Day Watch

Day Watch; the counterpart to the Night Watch. I just watched it on Netflix streaming. Saw Night Watch at the Minor theater in Arcata a few years ago. These are really good films. A particularly interesting item in this film is the sub-titles. They animate and add to the story. Tres Kul.

Oh. Марія Порошина

toasted tos

Cousine Sylvia, when in Swahililand during the Peace Corps service, was fond of the local practice of saying tos when they referred to bread. Untoasted bread. So she would say toasted tos. I do that now, with affection.

I had a similar irritation with language in Haiti. Many of them, but one in particular to comment on. A Haitian, for instance, when asked where is this [thing,person,place], will reply lot bo. (another place). Oh. That is real helpful. What other place? Where? lot bo. Ay ay ay. Mezanmi.

One time I was in Saint Marc and went next door to talk to the Madam about the little shack in her front yard. I asked the young man ki kote li? "where is she?". li pa la "she isn't here". Ok, I see that. Where is she? li sorti "she left". Ok, where is she? Finally I did get an answer. I can only roll my eyes.

Chicago Bridge and Iron

Chicago Bridge and Iron, of which I sold 100 shares at $20 (a loss) some months ago, does not build bridges and is a Netherlands company. The Hague. How about that?

Last friday they traded at 8, today above 12. Good thing I sold at 20 after buying at 25. Too bad I didn't buy again below 10. Probably a short squeeze tho.

Louisiana elections

Dollar Bill Jefferson has been defeated. By Ang Cao, whom no one had heard of a few months ago. The only person to bother to file for the republican party spot in the election, he picked up most of the disaffected democrats around here.

I didn't vote. It was on Saturday, Dec 6. Frankly, I forgot. Low turnout. The November general election was the democratic primary runoff. Runoffs in primaries? yup. California has no such thing. I thought the southern penchant for actually requiring a majority to be elected was for general elections, but this time it applied to primaries while saturday's general election was won by Cao with slightly less than 50% Malik got 3% for the green party, some nut case got 1% for the white peoples party and Jefferson came in with 47% for the old demo machine. Black dog democrats.

I wasn't gonna vote for the republican, how could I? I would have voted for Malik as the Rasta green anti-Bill Jefferson guy. Or maybe voted corrupt party line. Voting for a universally acknowledged thief would be a good southern comfort.

But this Cao looks fun. The first Vietnamese in the congress. Good idea. That scumbag Steve Scalise was on stage rooting on the victory. Scalise had Dick Cheney come to Metarie to campaign for him. Incredible.

The traditional democratic party machine has fallen apart here. There were 5 young african-american guys running against Jefferson and one cute young texan woman. Moreno was her name; she came in behind Jefferson but ahead of all the experience political challengers. Some elders were required to anoint a designated assassin of Jefferson. The elders have evaporated. The result? A seat falls to the party of the resurrected confederacy.

my first taxi job

I've been driving a taxi for a week now. For A Service Cab of Metarie. I've submitted applications for a number of driving jobs but nothing has come thru. A Service Cab actually gave me an intent to hire letter. So I got my Jefferson Parish taxi drivers permit and got a cab. It is one of those operations where you pay rent to the company and keep their cab full time. Drive whenever you want, as many hours as you want.

It does appear that 12 hours a day is required to make any money beyond paying for the cab and fuel. I have an old CrownVicPoliceInterceptor. Pretty old cause the certified speedometer is way off. The GPS tells me actual speed.

With Lucienne working at a hotel in the French Quarter and doing private house cleaning many days that she is not working (at the cash only, no Social Security Card required job at a major hotel) it is hard to put in enough hours. I haven't made anything in a week. But, I do have a third vehicle outside the house!

If I got rid of two pickup trucks (at whatever loss is necessary) and bought a van to do taxi conversion It might be a little better.

Big Mac work shirts

So I went to Penny's yesterday. J.C Penny's is required for google earth or the GPS to find it. At the Causeway mall; some other name, but it is off of Causeway. I was looking for the work clothes catalog. The women working there had never heard of a work clothes catalog and I sure did not see one. Looked in the main catalog; not there.

I wore Big Mac cotton work shirts, with two breast pockets and button flaps, for years as a hippy. Sometimes I wore Big Mac overalls with no other clothes but huaraches. The cotton chambray shirts have a nice slot in the left pocket flap to keep your toothbrush in. For when you don't know where you will be sleeping that night. They call it a pencil slot.

The women working the catalog department had never heard of Big Mac except as a product of McDonalds.

I found it on the JCP website. Just search for big mac. It'll be in the list, but big mac work shirt will not reveal it. Strange.

