#i’ve said some time ago that james eventually moves to the u.s. as well but idk why

[hsslilly-blog]

when does blair’s real father move to the states so they can go back to normal

[johnboothus]

VinePair Podcast: Giving Thanks in a Difficult Year for the Drinks Industry

2020 has been the hardest year in the drinks industry in living memory. The incredible damage that Covid-19 has wrought on bars, restaurants, breweries, wineries, and more can’t be overstated — not just putting businesses at risk, but leading to massive unemployment in the service industry and forcing many others to risk their health to keep their jobs. In addition, devastating fires struck most of the West Coast, the U.S. government continued to impose senseless tariffs on many imported wines and spirits, and, in many cases, state and local governments were slow to provide flexible outdoor options for both business owners and consumers alike.

Yet with all that, there are some genuine reasons to be thankful in 2020, and those are what Adam Teeter and Zach Geballe explore on this week’s episode of the VinePair Podcast.

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Adam: From Brooklyn, New York, I’m Adam Teeter.

Zach: And in Seattle, Washington, I’m Zach Geballe.

A: And this is a version of the OG VinePair Podcast, because we have no guest hosts today, Zach.

Z: Just you and me, man. Just like back when we were young whippersnappers, trying to plant our flag in this whole podcasting space.

A: I feel like people are gonna be like, “Oh God, I don’t want to just listen to Adam and Zach.”

Z: I mean, that is a lot what a lot of them said back in the day too, to be fair.

A: Hey, so what’s going on, man? I mean, I know we had banter, we also talked drinks. What have you been drinking recently?

Z: Well, my favorite fun story lately was I got an email from my mother, who I do see on occasion. She takes care of my son once a week, and she comes down here and usually has dinner with us. And she emailed me and basically said, “Oh, a friend of mine was telling me about this thing called ‘orange wine.’ Do you know anything about this? Or can you tell me a little about it?”And I was like, “well, yeah. And if you’re interested, I have some, we can try one when you’re down here.” So, she was down here last night for dinner and she tried her first orange wine, which was from a producer here in Washington called Two Vintners, and it’s an orange wine made from Gewürztraminer that I quite like, actually. And, I wasn’t sure what to expect but, yeah, Mom was into it, which was cool. She wasn’t like “buy me a case,” but she was like, “I would drink it again” which is great. So yeah, that was kind of fun. And, I don’t get the opportunity to pour something new for people ever anymore ’cause you know, here I am locked in my house. But once in a while, I get that opportunity, at least with my mom, and occasionally my wife, but my wife has definitely tried more wine in her life than my mom has. How about you?

A: So I had a really cool — have we run the Popina interview yet?

Z: We have not, that’ll be out for those of you listening to this on Monday, it’ll be out Wednesday and it’s very fun.

A: Yeah. So, I interviewed James O’Brien, who owns Popina, which is a great restaurant in Brooklyn. So he basically has like the tiniest indoor space, like it’s very small. And then in New York before Covid times you would call it cozy and you’d love it, because you’d basically have to make sure the other table knew you were getting up and you were going to squeeze by their’s and maybe your butt would like bump their glass or plate, but you loved it. Right? But then he has this massive outdoor space. I mean, so big that it’s crazy. I’m like, “This exists in Brooklyn?” It’s just a huge backyard. He used to have a bocce court back there now there’s tables on the bocce court and then like a driveway. And so I interviewed him just about what’s going on for him. And then he invited me to come by on Friday of last week and have a glass of wine. And so I went with him and then a friend of mine, Dave, who I’ve actually also interviewed on the podcast who owns Lalou in Brooklyn, as well. And it’s funny, I got to try a wine that you and I have talked about before, but I’ve actually never had before. So there’s a wine that I think we’ve chatted about, Zach, that has blown up in New York. That doesn’t seem to have really expanded much outside of New York, but in New York, it’s like a very hard Barolo to get. And it’s Roagna Pajé, so sorry if I butchered that, and in the city it sells for $150 to $200 a bottle easily, and it’s very heavily allocated. I think it’s either brought in by Polaner or Skurnik, one of the two. And it’s just very prized by somms here. And I’d never had it before. And because, sadly, there’s been restaurants that have closed, some of these wines that were allocated are now easier to find again. And so, James had a few bottles and I just was mentioning that I’d never had it before, because the way he’s now doing his whole restaurant is obviously a counter service. And you can see all the wines on these beautiful racks, across the counter. And I saw it, I was like, I’ve never had that before. And he’s like, well, do you want to pop it? And so we did. And it was a really delicious Barbaresco. I thought it was great. I’ve had other really amazing wines from other Barbaresco and Barolo producers that I think are as good, if not better. But I did think it was a really beautiful bottle of wine and so then I just tried to chat with them about why it has become “the thing.” And it just seems to have become the thing in the way that a lot of things become a thing. Right? Initially this was a producer that obviously is, I think they’re organic and biodynamic, but about 10, 12 years ago, they were more affordable on the market. And so a lot of somms are discovering this one, ‘cause it was a producer they could afford. And then everyone in New York got more and more excited about it, and it became “a thing” because everyone was drinking it. And so then it became more and more allocated and that’s what drove the price up. But there wasn’t a random piece of press that came out about it or a big collector that had a huge collection of it. Again, it was a bunch of people in the industry in New York who got so excited about it that everyone just started buying it. And so it got more and more and more expensive. And originally they were just excited about it because they were originally able to like sell a glass of, I think he was saying their Dolcetto, which is delicious, for $8 a glass. And that’s how people got into the producer, and then it drove from there. And I think that’s really interesting how that can happen in wine markets. Beer markets, too, spirits, too, but especially in these little pockets ‘cause I remember when I was talking to you about it when we were in Italy and you were like, “What producer?” And you know Italian wine. So it was very funny. And that happened to me, too, with a well-known somm from D.C. I said the same thing and I’m like, “Wow, we’re only four hours from you.” And it just proves it. Yeah. It’s just like a weird phenomenon here in New York that has always been funny, but it was fun to try it. And I’m glad that I had the opportunity to. So this is coming out right before Thanksgiving. We thought we’d take the time to have an episode about what we’re thankful for this year. And I know that it feels like for most of us, there’s not a lot to be thankful for. This has been a really insane year. Probably one of the most insane years of most of our lives. Not to discount anything that anyone might’ve gone through personally, that probably could have been just as hard if not harder than this year. But this has been a year of collective hardship for everyone around the world, but there are still some things to be thankful for. And so Zach, I thought I’d kick it off to you first to just ask what are some things that you’ve thought about as we’ve reflected on this episode that you’ve been thankful for this year?

Z: Yeah, well, it’s actually interesting. One of the things that was on my list, and it’s such a natural transition from what you were just talking about is that one thing that I think has really been nice in a sense as a side effect or silver lining of Covid, and unfortunately all the harm that it caused the restaurant and bar industry, is that it has reset the wine allocation market. And I think that we’ve talked about this a little bit in past episodes and at least in passing about one of the real unfortunate elements of the way that wine wholesaling tends to work in this country is that there is a lot of wine that you would think that as a restaurant or as a bar, or even as a retail shop that you’re willing to pay whatever the wholesaler wants for it, but because you don’t have a long track record of buying it, or you haven’t been around for a while, or your sales rep isn’t super well connected, or who knows what — you have a really hard time getting those wines. And it can be a long process to work your way onto those lists. And you know, that isn’t a thing that’s unique to wine or unique to the wholesale business. Obviously there are certainly wine clubs out there that if you as a consumer want to join, you might have to wait on the list for years for but I think that one thing that’s been kind of nice, as I think you’re seeing, some distributors and the importers start to reconsider whether a model where these wines that are considered “some of the prize gems” in their collection, does it really do them good in the long run? Does it do the producer good? Does it do the importer and distributor good to have those wines keep going through the same few accounts over and over again? And that in the end, if you’re an importer, producer, or distributor who wants to both get more people drinking your wine and frankly, eventually be able to sell it for more. It actually probably behooves you to have it a few more places. And I think that you’re going to see, even as we move back to a slightly more normal restaurant and bar situation, whatever that looks like in 2021, or whatever. I do think that I will be curious to see and I suspect that a lot of these wines that were so difficult to get are — for one, there’s going to be just more of them out there because people aren’t going to have as much capital to invest in very high-end wines. But also, I really do think people are going to say, you know what, maybe it is better for us if we have a little bit more presence in various different restaurants, instead of only high-end retail shops, instead of only selling to a few because they’re the longstanding partners.

A: Yeah, man, I agree with you. I think that’s something that I’ve been thankful for as well as there have been just a lot of really cool wines that I’ve now been able to get at places close to me that they’ve all told me they never would have been able to have before. And that’s been great. And I get the allocation market. I get why it exists. There’s just producers that don’t produce a lot of stuff, but it’s cool right now to see that there’s people who are getting that access to wines that they might not normally have been able to have access to because they’re not the friends of the person normally selling the wine or whatever. And so they don’t get first dibs. So that’s been great. I’m really thankful for the fact that I think a lot of us have rediscovered how pleasurable it is to make cocktails at home. I think I have really challenged myself and watched my friends challenge themselves as well, to make really delicious drinks in the comfort of their own home. I discovered the Daiquiri this year. I mean, it’s always been a drink that I liked, but never thought enough to make often. And in the summer, I think we talked about it, I made it every Friday evening. I discovered why you should alway have a bottle of simple syrup in your fridge. I challenged myself, making really interesting whiskey cocktails and things I wouldn’t normally make and looked up recipes from bars I used to love. And I think that that experimentation has made me actually a stronger appreciator of cocktails when I go out, because I actually understand what’s going into the drinks more. And I understand the craft that it takes to make really high-quality drinks, but it’s also made me really enjoy being home and whipping something up as well. That has been a really nice thing and an excuse. ‘Cause I don’t think I would ever have delved as deeply into making cocktails at home as I have had we not been in quarantine for the months we’ve been in quarantine.

