I don’t know about you but in our whacky times I often crave a thing called normal. Just one day, week or year that is not enveloped by some sort of chaos. I have been reading several essays on everything from inequality to insecurity to formative AI. I hate to tell all of you but if you don’t realize it, that is normal. Uncertainty is a part of life. 

We go about our lives without realizing  the beauty and serendipity of random. We want everything to be wrapped up in a bow and presented as happily ever after. We want to be in total control. It is just not achievable. Things jump up and grab you at the most inopportune moments. Good stuff and bad stuff. 

Today is our 53rd wedding anniversary. Last night over dinner we laughed as we noted, “And they thought we would never last”. I know most of you were betting on Kathy but I do have my moments. She had just come to Boston and was living with some girls I knew from Georgetown. Between ups and downs and a place called Viet Nam we still made it though. Look at what we would have missed?

Too many years ago the equation was simple. For me, you went to college somewhere between Boston and Washington DC, went in the service and then came out to a career on Wall Street, banking, insurance or law. You eventually had the kids, a dog, the standard three or four bedroom colonial and a station wagon. Not necessarily in that order. But the times, they were a changing.  

As air travel became more commonplace by sheer happenstance we went more places and met more people. Technology blossomed, medical feats became routine and a thing called crazy wealth crept into our vernacular. More money drives one to seek more unique experiences. To shine and brag and to look for the next big thing to flaunt. 

As an old fart we were going through photo albums when kids and grandkids came for Christmas. Flashbacks of when we were young gave PTSD a whole new meaning. Clothes, hairdos(yes I did have hair once) cigarettes you name it. Friends made and lost. Decors and finned cars that could only bring to mind,”What the hell was I thinking?”

These travels down memory lane cause one to conjure whether we have all been swept by the tide or if there was any sort of a rudder steering this ship of life. I keep coming back to a thought that if this world is screwed up or beautiful, then either way I helped cause it. Directly or indirectly we are complicit. We should receive the accolades and absorb the hits for our brilliance and idiocy at the same time.  

Is there any constancy? Maybe a credo or philosophy? What is in your gut? Your definition of good or bad. I think mine relates mostly to  relate to a lot of different people.  I am not a loner. I seek out and want to engage. I really try to explore the world around me. Not picture postcards but what do others believe. But that is just me. You might think 180 out of that. That is okay.

Polarization, isolationism, arrogance, and inequality that exist today, have somewhat of a common theme. It’s about me, not about you or us. As we become smarter and yes richer we feel we really don’t need anybody. You are there to facilitate me but if you choose not to there is another one to take your place in my little realm. Relationships? Only if I can benefit. 

 Today we are reporting if not touting a singular life style. People are not marrying or if they are, they are not going to have children. Dogs are so much more predictable. Are they trying to save the world or could they just not be bothered? Raising a family takes time and resources. It also takes love of another human being. 

Maybe I should be more conciliatory ? My generation has not exactly wowed the follow ons by advance planning. We have created some marvelous things but also loaded up our world with a lot of crap. That’s okay if we can reverse some of those pratfalls and pitfalls but some of our miscues have become next to impossible to erase. 

Atomic energy can provide huge amounts of power. It can also make a perfect recipe for annihilation. Petroleum has increased our scope and provided energy when there was none. That has created problems in everything from breathing to avoiding our being parboiled by the sun. Plastics rule our world and brought transportation and storage to a new level but nobody told us it would get into everything from landfills to oceans for generations to come. 

Our world is imperfect, exciting, exacerbating and generous all rolled into one. From the beginning I believe there was a balance on so many levels that we have in our exuberance but stupidity upset. This has happened over millennia. When there weren’t so many people involved the disruptions were minimal. Now there are zillions of philosophies, beliefs and theories on governing. Each one of us thinks we have the right answer. The really smart ones won’t devise AI or a cure for  cancer. They will figure out how we can stop killing each other. 

As always

Ted The Great 

Factoids:

There are an average of 55 earthquakes each day. That’s around 20,000 per year. America goes through a major flooding once every 3 days. There is an average of 100 lightning strikes that occur in the world every second. How do you plan against that?  Imperfectly!

Odds:

Getting hit by lightening 1 in 228,000,000

Kill in a plane crash  1 in 22,000,000

Dying in a tornado 1 in 13,000,000

Winning the lottery. 1 in 320,000,000

Getting your car stolen. 1 in 3,000,000

Dying in a shark attack. 1 in 7,000,000

Graduation from college in 6 years.  4 in 10

Person next to you nor being able to read this in the US 1 in 7

That’s right we are 14% illiterate here in the 50 states. 

Human teeth are the only part of the body that cannot heal themselves. Teeth are coated in enamel which is not a living tissue.

People are more creative in the shower. When we take a warm shower, we experience an increased dopamine flow that makes us more creative.

Nutmeg is a hallucinogen. The spice contains myristicin, a natural compound that has mind-altering effects if ingested in large doses.

There’s only one letter that doesn’t appear in any American state name. There’s a Z in Arizona and an X in Texas, but no Q in any of them.

You can hear a blue whale’s heartbeat from over 2 miles away. Blue whales weigh an average of between 130,000 and 150,000kg, with their hearts weighing roughly 180kg.

