The State of Things....

Tomorrow, I will try to embark on something new on this blog, and for the most part, untried up to this point (by me, that is).

It will be a series (I hope) on one particular topic. While I have done, or tried to do, series before (such as football division by division previews earlier this summer, or book reviews broken down into parts - most of which I will have to confess my guilt in not having managed to finish yet as of today), this series will be different because the topics will all center on one thing, or rather, one place. One town, I should say, in particular, and some of the things to have come out of that town.

That might seem somewhat mysterious and very vague, but I will explain all of it much more elaborately starting tomorrow when, I hope, it should all come together. Time will tell to see if it actually does, but I have been wanting to do this for a while. If it is a success, then I will began to try and plan for another one for yet another location - this time from another country. My other nationality, other than American, is French, and there is one particular town that I have wanted to write some things about for a good, long while. But it will take some time, because I am much further behind in my writings for that town, than I am for the ones that I have already written fairly extensively about for tomorrow, and beyond.

So, that said, perhaps I should write some thoughts about some of the other things that are going on in the world, so as not to lose sight of the fact that the world is still turning, despite the usual pressures of life that are felt around this time of the year. As mentioned in yesterday's blog, this is usually the time when summer wraps up (not officially, though - there's still a few weeks for that), and fall begins. Vacations tend to wind down, and people return to work and school and their daily routines, and await the turn of the weather to get significantly cooler.

Predictions about the upcoming winter I have already heard. Maybe this is not everyone's experience, but it seems that it has become somewhat of an annual tradition, dating back my entire adult life, to hear people talking about just how bad they heard this coming winter is going to be. I always ask them where they heard this from, and usually, it's either the news or something related, or perhaps the Farmer's Almanach, or reading some reports about the tendencies of the weather from who knows where, and of what dubious authority. Yet, they always tend to back up these claims by suggesting that their source has enjoyed a particularly strong record of accuracy over the last few years or decades or perhaps even longer, and so thus imply that their own faith in these findings is well placed.

We shall see, but it is interesting to note that I don't remember hearing even one person predict that last winter was going to be as ridiculaously mild as it turned out to be in my little corner of North America. I live in northern New Jersey, and believe me, when we got an unbelievable, and entirely out of season snow storm of a very strong severity in late-Occtober, just before Halloween, everyone was claiming that this was a bad sign, that the upcoming winter was going to be absolutely brutal.

"Can you imagine how much snow we're going to get?"

"Yeah, I know. This was unbelievable, and it's only October!"

"This winter's going to be brutal. Why, I heard, according to (pick your source), we're supposed to really get it bad this year. I mean, they were talking brutally cold temperatures and record snow fall. They can see it in the clouds and how much evaporation than are going to get. And they're usually pretty accurate, also, based upon (fill in the length of time that the source has allegedly been accurate). It seems like they were right, because look at the damage this storm caused!"

Indeed, the storm that hit this area last year in late October was most unusual. It did a lot of damage, too. Mostly, it was because it came so early in the season, that the leaves had not fully fallen from the trees yet, and so when the snow accumulated there, it weighed the trees down more than usual, and caused branches and even trees to come down, which in turn, caused all sorts of havoc with road closures and power lines downed, and such. In New York City, they had had a history of problems finding places to put the snow after a particularly strong storm (was it in early 2011, or perhaps 2010? My memory seems to be fuzzy on this these days), and they were strongly criticized for their handling of it - or rather, their mishandling of it. The storm caught everyone's attention, and I'll admit to assuming the worst about the upcoming winter as well, by that point.

However, it wound up being, from what I understand, the second mildest winter in history, in my region. While I kept hearing about how bad the winter was in Europe, with record low temperatures and winter storms, we here were enjoying one of the mildest winters that we have ever had, and for most people, myself included, it was the mildest winter that they could remember. I heard that we had more, even far more, days that exceeded 70 degrees fahrenheit (that's about maybe 20 to 25 degrees celcius), than we did days below the freezing mark (that's 32 degrees fahrenheit, or zero celcius). After the brutal snow accumulations and damage of the October fall snowstorm, we really did not get hit with much of anything again. I think I remember one snowstorm of any significant accumulations, and even that was not nearly as bad as some of the projections for it had been.

