Saturday, November 28, 2020

The Midnight Fugue -- November 28, 2020

It's 11:01 p.m. CT, Saturday night. And so it begins. The "midnight fugue." Jerry Jeff Walker led me to Todd Snider who led me to Susanna Clark. Susanna Clark led me to Townes Van Zandt and the latter led me back to The Big Lebowski.

Dead Flowers, Townes Van Zandt

From the comments at that video link:

"The dude abides... I don't know about you, but I take comfort in that. It's good knowing he's out there. The dude, taking her easy for all us sinners. I sure hope he makes the finals. 
Well, that about does her. Wraps her all up. Things seem to have worked out pretty good for the Dude and Walter. And it was a pretty good story, don't you think? Made me laugh to beat the band... parts anyway. I didn't like seeing Donny go. But then I happen to know there's a little Lebowski on the way. I guess that's the way the whole darn human comedy keeps... perpetuating itself, down through the generations. 
Westward the wagons, across the sands of time until we... oh, look at me. I'm rambling again. 
Well, I hope you folks enjoyed yourselves. Catch you later on down the trail. Say, friend, you got any more of that good sarsaparilla?" 
I have no idea why, but I've never felt so touched by any speech from a movie ever.
The Big Lebowski

23 huge facts about The Big Lebowski.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words -- November 28, 2020



As far as I know, the law of gravity is still in force in North Dakota. It looks like if the DAPL has to be shut down, several other pipelines face the same fate. 

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The Bird Page

Some years ago -- in 2018, to be exact -- I bought a curious biography of Alexander Wilson, the father of American ornithology:

  • The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson, Clark Hunter, c. 1983, hardcover, $25, Portland, OR. 

I've read it twice, trying to get a feeling for the ornithologist. Tonight, while reading Bolen and Flores' The Mississippi Kite I came across Alexander Wilson again. From page 23:

The first Mississippi Kite [that Alexander] Wilson shot became immortalized not only because of its dramatic portrait -- often considered one of the best paintings in American Ornithology [a nine-volume series authored by Alexander Wilson] -- but also because of Wilson's account of the experience. 

One can see the Wilson painting at this link. It's hard to believe but it appears the original is available for $800.

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Today's Personality: Susanna Clark

At wiki

Todd Snider mentioned her in passing on his two-hour extemporaneous "celebration of a life" the very night it was announced that Jerry Jeff Walker had passed away.

Notes From All Over -- The Cape May Edition -- November 28, 2020

Link here: quotation of the day on the "privilege of prosperity" and "American privilege.

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Prime Time Saturday Night
College Football

On network television:

  • an 0 - 2 team playing a 1 - 2 team
  • an 0 - 1 team playing a 2 - 0 team

Fox cable:

  • a 2 - 6 team playing a 2 - 5 team. Are you kidding me?

And it's almost December.

It's gonna be a long weekend.

Coach on sideline wearing a completely ineffective face shield. 

All that talk about safety for the players. 

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Humor From Power Line

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Cape May

Everyone, I suppose, knows of Cape May, New Jersey. Except me. I spent a year in New Jersey one summer, in a bedroom community across the river from New York City, Westfield, Union County, New Jersey. I don't think I had was even aware, at the time, that "the Jersey Shore" was a "thing."

The Jersey Shore

is the coastal region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. Geographically, the term encompasses about 141 miles (227 km) of oceanfront bordering the Atlantic Ocean, from Perth Amboy in the north to Cape May Point in the south.

I first came across Cape May while reading Sarah Weinman's The Real Lolita. Spoiler alert: the real Lolita, Sally Horner, was killed in a car accident riding back to Camden from Cape May with a "new" boyfriend. He survived. She didn't. She died, almost to the day, one year before I was born. She was fifteen years old. 

I read that a couple of days ago.

Yesterday, The Mississippi Kite by Eric G. Bolen and Dan Flores, c. 1993, arrived. After spotting and identifying a squadron of Mississippi Kites earlier this month, I ordered the book through Amazon. 

Wow, what a great book. So, I'm reading along, and there it was, pages 10 - 12:

Numerous other records of Mississippi Kites dot the geography of the United States, enough to indicate a more-or-less wandering coterie of individuals or perhaps an annual probe into as yet uncolonized regions. 
Among these we mention sightings of kites along the northeastern seaboard in New Jersey where, although the observations are of growing regularity, they are so far unaccompanied by confirmed records of nesting activities. 
One authority on the birds of Cape May suggests that these occurrences result when long-distance migrants "overshoot" their traditional breeding grounds. 