Z: Yeah. And I think that in general, cocktails are the biggest example, I think for sure, but in some ways I think one of the things I’ve been thankful for this year is like just remembering how nice it can be to just have a drink at home, period. Whether that’s a cocktail, glass of wine, a beer, whatever. There are things I love about going out and I miss desperately, but because it’s been all that most of us have had, or the main thing that most of us have had, I have had to remember, yeah, it can be really nice to not have the stress and pressure that goes with being out and even something as simple, which is probably not as big a consideration for you as it is for me in Seattle, but yeah it’s nice to be able to have that third drink and be like, I literally just have to walk up a flight of stairs. I don’t have to do any more to get home. I wonder, I’m curious about this, Adam, do you sense that for you or maybe for people more broadly, that when hopefully we move — whether there’s a more widespread vaccine distribution or whatever in the six to 12 months down the road — do you anticipate being more willing to entertain and have cocktail parties? Is this newfound knowledge or at least expanded knowledge and comfort gonna translate into sharing with people? ‘Cause to me, that’s the one thing that I do miss, really, is being able to have drinks with people besides my immediate family.

A: So, yeah, I think that the first time I get to entertain, I’m probably going to go crazy. We have one friend who’s in our pod. She lives alone and is really close friends with Naomi and I, she’s been coming over, and even when she comes over, like every other week and she’ll stay over for the night in our spare bedroom, I go crazy. ‘Cause it’s another person, and I get to entertain. I think I will do that to like the thousandth degree. And I definitely think I will be more likely than I used to, to have a cocktail when people arrive. Like I used to always be like, “Oh, I’m already cooking and stuff.” And you know what I mean? When Naomi and I are busy getting ready we would have people over for dinner and say “Oh, here’s a bottle of bubbly,” and don’t get me wrong. I love a bottle of bubbly, but now I feel like I’ve gotten really good at making cocktails, I want to show that off. Right? So it’s like, I’ll have cocktails ready to go, which is super fun and exciting and something that I didn’t used to do that often. But I think I’m really thankful for, and I think we’re talking about entertaining, but the perspective that this has given. And I’ve seen you on Instagram doing this as well, and I love that we’ve realized that we just need to open shit that we think is delicious. There used to be so many bottles of wine that I had gotten and I’d been saving, and these past nine months, I’ve just opened so many of those, and it’s been awesome. And I’ve always thought, “Why was I saving this?” Like, this made Friday night even better. And so Saturday night, Naomi and I are obviously having another night in, but someone, a good friend of ours, sent me some truffles. And so I’m just going to make fresh pasta with butter and open one of these really amazing bottles of Nebbiolo I have. And, it’s Cigliuti, one of my favorite producers. I’m going to open her Barbaresco. And I’m really excited about it. And I think, again, that was a bottle of wine that I would’ve saved for a dinner party probably, and I’m like, no, no. The best thing is to make fresh pasta with butter and truffles and eat it with Naomi. Like, why would I not want to do that? You know? So I think those are things that we’ve all kind of realized we should be doing more of and has been something to reconnect with in all of this.

Z: I’m going to switch gears a little bit and talk about something else that I’ve been really pleased by, which is that you’re and it’s again by necessity, not necessarily by choice, but I think we’re seeing a really interesting shift among craft brewers to really canning and bottling almost all of their production. And I say this as someone who lives around a lot of craft breweries, one of the downsides for me about that in the last couple of years is that with a young kid, pre-Covid, we would sometimes go hang out at a brewery and have a beer or two, but like, he’s not super happy to do that and wants to be entertained. And I don’t want to ruin other people’s experience if they’re not out with kids, which is a challenging thing. But the problem is with a lot of these breweries, yeah, you can buy a bottle or a 6-pack or 4-pack or whatever of some of their core beers, but most of the things that they’re doing that are really interesting were only on draft. And I totally get why. For one, in many of these cases, the beer itself is maybe slightly better when it comes off draft, as opposed to out of a can or a bottle. And I also understand that the margin is much better on a draft beer and they don’t have to pay for canning and all that. But I will say, selfishly, as someone who does most of his drinking as previously mentioned at home, and we’ll probably be doing that even when Covid is not as big a concern, I really love being able to go get really cool, interesting beers from breweries around me and there’s more than ever before, from breweries all over the place in distribution now. And I think that’s hopefully something that persists. I get it, I won’t fault breweries for returning to the previous model of saving a lot of their special beers for taproom-only, draft-only release, but I really hope that there’s a recognition that they’re missing certain bits of their potential customer base, who just can’t go to a brewery all the time. You know, they just don’t have that ability for whatever set of reasons.

A: I agree, man, that’s been super cool. I think we’ve talked about this before, but all of a sudden, the grocery store two or three blocks away from me, that’s not a Whole Foods and not a Trader Joe’s, it’s one of these corner grocery stores, one of these local chains that we have in New York. It’s not an Associated, but it’s kind of an Associated for those of you that are New Yorkers that also kind of get what I’m going with. And all of a sudden their beer selection has just gotten way better. And they have Threes, and KCBC and all these really great beers, and they are beers that, you’re right, I wouldn’t have been able to get unless I’d gone to the brewery. And now they’re there, and it’s cool. And I also, a lot of breweries have started really getting heavily into delivery and that’s also been awesome. So I’ve been able to do cool beer deliveries from places like Torch and Crown, and there’s so many. I want to say KCBC again, ‘cause that’s what I just did recently. But, all these really great breweries in New York City, Other Half, that you just normally wouldn’t have been able to do, you would have had to go to the brewery to get them, and I think delivery has been dope for that, and for cocktails, to be honest. There’s been really cool cocktail bars that have done really great delivery menus that have really added to my weekends, you know? So those are things that I’ve been really, really excited about as we’ve continued to watch people innovate. I think that’s my overall thing I’m thankful for, is that the restaurant and bar world never fail to disappoint when it comes to innovation. It’s always pushing forward. And that’s what I think makes this industry so exciting to you, me, and everyone that listens, is that it’s an industry that’s never stagnant. There’s always people trying to do new things. Always people who are pushing the envelope and even in Covid-19, when and I know we talk about this every week, but it’s true: Please write your congresspeople. Even when Congress has failed to provide restaurant relief, the people who work in these businesses are still pushing forward, and they are still trying to figure out how to have the most amazing experiences for their guests outside. They’re trying to figure out what menus look like. They’re changing their models. They are creating incredible cocktails that you can take to-go. They are figuring out how to turn their restaurants into hybrid wine shops, they’re creating to-go cocktail bars on wheels, like we talked about the company in L.A. that created an ice cream truck that was also a cocktail bar. Like people were just doing the most amazing things. It just proves that there’s a special kind of person that goes into this industry and cannot be held down by anything, even when the government is not wanting to support them at all, which, what the f*** is happening. So that to me has been really awesome to watch, and to watch how much the industry is supporting each other. We talked about it in one of these other interviews that I did recently. I think it was with Ruffian or Popina, there’s just not the competition. Everyone just wants to help each other succeed. And everyone’s really sad when they see something go out and I think that’s just awesome. And it proves that there’s just a special kind of individual that goes into the world of restaurants and bars. And I think it’s great that the other side of the business, the producers, have been supportive. I would encourage the producers to be more supportive. This is not me on my soapbox, but I’m seeing a lot of restaurant people who were very vocal when they were trying to help a lot of the producers stop the tariffs. And were trying to help a lot of the producers make sure that the prices were the way that they should be. I’m not seeing as many producers, to be very honest, being as vocal on social media and things like that in helping the restaurants and pushing Congress to pass relief. And I understand that’s because a lot of producers are making a lot of money right now because your channels just change to off-premise, but it’d be great to see that same kind of support that the industry gives when there’s wildfires and things like that for the producers, that the producers give the restaurant industry. I’m not saying it’s all producers, let’s be clear, but I do think that there should be a much louder voice than people like Bobby Stuckey always on Instagram and Twitter and whatever, reminding people to constantly call their congresspeople and elected officials and say, look, like we gotta help the restaurant industry because if we don’t, we’re going to be screwed come January. And this has got to happen before then. So, I’m thankful for the amazing camaraderie and resilience the restaurant business has, and the people, and I’m a little disappointed in some of the other stuff.

Z: Well, we’ll try and keep things on the positive note. I think actually to that effect, a thing that as someone who spent a long time working in restaurants, I have felt a lot during this year is that one, I think it’s a positive thing for me is that the “reality” of the restaurant industry is being examined and explored in a way that it just had not previously. And that’s in part about just the financial realities of the industry and how precarious it is, even in good times, and how unsustainable in some ways a lot of the things that we took for granted pre-Covid were. It also goes to some really, really painful and hard conversations about representation, and frankly, discrimination, and abuse and all these things in the industry. And again, these things coming to light are painful, for sure. They’re painful for most of all the people who have suffered in these situations, but also for people who generally love the industry and love things about it. It’s never fun to have this stuff come to light, but it’s so essential to moving forward as an industry, moving forward as a broader conversation about drinks and their place in society. And so I do think that one of the great things, in addition to all the innovation you talked about, Adam, with service and delivery and even how drinks are made and designed, and all that, there’s also been some real incredible forums created, conversations started around inclusion and equality and fairness in these industries. And there’s a long way to go. I don’t mean to say we have arrived, but 2020 feels like a year that we will remember for a lot of reasons. And I hope that this is one of them.

A: I agree. I completely agree. I feel like there’s a lot to be thankful for, to be honest. There has been some really good stuff that’s happened this year in a year that has been also really shitty. And these are just a few of them. But I don’t want to have an hour of us rallying off all things we are thankful for. I think we could. But I think these are a good amount of things that we feel really good about and that we think are things that will continue to persist moving forward. I just think we have to have perspective and support each other and continue to enjoy the things we’re enjoying and don’t be precious about those bottles that you’ve been holding. And if you’ve got a beer or a Bourbon County Stout, pop it now, and just enjoy yourself.

Z: Yeah. And let us know what you’re thankful for. We would love to hear. Is it these things? Is it other things? Is it this podcast? That would be delightful.

A: We’ll just give ourselves a little compliment there.

Z: I mean, you know, gotta kind of look out for the home team on occasion.

