My-my-my-my-my-my-my-my 1929

Whilst in Glasgow, Missmc was invited to a depression-themed party hosted by an author-friend. I was unable to attend - almost thankfully, as dress-up events are not my thing. But I did catch up with my friend during the day whilst she was cooking up a large vat of soup for the event. A quick google reveals that she is not the only one thinking of depression-themed parties. This website gives a complete how-to.

Does nostalgia make it fun? Of course. The veneer of the past adds a step of removal. So what would a credit crunch party reflective of this era, thrown in 80 years time feature? Well - nostalgia with a twist. In America, they might follow a recipe from (friend plug) The Lee Bros. new book "Simple Fresh Southern". The Lee Bros. are the current kings of the twisted nostalgia genre.

Moving on, what would we wear in 80 years time to reflect "The Now"? Well, for men, it would be likely be those little mini-plaid checked shirts. Skinny legged trousers for the humourously inclined. For the ladies, let's hope the 80's trend is forgotten. I am sure we ought to be wearing jeans or something really short. And a nice moth-eaten something.

The music? Oh dear. There will be nothing as reminiscent as the lovely sounds of swing available. I am guessing it will be Lady Gaga, Ting Tings and something horrid like Coldplay.

God forbid. Coldplay. Let's hope all this settles and we can, in time, forget this period entirely.

"It"

A name.  It now really truly most sincerely needs a name.  I've been calling It "The Situation" and "The-Situation-At-Hand" as of late.  We'll want to google this era in the future, and, what will we google?  Credit Crunch, sub-prime, economic crisis....none of these seem to have sticking power as the game evolves and more things happen.

The Great Depression sounds rather foreboding, and, it was.  The problem with naming It is that no one wants to invest It with more gravity than it deserves.  

Yesterday I caught a glimpse of the new U.S. payroll loss numbers a bit ahead of schedule and some estimates were hovering close to 700,000 for December.   Today the figures were released -- 524,000 which is better, but, one must add in the other 154,000 they backtracked and added onto previous October and November figures.  And think of what will be tacked on in January to December's numbers.  That probably brings us back close to the 700,000 figure.  January is surely going to be worse.

Great Depression as a phrase is so terribly grave, it would be helpful to eliminate the depressing part of it. Did you know Roget invented the thesaurus to combat the severe depression he suffered throughout his life?  Indeed, list-making was his therapy.  

Get your pens and paper out and make a list of potential names for "It".  You might feel better.

The American Dream...

The radio played softly in the background but its sound was progressively being drowned out by the ticking of the clock on the dashboard.  She could no longer look straight ahead and listen, so, she turned her head to look out the window.  Outside, house after house after house paraded by, all the same.  Three variations in door color, garage on the left, garage on the right. Small shaped evergreens and trees passed by at a different speed as they were closer. When that happened it was just black, a longer black than expected, followed by the world slowly sliding back into the frame before being buffeted aside by another hit of blackness.  He had stopped talking and was just driving.

That is the point Missmarketcrash woke up.  Now what?  Val is back. We've got a ticking clock (time or a tell-tale heart?), the man-who-was-talking-has-stopped-talking (now who on earth could this man be?), suburbia (gosh-at least Val is somewhere - she was nowhere in the last dream), and she is still in the car.  My thoughts think she is in America, it is a time thing, and umm...a mysterious-man-appearing-in-dreams is ultimately more appealing in the abstract so...let your thoughts wander.

Capitalizing on things...

At the school gates, there are a few Carla Bruni types amongst the mums.  No doubt these will be the gals that weather the current economy with aplomb.  France has sidestepped recession status, unlike much of Europe.  Of course, France will gloat a bit.  I do think this will all be short-lived. The G-20 has characters somewhat similar to the school mum crowd.  The capitalistic bombastic bully, the diligent well-educated bore, the utterly-devoted-tunnel-vision type, the social climber, the quick study, the head-girl...

"If we are facing the most serious crisis in the world economy since the Great Depression (and why is that always capitalized?) then we need to take a lot of possible unorthodox and special steps" was uttered (except that bit in the curves) by Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

Ah.  What is missing now is the Party girl, the glass-half-full one, your best pal...where oh where has she gone???  It just won't be the same without her.