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Showing posts from April, 2024

"Hurray, Hurray the 1st of May . . .

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Outdoor Kissing is Here Today!" “In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love” Locksley Hall  Alfred, Lord Tennyson A tisket, a tasket A special Mayday edition - who knew that May was so full of fun and interesting factoids.  May 1, 1952 – Mr. Potato Head is introduced. (Not much later Mrs. Potato Head was created from one of his "eyes".) May 3, 1978 – Digital Equipment Corporation sends the first bulk unsolicited commercial emails… spam is born! (The CEO was tried and convicted posthumously for his crimes against humanity.) May 4, 1964 – Soap operas “Another World” and “As the World Turns” premiere.  (Coincidently, Valium was created the year before so now with “mother’s little helper” and soap operas, millions of housewives could get through the day in the 60’s.) May 4, 1970 (The year I graduated from the Harvard of the North - much t o everyone's dismay. ) At Kent State University, four students were killed by National Guardsmen who op

Where Have All the Children Gone?

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  Demographics are Destiny Mea culpa:  You know, i n all honesty I have been following this demographic time bomb for years, even while I was still working, but never believed it would happen. I was wrong.  Update 4/14 - As luck would have it, in today's Star Tribune was an another article by the columnist mentioned below about demographics. In this one he points out that contrary to popular belief, Minnesota is actually gaining people over 65. It's losing younger people that is hurting us. Taxes, schmaxes!  Unless you’ve been in a coma (or maybe retired) the last several years, you’ve seen or heard about the growing worker shortages.  “58%  of survey respondents found hiring to be “very” or “extremely” challenging.” RSM Consultants “Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, says the United States has a "structural labor shortage" that’s unlikely to be resolved anytime soon.”   “The US Chamber of Commerce claims there are over 10 million job openings in the US for whi