Just Some Thoughts

                MISCELLANEOUS

                   Items Of Interest

I just wanted to write a Blog about a whole bunch of different stories dealing with matters that are of interest to me and which I hope you might find interesting as well.

There are lots of things happening around here that I find attention-gathering, at least with respect to my own attention. I must admit that I spend a lot more time thinking about different things for a number of reasons. Obviously, since I really don't have a "job" anymore, I don't have to focus on some very direct subjects. I can think about lots of different matters instead. Some are quite important but others just happen to be interesting to me so that I can concentrate a lot more of my attention on them. Let me tell you about some of these matters.

Obviously, the US election results are fascinating. I never thought that Donald Trump could possibly be elected as President of the United States.  I still don't to be honest. I am sure that over the next few months you, dear reader, will be able to read all kinds of theories about why so many people voted for Trump to be President. There are all kinds of them now.

No matter what others say, I have my own opinion on the subject. Perhaps the prime reason for what happened is that, unfortunately for her, many US voters were never going to vote for the wife of former US President Bill Clinton.  Their opposition to him was just so high that they could never support her no matter how highly qualified that she was.

"Clinton’s campaign outspent the Trump campaign by more than 2 to 1. While full spending reports are not yet compiled, campaigns typically spend just about all they raise. As of October 28, Clinton had raised $687 million compared to Trump’s $307 million—a 124 percent advantage.

And that doesn’t even count the spending by outside groups (better known as “outside groups”). When added to the candidates’ own ads, Pro-Clinton ads outnumbered pro-Trump ads 3 to 1—a mind-numbing 383,512 ads for Clinton compared to 125,617 supporting Trump. Outside groups raised and spent more than three times as much on Clinton as on Trump. Super PACs and other groups supporting Clinton raised almost $190 million; those supporting Trump pocketed only $60 million." (Ken Kurson  Observer November 10, 2016)

It just seems to me that this has to be the real reason for it. I was very impressed with Hillary Clinton. She just seemed so bright in everything that she talked about. Yet, she lost. I must admit that I would have found it very difficult to vote for her because of her relationship. Yet, in the end, if I was voting, I would have voted for her because I could not have voted for Trump at all. In my opinion, I suspect that many people who actually lived in the United States decided they could not vote for her no matter what.

I really do a lot of exercising these days or at least what I consider exercising. In the past, I hardly did anything compared with what I do today. I do it now because of the illness that I had almost 2 years ago and which I want to prevent from occurring again.  I want to do this exercising to keep myself in the best condition that I can. Early on, I had a lot of difficulty moving around but now I do a lot better.

Three times a day as an example, before every meal, I go through a number of physical exercises designed to keep my weight down but also to build up the muscles in my body. Several times already I have been very upset because my weight has increased and I could not figure out why because I had not eaten that much food to add on pounds. It turns out that, because of what I'm doing, my muscles keep growing bigger and stronger and that is what increases my weight. Yet, what is also fascinating to me is that my body size does not change very dramatically. I can wear the same clothes notwithstanding the additional weight put on.

Supposedly, the Federal Government may well be building a 2nd bridge between Windsor and Detroit. It is going to take at least 18 months before it will be determined who will build that bridge and what it will look like.

I just don't get it. What is the purpose of doing this? During those 18 months, someone needs to explain to me why the Ambassador Bridge Company would not be allowed to build its 2nd bridge given all of the work that they have done so far to build their own bridge.  If that happens, what good is a Government Bridge considering the reduced traffic? In addition, where are the billions of dollars that will be needed to build a Government bridge coming from?

We are in the middle of November now and to be honest I'm very happy with the weather. I was out for a walk Saturday afternoon and it was very pleasant even though it was a little bit cooler than before. I must admit that I am surprised that, so far at least, the weather has been quite good and we have not seen any significant snow fallings.  I just hope that we are that lucky for a much longer period of time and also that we don't see much snow this winter no matter what has been projected.

I may well write some comments later on about the Anne Jarvis columns in the Star dealing with the border file recently. I must admit that I only see the stories on the Internet and not in the Star itself because I don't subscribe to this newspaper anymore. I wonder how much space these stories take up there.  They seem quite long compared with her normal columns. There must be a reason why there is a desire to have her write so much about this topic. I wonder if the new Star Editor–In–Chief is involved in making that decision.

Interestingly, when it was announced that the previous head of the Star was leaving, his replacement was not announced. I must admit that this lack of information surprised me. All that I saw in Roseann Danese's article on October 7, 2016 was: "Beneteau’s replacement has not been named."

I must admit that I have heard about this music group for a very long time: The Arditti Quartet. It is a string quartet. I must also admit that I know very little about this group and have not heard any of their music so far. Of course, I have no idea if there is any relationship between us given our name. Who knows, perhaps a member of the group may be a relative of mine. 

In a story that I read about what they are doing now, I saw the following comment:

"Of all the leading string quartets around the world, only the Arditti routinely set themselves the kind of challenge you’ll hear when they come to Hampstead Arts Festival next week. And the challenge is they don’t play standard repertoire: the Schubert, Beethoven and Brahms that forms the bedrock of quartet recitals.

They play music by contemporary composers: often specially commissioned, being done for the first time, which means that no one knows if it will fly or flounder.

There are easier ways to earn a living. But as Irvine Arditti, the quartet’s leader, says, “I don’t think I was put on this planet to have an easy life”. And that’s as well because new compositions aren’t just hard to learn, they’re hard to sell to audiences." (Bridget Galton Hampstead & Highgate Express November 9, 2016) 

Very admirable about what they do and why. Here is their reason:

"In Hampstead, the lights will shine brightly. And so will the programmed pieces, which may not be easy-listening but promise to be alive, exciting, and worth whatever it takes to engage with them.

“We ask our audience to trust us”, Irvine says. “I’m glad to say, they usually do”.

Who knows, if they do make an appearance around here, I just might be one of the audience members.