The One-Minute Meeting

My lead story today is about how Winnie the Pooh became a murderous bear. No kidding, Pooh just turned into a slasher movie. Before you think this is the end of civilization, realize how it happened. The book on which the child’s story is based is nearly 100 years old and entered into public domain this year. The AP reported recently, “In the next 10 years, some of the most iconic characters in pop culture — including Bugs Bunny, Batman and Superman — will pass into public domain, or at least their most early incarnations. Some elements of Pooh are still off-limits, like his red shirt, since they apply to later interpretations. Tigger, who debuted in 1928’s ‘The House at Pooh Corner,’ isn’t public until 2024.”

Maybe it is a sign of the economic stress people are feeling, but dollar stores are popping up in small towns like weeds. Some tiny towns now have several. Predictably, the legacy mom-and-pop stores are worried.

Another big balloon is floating in U.S. airspace and nobody seems to know who put it there. This one is near Hawaii. Pilots say it is around 40,000 to 50,000 feet up and moving toward Honolulu.

I will point you toward a New York Times piece that surprised me. It says, “Food product dating, as the U.S. Department of Agriculture calls it, is completely voluntary for all products (with the exception of baby food). Not only that, but it has nothing to do with safety. It acts solely as the manufacturer’s best guess as to when its product will no longer be at peak quality, whatever that means.” This of course launched a conversation in my household about why my wife is so obsessed with throwing out stuff with an arbitrary date stamped on the label, even though it is still sealed up in a can.