SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:

THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE – FROM DEADLINE.COM:   It’s official. Barack and Michelle Obama have signed their production deal with Netflix.  President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have entered into a multi-year agreement to produce films and series for Netflix, potentially including scripted series, unscripted series, docu-series, documentaries, and features,” Netflix announced via Twitter.  I can't wait to see Barack's remake of "Gone With the Wind."  In his version the Palestinians win. I've never seen a presidential couple make so much money so fast on their stay in the White House.

THE TRUTH COMES OUT – FROM COLLEGE FIX:  A professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics wanted to know which jobs are the most pointless, from the job-holders themselves.  David Graeber spent the past year asking people to “send me accounts of their most useless occupations,” in response to surveys that find a third or more of workers in rich countries “are secretly convinced their jobs are pointless,” he writes in The New York Post.  Among the 7 jobs most frequently submitted to Graeber, whose disappearance would “make no real difference,” according to the workers themselves: “Academic administrative staff”!  I'd add to that movie executive, CNN political analyst, and predictor of climate change. 

THE EGG WINS, FOR NOW – FROM REUTERS:  (Reuters Health) - People who eat an egg just about every day may have a lower risk of heart attack and stroke than individuals who don’t eat eggs at all, a large Chinese study suggests.  Researchers examined survey data on egg consumption among 461,213 adults who were 51 years old on average. When they joined the study, none had a history of heart disease. Overall, they ate an average of half an egg daily; about 9 percent of them avoided eggs altogether while 13 percent ate roughly one egg every day.  At least half of the participants were followed for nine years or more. During that time, 83,977 people developed heart disease or had a heart attack or stroke, and 9,985 died from these conditions.  Compared to people who never ate eggs, individuals who ate an average of 0.76 eggs per day were 11 percent less likely to develop cardiovascular diseases and 18 percent less likely to die from these conditions, the study found.   I grew up being taught that eggs were dangerous because of high cholesterol.  We await the next study, which will probably contradict this one.

May 21,  2018