Loose Ends

I didn't have time to blog this morning, but I wanted to mention a couple of things I heard on NPR as I was getting ready for work.

One was a clip of Fred Thompson in Iowa. Now, we all know that while he will likely win the party's nomination, he's not presidential material. Fortunately, these days that is not a prerequisite. But the thing that I found strange about the clip was that they had audio of some background cheering. The people were chanting, "Go Big Red" over and over. I wouldn't know this except that my daughter-in-law is from Nebraska, and they are serious sports fans when it comes to College football. Big Red is Nebraska. I wonder if NPR just pulled a background tape out of the files for that report, or if Fred was speechifying at a pre-season football game.

And the second story I heard was a report on what's wrong with American consumers and why are they anxious? The bottom line was that, while the economy is supposedly thriving, individual budgets are shrinking. But, instead of a good report on why that's happening and what, if anything can be done about it, NPR brought on a woman with a Silicon Valley accent to tell us what we can do to tighten our belts.

She said the major expenditures in everyone's budget are housing, food and transportation. Then she gave examples of what we could do to cut expenses in those areas. The first example was from a friend of hers who had lost her job. "And the very next morning, she had an ad in the paper for a roommate."

The second helpful hint was an example of how you can save money at the grocery store: She discovered that you can cut your food budget if you don't take your credit card with you. Take a five-dollar bill. You can get a can of beans and a can of tomatoes and make chili.

I am not making this up.

And finally, get rid of your extra cars.

You see? It's all up to you. The economy is fine. It's your budgeting that needs improvement.

Update: Big Red explained...perhaps...

WIIIAI said...

I hadn't heard Fred himself called Big Red, but my guess is that it refers to the red pickup he rode around in when running for the Senate to show how folksy he is. The pickup was, of course, a prop rented for him by his campaign fund.

Thanks to WIIIAI for helping me out here.