Sleeping’s not gonna be easy tonight, searching for distractions.

#1 – NBC is milking the season finale of 30 Rock for all its worth. Last week Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) finally found his father (Alan Alda) only to find out that he’s in need of a kidney. Rather than give up one of this own, he stages a benefit concert that’s a wonderful parody of We Are the World. Elvis Costello refuses to play along until Jack unveils his trump card – “Aren’t you really Declan McManus, international art thief?” Also along for Kidney Now! are … get this combination …. Steve Earle, Clay Aiken, Sheryl Crow, Beastie Boys, Michael McDonald, Moby, Mary J Blige, Norah Jones, Talib Kweli, Cyndi Lauper, Rhett Miller, Wyclef Jean and a whole bunch more.

Elvis: Listen, when someone starts talking in the middle of a song you know it’s serious.
Mary J: So give Milton a kidney. We all believe in this cause so much we’re doing it for free. Except for Sheryl.
Sheryl: That’s right. I’m the only one getting paid.
Norah: And only three of us are drunk.
McDonald: Milton Greene needs a kidney. Just like I need this beard. You don’t want to know what’s under here.
(Don’t recognize this guy): And while you don’t have two beards you do have two kidneys. Think of it this way: if I had two dollars, I’d give you one, wouldn’t I?
Cyndi: I’m one of the drunk ones!

#2 – This was a fascinating article, big excerpt from an upcoming book. My Personal Credit Crisis by Edmund L. Andrews. Andrews was one of those people who should have known better – an economics reporter for the New York Times. Who took a mortgage he couldn’t afford because he could get it and he was sure that things would work out.

The panic attack hit me around 2 a.m. on Patty’s birthday. It was Oct. 17, 2007, and I was lying in bed obsessing over bills that couldn’t be postponed and the money we didn’t have to pay them. Like many of my predawn fear cascades, this one had its start with a specific unpaid bill: $240 in traffic tickets — $140 for speeding, $50 each for expired tags and inspection. The fines would double if we didn’t pay them in less than a week. The tickets had uncorked the bottle on all the other “must pays”: the $400 electric bill with the cutoff date printed in red; the $220 cable/telephone/Internet bill for the past two months; the MasterCard and American Express bills — at least one of which had to be brought current or I wouldn’t even be able to travel for work. And of course, there was the $3,271 mortgage payment.

Oh yes, his monthly pay after taxes, alimony and child support was about $2,700 and his wife was out of work.

Hongkie Town
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