Ah. Link won't work. Illegal characters. Here it is:
http://www5.jcpenney.com/jcp/X6.aspx?ItemID=14745df&ItemTyp=G&GrpTyp=SIZ&ShowMenu=T&ShopBy=0&SearchString=big+mac&RefPage=SearchDepartment.aspx&s4PageSize=15&CmCatId=searchresults&Search1Prod=True&S4Filter=N|0|Ntt|big+mac|Ntk|search_all|Nao|0|Nty|1|sid|11DDDA311080|Ntx|mode%2bmatchallpartial|Ntpr|1|Ntpc|1

Taxi Driver

So I finally gave up on finding a truck driving job here. Surprisingly almost everyone requires previous experience already. Driving school graduates only get to go to the big over the road companies. And Schneider doesn't accept a graduation more than 3 months old. I was going to work with my brother Kevin driving his new old truck; Team work. Delays, etc, all the jobs he is finally getting are Kentucky centered, blah blah.

So I am going to do the Taxi gig in Metairie; Jefferson Parish, just up river. Spent a few weeks getting fingerprinted yet again, and drug tested again and paying about a hunnerd bux to various departments and agencies but I now have a Jefferson Parish taxi permit. Spent two days training with two different drivers at A Service Cab. Louis bought his own Suburban, Jiggs drives a company Crown Vic.

The plethora of Suburbans in the Taxi biz here has really surprized me. They seem like they would use a lot more fuel than a Crown Victoria. I still want to call the big Ford a Galaxie or LTD. They should bring back the Galaxie 500 name.

Louis says it doesn't use much more fuel than the Vic and many loads require a bigger car. Lots of the biz here is hauling Tow boat crews to and from the River. The Mississippi is one huge industrial canal.

I do not recall another town with so many Suburbans in the Taxi biz. Toronto had mostly Taurii in the trade instead of Crown Victorias. Perhaps the front wheel drive of the Taurus is better in the snow. But why doesn't Chicago use Table/Saurus then? Ah. Perhaps Taurus/Sable are built in Ontario and Crown Vic/Marquis are not?

Mumbai/Bombay television

Streaming online, you have your Deccan terrorists taking over the Wall Street of South Asia. NDTV seems to be a Mumbai/Bombay television station with live streaming.

office of President Elect?

Change dot Gov? The President in waiting is an office? Has this been so before? There is an official website for the President in Waiting.

Now, I am very happy that Barack Hussein Obama won the election. I was a little worried when McCain started running the ad with all the Berliners chanting Obama, Obama. It did seem a little cultish. And one of Obama's campaign appearances had him behind a faux president to be seal. Now there is a President Elect seal. This is a little over the top.

armistice day

Yesterday was what the USA calls Veterans Day. We used to call it Armistice Day, for the day the Armistice was signed in Europe in 1918. Apparently at Verdun the French shot 600 soldiers for desertion. Must have been a tough battle.

election 2008

Wrote this on election nite:

Last night I saw my first presidential campaign advertisement in
Louisiana. An anti-Obama one; attacking the reverend Wright, saying he
is dangerous. The night before the election, first ad. Strange.

There are a lot more positions subject to election here. Some parish
down river has a 'constable' for each of seven districts up for
election. There used to be elected district assessors here; they were
eliminated after the post-Katrina re-organization.

there are lots of judges being elected; the State Supreme court has
someone endorsed by the Family Research Council (according to his ads)
I'll vote against him; Guidry.

US Senator is the only race that may be a contest here. The only one I

know enough to vote on. Landrieu the conservative Dem. Kennedy the
imaginary Conservative Republican; last year he was a liberal Democrat.
I'll have to vote in that race.

Oh, my Congressional seat is held by William Jefferson, famous for
keeping his savings in cash in the freezer. He came in first in the
'first' primary without campaigning. There were five black guys and one

young white woman running against him. Today is the runoff between Wm
Jefferson and Roberta Moreno. She is cute, a former television weather
reader or something. Then later we will have the actual general election
between the socialist and fascist and vegetarian parties.

We have a hot District Attorney race between two Italian guys. Last time
a black guy was elected who immediately fired most of the white lawyers
in the office; the ensuing civil rights suit is costing the city many
millions of dollars. He dismissed
tons of cases, or declined to
prosecute, and was at his girlfriends house over the river in Algiers
when a friend of hers came over to ask the D.A. what to do after the
shooting he had just committed. Eddie Jordan was his name. He was a
stylish dresser; he resigned last year and we've had fill in temps since
then. A murder a day.

No black DA candidates came close in the primary this time. So now it is
Cannizzaro or Capitelli. Vote for the Italian guy!

first grade

Today's homework; first grade, Oct 30.

Next week, we will be electing a new President for our country. What do you think makes a good President? What kind of person should the President be? What kinds of things should he or she believe? What should he or she do in the White House? Think about these questions and write at least five sentences telling what you think a good President would be like.

