All right, OK, I suppose it’s time to weigh in on the George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin tragedy. I will weigh in, but I’ll make it brief. Too much has been said about it already by many, many others.

The verdict is in and – no surprise, given Florida’s Stand Your Ground (SYG) law and the vicissitudes of this prosecution that should never have happened, George was found not guilty. Was he exonerated? In a manner of speaking, yes. But when the President and Attorney General of the United States weigh in on the case, I don’t think exoneration is the word that immediately comes to mind. Instead, what it appears has happened is that his level of guilt did not rise to topple the bar enacted by the Florida legislature (and more than 30 other state legislatures as well) called SYG.

I choose not to second guess anybody’s motivation in this. What happened was simply a tragedy that left a young man dead and another man and his family’s life ruined. These kind of situations happen fairly frequently in the U.S. Why was this one different? First of all, it’s Orange County, home of Mickey Mouse, former home of Casey Anthony and that three ring circus. CORRECTION: The incident occurred in Sanford, which is in Seminole County, NEXT to and south of Orange County. So the troubles are on their way south. Hope they don’t come here…Now, back to the post. Guess they’re becoming as known for sensational trials as Palm Beach County is for failure to manage the voting process. Did anything resembling the truth come to the fore? It’s hard to say. I think it might have, just as it likely did with Casey. But this I know about such things: I am shocked and dismayed by Barack’s and Eric Holder’s comments. Both of them are lawyers, and both of them realize that the judicial process is all that stands between us and the anarchy you see daily in Egypt’s headlines. To put negative comments out about anything related to the trial is either pandering, extreme emotion (from two guys who’s emotional temperature is somewhere between tepid and frozen) or a knee-jerk reaction to a history of these kinds of events. Again I don’t want to second guess anybody’s motivation, but sometimes those two just don’t know when to shut up. Guess it’s time for another lip zip pic, eh?

This is the last I’ll say about it: George’s troubles are far from over. To quote a line from Paul Simon’s immortal but rarely seen or heard Broadway Show “The Capeman”,

“the boys had their day in court, and now it’s time for some fuckin’ law and order…”
Judge Gerald Culkin

In the Capeman, it was two Puerto Rican boys who were tried and convicted of murdering a white boy in a situation analogous to this one. They were sentenced to the electric chair in New York in the late 50’s. But this time there was a death, but thanks to SYG, there was no conviction, no sentence and no perceived justice. I fear someone will feel compelled to balance the books on this one. Beware George: watch your step from any angry friend, relative or sympathizer for Trayvon. Feeling that since the President and Attorney General of the United States aligned themselves with the bereaved, it’s surely OK to take care of business. Then what will they say? To quote Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum in Independence Day…

Oops.

For about the kazillionth time, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (AEP) is highlighting the imminent meltdown in the southern quadrant of the European Union. The southern quadrant includes Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal. All of these Mediterranean countries are deep in debt, their economies are in a depression and no help is coming from the northern members … make that member: Germany. There’s a lot of heat, smoke and noise going on here. But thus far that’s all there’s been.

In his latest article, entitled “The Wheels are Coming Off the Whole of Southern Europe”, AEP quotes El Mundo as saying about Spain that “a ‘pre-revolutionary’ mood is taking hold.” This is because, on top their 26.9% unemployment, and debt to GDB ratio of 134%, a financial scandal is brewing, involving Mariano Rajoy taking “illegal payments” prior to becoming Premier. Rajoy would have been better off fathering an illegitimate child or being accused of beating his wife, instead of taking illicit money. But who knew things would get this bad? Yep.

Things in Portugal aren’t much better…the finance minister quit this week, because of lack of support for austerity measures (so maybe this is a blessing, depending on what his successor does). Greece will, once again, miss its austerity targets “by a wide margin” and its economy is expected to shrink by 5-7% this year. Italy had its bond rating reduced to junk status this week, and last I heard it was having trouble forming and keeping a coalition government going.

