TonyDown

Too bad such an amazing movie as Precious turned sour for Monique. Sounds like Whoopi could have offered her some reasonable advice. I love Wanda Sykes and Tig Nataro. It does seem unfair how little they get paid for appearing on the streaming platforms. Perhaps the Monique-Netflix publicity will help bring some equity.

@Cooper I wasn't aware. That looks good. Is the strategy to capture that higher rate and then park those funds somewhere else after the 3 month promotional rate expires?

Yes. Sorry, I omitted the term. It's 9 months.

I grabbed a 4.25% CD at Citibank yesterday. I'd moved away for awhile but came back to them. A popular finance personality confirmed that 4.25% is a good rate right now in her opinion and expects CD rates will drop soon. However her predictions have not always been on target.

I've gone down a rabbit hole this morning reading about the American economy and economic theory. The most interesting read was about Hyman Minsky and his economic theories, including momentum investors vs. value investors. Momentum investors cause irrational high and low points of cycles. The majority of investors are momentum investors. Policymakers and regulators use counter-cyclical policies for banks, taking care not to upset the fragility of financial markets, for example the exaggerated cycles caused by momentum investors across all markets. That said, I recall Peter Lynch emphasized not using politics as a stock market investment guide, knowing the long term trajectory of stocks has been upward through various political eras. It's fair to say he was a value investor. Listening to the financial pundits, does anyone else sense the experts don't know where we're headed, other than most but not all of them are worried? I'll head back down the rabbit hole to search for anything on tariffs and economic theory

Was it another thread I was whining how Jamie Diamond was forever warning a recession is coming and joked he'll eventually be correct? I listened to economist Paul McCulley yesterday referring to our situation as a stagflation purgatory (purgatory morphing into hell TBD) that the tariffs are noxious enough to cause recession. We can only wait and see how bad. He explained there is nothing preemptive to do now. Chairman Powell might reduce interest rates later when the information comes in on rising prices vs economic slow down from tariffs. Assuming we have recession, prices may fall much later as demand falls. But initially, we should assume the US will see significant stagflation. A friend was laid off recently when the restaurant he worked at closed. That place has been there long time, so it's very sad. For him, the recession has begun. One might say the same for any Fed worker that was recently cut. How bad a US recession might be won't be known, as McCulley said, until the information comes. He also recommended where to invest in the next few years, however IMO his advice is biased since his wealth likely came from PIMCO. I doubt he would bet against them.

Claiming Hoover caused the Great Depression. It's a popular myth. Some of my favorite pundits are guilty. But yeah, pulling the rug out from under existing markets with Trump tarriffs is going to hurt existing economies. Seems insane. Will the US lose our seat at the table of modern trade?

He really caught my attention in Willow. ♥️♥️♥️

I see you made your choice, but wanted to mention My First Ex-husband, mainly for the cast. From Playbill, The April 23–May 18 company will include Marilu Henner (Taxi, Chicago), Marsha Mason (The Goodbye Girl, Steel Magnolias), Benja K Thomas (Fat Ham, Skeleton Crew), and Julia Sweeney (Saturday Night Live). The reviews are mixed, but I would go just for each of the cast members. They each give a 30 minute monologue. I listened to a 92Y segment discuss the play on YouTube today.

One can dream. Cast Candace Bergen in some kind of scenario, and convince Bette Midler to do a cameo guest star role. I love both of them. Bette Midler could tell some great brassiere jokes, sing, anything! I know, not likely, but fun to think about.

I still don't understand why Gary ended up at all three White Lotus resorts. Is it plausible how he met Tanya by chance in Hawaii at resort #1, has a friend from his past that hangs out at resort #2 who tries to kill Tanya, then decides to hang out at resort #3 after inheriting Tanya's money. No, it is not, unless we get an amazing reveal of some conspiracy explaining everything, which by now does not seem to be coming. I doubt we will learn why Rick and Tim don't get along, why Victoria blew off Kate, what's up with Fabian, why Mook waited for Gaitok on the roadside, why Saxon doesn't have a girlfriend, why Piper lied and doesn't actually have a thesis if she cares so fucking much about Buddhism, how Gaitok knew the gun was in that drawer, why Laurie is such a high maintenance beeotch to her travel mates, why Frank suddenly fell off the wagon and returned to his old ways after putting Rick through that mind bending story of leaving sex and drugs behind, what's really up with Chloe's love bombing Chelsea and why Chelsea objects to Saxon being a player but doesn't object to Chloe being so sketchy with Saxon and Lochlan. That said I hope the floater isn't Pam. https://www.reddit.com/r/TheWhiteLotusHBO/s/HEjCZKEbFz

They may already be brainstorming a proper scenario, including a final homage to Lavin/Sybil. Those 3 "queens" need another "old broad" in that house. There is buzz about season 2, below. IMO, promoting the Mindy character may not serve the comedy formula well enough, as an old age character would. Mid-Century Modern Season 2 Gets Major Update from Hulu Series Creator THEDIRECT.COM Nathan Lane's new streaming comedy may only just be getting started on Hulu. Mid-Century Modern Creators Recall the ‘Terrifying’ Process of Writing Linda Lavin’s Death Into the Show TVLINE.COM The creators of Hulu's 'Mid-Century Modern' detail the difficult task of writing Linda Lavin's death into the show.

