One of the great things about Blogstream is that my posting can be read throughout the US and all around the world. Obviously, I live in Central Florida, and often joke about the weather here, especially in December, when I can compare air temps with those of you in more northern climates.
If you're thinking about coming down to join us here in the "Sunshine State", think again. My local newspaper, the Orlando Sentinel, has an article out today that says you probably can't afford to do more than just visit.
According to the Sentinel;

"Between 2001 and 2004, the average salary in the Orlando area went up 3 percent. The cost of housing increased 41 percent. In 2005, the gap widened even further when housing costs escalated faster than almost any other area of the nation.

Meanwhile, this area has been the nation's condominium-conversion capital. About 20,000 apartments this year have been converted to pricey condos.

All this translates into an affordable-housing crisis, which has serious implications for Central Florida's service-based economy."

You see, anybody who has lived here for a while knows that the Orlando Metro area is built on a false economy.
In most places, such as where you live, local workers are paid enough to spend a portion of their income in local businesses. If you underpay your local work force, you ultimately take money out of your local economy.
Seems fair, right?
Down here, however, you can get away with paying your workers minimum wage ($6.15 an hour in Florida) and can do just fine. You see, the merchants here don't have to rely on the locals to stay in business. They can count on tourists from a more robust economy (the Euro is worth more than $1.20 as I write this), or from Americans who will spend whatever they have to, because they are "ON VACATION".
So when housing prices are zooming upward, and wages are stagnet, is it any wonder that even the Sentinel can spot a crisis?
Me? I was lucky...
Back in 1997 I actually bought a house I could not afford today.
My mortgage is less than most people now pay for rent.
So, if you are looking out your window at ice and snow and thinking of moving to the "Sunshine State", I really do suggest you think again.
By May, your weather will have changed...but we will still be in a third world economy with first world expenses...and it only gets hotter down here.
Of course, you're always welcome to visit...
just bring money. (and we do take Euros)

It is definately not a Saturday to open the doors and windows and let the outside air in.
I live less than 10 miles north of Orlando, and that city's Chamber of Commerce cannot be happy about today. It is 62 degrees and cloudy, with rain and drizzle passing over from time to time. The sun is sleeping in, and any visitor would think that this Florida weather they've heard so much about is highly over-rated.
On top of that, I have spent the past week fighting off a minor flu variation. By "fighting off", I mean I can make it to work in the morning, but then I come home and knock back a dose of generic NyQuill. This stuff really puts me away, so I've spent the last few evenings staring at the television with drooping eyelids, until I get around to dragging myself off to bed. Then, when the morning light comes streaming in, to quote Jackson Browne, I get up and do it again.
Amen.
Usually, I don't watch much television. I like Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC, and will check the local news in the morning for traffic tie ups. Other than that, I like House, because of Hugh Laurie and will sometimes find a good movie on Turner Classic Movies.
I don't have HBO, Cinemax, Showtime or any other channel I'd have to pay more for.
I find sports to be much less interesting on TV than in real life. (as most things are) I just can't sit and watch the World Series for more than an inning or two, yet I like nothing better than spending an entire afternoon watching Spring Training baseball in a little stadium in Kissimmee or Clearwater. The cold draft beer helps. Actually, as I think of it, I really like Dunedin where the Toronto Blue Jays play. They have Molson on tap.
Yeah, reality is better.
Which is why I often try to throw a little bit of my real life into my blog postings. Everyone's "real life" is different, yet we may share more experiences than we realize.
Because it was such a cold day (at least, by Florida standards) I decided to cook some comfort food.
I got a boneless leg of lamb (lambs with boneless legs are easier to catch...they just sort of flop around) and used a basic dry rub of Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper and a little bit of garlic. Putting it in a shallow roasting pan, I added some olive oil and a splash or two of cheap California burgundy.* There's no reason to buy "cooking wine" when the real stuff is often cheaper and has no added salt. The roast is now in a 400 degree oven, and the aroma is wafting through the air, making my house smell just like my grandmother's house in South Jersey did 35 years ago.
If you can smell that in your mind, then you know why television isn't as good as the real thing...or even as good as the written word.

*as an aside, I can't tell you how ticked off I am that "Two Buck Chuck" is unavailable in Florida. If you're from California, you know what I'm talking about.

I'm not going to write an obitury of columnist Jack Anderson, who died today at 83.
There are plenty of people around to do that.
I will, however, point out that he was what investigative journalism was all about. Some described him as the bridge between the origional muck-rakers at the turn of the 20th centry and Woodward and Bernstein of the Watergate era.
Bob Woodward should be so lucky to be mentioned in the same breath.
Near the end of his career, Anderson had the story on Iran-Contra, but didn't run with it because he thought he had become too friendly with Ronald Reagan. Whether it was to protect Reagan, or because Anderson felt he couldn't do his job effectively, is a basis for a whole other debate. The fact is, he knew enough to take himself out of a story when he became the story.
This is something I don't think Bob Woodward ever understood. Maybe having Robert Redford play you in a movie does something to distort your self image.
Anderson won a Pulitzer Prize while Woodward and Bernstein were making their initial phone calls.
The simple fact of the matter is that investigative journalists aren't supposed to have unlimited access to the people they are supposed to be investigating.
I often didn't agree with where Anderson was coming from...but I never thought he was being dishonest.
Even though they both made it to Nixon's enemies list, I can't say the same thing about Bob Woodward.

OK, this really creeps me out!
I don't know how to react to the announcement that some group called the National Entertainment Collectables Association (NECA to their friends) is coming out with a John Lennon Action Figure ! They say it will represent the "New York Years" Lennon, and will speak.
I guess the "Unemployed in Liverpool Years" Lennon or the "Stoned Out with Donovan and the Maharishi Years" Lennon figures would each be too incomprehensible when they spoke.
I guess it's like I've always said...you can't spell necrophilia without N E C A.
Why are they doing it?
I guess because they can...thanks, Yoko.

SCENE--A December night, around midnight. A bedroom in a modest house in Altamonte Springs...it is dark, when suddenly we hear...
GOBSHITE; Damn! I forgot the car!
(he gets out of bed, pulling on a pair of cutoff shorts, and walks out the front door. He goes to his car and raises the convertable top of the Miata.)
GOBSHITE; Glad I remembered to do that...the leather seats might have gotton wet from the morning dew.

curtain.

(dedicated to Mokie Joe in Indiana. Read him at TOUCHY SUBJECTS.)