Summer's End

The autumnal equinox, the last day of summer, marks the sun’s passage directly overhead at the equator, an event that will occur at precisely 10:29 p.m. eastern daylight time this evening, September 22.
 
Since warm, vacation-type weather in New Jersey usually ends around the end of August and, because Labor Day signals the onset of school, most people consider the summer to have come to an end by that time.

Don't come any closer!

But this year the warm temps persisted beyond that time, even way up north in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire where Pris and I vacationed and where, as late as the weekend of September 5^th, it was warm enough to swim comfortably in the waters of Lake Winnipesaukee – an occasion which I did not miss to take advantage of.

Even up there, nearly 400 miles from The Garden State, the warm weather persisted and rain stayed away except for one day during our stay.  As most of my faithful readers have come to know, I never miss the chance to shoot photos of opportunity, and will take advantage of any serendipitous occasion to put one of my cameras to work.

Pernicious Intolerance Continues in the Arabian Peninsula

In Saudi Arabia, a faux American ally whose only mutual interest with the West is the pumping of oil, a stark difference between our two ways of life came to the forefront a mere few days before tomorrow, the  thirteenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America.

Just days ago, the International Business Times reported that Saudi Arabia’s Haia, the Arabic term for that nation’s religious police – officially known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice – raided the private residence of a Christian Indian in the Saudi city of Khafji and arrested at least 27 Asian Christians who had met there for worship.

Do you believe in Fairy Tales?

When the melody and lyrics of “Young at Heart” were first pressed into vinyl by Frank Sinatra in 1953 they quickly became a best-selling, million-dollar hit.  The song was later recorded by at least a dozen other greats of the time and, in our era, Canadian troubadour Michael Bublé is keeping its memory alive.



Employees listening to Arthur T. Demoulas  (Steven Senne/AP)

Would you agree with the lyrics of that tune’s opening stanza:  “Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you, if you’re young at heart.  For it’s hard, you will find, to be narrow of mind if you’re young at heart . . . . ?

What if you were asked to apply those words to corporate America?  Would you believe such a thing could happen within that environment?
 
Suppose you were made aware that nearly 25,000 employees in three states walked off their jobs overnight this July; closed down the operations of 71 supermarkets as tight as a bug in a rug; and, in doing so, tens of thousands of that chain’s customers supported them in their walkout.  Would you believe that?

To top it off, what if you found out that the immediate causal factor that led to this massive walkout is that the CEO of the chain was fired?  What?  Employees jeopardizing their jobs en masse merely because a rich CEO gets canned?
 
That makes no sense, because it’s like turning the corporate power structure on its head – an inversion of who is in charge.  Who would put themselves at such peril, especially in this fragile economy where finding a job can be like looking for hen’s teeth.