Coffee is good this morning, a little bite to it, but that is okay, it is cold here and uncomfortable. Americans drink about 400 million cups of coffee per day, that is a lot of coffee, that is an ocean of coffee. Which is kind of strange, when you stop to think about it. Coffee has no nutritional value that I know of, why we drink it is truly somewhat of a mystery.
Four out of five adults in the U.S. drink coffee every day. I know one person who doesn’t, his favorite quote about coffee is this. “How can something that smells so dog-gone good when it is perculating in the pot, taste so rotten afterwards.” He is not a caffeine junky like the rest of us.
We average about two cups per day in this country, per consumer, that would be about 1/3 of the worlds’ supply of the elixir. I understand that coffee contains 100 milligrams of caffeine; a cup of espresso has 200.
No More Free Toasters
You can now add Credit Unions to the list of people signing up for the bailout money, they applied for and received $40 billion worth this week to bolster against mortgage losses. You know the other day I was sitting at the beanery waiting for them to bring me my order and I was staring out the window. And I got that glazed over look in my eye and the wife said to me, “I know I shouldn’t but I am gonna anyway. What are you thinking about”?”
And I said, “Oh, I was thinking back a long time ago, when we were young and stupid and we invested in that Ponzi scheme. You remember that?” and she said, “Oh Lord, whatever made you think of that?”
For all of you that are not aware, a Ponzi scheme is a get rich deal, most of the time called a “Pyramid Scheme” and the people, who get in early, make tons of money, the others, well they don’t do so well. They mainly lose their investment. We were in the later group, we lost, about $1,000 and interest, and I made every stinking payment on it, 36 of them suckers. (I told you we were young and stupid, we didn’t even have the money to lose, we borrowed our entry level amount … Now that was really d-u-m-b.)
So here is the deal.
I am thinking about how it is that I did something really dumb, really stupid, and I lost what I considered a large amount of money. AND NO ONE … NOT ONE SOLITARY SOUL CAME FORWARD TO BAIL ME OUT … I HAD TO PAY EVERY DAMN DIME OF IT … AND I HAD TO TAKE MY KNOCKS THE HARD WAY. Since then, several lucrative offers have presented themselves, and we always say “no thank you.” Our official position is that we have had so many good deals in the past, we cannot afford any more of them now.
When do WE get bailed out … Who is going to help us out … those of us that are struggling.
Business has gotten so bad here lately, even the people who were not planning on paying for it anyway, are not buying. I asked my neighbor about it and he said, “The bible says cast thy bread upon the waters and it will be returned to you 100 fold.” Which is fine, but what are you supposed to do with 100 soggy wet loaves of bread? When I was young, my paycheck would burn a hole in my pocket, these days it isn’t enough to keep my pocket warm. It is truly a shame that at this point in life, you have only one regret. And that would be that you have not accumulated enough cash to be able to fly on a moment’s notice to Japan to bid on Paul’s Sergeant Peppers uniform.
The Governor will see you now … Please have your checkbook handy
Corruption has tainted politics in Chicago (Illinois in general) since the prohibition days and Albert Scarface Capone, but the arrest Tuesday of Illinois Governor Brad Blagojevich revealed alleged conspiracy and bribery schemes so brazen that the veteran investigators and prosecutors could barely hold their revulsion. Government for sale .. to the highest bidder, the American Way, kind of makes you proud doesn’t it? Shades of Bill Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas. When the highway patrol stopped you there, they would say, “Have your wife get out of the car, so the governor can frisk her.”
Here is another one out of Illinois for you. In Springfield, Zachary Holloway, 20, and a pal were arrested and charged with breaking into one car and stealing, among other things, a motorcycle helmet, then attempting to break into another car.
To try to get into the second car, Holloway put on the helmet, stood back from the car, and charged into it, head-butting a window, unsuccessfully, twice. They were arrested and booked that day.
Finally coming clean
Some 20 years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, plaintiffs in the case are getting what’s left of the money they were originally awarded, the Anchorage Daily News reports. Some plaintiffs will get amounts ranging from several hundred dollars to $100K or more. Most had just about given up hope of getting anything from it at all.
Now lets see, you take an amount of money, put it in the bank and allow it to sit, for say …. Oh let’s just say “twenty years” … that might accumulate enough in interest where you end up never paying a fine at all. Just thinking outside the box. Naw, “our friends in the oil and gas industry” wouldn’t do that to us … would they?
Oh well it could be worse (how could it possibly be worse?) you could be in your car, stranded on an Alaskan highway and the only human within 200 miles is a Cro-Magnon Woman wearing a torn parka who communicates through a series of bizarre grunts, winks and gesticulations and she not only comes to your rescue, but you have to “talk to her” all the way back to town.
Lying crooks what is this world coming to?
In the city that launched the national crime-stopper movement, Albuquerque, New Mexico, which pays informants for tips that help police solve local crimes there could be a possible snag. It appears now the highly successful program designed for, “people that hang out with crooks to do part time work” might be providing the cops with “less than truthful information” for the rewards.
It appears that even in hard times, the low life’s will resort to less than honest approaches at generating funds. Police are now saying that they are going to have to be more careful because they “might be playing games with us” in order to get the money. Geeze, do you think so? Bad cop, bad cop, no donut.
Man, I would like a shot at that myself.
Barre, Vermont. A man who hit Governor Douglas in the face with a pie during an Independence Day parade will spend five days on a work crew for the prank. Matthew Manning, 23, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and apologized. Manning, dressed as Santa Claus ran up to Douglas during the Montpelier parade and threw the pie before being tackled by the mayor and being detained. I would like to pay this man’s fine, if there is one, but I am curious. “Santa Claus at an Independence Day celebration, what were you thinking?”
Time to wrap this one up.
If you attend the job fair/money seminar at the Holiday Inn this weekend? When the speaker begins the seminar by saying, “By a show of hands, how many of you don’t know the difference between a stock and a bond?” and you are the only one with your hand in the air?
Go immediately to the Lobby … American Xpress or Bank Of America are looking for you. You might have a new job Monday morning.
Who says things aren’t looking up.
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We are still valiantly trying to hit “one million” visits by March 12th of 2009, please help us to achieve this goal. Post the address anywhere you like (www.boxcarOkie.com), tell all your friends, ask them to just stop by and check it out. Help us to make this happen!
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