Capital One Conference Call: Downturn "extended and long"
Submitted by
CalculatedRisk on Thu, 10/16/2008 - 3:26pm (79 comments)
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Kaupthing
You make my phone ring
You lost everything
Groovy
Kaupthing
Kaupthing, I think you're insolvent
But I wanna know for sure
Come on, check those spreads
You're insolvent
Kaupthing
You make my phone ring
You lost everything
Groovy
Kaupthing
Kaupthing, I think you defaulted
But I wanna know for sure
So blow up, synthetic CDO
You defaulted
I think extended and long is redundant. perhaps they meant extended and deep.
Best to all. (CR in Utah)
damn nemo strikes again
I like how their ticker is "cough".
We'll see if people actually receive fewer pre-approved credit card offers.
They are living in a world of fantasy. The most likely result of a reduction in LOCs combined with higher unemployment + increase in cost of services + negative savings is going to be a revolution of some sort.
first
Derivatives Information.
http://www.bis.org/publ/qtrpdf/r_qa0809.pdf#page=108
tell it to the Google-ites.
up near 390 after reporting.
I think wall streeters and financial types are either going to be-
a. killed
b. imprisoned
3. maimed
4. marginalized
The worst thing these morons could do is to lower LOCs.
They are setting themselves up for executions, especially that J6P is somewhat aware that all banks are bankrupt and open on taxpayer money.
kept open on taxpayer money.. sorry
Did anyone ask how the new bankruptcy laws affect their current models/observations?
I think that these financial types are so fixated on profits that they cannot perceive the extent of the resentment building against them. They do not seem to be able the true nature of the problem they are up against.
"wall streeters and financial types are either going to be-"
They're getting a new dress code: field-dressed.
It will be interesting -- as I sit here typing at my year-old Mac (no upgrade for who know how long), wearing my first ever pair of Old Navy jeans ($15 vs my usual $150 Luckys) and drinking Maxwell house coffee! Let's hear it for the the inferior goods.
I cut my credit card expenses 50% last month. But as we all know, employment will be key. I saw this coming, I am not unprepared, but if we miss 2-5 paychecks, ouch! Whole new ballgame.
I think the geniuses had not factored a GD2+ extensive delinquencies and social unrest in their models. I guess they will find that out the hard way..
Did anyone ask how the new bankruptcy laws affect their current models/observations?
What ever happened to "short and shallow"?
Local builder went BK today; according to local fishwrap he has 60 homes in various stages of construction. This builder's market is overloaded with inventory; it is mindboggling that they had that many homes under construction. I guess builders just build...until they can't when the banks take away the funding. Builder was whining about banks cutting him off; I'm glad the local banks had the nerve to pull the plug.
I prefer using incinerators.
They're getting a new dress code: field-dressed.
peAkcredit | 10.16.08 - 6:55 pm | #
EU and US to meet re: new Breton Woods ?
The missing continent is the elephant in the room.
Wonder what is afoot.
An anecdote from today, I quote
The hub was just telling me about a "where's my bailout?" colleague who's going for broke...though he can afford to, he's decided to stop paying his mortgage and is paying the minimums on his credit cards until he can max the last one out.
He figures the bank doesn't want his house, so he's got a good year of free rent there and he's got plenty of cash on hand and every material thing he'd want for the next several years. He also buys disability insurance in case things would ever go south with his job, the "stress of unemployment and impending bankruptcy" would get him a guaranteed income from that as well.
The guy, a well-respected professional, has now decided to game the system and has spent a considerable amount of time planning it step by step. We can't decide if he's brilliant or insane.
Oh.. now that phrase is going to describe the graves of these financial types.
What ever happened to "short and shallow"?
Jack Staub | 10.16.08 - 6:58 pm | #
We'll see if people actually receive fewer pre-approved credit card offers.
