Alphabetically speaking

In 1979 there was created the United Nations backed Conference on Disarmament. In their wisdom, and to prevent the major nations from monopolizing the agenda, they instituted a rotating presidency based on alphabetically listing. The outgoing Presidency is held by Switzerland and with Syria following they will be the incoming nation to hold the gavel. The U.S. Ambassador condemned this as "one of the darkest days in the Forum's history." Such irony!
tjs

More Trivia

Again this year EBay is auctioning off "Lunch with Warren Buffett" - bring your checkbook. Two years ago the record bid was $3.4 million - that got the winner more than just a tasting menu. The winner in 2010 & 2011 - same person - spent $5.2 million - and convinced The Oracle to hire him. All the money went to charity.

When I worked in New York circa late 1970s,  the three martini lunch was a staple of the workday. The wise imbiber never went back to the office. This practice was once celebrated by Pres. Gerald Ford who called it "the epitome of American efficiency - where else can you get an earful, a bellyful and a snootful at the same time."
tjs

Current Trivia

When Harvey Weinstein was escorted into court last week, his arms were pinned behind him in three sets of handcuffs to accommodate his girth.

Is Alexa listening? A couple in Portland, Oregon have three Amazon Echos in their household - with one very close to their personal conversation.
Alexa mistakenly heard a series of requests and commands to send the recording as a voice message to one of the husband's employees. Amazon said that Echo woke up due to a word in background conversation sounding like "Alexa".
Thankfully, I don't have that problem.
tjs

Portnoy's Mentor

Philip Roth, the author, died this week. His themes were of the Jewish-American experience. His friends thought of him as a gifted comedian. He once described his mother, a housekeeper of the old school, as one "who raised cleaning to an art form." But before he left us he offered his takedown of our celebrity apprentice in the Oval Office. He uses phrases such as "humanly impoverished" - "callow and callous killer capitalist." "Trump is ignorant of government, of history, of science, of philosophy, of art - incapable of recognizing subtlety or nuance - destitute of all decency and wielding a vocabulary of 77 words that is better called Jerkish than English." A man of words - we shall not hear from him again.
tjs

Current Events

The European Union is miffed at POTUS for his treatment of the Iran Nuclear deal - their representative tweeted as follows: "We realise that if you need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of your arm."

Venice is billed as "the city where happiness is eternal." But there are more dead Venetians than live ones. The city is auctioning off unused tombs to the highest bidder with a 99 year lease. Their motto is "The perfect place to spend an afterlife."

The White House has already printed commemorative coins to mark the upcoming Summit but POTUS seems to be vacillating on the meeting which is three weeks away. So we may expect to see these coins offered on Facebook in the near future. Meanwhile, we might put the Nobel Peace Prize on "hold" for now. Stay tuned.
tjs

Taming the Shrew

The actress, Patricia Morison, died last week at 103 - that's years - not the time. Her most famous role was in Kiss Me Kate and she was personally selected by Cole Porter. One role she was denied was the old woman Rose, the TITANIC survivor.
In the real world her father was a seagoing worker with the Cunard White Star Line who switched from a berth on the TITANIC to another ship thereby permitting his daughter to be born three years later. Truth is stranger than fiction.
tjs

Golf Hazards

When we lived in Jacksonville, Fl. we enjoyed watching the Players Golf Tournament and counting the number of balls hitting the water in an attempt to reach the island green on hole 17. But we never witnessed what occurred last week at the Ponte Vedra course. A prominent golfer and former U.S. Open champion missed the 54 hole cut and was upbraided by his wife, calling him a loser. The golfer's mother attempted to intervene and the altercation brought on the police. Golf is supposed to be a game of honor, of birdies and bogeys - and can be stressful inside the ropes. But everyone needs an understanding spouse and this poor fellow doesn't have one.
tjs

Raising "Cane"

Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada recently underwent surgery and said he was ready to leave Washington behind and is selling his apartment there. Someone suggested he should stay and become a lobbyist to cash in on his connections. His reply -"I would rather be taken to Singapore and caned!" In a few weeks another Washingtonian will be visiting Singapore and let's hope he is on his best behavior.
tjs

Babysitting

A friend of mine from long ago in New Jersey had four children and he and his wife were socially active. On Saturday nights their practice was to engage a local teenager to babysit their brood. At the end of the night he always drove the young person home. One weekend the young lady was not available and they secured the services of a local adult woman. As the night ran late, my friend offered to drive the woman home.  On automatic pilot he drove into the teenager's driveway and parked. The woman stared at him as he came to his senses. Apologies followed - but gentlemen, when driving the babysitter home, make sure your GPS is functioning - or better, call Uber.
tjs

Quotes of the Week II

"Don't be Evil!" - Google's company motto.

"We'll see what happens." - Donald J. Trump

Rudy Giuliani is not ready for prime time. - Michael Avenatti, Attorney.

Why Berkshire Hathaway never invested in Microsoft? "The answer is stupidity" - Warren Buffett.
tjs

Globalism

H-oops! What did you say? In the world of sports the National Basketball Association has sixty-two foreign born players from thirty-three countries. The Philadelphia team's polyglot roster includes players from seven  countries. It must make for an interesting locker room. But the issue under discussion is the verbal cursing during games  - often aimed at the referee who has no idea he is a target. It reminds one of the line from that Irish song "They speak a language that the strangers do not know." Growing up, we had several Greek families on the block. My Greek playmates taught me their curse words phonetically which I still can remember but such is useless when ordering in a Greek restaurant.
tjs