Well, I'm running down the road tryin' to loosen my load
I've got so many things on my mind
The national election, COVID-19, the fires and climate change
And don’t forget reply all email, where is that bottle of wine
(bad rhyme, sorry)
[Chorus 1]
Take It easy, take it easy
Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy
Lighten up while you still can
Don't even try to understand
Just find a place to make your stand and take it easy
[Verse 2]
Well, I'm a standing on the eighteenth tee,
And such a fine sight to see
It’s a beautiful, green fairway,
But as usual I hook my drive, left, behind a tree
[Chorus 2]
Come on, baby, don't say maybe
I gotta know if 2020 is gonna save me
We may lose, and we may win
Though we will never be here again
So open up, I'm climbin' in
So take it easy
[Verse 3]
Well I'm running down the road trying to loosen my load
Got a world of trouble on my mind
Lookin' for the truth in 2020
It is so hard to find
[Chorus 3]
Take it easy, take it easy
Don't let the sound of your own wheels make you crazy
Come on baby, don't say maybe
I gotta know if 2020 is gonna save me, oh oh oh
Oh we got it easy
We oughta take it easy
A thank you to Glenn Frey and Jackson Browne’s
lyrics of May 1972.
It is about time we “take it easy” with Rink Rats and relax
for at least one installment.
Time to laugh at myself and ourselves.
Wish me luck.
“I’m not talking to myself; I’m having a parent-teacher
conference.”
“I finished Netflix today.”
This morning I saw a neighbor talking to her cat. It was
obvious she thought her cat understood her. I came into my house, told my
dog–we laughed a lot.
I’ll tell you a coronavirus joke now, but you’ll have to wait
two weeks to see if you got it.
What did the man say to the bartender? I’ll have a corona,
hold the virus.
Ran out of toilet paper and started using lettuce leaves.
Today was just the tip of the iceberg, tomorrow romaines to be seen.
Finland just closed its borders. You know what that means. No
one will be crossing the finish line.
What types of jokes are allowed during quarantine? Inside
jokes!
President Trump is a member at Winged Foot Golf Club (site of
this past week United States Golf Championship) ,where he kicks his ball so
often the caddies call him "Pele."
Okay, enough of my stand-up act, now some serious
news.
2020 - Just when you thought 2020 could
not get any worse.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 1933-2020
I hope we can all appreciate the legacy of someone so
incredibly brave and courageous as RBG and put politics aside for a moment and
just honor her. She deserves that.
John Lewis, who we also lost to this unforgiving year, liked
to tell young people to get into Good Trouble. RBG did something even more
rare. She went Good Viral. A law student, Shana Knizhnik, anointed her the
Notorious R.B.G., a play on the name of the Notorious B.I.G., a famous rapper
who was Brooklyn-born, like the justice. Soon the name, and Justice Ginsburg's
image — her expression serene yet severe, a frilly lace collar adorning her
black judicial robe, her eyes framed by oversize glasses and a gold crown
perched at a rakish angle on her head — became an internet sensation.
I said it before, and I am sad to say it again. This has got
to be the loneliest year.
The next fifty days are going to be gross.
CHUCK BROILED - Chuck E. Cheese wants to
spend more than $2 million to destroy more than seven billion prize tickets,
which it says is enough tickets to fill approximately 65 forty-foot cargo
shipping containers ... Chuck E. Cheese wants them destroyed because the money
it would cost to destroy the tickets is far cheaper than the $9 million that it
would cost the pizza chain if the tickets ended up in the hands of the general
public and were redeemed for prizes. (I'm sure the Trump administration has a
ballot shredder that could beat that price.)
THE SKY IS FALLING – 213 class-action
lawsuits filed by students to receive free tuition or refunds. 204% increase in
number of coronavirus cases in a single week at the University of California at
Berkeley. 264 non-faculty furloughed at $2.3 billion endowment Pomona College.
It has been a rough summer in the college and university
business. The coronavirus pandemic has reduced budgets, leading to hiring freezes,
furloughs, layoffs, and uncertainty about the future of higher education in
America.