Oh, thank you, Comrade LeftEm. A tiny silver lining...
satan, were you not arguing for the US leading the world with economic growth in the next 5 years? or is this a new re-invented satan that is posting
I think EU is still living in the 1960s. The real question is not whether EU wants a new BW, but what Asia wants.
Purple writes:
EU and US to meet re: new Breton Woods ?
EvilHenryPaulson,
At the moment that is our best hope.
However to do that the US must
4.Keep people employed through any means!! They have to keep the inevitable deflation within manageable levels.
Of all the nations today, the US is in the best position to get this done.
I think the US could get many asian countries to agree on debt reduction in exchange for keeping the consumer economy rolling along- at least until asian countries get on the consumer bandwagon to the same extent as the US. The other option is GD2.
Europe may a tougher nut for both ideological and political reasons, but they can be made to play along.
satan,
I don't disagree that debt reduction is the key solution. It's just something that I don't expect will be done in the end.
Nice to see we can agree on something
They are being far too optimistic in their assumptions.
7% unemployment? We'll get there by January.
25% peak to trough housing price declines? Try 30-35% minimum
They're even admitting they are seeing major problems in their 2005-2007 originated auto loans.
Their loan loss reserves are nowhere near sufficient to weather the storm.
This company is in serious trouble.
Disclosure: Massively short COF.
Joe the Plumber models effective economic action:
Don't pay taxes.
Don't get license to practice trade.
Don't create viable business plan ---just think about "owning a business".
Complain about a tax structure that you do not grasp.
Talk to aspiring Presidential candidate and see if he can tap dance.
Deregulation offers Main Street "plumbers" easy route to success.
I really don't understand how gold can fall forty dollars an ounce at the same time as equities jump by 800 Dow points, on a day when economic news is awful. And oil fell, too.
Hedge funds are supposedly liquidating to meet margin calls. Okay, that explains the gold and oil moves. So why equities up so much? Especially since Asia fell 9% this morning and Europe 5%.
Seems like prima facie evidence that the PPT is no fiction.
"He also buys disability insurance in case things would ever go south with his job, the "stress of unemployment and impending bankruptcy" would get him a guaranteed income from that as well."
Most disability policies limit "mental impairment" to 2 and 1/2 years and then you're cut off and sent to apply for SSi. Disability claims are now being investigated much more thoroughly, as fraud is rampant and being approved is now much tougher.
What you receive on SSi is a pittance as well, might cover grocery money, maybe utilities.
They are going to have to prepare their shareholders sometime..
@ unirealist: when you don't understand something, it is best to attribute it to higher power.
So why equities up so much?
Hank and Ben's excellent 2 trillion dollar adventure has to land somewhere.
And the bastards don't so much as thank me.
OT,I spoke to a friend this morning who was seriously pissed off that the three dealers he called would not sell him physical gold for the "Real" price being reported on TV..."Tom,I'm willing to pay the real price,but".I talked to him for 15 minutes and still am not sure he understands that the "real" price of gold is discovered when you hand over a stack of $ and get something heavy and shiny in your hot little hands.He is a successful and very hardworking man with a college degree...
"We can't decide if he's brilliant or insane."
Wrong choices, try: "Sociopath" or "fantastic douchbag".
Stories like this (and my co-worker who will end up living at least a year rent free in his place) make me want to go volunteer down at the bank, helping to speed the processing of foreclosures. Efficient price discovery is good and all that, but it's far more important to me that these antisocial actions have as little net benefit as possible.
It does not matter what they say, the stock market has hit a short term bottom. All of this has been discounted. We have hit the bottom today and last friday.
Good news should start coming soon to support mark up phase, and suck in average joe.
Details below
MarketWarnings: DOW SP500 Bottom October 2008 (October 16, 2008)
MarketWarnings: DOW, SP500, October 2008 Bottom (Buying for retirement, and long term holding)
Nemo - major win on Kaupthing.
I once heard a band do wild thing with a downside:
Wild Thing!
