Good afternoon,
Stuff my dad would have brought home in a tabloid… in the 70’s:
With apologies – the kids are gone, and I’m all backed-up with dad jokes.
It’s reported that sometime in the middle-ages a nun in a French convent began meowing one day for no particular reason, and couldn’t stop. Her sister nuns soon joined in, and in a short time, they were all meowing uncontrollably, starting and stopping for several hours each day. This oddity went on for several days until those crazy cats were threatened with whipping. Rude. Seems like a missed opportunity to me. Or was it? This was well before Oprah, but it was only a few years later that opera was invented. Coincidence?
That wasn’t quite as weird as the biting epidemic that seized a different convent in Germany and spread throughout Europe for a short time. And about as strange as the uncontrollable dancing that infected a French village in 1518. (See above re: Oprah, and opera.)
And then… though the piece was attributed to Rossini, in truth, it was surreptitiously composed by Robert Lucas de Pearsall. In 1825 he wrote a duet of two women who both meowed (and only meowed) through the entire piece. Its meaning might be obviated in its performance. Look it up and have a look/listen to Duetto buffo di due gatti. Or not. It’s very infectious.
Global Insights:
That 70’s (sticker shock) Show – Speaking of uncontrollable urges… to spend, the inflationary pressures, were expected to prove transitory, but have meow-tated into a wee bit of a litter box. And central banks, recently still purring, see a hot tin roof in the offing. Could get ruff.
U.S. equity markets up, jobless claims down: With earnings season progressing well, stocks are higher for the third straight week. Meanwhile, weekly initial unemployment claims have fallen to a pandemic low and are approaching pre-COVID-19 levels.
Regional highlights: Canada’s inflation accelerates to fastest pace since 2003; Bank of England appears poised to act on inflation; China’s economy slowed in Q3.
More here: Global Insight Weekly
Enjoy your cat this weekend!
Mark