A: Yeah. As always, shoot us an email at podcast@vinepair.com, and let us know what you’re thankful for. We’d love to hear it. And we’ll read some of those off on a future episode, ‘cause it’d be great to share with everyone who’s been listening to the podcast since Covid, pre-Covid, et cetera to know what you’ve been thankful for this year as we continue to push forward as a beverage industry. Zach, you’ll be here next week. We’ll be talking about Bubbly Week, which is one of my favorite weeks of the year. And for everyone else, thanks for listening. We’ll see you back next week.

Z: Sounds great.

Thanks so much for listening to the VinePair Podcast. If you enjoy listening to us every week, please leave us a review or rating on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever it is that you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show. Now for the credits, VinePair produced by myself and Zach. It is also mixed and edited by him. Yeah, Zach, we know you do a lot. I’d also like to thank the entire VinePair team, including my co-founder, Josh, and our associate editor, Cat. Thanks so much for listening. See you next week.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article VinePair Podcast: Giving Thanks in a Difficult Year for the Drinks Industry appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/thanksgiving-podcast-2020/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/vinepair-podcast-giving-thanks-in-a-difficult-year-for-the-drinks-industry

[geracaoalpha]

Alpha’a Interviews: Polly Shindler

Polly Shindler is a painter who has an MFA from Pratt Institute and focuses in providing a sense of comfort through the use of bright colors. Her work has been portrayed by galleries around the U.S., such as Kaller Fine Arts, in D.C. and Ortega y Gasset, in Brooklyn, and by magazines such as The New Yorker. She currently lives in Connecticut. 

When did you know you wanted to be an artist?

I didn’t know until I tried to be many other things first. I merely kept on being the artist I always was and never stopped. Other things came and went but artistic endeavors always remained. Last man standing kind of thing. 

Discussion of educational background/training:

I was a fine arts major for one semester sophomore year at a university I would later drop out of. I did eventually enter an MFA Program at Pratt Institute. That said, I had very little foundation training which may have helped me figure out my personal style when I decided to start working representationally.

What is the source of your inspiration for work (source images, literature, daily life, politics, etc)?

I pore over magazines such as Architectural Digest, I collect furniture catalogs and scroll through online thrift stores. I research architecture and furniture design as well as look at artists of all stripes. I mine the work of the Fauves, the Supremetists, Brutalists. And when I paint, I am able to focus. I can ignore the politics and static always blaring. But when I need the noise, I listen to podcasts about trivia.

What is your preferred medium?  Why?

I work with acrylic paints because they are so simple. There's no preparation or dry time. I can just walk into my studio and start to paint straight away.

What about (painting/sculpture/photography/collage/mixed media) instills in you a desire to create?

I like to create a new thing. I always feel better when I'm bringing a new thing into existence. And I love a project. It usually comes through as a painting, but sometimes drawing and sometimes as cross-stitching.

What determines the scale of your work (large or small)?

This current series started off small for the purpose of speed and fear of failure. A small failure is easier. Little by little, though, I've started to experiment with larger formats. I have started to play with scale and the indoor/outdoor spaces.

Do you work on multiple pieces at one time or do you focus on one until completion?

I work on one painting at a time and don't rest much until the piece is finished.

Which artists have inspired you?

Van Gogh,  Georgia O'Keefe, Virginia Woolf, Charles Schultz, Matisse, Hilma af Klint, Florine Stettheimer, Sonia Delaunay, Maira Kalman, Leonard Cohen, Bruce Springsteen, Vuillard, Bonnard, Alex Katz, David Hockney, James Turrell, Margaret Atwood, Charles Burchfield, Edward Hopper and on and on.

Have there been key inflection points in your career (a burst of creativity, a traumatic experience that influenced your work, a meaningful artist in residence program)?

I had to move back to CT two and a half years ago for health reasons and then my work changed completely.  I had a total change of scenery as well as outlook after leaving NYC. I also had a wonderful residency program experience while I was living in NYC and sharing a tiny studio with 5 other artists. I got a huge studio while at the residency and my eyes were opened to the possibilities of new circumstances.

Discussion of stand-out pieces from your career:

I have a few personal favorite paintings but they all really stand together to create this one concept of "the interior" and "space". Some rooms feel  more comfortable for me, while others are created in service to some formal or architectural concern.

Discussion of stand-out exhibitions and shows from your career:

My first solo show was at a gallery called Ortega Y Gasset. The curator and I worked side by side on the whole enterprise from conception to the closing. Planning and creating this show from top to bottom was one of the greatest experiences. Having so much control over the way my work would look, how to create the space and the catalog was incredible.I was also in a 5 person show this year that was as out of my hands as it could have been. Nothing was left to me, I had no say in the work chosen, and it was liberating.

In which artistic direction are you heading?

I'm in a good place right now where my inspirations keep coming and getting refreshed. 

You can find some of Polly’s amazing work at Alpha’a’s website.

https://www.alphaainc.com/home

Bed (Rainbow Blanket). 

https://www.alphaainc.com/products/bed--rainbow-blanket--5871

Modern Living Room

https://www.alphaainc.com/products/modern-living-room-quadro

Two Victorian Chairs.

https://www.alphaainc.com/galeria/obra/5872

[the-record-newspaper]

Businessman Arthur Lowe turns 100: Says secret to long life is ginseng

 Arthur Lowe and his son, Arthur Jr., at Lowe Fur and Herb. 

By JERRY LANKFORD

Record Editor

Well known Wilkes entrepreneur and businessman Arthur Lowe says he has had a good life.

All 100 years of it.

Lowe turned the century mark on Monday – he was born March 18, 1919.

He is best known for his decades of owning and operating Lowe Fur and Herb Co., located at 108 5th St; North Wilkesboro. Having retired from the business a few years ago, it’s now managed by his son, Arthur, Jr., and mostly deals in scrap metals.

“We do a tremendous business in scrap metal,” Lowe said, although the fur trade has faded and the herb side of the business, “…is all but dead. I still go by there. My son is doing pretty good. He’ll make it.”

Lowe was born near Moravian Falls to Wilkes native Carl Arthur Lowe and Velona Stamey Lowe from Galax, Va. The family owned a peach orchard. When he was a small boy, the Lowes moved to Wilkesboro. It was in town that he learned about running a business.

As a young man, Lowe worked with his father, who ran a wholesale company in North Wilkesboro. The elder Lowe also traded in animal furs and wild herbs. That’s where Arthur was educated in what became his life’s work.

He said that one of his earliest memories was going to a place that had “piles of fur.”

Referring to the fur and herb business, Lowe commented, “It wasn’t something you could learn in any school. I guess I went to my father’s school,” he said with a laugh. “I learned about that from him in the 20’s and 30’s.”

A 1936 graduate of Wilkesboro High School, Lowe attended UNC-Chapel Hill and earned a bachelors degree in economics, graduating from the university in 1940. He returned to work full-time with his father. The wholesale side of the business sold commodities like flour, sugar and cigarettes to stores in Wilkes and surrounding counties.

The Lowe family also sold scrap metal throughout both world wars. The business received special commendations for its efforts.

During WWII, Lowe served in the U.S. Army in a mortar crew in the Pacific Theater. “We fought right alongside the Marines,” he said. He received a Purple Heart from a shrapnel wound he received to his leg during combat at Okinawa.

“They just bandaged me up and sent me back out,” he said, adding, “I saw the last 65 soldiers surrender in World War II. We didn’t know it at the time. That was right before they dropped the atomic bomb.”

Lowe and his brother, Elmer, eventually went in business together, but split in 1946, after returning home from the Army. Lowe had acquired the property where the company continues to operate today.

He was one of the “big buyers” of ginseng.

“I remember in 1976 bought we 20,000 pounds of North American ginseng and sold it to the Chinese,” Lowe said. “We bought it from all over America. We still buy it but not in as big a quantity as then. Now people can’t cross state lines (to sell the herb). It grows a lot in the Brushy Mountains, wild, raw ginseng.”

As for the fur trade, Lowe said. “There’s no demand for it now because of sanctions and faux fur. We used to have 10 people just working in furs. We sold to manufacturers in New York, Canada and Germany.”

The company traded in a large variety of animal furs.

“I sold 100,000 muskrat furs at one time to a man from England,” Lowe said. “I’ve probably sold a million raccoon furs. We sold otter, beaver, possum…I sold 10,000 possum furs at one time to a man. We also sold wild mink furs.” He explained that wild mink furs have a dark brown color unlike farm-raised minks. “I sold 20,000 wild mink furs one year.”

Lowe’s hobbies now are “fooling with old Ford cars.” He owns 10, from a 1936 model up into the 1950’s.

As for his personal life, Lowe married Elizabeth Neel in 1940. “She’s one of the prettiest gals that ever grew up in Wilkes County and still is.”

They had three children, Elizabeth, now deceased — named after her mother — Arthur, Jr. and Rebecca Lowe Whicker, wife of Dr. James Whicker, who was head of Raleigh Ear Nose and Throat Clinic.

He and his wife, Elizabeth, who is now 97, still live at home in Wilkesboro.

When asked the secret of his long life, Lowe was quick to answer: “Ginseng. The Chinese people swear by it.”

He said he soaks the root in vodka for several weeks until it the liquid turns a brownish color, and takes a spoonful each day. As for his wife, “She hasn’t taken it like me, but has taken it some. It does give you energy. I feel pretty good. I can still walk with a walker. She (his wife) does the same.”

Looking back over the century, Lowe said, “I’ve had an interesting life. I’ve had a great life and a great business.”

[wtffundiefamilies]

Does anyone remember this article?  I went looking for it again after wondering if Jordyn was the only Duggar child without a nickname (turns out JD never had one either, and I don’t think we’ve ever heard Jackson’s name shortened, come to think of it), and damn, it seemed innocuous enough in 2004 (which was when I first read it, I think), but now it seems a little less so. 

Bolding is mine for emphasis; everything else is as-published.

13 Children Add Up To Asset For Challenger

   Date: 9/9/2001    Category: Editorial    Page: J1 CARRIE RENGERS ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE SPRINGDALE -- Jim Bob Duggar looks calm. He might even be calm. There's not a strand out of place on his Ken-doll hair. This is remarkable not only because there are 13 children playing at his feet--his 13 children--but also because he's a state representative waging a long-shot campaign for the U.S. Senate.