You make my dick sting
You make everything oooozy
Wild Thing
etc
I am still a serious economist.
But I can have fun.
CC
Hey Anonymous,
I see you dropping your stupid predictions all over the internet. Give it a rest, shill.
Did he really say that loans made on the back side of the credit cycle tend to be crappy? Big freakin' duh.
@ Callous - I don't know if I agree. The guy's actions could also be seen as civil disobedience. Consider: we have a monetary system that is unsustainable and leads to situations like this where we bail out the rich to protect main street. If the people wanted revolution and/or change, defaulting on their debts would be an effective way to get it started without shedding blood.
What's in your wallet? ... oh, nothing ...
I got a Capital One credit card last year. Six figure income, 800+ credit score. They gave me a whole $2k credit limit and refuse to up it. Concurrently, student daughter gets a Capital One card. Essentially zero income, no credit record. They gave her a $2.5k limit. I'm convinced their policy is to extend credit to weaker borrowers and then gouge them in fees. I hope that business model comes back to haunt them.
What ever happened to Josephine the plumber?
What time frame is a bottom or a top ? Did anyone call the top ? Personility I said the day Blackrock when public that was the short term top (8 years ). The CNBC cheerleaders acted like they lost there virginity on that day . What does Blackrock do ? Make Debt ? To buy Debt ? Without fraud how is that idea worth the billions it IPO for? Personality I think there alot more pain coming for the markets .Plus housing is in a free fall , then Helo , Credit Card , Cars Loans , arm loan defaults , 4 inning maybe
Capital One...those assholes gave my son like five different cards and charged him $600 a month in fees when he was 18 and stupid. I will be happy when bankruptcy is on the other shoe.
I guess Capital One is easing up on the predation - I only get one wildly generous card from a company that doesn't know me from adam every two weeks...
Was running at one a week.
CC
"We have tightened underwriting standards across the boar."
EvilHenryPaulson ,
The option is financial armageddon, as Asia and the EU will learn soon.
EvilHenryPaulson writes:
satan,
I don't disagree that debt reduction is the key solution. It's just something that I don't expect will be done in the end.
My 20 year old daughter, who works for $6.50 in a coffee shop also just got a Cap One CC offer-- which I threw away. Heck yeah they deliberately target the weaker borrowers...
unirealist-- I sortakinda thought maybe the regulars here were just pullin' legs about this PPT thingie, but they're not-- Use CR's search box & enter PPT to search the CR site-it links to a CR post containing all sorts of fascinating links about the PPT. There really is a PPT-- created by Reagan's executive order after the market crashed in '87, & from the links I recall reading about it, it's a pretty interesting & mysterious entity. (& likely to have been pretty darn busy lately!)
If that search entertains you-- try googling something called "Project Turquoise"-- another entity I find sorta mysterious that's out of London-- a startup trading platform owned by 5 0r 6 of the biggie bank giants-- GS, Jp Morgan,etc. It was supposed to open Oct, 2008, to compete with the London stock exchange, but some of its original partners have now gone toes up. (It may have been entirely legit for all I know, but I got certain X-files vibes from reading about it, particularly in light of the world's current financial situation.)
CapitolOne is symbolic of the cr*p that out-of-control "free market" economics invents when all regulation is off. They used every predatory trick in the book to hook and bleed a friend of mine (on disability) for years.
He just got another "pre-approved" offer from them in the mail -- and he's been dead for two years. They're as bad to struggling people on the bottom as a legal crack dealers would be.
"as a" --> "as"
"We have tightened underwriting standards across the boar."
The one with lipstick?
am sorry about your pal, DC, & if everyplace didn't have vid cameras I'd suggest you activate that card & max it out. Buy clothes for poor kids, or heating oil for old ladies. Street justice.
