Open threads get unpinned from the the first position when they reach 100 comments (or thereabouts). Also, I have set wordpress to reset at 50 comments so a thread doesn’t get too unwieldy.

The stock market has been fun today. I took some time to buy a few more winners and to shed some more of a loser. September is often the cruelest month and I don’t just mean in 2008. Historically, September usually stinks. Perhaps it is because all the fat cats come back in from the Hamptons and decide to clean house. Or maybe the end of the govt’s fiscal year is in sight. At any rate, not many of us have found our fortunes in September.

Does anyone have anything wise and profound to say about the market(s)?

121 Thoughts to “New Open Thread for the Week Monday, Sept. 13”

  1. 101!

    Just had to do it! The Devil made we do it! Woooooo!

  2. You are so bad! Let’s go to 125.

  3. Fabulous interview with Lanier Phillips about being treated so kindly by the people of Newfoundland when he was shipwrecked in 1942. He had grown up in rural Georgia. The kindness shown to him altered his entire life course.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/15/AR2010091507189.html?hpid=editorialpromo

  4. I wouldn’t agree that Melanie “buttered up” Belle, though there definitely was desperation involved. People do act differently in wartime.

    But Melanie was less judgemental than the other women in the city, wartime or not, and she recognized Belle’s intentions as noble. She also risked her own reputation to accept Belle’s money for the cause.

  5. Wolverine :

    Melanie buttered up Belle and took her money because Melanie knew that Belle was one of the few people left in town with any money at all. Doesn’t mean that Melanie approved of Belle’s professional occupation. It was desperation time for The Cause.

    Belle came to Melanie and asked her to take the money for the cause because Rhett Butler had said she was a decent woman.

    I doubt if Melanie approved at all. Melanie was just one of those women whose decency didn’t evaluate in that way. She also wouldn’t have wanted to hurt Belle’s feelings. That was probably her main reason. Recalling the novel (and movie), Melanie was nice to her before she had any idea how much money she was accepting.

    Wolverine, Melanie wasn’t manipulative at all so buttering up Belle wouldn’t have happened. Have you ever watched GWTW? If you have, you sure walked away with a much different attitude than I did.

  6. Big Dog

    Grey zaps Fenty – Thoughts?

    Will DC schools revert to a disgrace more known for patronage and kick-backs
    than education? Numerous inept teachers had their rice bowls broken-
    will they drift back into the system? What happens to the students? Will
    modest gains be reversed?

  7. I am sick over Fenty losing. He really was on a clean up mission. I didn’t pay much attention to it all until recently. I have followed Rhee more. I expect she will leave or be forced out. I hope for their sake I am wrong. DC schools have been known for years as being a place where no one would want to work.

  8. Wolverine

    Hah, always fun for a Yank to pull the legs of the “Daughters of the Confederacy”!!! Moon, of course I’ve seen the movie. That is truly a “geezer” film. Also read the book several times. I always thought that Melanie Wilkes was Mitchell’s weakest character — an unreal persona. But maybe her personality was necessary to sharpen the contrast with that of Scarlett.

    Best scenes in that film? (1) When the camera pans over the Confederate wounded lying in front of the railroad station in Atlanta; (2) the tear that wells up in the eye of the elderly man leading the local band in patriotic songs as someone whispers to him that his son is on the just received KIA list from Gettysburg; and (3) Ashley Wilkes returning from the war and walking up the lane to Seven Oaks, just to find his beloved home abandoned and in ruins. Three scenes which summed up Mitchell’s message in totum.

    And now, in this anniversary year, to a dose of Civil War reality for which I would like a opinion from you “Southern” ladies and anyone else who cares to weigh in. You can join an argument between me and Mrs, W. In my family tree I just found a very interesting person. After Sumter and the outbreak of war, Lincoln called for volunteers to come to the defense of the Union. In October of 1861, in a small farm town in Michigan, a farmer of 37 years of age stepped up to enlist in the 12th Michigan Volunteer Infantry. This farmer left behind him a wife and nine children. He disappeared from the census in 1870; and, for a long time, I and other family genealogists could not pinpoint precisely what happened to him. Finally, we did, thanks to some dedicated amateur Civil War buffs. He is buried in the National Cemetery at Pittsburgh Landing, Tennessee. He was killed in action on 6 April 1862, the first day of the Battle of Shiloh. His wife never remarried. She took over the farm and raised that family, not passing away until 1902 at the age of 76 after some 40 years of widowhood.

    Mrs. W is of the opinion that this guy was in the wrong and an “unthinking patriot.” No man of 37 with a wive and nine children and a farm to run should have volunteered to go off to war. Unless one is actually drafted in a dire emergency, war should be left to younger men without significant family responsibilities. I don’t dispute this thought but do try to emphasize that, when Lincoln made his call, patriotism in the North was at an unbelievable height and many men and lads did things while considering nothing else but love of country. In my view, the same attitudes existed in the South. Opinions?

