Slightly morbid

Salon has a blog called Brand Graveyard for the brands that are dying in the economic turmoil. It's got eulogies for Saab, Mervyns and Virgin Megastore.

Spring = Artistic Urges?

Garrison Keillor has hit it on the nose once again:

In spring, a person's thoughts naturally turn toward what you would rather be doing than earning a living, and in America this usually means Being An Artist. This is the true American dream. Winning the lottery is a faint hope, becoming a sports hero is a daydream, but publishing poetry is the ambition of one-third of the American people and another third are thinking about writing a memoir.

And you thought you were the only one! Ha! You are part of a vast tide. One reason the economy is so sour is that nobody wants to tote barges or lift bales, they want to be edgy and multilayered and express their anguish in some colorful and inexplicable way. Your dental hygienist is a poet ("Into the ravenous maw flecked with food and decked with plaque, I descend, pick in hand"), and this does not make for better dental care. People who feel they have a Higher Calling may feel justified in slacking off on the Lower Calling even though it is the one that pays the light bill. Your mailman comes sweeping up the walk on the tips of his toes, arms extended, twirls, and hands you an invitation to his dance recital. Also a handful of your neighbor's mail. You attend the recital and it is not bad. Men and women barefoot in leotards tossing brown parcels back and forth and running from dogs and afterward you must go backstage and tell them how good it was.

GM Chief ousted by Obama

Is this micro-management?

The cold and grey in snowy Detroit is an accurate reflection of the mood here as people wake up to the idea that their industrial landscape has changed again. President Obama has swept aside one of the pillars of the car industry here.

Mr Wagoner was a GM veteran, so on local talk shows his resignation was met with some incredulity that he could be forced out by Washington, with one caller insisting he was the victim of and not the creator of the global recession.

Both in urban Detroit and surrounding rural Michigan there is a deep set conservatism that instinctively dislikes this level of government intervention.

But there is mounting nervousness too. Mr Wagoner had already pledged to cut a fifth of GM's global workforce and close 14 factories. By forcing him to go, President Obama is clearly saying is, that's not enough.

Pictures from our trip to California

Sobbing for Saab

As a long-time owner and fan of Saabs, it saddens me to think that they're on the brink. Now the Swedish government has said no to helping.

This helps me to understand my reaction to people wanting to save the Detroit auto makers. Perhaps I was harsh in my opinion on saving Detroit because I have no affection for US made cars and because it would be MY tax dollars. But truth be told, I really wouldn't mind if Swedish tax dollars would go toward saving my nice little Saabs.

Buy Local? Buy Black?

I've seen a few articles recently about towns where people are buying "local bucks" which they then can only use locally, as a way to bolster local business in hard times. Overall, "buy local" is becoming a common mantra.

Here's a new one that I just came across: People patronizing only African-American owned businesses.

I suppose it all comes down to putting your money where your mouth is and using your purchasing power for what is important to you, even in a recession.

Immigration fun

There's an interactive map in the NY Times today that is really cool and interesting. It show immigration patterns in the US from 1880 to 2000.
For example, did you realize Maine has had a steady influx of Canadians for more than 100 years? The south only became a major destination for immigrants in the 1960s, attracting people from Latin America. The major immigration pattern before then was Eastern and Western Europeans arriving on the East Coast across the Upper Midwest.

Alexander McCall Smith's On-line Novel

For you fellow fans out there, did you know he has an on-line 100 episode novel? It's called Corduroy Mansions.

I haven't read or listened to it yet, but I'm looking forward to it! It's read by the actor who played Manuel in Fawlty Towers!

Hat tip: Dad

Copenhagen drug wars

Copenhagen is the place with free bicycle programs where you leave your car at the edge of the city and borrow a bike for the day. Now they're having open drug warfare!

And you'll note how things have changed - the 2008 Quality of Living ranking that they quote has Iceland as the most peaceful country. I wonder how it will stack up this year after riots and economic upheaval.

A turf war between drug gangs is turning one of Europe’s safest cities into a shooting gallery.

Denmark’s worst-ever bout of violence between criminals intensified last week with three shootings that left two dead in Copenhagen, the capital. That prompted the government on March 4 to propose some of the most sweeping laws in the country’s legal history by lengthening jail terms and giving police more surveillance powers, including wiretaps.

Copenhagen places third among European capitals in Mercer Investment Consulting’s 2008 Quality of Living rankings, which assesses crime rates and personal safety. Vienna and Bern, the Swiss capital, were ahead. Denmark is the world’s second-most peaceful country behind Iceland, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, which ranks 140 countries.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in my 36 years serving the Copenhagen police force,” said Henrik Svindt, who heads an anti-gang unit formed last week. “The worst thing is that some of the people killed or injured are innocent bystanders.”

Spraying Bullets

In 2008, there were 60 shootings in Copenhagen, three times the number in the previous year. The latest round of conflict pits about 100 bikers against an estimated 300 gang members in the city, police say.

On March 2, two masked gangsters sprayed a Copenhagen bar frequented by Hells Angels members with at least 10 bullets. The shooters, who haven’t been caught, killed one and wounded three people who weren’t linked to bikers.

“This is not the city I know,” said Bjarke Lungholt, 35, a medical intern who lives with his young family in the Noerrebro district, where the majority of the attacks have taken place. “It’s bizarre that it happens so openly and frequently.” [Bloomberg.com]

Engagement with Iran

Wow, Hilary Clinton has announced that Iran will be invited to an international conference on the future of Afghanistan and Iran has indicated they will accept. This is such an enormous move forward and break with the junior high school "I'm not going to talk to you" mentality of the Bush administration.

I suppose that any conversations on how we can work together or come to agreement on Iraq will come as a second step.