So the wheels are coming off. But they’ve been wobbling for the past three years or so. What’s new & different? First, HB, head of the Fed, with his ‘tapering’ comments, caused already strapped countries to endure a rather abrupt interest rate increase. Second, statements from ECU members have put them into a corner where they are bound to lose, whichever way they go. I shall elaborate.

Where it’s clear to everyone else in the civilized world, the ECB (European Central Bank), Chancellor Osborne of Great Britain and Angela Merkel still believe austerity can alleviate the problems in the EU. This strategy hasn’t worked, isn’t working and won’t work anytime, anywhere in the future. But you know the definition of insanity, and these folks previously named should be locked up in Bellevue relative to their position on this. But a few folks ‘get it’, and are working on trying to fix it. The folks that ‘get it’ are in the executive branch of the European Union. Referred to as the European Commission, they propose to give themselves extraordinary powers to help bail out failing banks in the EU. This would mean another massive bailout of the failing southern countries. Who is vehemently opposed to this proposal? Germany, naturally. So that won’t happen. Conversely, the leaders of the EU – including Merkel – have learned from their past mistakes in Greece and Cyprus, and have promised not to force any EMU state into default, with the associated losses for their member banks and pension funds. But folks, listen: it’s gonna be one way or the other. Right now, the choice is none of the above.

But as AEP points out, doing nothing is, in fact, de facto tightening of the flow of money. This will exacerbate the debtor countries’ problems, and can only end in grief for everybody. All the ECB and its head Mario Draghi have done so far is bluff their way into buying more time. Sooner or later, folk will figure out the emperor wears no clothes, and The Lone Ranger ain’t on his way to save them or back them up or do anything but maybe show up for the funeral. Oh me, oh my.

And what does that mean for the U S of A? Aren’t we, in fact, part of the global economy, and what will failure in Europe do to America’s ability to grow its economy and move forward toward a better life for all? Well, we may be either the last man standing, or the last body to fall on the heap. Time will tell..but in the meantime, it would really help a lot if Chopper Boy Ben would just keep his lip zipped.

Here’s the headline from a Washington Post article dated July 7th:

Somali American caught up in a shadowy Pentagon counterpropaganda campaign

Seems this American of Somali heritage named Abdiwali Warsame has a website called Somalimidnimo.com. It’s a news site that, according to Mr. Warsame, is provided because “I just want the community to know what’s going on”. Since most of the articles on the site are written in other languages, it’s difficult to gauge his intent. That’s not my job anyway. The point is, a beltway contractor, Navanti, targeted the guy, two Somalis wrote a report, and that got him an FBI visit to his house. In Minnesota.

Is there something wrong with this picture? You betcha. This contractor, Navanti, was working as a subcontractor for the Special Operations Command to help conduct “information operations to engage local populations and counter nefarious influences” in Africa and Europe. So what is this kind of work called? Psychological Operations, or PsyOps. But did you notice that defined locale? Africa and Europe. It doesn’t say Minnesota. Oops.

Here: let’s have some pictures to clarify.

and

. Can you spot the differences? Apparently, nobody at Navanti could.

Now here’s the problem, per the Washington Post: “The Pentagon is legally prohibited from conducting psychological operations at home or targeting U.S. audiences with propaganda, except during domestic emergencies. Defense Department rules also forbid the military from using psychological operations to target U.S. citizens at any time, in any location globally, or under any circumstances.”

Gee, that seems pretty clear, eh? Except that’s exactly what they did, and they knew he was an American citizen living in Minnesota when they did it.

So what’s the upshot of all this? Another brick in the wall of too many contractors doing work that is not well supervised and creates situations that embarrass everyone, and don’t make us one whit safer than we were before they did it? You decide. But I’ll say this about that: since our esteemed government does not hesitate to blow up American citizens with drones, what’s a little targeted psychological warfare? If I had to choose, well…OK, beatin’ this dead horse

But here’s the real kicker: again, per the Post: “In 2010, the U.S. military stopped using the phrase “psychological operations” because of its negative connotations. Instead, it adopted a blander term…” No more PsyOps. When did they make this change? In January of 2010. The movie “Men Who Stare at Goats” was released in November of 2009. In it, PsyOps is portrayed as a bunch of loonies running around doing strange things like making goats pass out by staring at them. November, 2009 – January, 2010. Tell me they didn’t change the name in reaction to this movie. Of course they did. But to what? Military Information Support Operations, or M.I.S.O.