The result, a heightened distrust between administrators and
faculty and staff. Even in the best of times these relationships are strained. In
the view of some faculty, anti-intellectual administrative bean counters are using
the pandemic as an excuse to enact changes faculty and staff have long
resisted. Some administrators, on the other hand, feel that they are in survival
mode, scrambling to keep their institutions afloat. In their view, faculty are
clueless when it comes to the economic realities of managing an institution of
higher learning, while staff members hold no decision-making power, so who
cares about them. Meanwhile Boards of Trustees only care about two things: when
can we cash the ESPN checks or how many lawsuits do we have.
Change is coming at so my levels, for those to survive, a new way
of thinking and managing must be initiated. We shall see. Perhaps a place to
start; ban reply all emails. :)
COLLEGE CHRONICLES - The
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor has seen weeks of upheaval lately,
including a graduate-assistant strike — a rare move for the storied Graduate
Employees’ Organization — that has roiled the campus. Graduate assistants
stopped teaching and walked a socially distanced picket line to demand improved
coronavirus testing, better representation in pandemic-related decisions, and time-to-degree
extensions. A group of resident advisers joined them, and undergraduates who
had tested positive for Covid-19 took to social media to file bleak dispatches
from quarantine apartments provided by the university.
Tensions came to a head during a virtual meeting attended by
more than 2,000 faculty members at Michigan. Nine hundred and fifty-seven
faculty members voted no confidence in President Mark S. Schlissel for his
handling of the university’s reopening, narrowly edging out the 953 who voted
against the resolution; there were 184 abstentions. A no-confidence vote in the
university’s reopening plan, meanwhile, narrowly failed, 915 to 991, with 198
abstentions.
TIKTOC FOR SALE – President
Trump has blessed the sale of the Tick-Tock Restaurant (1973-2017). The iconic
restaurant in Canton, New York has been vacant for many years since its owner
Rick Cassara put up the property for sale. President Trump intervened when it
became apparent the Chinese government was involved as a potential buyer. Stay
tuned. BTW – number 25’s picture is still on the wall in the back room.
TV WATCH - The Emmy Awards went on as scheduled Sunday, with
Jimmy Kimmel noting at the outset that while an awards show might "seem
frivolous and unnecessary" in the middle of a pandemic, "Right now,
we need fun."
The winners, however, offered what came across as a
collective message -- preaching unity while urging viewers to vote in the upcoming
election, a point echoed by Regina King (a winner for "Watchmen"),
Mark Ruffalo ("I Know This Much is True") and others. The show also
repeatedly cited the need for togetherness and inclusion, showcasing the
industry's diversity as well as the breadth of offerings available, at a time
when TV has become a lifeline to viewers spending more time at home.
The awards themselves were a story of sweeps and
near-sweeps. HBO's "Succession" snagged four of the seven drama
prizes, "Watchmen" dominated the limited-series voting -- amassing 11
awards overall, including seven claimed during earlier ceremonies in technical
areas -- and the final season of "Schitt's Creek" swept the comedy
categories.
MARKET WEEK - Buzzy tech startup
Snowflake went public on the NYSE last week under the ticker SNOW. It’s
expected to pop like *NSYNC.
The backstory: The eight-year-old startup provides cloud-based
data management for businesses (stop snoring, it’s rude). Bloomberg describes
its product as “a vacuum sucking up data strewn across in different systems, so
that businesses can analyze it all together.” MA please take note.
Investors have that surprise snow day feeling: Warren
Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and Salesforce have each thrown $250 million in
the pot. And while Snowflake initially targeted a share price between $75 and
$85, it’s opening day IPO price was $235/share.
Worth $33.3 billion, it would be the most valuable software
startup ever to go public.
Why the hype? The enterprise cloud biz is torrential—lots of
businesses need lots of data stored and analyzed. Snowflake is competing with
mammoth incumbents Oracle and Amazon Web Services’s Redshift, but some analysts
say Snowflake’s product is stronger and more flexible than the legacy players'.
