Mideast Heating Up; Price Of Oil Not Yet Reflecting Reports -- February 13, 2018

I track "Mideast On The Brink" at the sidebar at the right: my most recent post --

February 13, 2018: the Mideast is heating up. Now that ISIS is out of the way, Iran and Syria have teamed up to drive other rebels out. I assume the Kurds will be caught in the cross-fire and Turkey will muddle US efforts. Israel has hit targets in Iran for the first time, it was reported last week, and Drudge suggested "fight's on." But this is the scary part: it appears that US and Russia are now directly involved. No links; stories everywhere. US fighters have killed "scores" of "Russian fighters" (not further defined) and this morning it is being reported that a US fighter knocked out a Russian tank in self defense. WTI down another 64 cents; now at $58.64.

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Notes To The Granddaughters

Our youngest granddaughter, Sophia, who will be four later this year, has had a very close friend for a very long time, a small teddy bear (actually a little piggy, I guess), maybe about ten inches long, whom she calls "Corky." For as long as I can remember, wherever Sophia went, Corky went. Sophia and Corky had long conversations; of course, we have only heard one side of the conversations.

Then about three days ago, all of a sudden Corky was no longer around. Sophia was not a bit upset. When asked, she said that Corky was "with the monsters."

This morning when I was making breakfast for her and then taking her to Tutor Time, again, Corky was gone. I asked her where Corky was. She said that Corky was "with the monsters." In Corky's place, Sophia now has four much larger and more colorful teddy bears; it was quite a menagerie that accompanied us to Tutor Time this morning.

Her mother, our older daughter, has confirmed what we've noticed. Our daughter has not seen Corky in the past few days and Sophia seems not perturbed.

I wrote this to our daughter, bringing things up to date:

There was obviously a major "falling out" between Corky and Sophia.

Sophia has been watching some inappropriate Barbie cartoons on YouTube -- she no longer gets to watch them -- little girls arguing like little girls argue among themselves -- no big deal but just the same May (her Grammy) feels that Sophia does not need to watch those videos (I agree).

It's possible Sophia picked up something from the videos and then had an argument with Corky and now he's banished to the "monsters." Maybe Corky took the side of the argument of one of the little girls with whom Sophia disagreed.

Since your toilets are not clogged up, at least we know Sophia did not try flushing Corky down the toilet.

Corky has now been replaced with four -- count them, four -- bigger and more colorful teddy bears, including "Pumpkin Bear."

Later: photo of Sophia with two of her four new friends.