There is exhaustion and then there is....

how I'm feeling this morning.  I wanted to sleep in as long as possible but something woke me at five a.m. and wouldn't let me go back to sleep.  It's going to be a long day because I have one last training class that starts at 9 and runs until 4, at which point we have to take an examination to complete the training.

Things I'm pondering this morning include:

How can the economy be that bad if Connie Stevens can list her home for $18 million?  I guess I should wait to make this point until someone buys it, which will happen eventually although maybe not at the asking price.

Does it really make sense for people to be able to use EBT cards at fast food restaurants?  Do the liquor stores that accept EBT cards sell lottery tickets to the card holders? Will donut shops become the next in the line of merchants that accept EBT cards?

Would blackjack players continue to purchase insurance when the dealer has an ace showing if we told them how bad the odds against them are?  The odds are 9 to 4 that the dealer will have a blackjack when an ace is showing.  So if you made a $5 insurance bet 130 times when an ace is showing, you'd win 40 of those bets and be paid $400.  But you'd lose the bet 90 times at a cost of $450.  So make that bet 130 times and you're almost certain to lose fifty bucks.  However, I'm willing to bet that players would still make the bet even in the face of how bad the odds are for them.

How long will this ruling stand?  The Iowa Supreme Court (all men) voted unanimously that a dentist did not act illegally when he fired his assistant because she was "irresistible".  Being a threat to her employer's marriage apparently doesn't rise to the level of gender discrimination.  It probably didn't help her case that the male dentist's workforce is entirely female and she was replaced by another woman.  Presumably one that isn't as attractive.

Last night I was reminiscing about when I got to my first duty station and there was a point I wanted to make.  While assigned there I moved into my first ever apartment on my own.  I arrived as a high school graduate, faily intelligent and yet there were so many things I did not know how to do.  I didn't know how to balance a checkbook.  The customer service representative at the bank had to show me.  I didn't know how to read a lease.  I had to ask my boss to read it.  I didn't know to take photographs of the apartment before moving in and after I moved out, to ensure no one blamed me for not leaving the place the way I found it.  I didn't know that you don't just trust the first mechanic you take your car to.  There are so many things that we learn how to do as adults that we just take for granted, and yet when we have children entering their late teens, we don't pass on that knowledge.

I think that's partly because communication lessens as teens get older.  Not in every family and not always a great deal, but we just take those kinds of things for granted and so we don't teach them.  Maybe we should.

On this date in history:

On this date in 69, Emperor Vitellius is captured and murdered.
On this date in 1807, the Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries is passed by the U.S. Congress.  President Thomas Jefferson urged the passing of this law.
On this date in 1864, Sherman's March to the Sea ends with the capture of Savannah, GA.
On this date in 1885, Ito Hirobumi, a samurai, becomes the first prime minister of France.
On this date in 1894, the Dreyfuss affair begins in France when Alfred Dreyfuss is wrongly convicted of treason.
On this date in 1937, the Lincoln Tunnel opens to traffic in New York City.
On this date in 1944, the Germans demanded the surrender of the U.S. forces at Bastogne. Their commander sent a one word reply.  "Nuts".
On this date in 1964, the first test flight of the SR-71 aircraft took place in Palmdale, CA