Update on NOTEFLIX’s production of “Troubles in the Garden”: Our Script Writers are still on strike…but Spring has finally sprung in the Land of Stuffed Animals…and script, or no, our hero, The Multicolored Bluebird of Happiness has sent a message to his true love, Mamzelle Pinkie, to meet him on the path, under the Willow, down by the river, near the old stone bridge. Where is she? Did she get the message? Is something afoot? Come back next week for news on this subject.
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- ABOUT THE NEWS: I was wondering about the newspaper industry. Just a few years ago, they had to cut down trees, turn the wood into paper, truck the paper to the printers, print the news, put the pages in order, and then truck the newspapers to a News stand – and hoped you’d walk by and buy a copy. Times have changed. Trees are left to grow, paper mills have downsized, newsprint trucks and their drivers are down in number. I think the result of all this is there is more news coverage than before. All of it in the little phone which I hold in my hand. There are some major differences in my news, however. The articles are much longer than they were. I suppose this is to keep my ‘eyeballs’ on the screen so I see the ads which are interspersed throughout. I have noticed, often, the articles do not deliver what the headlines suggest. “HOW WILL THE DEBT CEILING CRISIS END?” or “IS INFLATION OVER? A RECESSION COMING?”…and then 15 minutes of reading and no answers to those questions, but plenty of ads about how to improve my memory or how to explore the magic of life with something, or somebody named Bulgari. Years ago, I used to read “The Times” in the morning on the subway to work, or sneak in a half hour somehow, somewhere. Today, I get the Times & Washington Post on my phone via email. Then there is something called “NEWS” on my screen, which I look at to see what the Times & Post missed and also can guide me to Huffpost, CNN, FOX, USA, NBC and many more. Oddly, Instagram has really good stuff on it that the other outfits either missed or did not say enough about. I can’t keep up and the news is dragging me down and I am running out of time – all at the same time. I think maybe I should try this exploration of the magic of life with this Bulgari person.
- BAGGAGE NEWS: “U.S.Airlines made almost $7 billion last year from baggage fees.” This is the way I like my news presented to me. Short and to the point. I dislike the news which is imparted; but that is beside the point.
- RANK: Here are the 5 biggest U.S. companies, by market value. 1) Apple 2) Microsoft (Aramco would be #2; but Aramco is not American) 3) Alphabet (Google) 4) Amazon 5) Nvidia. Do you know what NVIDIA does? I’m not going to tell you; but it grew in market value last week by more than McDonald’s is valued at. I remember when the biggest companies did things like make cars, make steel, make weapons…do things like that. Things I understood.
MATHUZALA SPEAKS
- One of your *philosophers opined “Nature Abhors a Vacuum.” We rats are like Nature in that we, too, abhor a vacuum and therefore are filling it. We are taking over your empty spaces in the subways, the basements and your minds.”
Ed. Note: (* The philosopher was Aristotle) Were you to be interested in what MATHUZALA means by entering “your minds”, go to Amazon (the 4th largest business in the U.S.) or to the little Barnes & Noble and buy “THE RAT PAPERS” from which you will learn how to fill the vacuum.
Notes From Tuscany:
Last night the moon was coming up over the piazza, children playing, people eating…This morning, for some reason, a small market and someone singing a country song…I think I heard the word “Love” in the chorus. (It was sung in Italian, so I am not sure.) …Very nice, if you like this sort of thing.
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Quotes:
- “You’d think by now that I would know better /But I ain’t got a lot to show/I could write a song or I could write a letter/I could write a book about what I don’t know.” ~Ryan Bingham, Crazy Hearts
- “Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV” ~The five words the then President Trump repeated to show he was mentally sharp.
That’s what fits. And a fond “Hello” to Irina, wherever you are.
