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| illustration: Kiersten Essenpreis/WSJ |
More than 1 in 4 people over age 65 fall each year...Every year, falls among older Americans result in about 3.6 million emergency room visits and 1.2 million hospital stays, at a cost of roughly $80 billion. Nationwide, 41,000 senior citizens die from falls annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In recent years, prominent figures such as comedian Bob Saget, former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman and Ivana Trump died after a fall...My parents fortunately suffered only minor injuries from falls at home. Being unable to get up by themselves, even with the help of their spouse, eventually prompted their move to assisted living.
Nationally, the death rate from falls jumped 41% from 2012 to 2022, the latest period for which statistics are available. Among seniors, the contributing factors for falls are frustratingly complex. Reaction to prescription drugs, impaired vision and even such basic things as loneliness or ill-fitting shoes often add to the risk of falling.
“There has also been research on dual tasks, like doing more than one thing at a time,” [Arkansas prof. Jennifer] Vincenzo notes. “It’s hard for you to focus on movement if you’re focusing on doing another task, talking on the phone or texting, so that if you have impaired balance or walking problems, you’re not going to pay attention to that and potentially fall.”
The weekend before the opening of the Bay Area’s newest Costco [in Pleasanton] brought a now-familiar sight: crowds of people camping out to secure their place in line on opening day. A similar encampment had formed in advance of the opening of the Napa Costco in October — though that hadn’t fallen during an atmospheric river.I prefer scotch, but if someone offers me a sip of any of the aforementioned bourbons, I wouldn't turn it down.
These campers descend on new Costco stores largely in search of one item: booze, particularly rare bottles of bourbon.
The devoted drinkers have been eagerly speculating online about whether the Pleasanton Costco, which opens Wednesday at 7200 Johnson Drive, might carry bourbons that have been present at other Costco grand openings like Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, Russell’s Reserve 15 Year and, most coveted of all, Pappy Van Winkle, which notoriously goes for thousands of dollars a bottle from online resellers.
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| Our 15-lb. hen cost 99 cents/pound. |
The average price for a turkey this holiday season is projected to be down for a second year in a row, said the American Farm Bureau Federation in its annual report released this week. The lower cost for the headline attraction looks to cut costs for those hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year, but some favorite side dishes will remain stubbornly expensive for shoppers.Feeding ten people for $58.08 sounds incredibly cheap until one realizes that the Farm Bureau has assumed that most of the dishes have been made from scratch.
The Farm Bureau projects the average price for a Thanksgiving turkey to fall 6.1% to $25.67, or $1.68 a pound, this year...But cheaper meat is only part of the story, as the cost to make many family-favorite side dishes continues to rise. For example, fans of mashed potatoes may find the cost for that dish a little steeper. A smaller North American potato crop this year due to adverse weather issues and a change in consumer demand has the U.S. potato price up 7.6% year over year, said commodities research firm Expana in its own report issued this month, citing data from the USDA.
Prices for processed goods also are on the rise. The Farm Bureau said that it expects prices for a 14-ounce package of stuffing mix to increase by more than 8% from last year to $4.08. The price for a dozen dinner rolls also is expected to rise by more than 8% to $4.16.
Even worse for those with a sweet tooth, prices for some pies may be increasing, with Expana’s Thanksgiving Pecan Pie index up 8% from last year, due mostly to higher prices for pecans that are offsetting cheaper costs for sugar, vanilla and butter.
Overall, the Farm Bureau forecasts the cost of the average Thanksgiving meal for a group of 10 people at $58.08. That’s down 5% from the previous year, and down 9% from the record of $64.06 set in 2022, the highest since the Farm Bureau began its yearly assessment in 1986.
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| David Mamet: the America-in-decline narrative is akin to Israel's 40 years in the wilderness. (image from Medium) |
Yet half of America not only abides but fervently supports a codependent decline to poverty, crime and a nascent police state. Why? The leftist politicians and their media courtiers and designated beneficiaries profited from the perks of power. But why did the everyday American endorse them and their fear mongering? The actual threat wasn’t global warming, Islamophobia, the Supreme Court, the police, Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Mr. Trump. It was exclusion from the herd.While a reader may disagree with David Mamet's list of "lies and fantasies," there is no denying that Democratic voters were asked to accept abrupt reversals of positions this year--from President Biden's sudden cognitive decline to the newfound acceptability of fracking, law enforcement, and Christianity.
An existential secret is one whose revelation would destroy the group. If dad is a drug addict or a sex criminal, acknowledging it would shatter the family. The protection of the secret becomes the family’s unifying endeavor. If anyone says anything, it might reveal that everyone is in on the secret. The sick family devotes all necessary energies to collusion—to mutual and self-censorship.
During the past four years, American politics has been dominated by a coalition each of whose members, like codependent kin, has its own investment in group integrity and the power it derives therefrom. The superrich, academia, Islamists, Marxists and the media have colluded to suppress the true and impose the false.
