Cattle in the field reminded me this morning, driving the kids to school, of Kurt Vonnegut's quip, "We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different." The kids and I have lately been unable to get to sleep on time, get up on time, make the bus. It's not farting around, really, we've just slipped behind the beat, like a slow drummer. American auto companies have slipped behind the beat, like tuba players huffing behind the marching band as it parades up the street. "The Ford Motor Company said Monday that it would close as many as 14 factories and cut up to 30,000 jobs over the next six years," reads the NYT article. The news for the industry isn't good and suggests that while those at the top have been farting around for the last few years, those at the bottom will have plenty of time to fart around in the next few. This seems symptomatic of corporate management: the unwillingness to manage the health of the company results in the emergency amputation of limbs. Long-term strategies should be looking ahead decades, for the good of all, not quarters, for the good of the stock. Anyway, I hardly know what I'm talking about. American consumers have been buying foreign cars (Toyota, Honda) and dropping the American car company's market share by forty percent. Another excerpt from yesterday's NYT article: "The Big Three automakers have eliminated or announced plans to eliminate nearly 140,000 jobs since 2000, including salaried positions. That is about one-third of their North American payroll, a rollback to a work force size not seen since the end of World War II. 'This may not be the end, but it is certainly the beginning of the end of the automobile industry as we knew it,' said Gary N. Chaison, a professor of industrial relations at Clark University in Worcester, Mass." In light of this devastating news from Detroit, I suspect the upcoming Superbowl at Ford Field will be a less than opportune occasion to announce, again, the economic rebirth of the city. Cattle don't really savor life by farting around. They stand and chew and sniff the air, unable to appreciate the little time they have left until they're beef.