Three Issues seem important

The Big Screen Kindle Hail Mary to Newspapers...

This could be a key to the economic problem, because you see at issue is how to design and sell electronic products to consumers, but the real issue is how to control the price by selling subscriptions with the item. It seems as if the most important and innovative new products can't really be sold on their merits, and need to be subsidized by sales of other, possibly unrelated products. So this electronic book reader-- a good idea, though expensive-- can't really succeed as a product without a price subsidy, and that will come in the form of newspaper subscriptions sold in advance with the item. Like the cell phone that works (stays inexpensive) because the phone companies underwrite them. With a three year contract, you get a free phone. My preference is for a product that will work (meaning sell) without the frou-frou and card tricks. And in fact, I believe without that-- without a product that is appealing and economical on its own merits-- then the economy will continue to be a big, ugly, over-leveraged mess. And we all know any profits from manufacturing the "gear" (the actual kindle, or cell phone, or camera, or whatever other doo-dad we might be selling-- is all going to Asian manufacturers anyway. It's not a rosy picture.

Red Sox Can't Avoid Harmful Rays...

Someone should put together a chart comparing wins vs. days off for professional baseball teams. The Red Sox have been on a 17 day work schedule, 18 games in 17 days, and they're going to New York to play the Yankees starting tonight. They won the first eleven games (including sweeping the Yanks), but they have lost six of the last seven. Jeezus, Red Sox organization... why not consider giving the guys a day off? It's hard to play well without enthusiasm, and I haven't seen much enthusiasm in our team since they went to Cleveland. It's fine to analyze the pitching and the fielding and the other teams' stats, but in point of fact it appears our team is basically functioning as slave labor to those who are making money filling stadiums. When Dustin Pedroia can barely leave the field in a shambling trot, you know you've burnt out all the fire from the boys. And it's fire that wins games. Curb your greed, already. It's hurting everyone.

And last but not least, in the "learning to live in lean times" department, I have recently cut way back on smoking. I'm down to 5 or 6 cigarettes a day, and the advantages are many. But one thing I noticed recently is I often go out in the morning with only a few cigarettes. Now interestingly, it used to be de rigeur for me to check before I went out to make sure I had enough, and would slip another pack into my pocket if it wasn't absolutely clear the last pack had enough. Now I look, see there are 5 cigs, and realize that's more than enough for the day, even though it feels like too few. The patterns that have to change in order to finally quit are more than just the simple and obvious personal habits-- what to do with the hands, how to satisfy the need for oral stimulation-- and involve as well the ways I have learned to take care of myself. It's challenging. And doable!