So glad you have signed up to receive the For Random Learning Comes Newsletter! This is the seventy-seventh edition. Previous editions can be found on the blog's Newsletter page. I send it out weekly, so if you don't get my email on Saturday morning, please let me know! (Check your junk and spam folders too.) *** This week, I came up with just one poem. Numbers were a focus as tax day drew near and the stock market decided to take a few plunges, in response to some bad banking news. My poem The End refers (hopefully) to the end of the volatility we have seen this week. The market fell in response to the tech-heavy Silicon Valley Bank failure and the prospect of several other banks, teetering on the edge of insolvency or illiquidity. Apparently at least part of the problem was SVG's concentration in one sector--the tech sector-- which called to mind the proverb about not putting all of your eggs in one basket. Despite the banking mayhem, the Fed raised interest rates this week, which pleased some and not others, causing further volatility. I don't pretend to understand such matters, but as bank name after bank name has surfaced--some quite familiar from the last time around, such as Deutsche Bank, UBS and Credite Suisse--I could not help but tremble, as the trauma echo of 2008 rolled over those of us who still remember that financial crisis. (If you don't, I recommend the movie "The Big Short" for a darkly comedic tutorial.) With any luck, nothing like that will happen again in our lifetimes. But it's amazing to watch, how a little uncertainty can send our perceptions of value, as charted on an index like the Dow Jones or the S & P, right off a cliff. I hope you enjoy the poem, at least to the degree, that such snapshots of a frightening reality can be enjoyed. That's all for this week. See you next time around! Andrea

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