The Washington Post Business section for Sunday Jan. 12, 2014 was ALL BUSINESS, I’m happy to report.
After this blog’s unkind criticism of the Sunday business section last week, it’s only fair to note the impressive week-over-week improvement.
“Easy Rawlins still escapes, like the protagonists of Chandler, Hammett, Jim Thompson, or Chester Himes . . . With Easy Rawlins’ desperate and unflinching vision, Walter Mosley has revitalized two genres, the hard-boiled novel and the American behaviorist novel.”
That’s the back cover blurb touting Walter Mosley’s latest mystery novel, “Little Green.” It wins the first (and maybe last) “Intriguing Book Blurb Award” from your full-service blog, Work In Progress.
John Hayden photo
The Maryland General Assembly is back in session is open for business as usual in Annapolis. I’m having a hard time making myself care.
All eyes are on the Democratic primary in June. The politicians are full of energy — all of it directed at collecting campaign contributions.
But they have to stop fundraising, now that the session has started, and I doubt they have the heart to do anything of substance over the next 90 days.
It’s truly difficult to imagine this lame-duck Assembly, with a lame-duck governor gazing at the White House, doing anything other than image repair.
Am I getting cynical in my old age, or what?
So a rich guy and a homeless guy walk into a bar . . .
Sorry, let me start over. So a rich guy and a homeless guy walk into a dumpster . . .
One more time. A rich guy and a homeless guy walk into The Washington Post . . .
America is officially a “Tale of Two Cities,” as New York Mayor Bill de Blasio says.
The grand canyon between extreme wealth and abject poverty has grown so wide and deep that we have lost all perspective. We have become indifferent and uncaring.
It’s common for the rich, especially, to believe that poor people choose to be poor. The rich imagine the poor are HAPPY.
Of course you want to be happy in 2014! Doesn’t everybody?
Let me save you some time and eyestrain. Don’t bother reading the “happiness” story referred to in the previous post.
I won’t even name the formerly great newspaper. It’s too embarrassing. (Hint: The newspaper’s flag at one time included the words “And Times-Herald.” Jeff Bezos owns the paper now.)
To his credit, the author of the piece, Scott Adams, creator of the comic strip “Dilbert,” is totally, completely honest.
So I get up this morning, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014. It’s cold, gray, wet. The bleakest day in a string of bleak days. And here’s this headline in the newspaper:
“Read this if you want to be happy in 2014”
A headline among headlines! Maybe not the best headline, because it doesn’t tell you the subject of the story, it doesn’t tell you what happened, it doesn’t tell you THE NEWS.
“Read this if you want to be happy in 2014”
I have to read that story. I need to read that story. I must read that story. It’s the ultimate headline, the best headline ever written.
I wonder what the story’s going to tell me? “Read this if you want to be happy in 2014.”
Find out what happens next, here.
— John
If you persevere and read to the end of this post, you’ll be rewarded by the best part, video and music of Peter, Paul And Mary singing “Light One Candle.”
OCEAN CITY SAND DUNE, WITH A COLONY OF BIRDHOUSES. Photo by John Hayden
On these first days of January, phones are ringing off the hook at beach motels, according to my business contacts in Ocean City, Maryland.
It happens every year.
You might or might not be surprised to know that some travelers have favorite rooms at favorite vacation spots. Savvy vacationers jump on the phone in January to make sure they get their favorite room for the exact dates they want in July and August. Wait too long, and the rooms with the best views and amenities might be gone.
For some folks who honeymooned at the beach, it’s a matter of sentimental attachment. Same thing for couples who conceived a child while on vacation.
First time ever, in my years of blogging, I’m getting more readers in the UK today than the U.S. I know they’re not visiting for our weather. — John
As I sit here in Maryland on this freezing and snowy midwinter night, I understand why my brother liked Florida. He passed away in the spring, so this is the first winter he’s not in Florida, or anyplace else in this mortal world, which can be cold and mean.
If money were no object, I’d spend the winter months in Florida, summer in Maine, and spring and fall in Maryland.
But money IS an object. It’s a downright major impediment, to be honest.
Living Simply And Still On The Grid 