I Feel Good

I finally feel like I'm getting back in synch.

As a result of my jolly mood and general peppiness, I really don't feel like complaining about anything. I'm in the mood for hugs and rainbows and high fives all around.

BUT...I promised you a rant, and I know how disappointed you'd be if I didn't allow my inner curmudgeon to blurt out at least a few pique-encrusted words.

It's tough, though. Not only am I in a good mood, but I can't even start by making fun of your puzzle-solving ineptitude. Everyone got this one right, even my culture-illiterate little brother.



Yes, I was planning to rant about the stock market, as foretold by the "Dow" puzzle above.

Panel 1 is Robert Downey, Jr. Panel 2 shows Roddy McDowall doing his impersonation of the simian congressmen who want to tax the Internet. Panel 3 is longtime broadcaster Hugh Downs, followed by Meadowlark Lemon. The Clockwork Orange psycho was played by Malcolm McDowell, and the last fellow is everybody's favorite high school jock, Wally Cleaver (as portrayed by thespian-par-excellence Tony Dow.)

[Not that this has anything to do with anything, but did you know that Eddie Haskell's best friend has achieved some fame as a sculptor? It's true!]

Anyway, my complaint isn't really with the stock market itself (although if I was smart enough to follow "Rich Dad's" advice, I'd be buying Laundromats instead of putting money in mutual funds--but that's a different discussion), but is with the newscasters who report on its progress.

I know, I know -- If I had a smartphone, I could access market data all day long. I could also follow Justin Bieber's Twitter feed, and watch the latest "Cat singing Trololo" videos as soon as they were posted. But I really don't have time for any of that. I get all the news I need from the car radio as I drive to work.

The problem is that I have a short commute, so I don't always hear the complete financial reports every day. So, when the reporter says "the Dow is up 20", it's not a meaningful number to me. I may not know what happened for the last several days, so the fact that it's up 20 doesn't tell me whether it's at 14,000, 12,500, or a million. I would prefer that the reporters simply state the market's closing number.

Am I the only one who feels this way?

Anyway, the only other pet peeve I'll gripe about today is about race information. I hate it when I get emails announcing a race without specifying the date, location, or cost of the event. Most of the time, that info is on the website (somewhere), but why waste my time and your bandwidth by making me go to a site when I'm already committed to something else on your race date?

And then, dear event directors...please, please put a RESULTS link in big bold letters right on your homepage. I hate trying to find out how my friends and teammates have done in their events when there's no clue how to locate results. There's really no excuse not to have live results these days -- but even if you can't get them posted right away, at least go to your site's results page and post a note saying "results will be posted at 5pm Monday" (or something like that.) Having last year's results pop up from the results link a week after your event just makes you look stupid.

So, that's all. No more ranting for today. Let's completely change the subject. About a month ago, I compiled the graphic you'll see below, intending to blog about its topic. But for the life of me, I can't remember what I was planning to say about it. Still...it's an interesting picture that evokes some specific memories, so I thought I'd go ahead and post it. If nothing else, we can discuss the images tomorrow.

Do you see the common topic that binds these folks together?



Until then, I am just happy to be feeling good, and hope to skate through the rest of the day without experiencing any of the week's previous ennui. I hope you are feeling peppy and full of vigor, too, and will visit again tomorrow. Have a great day!