MISO… as in MISO Soup. Ah, come on – you know what’s coming next…

Let’s talk about Aaron Hernandez first. What’s the scoop here?

Aaron was a Gator in 2007 sticking around Gainesville until his senior year when he decided to go to the NFL draft. A gifted football player with lots of kudos and accolades from high school on, Aaron was a mere 20 years old when he joined the New England Patriots. He was just given a huge signing bonus before ‘the troubles’ began.

But was it before? No, apparently all his old troubles that started last year in Miami have caught up with him. A bunch of folk are coming out of the woodwork to put the finger on him for other murders and general mayhem. They were silent before, fearing reprisal. Hey, that’s a quote from the newspaper – I don’t normally say stuff like that…much

So big Aaron – and boy has that boy grown – is now wearing an orange jumpsuit instead of a jersey. In point of fact, the Pats have tried to erase all memory of Big A by removing all his football archania from NFL shopping sources. Can’t imagine why…maybe it’s an image thing…Paula Deen, are you watching all this?

I’m confident steroid use contributed to all this. Roid rage surely has become a problem. But sometimes all that bundled up energy and angst can be useful.
Read on.

Now let’s talk about President O’bama: added the apostrophe when he was in Ireland visiting with O’Bono…jeez o’pete…

After Ireland he came home for a few days, then off to Africa. While in Senegal, he made the off-hand comment “I’m not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29 year old hacker”. Well, first of all he’s not 29, he’s 30, as of June 21st, little Kiernan’s birthday. Second of all, scrambling jets in Russian airspace might assuredly create an international crisis that makes little Eddie seem insignificant indeed…remember little Eddie, stuck at the airport in Russia with nowhere to go and no means to get there? Third of all, normally O’Bama would just drone the poor sucker, but since he’s at the Russian airport, well…guess it rules out killing this kid this way. Boy, how soon we forget: Anwar Al Awlaki’s 16 year old son…allegedly collateral damage…yeah.

So I put the two news items together because I have an idea that might ‘kill two birds with one stone’…or at least solve two problems.

How about we send Aaron and his posse on a secret stealth bomber flight that just happens to land at Sheremetyevo airport where little Eddie is in the transit lounge? What if Biggie boy and the posse arrange for little E to find refuge in an industrial park on the outskirts of the Kremlin? Problem solved…and A and the gang can play Russian football for the rest of their time? Beats a 6 x 8 prison cell, eh? Now that’s creative, you must admit…

In case you are unfamiliar with old movie tunes, the title is a punnish take on the song “Put the Blame on Mame” sung by Rita Hayworth in the Movie Gilda. Aw gee, I wish I didn’t have to ‘splain these things, but few are as nerdish as me, so…there you have it.

Now that that’s out of the way, we need to talk about Edward Snowden. Yes, the latest leaker. Picture, please!

Yes, little Edward…carefully plans out giving information that frankly isn’t that new or original to the Washington Post and simultaneously to the British, liberal newspaper The Guardian. I first heard about the story through the Guardian, and Glenn Greenwald’s name was mentioned as the journalist who broke the story.

Organized media – what is it Sarah puckishly calls it – lamestream media? Organized media seemed to focus on two elements of the story: first that it’s terrible that the government is spying on all of us using a software program called PRISM, and second – and not too far behind – that Little Edward was a high school dropout. Congressmen and women pretend to be outraged about the spying, but the Obamites rubbed their bellies and put them back to sleep with a couple of briefings. So no big deal there…the “American Public” quickly polled on the subject said yes, it was a shame that the government is spying on somebody (certainly not them individually!) but if it keeps us safe, well then they support it. OK, no issue there. So what’s left? A HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT is making a six figure salary working for a government contractor and he gets access to all these secrets. There, at last is a story. Whew! The news cycle simply must be fed.

