Closing Out Sunday Night -- November 20, 2022

ISO NE, link here:

• demand: only 16,000 MW
• price: $360 / MW -- with solar / wind free; ISO NE electricity should be $36 / MW

LNG:

• earlier today, the race for the nation's eighth LNG export terminal;
• now this, US will triple LNG exports by 2033
• the US is already the world's largest LNG exporter -- hitting that milestone earlier this year;

The old man, link here:

 Agree 1,000%, witnessing a revolution:

Buybacks, link here:

• buybacks work for the investor in a few companies, but in general, investors will do better with dividends than with buybacks (ask Warren Buffett);

Extinction, link here:

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The Book Page

Sherloock Holmes.

Link here.

I'm thinking this is a book I need to introduce to Sophia. 

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Word for the Day: Irony

How "irony" got its second meaning. Link here. 

The second meaning of irony is less than a couple of centuries old. And it was invented by one guy: an English bishop and classical scholar named Connop Thirlwell, which seems like a typo but isn’t. His 1833 essay “On the Irony of Sophocles” begins with a discussion of the traditional meanings of the term, then pivots to the notion of “practical irony.”

Previously Posted 

Irony

I wrote the following some years ago after reading Harold Bloom's The Book of J. Harold Bloom introduces a fourth "definition" or example / type of irony.

First type of irony: Socratic irony. Irony as first used by Socrates. "A feigned ignorance and humility designed to expose the inadequate assumptions of others, by way of skilled dialectical questioning."

Second type of irony: common irony. "Use of language to express something other than supposedly literal meaning, particularly the opposite of such meaning, and also the contrast or gap between expectation and fulfillment."

Third type of irony, how J used irony: dramatic irony or tragic irony. "The incongruity between what develops on adjacent words and actions that are more fully apprehended by the audience or readers than by the characters." J was a master of such irony. I wonder if playwrights like Neil Simon or Oscar Wilde aren't good examples?

Fourth type of irony, invented by J: her irony was "the representation of what happens when altogether incommensurate realities juxtapose and clash." For example, a god wrestling with a human is J's type of irony (gross incommensurate beings, god vs mortal). How can Abram haggle with Yahweh? How can Jacob wrestle with a nameless one among the Elohim (angels)? How can we be persuaded that a masculine rough hunter like Esau would give away his birthright for a bowl of soup? I would think there are many, many examples of this type of irony in the Odyssey.

An aside: In the movie, “Once Upon a Time in Mexico,” the events between Johnny Depp and an unnamed boy may be examples of both the third and the fourth types of irony.  As an example of the third definition of irony: when Johnny Depp said he didn’t want to see the boy again. Later in the movie when they cross paths, Depp has been blinded and cannot see the boy.  The same event can represent the fourth definition of irony:  an unnamed, untrained boy saves the life of a trained killer.]

Of the four "types" of irony, Harold Bloom says J created her own form, the fourth form.

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The Movie Page

Kiss Me Deadly.

Wiki.

I watched a "trilogy" of sorts today of three (of course) films noir (or is it film noirs?) on TCM today. Absolutely outstanding. One of the three:

Kiss Me Deadly grossed $726,000 in the United States and $226,000 overseas

The film received the condemnation of the Kefauver Commission, which accused it of being "designed to ruin young viewers," a verdict that director Aldrich protested.

Despite initial critical disapproval, it is considered one of the most important and influential film noirs of all time.

The film has been noted as a stylistic precursor to the French New Wave, and has been cited as a major influence on a number of filmmakers, including François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Alex Cox, and Quentin Tarantino. [I'm currently reading Quentin's newest book, just released a few days ago, Cinema Speculation.]

In 1999, Kiss Me Deadly was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

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The Sports Page

There was so much great football this weekend -- NFL and college -- but the best may have been Sunday night's Kansas City Chiefs against the Chargers in Los Angeles.

Thanksgiving this week, three games:

• Lions vs Bills
• Cowboys vs Giants
• Vikings vs Patriots: this Thursday night game will be aired by NBC and not Amazon.

Stadium prices: