Hi everyone,

Welcome back!  How are you?  It feels like I just went to bed about ten minutes ago.  I guess my body was already starting to forget what it's like to stay up late for Red Sox games.  BDH and Little Buddha say they'll keep the coffee coming to get me through the rest of the week.  Have I mentioned they're the best?  Oh, before I forget, Dad Clutter and I finally saw Spamalot yesterday before the game, and the quick review is that it's a lovely bit of silliness.  If you're a Monty Python fan and haven't seen it yet, you should do so if you get the chance.  Now, the guys say it's time for us to check out today's headlines, so help yourself to a nice medium DD, and let's clear out some Wednesday Clutter.

Someone won the $1.6 billion Mega Millions jackpot last night.  We wish the best for the winner -that kind of windfall could be beyond overwhelming, and it's sure to draw out a lot of unsavory characters.  Hopefully the ticket-holder has a strong team to work with to handle that prize.

Donald Trump continues his inappropriate attacks on the Federal Reserve over rising interest rates.  The Great Pumpkin's complex policy reason for being upset?  He thinks it makes him look like he's losing against Barack Obama.  The White House occupant remains an overgrown man-child with the intellect and maturity of a four year-old.

Good for Stacey Abrams for defending her participation in the 1992 burning of a Georgia state flag, which was based on the Confederate flag at that time.  No one running for governor in any state should defend that hateful symbol, and the flag has in fact been changed since then.  Meanwhile, her opponent, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, doesn't want people to vote.  Republicans know they lose when turnout is high, which is why they've waged their fake war against "voter fraud" for years.  Blocking people from doing one of their most fundamental civic duties is the only way for the GOP to win.

October continues to be rocky for the stock market.  The S&P 500 is down 6.12% over the last month, which certainly has the Clutter investment team's attention.  However, the index is still up a little over 2% for the year, so the team isn't looking to make any moves at the time being besides staying the course with the automatic investment plan, so they encourage the rest of us to move on to other things for now.  Fair enough...

The Boston Red Sox beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-4 to win Game 1 of the World Series.  Everyone was talking before the game about the great pitching duel between Chris Sale and Clayton Kershaw, so of course it ended up being an offense-driven night.  Sale gave up three runs over four innings and Kershaw allowed five runs over four as well.  Red Sox manager Alex Cora worked his magic, using six relievers to handle the remainder of the game and inserting Eduardo Nunez in as a pinch-hitter in the 7th inning.  Nunez responded by promptly hitting a three-run home run to give the Sox some breathing room.  Craig Kimbrel regained his dominant form at just the right time, slamming the door shut on Los Angeles in the 9th.   New Boston hero David Price takes the mound in Game 2 tonight against Hyun-Jin Ryu.

The Los Angeles Dodgers will forever be known for Jackie Robinson breaking MLB's color barrier, which makes it all the more disappointing that a team who used to have a social conscience would cross a picket line at the Ritz-Carlton in Boston.  Both the management and the members of the Major League Baseball Players Association should know better.  The players are clearly too rich to have a clue about what an actual labor problem looks like.

The reviews for Bohemian Rhapsody are coming in, and everyone seems to agree Rami Malek is terrific as Freddy Mercury, but it doesn't look like there's much love for the rest of the movie.  That might shift it to something for us to check out at home some point down the road.  As we've mentioned before, given all of the production problems this film had over the years, we're mostly just impressed they reached the finish  line in the first place.

On the other hand, we're still on board for seeing Creed 2 when it comes out in November.  Check out the new trailers:

Steve Carell is coming back to television.  Carell is joining Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon for Apple's new morning drama about the lives of people who work on morning television shows.  We'll watch anything with Witherspoon, but this sounds like an interesting casting combination.  The only questions now are, what's the name of the show, when is it coming out, and how does one view an Apple program?

Do you think this trio will work well together?  (pic via nzherald.co.nz)

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  Let's have Billy Idol close things out with his cover of, "Mony Mony," for today's, "Song of the Day."

Sorry, we were just having flashbacks to a junior high dance...

Thanks for stopping by, everyone.  It was great to see you, as always.  BDH and Little Buddha invite you to come back and join us for Game 2 of the World Series tonight.  (Any chance you want to bring some pizza with you?)  Otherwise, enjoy the rest of your day, be good, and we'll meet up again for more fun soon.  Until next time, that's today's Clearing out the Clutter, and we are outta here.