I can't believe I just wrote that. I realize nobody is reading this thread anymore, which is just as well, because I'm gonna go off on a rant here. I REALLY cannot believe that me, little ole law abiding, never even had a speeding ticket, geranium- growing, Monarch butterfly-raising ME-- your typical 10 pounds overweight do-gooder middle-aged housewife, is now at the point where I am advising total strangers over the internet to intentionally commit fraud, in "honor" of a deceased friend. Because as somebody else said upthread, I have discovered within myself a burning, passionate, undreamed of hatred for the swine who got us here.
An Irish relative once showed me a copy of the infamous "Curse of Cromwell"-- it was about 17 pages long, & a litany of ugliness & curses & dire imprecations that I can't even describe-- akin to the lamentations in Job, ' & may your children's children leprous skin fall in sheets from their starving bodies as they cannibalize each other in the street'-thunderingly biblical truly horrible stuff like that, & that's precisely how I feel right now about the players in this financial mess, from my government to Wall St. I just viscerally hate them. All of them. And I'm shocked at myself.
Ya know why?-- (& this may take a while & a coupla posts, so am gonna get some wine-- please excuse...).
back-- I've just realized that I must, absolutely must stop watching C-span-- or else I'm either gonna have a heart attack, or wind up in jail.
Because I am fucking furious.
2 separate but connected things happened to me today that are a microcosm of this whole financial clusterfuck. I've been following all this financial stuff on the news & sometimes C-span for many weeks now. Well today, C-span had on a series of Congressional hearings, both house & senate, on various aspects of the "crisis". I saw panels of eminent economists, former US Comptrollers, ex-SEC chairs-- the big honchos panels & the "grassroots little guys put-a-face to it" panels. All describing in specific detail exactly how collosally fucked up the whole mortgage & swaps/derivatives "system" was/is-- & giving examples of its aftermath.
I saw some pokey little city treasurer, from Cuyahoga Ciounty, Ohio, explain how since 1998, his county had been targeted & trashed by a handful of predatory lenders--mainly Aegis, owned by now-defunct AmericaQuest. He had so many foreclosures by 2000, this rotund little city official guy went to his Fed reserve, for help to stop this. They gave him a meet,then blew him off. By 2001, he had 15,000 foreclosures just in his one county-- so he took his fraud complaints to the US attorneys & local FBI, etc-- they all blew him off. This guy's story was just incredible-- one little small-town George-Bailey type guy who realized something was going terribly, horribly wrong in his town. He was met with "What problem?-- no problems here!" blow-offs every step of the way.
Until now-- when the whole thing has imploded.
I understand exactly how that guy felt.
becauuuse....
OMG, I think I would rather read Jas than Beelzebub.
I think they meant extended multiplied by long means forever.
One more anti-corporate tirade out of Dylan Rattigan and either GE will cut off his stock options or he'll wake up dead one morning, strangled by some vintage 1929 ticker tape......Uncle Hank loves us all!
...somehow watching that plump little bespectacled Ohio muni official describe how he ran around for years squeaking "Something is not right!" just like the nun in the Madeline stories brought back to me how wierd it's been these past 5 years trying to explain/warn otherwise seemingly intelligent people-- friends & relatives, that they were living in an opium-house bubble. By 2006, in my Norfolk neighborhood, home prices had doubled and better since 2003. All neighborhood cookouts, gatherings, & even casual meetings between dog-walking neighbors was dominated by house prices. "We just got re-appraised for 450K!-- and we bought 3 years ago for 200!"
Happy little groups at parties would twitter on about how much their house was now "worth", followed by the almost-obligatory "& it's damn lucky I bought here 2 years ago, cuz I sure couldn't even afford to buy my own house now!!-- hahaha... -- Often, these were just basically decent folks celebrating unexpected "good fortune", but sometimes they were those 'orrible nouveau-house-riche/i> snobs. So I'd pipe up & say, "hmmm.. so are you going to sell it now & move?-- cuz if it doubles again in another 2 years, just where do you suppose your replacement buyer, with double your income, is going to magically come from? Why would you think swarms of incoming millionaires are suddenly going to show up like locusts in pokey ole Norfolk VA in 2-3 years when you're ready to transfer, all able to buy what you clearly presume will be your then-$800K home?"
and that of course was the end of my party invites--- (have often wondered what economists like CR & others have endured when they first ventured to point out this was utterly unsustainable-- & can't imagine how bittersweet it must be to be proven right in the end, but at such a cost to the country.) I'm glad they all tried, & hope they keep trying to "fix" it now.
