As a kid reading The Iliad and The Odyssey as part of world literature, I was impressed with the notion of the seers and prophets (predecessors to Sears & Roebuck, perhaps), slaughtering different animals, and examining their entrails to attempt divination of the future.
The Gods of Olympus back in the day were more fickle it seems than present-day followers of Tik--Tok videos.
I had enough trouble in high school biology class stomaching the smell of formaldehyde as we dissected frogs so the notion of digging around in a recently deceased animal's carcass in search of a way ahead, or the way ahead (if you will) never set my imagination ablaze with an ambition to emulate the Greek Heroes of Yore and Beyond (never to be confused with Bed, Bath and ...).
Still. Facing the future might be a little easier if you had a cheat sheet or some form of Cliff's Notes to help you along the way. What is it Dylan once sang, 'you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows'? True enough but if you're planning on letting a smile be your umbrella then, without a reliable forecaster, you need to be prepared to gargle snow.
Our daily news reports are filled with doom and gloom about what's ahead, based in no small part on what we've come through, but how do the experts know what they know? And if we knew it as well would we face the future more fearlessly or fearfully?
Economists speak of inverted yield curves, but wait! There's more. There's a Skyscraper Effect as well as a Lipstick Index, but the one worth watching, according to a former Federal Reserve Chairman, whose reliability is almost legendary is the Underwear Index.
Scoff if you'd like, oh ye of little faith (or bikini bottoms), but it sounds a lot sexier than the Household Debt to GDP Indicator, among others, and is available in a variety of colors in both boxers and briefs. You may want to check with The Loneliest Monk on inventory.
-bill kenny
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