BSR

I just finished Yosi, the Regretful Spy. I agree, the series is excellent: top-notch script, acting, qnd direction. My only problem with it was that all the time jumps were confusing. I was able to follow them but really had to focus. That quibble aside, this little-known (at least in the US) series is definitely worth your time. 8 50-minute episodes on Amazon Prime Video. Season 2 started shooting in May, but no word yet on when it will start streaming.

I didn't do the math, but now that I realize I spent 36 hours watching one series, yikes! Oh well, I never watch TV or movies in English, only in Spanish (my second language). I know I spend way too much time watching Netflix, but I rationalize it by telling myself I'm improving my Spanish. Mind you, I doubt I'll ever need to know all the Argentine prison slang I learned while watching El marginal, but that's another issue.

True enough, but to quote the immortal wisdom of James Carville, "It's the economy, stupid!" (no, I'm not calling you stupid, LOL). Although people do consider a number of non-economic issues in their right track/wrong track view, I think the economy has always been and will always be the overriding concern of the vast majority of Americans.

Maybe you don't feel like we're in a recession, but what matters is general sentiment. Today's RealClearPolitics right track/wrong track average says that only 17.5% of Americans think we're headed in the right direction whereas a whopping 74.8% think America is on the wrong track. Those are devastating numbers, clearly indicating that the vast majority of Americans do not share your optimism. Yes, the unemployment rate is low, but the labor force participation rate is also low: for June 2022 62.2%, 1.2 points lower than in February 2020 63.4% and far below the all-time high of 67.3%. "I think inflation may well have already peaked" ... well, we've certainly heard that before, starting back in Jan 2021, again in Jun/Jul 2021 ("inflation is transitory"), yet here we are with a 9.1% inflation rate, the highest in 40 years. I have an uneasy feeling that much of this so-called "recovery" was thanks to gobs of zero-interest lending (zero because interest rates were below the inflation rate for years) and mountains of investor cash. Lending will surely tighten up; as I discussed in my previous post, investors might or might not cut off their firehose of cash. If/when this flood of easy money dries up, then we'll know how "real" this recession is.

I heard an interesting report about zombie companies, i.e., companies that run at a loss but survive thanks to a steady supply of investor cash. Apparently ~40% of tech companies are zombie companies. Everyone's hoping to become the next Amazon (which lost hundreds of $millions before it became the behemoth it is today), and for years investors were willing to keep ponying up. But all good things come to an end, and easy money is no exception. If (when?) the money supply tightens, most of these zombie companies will go belly up, and waves of tech workers will be unemployed. That's the $64,000 question: will investors (A) panic and decide to cut their losses? or (B) stay the course, thereby keeping these zombie companies afloat? Let's hope cooler heads prevail, because if Scenario A happens, we're in a heap o'trouble.

Food Insider was split: one picked Atlantic Fish Company, the other Boston Sail Loft. My fave was always Legal Sea Foods. I could eat 2 bowls and still want a 3rd. The problem with Legal is that most of their locations have interiors that remind you of your old high school cafeteria.

I think I was in the 3rd grade when I discovered Leave It To Beaver afternoon reruns. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was totally hooked on the show because of Beav's hunky older brother. Thanks for the memories. RIP.

I just finished El Marginal, a kidnapping tale in which a judge sends an ex-cop to rescue his daughter held (believe it or not) inside a men's prison. One man against a hopelessly corrupt system, sadistic guards, and ruthless prison gangs -- the protagonist faces one hell of an uphill battle. Thanks to a great script and brilliant acting, El Marginal hooks you in from the start, but the show's brutality makes it tough to take at times. It's definitely worth watching, just don't expect a warm-fuzzy after every episode. Audio is only in original Spanish, but English subtitles available. I saw it with Spanish subtitles because I missed too much of what the prisoners were saying. The characters outside the prison were easy enough to follow, but the inmates' dialogue was like a crash course in the most impolite Argentine slang. 43 50-minute episodes, yet I binged it in 3 weeks.

