“I have begun to be a friend to myself.” Hecato
Youth Suicide
Heart breaking story of a young woman living in the West Village who hanged herself. Left a note saying in effect that she always felt alone even when with friends. I suppose that means we all need to have a real connection with someone else at some point or the soul spirals downhill. Also in the note, she apologized to her mother for what she was about to do.
Super Bowl Prediction
I’ll go out on a limb and predict either the Patriots or the Rams will win the Super Bowl.
Fat
Twenty years or so ago, it was the low-fat craze — they demonized fat. Then we discovered the body needs fat, and was especially low in Omega 3 fats, so the mantra was eat the right fats. But now the pendulum has swung all the way over to the over consumption of fat — the Keto diet recommends that 70% of what you eat should be fat. The Keto people are even now apologists for how “healthy” saturated fat is. Crazy.
But don’t let it upset you. Just wait another 20 years and fats will be all bad again.
Oz Politics
My Wizard of Oz analogy for American politics: if you are a Republican, you have no heart; if Democrat, no brain. And Oz is offering everyone free everything when we all know nothing is free, right?
I?
Ask yourself the difficult but essential question, Who am I?
End Game
Don’t worry — everything gets resolved in the end.
Democratic Party Civil War
I think you could make a case for the Democratic Party coming apart. This new, younger, quasi-Socialist faction really doesn’t sit well with the old guard of the party. Will be interesting who gets the ultimate nomination, given this obvious division. I think that selection process will make the division that much wider.
Hard to imagine the Dems beating Trump when their party is so divided. If they nominate a conservative, the radicals will bolt; and if they nominate a radical, the old guard will.
Sugar Addicts
I’m on vacation in Charleston, and every morning I go to a bakery selling “gourmet donuts.” I buy a cup of coffee there, not a donut. But every morning, without fail, I see a parent come in with their children, and they excitedly buy these donuts that have an incredible amount of sugar and unhealthy fat — just way over the top, yet the parents feed their kids this stuff without a thought in the world, no hesitation at all.
I just have to think that the parents are really just completely clueless about nutrition and food to be doing this, for clearly they would not intentionally harm their own children, would they? They simply must have no idea at all how really bad refined sugar is for health, for each one of these donuts is like a sugar nuke — the sugary frosting is so incredibly thick (that’s the “gourmet” part, I guess), and so must be an intense explosion for the taste buds as well as an incredible surge of dopamine. All this a strong reinforcement for a food that could not be worse for health. Makes one wonder about how reprehensible these parents really are — or does ignorance excuse them?
I also see the same people show up every morning at the donut shop — sugar addicts, whether they know it or not.
All That Glitters
I have an investment analyst who has the theory that a very long sideways move will have an exceedingly large and long breakout to the upside or down when the breakout finally does happen. Gold has been in a sideways movement now for 7 years. I think its time has come, especially as the Fed seems to be talking easy money again. The government thinks nothing of trashing the currency if that is the way to keep the bull running. I leave it to you whether that is wise.