There are people more stressed after a trip to the grocery store than this man seemingly is on his worst day. "I just feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing," says Jim Bob, a 36-year-old lifelong Springdale resident who has been known as a one-issue politician--a conservative Republican who cares only about stopping abortions. Now, Jim Bob is known as the candidate with enough moxie--or perhaps not enough sense--to challenge incumbent Sen. Tim Hutchinson in the Republican primary.   Those 13 children, born during Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar's 17 years of marriage, are family values personified. They're a highly visible asset facing a GOP incumbent viewed as politically vulnerable in 2002 because of his divorce and second marriage to a former Senate staff member.

"We're going to do it together as a family," Michelle, 34, says of the race. "It's not just, 'Daddy's doing this.' ... We stick together like glue." The "we" includes Joshua, "Joshy," 13; twins Jana, "Banana," and John-David, 11; Jill "Muffin," 10; Jessa, "Blessa," 8; Jinger, "Jin-Jin," 7; Joseph, "Joe-Joe," 6; Josiah, "Siah," 5; Joy-Anna, "Jogees," 3; "The Dynamic Duo" twins Jedidiah and Jeremiah, 2; Jason, "Jay Bird," 1, who with "The Dynamic Duo" forms "The Three Musketeers"; and James, 8 weeks. Jim Bob regularly brings his children, whom Michelle home schools, to Little Rock and the state Capitol where his eldest, Joshua, is known as "Governor." "God put us in there," the Baptist says of winning his first political race in 1999. "We just knew this is the way our family is going to serve our community." Jim Bob wasn't involved in politics until Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992. "I saw how things were," he says. He supported Republican Fay Boozman's failed U.S. Senate race. During this time, he went to a Little Rock rally to back a state ban on partial-birth abortions. Thousands of people showed for the protest, but Jim Bob says, "Still, a lot of those senators and representatives did not vote the right way." So Jim Bob prayed. "I prayed, 'Lord, I would be willing to run for office,' " he says. "I'd vote the right way." Jim Bob didn't run the next election cycle because the timing didn't feel right. But he ran and won in 1999, when he temporarily moved his family to Little Rock for the legislative session and sold all his businesses to concentrate on politics. He has had various jobs through the years. Michelle jokes that she read a list of the Top 10 worst jobs, and her husband has had seven of them, including insurance salesman and used car salesman. The Duggars had a turning point in their lives 11 years ago when Jim Bob attended a meeting that discussed financial freedom through living a debt-free life. Michelle eventually attended the meeting, too, and now she and Jim Bob conduct the seminars out of their home. By getting out of debt and not purchasing anything unless they have cash, the Duggars have saved enough to make investments in such things as rental and commercial property. Their investments have done so well that Jim Bob doesn't have to work a full-time job. "I've learned self control and also a lot about construction," he says. And, "All these different businesses that I've been in have really given me a broad perspective of what the average person has to go through every day." Because of his work situation, says Mary Duggar, Jim Bob's mother, "He probably gets to spend more time with his family than most men do." "I'm very careful on what events I go to," Jim Bob says. "I just try to prioritize." Back when the Duggars only had a few kids and were living at a home on their car lot, Jim Bob was the victim of an armed robbery during which he was bound and gagged. The incident helps him keep things in perspective today. "I feel like I'm living on overtime," Jim Bob says, "so politics is nothing." DEAR GOD Politics really does seem like nothing compared to a house almost literally full of children. Just ask Michelle. She had a desperate, blunt conversation with God one day while standing amid piles of laundry--and this is back when she only had seven children. "I love 'em, but I think I'm going to go crazy!" she cried to the Lord. "It was a sacrifice to praise God at that point," Michelle says. But she did. She started singing a song to honor him. Within a week, the children's piano teacher, Ruth Anita Anderson, whom they've come to call Nana, made an offer to help with the laundry. "God just provided Nana," Michelle says. Her laundry room today is equipped with two washers and three dryers. There are bins and bins of presorted clothes with labels clearly addressing what clothes are where. Two deep freezers also happen to be in the room, which is just off the kitchen. Off the other side of the laundry room is the family's closet--the only closet used for clothes in the entire house. Both for space and convenience, the family keeps its clothes together. They don't use dressers because there's more room without them. And the bedroom closets--the children share three bedrooms and lots of bunk beds--are used for storage for such things as each child's violin. "We are working on a family orchestra," Michelle says. " 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' is about as far as we get." It's amazing to watch 15 people in action in a 2,450-square-foot house. Eight recliners fill the front family room, but there are no coffee tables to clutter anyone's path. Michelle has packed away her knickknacks until the children are grown and gone. Family photographs and other pictures on the walls are some of the house's only decorations. A photocopier adorns the end table next to Michelle and Jim Bob's bed, and there's a file cabinet in her closet. The one-family closet works well in part since the kids are constantly growing and clothes are passed from one child to the next. Michelle and the children also make many of their own clothes and buy items from Goodwill. Jim Bob says he probably spends less for clothes on his 13 children than do parents of two children. "Now, food's a different matter," he says. The Duggars spend an average of $1,000 a month on food. Michelle goes to the grocery store every other day to pick up three gallons of milk and fresh fruits and vegetables instead of making one big weekly trip with four or five grocery carts. "I don't like to do it that way," she says. "It just almost overwhelms the poor cashier when we come through." If it takes this many special arrangements and this much preparation simply to live, why would Jim Bob complicate things by joining the Legislature and, now, running for the Senate? Doesn't he have enough to handle at home? "Our family is our hobby," says Jim Bob, who doesn't have pursuits like golf or tennis. Though when the family does play sports, Jill says, "We have a whole team here." "Two teams," Jim Bob says. WATCHING HER WORDS The former Michelle Ruark has an easygoing openness and friendliness that extends to each person she meets. As she and Jim Bob sit on the plastic blue auditorium seats that serve as the family's dining room chairs, she rests her hand on her husband's leg and joyfully proclaims her beliefs in God, Jim Bob and the sanctity of family. Strains of "Amazing Grace" can be heard from the next room where her children practice piano and violin in one of the girls' rooms that doubles as a music room. But Jim Bob doesn't for one second forget that a reporter is in the room, and he guards what both he and his wife say. When talk turns to his primary race against Hutchinson, Michelle starts telling of the day Jim Bob decided to challenge him. Jim Bob quickly lets her know there's one part of the story they won't be telling. Michelle questions his decision, not seeing a problem with sharing it. But then, following a few brief whispers, she smiles and simply goes on with the part she can tell. Michelle was headed out the door to a prayer meeting when Jim Bob brought up the idea of running for Senate. He said he felt pressed to run and asked Michelle to pray about it. "I just felt like I should run," Jim Bob says. "It's not because I am so smart." Jim Bob supported Hutchinson in past races. He says his decision to run now has nothing to do with Hutchinson's martial troubles, including his remarriage after divorcing his wife of 29 years. Jim Bob doesn't even bring up the issues, which have kept the state--specifically past and present Hutchinson supporters in Northwest Arkansas--talking. State Rep. Jeremy Hutchinson, Tim Hutchinson's son, practically was Jim Bob's legislative seatmate when Jim Bob made his Senate decision. "It's nothing against you or your family," Jim Bob told the younger Hutchinson, who wasn't happy but listened. Next, Jim Bob called Tim Hutchinson. "I hope you can relate to this a little bit having been a pastor before, but I feel called to run for a seat--your seat," Jim Bob told him. "I'm just gonna run a clean race," Jim Bob continued. "Are you committed to running a clean race?  "And he said, 'Oh, yeah,' [and] kind of laughed," Jim Bob says. Hutchinson didn't return a call for comment for this story. An editorial cartoon that ran in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette when Jim Bob announced his candidacy hangs on the Duggars' dining room wall. It shows Jim Bob as a tiny Republican elephant kicking a huge boxer, who represents Hutchinson. The caption reads: "The first challenge came from unexpected quarters." "We're not in it to kick [anyone]," Joshua says in defense of his father. "We're in the race because we feel God has told us to run. We're not against any of our opponents in any way." A HOW-TO GUIDE The Duggars consider the Bible something of an owner's manual, a how-to for life. They sometimes employ "time outs" to discipline their children, but they also think the Bible teaches parents to spank and even instructs on how to do it. The children and Michelle recite a new Bible passage each morning, and they have actions to go with the words. For instance, when reciting Exodus 20, verses 1-17, the children run a finger along their necks in a quick swipe, as if killing themselves, as they read the passage, "Thou shall not kill." Religion wasn't always the focal point of Michelle's life. She was 15 and had been living in Springdale since age 4 when a friend talked to her about a movie that told of the end of the world. Michelle wanted to make sure she'd be ready, so when her friend invited her to a revival, she eagerly went. Jim Bob and a friend were making visitations to reach out to potential church members, and his friend said that a girl named Michelle had just committed her life to God. He also mentioned that she was a cheerleader. "Well, let's go see her!" Jim Bob said. They were married 2 1/2 years later. Jim Bob, who has only one sibling, and Michelle, who is the youngest of seven, didn't know how many children they wanted to have. And they didn't have any for the first four years they were married. They even used birth control until they decided the pills weren't right for them. They decided having children was for God to control--not them. "I would like to have more," Michelle says. They don't always agree, but Jim Bob and Michelle try to resolve disputes before the sun goes down each night, which they say the Bible instructs them to do. Michelle also believes she is to be submissive to Jim Bob, which she says does not mean he treats her like a doormat but that he is the head of the household. "We don't have a perfect marriage," Jim Bob says. "There's not a perfect marriage out there." Nor are there perfect children. But the Duggar children, at least on the surface, appear to come awfully close. THE BUDDY SYSTEM The older Duggar children all take care of the younger ones through a buddy system. "The little guys just think the big guys hung the moon," Michelle says. Without being asked, the older children will get the younger ones' meals or change their diapers. Each child has particular chores, like taking out the trash, that he or she automatically does. Josh is the family grill expert and makes dinner so his parents are free to visit. "You're my buddy," Jim Bob smiles and says to Michelle as he brings her lunch. Joshua leads an eloquent, heartfelt prayer while everyone joins hands around the table to pray. All the children seem to be more articulate than others their ages. When 1-year-old Jason falls to the floor and starts throwing a fit, one glance from his mother and quick wag of her finger ends the incident almost even before it begins. His training should be through by age 12, when Jim Bob and Michelle hope all their children are trained well enough to stand alone. "I don't want them to be just good kids," Michelle says. "I want it to go deeper than that." Michelle says the desire to see her children be successful, "That's what keeps me going." Joshua was 5 when the Duggars made the decision to home school their children. They clearly are careful about their children's outside influences. Though the family owns a TV, it's rarely on, even when their father makes an appearance. "There's a lot of attitudes and actions that we just don't want the children to imitate," Jim Bob says. When a proposal he made in the state Legislature wound up on Politically Incorrect, Jim Bob had to call a friend to tape it for him. Jim Bob and Michelle are willing to share their lives with readers because they want to encourage them, through their story, to turn to God. But even by standards of an average Christian household, the Duggars are extreme. The girls exclusively wear dresses and skirts. The children wear wet suits instead of bathing suits when they go in the water in order to be modest. "When they get a little older, they'll have to make the decision on what they want to do," Jim Bob says of wearing swimsuits. For now, the kids don't appear to mind. Instead of recognizing that they're different, they seem to recognize how lucky they are in some ways. "You always have someone to play with," Jill says. "And there are lots of birthdays." When the Duggars went on vacation in 1999 to Washington, D.C., they got attention wherever they went. They walked in a single-file line through the city's sidewalks so they wouldn't take up too much space. Each child wore the same color, and Joshua brought up the rear to make sure everyone stayed together. His parents couldn't understand why he kept stopping to talk to strangers. "I've had several people ask me when we go out, 'Now, what school is this?' or, 'What organization are you in?' " Joshua says. "Somebody's always asking us something." The family can all travel together in one vehicle because the family car happens to be a church van, which sports a Bush bumper sticker and another one that says: "Evolution is a Lie: Save America Please." When the Duggars dine out as a family--and they can tell you exactly which restaurants have children's specials on which nights of the week in the Springdale area--heads turn when they walk in. Waiters literally stop and stare. "We do make a bit of a commotion when we enter a place," Michelle says. "We're a little hard to forget." A majority of the children sit at one table, with the rest at the adult table. Jim Bob and Michelle hardly have to even bother turning around during the meal to check on anyone's behavior. "The buddies will usually inform us if we need to help with somebody," Michelle says. Since the birth of 8-week-old James, Michelle has had a particularly difficult time breast-feeding. Every two hours she's in considerable pain, but it doesn't seem to affect her countenance. During a family portrait, Jim Bob gives Michelle a playful kiss, and she looks at him with the love and happiness of a newlywed--rather than a woman who has been married for 17 years, is home schooling 12 children, breast-feeding a 13th and is helping launch a Senate campaign. A WINNABLE RACE? She's in a minority, but Michelle confidently declares, "It is a winnable race." Not that the family is depending on it. "If we win, wonderful," Michelle says. "If we lose, wonderful. We just wanna serve." Speculation is Jim Bob won't get the chance this time. One poll shows he has only 4-percent name recognition in the state. He points out, though, that fellow Republican and former Gov. Frank White likes to say he only had 3-percent recognition when he went on to beat Clinton. Marty Ryall, executive director of the Arkansas Republican Party, thinks differently. "Tim's campaign would have to implode," he says of Jim Bob's chances. "There's probably a handful of people ... that may still be angry with Tim," Ryall says. "Tim has made amends with most of those. I know he's visited with a lot of them." Ryall tried to talk Duggar into running for another position--any of five open races across the state. He "just encouraged him to lower his sites a little," Ryall says. "He told me he was determined to run for the U.S. Senate. ... He's really doing what he feels like he is compelled to do." Jim Bob accepts campaign contributions, but he doesn't solicit them. Hutchinson has $1.5 million in his coffers. Jim Bob has $250,000--all his own money. "People with money are going to support the incumbent," Jim Bob says. "They just don't want to burn a bridge with the incumbent." Some of those same people have assured Jim Bob that he'll get their support should he defeat Hutchinson, he says. Jim Bob has been told it takes a minimum of $500,000 to win the seat. "Money isn't everything," his mother says reassuringly. Jim Bob argues that a third of the primary is in conservative Benton County, where he thinks he'll have a chance of competing strongly. If he beats Hutchinson in the primary, he'll face Attorney General Mark Pryor in the general election. Pryor, of course, starts the race with extra name recognition thanks to his father, former U.S. Sen. David Pryor. "Jim Bob's at peace about it," Mary Duggar says of whether her son wins or loses. "I know everybody believes this is totally impossible, a total long shot," Jim Bob says. But he has 14 extremely strong supporters living in his own house, even if only one of them can vote.