High school dropout, earning somewhere between $122k (per Booze, Allan, his now-former employer) and $200k (per Little Edward). Yes, Booze Hamilton fired little Edward over this. Golly! Reminds me of that line from Nine to Five, shared by Lily Tomlin, AKA Violet Newstead: “I killed the boss. You think they won’t fire me for a thing like that?”

Back to the money. No matter who’s telling the truth, it’s a bunch of money. To do what? He’s been labeled an IT administrator. Well, that could be the guy who comes to your office, boorishly shouts at you to “Move”, sits in your chair, hits the keyboard a dozen times and fixes whatever you were complaining about. Maybe Little Edward did more than that. I expect that Little Edward was a database administrator: hence his ability to access all that info. D/B admins are hard to find and should be paid well (note to my brother John: see??!!)

Little Eddie undoubtedly had a “top secret” clearance, and why not? He’d never done anything bad before this. So he gets a little bit of info, and becomes a ‘hero’ to somebody by telling all of us about it.

OK – where am I going with this? In a weird sort of way, maybe Little Edward is like those guys that dress up in black outfits, take guns and ammo to a public place, start shooting and then either commit suicide themselves or get shot by the police who eventually arrive to take him out. This is his 15 minutes of fame. Maybe Ed is somebody who thought he was living a charmed life making all that dough with so little effort, but needed to make the big time by becoming a martyr for a delusional cause.

Or maybe there’s another potential explanation (of course there is – you should know by now the first suggestions are always throw-away lines.) I think Little Edward is an example of the computer nerd archetype (CNA). He’s the geek who’s shunned by nearly everybody at school. But he translates that to his reality: he’s too much of a genius to go to school. So he sleeps all day and tap on keyboard keys all night. Maybe he’s a little autistic; into Japanese anime; he’s Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory (what a dumb show…really, I don’t watch it – honestly I don’t…) Zilch for social skills, lives on Ramen noodles, plays Minecraft for hours with his “on-line” friends and thinks he’s been shortchanged in life because of his unmistakeable yet unrecognized genius. I believe we’ve got him I.D.’d.

So how does this tie back to the title? I guess it’s a warning to all you Mothers out there (real Moms: I’m not using the epithetical label here). If you have a son or daughter who fits this archetype, but are not yet old enough to have fully blossomed into Little Ed, take that computer and toss it out the window. Lock him or her up for a week with sensory deprivation (no on-line access) until he or she promises to give it all up. Otherwise, at the end of the day, or when the smoke clears, or whatever summing-up platitude you want to use, you’ll be blamed for not raising Little Edward or Baby Edwina properly. Act now, or be prepared to take the rap!

So, again to say it succintly, using a musical metaphor: Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys or CNAs (Computer Nerd Archetypes).

Four versions of Gatsby – from Alan Ladd to Leo DiCaprio…there was even a silent version with Warner Baxter as Gatsby, but interestingly, William Powell as Wilson.

Other interesting trivia?

John Farrow was signed to direct the 1949 Alan Ladd version, but backed out and Jack Clayton directed. John Farrow is, of course, Mia’s Dad. Mia was Daisy in the ’74 version. Howard Da Silva, who was Ben Franklin in 1776, played Wilson in the ’49 version, and then was Meyer Wolfsheim in the ’74 version.

Other interesting notes: Scott Wilson played Wilson (ha ha) in the ’74 version. Scott also played one of the killers, Dick Hickok, in the film In Cold Blood released in 1967. Guess that role didn’t raise his career capital very much, as Wilson is a relatively minor role in TGG. But is it a minor role? After all, Wilson is the guy who kills Gatsby in the end. He actually gets a little more screen time than his successor, Jason Clarke. Jason is an Aussie who never plays Aussie. The last time we saw him he was the ‘extractor of intel’ in Zero Dark Thirty. Notice I neglected to label him ‘torturer’. Refer to previous blog on that topic!

