Good Afternoon All!
My better half, Judy, continues to make progress from her recent hip replacement surgery. It was truly amazing how she completed her hip surgery and came home all in the same day! She is the best patient to have at home and Nurse Mark (me) is trying to keep up with her and keep her meds straight and see that she gets three square meals a day. Thank God for crock pots and pot roasts and friends who bring meals to us! She is making steady progress in recovery and, Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, she’ll be back on the hiking trails in 4-6 weeks. No joint pain anymore, but some achy muscle pain.
I was exploring some birthday sites on the internet this afternoon and came upon one that featured the birthday of artist Charles Dana Gibson, born on this day in 1867 in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Gibson was an illustrator and portrait painter, best known for his iconic Gibson Girl, who embodied the beauty and independence of American women during the early 1900s. The Gibson Girl was modeled after Charles’ wife, Irene Langhorne, whom he married in 1895, and other drawings were based on Irene’s sister, Nancy Astor, who was the first female member of Britain’s Parliament. Thanks to the popularity of his art, Gibson became quite wealthy. However as color magazine printing became more prominent, Gibson’s ink drawings lost demand. During the latter part of his life, he spent his time painting oil portraits at this island home off the coast of Maine. It has been said that the Gibson cocktail was named after him, because he frequently ordered gin martinis with a pickled onion garnish, replacing the traditional olive or lemon zest. Here’s to Charles Dana Gibson!
Speaking of birthdays, Happy Birthday to my friend and financial planner & writer extraordinaire, Loran Graham, who celebrates his birthday tomorrow, September 15th. Here’s to you Loran! And Happy Birthday to actor Sam Neill of “Jurassic Park” movie fame, who turns 72 today!
I was reading one of my favorite publications, Spokane’s Journal Of Business, just the other day and came upon an editorial entitled “Time to make national debt election-cycle priority issue” by the former president of the Washington Association of Business (AWB), Don Brunell. He always seems to write well researched, thoughtful editorials and this one was one of his best. I’ve always thought that balancing one’s checkbook and not spending more than you earn were admirable skills to strive toward, but these days politicians make it sound as though it’s totally O.K. to take out our credit cards and mortgage our future by spending more and more on things we want (or should I say, they want). I’m beginning to think that the economic principles I learned at home and in school are irrelevant to today’s situation. No matter which political party is in power these days, it seems as though our national debt and government budget deficits keep growing and growing. It’s just that it seems that one of the bedrocks of economics is that if spending exceeds income for an extended period of time, debt will ultimately become unmanageable and threaten the well-being of families (and, in the bigger picture, our nation). Borrowing money from others, whether it be a bank in our case or from foreign governments in the case of our country results in burdening one’s self with interest payments on the principle of the money you borrowed to sustain your spending habits….in some cases “champagne tastes on a beer budget”. Now, don’t get me wrong..borrowing money from time to time is a necessity when it comes to large purchase items…a home, a car, a college education. However, the economics classes I took suggest that borrowing too much money than your income level can manage is an approach that is ultimately unsustainable and lacks wise judgement. It certainly seems I’m out of touch with today’s approach to economics. I just hope I’m wrong and the ones that espouse (or should I say) practice deficit spending and running up high debts over a period of time are right. And if I’m wrong and “they” are right, we’ll never have to worry about the national debt or owing the banks, or in the case of our nation, being indebted to foreign governments like China!
Here are few excerpts from Don Brunell’s editorial…
“…We now owe over $22.5 trillion to lenders, of which nearly half is to offshore creditors, such as China, which holds $1.1 trillion in U.S. debt. At the rate at which we are selling treasury notes, the deficit will balloon to $24 trillion by 2020. That means when the presidential election rolls around next year, each taxpayer’s share of the debt will be $183,000 if nothing is done and if politicians keep their campaign promises.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised he would eliminate the nation’s debt in eight years. “Instead, his budgets add $9.1 trillion during that time,” veteran analyst Kimberly Amadeo reported in The Balance last month.
Meanwhile, many Democratic presidential hopefuls seem to be in a bidding war promising as much as $10 trillion in new federal spending just to get rid of fossil fuels.
The Peter Peterson Foundation which focused on putting our nation on a more sustainable footing during the 2016 presidential elections, says time is running out. The longer elected officials push it under the carpet, the larger the problem becomes. According to Peterson: “The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects the national debt could rise to as much as 175% of gross domestic product by 2040. That level of debt would far exceed the historical average of approximately 40% debt to GDP.”
Translated , that means a rapidly escalating portion of our tax dollars will go to interest payments unless the next president and Congress acts to bring borrowing and spending under control…”
—Don C. Brunell, “Time to make national debt election-cycle priority issue”, Journal Of Business, September 12, 2019.
I mentioned Pat Richter, one of my 1969 Topps Football Cards in a previous blog…well, come to find out, before he was named as the University of Wisconsin Athletic Director, he had a 17 year career as Vice President of Personnel at Oscar Mayer Foods. He was selected for the University of Wisconsin job by the then Chancellor of the University, Donna Shalala, who later became Secretary of Health & Human Services under President Bill Clinton…small world, isn’t it?
Speaking of Topps Football Cards, I have one on LeRoy Mitchell, born in 1944 and the pride of Wharton, Texas. He played college football for Texas Southern University and was an 11th round draft pick of the Boston Patriots of the American Football League (AFL). He played two seasons with them as a cornerback and was an AFL All-Star selection in 1968. He later played for the Houston Oilers and finished his career with the Denver Broncos in 1973. He had 19 career interceptions and 3 fumble recoveries. He intercepted a pass by Marlin Briscoe, the first black quarterback to play in professional football. One of his top achievements was to hold San Diego Charger great Lance Alworth to an all-time low vs. Boston. Here’s to LeRoy Mitchell!
Here are some facts for the day:
The Library of Congress has 600 miles of shelves.
The first food eaten in space by a U.S. astronaut was applesauce.
Here’s the trivia question for the day:
Q: What item did the first vending machine in the United States dispense?
A: In 1888, the Thomas Adams Gum Company introduced the very first vending machines to the United States. The vending machines were installed on the elevated subway platforms in New York City and sold Tutti-Frutti gum. The machine itself was very primitive compared to the vending machines of the 21st century. It included a coin slot, a shelf for the product to be distributed to the consumer, and two levers that when pushed down, activated the system inside. Soon, vending machines were available that offered almost everything, including cigarettes, hot meals, and stamps. (Do you remember the Adams’ “Black Jack” gum and their “Clove” gum? They’re still around, I think!…their “Clove” gum was advertised as a breath freshener and chewing gum, all in one!
Here is the thought for the day:
“In friendship…we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another…the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting—any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” can truly say to every group of Christian friends, “Ye have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.” The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others.”
—C.S. Lewis, “The Four Loves,” as quoted in “C.S. Lewis’ Little Book Of Wisdom” (2018).
Here’s to a great Saturday evening and lots of love always! (And GO CUBS!!!!)
Press on,
Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, etc.)