MORNING
Breakfast. This (see photo) is what it gets reduced to when there is no club meeting. Health food or something. Actually, I went to the Panera but walked back out. It was another of those noisy old coot days. All talk, no action, and for that matter, no thinking, either. Don’t worry about me starving, I zipped over to Wiggly Piggly and got a turkey pot roast, all dark meat. The kind real people like. Dry, flavorless turkey breast, I’ll pass. Food is on the agenda again because I’m looking for recipes.
There, how’s that for getting started on a Sunday morning? Were things any more earthshaking at your end? Trent has the flu so rehearsal is canceled. My friend out west tells me she is covered head to toe with a mysterious rash, I just missed the afternoon movietime at Paradiso by 18 minutes, I don’t feel like doing anything today and it’s cold outside again. Why, I don’t have any whiskey, but if I did, I’d probably drink it. Put it in that glass of juice which has nothing in it.
Trivia. Did you know only 5% of the world’s shoreline is accessible by ships? That’s what I’ll do, hunt up some more trivia. The brand that interests me. There are 540 active volcanoes in the world. The most “liveable” country in the world is Iceland, a place I decided to visit when I was 16 and never made it. Yet.
And did you know, with all the resources of today, the best scientists in the world cannot rebuild the original German V-2 rocket, it is too mechanically complex and involved a lot of synergy that has never been duplicated. 64% of books by Dave Barry contain his own name in the title. You are not supposed to start sentences with a number, and I ask, says who? And if, as predicted, Iran builds a rocket in 2015 capable of reaching the USA, Florida is the nearest target.
AFTERNOON
North Sea oil. That’s not a random thought, I went to the Paradiso for another foreign movie. This time it was “Pioneer”, a drama about the early days of the Norwegian oil field development. The plot concerns the death of deep sea divers before it was discovered the diving gas contained unknown “American ingredients”. However, Yankee interference and industrial espionage was well known by the time Norway got into the game.
The movie stands on its own merits, I give it the okay. But knowing the story of Norwegian development of the fields would greatly enhance the understanding of the movie’s message. What? Okay, I’ll give you the brief version. Get one thing clear, the Europeans are different tribes. Each country that joined the European Union did so because they thought they would get more out of it than they put in. Norway opted out because their emerging economy was not bogged down in centuries-old politics and loyalties. That would be France and England.
One the continent, Germany is the overlord and controls everything. It also foots the bills for failures like Greece and Spain, which contributes to the general attitude that the European Union is nothing but past-their-prime ecomonies staving off defeat and avoiding national bankruptcy.
Norway tends to get lumped with Sweden for social benefits, but there is a major difference. Sweden funds their welfare by taxation, where Norway is dependent on the revenue from oil. And oil eventually runs out. Norway got rich fast (oil was discovered there in 1969) and they will lose just as rapidly, as the country is otherwise without many resources. I’ve heard stories that, like Canada, the local Norwegian marginal tax rate is around 44% and climbing in anticipation of that day the natural resource tap gets turned off.
If you don’t know what marginal tax is, then you don’t know what I mean. But you should still see this movie if you just like a novel theme now and then.
[Author's note 2015-12-14: I have a moment, a year later, to explain what marginal tax is. In countries like the US and Canada that have a "progressive" tax, this means the more you make, the higher your "tax bracket", and in theory you pay more taxes. (Marginal tax is not a good indicator of how much tax one actually pays, right Mr. Romney.) Why? Because marginal tax is the highest rate at which withholding payroll taxes are taken off your paycheck, not the final tax you pay once you fill out a tax return. Rich people have far more deductions.
Stay with me here. If you make enough bump yourself up into a higher tax bracket by a margin of even one dollar, that last dollar is taxed at the highest rate. That is your marginal tax rate. That is why working overtime isn't so great. So you'll know, when I worked overseas, my marginal tax rate was 54%.]
EVENING
I'm not going to write about this photo until tomorrow. That will give you time to ponder what it is. Some hints: it is from the Dupont Registry. Yes, it is externally a shipping container. It carries a price tag of $128,000. Including delivery, but after that, moving it is your own chore. See if you can divine what it is, the clock is running.
Not only that, I fell asleep in the armchair for twelve hours. When I awoke, my play-ahead list was on a recording teaching German Shepherds to "shake a paw". In German, "Gib foos." Not the only right-hand command to be making a come-back, from what we don't hear. (That's a slur made at hipsters.)
Today’s Togla Treat
Evolution
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