From a story in today’s New York Times titled “Talks Implode During Day of Chaos; Fate of Bailout Plan Remains Unresolved“:

“If money isn’t loosened up, this sucker could go down,” President Bush declared Thursday as he watched the $700 billion bailout package fall apart before his eyes, according to one person in the room.

It was an implosion that spilled out from behind closed doors into public view in a way rarely seen in Washington.

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In the Roosevelt Room after the session, the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., literally bent down on one knee as he pleaded with Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, not to “blow it up” by withdrawing her party’s support for the package over what Ms. Pelosi derided as a Republican betrayal.

“I didn’t know you were Catholic,” Ms. Pelosi said, a wry reference to Mr. Paulson’s kneeling, according to someone who observed the exchange. She went on: “It’s not me blowing this up, it’s the Republicans.”

Mr. Paulson sighed. “I know. I know.”

But that’s not all! The Washington Post had a really great piece by business columnist Steven Pearlstein titled “Bailout needs leap of faith.” READ READ READ.

You’re angry. I’m angry. House Republicans are angry. We’re all angry at having to put up huge amounts of cash to rescue a financial system because a lot of very rich people rolled the dice with other people’s money and lost.

Now let me tell you something very simple and very important: You can try to prevent a financial meltdown or you can teach Wall Street a lesson, but you can’t do both at the same time.

So which will it be?

BUSINESS, thou Plague and Pleasure of my Life,

Thou charming Mistress, thou vexatious Wife;

Thou Enemy, thou Friend, to Joy, to Grief,

Thou bring’st me all, and bring’st me no Relief,

Thou bitter, sweet, thou pleasing, teazing Thing,

Thou Bee, that with thy Honey wears a Sting;

Some Respite, prithee do, yet do not give,

I cannot with thee, nor without thee live.

BY BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

The Busy-Man’s Picture

VI Mon. August [1742] hath xxxi days.

Damn, damn, damn and damn. Each weekend grows worse, a never-ending 48 hours of toil. My days off are no ones and no ones days off are mine. I’m sad, beaten and barely functional after 12+ hours out in the field and then editing in the office each day. In fact, I write to you from my desk in a silent newsroom at 1am tonight. So I present to you a quick series, “Instead of… (what I really should be doing)”:

• Instead of breaking hearts and kissing girls
• Instead of making a dent in my unread book collection
• Instead of drinking wine and falling asleep at an unusually early hour
• Instead of watching a Woody Allen movie marathon
• Instead of decorating my apartment like an adult
• Instead of…

As a child of the 80s, I grew up watching a lot of television. Cable television.

You name it, I snuck in Inspector Gadget, toyed with Heathcliff, delicately handled He-Man and crapped out Care Bears. And despite sitting in front of our 20-inch Sony television each day, cranking the dial cable box, I turned out just fine. Take that, TV haters!

That was almost 20 years ago. After a decades-long drought of only broadcast television, Dish Network is being invited to the Gerik household in 2008. It is comparable to the Prodigal Son returning home.

(update: Not all is sunny in paradise, it seems. Dish Network forgot to mention a few limitations… we’ll see what the ‘rents think.)

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You know those “guess how many jelly beans are in this jar” contests? The bank teller at National City bank let me play the game WITH REAL MONEY. Well, with my own change jar. I guessed $50 and it was really $58. That’s a 16% difference and a 84% grade in school.

Being a relatively new customer at National City, I’m always impressed with their main building in downtown Peoria. I feel like I may have chosen the place based solely on it’s stately appearance. Built in 1926, it proceeded the Great Depression by a mere 3 years. With 24 teller windows, perhaps they anticipated bank runs? Precognition!

Anyway, I’m going to have to find excuses to visit more often. Similar to a train station, but saved because of our dependence on money. (unrelated but equivalent photo here.)