Mark’s Musings – Feb. 11
Mark Fortune
With all of the turmoil in the world today, perhaps Valentine’s Day could be observed around the world as a day of peace and love, as in love your neighbor. I mean as in your neighboring country. You know, Russia and Ukraine and many other locales around the globe. At least the U.S.A. has made a goodwill gesture toward Cuba. I guess this is as good of a time as any. I hear they have good cigars and a lot of vintage American automobiles running around the streets of Havana but maybe I just watch too many old movies or something. I don’t know for sure about the cars but I think I am right on the cigars.
Buckeyes’ hoops seem to be hit or miss while the Cavaliers (oh come on – you know that you’ve forgiven LeBron by now) are on a big roll. It doesn’t matter too much in the Buckeyes situation as long as they’re hitting on all cylinders in early March. Regardless, this group of freshmen that Thad Matta recruited will – hopefully – long enough to have an impact in Columbus.
Locally, this week it’s time to gear up for some bigtime Valentine’s weekend fun – but it all starts this week with the Coshocton County Career Center annual open house, the Chocolate Extravaganza – held at the Career Center on Saturday, the sweetheart dance at the Lake Park Pavilion and the Encore Honors Choir at 3 p.m. this Sunday at The Presbyterian Church. You can find more information on these and other community events in this issue of The Beacon.
I took a little look at energy resources of the U.S. this week – just for fun. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration we have enough natural gas to last 87 years. We now have 30.5 billion barrels of proven oil reserve according to the same firm via Wikipedia. We still import too much oil. Our gross import was 38% of our oil from OPEC in 2013 followed by Canada – at 32%.
The top five source countries providing U.S. petroleum imports in 2013 were Canada, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. Their respective rankings vary based on gross petroleum imports or net petroleum imports (gross imports minus exports). Keeping in mind that OPEC consists of several countries.
The break in the weather this past weekend was quite welcome and a nice reprieve from the winter of 2014-2015 thus far. Although I think last year was worse it never quite seems that way when you’re shivering from the cold, busting ice from the trough for the livestock (no that’s not me but I know a lot of folks that do and I have in my younger days) or maybe sliding on the ice, which we have had way too much of this year. I think I prefer the snow over ice. As a matter of fact, that sounds pretty good – snow over ice; somewhere that has to be known as the name of a fancy pants drink. Maybe in Cuba.
Category: Mark's Musings, Opinion
