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Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Relationships - Sisters

My wife got an email today which I absolutely cannot top with anything else that I might write... so here it is with the names blocked out to protect the... innocent? I couldn't make this stuff up.

Ladies,

My recent experience reveals secret knowledge that I am now privileged to share with you:
Big Hair no longer holds the record for BIGNESS in Texas ~
White Carbs are now the leading BIGNESS in the Lone Star State.

Here's the facts:
1. I arrived, fortunately well-fed on a low-carb lunch and dinner, at 9 p.m. at DFW. M*** and R***** picked me up and we stopped by a supermarket on the way home to pick up some non-fat half and half for my constant consumption of chai. R***** sacrificed her bed for me as she always does, and I passed the night very nicely.

2. Friday morning T*** took the children to school and returned to inform me that she'd eaten breakfast already ~ a piece of toast! AND that I was to hurry up and eat because we had work to do!! namely:
  • chocolate-covered eclairs
  • key lime cake
  • pralines
  • truffles
  • bread pudding.
I ate a couple eggs and survived the carb-infested day eating only one-half a truffle and one-half praline amid my salads, which were slim picking because The T***Master does not like salad ~ whoever thunk it??

3. We were to go out to dinner. There was discussion of Mexican, but we couldn't think of something that was not suffused with beans and tortillas, so we went to the delightful neighborhood grill and I had steak with 2 veggies, carefully avoiding eye contact with the mashed potatoes, deep-fried catfish, hushpuppies and skinny curly freedom fries on the surrounding plates.

4. Saturday, about 2 hours after I've awakened and eaten half the remaining lettuce in the fridge, M*** arrives with a breakfast burrito which he offers to third with me and R*****. Starving, I succumb. The T***Master, exhausted from sugar, I'm sure, slept till 1030 when M*** sicced S**** on her.

5. Several hours and some cleaning and yard work later, The T***Master eats a corn dog. I eat a piece of kielbasa and the remaining lettuce.

6. Hoping that my very skinny sister-in-law will do better, I arrive late afternoon in Denton famished. S***** serves chips for a snack, with no cheese or dip or garnish (they're fattening!). We have dinner: spaghetti, bread and butter, and two pieces of lettuce with one-half cherry tomato on individual plates so one cannot scarf up an extra share. Feeling weak from hunger, I eat it all except the bread.

7. Sunday I take M******* to Mass and we go to L'Madeleine for brunch. I manage to convince them that 11 a.m. is in good time for a grilled chicken caesar, which the lunch crew agrees to wrestle up for me "even though it's Sunday "~ something about Texas, perhaps?

8. Arriving back in Fort Worth in time for the ten-yearly M******** Christmas gathering (she said it'd be ten years and she doesn't know how J****** and L**** do it annually!) I face trays of:
  • pralines
  • truffles
  • key lime cake
  • bread pudding
  • chocolate-covered eclairs
  • and sugared punch.
9. I eat bread pudding with bourbon sauce, one praline, and drink tons of fat-free chai to tide me over. Having the foresight to realize that dinner might not be on The T***Master's agenda, on Saturday I'd suggested thawing the pork roast, which she did. When I realize about 5 p.m. that she's perfectly content with
  • pralines
  • key lime cake
  • bread pudding
  • truffles
  • chocolate-covered eclairs
I repair to the kitchen and put the pork on to roast. Later, much later, The T***Master focuses on the fact that no one named M******** has had any FOOD this day, she checks the roast and announces that we need rice, and a vegetable for S****** ~ you know, a vegetable, like real low-carb lima beans. I eat.

10. M*** and I share a bottle of wine and I hit the sack again.

11. On Monday I leave for the airport with somewhat more than I arrived with, so they give me a paper bag with handles to carry the overflow. Fine. I get into the airport and a man says, "Oh, Papasito's! It's the best isn't it?" I realize he's referring to the bag and say I didn't get there, just have the bag. Four, do you hear? FOUR more people notice the bag and remark on how wonderful Papasito's is. I wearily explain again and again and again and again. Finally, I'm hauling into the plane cabin and the DC-based! flight attendant says, "Papasito's! My absolute absolute favorite! Don't you just love it?" explanations ~ and advice about my next trip to Forth Worth and I take a seat.

12. Tuesday morning I get on the scale and wonder why I didn't go to Papasito's? what possible difference could it have made?

In short, K****, you have no worry about my overtaking you anytime in the near future: I arrived home 4 pounds heavier than I left 5 days ago. But I have till Friday to get one or two of them off!

However, I most highly recommend visiting this last American refuge of total-carb eating habits. Aside from that BIG fact, the house is marvelously wonderful in varied ways ~ photos to follow as soon as K**** J***** gets over here to help me out on the Adobe Photoshop. In my very expert judgment I have pronounced the neighborhood the very most wonderful in the entire family! The company is excellent. R*****'s bed is comfy. The kids are fun and interesting. The dog is silly. And the conversation challenging.

