More Letters!
Late for the Party
And This Too Shall Pass?
Love the Man in the Uniform
A Morning in the Life
Give This Man a Flamethrower
Being "Sticky" Is Not Enough
Don't Me.Com
Under the Volcanoes
The Cyberslouch
e-Slacking
Stock-Suck

And the leading online story this morning is: "Stocks in Positive Territory." Now it may be a slow news day, but I think people are simply numb to the fact that they are being fed the equivalent of the hourly surges and depressions of a Vegas craps table. I find it unnerving and not-news.
      I suppose if I really didn't care about stock indices, I wouldn't be bothered by all this. It's that I do care. And that I don't like that I do care. It's the jealousy of not, so far, really cashing in (or cashing out) that feeds it, I think. (My steadily growing IRA notwithstanding, which I get to spend when I'm sixty fucking five.)
      The solution, I suppose, is to play. And join the ranks of the winners and losers who genuinely appreciate the opportunity to make a cheap buck. What's lacking is a respect for the endeavor. If a pointless run-up bubble-market game is a "living," what's the meaning in the other stuff we do for work? The answer is NONE -- unless you're in social work, or you love work for it's own sake, or you're an artist who must express himself...all the time.
      This is nothing new. Just a matter of degree. And pride. And of course, pride is one of those regrettable and indispensable human attributes, but I surely digress.
      I have a simple request: Hourly, even daily, moves in the stock market are almost always not real news. Let's not treat them as such unless there's something to really report.
      Of course, it is the almighty dollar that matters, and I am a Hypocrite of the Worst Kind to complain. Thirty lashes on my sorry backside!

-- Neil Gitkind, Optical Engineer & Trombonist