Great Quote About Elliot Spitzer

Sorry for the short post of little or no consequence, but I just had to get this quote a little attention.

"If stupidity ever gets to $200 a barrel, I want drilling rights to Eliot Spitzer’s head."

You can read the full article behind this at Politico.

You Know You're In a Recession When...

There is a radio contest about it.

Officially the way we classify a recession in this country is “2 quarters of negative growth.” This is a bunch of mumbo jumbo for the fact that the economy is shrinking. Well being from the Detroit area, we have experienced “negative growth” for a couple of years now, but I truly knew we were in a recession when I was listening to a radio station the other day and they were talking about winning money off the “Recession Wheel.”


Apparently, you call in, and if you are the right caller, you get a set amount of cash as part of your “stimulus package.” Then they spin a “Recession Wheel” which lets you win additional cash. You cannot ask for more proof then that.

Sodium...Stupid Sodium

I hate sodium, which for all us unedumacated folk is salt. I have been trying to eat better over the past few months, and have been generally succeeding, except for one problem: sodium. It seems that contrary to popular belief, our economy does not run on oil, but in fact on sodium. Everything has sodium.

The crazy thing is that even the reduced sodium stuff still has waaaay to much sodium. The standard stuff is just off the charts. A healthy amount of sodium is 2400mg per day. To give you an idea, a double cheeseburger from CrackDonalds contains 1150mg, get it with a large fry and you are over half your sodium for the day. I have been trying to eat more soup, you know vegetables and stuff. Soup, it turns out is like sodium central. A can of Cambell's Chunky Chicken Corn Chowder, while respectable in almost all other health categories has over 1700mg of sodium. This makes it very very hard to keep your sodium under 2400mg's while also eating at work and trying to eat enough to stay alive.

Now I know that all you super annoying healthy people out there are saying...just eat fresh fruit and veggies, they don't have sodium. Or maybe make your lunch and bring it. My lovely Wife does make a lunch for me often, and those are not usually too bad, but even then, if there is a sandwich, the lunch meat is loaded with sodium. Also, I do eat fresh fruit and veggies, but one cannot subsist on bananas alone.

Anyone out there got any ideas...?

Thoughts on Snow

I like snow. It has amazing properties: solid but squishy, easily moldable, and it is cold. Being born and raised in the Detroit area, I am pretty familiar with the stuff.

When you grow up around here, you love the stuff. It has the magical ability to cancel school; which, when you are a kid, is something that even your parents cannot do. It is also the thing that all winter fun is based around. You build snow forts, and you attack and tear down snow forts. Snowballs are constructed and then hurled at your brother or his snow fort. It is truly an amazing substance.

This year in the Detroit area, we have received 58.9 inches of the powdery stuff, and we are forecast for another 5-10 in the coming few days. This is actually quite a bit above our average, which is 41.1 inches. Thank you NOAA. Now Detroit has a reputation as a snowy cold place, but rest assured there are places much much snowier then we are. The king of all snow hauls belongs to a city called Valdez, Alaska, where they receive a whopping 326 inches per year. That is ever 27 FEET of snow a year. I am from the cold North, and I don't even know how to conceptualize that much snow. For those of you who think it is unfair to bring in Alaska, the king of the lower 48 is  Mt. Washington, NH with over 21 feet, and 2nd is Blue Canyon, CA with around 20 feet per year.

If they cancel snow around here for 8 inches, to get the same effect in Blue Canyon, CA, they would have to cancel when they receive 45 inches. If we ever got that here, I am pretty sure I could not get out of my house. So I guess it really is not that bad here, and it always good to have something on hand to hurl at your brother's snow fort.

I Believe that the Word "Synergy" has Synergy with a "Pile-O-Crap"

Synergy - A mutually advantageous conjunction or compatibility of distinct business participants or elements (as resources or efforts).

That is synergy defined by my good friends over at Merriam-Webster. Normally I would give them the benefit of the doubt, but this time I have to call them out. Synergy, is not as defined above, instead it is really a corporate BS word. Basically, if you are ever in a meeting, and someone starts spouting on about synergy, it is ok to start napping or checking out the danishes on the food table; because what the presenter is about to say will have absolutely NO impact on your day to day operations.

This word was invented by corporations to speculate on future possibilities. It just sounded better then saying "We think that SOMETIME in the future their MAY be a way to make these things work better and more efficiently together." The problem with that statement is that it is too vague and speculative. Now they just use synergy and it is all OK. When airlines want to merge, they make it sound all good by spouting on about synergies, as if this magical process will make everyone crap tons of money. The problem is this rarely happens. Ask K-mart about it's synergies with Sears, or maybe Cerberus and it's synergies with Chrysler.

Bottom line, when people higher then you on the food chain start talking about synergies, start looking for a new job. And if you are the person spouting off about "synergistic opportunities", realize that everyone you are talking to knows it is straight up BS.

Until tomorrow at about 6:30 A.M., I am going to explore possible synergies between myself and my bed. Later.