Did you see The Innocent? I mentioned it upthread, a Spanish series based on one of Coben's books. It was so good that I became a total Coben fanboy and added some other Coben-based series to my (ridiculously long) watch list. Coben's deal with Netflix is to adapt 14 of his books. A number are already available, others in progress.

More pix of Robert Farah. Wow, the guy loves to show off, but with a body like that, who can blame him?

I just finished Parot, a series (10 1-hour episodes) on Amazon Prime about a controversial policy that allowed early release for prisoners whose sentences were considered excessive despite having committed truly heinous crimes. Two storylines run in parallel: a sadistic rapist seeks revenge by ruining the life of his victim while a serial killer is systematically killing off the ex-cons released thanks to the Parot policy. Whereas the revenge-seeking rapist is cold-blooded, calculating, and fully in control of every step in his diabolical plot, the serial killer is slowly losing control, getting sloppier with every murder. As we gain insight into the serial killer, we understand why he's unraveling, but the revenge-seeker was harder to swallow. I couldn't believe that a violent criminal with such a sick plan could at the same time be so perfectly rational and methodical, never making the slightest mistake. That said, I still enjoyed the series, but I wonder how much of it was my bias because I found the lead cop smokin' hot. When the plot dragged or became a bit unrealistic, I was in a more forgiving mood because maybe the hot cop might take his shirt off in the next scene. Gotta give the actor props -- in his early 50s yet still fit enough to do scenes in his undies! But if the cop isn't your type, you'll just be bored, LOL. Javier Albalá, the 50-something who can't keep his clothes on ...

Colombian doubles specialist Robert Farah

An Argentine medical school student posts nudes to his Twitter account ... WOW! https://twitter.com/niico_cabrera/status/1551176487616872448?s=20&t=aatCfTEls835FTiEKafyow

In Spain, this guy would indeed be described as "rubio" (blond). "Brunette" is for dark brown, almost black hair.

If the timing is right, can you ask him what's a leopard? He describes himself as a "big hairy leopard." According to Urban Dictionary, a leopard is a classier version of a cougar (a woman of a certain age who is very much into sex). Doubt he means that.

I wouldn't say vulgar. It sounds like Kylie K is a a bit overexcited by her new toys to the point that she's willing to drive a half hour to take her private jet to a spot she could have driven to directly in 40 minutes. As the novelty wears off, I'm guessing (hoping?) common sense will rein in such questionable decisions. With a net worth of $900 million, it sounds impossible that Kylie K could burn through all her money. But you never know. After all, it sounds impossible that Mike Tyson, who had earned $300 million, could end up bankrupt, but he managed to do exactly that, even without the staggering expense of a private jet. Sure, Kyle's cosmetics and skincare businesses are flourishing now, but empires don't last forever. Who knows where those businesses will be in 10 years, if they're still around at all. And given that Kylie burns through cash faster than her shiny new jet burns fuel, I have to wonder about her financial future.

Were people actually buying them, or did they just snap photos of the prices and post the pix to their Instagram??

Maybe not underrated, just not that well-known is the annual Calcio Storico staged in Florence on the feast day of the city's patron saint (John the Baptist, June 24). Calcio Storico is a Renaissance-era Italian sport that most closely resembles rugby for its violence but soccer for strategy with elements of wrestling. Henri III of France put it best: "It's too small to be considered a war but too cruel to be considered a game." Don't bother to trying to understand it, just enjoy the shirtless Italian guys in cute 16th century shorts pounding the absolute sh*t out of each other. After every brutal tackle, the tackler helps the tacklee up, and the two men kiss each other on both cheeks. Outside of the Gaiety Theater, it was the most homoerotic spectacle I've ever seen.

Girl from Ipanema was translated into English and became a huge hit in America so long ago that it almost shouldn't be in this category. Nonetheless, since I don't understand Portuguese, it technically qualifies. I love this version performed at the Rio Olympics opening ceremony, sung by the son of the songwriter, with Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen playing the role of the girl from Ipanema. The song is great in English, but the sultry lyrics sound even better in Portuguese.

