple syrup costs so damned much ?
I was about to tie all this together for the dear little nymph when the pain shot through me and I got up. So let me end this pain in my neck by telling you. Once upon a time smart folks were constantly figuring out how to improve productivity and the world as a whole actually benefited. This was called capitalism. That has changed. In 1971 Richard Nixon closed the gold window and oddly just eighteen months later began a long and continuing schism (If you've read this far read this link, it's important! Mind you I think their 'solutions' are completely off the mark if not the danger I would hope to avoid.) between wages and productivity. Gold backed currency might have had it's flaws but it allowed all members of society to reap the benefits of productivity gains. Unbacked currency gives it's benefits first (which is dramatically important!) to those who get it first. This group that get it first has come to be called the 1%. That benefit has been compounding since 1971. At some point if people keep loosing jobs to productivity gains and can only afford shoddier and shoddier versions of Real Maple Syrup we become no better than serfs and will either revolt or vote for anyone who at least verbalizes their frustration. This is not Capitalism this is crony capitalism. Doug A.
I loved the crony capitalism likeness. Some people have suggested that BitCoin is a creation of the CIA, as the next step in converting to a cashless society. Makes one wonder.....
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