[kansascityhappenings]

‘My neighbors are gone’: Flood buyouts upend Missouri town

MOSBY, Mo. — Tammy Kilgore raised the giant claw of a John Deere excavator high in the air, then slammed it down on the roof the house where she had spent nearly her entire adult life.

The shingles crunched, but not much else. So she did it again, and again — each time taking a bigger bite with the mouth-like claw, until the roof above her bedroom caved. Lumber and siding fell to the ground.

“Oh, my goodness!” she exclaimed.

The machine’s operator had given Kilgore the chance to start demolishing her own home. It’s one of dozens of flood-prone houses being torn down in this small riverside town northeast of Kansas City under a federally funded buyout program intended to reduce the risks and costs from future flooding.

The city of Mosby estimates it’s faced 40 floods of varying severity over the past two decades, and Kilgore has lost count of the number of times her home got wet.

“Every time it would come up, it would probably ruin our floors,” she recalled. “We just got tired of it.”

When the voluntary buyouts are complete, nearly half of Mosby will be gone, leaving a patchwork of holdout homes and bare lots.

Similar buyout programs have played out in numerous communities ravaged by floods and hurricanes. Over the past three decades, federal and local governments have spent more than $5 billion to buy tens of thousands of vulnerable properties across the U.S., according to an Associated Press analysis.

While buyouts can be emotionally fraught for communities, they can lessen future flood-related costs by demolishing homes that could otherwise keep receiving federal disaster aid or taxpayer-subsidized flood insurance.

This year’s devastating flooding in the Midwest, which caused billions of dollars of damage in more than a dozen states, is likely to lead to more home buyouts.

In Iowa, for example, a dozen cities and counties have inquired about the potential of buying out as many as 660 properties. In the future, more buyouts could be necessary nationwide as climate change leads to rising seas and more frequent and intense rainstorms.

For those facing buyouts, the process can be both a blessing and curse. It can provide a fresh start for flood-weary residents who choose to leave but also sever a sense of community for those left behind.

And the process can be stressful: Kilgore, 56, suffered a heart attack in September after a long day of packing. But she was back in town on a cool November morning to watch her old house come down.

As Kilgore climbed into the excavator, longtime neighbor Betty Cazzell watched somberly from across the chain-link fence where the two would often chat. Cazzell, 86, opted against applying for a buyout. She didn’t want the hassle of leaving a town where she spent all but 10 years of her life.

“I’ve seen some changes, but they’ve been kind of gradual,” Cazzell said sadly. “This is kind of like a bomb exploding or something — it’s just all at once, and my neighbors are gone.”

When the demolitions are done, the houses on either side of Cazzell’s will be gone.

Her granddaughter a few doors down is staying, but her son and daughter-in-law are leaving. Their white wooden house is marked with a bright orange “D2” — code for “Demolition Phase Two,” the same thing that was painted on Kilgore’s home.

The 2010 census counted 190 people in Mosby. But that seems generous these days.

Mosby began as a railroad town in 1887 nestled along the Fishing River, a tributary of the Missouri River. It grew as coal mining took hold in the first half of the next century. At one point, it had a school, bank and grocery store, but all have since closed.

The old school — with a dozen-plus basketball trophies still on display — is now City Hall.

The remaining businesses — an asphalt plant, quarry, lumber center, trucking company and gas station — are all on the edge of town along a highway.

Financial strains led Mosby to disband its police department in 2015. That same year, the town was flooded three times in less than six weeks. Town officials decided in 2016 to apply to the state for a nearly $3 million buyout funded largely through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

About 50 homeowners said they were interested. It took until this summer before they received buyout offers, and about two-thirds have taken the deal.

But for some, such as 83-year-old Elmer Sullivan, the offer just wasn’t enough to afford a house somewhere else.

Sullivan was offered $20,000 for the modest home that he said he bought for $17,000 three decades ago. Since then, he put on a new roof and siding and spent $4,000 rebuilding a garage.

“This is ridiculous. This offer here ain’t no good,” Sullivan said, holding the buyout documents. “My wife, she passed away seven years ago. She helped me buy the house, and if I would have sold the house, I’d feel like I let her down.”

Milton and Sally Denney took the buyout for her mother’s old house, which had sat vacant since her death several years ago. But Milton said they turned down a $65,000 offer for their own home because it was “nowhere near enough money.”

The Denneys built their house in 1978 with more foresight than most. Its floor is about 4 feet aboveground — just high enough to stay dry during the floods that have repeatedly encircled the house.

For 65-year-old Sally Denney, who’s spent her whole life in Mosby, the buyouts have stirred a sense of disbelief, anger, frustration and fear that her beloved town could eventually be gone.

“I don’t know that it’s really all sunk in yet,” she said. But “it’s gonna hit, and it’s gonna be very sad.”

Mosby’s revenue is likely to shrink as properties once on the tax rolls become empty plots owned by the city, Mayor Harlin Clements said. The terms of the buyouts prohibit future development.

Though buyouts are disruptive, the U.S. saves $7 in avoided costs for every $1 spent through the federally funded grants to acquire or demolish flood-prone buildings, according to a study for the National Institute of Building Sciences.

“I can tell you — mitigation works, it’s very successful. It saves the pain and anguish of people that get flooded,” former FEMA Administrator James Lee Witt said during a recent session hosted by The Pew Charitable Trusts on ways to reduce local flood risks.

Like most who take buyouts, the former residents of Mosby are now scattered. Some have moved to Excelsior Springs, a city of more than 11,000 immediately east. Others have gone west, toward the Kansas City suburbs. Still others moved into a rural area a few miles north.