Ok-- am high & sleepy & ranted out but damn I forgot the 2nd thing, & then am done.
after watching the parade of people on C-span all day telling me how unbelievably incompetent/corrupt/greedy/stupid etc.etc. so many actors in this have all been, & all the whys & wherefore details of how this fiasco happened, I got up in a cold fury & went and checked my e-mails for diversion. And there, in the e-mailed updates of new local foreclosures sent to me by another desparate realty company, what did I see but my house.
Well, not really my house, because I didn't buy it. It was an average little small 1940's Cape Cod-- nothing fancy-- one of Norfolk's thousands of utilitarian homes built in the 40's for the war workers. A friend of my daughter's lived there-- her Navy parents had bought it in '02 for 89K. I really liked it, & had made a mental note to myself to investigate buying it when their tour was up. Well, by '05, I'd learned enough to take myself out of the local bubble, & forgotten all about it. But from the city records, apparently they'd sold it in August '06 for $197,500. Now, Oct. '08, it's in foreclosure, listed for $198K. I called my realtor-- the inside's been totally trashed-- all the wiring just ripped out of the walls.
Those folks were pissed.
Me too.
Had it appreciated at normal rates, that house shouldawoulda coulda been my house. It'd have been easily affordable to us, we'd have taken good care of it, & I'd even mentally planned just where I'd plant the rosebushes. Now it's one more of Norfolk's current 12 months of inventory. And I wouldn't buy it now anyway, because I know of 2 other foreclosures within blocks of that house. And know there's plenty more to come.
So, bye little house, & good luck to you. Bye C-span-- & all the sad stories that you'll undoubtedly be filled with in very "official hearings" over the next months/years.
I really don't want to know anymore of the whys & wherefores about all this than I already know. As little as I do know, it is enough.
am thankful nobody ever reads thread-ends here at this time of the morning, & feel somewhat better having written all this out---& respect CR's blog too much to ever go off on any more "the personal is politial" type rants here again. So am going to finish my last glass of wine, but before I go to sleep, am gonna dig out & listen to that old Springsteen song-- "My Home Town".
That's exactly how I feel tonight.
Zuzu's -- that was a well-written anecdote
Gavshire Hathaway at 7:31 pm --
To me this is a real canary in the coal mine. Capital One is one of the premier analytics driven companies out there and if they are publicly saying, " we are managing the company to - an underlying assumption [the downturn] is going to be extended and long."
Then this is as about a serious a confirmation as one can expect to find of severe problems going forward.
Mermaid swishes her tail to you...
Zuzu's petals...sweet dreams...!
I am getting more credit card offers than ever. I keep telling them, I am not going to borrow unless I get paid to do it.
Zuzu's... you rock. That was unbelievably cathartic for me just to read that rant.
Every day I sit and listen to fricking NPR apologize for every complicit criminal "believer in the system" and AAAARG!!! must stop listening to the media!!!
Satan, you really need to study up on the Great Depression. It's the mad keynesian ideas you're talking about that made the GD lasts so long. And we are repeating the mistakes.
Zuzu, we need more.
None of you posters have the wisdom of Mr. Buffett. So. Be. It.
Buffett acknowledged the economic news was bad, with the financial world in a mess, unemployment rising and business activity faltering.
"What is likely, however, is that the market will move higher, perhaps substantially so, well before either sentiment or the economy turns up," he said. "So if you wait for the robins, spring will be over."