More trivia: Francis Scott Fitzgerald wrote the novel TGG; Francis Scott Key wrote The Star Spangled Banner, which did not become our national anthem until
1931. Francis Ford Coppola, of Apocalypse Now fame, wrote the screenplay for the ’74 version of TGG, after he’d become a household name for directing The Godfather in 1972. Francis the talking mule didn’t write anything, but he did talk. Isn’t that good enough for an equine?
So enough with the trivia – who cares, right? It’s trivial…

OK, let’s not dither: the big question that must be asked and answered: how likely is it a man would work so hard and then give up so much simply for the love of a woman? But was it love, or was it an overwhelming need to possess?

And what was it he wanted to possess – the person or the idea?

If you Google “Analysis of TGG” or “Evaluation of TGG” or similar words, you will get a zillion hits more than happy to give you an analysis of the story. Since it is a classic and has all those classic themes in it – FSF knew what he was doing – you can read what FSF intended from a dozen different angles. But will it really capture the essence of what this is about? Ladies, have you ever known any man like Jay? I surely have not. But maybe I’m not the woman Daisy was. Or Zelda Fitzgerald was, since there are obvious comparisons between Daisy and the real Zelda.

But I’m going way out on a limb here with a take on the character out of the mainstream, so get ready. What really drove Jay to these extremes?

OK, first a step back. If you’ve seen both versions – the ’74 and the current version – you get a slightly different story and a different level of passion/obsession from the actor playing Jay. There really wasn’t much chemistry between Redford and Farrow, and since the film editor was clearly in love with both of them, there’s entirely too much dwelling on their respective, lovely blue eyes staring at one another. So to obtain this insight, I had to juxtapose both portrayals alongside the real Jay – the author, FSF. And what do you get? A man deeply out of his element – a WASP-ish Truman Capote. I’d argue Scott Fitzgerald – despite his marriage and affair with Sheilah Grahame in his Hollywood days – was a closet gay. Jay’s obsession with Daisy has nothing to do with a man/woman love affair – they just never happen that way! I see Daisy as a metaphor for an unrequited love that FSF could never explore in his lifetime. A love affair with a man.

Why do I come to this conclusion?

I’m thinking that Nick Carraway – the aloof narrator – was gay and in love with Gatsby. So in some ways it seems Nick and Jay are two sides of the same individual – FSF himself. The alcoholism, stormy relationship with Zelda, close relationship with Hemingway – all things point to the conclusion that he was gay. OK, having stated this conclusion, what of it?

FSF was a lapsed Catholic, and we know about the guilt trips inherent in that, even if you’re straight. As famous as he was, he never really made much money – TGG was not considered a classic until after his death. No money, an expensive, ill wife and guilt over ‘inapt’ feelings would drive any man to become a roaring alcoholic, yes? I think it was Wilson’s comment toward the end of the story – after he finds out that something ‘funny’ is going on with Myrtle, his wife – he says “God is watching and he sees all”. The quote seems totally out of context for what we know about the character, before and after. I think it’s a clue to FSF’s personal struggles with his sexuality. But I seem to be the only one that sees it. Oh well…

Post Script: Maybe somebody else saw the same thing: a guy named Greg Olear, an adjunct literature professor. He goes so far as to agree with my assessment about Nick, but draws the line at saying Nick is FSF. Even tho’ in the beginning of his essay – reproduced in the on-line magazine Salon – he notes the similarities between FSF and Nick’s backgrounds. And his opinion comes from having read the novel multiple times – hey – maybe I need to add it to my book list, eh? Break from book club and Gen-X…oh my..

We went to the movies yesterday. Prior to departure we had to decide which movie to go see. On Saturday, Robin had volunteered that she still wanted to go see The Great Gatsby, if for no other reason than to hear Jack White’s rendition of The Edge’s song, Love is Blindness. Here is the bridge in that song:

A little death Without mourning
No call and no warning
Baby, a dangerous idea
that almost makes sense

If you haven’t heard Jack’s rendition of it – available on You Tube, you are missing an extraordinary cover. You can feel the emotion that The Edge was feeling when he wrote the song, apparently a reflection of the breakup with his first wife. To say Jack’s version contains raw emotion is to do it an injustice. It really is a primal scream.

