It ain't all pizzas and cream

A Modest Proposal: Making the Vig

With each day's headlines peppered with stories and warnings about the worsening housing and debt crisis, I got to thinking about a solution.  Why?  Because it's none of my business, that's why.  And because it's interesting. 

So, as I understand it, a lot of people assumed mortgages with flexible (rather than fixed) interest rates. And when the interest rates jumped, the mortgage holders couldn't make their payments, and the lenders foreclosed. Now it seems to me that foreclosure not only makes the borrower homeless, but pretty much assures the lender that he won't see a penny of return on the loan.  And forget reselling the house to a new lender; nobody's buying.  So, why not come up with an interest rate that the borrower CAN pay, let him/her keep the house, and continue providing a revenue source for the lender?  Or am I missing something?

...OR...

Make double-digit interest on ANY loan
or credit line illegal.

Yep.  That's right.  Cap all interest rates on loans of any kind at 9.9%.

Face it, most of us have credit cards whose interest rates are just slightly higher than those charged by the Mafia.  And the parasitic credit card companies have already successfully lobbied to make defaulting on their loans through bankruptcy nearly impossible.  So, let's make what we owe them payable by capping the interest  they can charge us.

I'm gonna look into this further...I can't possibly be the first to think of it.

In the meantime, feel free to share your ideas, or just your credit nightmare stories, here.

My "To Don't" List

A person gets to a point in life when it's time to prioritize...to decide what stays and what goes...and to select what he/she hopes  yet to do.  In such a process, there are always castoffs, things that I must now admit, I will never get around to doing.  Mostly, these are things whose virtues have been touted my many, but nonetheless don't interest me.  Quite a few are books I'll never finish (some I'll never start), or places I'll never go.  Or things on which I'm just giving up.

You get the idea.

Item one: Kurt Vonnegut. I really never got the excitement over this guy.  (Please, don't try and explain it to me...many have tried.)  I attempted a few of his novels but never got past page 10. Maybe he's a better finisher than he is a starter.  I'll never know.  And I'm not saying which of his novels I've attempted, because I do not want to be told that I've been reading the wrong ones, or that if I only read THIS one first. Suffice to say, K-Von, you're going in the eternal dustbin.

Item Two: Calculus.  I predicted in high school that I'd never be asked to calculate the dimensions embraced by an irregularlly shaped curved object or the cruising altitude of an aircraft. Thus far, I've been correct. So I never bothered taking calc and am not about to begin now.

Item Three: Turnips.  My mom used to cook them and they smelled like feet.  'Nuff said.

Item Four: Gone With the Wind. Frankly, I nver really got anything that Clark Gable did. And I've tried. Really.  But he just seemed like a blowhard or a phoney, or both.  And to me, GWTW is as silly as that movie (The Conquerer) where John Wayne plays Genghis Khan.  So unless it's the in-flight movie to Hell, I'm not gonna see it.

Item Five: James Dean. Whiney and confused is no way to go thru life.  Right, he didn't go very far.  Sorry. Just never got what all the fuss was about.  If I want mid-century alienation or atomic-age angst, I'll stick with Brando.

Item Six: Michael Bublé. A great backing band does NOT a great singer make. I'll stick with the Chairmanof the Board.

Item six: The Fashion Industry. Dontcaredontcaredontcare. Dismantle the whole thing and feed the poor.

I'll be adding to this from time to time....

Care to make your own list?

A Truly Marvelous Age

From the lazy rise of the escalator
you'd never know how busy
this place once was
tho there are clues... 

The steady shuffle of shoeleather
and the jingle of coins
fished from pockets and exchanged
for magazines or smokes. 

The air smells of tobacco
diesel fumes and ozone.
Cardboard signs announce
the next train out of town. 

Light enters the cathedral
from the north, blind warehouses
and weary office buildings stand
like panhandlers outside a taproom. 

A carnival barker's voice
tells you  your train is boarding.
And in the blue morning light
you take hold of the grab-iron

And step upon the edge
of possibility.

Viva la Cuteness!

Sometimes it scares me how much I love this daddy thing.

Putting the Ring-A-Ding-Ding back in the Bing-Bang-Boom

When radio station WPEN ("The Station of the Stars") dropped its music format in favor of all sports/talk in 2005, something in Philly died.  Maybe you didn't feel it where you are, but around here it was as if that last great neighborhood bar or barbershop, that last great gathering place, had closed its doors and boarded its windows. The result was that, outside of a few low-wattage religious stations, no music remained on the AM band in the Philadelphia market. 

Now I have nothing against baseball. I even have somewhat nostalgic memories of pudgy and pasty-faced men--usually wearing brown slacks and black socks, their belts raised nipple-high--listening with reverence as a monophonic earplug tethered to their AM-only transistor radios relayed news of the latest home run into their hairy ears.  But it seems that a strict diet of sports, talk, and news is like trying to survive on crackers, toast, and pretzels.  In short, people need (and want) something more.

So imagine my surprise as I spun the dial of my 1950 Coronado tube radio and heard Tony Bennett singing back at me.   "Oh, shit," I thought, "Benedetto's dead.  This must be some news station playing a tribute clip." Relax.  Mr. Bennett is alive and well.  Turns out there's a new station (or at least a new format) in town.

If you're within listening distance of Philly and tune your AM dial to 1340, any time of the day or night, you might hear Bennett or Sinatra, or O'Day or Clooney.  Martini Lounge Radio has launched an aggressive campaign to put the ring-a-ding-ding back in the bing-bang-boom.  And from what I've heard so far, they're doing a zim-zam crash-bang job. 

And for those of you not in the Philly listening radius but find your life sorely lacking in Rat Pack era standards, do not dispair.  Streaming webcasts are coming in a few short weeks. So check the website link above for updates.

And pardon the shameless plug. 
         It's just one of those things.