But I'm fasting till Friday ~

love,

S******

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There is always an easy solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong.
Henry Louis Mencken (1880–1956)
“The Divine Afflatus,” A Mencken Chrestomathy, chapter 25, p. 443 (1949)
... and one could add "not all human problems really are."
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FEDERAL RESERVE & HOUSING

SEARCH BLOG: FEDERAL RESERVE for full versions... or use the Blog Archive pulldown menu.

February 3, 2006 Go back to 1999-2000 and see what the Fed did. They are following the same pattern for 2005-06. If it ain't broke, the Fed will fix it... and good!
August 29, 2006 The Federal Reserve always acts on old information... and is the only cause of U.S. recessions.
December 5, 2006 Last spring I wrote about what I saw to be a sharp downturn in the economy in the "rustbelt" states, particularly Michigan.
March 28, 2007
The Federal Reserve sees no need to cut interest rates in the light of adverse recent economic data, Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday.
The Fed chairman said ”to date, the incoming data have supported the view that the current stance of policy is likely to foster sustainable economic growth and a gradual ebbing in core inflation”.

July 21, 2007 My guess is that if there is an interest rate change, a cut is more likely than an increase. The key variables to be watching at this point are real estate prices and the inventory of unsold homes.
August 11, 2007 I suspect that within 6 months the Federal Reserve will be forced to lower interest rates before housing becomes a black hole.
September 11, 2007 It only means that the overall process has flaws guaranteeing it will be slow in responding to changes in the economy... and tend to over-react as a result.
September 18, 2007 I think a 4% rate is really what is needed to turn the economy back on the right course. The rate may not get there, but more cuts will be needed with employment rates down and foreclosure rates up.
October 25, 2007 How long will it be before I will be able to write: "The Federal Reserve lowered its lending rate to 4% in response to the collapse of the U.S. housing market and massive numbers of foreclosures that threaten the banking and mortgage sectors."
November 28, 2007 FED VICE CHAIRMAN DONALD KOHN
"Should the elevated turbulence persist, it would increase the possibility of further tightening in financial conditions for households and businesses," he said.

"Uncertainties about the economic outlook are unusually high right now," he said. "These uncertainties require flexible and pragmatic policymaking -- nimble is the adjective I used a few weeks ago."
http://www.reuters.com/

December 11, 2007 Somehow the Fed misses the obvious.
fed_rate_moves_425_small.gif
[Image from: CNNMoney.com]
December 13, 2007 [from The Christian Science Monitor]
"The odds of a recession are now above 50 percent," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "We are right on the edge of a recession in part because of the Fed's reluctance to reduce interest rates more aggressively." [see my comments of September 11]
January 7, 2008 The real problem now is that consumers can't rescue the economy and manufacturing, which is already weakening, will continue to weaken. We've gutted the forces that could avoid a downturn. The question is not whether there will be a recession, but can it be dampened sufficiently so that it is very short.
January 11, 2008 This is death by a thousand cuts.
January 13, 2008 [N.Y. Times]
“The question is not whether we will have a recession, but how deep and prolonged it will be,” said David Rosenberg, the chief North American economist at Merrill Lynch. “Even if the Fed’s moves are going to work, it will not show up until the later part of 2008 or 2009.”
January 17, 2008 A few days ago, Anna Schwartz, nonagenarian economist, implicated the Federal Reserve as the cause of the present lending crisis [from the Telegraph - UK]:
The high priestess of US monetarism - a revered figure at the Fed - says the central bank is itself the chief cause of the credit bubble, and now seems stunned as the consequences of its own actions engulf the financial system. "The new group at the Fed is not equal to the problem that faces it," she says, daring to utter a thought that fellow critics mostly utter sotto voce.
January 22, 2008 The cut has become infected and a limb is in danger. Ben Bernanke is panicking and the Fed has its emergency triage team cutting rates... this time by 3/4%. ...

What should the Federal Reserve do now? Step back... and don't be so anxious to raise rates at the first sign of economic improvement.
Individuals and businesses need stability in their financial cost structures so that they can plan effectively and keep their ships afloat. Wildly fluctuating rates... regardless of what the absolute levels are... create problems. Either too much spending or too much fear. It's just not that difficult to comprehend. Why has it been so difficult for the Fed?

About Me

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Michigan, United States
Air Force (SAC) captain 1968-72. Retired after 35 years of business and logistical planning, including running a small business. Two sons with advanced degrees; one with a business and pre-law degree. Beautiful wife who has put up with me for 4 decades. Education: B.A. (Sociology major; minors in philosopy, English literature, and German) M.S. Operations Management (like a mixture of an MBA with logistical planning)