When Tammy and James Kilgore moved out, they took some pine boards from their porch, a mailbox, a flagpole and plants from their yard. Scavengers quickly swooped in to swipe their furnace, air conditioner and dishwasher. Someone even ripped out the kitchen sink and all the pipes running to it.

By the time Tammy Kilgore climbed into the excavator to help tear down her old house, the ransacked interior looked nothing like the home she had left.

After taking a few swings with the machine, she passed the controls to a professional. The house was reduced to a pile of rubble in barely 10 minutes.

“Well, I can say this, there’s a lot of love in them walls,” Kilgore said, adding, “I’m not sad at all.”

The Kilgores put their $45,000 buyout toward a brick house in Excelsior Springs — a home on a hill.

“It’s the best decision we ever made,” she said.

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2019/11/25/my-neighbors-are-gone-flood-buyouts-upend-missouri-town/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2019/11/25/my-neighbors-are-gone-flood-buyouts-upend-missouri-town/

[hellofastestnewsfan]

Had George Herbert Walker Bush never become the 41st president of the United States, he’d still be remembered as one of the great Americans of the 20th century.

Bush, who died Friday at the age of 94, according to his spokesman, began his public service more than six decades ago at age 18 as a naval aviator during World War II. Over the ensuing decades, he founded a successful oil company, served in Congress, was the chair of the Republican National Committee, ambassador to the United Nations, envoy to China, director of the C.I.A., the U.S. vice president, and, in his later years, raised money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the Indian Ocean tsunami. His wife, Barbara Bush, died at age 92 in April.

[Read more: Barbara Bush changed with her country.]

But it was his one-term presidency, from 1989 to 1993, that had a monumental impact on the world. Ronald Reagan, his predecessor, uttered the famous words, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” yet it was Bush who presided over its orderly dismantling.

Bush oversaw the collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War, the birth of the post-Soviet republics, and the West’s outreach to former members of the Warsaw Pact. And Bush—along with Gorbachev—signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in July 1991, which significantly reduced U.S. and Soviet nuclear stockpiles.

There were other foreign-policy successes: Bush ordered the U.S. invasion of Panama, and the eventual removal of Manuel Noriega, its formerly U.S.-backed leader; and approved the U.S.-led U.N. intervention in Somalia’s civil war.

Two of his greatest achievements had consequences for two of his sons: The First Gulf War, the conflict for which Bush is perhaps best known, paved the way for a second conflict, launched by President George W. Bush, that kept the United States in Iraq for more than a decade and hurt the younger Bush’s presidency; the formerly heralded North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) became the shibboleth of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016, in which Trump defeated former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, a proponent of free trade, in the Republican primary.

Neither Bush nor his sons attended the Republican Convention at which Trump was nominated, and the Bush refused to endorse the billionaire real estate developer in his race against Hillary Clinton. But the elder Bush was unable to translate his foreign-policy successes to his domestic record. His “Thousand Points of Light” speech, which encouraged volunteerism, was widely mocked and satirized, and even made its way to a Neil Young song.

Liberals still criticize Bush’s nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court, and his subsequent defense of Thomas amid allegations of sexual harassment. And Bush’s now-infamous pledge, “Read my lips: No new taxes,” had to be broken with taxes increases on the wealthy as part of a budget deal in 1990 that addressed mounting deficits and stabilized government finances. But the tax increases angered conservatives, and Bush would later say that the decision destroyed him politically.

In the early 1990s, the U.S. entered a recession, and Bush faced a young, charismatic Democratic governor named Bill Clinton who made the economy the centerpiece of his presidential campaign. A third-party bid by the billionaire Ross Perot did not help Bush, nor did the president’s apparent ignorance about how modern supermarkets worked. Ultimately, Clinton triumphed in the 1992 presidential election, relegating Bush to the list of one-term presidents. “I worked my heart out and it was terrible to adjust, but then you figure life goes on, just do what the next challenge is,” he told his granddaughter Jenna Bush Hager, then a contributor to NBC’s “Today” show, in 2012.

The letter Bush wrote to his successor the day he handed over the White House became a symbol of the  grace for which the president was known.“There will be very tough times, made even more difficult by criticism you may not think is fair,” he wrote to Clinton. “I’m not a very good one to give advice; but just don’t let the critics discourage you or push you off course. You will be our President when you read this note. I wish you well. I wish your family well.

Bush’s stabilizing presidency and the relative calm of the 1990s now seems like a lifetime ago. As his biographer Jon Meacham wrote:

Americans unhappy with the reflexively polarized politics of the first decades of the 21st century will find the presidency of George H.W. Bush refreshing, even quaint. He embraced compromise as a necessary element of public life, engaged his political foes in the passage of important legislation, and was willing to break with the base of his own party in order to do what he thought was right, whatever the price. Quaint, yes. But it happened in America, only a quarter of a century ago.

In 2015, President Obama called Bush “one of the more underrated presidents we have ever had.”

“When you look at both how he managed foreign policy and when you think about how he handled domestic policy in each case he was thoughtful, restrained, and made good decisions,” Obama said.

On Tuesday night, appearing at Rice University with Bush’s trusted confidante James A. Baker, who served as Bush’s secretary of state, Obama said Bush’s handling of world affairs represented “as important and as deft and as effective a set of foreign-policy initiatives as we saw in recent years.” After the event, Obama visited Bush at home in Houston and delivered a pair of colorful socks, which had become a signature of the former president.

Bush was born in Massachusetts and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut, the son of Prescott S. Bush, a United States senator. At 18, he enlisted in the Navy and was shot down during a combat mission in the Pacific in September 1944. He was rescued at sea by a U.S. submarine.

After the war, he attended Yale University and soon moved his young family to Midland, Texas, where he started a successful career in the oil business before entering politics. He was elected to the U.S. House from a wealthy Houston district in 1966 and won reelection in 1968 before relinquishing the seat for an unsuccessful Senate run in 1970. He became Richard Nixon’s U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in 1971, the first of several appointed positions, including director of central intelligence, that led him to the vice presidency under Ronald Reagan and ultimately to the White House, where he served as the nation’s 41st president.  

In an interview with CBS in 1984, Bush described his politics this way: “I am a conservative, but I’m not a nut about it.” Comments like those didn’t endear him to conservatives, who never trusted him—and not just because of his dismissal of supply-side economics as “voodoo economics” that’s “not going to work.”

The former president enjoyed a surge in popularity after he left office—perhaps because he embodied the kind of politics and politicians that are increasingly rare. He was active in fundraising for humanitarian causes—with Clinton, who became a friend; went skydiving on his 90th birthday, and regularly wore colorful socks that belied his perceived stiffness. Bush was awarded the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation’s Profile in Courage Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom—the latter awarded by Obama in 2011.

In his later years, Bush suffered from ill health. He used a wheelchair to get around since 2012 because of a form of Parkinson’s disease, and was hospitalized several times with pneumonia. His death comes just seven months after his wife of more than seven decades died. He is survived by five children—George W. Bush, Jeb Bush, Neil Bush, Marvin Bush, and Dorothy Bush Koch (a sixth child, Robin, died of leukemia in 1959 at the age of 3); and several grandchildren.

When Hager asked him in the 2012 interview about his legacy, Bush replied: “I want somebody else to define the legacy. I’ve kind of banned use of the ‘L’ word. History will point out some of the things I did wrong and some of the things I did right.”

from The Atlantic https://ift.tt/2BJ3OQr

[mick66d]

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Christopher Seaton

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Dec 10, 2017

Enough with the #MeToo Bullshit

I’ve kept silent over the scalp fest that is the #MeToo debacle for a good bit of time. One reason is I get my perspective will largely be ignored by a good swath of people who will say “Oh, look at the cishet white male shitlord” and move on. We’re in a society where your patents of oppression* matter more than rational thought.

Another reason I’ve kept quiet is the people who’ve screamed the loudest simply couldn’t be bothered to know better. It’s far easier for those in the media, politics, or the corporate world to put feelings before actual rational thought.

Now things have taken a different turn and the virus has infested the legal profession. People who should know better, who swore an oath to uphold the law, are jumping on the bandwagon of “OMG Someone Did Something BURN THE HERETIC!”

This must end now. Speaking from the legal perspective, the #MeToo movement is wrongheaded, completely dishonest, and has backfired in ways its woke disciples couldn’t have expected. Here’s why it must end now.

It lumps every act into the now nefarious “Sexual Impropriety.”

When the #MeToo bandwagon started, “sexual impropriety” or “sexual misconduct” were the linguistic kill shots** ending careers. These weren’t specific terms, though. They described everything from rape to inadvertently putting a hand on someone’s bare back.

In the legal world, words mean things. Law has specific definitions for various sexual offenses. If those definitions are abandoned for a grouped term of “sexual misconduct,” then we abandon the law entirely.

The better course of action is to take a deep breath, ask “What specifically happened?” and then apply the appropriate response. If someone stands accused of rape, then the matter should be handled by the legal system.

On the other hand, if someone touched you and you froze up because it was unwelcome, then it’s perfectly fine for you to share your story and people to express their empathy. Then you move on.

Let’s unpack the offenses from the “sexual misconduct” umbrella so we can respond in the best fashion possible.

2. #MeToo doesn’t have due process for the accused.

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. — Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

One of the worst aspects of the #MeToo virus is that there is no recourse for the accused. Once someone comes forward with an accusation, the Court of Public Opinion deems the accused guilty without as much as a second thought.

This sort of bullshit is why we have a system set in place in arguably the greatest governing document created by man. It allows for people to make an accusation, for the accused’s fate to be decided impartially, and for the two to face each other in court.

“But it’s so difficult for these women to come forward and be believed!” you shriek. Yes, even over the internet, I can hear your complaints. If it’s so difficult, why is the avalanche of complaints so large? Why are these terrified women Time’s “Person of the Year?”

It is intellectually dishonest and completely out of touch with reality to suggest women cannot come forward on their own accord and raise a complaint against someone. Furthermore, suggesting the act is “difficult” for women is an insult to the entire gender. It claims women can’t be brave enough or possess their own ability to speak out if someone wrongs them.

