Plastic straws?

Used to be, straws were paper.  They worked.  They issued straws at the soda fountain with milkshakes, frappes, and root beer floats.  Special treats, not every day drinking.  And they issued straws at lunch in school to sip the milk out of those tiny little paper milk cartons, if you had paid in your milk money that week.   Each classroom had a big box of straws sitting on a shelf.  Don't remember exactly just when plastic replaced paper for straws, must have been sometime in the 1960's
   I don't remember drinking soda (tonic in New England) with straws.  You popped the top off the bottle (canned soda was much later) stuck the bottle in your mouth and drank.  You had to learn the trick of putting your upper lip half way down the mouth of the bottle to let the air in as the soda was sucked out.  Most kids mastered the art by the age of three.  My parents didn't approve of soda, they thought it was bad for kids teeth, so I didn't get to enjoy it all that often. 
   The TV newsies have been doing a lotta talking about plastic straws filling the Pacific ocean with floating plastic.  Despite all the talk, I have trouble believing that plastic straws are a serious issue or yet another environmental hazard.  I'm kinda hazarded out these days. 

Facebook stock tanks today

Has the last few months of bad news, leaks of personal data, censoring of conservative posters, Russian trolls, fake news, and 'bots posting trash, finally caught up with good old Facebook?  Or was it a downer report issued by Facebook itself predicting loss of  customers?  Could it be that Facebook has reached a limit to growth, like every one with Internet access is already on Facebook?
  Anyhow their stock took a header today.  Down 23% by some reckoning.

Seattle is paying $5.2 million a piece for trolley cars.

Damn.  That's a ridiculous amount of money for a trolley car.  You used to be able to buy a brand new diesel bus for $50K. You would think you could buy a trolley car for about that.   What's worse, they are saying that these ultra pricey new trolleys won't fit into the car barns, or even on the tracks.

NPR played the Cohen tape over the air this morning

I could not understand most of what was said on the tape.  Nor could I recognize Trump's fairly distinctive voice.  I'm not saying it is fake news, yet,  but I have my doubts based on what I heard on my FM radio this morning. 

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cute but dumb

She IS cute.  Too bad she isn't blonde.  If she were, we could call her a dumb blonde.  Which has more bite to it than dumb brunette.
  She was saying that the reason Trump has brought unemployment down so far is that people are holding down two jobs, to make ends meet.   This does not compute.  If we have people filling two jobs, we will have fewer people employed than if we just allowed people to fill one job at a time.  Even a economics and international relations major ought to be able to figure that one out.
   Stay tuned, Alexandria ought to come up with some more amusing whoppers before election season is over.

Bears over the years

We have bears up here in the North Country.  Here are a few bears photographed from my deck.  I am OK with bears, I keep my distance, the bears keep their distance, and we are all very happy.  And I never put  trash out on the deck.  And I don't feed bears.  Next town over, they had some hippy dippies living right down town and feeding bears from their garden apartment building.  That town had to pass a town ordinance against feeding bears in town.  My town has smarter residents, even the Massachusetts retirees know enough not to feed bears in town, or anywhere else for that matter.  Bears are cool to have around.  But you gotta remember that they are very strong, very fast, and always hungry, and totally wild.  If they think you threaten them, or their cubs, they can become VERY nasty.  And being wild animals, they are impulsive, and easily scared.  You don't want to mess with a scared bear. 

Middle Kingdom in the Middle East

Nice color picture in The Economist showing President Xi and an aide, reviewing  a Saudi honor guard with MBS.  MBS is wearing white flowing Laurence-of-Arabia style robes and sandals.  Xi is wearing a standard western style dark business suit and a poker face, his aide is wearing a western style Chinese Army green Class A uniform. The Saudi honor guard are all wearing thick black full beards over jazzy western style military uniforms.  Since the Chinese don't grow beards, much, I had to wonder what Xi was thinking about looking at all those thick black beards on the Saudi troops.