Back to the movie: because Emily was with us, we decided to go see Star Trek: Into Darkness. The ‘hero’ (anti-hero, really) John Harrison/Khan was portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch, a guy with a fabulous name and a history of great performances on Masterpiece Theatre. Not to be missed is his Sherlock: a modern day version of the Conan-Doyle classic. He and Martin Freeman – lately of Love, Actually and more famously Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – have great chemistry together. The series is riveting (to quote Sheriff Bart) and two seasons are now available on Netflix. The third season is in production, but delayed because of Benedict’s star turn in the Star Trek franchise. God that all sounds like a cheesy ET report, doesn’t it? Pardon me whilst I put a finger down my throat for a second.

There – all better. Back to my point. Star Trek: Into Darkness.

This is the second of the ‘prequels’ with Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine playing the young Spock and Kirk characters. The first of their efforts was good enough to justify a second, and this one does not disappoint. But about a third of the way through, I began to get it: kind of like Gen-X “Let Tra Chore”. This isn’t just another shoot-em-up in outer space flick: this is MET TA PHOR I CAL…Draw out that word and repeat it three times, and you’ll get a sense of what’s goin’ down here.

There was very little edginess to the plot, so I’ll just tell you what it is: this guy John Harrison, no really Khan, John Harrison is just his alias, starts shooting up Star Trek heroes from previous episodes along with a few other extras. Who is this guy and why is he doing these mean things? Kirk and Spock are sent to kill him. Period. Bad dude..kill him with 72 photon torpedoes.

They go to the Klingon “Homeland” (first clue to the METAPHOR) where Harrison/Khan is hiding. The S/T crew are about to be killed by Klingons when Harrison/Khan shoots all of those guys who don’t look nearly enough like Mr. Warf. When Kirk goes to ‘arrest’ him because his other do-gooder pals are paling at the idea of being executioners (second clue to the METAPHOR) Harrison/Khan asks how many photon torpedoes are on the ship. When Kirk tells him 72, the bad dude immediately surrenders. Um hm…

Aw, gee – no more plot, just cut to the chase with the point. The Metaphor: we are being taken to task for having responded to 9/11 by doing all the things we’ve done, are doing and are telling people we will continue to do because it’s justified. The victims have become the hunters. Seems John Harrison was a guy in suspended animation from another time, awakened to help the Federation get a pre-emptive jump on the Klingons to destroy them. The 72 photon torpedoes each contain one of Khan’s crew members, essentially being held hostage to ensure Khan does what he is told. When Kirk answered him with the number 72, Khan knew his crew was still alive in those torpedoes, on the Enterprise. So he sacrifices himself to save them.

Everybody’s known since the days of Nimoy and Shatner that those Klingons are really terrorists determined to kill all us white folk. But in the plethora of previous Star Trek episodes, the Federation never crossed the pre-emptive strike line before. They’ve always played defense, and at the end of the episode the world was safe again – at least until those dastardly Klingons dreamt up a new strategy to do us harm. But see Mr. Warf’s color? I noticed these Klingons got lightened up – in fact I said something about it during the movie, but Emily told me in no uncertain terms that there was no talking in movies, so any further comments had to be kept to myself. But you can’t tell me this “lightening up” of the Klingon characters was a subconscious act on the screenwriter’s part. This was likely a combination of political correctness and their attempt at subtlety. Sorry, buddies, but I’m onto ya!

So in the end, it’s always gonna be about – the drones. Yes, I’ve said it: the God Damned Drones. As I have stated before, and I will say it again: the drones will be the downfall of all we know and hold dear. Kirk makes a statement at the end of the movie. He says it’s easy to lose sight of what’s right and attempt to take revenge on those that attack us. But that’s not who we are. Oh yeah? Apparently it is who we are and who we intend to continue to be.

So back to those bridge lyrics – you knew I’d get back around to that sooner or later, didn’t you?

A little death Without mourning
No call and no warning
Baby, a dangerous idea
that almost makes sense

Sounds like God Damned drone strikes to me.