3. The “Everyone Knew About It” Complication Is Pervasive

When Harvey Weinstein’s misdeeds first surfaced, people called it the “worst kept secret in Hollywood.” Kevin Spacey’s actions are no different. The “Everyone Knew About It Complication” even goes as far as Capitol Hill.

I call this the “Everyone Knew About It Complication” because it’s an extension of the #MeToo virus that complicates a story even further. Just as an actual virus can suddenly evolve into a new strain, once the “Everyone Knew About It Complication” comes up it infects the allegations even more.

Now the revelations are more damning. It suggests a pervasive, regular pattern of behavior. The complication means that people either turned their heads or actively covered it up.

If “everyone knew” about someone’s bad behavior, why did it take so long for someone to come forward? Why did no one point this out sooner? If someone covered up or turned a blind eye to horrendous sexual impropriety, what were their motivations?

Once the “everyone knew” morphs the allegations against the accused, it casts a worse light on everyone involved.

4. People Are Okay With Innocent Lives Being Ruined Over #MeToo

Emily Lindin, founder of the “UnSlut” project and occasional columnist for Teen Vogue, made her view on #MeToo perfectly clear last month in a twitstorm. She’s fine with it being used as a weapon against innocent men.

“Sorry. If some innocent men’s reputations have to take a hit in the process of undoing the patriarchy, that is a price I am absolutely willing to pay.” — Emily Lindin, November 21, 2017

What started as a means for people to share their stories of sexual abuse in and out of the workplace is now a weapon to rob blameless men of their livelihoods. And the numbers show people are perfectly fine with this.

If you take a look at the above quoted twit (you’ll have to use this link since Lindin’s twits are now protected) you’ll see it got 49 likes and 63 retweets. Simple math shows there’s arguably 112 people out there who share Lindin’s view.

This is terrifying. If this view is publicly held by that number of people, how many are quietly nodding their heads at Lindin’s viewpoint? The #MeToo movement is now a dual front: let “victims” tell their stories and destroy the lives of the innocent in the process.

If it gets rid of that damned “toxic masculinity,” so what?

5. It Didn’t Work Before, And It’s Not Going To Work This Time.

Social media rendered the attention span and memory of the public to that of a gnat’s, which is why people are forgetting this happened on college campuses a few years ago and didn’t work.

Here’s a couple of names for you that might have faded from memory. Emma Sulkowicz. “Jackie” from UVA. Two women who accused men of rape, and both turned out to have fabricated the accusations.

Sulkowicz couldn’t take it when the police and her university’s Title IX kangaroo court wouldn’t punish her target, so she started carrying around her dorm room mattress in an attempt to publicly humiliate the accused all over campus. Her fabrication earned her an invitation to the State of the Union address. Columbia University would eventually settle with the young man Sulkowicz tried to destroy, but not before he became a campus pariah.

“Jackie” from UVA was the subject of a Rolling Stone article that was deemed the “worst journalistic failure” of that year. Jackie made up so many details of her alleged rape that Rolling Stone had to pay damages to a UVA dean named in the story after a defamation suit.

Last Month, Daily Beast editor Erin Ryan had a shocking moment of clarity over the #MeToo movement. If one accusation turned up false, it could destroy the entire avalanche in one fell swoop.

That’s why Weinstein fallout could go up in smoke in a second. Because enough people believe that women are all liars, that one liar will fuck it up for all of us. — Erin Ryan (emphasis mine)

To quote noted legal scholar James E. Cornette, “Well, wouldn’t you know who won the pony.”

At the heart of #MeToo is the recycled statement “No matter what, you must listen and believe.” This was the rallying cry for Sulkowicz and Jackie, and fell apart once Jackie’s story was found to have more holes in it than Swiss cheese.

It still kept up after Jackie’s story imploded. Zerlina Maxwell wrote an op-ed in the fallout for the Washington Post that was originally titled “No matter what Jackie said, we should always believe rape claims.” That title changed in spectacularly quick fashion to “we should generally believe rape claims,” but the point is the same. Listen and believe or you’re a rape apologist.

#MeToo is the “Listen and Believe” for the “tl;dr” generation. When the stories are questioned, and start to fall apart, #MeToo will suffer the same fate as “Listen and Believe.”

While many people have come forward with stories of horrendous behavior, and the allegedly guilty suitably punished, the #MeToo hysteria has reached epidemic proportions. When the next allegations surface, do yourself a favor.

Instead of immediately calling for someone’s head, take a deep breath. Ask questions. Wait a day to see if the story changes. And don’t lose your ever loving mind over it.

We’re better than this.

*Credit for this term goes to David Smalley of “Dogma Debate”

**Term coined by Dilbert creator and trained hypnotist Scott Adams

[melindarowens]

The Sky Won’t Snow, and The Sun Won’t Shine… – Daily Pfennig

Chuck Butler’s: A Pfennig For Your Thoughts    

December 19, 2017  

* Currencies make small moves… 

* S. African rand soars on election results…

* More problems for Toys “R” Us

Good Day…  And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you!  Well, I’m back to being later this morning, sorry… But when I can get sleep without alarms going off to tell it’s time for another antibiotic infusion, I take the opportunity and run with it! HA! That’s funny sight, me running!  In the great Eagles song, Desperado, they sing about how the sky won’t snow and the sun won’t shine… That describes the past two days around here, to a T! If the sky is going to look like this it might as well snow! Of course I say that now, because I’m stuck at home and don’t have to go out in it!  Seals and Crofts greet me this morning with their song: Summer Breeze…  Now doesn’t that sound good right about now?  

The potential wild swings in the currencies and metals this week, didn’t exactly get off to a strong start yesterday, as there just wasn’t much conviction to move either of these two assets.  Gold did gain $6 and change on the day, but $6 of that was in the early morning trading, so the rest of day only yielded some pocket change…  

The dollar wasn’t able to gain any ground on the day, and the euro climbed back above the 1.18 handle..  The euro alternative currencies like the Hungarian forint, Polish zloty, and Czech koruna all had strong moves on the day, and to me that’s always an indicator of a run on the dollar, but… these thee, that I coined the phrase and called them “Euro-Wannabes” about 15 years ago, need to add to those gains for their moves to be considered serious..  

Aussie and kiwi held their gains from the past couple of trading sessions throughout the overnight market sessions, and look to add to those previous attained gains. Remember what I kept telling you months ago about how the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) had indicated that they would begin to hike rates in 2018, but the markets weren’t paying attention, and it gave us  investors an opportunity to buy “ahead of the markets”, which wasn’t something that we got to do very often… 

Kiwi has seen a recent bout of selling, because of the narrowing rate advantage VS the green/peachback, but if the RBNZ is actually going to begin to hike rates in 2018, and we’re now within a fortnight of turning the calendar to 2018, the focus shifts to kiwi…  

I was all prepared to talk about the positive move in the S. African rand yesterday, and then got to the end of the letter, and well, forgot it! UGH! I was prepared to tell you about how the rand had rallied nicely ahead of the general election for a new leader of the ruling party. Seems traders and investors were bullish that their candidate, Cyril Ramaphosa, would win the election VS the current leader’s wife.  I don’t have to tell you that this was really going out on a limb, as the polls showed the election to be quite close.  But you have to give those taking positions in rands credit for being so bold… Some might say, That’s stupid Charlie Brown…  But they made a call and put their money behind it… I’ll give them credit for that!  

And…  It paid of for them, as Ramaphosa won the election and is now sitting pretty to be the next President of S. Africa… And the rand continued to book gains on the news.  I’ve never been a fan of the rand, as it is quite volatile. But when it’s good, it’s good, and when it’s bad, it’s bad.. I used to say that I wouldn’t touch rands with your ten foot pole! But like I said, when it’s good, it’s good…  In this case though, I would be careful, as these rallied on political gains usually don’t have legs to go very long in the race…   

Take the Indian rupee… Remember when the hoopla was all about how the rupee was going to soar on the election of Modi? But eventually, that all settled down. I did notice yesterday that the rupee had finally moved below the 64 handle… Hmmm…   

In other currencies…  I wonder what Swiss National Bank (SNB) President, Jordan, is thinking with this recent move higher in the Swiss franc?  The SNB met last week and kept everything, negative rates, and all, in place. And yesterday, Jordan reminded the markets that the SNB has no plans to remove any of the stimulus that’s in place right now.  I think that the markets have developed a deaf ear with regards to what Jordan has to say…  And that’s a bad thing for a Central Bank…    I’m just saying…  

Well, I told you above about how Gold gained $6 and change yesterday above, but forgot to tell you that the shiny metal is flat to down a few shekels in the early morning trading today…  I wonder what James Rickards is thinking right now, after his call for a Gold price reset by year end…  Hmmm…  We’re running out of days, right?   

The U.S. Data Cupboard is full of housing data early this week, but there’s something else I want to talk about here with regards to data and the economy, and that is that, Bloomberg reports that Toys “R” Us is considering closing at least 100 U.S. stores – and as many as 200 – in the face of weak holiday sales. According to Bloomberg’s sources, the store closures are coming after a sharp contraction in sales which declined 15% this Christmas-shopping season from a year earlier.  OMG!  Remember when Toys “R” Us filed Chapter 11 in September, and they told the markets that once they restructured their debt that everything would be kosher? Well, I guess not…  And during the Christmas shopping season?  

To recap…  The dollar is drifting, and some of the currencies are taking advantage of that drifting in the dollar.  The S. African rand is soaring after the markets’ choice of candidates won the election to lead the ruling party. The euro has climbed back above 1.18, and Chuck points out the moves in the euro Wannabes…  Gold gained $6 and change yesterday, and Toys “R” Us appears to be having some major problems!  

For What It’s Worth…  I found this on Ed Steer’s letter today, and thought it to be FWIW worthy. It’s about Bitcoin, so it should grab your attention…  And the article was put out by the good folks at GATA, so there’s no link to it, but I’ve got the gist of the article here:   

And here’s your snippet: “Bitcoin.com is one of the world’s largest bitcoin sites, having grown its profile thanks to the insane price surge of the cryptocurrency this year. But its co-founder and CTO, Emil Oldenburg, a Swedish native, is extremely skeptical of bitcoin’s future.

