The rain and gloom and overall moroseness of the weather continues, but it’s supposed to be 80s next week. Always like this: a fast hard slap to let you know who’s boss, then a return of summer. Will this be Indian Summer, or is it too early? Googling . . . “The US National Weather Service defines this as weather conditions that are sunny and clear with above average temperatures, occurring September to November. It is usually described as occurring after a killing frost."

SEE WHAT I MEAN

I’ve had the blahs all week. Not the blues, but the blahs. The former is sadness with roots either shallow or deep, depending; the blahs are just weltschmertz. Achtung, you say - weltschmertz is serious business, being German and all that. A serious soul is wounded to the marrow by the condition of the world and the folly of man! Granted. But it seems the word ought to apply to weariness that does not have some existential, philosophical origin. You’re just weary of it as you would a friends with whom you have been traveling on a train for a long time. AND THE FRIEND WON’T SHUT UP, HE NEVER SHUTS UP! ON AND ON AND ON!

Anyway, there’s always a note of cheer that pops in from Boston, when Daughter sends something with a little chirp that signals a text from her.

This coffee maker had seen a lot:

The more I looked at it the more I thought it was feigning the look of shock, as if it was tired of expecting to be shocked.

This is the new packaging for Target’s premium house brand, "Good & Gather."

It’s not grabbing me. And the name is annoying.

The old brand was Archer Farms - get it? Target, Archer. It was stylish and distinctive, and used the great Coquette font by Mark Simonson. Then they redid it to look simpler, used font colors that seemed to bleed on the background, and somehow managed to make it look not like a premium brand at all. It had no presence.

The other house brands are Market Pantry - cheaper than Archer Farm, that’s the position - and others like Up & Up, which was used for things like plastic bags and napkins and bleach and whatnot. It had no traction, and no one ever realized that when the boxes are upside down, the name looks like Dn & Dn with a big round arrow pointing down as if the cartoon stock market just crashed.

Anyway, this just feels underwhelming. Has to be serif type, of course, because it says “upscale” and “discerning.” The colors don’t seem to give any clues about the item’s membership in a particular genre of food; they’re arbitrary.

There are two different types of blue cheese and neither is blue cheese.

Taco is not red, but blue, because . . .

Maybe I'd like them more, but you know, weltschmertz.

I'm surprised Lance waited until the trial to announce this.

This is probably the first time he's been brought into the case. Solution is here.

Something different this week: the music cues for a short-lived show called "Obsession." Every week, a story about someone who was Obsessed!

		Here's the music to play if you can't sell any local commercials!

		Uncharacteristically sprightly outcue:

		Now we're going with that fatal-doomed-mad romance stuff:

		Just in case you can't sell two whole minutes, we present: the Obsession Suite.

More albums from the Goodwill bin: who knew Spiro Agnew had a country career?

Not that kind. The real man kind. Not the long-haired hippie kind, bub.

Who was he? Yanks are excused for not knowing, since hewas . . .

. . . an Australian country music singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer. He was an Australian cultural icon and one of the country's most awarded stars, with a career spanning nearly seven decades and numerous recordings. He was known to record songs in the legacy of Australia, particularly of bush life and renowned Australian bush poets Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson that represented the lifestyle. The music genre was coined the "bush ballad", a style first made popular by Buddy Williams, the first artist to perform the genre in Australia, and also for his many trucking songs.

		They had trucking songs too? Of course; why wouldn't they.

		If you're a certain age, you know the product from the first two words.

That'll do - see you Monday.