Good morning, again, to you all.  The thermometer on the patio read 32F when we got up this morning.  But all of the plants outside are fine so far.  I will take a closer look later after it warms up a bit.  Even the tomatoes and pepper in the greenhouse are still standing up.  (Update: I think the Brandywine won't recover and perhaps the Fresh Salsa.  The cherry tomatoes may. I will wait and see.  I guess I have found the limits of the greenhouse.  The larger pepper and tomatoes are fine.) (2nd update:  Just checked the greenhouse again.  The little tomatoes are standing up!!  They just might make it!!)  The weather people say we will have 70s next week.  If so I will transplant some of my seedlings.  The yardlong and dragon's tongue beans really need to get out in the gardens.  They are rapidly outgrowing their current space.  I did get another five-gallon bucket filled and one dug out yesterday before the wind really kicked up.  I guess I should be grateful after the pictures the morning news showed from the Grand Junction area of Colorado--hurricane level winds with lots of blown dust.

I don't know how many reports I have seen over the last few months claiming that TARP would not only be fully repaid but actually make a profit for the treasury.  I have always taken the reports with a big grain of salt.  Like any other statistic the result always depends on the accuracy of whatever data goes into it.  As the famous computer saying goes: garbage in, garbage out.  This BBC story indicates that we have been fed a whole lot of garbage.  I wonder if our nearly useless mainstream median will pick this up.  No, I am not taking any bets.

Got something in the mail I hadn't seen in a very long time: a credit card offer that had an actual credit card in it.  Some years ago the companies stopped sending those out because too many were stolen in the mail before reaching their target consumer.  I saw a small item on some news broadcast that credit card companies are so desperate for new customers that they have begun mass mailings again.  I know I have received more offers over the last couple of months than during the previous several years.  Given the debt that we are drowning in as a global society, one would think the banks and finance companies would be far more cautious.  Evidently, one would be wrong.  Well, the old saying holds that a committee is the only form of human life with four or more legs and now brains.  I would say that that goes for companies also.