The Two Dollar Bill is Back

Full disclosure – I have a vegetable stand with an honor box.  Stories about the honor box and notes from people who have no cash (and IOU 75 cents) could take three pages.  I have noted that this year there is a small flood of two dollar bills, when I had not seen them before.  I get a Suzy B every once in a while, and often the ‘ashtray dump’ of a pile of small change, but never smiling Jeffersons (remember?).

So, as a curious mind wanting to know, I asked several local merchants (yes, bars) if they have been getting them as well, only to learn of a cascade from the local gentlemens’  clubs that is the source. How remarkable!  First, that they would abandon one dollar bills when making change for customers as an incentive to double the tips for the staff (can you imagine asking the lady for change for a two?)  but more remarkable that the effect from one small industry can move so broadly so fast.

Lest we forget, it was the adult internet entertainment industry that begat efficient online payment systems ten years ago.  I wonder what innovations are next?

Gardening…cool weather vs hours of sunlight

Worried about your warm weather plants? Think about the hours of sunlight (even with clouds) that they are enjoying without hot winds or heavy rain.  My friends who are the real experts say that now that the sun rises at 5:30 and sets at 8:30 the tomato plants are very happy no matter what the temperature.  It is not too late to plant tomato plants, but plant them deep.  We still have vigorous and large plants in 20 varieties that you can still enjoy this summer.

Don’t worry about the cool temperatures, only the cool nights.  Many gardeners cover their plants when the temperature approaches 50.  The best is still a ‘wall ‘o water’ but there is a risk of burn when there are no clouds. We will have a week of clouds. The cloud cover will make your peas and greens very happy too. Unfortunately, weeds are happy too. Leave your shoes outside…..

Memirial Day Musically

Half the stations on the radio are running patriotic songs with military bands and the same narrative that was probably used 50 years ago. Half the stations are sneaking in (or featuring) protest songs from every era – after all our wars never seem to stop.

Cannot avoid thinking of the stupidity of all that destruction.  The intense passion and desire to send armed forces to third world countries to reverse any development that has been achieved never ends. It appears that contracts have been signed with DD Eisenhower’s favorite complex for another ten years in Kabul (without any discussion in Congress).

When will they ever learn.

Trying vs Cheating

Hot news topics include the Wall Street cheaters, and their quotes ‘If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying’    in all the press.  Actually this oft quoted phrase with better grammer can be attributed to Mark Grace when he played for the Chicago Cubs.  It is important to have a look at the world we know.

On Wall Street, they now have focused on ‘conduct risk’ and individual responsibility for ethics.  On main street, companies and retail merchants collect massive data sets, so that if a customer or employee behaves unethically, eventually the computers catch up.  Russian  motorists  find a dash video recorder is essential, and now everyone has to wear go-pro’s (hopefully turning them off in the toilet).

I did the money count at the honor box on my roadside vegetable stand last night.  As usual, there was more money than missing plants and a couple of notes with ‘I owe you 75 cents’ messages. Go figure.

Missing rail passengers

Fifteen years ago there was a horrific rail accident outside Paddington Station in London. Death and injury (31 and 250) were shocking, and the effect on hundreds of others who walked away unscathed was severe as well. The story that often escapes notice was the fairly large number of people unaccounted for.  They did not have a passenger manifest, but the two trains were full, and the dead and injured were added to many who were interviewed and several dozen people simply went missing after the accident.

Each year a few of the missing emerge and they all have similar stories – a contentious divorce, a difficult job, family problems, financial overload, and a general sense of frustration that gave them the brilliant idea to take advantage of the situation and simply walk away, presumably into a new life.

Traveling to places like Rio or Bali or the beach towns in Australia north of Sydney you can go to a restaurant and sit at the bar where nobody has a name. They seem content in their choice, having unburdened their former selves from the weight of a life too heavy.  They will never go back.

We should not expect all the missing from the Philadelphia rail crash to be discovered, at least not locally. They will be joining their fellow travelers in Bali.

Looking at the past as ‘self-fulfilling panic’

A beautiful Spring morning complete with the wafting aroma of wisteria and the morning birds is really a nice time to reflect on disasters over the past decade.  We get help from the thoughtful pundits, who tend to do the same.  Here is my conclusion:

The financial crisis, the global political crisis, and our own personal crisis (potentially plural) are the clear result of leverage (financial and personal), non-linearities,multiple equilibria, and self-fulfilling panic.

To be brief, just think about overextension we have all done over the past decade….more than our individual or collective capacity – that is leverage (with its cousin, risk). Observe that old patterns and structures have diminished, so people and institutions no longer follow linear (straightforward) paths. Then note that most strive to envisage a logical stability, when in fact there are several versions of stability that clash.  And finally, most of our fatal flaws come from panic. Mine did,,,

There, that’s the answer….don’t you feel better already?

 

Druggies

Drugged the dog last night…he had smashed his leg while jumping up into the truck and the vet said there was no damage just ‘soft tissue bruising’ and prescribed  Mobic – a popular human anti-inflammatory that is cheap (about 35 cents a pill).

I hat drugging anybody, particularly family, but just as I gave him his cheeseburger/ pill treat he looked up at me and said ‘how ‘bout you old man?’  So I (for the first time) popped one ibuprofen PM.

We both slept like babies…..