Good News

Only one more week of this election stuff left to go. This is good news indeed.

Of course, do not expect the stuff to go away. There will be no more commercials, but there will be a few days of "analysis". State by State, County by County, precinct by precinct, down to the smallest possible unit analysis.

Before computers and crap this was probably not possible. But it is now. Technology - she be a harsh mistress. Like the sea. Only less salty. And fewer sharks.

The FLIBS is in town this weekend. And what the hell is the FLIBS?

Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show.

I think I have managed to wrangle some free FLIBS tickets. Or should I say ticket. So it looks like Ill go. Why not. I like to look at stuff. I think the plan is to go to the big ass boat section and look at the big ass boats.

Somewhere there is a place to score booze. There always is. The idea being if you get people drunk, they are more likely to buy a boat.

And in this economy, I would be grabbing people that walk by, strapping them down to the floor of one of the boats at my display, then funneling rum down their throat. I would have boxes of kittens and puppies and infants - which I would threaten to drown if nobody bought something.

Desperate times call for desperate measures after all.

But the truth is the very large boat market is not really suffering the same as the small boat market. See people in the market for a $10m yacht do not really give a shit about the economy. They are going to drop $10 million on a boat. They are insulated from the shit storm. Somewhat.

80% of the world's big yachts are sold at the Ft. Lauderdale show. Last year sales WERE down. I do not know by how much.

I did hear that a lot of the smaller boat sales fell through. This happens every show. People get all want-y and shit. Then they see a boat that they can not really afford, and start the process of buying. Then when they can not secure financing the deal just dies. Or they just back out. They get home, get sober, and back out.

But last year A LOT of deals died. And credit was still somewhat easy to get. I expect new boat sales in the under 40 feet class to be dismal.

But Ill go.

The truth is I like the convention center venue the best. This is where the accessories and smaller boats are. Things like electronics, gizmos, thingies, crap, doohickeys, demos, and so on. I like to look at that stuff.

Ill do that at the Miami show.