Kinkikali

Gift Card Check

Christmas came and so did the gift cards.  I am personally a favorite of gift cards.  They are handy, neat, and flexible.

But I wonder about them in the economic sense.  Each year they track sales.  Each year the same economists track holiday spending.  And after Christmas the same numbernuts talk about all those gift cards being spent.

Is there double counting being done?

I can see adding the sales of the cards at their point of sale to the total.  But why does it seem they count it again at “cash in” point?

I ask this as recent economic downturns are worsened by idiot economics where foggy manipulation rather clear explanation of economic realities.

Happy New Year

Greeting blog readers. Wishing you and your’s a Happy New Year.  Kinkikali came about this year. Again, thanks to Market Basket…Good Cheer for a new year.

Andrew/Drew/Andy

Winter Solstice

Not being a fan of cold and dark, icy roads and obscured views, I look forward to the winter solstice more than any other date.  From here, actually a few days away, comes longer and brighter days—albeit at a slow rate at first.

Come late January days feel better; by mid-February the countdown gets close.  St. Patrick’s Day marks spring beginning.

Otis

Otis Spunkmeyer–fundraising with a thrill for your taste buds.  Yes, the cookie master for the public education world. Where once there was just Girl Scouts and Their Cookies, there is now Otis Spunk.  Hillsborough must have had a fleet of 18 wheelers drop off the dough (oh to have seen that scene).

The cookies are pre-cut, just drop and heat. 40 minutes and a locked door (to keep the little grubby hands away until you’ve secured the finished product in a “secure location”) will make you a true Cookiemeister.

Ten Foreign Songs (from CDs)

One/The long and winding road is a good place to start. Yes, it is the Beatles and they had an orchestra full of hits. I dig their final cut “The long and winding road” the most. Prophetic and the best goodbye for the ear.

Bee Gees Greatest Hits/Nights on Broadway  Much maligned, but durable and universal in appeal (they do have fans). “Nights on Broadway” gets my vote for memorable and yet magical use of lyrics and music.

The Best of the Moody Blues/Nights in White Satin   Another pond hopping  example of greatness. “Nights in White Satin” can’t be beat. Unforgettable orchestration.

The Best of ABBA/Take A Chance on Me    More supergroup poop. “Dancing Queen” being the marquee song, but I find “Take a Chance on Me” to be  equally if not more  lively. For a vlock of non-native english speakers, they put out well.

The Very Best of Gilbert O’Sullivan/Get Down A minor player in the 1970’s music scene, Gilbert plays the “lone wolf” well.  His style sets a unique blend of rock and folk.  From this CD I dig “Get Down” a hard rock, anti-social song that borders on punk—perfect for  background music for a movie about The Troubles

Elton John Greatest Hits 1970-2002/Tiny Dancer  So much to choose from here–Levon, Yellow Brick, or Tiny Dancer.  I went for the “dancing in the sand”.  The audio-visuals ride through the mind for deep thought.

The Sound of Music/Maria    Another girl with issues.  English with a continental flair, this ensemble musical rap sheet rides the emotions like Tiny Dancer does.

Carmina Burana/O Fortuna  Given this orchestra debuted in the heart of the Third Reich, both time (1937) and place (Frankfurt), one wonders why such a piece of mideval revelry got the Fuhher’s ok.  The opening song says it all–Oh Fortune! Since childhood I have played this…as albumn, cassette, and now CD. Like some 14th century Woodstock, Carmina Burana lives on…happily.

Doctor Zhivago/Kontakion  Otherwise known as the Funeral Song, this Ukranian masterpiece is soul stirring to the utmost.  Zhivago brought so much “Russian’ culture to the American psyche; this despite being shot in Spain and Finland.

Lalaiki Pamir/Amina   There are some songs that hold their own, even if in a foreign tounge.  I can only guess at the meaning of the lyrics—there are limits to Googlanity.  But get into the beat.  “Amina” has an intro to raise the dead.  Buying the CD was by chance.  Back in the early 90’s my brother let me pick a CD to buy at Boston’s Tower records.  Strickly on sight, I went to Oleg Fesov route. Give it a fly.

Motivational Posters

Some may know what they are.  All readers soon will.  Motivational Posters (or mopos) were those cute, annoyingly cute, posters that had picture, title, and subscript. They might portray a mountain climber, with a title “Persistence” and subscript “Gets you to the top”.  The internet and the minds of many have made naking your own mopos easy thus the progression Motivational Posters–Demotivational Posters—Anything Goes Posters.

The above is a recent creation.

For your own giggles, you can word search “motivator” and create your own gratis–though with option to pay and print specialty items.

Good Luck and Have Fun

Andy/Drew

Merry Christmas

With the help of Market Basket, I wish all the readers a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays.  The blog is running straight and true sunce August 14th of this year 2009 AD.  Best Wishes and Good Cheer.

Andrew “Drew/Andy” Horton

Christmas at the Cloughs

Between the mid 1960s and the late 1980s, we Hortons used to travel to Hollis NH (from Nashua NH) for Christmas cheer. We did on New Year’s Eve and it was the last holiday party.   The drive took about 25 minutes and took place in daylight (usually 2 pm).  The snow was almost always there and the ride over hills and dales.  The Cloughs lived atop a hill with Nashua just barely visible,  There was a little time for ice skating on a pond or man made rink or even sledding on a nice wide and gradual hill.  One could stay outside if one wished as the lighting was good (and full moons helped too).  The Nashua view was chance to reflect on life and the year nearly spent.  Hollis being a gingerbread house town fit the Currier and Ives motif.  The Cloughs tree was still up and illuminating the cold darkness outside.  Icicles decorated the house, some being monsters in size.

Inside was food galores–dips, cakes, shrimp, booze and holiday nuts, brownies and Chex mix.  Music was either WCRB or Christmas music in the adult areas.  The basement was where the football game was watched and the kids set the music.  Dinner was never formal–just graze away.  But come 11pm we gathered together for the final gift exchange of the year.

The Cloughs was where we first played Castle Wolfenstein and had the steel ball on the movable parallel bars–trying to roll the ball back as far as possible.

Christmas would start the night before at the Schlotman’s on Swart Terrace.  then we would do our own on Christmas Day before visiting or be visited by the dear Johnson cousins (unless we were gone to Sun Valley or Disney World).  Christmas week would be spent skiing, sledding, and tearing through our gifts.

Pine Tree Cablevision and WMURTV

Oh how far we have fallen.

Pine Tree Cablevision has been serving the Rindge area (and nine other communities) for years. Yesterday they shutdown without warning. Bang. No more cable TV and high speed internet.  The story is the usual–overextended credit, in debt, and leaving customers in the lurch.  That is bad enough. But last night one of the MUR anchors added “Guess they’ll have to use rabbit ears to watch us.”.  Oh really, you say.  This is from the mouth of TELEVISION NEWScaster.  You see there have been some FORCIBILE CONVERSIONS  recently. That is Digital TV. No, rabbit ears will be useless.  And so will be all but the most extreme rooftop antenna array.  Who pays for that?   No Pine Tree Cablevision customers are doubly screwed.  Pinetree dropped the ball, but the rest of the media have succeeded in losing more and more viewers through short sighted tinkering with people’s lives by their Candyland commentary.

$53 Blood Test

Just had a blood sugar test recently. As one uninsured and unemployed I pay full freight.  The test reminded me of the ones millions do daily–a prick, some blood, a reading.  Costs may soon be the single greatest danger to the health of Americans.