The world’s longest walking distance is 14,000 miles. You can walk from Magadan in Russia to Cape Town in South Africa. It requires no flying or sailing – just bridges and open roads.

Kim Kardashian has a ‘glam’ clause in her will. It states that if she’s ever in a position where she can’t get ready herself, can’t communicate, or she’s unconscious, someone has to make sure her hair, nails, and makeup are all perfect.

Kim Kardashian knows the alphabet in sign language. Apparently, she used it to cheat on tests with her friends at school.

A jiffy is an actual unit of time. It’s 1/100th of a second.

I just got nuts doing my factoids. Couldn’t stop. Please forgive me.  See you next time 

Adjective…..having or showing great knowledge or learning. What is going on in your crazy mind, TTG? Plain and simple I am trying to find my way on a number of topics. I am hard to please. I know there are some great minds out there but the acclamation of genius I find hard to bestow. Show me what you got!

I don’t know about you but I limit my experts in either print or social media. I was watching a panel deciphering the NCAA football playoffs. I was hard pressed to know which ones out of the 4 commentators were at least qualified, much less competent in their particular expertise? I had never seen or heard of them before. 

We are inundated with sports and news channels. Let’s go on the low side and say there are fifteen of each. Multiply that by regional, division, country, region, military, hockey, and whatever  experts in each venue. Is it me or are we dragging up a lot of people who are pleasant but not savants? The real difficulty is that in the midst of the throngs there might be somebody who really gets it but is either drowned out by larger voices or isn’t really good at expressing him or herself. 

In spite of this we formulate our opinions based on this or that one’s ability to win us over. Even beyond whether you are watching, FOX, CNN or MSNBC, the plot line doesn’t vary. Ditto our our print media. WSJ, NYT, NY Post, Washington Post.  You for the most part will get the flavor du jour. I guess that sells copy or ad space but can you honestly say you are getting the truth. 

I have written too many times about algorithms. If I look up anything from Trump to the Broncos to progressive to conservative, I am automatically steered to that side of the street even if I was just trying to get a different viewpoint. Personally that pisses me off on two extremes. If you know me, I really don’t like to be defined as this or that. More importantly knowing what I do I like is to be able to venture to the other side so to speak without fear of being discovered. Hmmm.  Maybe that sounds a tad paranoid. 

Here in Flatland we have a thing called Foreign Policy. A half a dozen of us pick a topic from a list. We research it and do a presentation to a hundred plus of our fellow members. The talk is about forty minutes and then we open up to questions. I love doing it because you have to do a fair amount of research. One to elaborate on your topic and the other is to not look like an idiot when Q and A starts. My topic this year is Global Warming. I might do my delivery with a helmet and flak gear on. 

I have been poring over articles, news clips and documentaries of a sort. Simple? Cut and dry? Fugeddabout it. It’s not only about solar and wind but alternative avenues to solve the problem. First I had to approach the whole thing from the point of view there is no problem. Good stuff. More importantly I have found every possible scenario from some supposedly very smart people. As a babe in the woods and budding scholar which one do I take as Gospel truth ? 

I am flummoxed and at the same time fascinated by our world today. If you followed some very well paid wonks you would have missed this crazy stock market of the last year. 90% of the cognoscenti said this puppy was going to be on life support at best. Inflation, recession, doom? Step right up. That is not calling the shots in politics but your and my nest egg or college fund. Cold hard cash. Sorry Charlie. We just miscalculated. 

Israel with Mossad et al is considered beyond scary when it comes to intel and penetration of the enemy’s lair. That did not work out too well on October 7. People said there was absolutely no way Ukraine could stand up to the Russians. They have gone  not only head to head with ground forces but even blown up parts to the Russian fleet with drone speed boats. Have any of you thought about every major nation’s dependence on big ship navies? 

Where does this lead Teddy and the rest of us? Plain and simple you have to do your homework. We cannot accept the pablum as presented. That is not to become unbelievers. This is to go back to my Jesuit way if you will excuse me. Question everything. Go deep. Look at different opinions before we frame our own. Does it take work? Sorry, but it does. Can we sit back and go on cruise control? Sure we can and leave a shit show for our kids and grandkids. 

I hate to be a drag on our la la view of our world. A lot of my contemporaries say it is up to those who will follow. We have worked hard and now it is our time to rest. I do not fault you in any way but I will take issue. Our good times have been financed by largesse and a horrendous debt. Not only money but responsibility. I think we checked out of the real world without realizing our extended life expectancy and good times are leaving a big wake. 

I am not erudite. I am an average schmuck who sees the world from my little place here in Flalaland. I am sure a lot of people a lot smarter than me could and probably should call me to task.We are all trying to figure this out. Please don’t just think of ourselves. We have a big blue marble with a lot of pieces. It belongs to all of us.   

As always 

Ted The Great

Factoids. 

Predictions for the ending S and P 500 average in 2023 ranged from 3,675 to 4,500. The closing was 4796. 

A new study by three MIT scholars has found that false news spreads more rapidly on the social network X  than real news does — and by a substantial margin.

I read content from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times,BBC, CNN, NPR and Axios. Some of my favorite journalists at David Brooks, Tom Friedman, George Friedman, and Peter Zeihan. Their content is stimulating. You don’t have to agree with any of them but man it makes you think.