Jim Cramer’s MAD MONEY: A Defense.
Jim Cramer, the host of the stock trading television show Mad Money on CNBC, has received a lot of unfair attacks during this economic crisis. I first started watching Mad Money a couple of years ago as a guilty pleasure. With Cramer’s myriad sound effects, turbo charged segments—like the famous “Lightning Round” in which callers [...]
Economy Tanking: Ominous Signs Spell Need For Hope.
The Economy is Tanking.
The economy is tanking. The signs are clear that our financial system, our manufacturing, our gross domestic product, and our consumer spending is on life support. Each time it seems that things cannot get worse, things get worse. Wall Street journalists have been using the phrase, “It’s always darkest before the dawn” [...]
Presidential Facts:The Benefits of the White House.
The upcoming inauguration of Barack Obama has inspired my ten year old son to ask me specific questions about the President of the United States’ job. They are the kind of questions about the White House that occur to a ten year old–who can’t remember the tragedy of the 2000 and 2004 elections–and which [...]
Miracle on the Hudson River. Airline Incidents as American Symbols.
The Miracle on the Hudson is a symbol of hope at the end of eight years of hopelessness. The Bush administration began with the horrendous tragedy of 9/11, when terrorists flew two jet airliners into each tower of the World Trade Center, killing thousands of innocent people. It ended when pilot Chelsey Sullenberger landed [...]
Muriel Spark’s, The Comforters. A Postmodern Religious Fable.
In 1955, Muriel Spark wrote her first novel The Comforters reluctantly. She believed that novels are low forms of representation.
I was asked to write a novel, and I didn’t think much of novels—I thought it was an inferior way of writing. So I wrote a novel to work out the technique [...]
The Top Ten Best Albums from the 1960s. The Beatles, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, et al.
Just For Fun
Just for fun, and since I like lists, I thought I would share what I think are the best albums from the 1960s. It is both an objective and a subjective list. The repetition of certain groups shows my leanings, I suppose. In my head, I have the next ten, and the next [...]
ICE STORM IN CONNECTICUT: Today and 1973.
We are experiencing an ice storm today. Needing to get some academic work done at home, I found myself repeating a pseudo-prayer in my head last night: “I hope it turns to rain so my son has school.” The weather nerd that I am, I looked at the local radar on my computer around midnight. [...]
The Most Famous Books I Never Finished Reading. Confessions of an English Professor.
When I was in graduate school, we nerds would play a game of chicken in which each of us would try to one-up the other in his or her confession of a piece of literature one or the other had never finished reading. So, without further adieu, here are a few of my confessions.
1. The [...]
Ringing in the New Year with Bugs Bunny
Instead of waking up this morning to the opening score to Sponge Bob Square Pants, I suddenly had a flashback to the Saturday mornings of my childhood in the 1970s, sitting in front of a big furniture style color TV on a shag carpet as I heard the forever familiar opening score of Warner Brothers [...]
THE DISSERTATION: The Fear of Bringing it to an End.
Christmas is drawing to an end. The Christmas tree droops. The cookies grow stale. The leftovers in the refrigerator must soon be tossed.
The presents once neatly under the tree now scatter in various pieces and parts across the living room floor.
Holiday music on Comcast Digital Cable lingers only to maintain the flagging spirit.
So now that [...]
Categories
Local Weather
-
Tuesday, Mar 16
Fair
Currently: 57˚ F
Feels Like: 57˚ F
Hi: N/A˚, Lo: 35˚
Tonight: 35˚
Sunset: 6:58 PM
Moon Phase: New
Wednesday, Mar 17
Hi: 58˚, Lo: 38˚
weather feed courtesy of weather.com - thanks!