We know that their perfidies, lawfare, slander, blacklisting and civil persecution were practiced on conservatives and Republicans, particularly on Mr. Trump. But the suppression was targeted primarily at their own voters.
To remain unthreatened by reason, the liberal populace had to be convinced to endorse various lies and fantasies: Black Lives Matter, Israel’s perfidy, unlimited abortion as a woman’s right, men’s right to compete in women’s sports, the abolition of the police, Mr. Trump’s demonic power and so on.
Why would rational people vote to destroy their borders, their cities, their jobs and their children? For the same reason the sick family must tolerate its dysfunction: The co-opted liberal electorate was terrified that any deviation would result in destruction of its protective unit. As it would.
Limited Liability Companies that are operated by harried small-business folk provide especially fertile ground for the scam artists.A plumber or painter can't be expected to know every form that needs to be filed by his LLC, consulting with his accountant and lawyer costs money, and they may well say that he needs to pay the fee anyway,
Certain business entities have reported receiving misleading solicitations like this sample (PDF) urging the business to submit an order form and processing fee to a third party to file a Statement of Information on their behalf with the California Secretary of State or suffer penalties, fines, suspension or seizure.The "501-LLC" I received demands a payment of $243 for filing the same information required by California Form LLC-12. The latter is a biennial Statement of Information for LLCs that takes less than five minutes to complete online. The fee is $20.
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| Empire of Lights (1954), (Christie's/WSJ) |
Magritte, who lived from 1898 to 1967, is known for his dreamlike takes on everyday objects, from smoking pipes to green apples to bowler hats. With this sale, he joins an elite club of fewer than 20 artists whose works have commanded nine-figure sums, including Pablo Picasso and Leonardo da Vinci. The sale, to a telephone bidder after a nearly 10-minute bidding war, also represents the first time this year that any artist has crossed the $100 million mark at auction.The Impressionists and Post-Impressionists have had and continue to have their day at art auctions. The nine-figure valuation of Empire of Lights shows that the surrealists are closing fast.
...“Empire of Lights” was one of 17 canvases that the Belgian painter created between 1949 and 1964 that offer variations of the same surreal scene: A suburban house sitting in seeming darkness and yet backed by a day-lit blue sky. Sometimes, the house has a red door; other times, green shutters. Often, Magritte surrounds his houses with towering trees or a stream of reflective water. In whatever form, the juxtaposition of night and day is widely considered his masterpiece—and his bestselling motif. Christie’s version on Tuesday stood out in part because it was the biggest example to ever come to market, at 4 feet tall. It was also the first to include watery reflections.
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| The Son of Man (Singulart) |
Paul McCartney owned one of Magritte’s works titled Le Jeu De Morre in which the painter has featured yet another apple. Inspired by this, McCartney named the Beatles’ record company ‘Apple Corps’. This further inspired Steve Jobs to name his company ‘Apple Computers’.
“All the guys wanted me to do it. I wasn’t even going to do it, but the boys reminded me. And it was fun,” Bosa told reporters, per the San Francisco Chronicle...Nick Bosa and the 49ers' celebrations have been tempered by injury and last-minute losses. Even making the playoffs will be an uphill battle for last year's Super Bowl runner up. If the team goes nowhere, the Trump dance and the MAGA-hat fine may be what the season is remembered for.
At UFC 309 on Saturday, with Trump in attendance, Jon Jones commemorated retaining his heavyweight title by busting out the dance before acknowledging Trump at ringside.
Afterward, Jones made his way over to the president-elect, with the pair shaking hands and Jones allowing Trump to hold his heavyweight title belt.
On Sunday, there were multiple renditions across the NFL of the ‘Trump dance,’ with Detroit Lions defensive end Za’Darius Smith, Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers and Tennessee Titans wide receiver Calvin Ridley all performing it.
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| (Illustration from them.us) |
The individual at the center of the battle teaches 4-year-olds in transitional kindergarten at Dilworth Elementary School and was placed on leave in August after parents complained that they were discussing content they did not believe was appropriate for young children. Supporters of the teacher, including many experts in early childhood development and instruction, said the criticism appears to be leveled against the teacher’s gender identity, not what they’re teaching.The reporter's bias is evident. She accuses the parents of transphobia ("against the teacher’s gender identity, not what they’re teaching") by using the "many experts...said" ploy. She also adopts trans pronoun language ("what they're teaching" not "what she's teaching").
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| Executive Shoeshine, Charlotte |
Hunched over, he toiled for what seemed an impossibly long stretch. The diligent and humble effort reminded me of something St. Thérèse of Lisieux said about the merits of redemptive suffering. “I prefer the monotony of obscure sacrifice to all ecstasies,” said the 19th-century Carmelite nun. “To pick up a pin for love can convert a soul.” From where I sat, that’s what the worker was doing: a small thing with great love.A typical transaction in a capitalist economy this wasn't. Not only did the vendor insist that the buyer pay only what the buyer thought "it was worth", but the shoeshine man told the customer to do so after he rendered the service, i.e., after he had lost all negotiating leverage. He had made himself vulnerable and had to trust the customer to do the right thing. The latter did, and for just a moment the curtains of the world parted, and we caught a glimpse of the divine.
