Lunar Time

In local news, the first mosquito of the season has appeared, right on schedule. There’s always a lag between them showing up and when effective spraying begins. For those who prefer not to douse themselves in mosquito repellant it’s useful to reacquaint ourselves with how to get relief once we’re bitten.

I like the method of applying the back of a spoon heated in hot water to relieve itching but there are lots of others. In addition to all sorts of anti-itch products on the market, there’s also simple remedies like apple cider vinegar, ice, baking soda, alcohol (the kind you use externally), and others. Considering the amount of rain we’ve had it’s also a good idea to check your property for standing water. We go through this every year so I pledge not to whine excessively about it.

In national news we learned that Red Lobster has filed for bankruptcy. Lots of news reports have, rather gleefully, jumped on the bandwagon of blaming the “endless shrimp” promotions. The reality is, unfortunately, more complicated and, as has happened so often in the last years, involved greed.

In order to increase profit the parent company, to placate an activist investor who demanded more money, sold Red Lobster to a private equity firm in 2014. Private equity firms seem to have a track record of acquiring companies, stripping them of their best assets and then selling them cheaply to someone else which invariably leads to bankruptcy. Golden Gate Capital sold all its real estate so the restaurants had to lease back their property which cut profitability in a time when restaurants were, in general, less popular with the public. In addition, we’re in a time when unemployment is very low which means businesses which rely on a lot of employees struggle to keep staff and must, therefore, pay higher wages.

What’s annoying is, the private equity firm, like so many before it, stripped out every dime it could and left yet another business bankrupt. There are, as a consequence, thousands of workers who have lost their jobs. So, no matter what we’ve been told, it wasn’t the shrimp.

In the department of, enough already, I’d like to suggest to candidates for the November elections to at least make an effort to have positive advertising. The constant repetition of political ads which seek to terrify the public is highly annoying. We, the voters, should have reasons to vote for policies instead of voting against the other candidates out of fear. Just because some real problems exist does not mean we need to be fed a constant diet of whatever is supposed to scare us this year.

In science news, NASA is working on a problem: what time is it on the moon? At first glance the problem is so far outside our assumptions of how things work that it almost seems nonsensical but, when calculating space travel, it becomes critically important. It’s a good mental exercise to understand why such calculations are necessary.