you don't need to know this.

Speaking of too much information, while i was driving to Tennessee last week for work (i know - bizarre; even more bizarre to be staying at a hotel in j-rock city (thanks claire); most bizarre to be staying in a nice hotel in j-rock city; would not have been bizarre if one of the receptionists had graduated high school with me), i was listening to NPR (i do sometimes try to interject my music listening (which, for me, consists of Jack White telling me that i can't be a pimp and a prostitute too and Alicia Keys singing a song in which 42.3% of the lyrics are "oh oh oh oh ohohoh") with phone calls and news).

(If you missed the point of all that because of my annoying overuse of paranthetical sidenotes, I really only said: I drove to TN and was listening to NPR.)

So, NPR informs me that, basically, we owe China $1.53 TRILLION. Yeah, not in Remnimbi or yuan or adopted kids or rice grains, but 1.5 trillion American, U.S. dollars. ($1 trillion, written out in what the ancients called "zeroes" is: $1,000,000,000,000. ) This trade deficit increases by $1 billion every day, apparently. That is $11,574 per second. The other details are relatively boring: U.S. Treasuries, their currency pegged to ours, etc., blah, blah. You can read about it (also see previous blog post).

So, whatever. That's fine, whatever. But then, NPR also tells me (in what could have been the same half hour) that China was having something akin to their version of Katrina because of the winter storms impeding the Chinese from traveling home to their families for the Chinese New Year (a MUST there - kind of interesting). NPR then says, "Important Chinese Guy made this important announcement today at one of the airports where families have been waiting:

'Chowda, chowda chowdaer! Yinga yanga banga!'"

in a voice that i can only describe as a cross between the teacher from Peanuts and Alvin the Chipmunk. NPR didn't bother to translate the chowda banga until the speech was over, leaving me for 20 full seconds laughing hysterically (in my car, by myself), thinking that NPR had temporarily been taken over by Seth MacFarlane.

In any case, it was at that moment, when i realized that it was not a joke, that i determined i am very concerned that we owe China $1.53 trillion.

Yeah, we're definitely in trouble.

and of course..
Go Giants! and VOLS!
NY doing well in football, TN doing well in basketball.. who knew?