Snowflake hauled in a Minneapolis-in-December drift of revenue
in its most recent fiscal year, growing 174% annually to $265 million.
But the company, which embarked on a pricey expansion last
year following a CEO shakeup, is not profitable.
You know what they say about IPOs: When it snows, it blizzards
As of the end of last week, U.S.-listed companies had raised
over $78 billion in 2020...though many of them are doing it the new-fashioned
way: blank-check companies, also known as SPACs.
Looking ahead...with 12 entrants, this is the busiest week for
IPOs since Uber went public in May 2019. Videogame engine maker Unity joined
Snowflake on the NYSE last week, looking to raise up to $1.2 billion.
RETAIL HOLIDAY PREVIEW – Fall
begins tomorrow September 22, but temperatures dipped below 70 this weekend
back east so we’re already slipping peppermint creamer into our coffee. To kick
off this holiday preview, let's first check in with Captain Obvious. Captain?
Celebrations will look different:
Nearly three-quarters of adults expect smaller holiday
gatherings with friends and family because of Covid-19, according to a Morning
Consult survey. About half expect virtual celebrations.
First up, Halloween. If grocery aisles could talk, they’d say
1) Halloween is already in full swing, and 2) there’s still a contingent of you
who willingly buy Butterfingers.
With 10% of annual sales at risk, Hershey is working with
public health experts on a trick-or-treating website showing county-level
coronavirus risks. Lawmakers have asked the CDC to release Halloween guidance,
including alternatives like drive-through trick-or-treating. And LA County
advised residents to move costume parties to Zoom.
To play Devil’s advocate (ha), Halloween is literally built
around masks and individually packaged treats…
Next stop, Thanksgiving. Marching band parents exhaled a sigh
of relief after Macy’s announced a TV-only parade yesterday. It'll pre-record
segments with fewer participants and sub in specialty vehicles to lug the
balloons.
Retailers are adapting: Holiday spending accounts for ~20% of
U.S. retail sales and has increased every year since 2002...except 2008.
With the pandemic, 2020 spending could take a dip, especially
without additional stimulus checks or padded unemployment benefits. But, with
less travel and dining out, it could also go up.
Either way, retailers aren't waiting until Black Friday to
find out. On October 10, more than two dozen are reportedly participating in a
new holiday discount event mirroring Alibaba's Singles' Day in China. Home
Depot, Macy’s, Walmart, Target, and American Eagle are moving their holiday
seasons up. And Amazon Prime Day, typically held in the summer, is reportedly
rescheduled for Oct. 26.
Starting early helps spread out crowds and process orders
before holiday shipping surcharges take effect in November. But companies are
still bulking up for the busy season: UPS and FedEx are hiring a combined
170,000 seasonal workers; Amazon said yesterday its hiring 100,000 full and
part-time employees.
POTUS WEEK - MONDAY: The president will
travel to Ohio and give speeches in Dayton and Swanton. TUESDAY: Trump will
travel to Pittsburgh to give a speech. WEDNESDAY: Trump will deliver remarks in
honor of veterans who fought at the Bay of Pigs. Trump will participate in a
discussion with state attorneys general on “protecting consumers from social
media abuses. THURSDAY: Trump will travel to Jacksonville, Fla. and give a
speech.
ON THESE DATES – September
20, 1968, CBS premiered the pilot episode of the crime drama series Hawaii FiveO
starring Jack Lord as Detective Steve McGarrett. Tim O'Kelly played the role of
Danny Williams in the pilot - producers replaced him with James MacArthur in
the regular series episodes. “Book him Danno.”
September 19, 1970, fifty years ago, CBS premiered the Mary Tyler
Moore Show, a classic.
BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK – Birthday
wishes and thoughts this week to Brian Ferry (75), Cheryl Hines (55), Sophia
Loren (86), Bill Murray (70), Ava Suffredini …famous soccer playing niece, Cheryl
Walker ….famous multi-tasker, Matthew Witt ….famous Professor of public
administration.
