November 2, 2016 --- comments on a normal day --- election, baseball, food, TV --- what else could be asked for

---The S&P 500 and other U.S. equity indexes fell for the seventh straight market day, the longest such streak in five years.  While some attribute this to the heightened expectation of a rate increase in December, that is far from the major reason.  Traders have done their job with this issue in the last year, and traded around it for some volatility.  Now the overwhelming issue is the election.  In  the face of growing uncertainty, the market is simply wilting.  In such a tumultuous election year, uncertainty has been exacerbated --- uncertainty not just about the results, but about the reaction to results given Trump's incessant comments that demean our democracy, aka his "rigged election" charges.  The more outrageous Trump is, the more adrenaline that flows into his hard core supporters, and on the other side the reaction becomes more intense and creates the potential for the bitter Elizabeth Warren and her uncompromising compatriots to get edgier and more influential. While there are always opportunistic traders on Wall Street, at the moment it is unclear why anyone would start a buying program.  Lack of buyers is suggested here as a reason to wilt.  Wilting will probably continue and hopefully not move to limp.

---Tonight is the seventh game of the World Series.  I will watch or attempt to do so.  Once this year, seven innings of a baseball game was watched when exceedingly tired, and it was enjoyed.  Other than that, and an inning or two here or there, baseball has been sporadically followed only through the newspaper.  Growing up in a time when the World Series was almighty(at elementary school a television was set up in the library for the 5th and 6th graders to watch a 7th day game in 1960(date is a guess) and on the weekend then I went to our church at times to watch with our pastor and others in his office.  That seemed strange at the time, just cheering with the man from the pulpit, but there were no shenanigans in this Methodist church.) Tonight there are no favorites here, but after the first three innings of seeing the players, I know that my choice will be set. Like many, the inclination going in is to root for the Cubs.  At least I have been to Chicago many times, and have never had a reason to set foot in Cleveland.

---Rereading chapters of A.J. Lieblings  "Between Meals" at leisurely moments now, today there was this, "In the heroic age before the First World War, there were men and women who ate, in addition to a whacking lunch and a glorious dinner, a voluminous "souper" after the theater or the other amusements of the evening.  I have known some of the survivors, octogenarians of unblemished appetite and unfailing good humor --- spry, wry, and free of the ulcers from worrying about a balanced diet --- but they have had no emulators in France since the doctors there discovered the existence of the human liver."

---Reading another book about current day England by Bill Bryson, I came upon the following.  "Back at the hotel, I showered, then sat on the edge of my bed watching TV, waiting for it to be time for a drink, and wondering how many tens of thousands of days have passed since BBC One last showed a program that anyone not on medication would want to watch."  This devoted adopted Brit should go back to his birthplace in Iowa to see that medication does not help.

---Among our delivery order tonight from Gino's, there were two Grandma slices.  I looked at the receipt later and it said "Nonna" slice.  Lack of change can be wonderful.