North Dakota: Best Run State -- 24/7 Wall Street

24/7 Wall Street - Yahoo!Finance is reporting that North Dakota is the best-run state, followed by:

• Wyoming
• Iowa
• Nebraska
• Utah
• Vermont
• Minnesota 
• Alaska
• South Dakota
• Texas
• Kansas

The list is surprising, to say the least.

From the bottom up, worst is New Mexico, followed by,

• Illinois
• Rhode Island
• Nevada
• Arizona
• Louisiana
• New Jersey
• South Carolina
• Connecticut
• Alabama

And then the rest.

******************************

A Note To The Granddaughters

Earlier I linked to a Wall Street Journal story on the Coen brothers new film.  I first saw the story in the on-line WSJ. When I got home, I read the story from the print edition. The article is about the role T Bone Burnett played in the Coen brothers' musical journey over their film journey.

The last couple of paragraphs of that article:

Mr. Burnett led the selection of the all-acoustic soundtrack, which draws from the folk canon with traditional ballads such as "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me" and "Fare Thee Well." After rehearsals overseen by Mr. Burnett, the film's musical performances were shot live.

The Coen brothers aren't professional musicians (Ethan plays some guitar). But Mr. Burnett, who first contacted them after seeing their 1987 movie "Raising Arizona," says the directors have an easy communication with musicians about "tone." Likewise, musicians recognize that the Coens build music into the foundation of their films, he says: "Everybody knows they're on our side."

Who wudda guessed, Raising Arizona. That's one of my favorite movies, and I watch it probably once a year. I last watched it about six weeks ago.