PERRY MASON – One of my pandemic rituals
has been watching the Perry Mason CBS series of 1957 – 1966. 271 shows (one in
color), Perry won 268 cases and lost only three. My favorite season was season
two; September 20, 1958 – June 27, 1959, great fifties television. In season
two my three favorites are: “The Case of the Buried Clock”, “The Case of the
Jilted Jockey”, and “The case of the Dangerous Dowager”. You can view on Amazon
Video, Sundance and FETV networks.
CONGRATS – To RR reader Myra Garcia for her
new position as Vice President for Institutional Advancement for the San Diego
Symphony.
CONGRATS II – To Bill Fox ‘75, President
of The St. Lawrence University on his retirement announcement effective June
30, 2021 after twelve years as POSLU. One word: irreplaceable.
CONGRATS III - Congrats to Dodgers fans
on your team being the first to clinch a playoff spot in this bizarro MLB
season. With the Detroit Tigers out of it (what a shock) but the A’s and Padres
looking good, we here at California are hoping for an all-California World
Series. To bad the World Series will be played in Texas.
I WAS JUST KIDDING - “I want
you to use my words against me. If there’s a Republican president in 2016 and a
vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham
said let’s let the next president, whoever it might be, make that
nomination."
SIGN OF THE TIMES – Tony
Romo, CBS Football NFL lead analyst has an annual salary of $18 million. And this
writer should win the Pulitzer Prize for journalism. The world is out of its
mind!
DETROIT PROFESSIONAL SPORTS – It seems
that nothing is like it was. I cannot get a haircut. There is no going out for
dinner and eating inside. I am unable to visit our gym (it closed). Movie
theaters are closed. But in this crazy, topsy-turvy time we are living in, one
thing remains the same: Detroit professional sport teams still stink.
FINALE de la COUPE STANLEY - The NHL
returned to play on Aug. 1 with 24 teams. Seven weeks later, only two remain.
Three days after the Stars punched their ticket to the 2020
Stanley Cup Final, the Lightning did the same with a 2-1 (OT) win over the
Islanders.
Tampa Bay is seeking its first Stanley Cup since 2004, while
Dallas is seeking its first since 1999.
The favorite: The Lightning (-180) fell in the first round
last year after a record-tying 62-win season. They were one of the NHL's best
teams again this season, led by a high-powered offense and the world's best
goalie in Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The underdog: The Stars (+160) were far from a great team this
season, scoring fewer goals per game than all but five other teams. Bookmakers
didn't give Dallas much of a chance to win the Cup, yet here they are.
By the numbers: The Stars have conceded more goals than
they've scored this postseason, something no Stanley Cup winner has done since
the 2004-05 lockout. Meanwhile, the Lightning — who have led the NHL in goals
scored for three straight seasons — have continued racking up goals in the
playoffs.
Goals per game: Stars: 2.95 | Lightning: 3.17
Goals against: Stars: 3.05 | Lightning: 2.28
Schedule: The NHL staged both conference finals series in the
Edmonton bubble, and that will continue through the Stanley Cup Final.
Game 1: Sept. 19
Game 2: Sept. 21
Game 3: Sept. 23
Game 4: Sept. 25
Game 5: Sept. 26
Game 6: Sept. 28
Game 7: Sept. 30
For the record: The Swami predicted a Washington v. St.
Louis Final. Oops.
Second chance: Dallas in six.
STAT OF THE DAY - Did you
know this year’s Stanley Cup final is played in the Northern most NHL city
featuring the two Southern most cities ever to play in the final.
BIG TEN (14) SELL OUT - We are
witnessing an egregious preference for profit over public health and a
disregard for morality and common sense, not to mention the health of young
athletes.
The Pac-12 will fall into the trap, U.S.C., Oregon, Stanford,
Washington State, Colorado, Utah. … will also announce soon they will play.