@cougar, I've read that key limes are difficult to find outside the areas where they're grown because they bruise easily (the rind is much thinner than that of Persian limes). Certainly I've never seen key limes in a Las Vegas supermarket. I've also read that there is a big difference in flavor between key limes and the more common Persian variety. Is that true? If so, what's the difference?

My aunt recalls how giddy she was when her CDs in the 70s/80s hit a 14% interest rate. She and my uncle were exceptional savers and kept all their money in CDs because of my uncle's mistrust of the stock market. But high interest rates rob Peter to pay Paul. Sure, she was getting 14% interest, which she could see in her bank statements. But the bank statements did not show that the principal was being eaten up by inflation. As awesome as it was to get $140K in interest, my aunt ignored the eensy weensy detail that the $1 million principal had shrunk in value to just $830K. Plus you're paying taxes on that $140K. Seniors might have felt like they were making money, but they weren't. As for your prediction that inflation will ease soon, we can only hope. We heard the same thing back in January ("relax, it's only temporary"), yet here we are 6 months later with the highest inflation rate in 40 years. Correct, the US is nowhere near hyperinflation, but I question your argument that people just learn to live with it. Hyperinflation can cause a person's life savings to diminish to almost nothing. Most people figure out how to forge on, but recovering from such devastation requires a helluva lot more than just learning to live with it.

A local gelato spot used to make gelato with coconut milk. It had the perfect texture -- silky, smooth, creamy -- but every flavor tasted like coconut, e.g., strawberry tasted like coconut ice cream with just a hint of strawberry flavor. You couldn't even taste the vanilla at all; it just tasted like coconut. Even the dark chocolate, the strongest flavor, tasted like coconut. The gelato-maker gave up & started using nut milks, which didn't have the same great texture but at least the milk source (usually almond) didn't overpower the other flavors.

I saw a Netflix movie worth watching, Below Zero, about a prison break that turns out to be something else. It's a good thriller with enough twists to keep you guessing. One disappointment was The Cook of Castamar, a Spanish period drama set in (I'm guessing) the 1700s. It was great mostly because the bad guy is so deliciously evil. You love to hate him, which makes the series so much fun. But when the bad guy ends up as most bad guys end up, I realized everything else about the series was kinda boring. The first 10 episodes when the bad guy is diabolically ruining everyone's life gets a 9 out of 10. The last 2 episodes all about the other characters gets a 4 out of 10.

Most of the people in Kyrgios's box are not his team; I think most of them are his family/friends. Nick has no coach, maybe he has a fitness guy & an agent, but that would only account for 2 people in his box. The rest must be family (his father & sister were pointed out) or friends (his girlfriend was the women sitting front row, far right). I kept thinking, "Those poor people traveled all the way from Australia to support him, and Nick treats them like this??" I'm sure he is much nicer to them otherwise than he is during matches, but still ... One wrinkle in the non-vaxx issue that isn't that well known: French player Jeremy Chardy claims that ever since he got vaxxed, something went wrong and he has not been able to train in the gym, practice, or play matches. Chardy has spent most of his career ranked between 40-80 with a career-high ranking of 25, but he hasn't played since last year's US Open and is currently ranked #661. Novak has never cited Chardy as a reason for refusing the vaccine, but I'm sure Novak is aware of Chardy's claim.

Novak wins #21! Kyrgios played better than I expected. I thought he would be more overwhelmed playing his first Slam final, but he managed the nerves & pressure OK. As usual, he served great (30 aces), but once Novak got a read on his serve, the match was over. It cracked me up that Kyrgios kept berating his box for not showing enough support, yet every time the camera showed them, they were giving him a standing ovation. What more did he want ... back flips? cheerleader pyramids? It also cracks me up that Novak & Nick are brand new BFFs. For years, Kyrgios said things that I thought were very rude & disrespectful to Novak, to which Novak responded that he has no respect for the guy. But in Australia when almost none of the other players supported Novak, Kyrgios was very outspoken in his criticism of the government's handling of the situation. They became friendly after that, and as Novak said in his acceptance speech, "This is officially a bromance."