  9. Censored bybvbl

    Wolverine, I know a man who was married and had about six children and preferred to go to jail (was a pacifist during Vietnam War) rather than go into the military. I guess a person’s conscience can cause him or her to lean either way.

  10. Not a southerner. My people were midwestern farmers.

    “Don’t cry, darling. The war’ll be over in a few weeks, and then I’ll be coming back to you.” Those are Charles Hamilton’s words to Scarlett as he leaves to enlist. Maybe that explains it.

  11. anona

    Why would a man with 6 children ever have been drafted in the first place?

  12. Censored bybvbl

    Anona, retribution – he burned his draft card.

  13. Rez

    @Wolverine
    Wolverine, I never took you for one of those liberal genealogist people :).

    J/K of course from a fellow genealogist.

  14. I can’t speak for Yankees, Wolverine. 🙄

    I don’t think you can compare north and south. 2 different situations. I would agree with Mrs. W. What jerk with that many kids would go off to do his patriotic duty. I don’t think that northerners lined up to volunteer in huge numbers. There was a standing army in the first place. Additionally, the war was not popular.

    I seriously didn’t think it was going off in that direction. I thought you were going to tell of of a man who disappeared and showed up 20 years later….that he had joined the army to escape his responsibilities.

    Do you watch Who do you think you are? There was a similar case. Most nights its pretty interesting.

  15. Slowpoke is one too, isn’t he?

  16. Just to let hello know I just checked….nada.

  17. Fringe is back!!! It’s on at 8 and 9 tonight. Channel 5

  18. Big Dog

    George C. Round, a school in Manassas is named for him, served in the
    Union Army, but returned here after the war, married, raised a
    family and was a key figure in local civic endeavors for over thirty years
    including helping found the public school system, bringing the
    PWC Courthouse to Manassas and planning the great Peace Jubilee
    of 1911. Just prior to his death, though, he noted he was sad to
    still be referred to as George “Damn Yankee” Round – four decades
    after the end of the war.

  19. That’s one thing I will say about southerners. They don’t forget. They would probably say the same thing today if they were old guard. My mother’s best friend since childhood, who was horribly crippled up with arthritis, didn’t go to the memorial service at the retirement home. Instead the poor old thing hobbled out to the graveside service earlier in the morning. The night before I had suggested she just come to the memorial service. She hissed at me that she wouldn’t go to Branchlands because there were too many damn yankees there. She recently died. She was 90. Long memory? I would say so. People from that generation actually knew people who lived during that era. I guess that’s what kept it alive.
    @ big dog.

  20. A little over two years ago, my daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. My wife is walking in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Walk to Cure Diabetes. She’s asking for sponsors. If any of you wish to help, thank you. And I don’t need to know if you did so or not, so no pressures.

    Thanks. From my wife’s email:

    Greetings!

    I’m writing to you to ask for your support in a very special cause.

    This year, I’ll be taking part in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Walk to Cure Diabetes along with a half-million other walkers across the country. Our goal: To raise $90 million to help fund research for a cure for type 1 diabetes and its complications.

    Type 1, or juvenile, diabetes, is a devastating, often deadly disease that affects millions of people–a large and growing percentage of them children.

    Many people think type 1 diabetes can be controlled by insulin. While insulin does keep people with type 1 diabetes alive, it is NOT a cure. Aside from the daily challenges of living with type 1 diabetes, there are many severe, often fatal, complications caused by the disease.

    That’s the bad news… and yes, it’s pretty bad.

    The good news, though, is that JDRF is making steady progress toward a cure. In fact, JDRF funding and leadership is associated with most major scientific breakthroughs in type 1 diabetes research to date. And JDRF funds more type 1 research than any other charity worldwide.

    I’m writing to ask for your support because now more than ever, EACH of us can be a part of bringing about a cure. Each of us can make a real difference

    Won’t you please give to JDRF as generously as you’re able?

    Together, we can make the cure a reality.

    Thank you,

    Please visit my Walk Web page if you would like to donate online or see how close I am to reaching my personal goal:

    http://walk.jdrf.org/walker.cfm?id=878102

    Richmond Walk To Cure Diabetes: Rockin’ For Research – 9.19.2010

    Or you can search for me on this link as well

    http://walk.jdrf.org/

    In the Donate to a walker section, search for me

    Name: Lauri Walker

    Team Name: UNOS

    State: Virginia

    Click the Find Walker button

    Thank you so much for your help.

    Lauri Walker

  21. Done. Thanks Cargo, for including the moonhowlings community in this worthy effort. May the force be with Lauri and may your daughter do well.

    Contributors, if you are able, step up to the plate.

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