The Big Ten reversed itself and decided to play college
football this season, joining the big colleges in the South and Southwest. That
just leaves the Pac-12, on the West Coast, holding out. The temptation to
return and cash in may be too great.
College players, many of them teenagers still learning how to
make smart decisions, don’t get paid for risking themselves or their loved
ones. They do not have health and safety protections afforded to professional
players through their labor unions.
“I want to recommend that the Pac-12 get going,” Pac-12
Commissioner Donald Trump said. “There is no reason they should not be
playing.”
SWAMI’S
WEEK TOP PICKS –
NFL Football Pick of the Week – Sunday
9/27, 4:05 PM (PT), Fox: Dallas Cowboys (1-1) at Seattle Seahawks (2-0). Dallas
is coming off a sloppy, lucky win over Atlanta, not in Seattle, Seahawks win 38
- 28. (Season to Date 2-0)
College Football Pick of the Week –
Saturday 9/26, 9:00 AM (PT), ESPNSEC: #27 Kentucky Wildcats (0-0) at #8 Auburn
Tigers (0-0). Opening weekend in the mask-less Jordan-Hare Stadium. Tigers win
big, 42 - 20. (Season to Date 1-1)
Stanley Cup Final – “You are never going to stop a
hockey player by hitting him over the head, you have got to take the body!” Howie
Meeker. Dallas Stars will take the
body over the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games.
MLB Pick of the Week – Saturday 9/26, 4:00 PM (PT) Fox: Chicago Cubs
(31-21) at Chicago White Sox (34-19), last weekend of the COVID-19 season. The
south side is better than the north side, Sox win 6 – 3. (Season to Date (2-1)
English Premier League Pick of the
Week – Saturday 9/26, 9:30 AM (PT) NBCSN; West Bromwich
(0-2) at Chelsea (1-0). Stamford Bridge will see the Blues dominate the Albion,
Chelsea wins 3 - 0. (Season to
Date 1-1)
2020
Season to Date (18 - 13)
DRIVING THE WEEK — Welcome to a week that will be dominated by a
SCOTUS fight that has further blown up an already crazy election season. The
death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg seized Washington over the
weekend and will dominate the political debate over the next six weeks until
Election Day and perhaps beyond into a lame duck session.
That means that while Congress will (probably) figure out a way to avoid a shutdown at the end of this month, the chances that there will be any extra bandwidth for a deal on a large stimulus package that pumps more cash to individuals and small businesses seem even smaller than they were. And they were pretty small.
And while the SCOTUS fight could potentially boost
President Donald Trump, the lack of any new economic support out of Congress is
likely to hurt him.
Congress is fully back this week and leaders in
both parties will try and put together a deal to to keep the government open
past Sept. 30. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated Sunday that she would not
try to use a potential shutdown as a way to try and block a Trump SCOTUS
nominee … Trump visits Ohio on Monday, Pittsburgh on Tuesday and Florida on
Friday …
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Fed Chair
Jerome Powell will talk about the Covid-19 response before House Financial
Services on Tuesday … Powell will appear before the House Select Subcommittee
on Covid-19 on Wednesday and both Mnuchin and Powell will appear before Senate
Banking on Thursday.
Next Blog: Jack Ass and
word of the month.
Until Thursday
October 1, 2020 Adios.
Claremont,
California
September
21, 2020
#XI-11-417
3,392 words, eight minute read
CARTOON OF THE WEEK – Campus
Times
RINK RATS POLL – Mail or
in-person vote this election?
___ Mail
___ In Person
___ I am not voting
QUOTE OF THE MONTH – "Forget it’s five o’clock
somewhere. It’s 2020 everywhere, drink when you want." – Danica
Patrick
Rink Rats is a blog
of weekly observations, predictions and commentary. We welcome your comments
and questions. Also participate in our monthly poll. Rink Rats is now viewed in
Europe, Canada, South America and the United States.
Posted at Rink Rats The Blog: First Published – May 3, 2010
Our Eleventh Year.
www.rhasserinkrats.blogspot.com