CR, you've been doing a fabulous job of posting over the past few weeks and must be exhausted... A few marvelous typos are creeping in to the posts. I love this one: "We have tightened underwriting standards across the boar." Mortgage Pig's best buddy, Credit Boar, is outraged by Capital One's treatment.
las and zuzu....brilliant
"We have tightened underwriting standards across the boar."
This little piggy bet the market...
This little piggy got none.
Wow.
To anon, mermaid, Bellinghamster, Comrade Peronista and fraulein Piggy--thank you so much for your kindness, and rant-tolerance. (I dreaded even re-visiting here,to see what in hell the inner me had "wined" on about last night, & am truly touched by your comments-- yesterday was an overall really crappy day-- I'd also had to sign another lease with my landlord, which infuriated me to have to do again, but c'est la vie.)
Thank you. I appreciate it.
am aware I really don't belong on this blog-- am not an economist, or trader, or financially savvy like most here. I found my way to CR many months ago, in trying to get answers to one simple, basic question that has alternately dogged, perplexed and infuriated me for 4 years now: "How in hell can it possibly be that 2 mature people with stable median-ish income, some savings, & stellar credit, are not able to buy an affordable small house in flipping Norfolk bloody Virgina??"
& nothing fancy-- just a roof over our heads-- I don't care about granite countertops, etc-- all I wanted was a little house in a decent neighborhood where I could plant roses and have a gdam butterfly garden.
technically, it's true we could've bought at any time-- we had great FICO's & everybody was panting to loan us laughable amounts of money on absurd loans. (sometimes I do wonder if part of my anger stems from "bitter renter" syndrome-- am I just "jealous" of people who said "tahellwithit, we'll just glom us onto one of these shady deals & if it works out fine, if not que sera, sera." But we just could not bring ourselves to buy something we knew in our bones would not be worth half what we paid for it, whenever the mania finally ended. and again if we had bought, we also had an expensive family illness that maybe would've tipped us over the edge, & then now it might be me furiously ripping the wiring out of my foreclosed little house.
Just happened to see the The Grapes of Wrath recently--that beginning scene where the matriarch, Ma Joad, sadly packs her pitiful little pile of family mementos in a small wooden box, with one long last look around her kitchen before they all get in the truck & leave their home for god knows where. (hopefully, am more ma-Joad-ish type rather than angry destructive wire-puller-outer type, but who knows?)
Anyway,while on "great movies" roll, for a long time now have felt just like Richard Dreyfus in "Close Encounters", doing that OC mashed potato thing at the kitchen table much to his family's horror-- so have been wandering round the internet,"drawn" to seek out an answer to my simple question above, & so eventually happened upon CR.
Also (as I suspect many others here have done!)have bored all friends & family silly "explaining" the arcana of things I only dimly understand myself like collateralized debt obligations and bloody black swans & that Shroedinger's(?) cat whatsit,etc- & have wound up becoming one of the "drink & surf" people on the net because we no longer wish to inflict our obsessions on our nearest & dearest. (that & the fact that my nearest/dearest(s) just say "will you not please just shut the hell UP about all this depressing stuff & watch the goddamn Simpsons???" I love them all, but as somebody else here said, my "peeps" are all "math's hard, let's go shopping" types."
So thank you again all, for your kindness-- am gonna take a break now for a bit, turn off the news & MSM, & go rake some October leaves.
have a good one, everybody--
And to CR himself & Tanta also-- thank you both so much for the all the hard work and thought and effort you have put into this blog. You guys must give great parties, you both have the gift of attracting such a motley crew. God love you & yours, & good wishes to you both.
am stepping away from the screen-- now.
zuzu's petals, these might be words cast into the ether of a dead thread, but anyhow, thanks for making it real.
You'll be glad to know, I'll donate some stuff for some poor kids or old ladies, and dedicate it to your compassion; but I'll not take tainted cash from CapitolOne -- I think you'd agree, upon some calmer thought -- first rule is to cauterize the wound to avoid spreading the infection.
