Now that the Michael Vick episode seems temporarily superseded by the Petraeus Report, Senator Craig’s shoe dances and the despicable West Virginia torture party, I have a couple of thoughts.

The blacklash in support of Vick had just begun when current events became, well, current. They began with the NAACP and liberal columnists decrying the “volume” of negativity towards the Atlanta quarterback, as if acknowledging that while the music being played was crap the problem is that it’s too loud. One (white) columnist wrote that blacks think the outcry against Vick was “too much” and as white people we can’t appreciate how they feel with all these Caucasian-led networks and organizations vilifying Vick so strongly.

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Rest in peace all you who died.

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The New, Improved Osama

The big news these past few days is Osama’s new look — a trimmer, darker beard, a few extra pounds, fewer circles under the eyes and, for as much as we can tell from the video, maybe even a few inches taller. He’s certainly more presentable, someone you wouldn’t be ashamed to walk into a Whole Foods with.

When all is said and done, however, he still looks like a reject from Queer Eye For the Straight Guy. It’s as if the Fab Five had a sputtering go at him but gave up after the first day, leaving some of their bitchy, memorable quotes in their wake — “That camo is so Vera Wang, girl,” “These sandals are completely tragic,” “This cave is totally stupid, or “I’ve never decorated around butt-holes before so I don’t know how to handle this.” That’s assuming Osama didn’t have them beheaded, or in their case, headed.

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As I’ll always remember him.

Time out for politics, rants and raves.

Another another light of beauty has gone out. Much will be written about him in the weeks following his death and there is little I can add except to express my own personal feelings about a voice we will never hear in person again.

In truth, that voice left him about fifteen years ago, but there was plenty left to sustain him, and us, during that time. Mostly with the Three Tenors and his scattered appearances in opera houses.

As a lifelong opera lover inspired by Mario Lanza, for whom my father tailored suits in South Philadelphia to Luciano, few singers achieved the purity of voice and sound that he possessed.

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Lots of interesting stuff in today’s Wall Street Journal.

CEO’s

The first item of interest is the Danish study indicating that a company’s profitability fell by an average of 20% in the two years after the death of its CEO’s child and by 15% after the death of the CEO’s wife. So it would seem that shareholders would be wise to keep tabs on the personal lives of the CEO’s running the companies in which they own stock. A death in the family, sell.

The good news here is that after the death of the CEO’s mother-in-law, the company’s profitability on average rose. For the heartless investor, then, it would behoove him to find a way to kill a CEO’s mother-in-law after the death of his wife or child.

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The most ubiquitous Don’t

The political climate is very caustic and negative these days, but I’m told that negativity in politics is nothing new. That got me to thinking about the country and I’ve come to the conclusion that we’re essentially a negative society. We’re governed by negatives, in particular the word “Don’t.”

Why is that? Don’t ask me! All I know is that don’ts are all over the place. Don’t litter, don’t loiter, don’t walk on the grass, don’t spit, don’t talk, don’t tailgate, don’t cross on the red, don’t use near an open flame, don’t drink and drive and don’t fold, spindle or mutilate. Then there’s don’t enter and don’t exit. The don’ts got you you coming and going.

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