Harry who?

Chilly! Yes, the temps are into the 50’s this morning. It’s no wonder that Boo wanted in, to curl up next to me. And speaking of Boo…yesterday morning, she did her amazing disappearing act once again. We decided to use ingenuity to find her hiding place and began going from room to room, toting the vacuum cleaner, an object she despises! We would close the door and start the vacuum. And then we would shout! And stamp on the floor, of course. When we observed no response from any hidden kitty, we would leave the room and close the door behind us. That room was now ‘secure’. On to the next room. Well, we ended up with all of the rooms inspected and all of the doors closed but still no sign of the cat. So we repeated our search. And that’s when we spotted her hiding behind the drapes in our bedroom. But she hadn’t been there earlier as we had both opened the same drapes during our search. She had moved there after we had disturbed her sleep. OK, we know that her hiding place is somewhere in our bedroom. We’re a little bit closer to discovering her secret.

And today is ‘irrigation Wednesday’; time to flood the orchard once more. And it really needs it. The wind from the past week has really dried out the soil. I mowed the orchard yesterday in preparation for today and the mower was raising as much dust as it was grass cuttings.

I was reading an interesting article in the Economist about how voters tend to believe four myths, or biases that actually make them worse off. They don’t understand that pursuit of private profit yields public benefits; that’s an anti-market bias. They underestimate the benefits of interaction with foreigners; they have an anti-foreign bias. They equate prosperity with employment rather than production; a ‘make work’ bias. Last, they tend to think economic conditions are worse than they are. In each case they, the voters, are wrong.

The author gives examples of each, including the one where the public believes that oil companies are engaged in price gouging. Of course if that were true, then the price of gasoline would not go down at all. Gas prices are determined by the laws of supply and demand. But the wise politicians are quick to get on the bandstand and play a tune that the voters like, common sense be damned. So this week the Senate is holding hearings and grilling the oil company executives in search of a villain to deliver to the people.

And poor Harry Reid; according to the article, only 15% of the voters knew who he was. But 90% knew who Arnold was! In fact, I don’t even have to type out his last name and still you know who I’m referring to.