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A few years ago, I read a book called The Number: How the Drive for Quarterly Earnings Corrupted Wall Street and Corporate America. It traced the well-meaning origins of laws that required publicly traded corporations to begin publishing quarterly financial reports, how the quarterly earnings number became the measure of a company's performance, and the (mostly) unintended consequences that followed. Those of you who have worked for a Fortune 1000 company will know the incredible pressure to deliver increased earnings quarter after quarter after quarter. Bonuses, promotions, and job security are all dependent on this single metric. Woe betide the manager who cannot get more and more profit dollars to the bottom line, quarter after quarter, by whatever means necessary. Price increases, cheaper ingredients and raw materials, offshore manufacturing, staff reductions, reduced service levels, fee increases, new kinds of charges, acquisitions and consolidations, elimination of competitors - whatever it takes - will be used to transfer more of your dollars to the company's bottom line. Obviously, much of this is not in the interest of the American consumer, and the bigger the companies get, the less power we consumers have to resist. As others have said, it is more and more difficult to find alternatives to the large predatory corporations. Banking is one example, food is another. What to do about it? There are three things I can think of, and I'm looking for more. First, I try to avoid supporting the largest corporate offenders where possible: if I can avoid a purchase altogether, wait till it's on sale, or get it from a local business, I will. Second, I'm sharing my thoughts with others in my community, including here. And, third, I'm becoming more tolerant of government regulation; not that I want big government in my life, but I want big business in my life even less. If anyone has any other useful forms of resistance, I'm all ears.

Ranking a close second is the abrupt closure of a favored website.

It is difficult to mince in tennis shoes.

Ostriches, my friend, ostriches! The next big thing! No time like the present! All phone lines are open!

Well said! You seem like a very interesting person yourself, Lucky, a man who pays attention to new trends and has a real talent for spotting and responding to the next big opportunity. I'm sure you're aware of the difficulty of finding delicious, nutritious, low calorie sources of healthy protein, and would be eager to invest a measly few thousand dollars in a business that could easily return millions in no time at all! Chances like this don't come along every day and, with interest at an all-time high, I've taken the liberty of offering you this urgent personal invitation. Lucky, are you ready for another August Challenge?? Please respond soon, as time is running out!!

What a nice story and wonderful memories! Thanks for sharing.

What an interesting post! It made me realize I don't have anything interesting to say either. Readying myself for Lucky's challenge, I turned to WikiAnswers and a few other sites to see if I could figure out how to become a more fascinating person. Here's what I've got so far. How To Be Interesting ● Be interested in others. Learn as much as you can about them! ● Talk to strangers. If you see someone you don't know, ask if you may pull up a chair. ● Be open in discussions. Let others know you value their opinions too! ● Take up an interesting hobby. People will love hearing how you spend your time! ● Dare to be different. People are always attracted to someone who stands out from the crowd! Looks like a lot of work ahead. Wish me luck!

Is this what you're looking for? (I think you may have an extra 'http://' in there you rascal! ) Hope you don't mind that I'm getting a head start on my August posts, as the month itself has some busy days.

Comin' through: the wry I have missed your posts, StuCotts, and will stay long beyond August to catch up. A thought just occurred. Would that make me - wait for it - ?? Ba-da-boomp! With regard to Levi et al, they probably weren't planning to spend their adolescent years in the public eye. I doubt I'd have handled it any better if a gaggle of reporters had shown up one day on my front lawn just because McCain felt he needed him somethin' different. It does make me feel a little guilty carrying on so about a couple of Alaskan teenagers who would probably rather be gutting a caribou.

Well you've certainly come to the right place! I don't recall posting anything even remotely deep or profound since at least 1997.

I don't think La Russell ever took a bad picture. I personally favor the more 'dramatic' ones, but all your choices are inspired! One of the snags with avatars though is how small they are. You may have to experiment to find one that reads well. A few more for your consideration:

I think it was Diana Vreeland who said, "The only thing I regret about my past is that there's so much of it."

