Smorgasbord

When a topic strikes my fancy, I start researching and writing.  If I like the product, I publish; if I don’t, I don’t.  Over the past few months, for a variety of reasons, I haven’t been happy with the results.  But I have a few little ideas to get off my chest, so here goes.   

1.  In the last post, I asked you to ask me about the fourth-out rule.  I’m pleased to report that at the next baseball game I attended, a friend approached and asked about the fourth-out rule.  To say he was underwhelmed would overstate his level of interest in my explanation of the, admittedly, rarely utilized rule. 

2.  Our President loves mentioning good things.  For instance, it was announced this week that our economy grew at a 3.2% annual rate in the first quarter.  That is great news and our President was quick to take credit for it.  It also was recently reported that measles cases are at a 25-year high[1] and that pedestrian deaths from accidents are at a 28-year high.[2]   It is difficult to see how President Trump could be at fault.  But I’m not sure he deserves credit for the economy any more than he deserves blame for the increase in pedestrian deaths.  The only thing we know for certain is that both things happened on his watch.[3]

3.  Thursday night was a sports smorgasbord for me. 

The Red Sox were playing and won.  After winning the World Series last year, they are off to a poor start this season, with a record of only 11 and 15. 

The Bruins, my favorite team when I lived in Boston, were playing the Blue Jackets, my favorite team now that I live in Columbus, in the NHL playoffs.  The Bruins played with outstanding energy early and late to beat the Blue Jackets in overtime.  It was a terrific game.  There is nothing quite like the intensity of a close Stanley Cup game.

The NFL was hosting the first round of its draft in Nashville.  Broadway looked even more crowded than usual.  For the first time in recent memory, the Cleveland Browns did not have a selection in the top three.  Because of a trade, they didn’t even have a pick in the first round.

The NFL draft engenders inane commentary.  There is so much talking time to fill and so little of substance happening, that the commentators end up highlighting things that aren’t worthy.  It’s one thing to mention that two tight ends were drafted from the same college team in the first round for the first time ever.[4]  That is interesting and might even be significant.  It is quite another thing to state “this is only the second time since 2004 that the second defensive player chosen by an NFC team after the third pick was a defensive lineman, who weighs less than 300 pounds.”  The quote is from a text a friend sent me last night, which purportedly quoted a commentator.  If the quote is real, I’m glad I missed it.  If it’s not, well, it is a close facsimile to some of the things that are said during the draft.

4.  Third, the TVA, Tennessee Valley Authority, was a massive government program that (in very short) dammed rivers in the Tennessee Valley and provided electricity to a part of the country that previously had little access.  Question:  when the project was completed, did the TVA provide the highest cost electricity in the country or the lowest cost?[5]

5.  Forbes magazine provides much great information and commentary.  I stopped subscribing years ago when I realized that publisher Steve Forbes was rabidly anti-attorney.  (I recently re-subscribed to give him a second chance.)  Forbes is avowedly determined to convince us of the volatility of great wealth – or something akin to that.  Over a decade ago, I sent them a letter, which to their credit they published, chastising them for saying that great wealth is more likely earned than inherited.  I pointed out that the prevalence of people in the Forbes 400 (of richest Americans) who inherited their wealth was orders of magnitude higher than of people who earned their wealth. 

Well, Forbes is at it again.  In their 3/31/19 issue, they had a headline “Few Silver Spoons” over a pie chart showing how the 195 new billionaires in world garnered their money.  There are 2,153 billionaires in the world, of whom 56 inherited their wealth in the last year.  That means that 56 of the new billionaires came from .00000076% of the people in the world.  Meanwhile, the other 139 new billionaires came from the other 99.999934% of the world.  I’d say the silver spoons are still holding their own, despite Forbes efforts to convince us otherwise.

6.  In 2017, the average American over the age of 15 spent this many minutes per day (on average) doing the following:

512 sleeping

283 leisure (150 TV, 41 other/relaxing, 31 socializing, 17 sports, 16 reading, 16 games, and 12 computer)

275 working

 99 housework (34 cooking, 30 cleaning/laundry, 35 other)

 67 eating and drinking

 44 taking care of children or other people

 41 grooming

 41 shopping

 37 education

 14 social/civic/religious

 12 communication

 15 other

I think I’m glad that, on average, we spend more time leisuring than working – those numbers are, of course, significantly affected by a person’s stage in life.  I’m a bit concerned that we spend less time socializing or getting educated than we do grooming.  Not that I want people to stop grooming.    

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[1] http://time.com/5577562/measles-highest-level-25-years/

[2] The Week, March 15, 2019, p. 14

[3] I have long believed that presidents and quarterbacks get too much credit when things go well and too much blame when they go poorly.

[4] T.J. Kockenson and Noah Fant, formerly of the Iowa Hawkeyes.

[5] The TVA provided the cheapest electricity in the country.