The Writer's Life 11/20 - Gain & Loss

Amidst all the controversy on immigration, here is interesting news from an article in the NY Post: from 2009-2014 one million Mexicans left the USA and returned to their homeland. During that same period, 870,000 entered America, a net loss of 140,000 people, which is attributed to the faltering economy and tougher restrictions.

Also in the Post, an article about a new songwriting team that has had four Top 40 hits in 2015. Justin Tranter, 35, and Julia Michaels, 22, have provided songs for Gwen Stefani, Justin Bieber, Hailee Steinfeld and Selena Gomez. I haven’t heard any, but well done nonetheless.

Has there ever been a more preposterous TV tag than “Fall Finale”? I suppose the euphemism for rerun, “Encore Presentation” is right up there with it.

A few weeks ago I commented that the Jacksonville Jaguars were not improving despite years of high draft picks -- wrong! They have won three of their last four games to raise their record to 4-6, which places them in contention in the very weak AFC South. They’ve been embarrassed only once this season, at New England, where many teams have left red-faced. Winning ugly, perhaps, but progress.

When Johnny Carson ruled late night TV, he took shots at politicians in his opening monologue but always made sure he hit each side of the aisle equally so as not to alienate a huge part of his viewers. David Letterman followed that strategy until the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began, then became partisan and lost a sizable chunk of his audience to Jay Leno, who always slammed Democrats and Republicans equally. Stephen Colbert's show on cable specialized in ridiculing the right, and he has continued that tack as Letterman's replacement, and his ratings are disastrous.  

My thanks to the kind folks who bought and donated books, especially the woman who gave me 18 novels in Russian, seven of which sold.

Vic's 5th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/okxkwh5Vic's 4th novel: tinyurl.com/bszwlxh

Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3

Vic's Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
Vic's Short Story Collection: http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tiny.cc/0iHLb Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kx3d3uf
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tinyurl.com/l84h63j

Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp

Vic's Horror Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3f

Vic's Blog: http://vicfortezza.blogspot.com/

Vic's Web Site: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/