As promised in a previous post, I have taken to reading emblematic Gen-X literature (pronounced let tra chore…eh heu!) to try to better understand the first of my progeny’s demographic group. The first venture into this wading pool (cesspool?) was Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. I’m sure you have seen the movie, which kind of spoiled the end for me, as I’ve seen it too (and liked it very much). But recall the reading was from the point of view of Gen-X Lit, so knowing the twist at the end was secondary.

And the conclusion to which I came? The song remains the same: unlikeable characters carrying out heinous activities without remorse or even conviction. Slouching toward Nirvana … yes, a thickly veiled allusion to Cobain..another Gen-X’er. Gee whiz – they’re everywhere!

But wait: let’s talk about why Gone Girl and Fight Club are so popular with audiences. What is it about readers like us that we find such nasty characters so attractive? I can only speak for myself, not having any creds as a psychoanalyst or such…I find bad people far more interesting than good people. Well, duh! Hey, wait: not so fast.

Look at prime time (and not so prime time) network television these days. COPS. Hoarders. The Suze Orman show! The Price is Right. All of these shows feature people who do foolish or just plain stupid things and get busted or punished for their transgressions. We look down on these people. We would never do idiotic things like the people on these shows. So that makes us some kind of voyeurs, peering into their lives and judging them as wanting. But is their behavior the same as that of the sociopathic narcissists found thus far in GXL (new shorthand for Gen-X Let tra chore)? Nay, nay I say. In fact, I’d argue they are exactly the opposite! Ah ha – now we’re onto something…

We’ve got what cha might call this love/hate relationship thing going on. The people we watch on television are people we either love or we hate. We love the bad people who get away with being bad. We hate good, ordinary people who do foolish things and get caught…How’s that for some insight there? We love winners and we hate losers. Simple..

Which brings me to the heading of this post: Nurse Jackie. Four seasons came & went, with the heroine of the story, Jackie Peyton, doing bad things and getting away with them. We rooted for Jackie, even tho’ we knew she was doing wrong. She hurt her family with her infidelities and drug use; she hurt her employer by violating clear drug policy (aided and abetted by the hospital administrator who didn’t want to lose her best nurse). She hurt her friends by engaging in a sexual relationship with the druggist Eddie, oh but forgetting to inform him that she was married and had kids…a fact she hid from all her co-workers.

But in spite of all her misdeeds, we still wanted her to succeed in her misadventures. Why? Because we knew for sure that Jackie was a survivor – a winner in the tough game of life. And we want to be like that as well.

So what happened? The two founders of the series left the show (for personal reasons: what the hell does that mean?) and got replaced by two guys. And what happened to Jackie? Aargh…she’s kicked drugs, has become Eddie’s “friend”, has a new relationship with a NYPD sweetie pie and is doing her best to be a mother to her children. OMG! What is up with all that?

When at the end of Episode 5 these two ‘guys’ that run the show opined that they wanted Jackie to get some relief from all her angst, it struck me as a rather odd thing to say. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Men cannot stand the idea of a woman being bad and getting away with it. It just strikes them at their core (and we know what part of their anatomy resides there: ref back to phrase with pic at the top of this post). So we have a little internal psychodrama going on here with NJ – and one I predict that will end up dooming the series. Of course! What better way for Jackie to get her comeuppance than to get cancelled? Whew…that’s deep. So un-GXL…

PostScript: Did a little surfing to find out that the two creators – Linda Wallem and Liz Brixius – are a lesbian former couple. According to some, their hostility to each other post-breakup made things difficult for the cast & crew. Say, what? Sounds like they got the boot to me. New President of Showtime – a guy. Two new guy show runners. Um hm…well well. I rest my case.

Hey, Enough About Baseball –

Let’s get back to something really important: the Japanese Economy! (I can hear your collective groans all the way up here…now ya’ll just cool it and listen)

Last night the Nikkei Dow dropped 1,423 points – a 7.3% drop in one day – the biggest in 13 years. Whoa! Why, you inquire? (you really do want to know – you know you do!)