And I realize at this point that I just got so wrapped up reflecting on how mild (pleasantly so, I will admit) that last winter was, that it has now occupied the majority, even the vast majority, of this blog. Sorry about that. Moving on....

The Democratic National Convention from Charlotte, which answers last week's Republican National Convention from Tampa, continues. As I understand it, the Democrats are trying to show that they have not turned away from their President, that the message is that they are happy he is in office, and that there is a lot for them to be proud of. First Lady Michelle Obama last night emphasized her husband's list of accomplishments, particularly focusing on before 2008, when he was elected President. In so doing, she took a soft jab at Mitt Romney, never outright mentioning him by name, but suggesting certain things between the two men. She said that while her husband was younger, he made a choice to help communities ravaged by unfortunate circumstances by trying to help to rebuild them, and build up their morale, try to get them back on their feet again, rather than trying to focus on business and make tons of money for himself. It reinforces the message that the Democrats have been hammering Republican Mitt Romney on, that he is all about money, whatever damage it might cause to people. That the only thing that seems to matters to him is making money, even if that means laying people off, or that he enjoys firing them, or perhaps moving some jobs overseas. The First Lady was suggesting that only one of the two men can really relate to the average, struggling American, the 99%, and that that man is her husband, and thus, the better choice as President.

In the chess match that is the political strategy game the two parties are ow playing, the Democrats have enjoyed success with this tactic. Instead of focusing on ideas in their convention last week, ideas to try and get America back on the right track, to reduce the deficit and stop relying on increasing the debt, the Republicans mostly got sidetracked with reiterating attacks on Obama. The main Republican ideologue right now is Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney's Vice Presidential pick, and he focused his attention last week mostly on attacking Obama, rather than trying to promote his own plan, his own views. He has been strongly criticized since for inaccuracies and even downright lies given during that speech. As for Mitt Romney, his wife gave a speech trying to show a more human side to Romney, since his fellow Republican rivals and, now, his Democratic rival, the President and his team, have painted him as essentially an empty suit, a businessman who is super rich and used to living an elite life and, thus, not someone who can relate to the average American. She tried to counter that, and then Mitt Romney himself took up a huge chunk of his speech giving, in effect, his background story. This was his biggest political moment, and he spent much of it, essentially trying to refute the Democrats portrayal of him, trying to counter the negative image that so many view of him. He spoke a bit about ideas and principles, but for the most part, it was largely seen as a criticism of the Obama Presidency. The Republicans had hoped to hit it out of the park, yet there was little evidence of the "bounce" in the polls that parties often tend to get after their conventions.

Now, the Democrats have their turn, and the early evidence is that, while still attacking Romney by implication, they are taking a softer tone, and trying to focus on the positives. Michelle Obama may never have specifically mentioned Romney by name, but by implying that her husband made choices early in his adult life that showed that he cared for those struggling, those down on their luck and just trying to make do, it strongly suggests that he is in touch with the people, that there is a level of understanding there. Without specifically mentioning it, it hints at the notion that Romney was too focused on himself, that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, had roads already paved to help him along the way, and that he cannot relate to the struggles that many, even most, Americans have gone through, or are going through presently. That his bottom line is short term profit margins, and not the American people. Yet, this has been done with a measure of subtlety.

Tonight, President Clinton will begin to give his full support of President Obama, and he is always a great speech giver. I still remember back in the 2004 Democratic National Convention (although it should be noted that the Democrats lost that particular Presidential election), Clinton strongly repudiated the prior four years of the George W. Bush Presidency by saying "strength and wisdom are not opposing values".

Also, tonight, is the opening game for the upcoming 2012-13 NFL season. It will be the Dallas Cowboys visiting my hometown New York Giants. I already gave my prediction for the season, but let me give a prediction for the game tonight. I think the Cowboys are a talented team, and quite possibly, a playoff team. Maybe even a serious threat to the division title. But tonight, I think will be about the Giants. Their defensive line is too strong, their offense too potent, and the energy and atmosphere tonight should be too fired up and electric. The Giants win, 27-13.

So, that seems to be a wrap up, although it's more of what's going on around the nation, than the world - if even that. Tomorrow, I will start my series, which hopefully will be a success. Until then...