Everything Everywhere All at Once.
That’s not just the Oscar winner, it’s an apt description of this Monday in both news and sports.
We were all wondering how high the Fed could push interest rates before something broke. We found out Friday with the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, followed by the aftershock precautionary shutdown of Signature Bank.
It’s a High Anxiety Monday, and public tension would be near the breaking point had it not been for reassurances issued Sunday by the Fed and the Treasury Department, who announced they will work together with FDIC to insure all deposits threatened by the collapses, and that the bailout will not involve taxpayer money.
Hmmm. Ultimately, it’s all taxpayer money, right?
What’s next? We’ll learn more this morning following President Biden’s address to the nation.
I’d describe myself as Oscar Neutral. I’m neither annually enamored nor outraged. I don’t look to the Oscars for social and political guidance, but neither do I begrudge an industry that is definitionally dramatic taking a night to collectively masturbate.
Whatever. With my pleasant and passive indifference.
I don’t use words like “brave” to describe movies and actors. I tend to categorize them more broadly as either “interesting” or “not interesting.” I greatly prefer interesting.
And I admit that as a language guy, I find winners’ ubiquitous and obligatory acceptance speech references to “people who look like me” to be increasingly trite. I’m good with the sentiment. It’s just the phrase that has become an eye-roller. Nobody looks like anybody else.
But I do defend entertainers’ rights to speak out, as I do the rights of athletes. You don’t have an obligation to listen or care. But you don’t have a right to try to silence them.
BB had an interesting observation. That’s kinda what BB does. She noted the trend for women in the film industry moving toward aging more naturally and gracefully, and used Jamie Lee Curtis and Sigourney Weaver as examples. As BB put it, “No more post-menopausal extreme measures.” Yeah. That’s healthy.
But so is Jennifer Connelly.
I’ll just take my ass-whuppin’ now.
It’s March 13. It was 49-years ago this morning that I first heard a piece of music that changed my life. It’s a well-above-average story.
I’ll tell it later today, both in this space and on Facebook.
Just a generic observation here. Folks always say, “This is no time to panic.” OK. Will you promise to tell when it is?