We must have been separated at birth! Most of my posts are there because I had fun writing them. They made me laugh anyway when I put them up. It's always a pleasure when somebody else enjoys them too, but often there's just crickets. And that makes me think. Do folks enjoy them, and just don't take the time to comment? Or am I the only one that thinks they're fun? I don't really know the answer. I don't want to ask people to start slapping their knees and pounding their keyboards to tell me something is funny if it's just a big snooze. It seems that would only encourage me to keep posting drivel that nobody enjoys reading. And I don't think that would be good for the Forum in the long run. So, I think I'm going to continue just posting stuff that I enjoy putting together, comments be damned. It may not generate the numbers that some are looking for but, in my opinion, it stands a better chance of bringing folks back for more. At least it stands a better chance of bringing me back for more. Am I missing the point here?

The Golden Age of Tearooms? Happy to book an advance copy!

Good gosh, AdamSmith, I had forgotten how much great stuff you posted and how much I learned from trying to flop along behing you and Stu Cotts and other esteemed contributors! With August just around the corner and not as much posting time as I'd like, I wonder if it would be OK with Lucky to pull up some favorite posts from years past - others' mostly and maybe one or two of mine own - for a fresh airing? Would it bore the regulars more than it would entertain the new bees? A Best of AdamSmith would be sublime! Not to mention Lucky's Greatest Hits and the Portable StuCotts. What say you Lucky? I've got one on Priapus I'm dying to resurrect!

I think you raise a good question, TampaYankee, and it's one I've been giving some thought to. We all know the old saw about a picture being worth a thousand words. Not only does a picture cover the same ground as a thousand words, but it does so in a fraction of a second and makes the point almost instantly. In years past though, it wasn't easy to find a copy of a picture that did the job, and it wasn't easy to insert a picture in, say, a typed memo or handwritten letter. Today, with billions of pictures available on the internet, as well as electronic communication that makes inserting a picture almost as easy as inserting an exclamation point, pictures are nearly as available as words are. And I think the way we communicate will continue to move in the direction of using more pictures and fewer words. It's always been a challenge to find the right words to say what I want to say, and now it's a challenge to find the right pictures to say what I want to say, and then to find the right balance between words and pictures. An electronic forum like this one is a perfect place to practice, and I appreciate the indulgence of others while trying.

Setting aside, for the moment, frottage, AdamSmith must be rubbing off on me. I recall the word "august" also meaning "marked by majestic dignity or grandeur". Which conjures up a slightly skewed take on The August Challenge, and one not entirely out of place in Lucky's lordly thread. Make a remark, it's ridiculous to leave all the conversation to the pudding!

Good to see you, zipperzone!

I knew I had seen that color scheme before! Don't that take ya back! . . . Full disclosure: As a kid, I loved my trains. Even then, I admired a well-built caboose.

Ingredients: 1 cup sushi rice 1 sheet of nori (dried seaweed), cut in half 1 oz sashimi grade tiny limp dick Preparation: Cut tiny limp dick into thin strips. Put a nori sheet on top of a bamboo mat (makisu). Spread the sushi rice on top of the nori sheet. Place tiny limp dick lengthwise on the rice. Roll up the bamboo mat, pressing forward to shape the sushi into a cylinder. Press the bamboo mat firmly and remove it from the sushi. Cut the rolled sushi into bite-sized pieces. Wash down with several large glasses of saki. Enjoy!

Here, let me help you get started . . .

That's true, but I also think that many of us who supported and elected him are doing a shit job of acknowledging what he has done and giving him some time to accomplish the rest. I missed Maddow's list, but I can easily name two handfuls of accomplishments. He faced a formidable array of problems on inauguration day. If his administration had done nothing but prevent the collapse of the U. S. economy and stop pissing off our long-time allies, I'd have been a happy camper. The arms agreement with Russia and the public stand for eliminating nukes was gravy, and made me a very proud American. I still think he'll deliver on the majority of his commitments, one by one. But I wasn't expecting perfection, and I sure wasn't expecting it within the first eighteen months. I can understand diehard Republicans berating him for not fixing everything in a year and a half, but why are the rest of us rending our tunics because there are still some problems left to deal with? Shouldn't the guy at least be able to finish one full term before he's declared a failure? As you say, the Democratic establishment bears some responsibility for getting the word out. But I believe that a thoughtful electorate also bears some responsibility for acknowledging the depth and duration of the problems we faced, and that fixing them will take years rather than months. Instant gratification may be a worthwhile objective on a game show, but I don't think it's something we should expect from our government. We know where that can lead.

A post from the vaults. It seems HooBoy found his boyfriend Foxy on Flirt4Free.