There seemed no past or future, only a continuous present in which he was fully engaged. How often I selfishly worry about tomorrow or dwell on yesterday. Yet this man knew, as the proverb goes, how to be where your feet are.
His efforts breathed new life into my wingtips. Shoes that could have been mistaken for the worn-out kicks of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Mr. Bojangles suddenly looked good enough to pass military inspection.
When it was time to settle up, I asked what I owed for his services. “Whatever you think it was worth,” he said. Surprised, I asked the question again but got the same answer.
It had been years since I’d been to this shop, but I recalled its prices and figured they hadn’t changed much. Inspired by this man’s trust, I paid him a premium. Our circuitous path to price discovery got me thinking.
A cynic, Oscar Wilde said, is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. This most uncynical man demands no price for payment, only value for consideration. I think I understand why. Transactions in the material economy may be zero-sum—a dollar in his pocket was one out of mine—but ones in the spiritual economy never are. The abundant trust he placed in me didn’t diminish his stores of unperishable virtue.
How man sees himself and the world around him largely depends on which part, matter or spirit, he identifies as the seat of his authentic self. By transacting in values, the laborer chose the better part. As with shoes, I suddenly realized, so with people.
It’s fitting that a boot polisher would be the one great-souled enough to help me make this connection. He surely knows how life’s curb spares nobody, but that no matter how abraded our exterior, we’re never without intrinsic value. Once the imperfections are lovingly made right, interior magnificence is visible, and we are again glorious bodies.
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| Hat on sale from Etsy |
But lately I have come to realize that the chronically tardy are not late because they can’t keep time or because they don’t care that they have kept you waiting or because they never leave enough time to catch the train or find a parking spot. They are late because they practice something called “aspirational chronometry.”Mr. Queenan's tolerant attitude ends when the tardy person is or could be one's life partner:
The aspirationally timely are people who honestly think that time can miraculously expand to accommodate their needs, people who are always surprised to discover that the train has left, the cake has burned, the game is over, the blind date has up and left.
People who are always late are like people who are always befuddled that their diets never work or that their new clothes never fit. Just like people who buy a size 8 dress or size 34-36 trousers in the vain hope that they might eventually fit into them, the aspirationally chronometric honestly believe that by saying the words, “I’ll be there in five minutes,” they will actually be there in five minutes. Arriving 40 minutes late always comes as a shock.
I do not believe that the chronically tardy should be excoriated or ridiculed or cast out into the darkness. Just as some of us are insensitive and some of us are cheap and some of us are not so great around children and some of us tell inappropriate jokes in refined social settings, some people couldn’t arrive on time if their life depended on it.
There is nothing to be done about it; the behavior cannot be cured. Making people feel guilty about their maddening tardiness is only going to make things worse. The best course of action is to grin and bear it.
You only see your friends from time to time, but you see your partner every day—which means your significant other is going to keep you waiting every day.One should always practice charity and tolerance. But do not voluntarily enter a relationship where one must practice said charity and tolerance every day for the rest of one's life. That's being too aspirationally virtuous.
How to deal with this? At this point it might be, well, too late. But if you notice early in your relationship that your partner is always, always tardy, it’s likely best to pull the plug on the love affair and move to someone who is more chronometrically reliable.
Just as you would bring down the curtain on a relationship with someone who had a bad drug habit or who seemed way too fond of World War I-era ordnance, you should immediately walk away from a prospective partner as soon as you realize that they’re going to be a half-hour behind for everything for the next 65 years.
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| (WSJ photo) |
The bouncy walkways at SFO’s Terminal 3—three are inside the passenger connector to the building—have been around for at least 30 years—even airport officials aren’t exactly sure when they were put in. Unlike the ones more common with movable metal plates, these are made of a long, continuous piece of rubber, and sit on rubber wheels.Kids like to hop and skip on the "bouncy," and the padding is easier on aging hips, knees, and ankles. However, these modest benefits do not outweigh the economic costs.
The bouncy has been no fun for mechanics, though. At the three other terminals at SFO, which all feature more conventional walkways, [SFO spokesman Doug] Yakel said those belts are made with metal modules that can be swapped out if one breaks. But since the bouncy is made from one continuous section of rubber, he said a malfunction often means the entire belt has to be replaced.Of all the places and things that have bowed to the ravages of time the rubber-band walkways are far down the list, IMHO, of items that will be missed. For the vast majority of travelers who do not have mobility problems it's better that they walk and do not ride anyway.
“There’s only one outfit that makes these and there are very long lead times, and these are very expensive to procure,” he said. “It’s simply not a cost effective moving walkway anymore.”