Roxanne doesn't know what a president of the country is. She cannot form any notion of what would make a good president. Write five sentences? Was first grade this hard when I was six? I sure don't recall that.

Calpers a sign of collapse?

California Public Employees Retirement System, CalPERS is selling stock to meet obligations. Like any hedge fund driving down the market by selling at the lowest price seen in years. This news comes today on Marketwatch and is a really, really bad sign. CalPERS is one of the most important institutional investors in the USA. They pay my retirement benefits.

The Stock Market

The
Stock Market

Due to today's rapidly changing stock
market, the following terms have had to be revised.

This should help investors more clearly understand today's economic condition:

CEO -- Chief Embezzlement Officer.

CFO -- Corporate Fraud Officer.

BULL MARKET -- A random market movement
causing an investor to mistake himself for a financial genius.

BEAR MARKET -- A 6 to 18 month period
when the kids get no allowance the wife gets no jewelry, and the husband gets
no sex.

VALUE INVESTING -- The art of buying low
and selling lower.

P/E RATIO -- The percentage of investors
wetting their pants as the market keeps crashing.

BROKER -- What my broker has made me.

STANDARD & POOR -- Your life in a
nutshell.

STOCK ANALYST -- Idiot who just
downgraded your stock.

STOCK SPLIT -- When your ex-wife and her
lawyer split your assets equally between themselves.

FINANCIAL PLANNER -- A guy whose phone
has been disconnected.

MARKET CORRECTION -- The day after you
buy stocks.

CASH FLOW -- The movement your money
makes as it disappears down the toilet.

YAHOO -- What you yell after selling it
to some poor sucker for $240 per share.

WINDOWS 2000 -- What you jump out of
when you're the sucker who bought Yahoo @ $240 per share.

INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR -- Last year
investor who's now locked up in a nuthouse.

PROFIT -- An archaic word no longer in
use

Voting on the Debt Debacle!

C-Span live streaming is really, really bogged down. Lots of people watching the vote on the new, more expensive, Debt Dummy buyout bill. The Bailout. I think it is necessary, thought so two weeks ago. We can start lining the suits up against the wall in February. Right now we have to nationalize the banking system. Started to, actually. Sell it back after it is straightened out. This is a Mexican divorce with Amurkans love for Wall Street and gettin the guvamen offa my back.

That Sarah Palin interview

Couric. Katie Couric? Is that her name? I haven't watched network news in years, but since using a TV antennae here in La Nouvelle Orleans I have happened to tune in. So she spoke with Governor Palin. Missed it. I saw part of the earlier interview by some guy. He did seem rude and supercilious to me. I have been a political junkie for years and couldn't tell you what the Bush Doctrine is.

But I guess this last interview is unnerving some self described conservatives who are now calling for her to resign from the Republican ticket. There are people who vocally supported Gov Palin who now call for her to quit? How can people like this take themselves seriously? If they didn't know anything about the creationist governor how could they have said anything in public in support?

New Orleans swimming pool

Saturday we found a swimming pool finally. The New Orleans Recreation District has a dysfunctional web site with pdf links instead of web pages. I cannot find directions to any swimming pools there. I did read a newspaper article about pools opening this summer but no one I knew could tell me where one was. On friday Roxie and I had a teacher parent conference at Lusher School. She is having reading problems. Was first grade so demanding when I was six? So I asked Miz Fitz if she knew of a swimming pool. There is one by Audubon Zoo. (Audubon was born in Jeremie, Hayti). By the Audubon Tea House actually. So we drove by late friday after checking out trailer storage in Belle Chase. Yup, it is there. Saturday we went to the pool: Emile et Roxy and myself. It is free! And they let kids use those buoyant noodles. The Arcata pool does not allow them, only Coast Guard approved vests. Had a good time. There was swimming class practicing. The director of the pool was working his youngest, a not yet three year old who was swimming by himself! Kul.

Go Wm Tecumsah Sherman

on 24 Sept Cramer took a caller from Louisiana chanting "go Tigers". I guess that is the team name. Yup, Fightin Tigers is the official team name, from the War of Southern Slavery.

So, Cramer said to the caller "LSU, started by William Tecumsah Sherman". I guess his Lenin portrait did him some good, he knows Sherman.

Capitalism leads to Communism

Wall Street Journals Marketwatch:
As free-market-loving Americans, we all know overregulating an economy amounts to socialism. We're now discovering what happens when you underregulate -- communism.

Brave New World

The New Deal returns. Last nite the Kaesars of finance hinted that they may do a 'bad bank' solution for all of the Enron style 'creative finance' mortgage backed bonds which seem to be bringing the worlds capital system to its knees. Traders swooned in ecstasy.

I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.