The IKEA "KVETCH"

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If you've ever been to an IKEA on a Saturday afternoon, you know that if you stop moving forward at any time, you will be trampled. There is a certain "sheep to slaughter" vibe present there on weekends, given the narrow pathways, and all of the arrows that point forward.  

I tried to stop and read some of the quotes about specific items from the Swedish designers, but I concluded that taking photos to read later would be a better strategy. Unfortunately, I couldn't always identify the actual product being described. And I got lost a couple of times. 

And I swear that I spotted one product called "KVETCH", but with all of the odd Swedish names and the imperative to always keep moving forward, I may be mistaken. Nevertheless, the name seemed to work well today.

Super Bowl Wardrobe Malfunction

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I generally ignore the two-week promotional buildup to the Super Bowl when the Patriots aren't involved, in the same way I avoid pre-game shows for any sport. But I did happen to catch an interview earlier this week with Sean McManus, Chairman of CBS Sports (the network that's carrying the game). He was asked what his biggest concern was about the live broadcast, the one thing that kept him awake at night. A power failure? A terrorist attack? 

No. 

"A wardrobe malfunction." 

Hillary Clinton Declares Iowa Victory In A Dead Heat

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John Cassidy (in his New Yorker blog post this morning) summarizes a startling demographic result from last night's Democrat caucuses in Iowa: 

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 "The age gap between Clinton supporters and Sanders supporters was huge. According to the entrance polls, which wrongly predicted a Clinton victory, Sanders got eighty-six per cent of the Democratic vote in the seventeen-to-twenty-four age group, eighty-one per cent in the twenty-five-to-twenty-nine group, and sixty-five per cent in the thirty-to-thirty-nine age group. Clinton, by contrast, was largely reliant on the middle-aged and the elderly. Among forty-something voters, she won by five percentage points. Among the over-fifties, she won by more than twenty per cent."

As Bill Belichick would say, "we're on to New Hampshire".