Winners... and...

Last night while clicking around I passed the Chicago Bulls on television.
Remember when the Bulls used to be good? I mean, they dominated the league at one time, didn't they?
Same with my Dad's favorite football team, the San Francisco 49ers. It wasn't all that long ago when they were on top of the world. Now?

Feh.

Just sort of slipped into a pattern of... I don't know, mediocrity.

It's not just sports teams. Circuit City, big store on the block, gone for good. Bombay Company, Bennegin's.

Not just retail - banks like Washington Mutual. National City. Big, strong names. Kaput.

Sometimes... it seems like someone pulled the drain plug on life, and all the things we've always had, are going down that drain.

Ford, GM, Chrysler - no matter what some people say, they didn't build bad cars. I've had Chryslers for nigh on 20 years and would be very happy to buy another - if they're going to be around, that is. Some people come down on them for building trucks and SUVs but let's face it, it's what we bought. What we wanted.

The car companies' problem was that they thought and acted like the good times were going to go on forever.

As did I. As did many of us, I expect.

I still recall when Grant's went out of business. Grant's was kind of like a smaller-scale KMart type store, but it had always been there, in Camillus Plaza... until one day it wasn't.

I had bought fish for my aquarioum there, I had bought 45 records (tells you how long ago this was). But I still felt... I don't know, abandoned?

I know a couple of dozen people who've lost their jobs recently, at some pretty big name places. Seems like everyone's cutting back.

I don't know, exactly, what I'm getting at, here. Just commenting on a very sad state of affairs.