Depends on who’s being quoted in the financial papers today. Was it Helicopter Ben’s comments yesterday before Congress saying QE-infinity isn’t infinite, and in fact the Fed will begin to ‘taper’ (his word) in the 4th quarter? Ouch! Maybe…

Or was it the publication of the manufacturing index for China indicating a significant slowdown in Chinese manufacturing production? Oh no! Maybe…

Or maybe it was just that the Nikkei Dow – up a whopping 70% in six months – just got a little bit ahead of itself, and when it surpassed the U.S. Dow, that gave investors – mostly foreign hedge funds – a desire to cool it for a bit?

Or maybe it’s a little of all those things –

There was even some discussion about the situation with Japanese banks and a bond rout. If you recall, on January 2nd, in the post titled The Phoenix Rises from the Ashes, I cited AEP and his observation that Japanese banks held a lot of government bond debt that would get to be more expensive to service when the yen was devalued. I believe the last line was something about chickens coming home to roost in the East – well: look out for some flying birds on their way to the henhouse.

Now it can be told: drum roll, please!

Brrrrrrrr…Rum!

Michael came up here Thursday night, and we spent most of yesterday creating the Excel spreadsheet to analyze baseball team performance. We used a combination of a “P” chart and Bill James’ Pythagorean Expectation….whoa! What the devil are you talking about, you ask?

OK, so in my excitement I’m getting ahead of myself…

Back to the beginning. Recall in my last post I talked about doing a ‘single point chart’ to try to assess which teams were most likely to make it to the playoffs? Well, upon further inspection, I deduced that a single point chart was not the appropriate way to proceed. Why? A single point chart is good for analyzing things like accounting information. I used it for electric bill analysis to try to determine why some schools were using more electricity than others. But that really didn’t work for a baseball result: they either won or they didn’t on each game. So upon further “inspection” (little TQA joke…ah hem) and upon further reading of the AT&T Statistical Quality Control book (the “Bible” for these things) I decided that a “P” chart was best. What’s a P Chart used for? Manufacturers would use a “P” chart to figure out the minimum and maximum number of defects coming out of batches of widgets. So how does that apply to baseball? Simple: a win is a ‘good’, and a loss is a ‘defect’. When you have 41 or 42 ‘batches’ (i.e. games) you can do a spreadsheet and come to some conclusion about the team’s potential to minimize losses, i.e. defects. Clear as mud, eh?

Well, nonetheless we did that and it produced some results. Then we got the Pythagorean Expectation from the Baseball-reference.com web site for each team and put that on the spreadsheet. What’s the Pythagorean Expectation? Nothing more than a calculation based on a team’s runs scored versus runs allowed.

The beauty of using these two criteria is that a) they are based on different data; and b) it provides another layer of confidence in a team’s performance as being based on their skill versus just a lucky streak. If you’re a fan, you’ll know that Atlanta had an amazing streak of wins early in the season. Luck or skill? The Pythagorean Expectation is supposed to sort that out based on the run ratio.

So without further ado, here’s the list of teams that we predict will be at the top of the list at the end of the playing season:

Atlanta Braves
St. Louis Cardinals
Boston Red Sox
Detroit Tigers
Texas Rangers
Arizona Diamondbacks
Baltimore Orioles
Cincinnati Reds
Colorado Rockies
Kansas City Royals

Again if you’re a fan, you will know that there are five American League teams and five National League teams. This is how it’s supposed to work out prior to the Playoffs. So the question will be: how close to accurate will our prognostications be? We predict an 80% accuracy.

Michael spent about 8 hours crunching all these numbers yesterday. He took to Excel like a duck takes to the pond behind our house. So kudos to him for all his work. I’ve noted from several Google searches that nobody else is using this kind of analysis at this point in the process – or frankly at any point. I hope he writes about it and gets some attention, as he’s very knowledgeable and an excellent writer. Good combo, eh?

Note two other factoids: the Oakland A’s, my favorite team, didn’t make the list. And the Miami Marlins – Michael’s favorite? Based on both sets of criteria, they are the least performing team in all of baseball. And after watching their game against Arizona last night, there ain’t much hope of improvement. Well – there’s always next year!