I am from Detroit, a city with much in common with Cuyahoga, as corporate and government (helped with inept political!) policies spiraled them into ruin... and those who tried to help were pushed aside, or ruined in turn. But we cannot let our hate (so luxurious!) turn us -- and so I turn even those letters from CrapitolOne into reminders of their foolishness, and of the end-game they'll soon face, and that they waste time and money reminding me of person who (if he were here) would laugh at their stupid, and doomed, efforts; and how much we are needed to rebuild a new, and better, world. (And not on credit!)
DC-- ".. but I'll not take tainted cash from Capital One--"
You are right, and I thank you for your wisdom.
After writing all that the other night, I was thinking about my Dad. Before he retired to Florida in the 1970's he'd checked his credit, a big to-do back then, & was really upset when it said that years before, he'd not paid a small newspaper bill. My old man had never paid a bill late in his life, & he was mortified that somewhere in the world it was written down that he was the sort of person who'd stiff a paperboy for $4.00.
He probably spent $100 in long distance & stamps to get it fixed. We of course, knowing "everything", teased him unmercifully about this. He was scandalized at us: "Right's right and wrong's wrong, & the day you people ever forget that, is a day I don't want to see---".
So I hear you DC, & I know what you mean, and I appreciate you taking the time to make sure I heard it again. Internet ranting is indeed a feel-better luxury, & I was not raised by that stubborn old Polack from Chicago to give it all up that easy.
Righteous anger has its place,but thoughtful action wins the day.
Thank you, DC-- You "better-angel" rock!!
Without your righteous anger, we will never connect, through time, the power of that "stubborn old Polack from Chicago" with the future that those who follow will inhabit... so please keep it up! These people we are so angry with took advantage of the very honesty of some people, in part; and in reaction, are building a future with less honesty in it. I do not want to live in that world, so we must push back. But my hope, and belief, is that in the end, the stubborn Polack blood (and German/Irish blood, in my case), will find a way to be the seed corn for a better world.
Hope? No -- it's stronger than that -- I'm sure of it!
My best regards, DCR
Oh DCR, you just started my day with a smile, & again I thank you--(& isn't it funny-- even in the giant internet soup the Irish always spot each other-- my Mom's people were from County Mayo, tho she was born & bred in Liverpool, where she met my Dad & became a GI warbride. My Dad's folks were Polish immigrants who worked in the Chicago steel mills. Every year that I get older, I realize how much I've inherited of their temperaments-- hot-tempered Irish & mule-ish Polack.
(& while am throwing around non-PC stereotypes, from the things you've written above, you strike me as philosophical, thorough, and industriously purposeful--- we can run but we just can't hide, huh?
I don't want to live in the world you spoke of either, and will be gotohell to just shut up about it. So, the thought has occurred that having read so many knowledgeable, intelligent, wise & often witty posts on this blog--- am gonna stay the hell off it for a while, & channel some of its content into multiple letters to multiple editors, & my C-critters, because my folks & all the mean nuns at Catholic school God rest 'em did teach me how to raise holy hell with a pen.
Thank you for your encouragement in that, & in honor of your h3++eritage, & the efforts you continue to make--- all together now:
when we are marching, thru the mud & cold,
and when the pack seems too heavy to hold,
my love for you re-news my might,
am warm again, the pack is light---
for you, Lili Marlene--
for yooouuu Lili Marlene....
damn-- they sure could write 'em back then, couldn't they? My Mom told me when they were all hiding under the stairs during the blitz they'd do singsongs, & they'd always sing Lili Marlene. I said "but didn't y'all think it a bit odd to be singing German songs while the bombs were dropping over your heads?"-- & she said "oh don't be so bloody daft,you--it's a wonderful song---"
and so it is... & on that note, will say goodbye. It's been a real pleasure to "meet" you, DC-- keep the faith, & auf viedersein (?)
My best regards too, & thank you again.