“I would say an investment in bitcoin is right now the riskiest investment you can make. There’s an extremely high risk,” he says in an interview with Swedish tech site Breakit.

“I have in fact sold all my bitcoins recently and switched to bitcoin cash,” says Oldenburg, referring to the problems with bitcoin’s high transaction costs and lead times.

“The old bitcoin network is as good as unusable.”

While buying, selling or trading in bitcoins is not an issue today, according to Oldenburg, the problems surface when bitcoin transactions are recorded on the blockchain, the digital ledger that records each transaction.

The problem centres on the limited amount of transactions per second you can make in the bitcoin network, which in turn depends on the formation of the memory “block size” that store the transactions. This, according to Oldenburg, makes for a very illiquid and unusable cryptocurrency.” 

Chuck again… Uh Oh…   

Currencies today: 12/19/17… American Style: A$ .7671, kiwi .7006, C$ .7773, euro 1.1820, sterling 1.3351, Swiss $1.0142, … European Style: rand 12.7239, krone 8.36, SEK 8.4235, forint 264.82, zloty 3.5490, koruna 21.70, RUB 58.66, yen 112.75, sing 1.3468, HKD 7.8184, INR 63.93, China 6.6128, peso 19.06, BRL 3.2909, Dollar Index 93.58, Oil $57.52, 10-year 2.42%, Silver $16.19, Platinum $915.10, Palladium $1,022.28, and Gold… $1,264.50

That’s it for today…  Well, I believe that Kathy is coming home tonight… Please don’t tell her I talked about her! So, to Jen and Christine, I made it, I survived by myself, and you didn’t think I would be able to! I even had added problems to deal with these past 10 days, but here I am!  I have been beating my head against the wall trying to think of a good present for Kathy, and I’ve got nothing! She’s one of those people that if she wants something she buys it… She doesn’t wait for birthdays, etc.   Speaking of birthdays, her birthday is the day after Christmas… Our first Christmas together, I made the mistake of buying her a present and saying, Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday.. She informed me that was not acceptable, and I’ve been good about that every since…  That was Christmas 1972… WOW! OK, The Cure takes us to the finish line today with their song: Pictures of You… And with that, it’s time to go… I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday and Be Good To Yourself! 

Chuck Butler

  Source link

source https://capitalisthq.com/the-sky-wont-snow-and-the-sun-wont-shine-daily-pfennig/ from CapitalistHQ http://capitalisthq.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-sky-wont-snow-and-sun-wont-shine.html

[everettwilkinson]

The Sky Won’t Snow, and The Sun Won’t Shine… – Daily Pfennig

Chuck Butler’s: A Pfennig For Your Thoughts    

December 19, 2017  

* Currencies make small moves… 

* S. African rand soars on election results…

* More problems for Toys “R” Us

Good Day…  And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you!  Well, I’m back to being later this morning, sorry… But when I can get sleep without alarms going off to tell it’s time for another antibiotic infusion, I take the opportunity and run with it! HA! That’s funny sight, me running!  In the great Eagles song, Desperado, they sing about how the sky won’t snow and the sun won’t shine… That describes the past two days around here, to a T! If the sky is going to look like this it might as well snow! Of course I say that now, because I’m stuck at home and don’t have to go out in it!  Seals and Crofts greet me this morning with their song: Summer Breeze…  Now doesn’t that sound good right about now?  

The potential wild swings in the currencies and metals this week, didn’t exactly get off to a strong start yesterday, as there just wasn’t much conviction to move either of these two assets.  Gold did gain $6 and change on the day, but $6 of that was in the early morning trading, so the rest of day only yielded some pocket change…  

The dollar wasn’t able to gain any ground on the day, and the euro climbed back above the 1.18 handle..  The euro alternative currencies like the Hungarian forint, Polish zloty, and Czech koruna all had strong moves on the day, and to me that’s always an indicator of a run on the dollar, but… these thee, that I coined the phrase and called them “Euro-Wannabes” about 15 years ago, need to add to those gains for their moves to be considered serious..  

Aussie and kiwi held their gains from the past couple of trading sessions throughout the overnight market sessions, and look to add to those previous attained gains. Remember what I kept telling you months ago about how the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) had indicated that they would begin to hike rates in 2018, but the markets weren’t paying attention, and it gave us  investors an opportunity to buy “ahead of the markets”, which wasn’t something that we got to do very often… 

Kiwi has seen a recent bout of selling, because of the narrowing rate advantage VS the green/peachback, but if the RBNZ is actually going to begin to hike rates in 2018, and we’re now within a fortnight of turning the calendar to 2018, the focus shifts to kiwi…  

I was all prepared to talk about the positive move in the S. African rand yesterday, and then got to the end of the letter, and well, forgot it! UGH! I was prepared to tell you about how the rand had rallied nicely ahead of the general election for a new leader of the ruling party. Seems traders and investors were bullish that their candidate, Cyril Ramaphosa, would win the election VS the current leader’s wife.  I don’t have to tell you that this was really going out on a limb, as the polls showed the election to be quite close.  But you have to give those taking positions in rands credit for being so bold… Some might say, That’s stupid Charlie Brown…  But they made a call and put their money behind it… I’ll give them credit for that!  

And…  It paid of for them, as Ramaphosa won the election and is now sitting pretty to be the next President of S. Africa… And the rand continued to book gains on the news.  I’ve never been a fan of the rand, as it is quite volatile. But when it’s good, it’s good, and when it’s bad, it’s bad.. I used to say that I wouldn’t touch rands with your ten foot pole! But like I said, when it’s good, it’s good…  In this case though, I would be careful, as these rallied on political gains usually don’t have legs to go very long in the race…   

Take the Indian rupee… Remember when the hoopla was all about how the rupee was going to soar on the election of Modi? But eventually, that all settled down. I did notice yesterday that the rupee had finally moved below the 64 handle… Hmmm…   

In other currencies…  I wonder what Swiss National Bank (SNB) President, Jordan, is thinking with this recent move higher in the Swiss franc?  The SNB met last week and kept everything, negative rates, and all, in place. And yesterday, Jordan reminded the markets that the SNB has no plans to remove any of the stimulus that’s in place right now.  I think that the markets have developed a deaf ear with regards to what Jordan has to say…  And that’s a bad thing for a Central Bank…    I’m just saying…  

Well, I told you above about how Gold gained $6 and change yesterday above, but forgot to tell you that the shiny metal is flat to down a few shekels in the early morning trading today…  I wonder what James Rickards is thinking right now, after his call for a Gold price reset by year end…  Hmmm…  We’re running out of days, right?   

The U.S. Data Cupboard is full of housing data early this week, but there’s something else I want to talk about here with regards to data and the economy, and that is that, Bloomberg reports that Toys “R” Us is considering closing at least 100 U.S. stores – and as many as 200 – in the face of weak holiday sales. According to Bloomberg’s sources, the store closures are coming after a sharp contraction in sales which declined 15% this Christmas-shopping season from a year earlier.  OMG!  Remember when Toys “R” Us filed Chapter 11 in September, and they told the markets that once they restructured their debt that everything would be kosher? Well, I guess not…  And during the Christmas shopping season?  

To recap…  The dollar is drifting, and some of the currencies are taking advantage of that drifting in the dollar.  The S. African rand is soaring after the markets’ choice of candidates won the election to lead the ruling party. The euro has climbed back above 1.18, and Chuck points out the moves in the euro Wannabes…  Gold gained $6 and change yesterday, and Toys “R” Us appears to be having some major problems!  

For What It’s Worth…  I found this on Ed Steer’s letter today, and thought it to be FWIW worthy. It’s about Bitcoin, so it should grab your attention…  And the article was put out by the good folks at GATA, so there’s no link to it, but I’ve got the gist of the article here:   

And here’s your snippet: “Bitcoin.com is one of the world’s largest bitcoin sites, having grown its profile thanks to the insane price surge of the cryptocurrency this year. But its co-founder and CTO, Emil Oldenburg, a Swedish native, is extremely skeptical of bitcoin’s future.

“I would say an investment in bitcoin is right now the riskiest investment you can make. There’s an extremely high risk,” he says in an interview with Swedish tech site Breakit.

“I have in fact sold all my bitcoins recently and switched to bitcoin cash,” says Oldenburg, referring to the problems with bitcoin’s high transaction costs and lead times.

“The old bitcoin network is as good as unusable.”

While buying, selling or trading in bitcoins is not an issue today, according to Oldenburg, the problems surface when bitcoin transactions are recorded on the blockchain, the digital ledger that records each transaction.

The problem centres on the limited amount of transactions per second you can make in the bitcoin network, which in turn depends on the formation of the memory “block size” that store the transactions. This, according to Oldenburg, makes for a very illiquid and unusable cryptocurrency.” 

Chuck again… Uh Oh…   

Currencies today: 12/19/17… American Style: A$ .7671, kiwi .7006, C$ .7773, euro 1.1820, sterling 1.3351, Swiss $1.0142, … European Style: rand 12.7239, krone 8.36, SEK 8.4235, forint 264.82, zloty 3.5490, koruna 21.70, RUB 58.66, yen 112.75, sing 1.3468, HKD 7.8184, INR 63.93, China 6.6128, peso 19.06, BRL 3.2909, Dollar Index 93.58, Oil $57.52, 10-year 2.42%, Silver $16.19, Platinum $915.10, Palladium $1,022.28, and Gold… $1,264.50

That’s it for today…  Well, I believe that Kathy is coming home tonight… Please don’t tell her I talked about her! So, to Jen and Christine, I made it, I survived by myself, and you didn’t think I would be able to! I even had added problems to deal with these past 10 days, but here I am!  I have been beating my head against the wall trying to think of a good present for Kathy, and I’ve got nothing! She’s one of those people that if she wants something she buys it… She doesn’t wait for birthdays, etc.   Speaking of birthdays, her birthday is the day after Christmas… Our first Christmas together, I made the mistake of buying her a present and saying, Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday.. She informed me that was not acceptable, and I’ve been good about that every since…  That was Christmas 1972… WOW! OK, The Cure takes us to the finish line today with their song: Pictures of You… And with that, it’s time to go… I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday and Be Good To Yourself! 

Chuck Butler

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