I'm glad I waited until it streamed on Max. I didn't care much for the film. Craig and Starkey were great, though. Some critics loved it, so I expect it appeals to a certain audience.

Credit to how the show worked losing the Sybil character. So touching. Also the Mormon character (Zane Phillips) dealing with his faith was quite poignant. Jerry had quite a noble side to his character several times. They could replace Sybil and do a Season 2. Could Rhea Perelman move in? Or they could find another senior actress. Candace Bergen? Lily Tomlin?

Binged it all the way through. So many fun guest star cameos! Also some very poignant bits, but mostly zany gay jokes, Jewish jokes, and old folks jokes. It took me a minute to get used to Matt Bomer playing comedy. He's funny! Linda Lavin plays the mom. R.I.P. Great show!

Something possibly brewing in the background is Fabian. Is there a backstory with him and Sritala? Something that will shake things up.

I don't want it. Market sentiment is terrible, which might be the time to buy However if the stock is still way overvalued as explained in Adam Conover's March 17th YouTube vlog, and I believe Conover makes some good points, then I still don't want it, even if the share price declines a bunch more. Tesla is in a tough situation.

I'm a little bit surprised a newly remodeled 3 bed, 2 bath house in the Hollywood Hills is only worth $ 1,400,000. Is that estimate from Zillow? That said, I stayed at a large Airbnb in the Hollywood Hills while attending OutFest. There were multiple rooms, fully occupied. So the gentleman that owned the place was making a nice income. I noticed some of the properties in his area needed some TLC, and one property was throwing a party. I do sympathize with your worry after recent fires I have always worried about fires and slides, since moving to the West Coast. I have owned 3 houses in California, all on flat lands. Do you anticipate any trouble getting insurance? Might be worth researching insurance options if your current provider decides to cancel. Many owners have had their coverage dropped in Los Angeles.

Season 3 started slow for me but improving. I'm anxious to see the final 2 episodes.

You are in 3rd place until the moment you overtake me. After overtaking me, then in 2nd. Side comment: Has Facebook become one gigantic pile of garbage?

I found the origin of toxic empathy. It doesn't really relate to harmful behavior. It's too political to go into, so I won't.

I should check that other thread, but I'll ask anyway. Does anyone have experience living in Hong Kong? What about mainland China? I'm mostly curious how it is now, recent experience. Not really interested in guesses or hunches. In the meantime I'll do some research. Someone I know in Hong Kong mentioned an opportunity is available to move there, if financially qualified.

Their brief discussion of toxic empathy confused me. I hadn't heard the term. Now I see books and podcasts on it. Of course there are! I find it worrisome that our modern sense of self will risk losing or rejecting that ability. Why not reject the plight of others, those deceivers, those losers, those who are different? <-- Sarcasm. Is that an idea circulating in Australia? I see it's a good fit over here.

Now and then I think about starting a post about the straight guy I fell in love with my freshman year, the places our relationship went, how he wanted to be sexual, and eventually shutting him out of my life, sophomore year. I broke his heart. But he was a Midwestern Catholic homophobe. I had enough. Recently he found me on Linked in and asked if I was coming to our House reunion. I'm not sure I want to meet his wife. So yeah, I've thought about starting a thread on that personal topic, specifically on his frame of mind, and guys in general, male sexuality, etc., but then I realize it is the kind of topic guys post on Reddit. Reddit is like a place for a good reality check and a wealth of honest, helpful opinions, sometimes therapeutic. Company of Men can be that. But Reddit is more fertile ground for that sort of thing, with more replies. Frankly I've read a lot of posts on this board discussing personal circumstances and asking for opinions, where I thought to myself how Reddit would be more useful. So that's my plan, to work up a good question and post it on Reddit.

Thank you for sharing that link. An interesting discussion. I recall how my mother would jump up from the dinner table and rush to our set of encyclopedias whenever the discussions led to an opportunity to look up some topic and recite it so we'd learn about it. I was puzzled by the eucalyptus comment, whether they were blaming the fires in part on the type of trees. Certainly there were eucalyptus trees that blew down during the wind but it was the wind that was the terrible factor with the fires. I suppose I knew the eucalyptus isn't a native tree in California but hadn't heard much about it since I moved here years ago and was told by my aunt for some reason they can be a nuisance. Geraldine Brooks discussing her coping mechanism after her husband died reminded me of Joan Dideon's The Year of Magical Thinking, although swimming with turtles sounds preferable. The question of State of Self and specifically how to explain our frame of mind in the States and specifically to the French has actually come up for me on another chat board with many European members. Although I thought about offering my 2 cents, why we think like we do, in the end I didn't. Perhaps it was more rhetorical anyway. And like was stated during David Marr's radio show, if anyone tells you they have the answer, one ought to run away.