Wow, had I not read Sarah Weinman's book on a crime story, I would have passed over the reference to Cape May and would have never given it another thought. 

Along that same line, Bolen and Flores mention riparian habitats a number of times when describing the nesting areas of Mississippi Kites. Had I not blogged about the Bakken, it's very, very likely I never would have paid much attention to "riparian." 

Funny how things work out. And why I tell the granddaughters to never stop reading. Read anything and everything. As long as it's good writing, one will enjoy it and one will definitely learn something.

Another example: I'm listening to Todd Snider's "celebration of a life" after Jerry Jeff Walker passed away. He mentions in passing, busking, a term I had never heard before listening to the Spoon Lady on YouTube this past year.

Geography and language are so incredibly fascinating.

Rainy Day Funds -- November 28, 2020

Both links from the Pew Foundation.

The first link is from August 29, 2018, pre-Covid: "States make progress rebuilding rainy day funds."

A decade after the Great Recession began, at least half of the states could cover a bigger share of spending with rainy day funds than before the downturn. But most still had a thinner cushion against budget shortfalls in their total balances, which count rainy day reserves plus general fund dollars left over at the end of a budget year.

In fiscal year 2017, the 50-state total for rainy day funds increased for a seventh straight year to a record $54.7 billion, enough to run government operations for a median of 20.5 days, also a new high. Early estimates showed savings at near-peak levels in fiscal 2018, which ended in June for most states. The results will probably rise once missing and final data are counted in a year in which higher-than-expected tax revenue led a number of states to increase savings beyond their earlier estimates.

Even with rainy day funds at today’s peak levels, though, most states’ total balances could cover a smaller share of government spending than they could have heading into the 2007-09 recession. 

Now, fast forward to 2020, also from Pew, dated October 14, 2020, data points (numbers rounded):

  • 2020: states, pre-Covid had a record $120 billion in total balances, including $75 billion in rainy day funds
  • rainy day funds (budget stabilization funds): had grown for the ninth consecutive year;
  • on rainy day funds alone, state governments could run for a median of 27 days, a record high
  • prior to the Great Recession, they could operate for about 17 days
  • individual states
  • Ohio: has not dipped into their funds; waiting to see how things pan out
  • have completely exhausted their rainy day funds
    • Nevada
    • New Jersey
  • will reduce its rainy day fund by 60%; New Mexico
  • will cut their rainy day fund by half: Alaska, Rhode Island, California
  • Illinois: did not have a rainy day fund to begin with
  • ten states have already used rainy day funds to close budget gaps in 2020: AK, DE, MD, MI, MS, NV, NJ, NM, OK, RI
  • and, finally, this comment from the authors of the study -- 
    • “The withdrawals in Nevada and New Jersey marked a sharp reversal in two states that had made recent progress in replenishing their rainy day funds after emptying them during the previous downturn,” the authors of the report note. 
    • “In fiscal 2019, New Jersey made its first deposit in a decade, and Nevada surpassed its pre-Great Recession savings level for the first time.”


It's going to be interesting to see the 2020 data when it comes out next year (2021). A number of states, no doubt, are counting on bailout by the federal government. Some states are doing much better than I would have expected.

Merry Christmas -- Happy Holidays -- November 28, 2020

 

A reader noted that the Christmas tree in Williston is thirteen feet taller and one ton heavier than the one in NYC. Just saying.
  • From rockefellercenter:
    • 75 feet tall and eleven tons
  • from roundupweb:
    • Williston's Colorado Blue Spruce was donated by Tiffany and Jason Brevik of Williston
    • was cut down at 9th Street E and 3rd Avenue E
    • they had been trying to donate the tree for three years; it's an old tree; risk of falling on their house
    • the tree is 88 feet tall and weighs twelve tons
    • it was downsized by about 20 feet to ensure stability in its holder
    • it is located on the corner of 26th Street E and 2nd Avenue West
    • that would be where the "bypass" intersects US Highway 2 north of "old Williston"
    • you know, where Applebee's and a branch of First State Bank are located