March 2, 2015

I just drove back from New York to Philadelphia skating all the way...

I saw no fewer than 50 assorted accidents: fender-benders, jack-knifed tractor trailers, barrier hits, spinouts, and the like.

so, and I'll be blunt, why the fuck were people passing me going 60 on sheer ice at places, and spinning their wheels and worse? They posed a hazard not only to themselves but to everyone around them. One car which flew by me like I was in reverse I swear I saw as part of an accident two to three miles later down the NJ Tpke.

Is this part of this Great American Aggressive-Entitlement Program which seems to have taken over every aspect of behavior; from discourse to driving? A few years ago, a former dental student of mine perished with his family in a plane which he was piloting. He had become a very well-to-do orthodontist and was certified to some fair degree. After he was killed, I asked a US Airways pilot who is a long-term patient of mine about the incident, and he told me that this guy had been flying the largest plane which does not require a copilot or navigator in the cockpit. He said that he would never ever fly this plane alone and he has tens of thousands of flight hours logged in commercial jetliners. He thought that as a pilot it was the height of arrogance to have put his entire family in this brand of jeopardy. As an aside, as luck would have it for one of the dead pilot's stepsons: he didn't want to accompany the family and stayed with his biological father for the weekend. He was the only survivor of the involved members of the family.

Yes yes: I know people have always taken unnecessary risks and jeopardized others' lives. Hell, Bush and Cheney did it to our military and by extension an entire region of the world as well as everywhere else. But for crying out loud, what is the point of all of this rushing? So you're gonna get there 15 minutes or a half hour sooner but in doing so risk life and limb for many others who have nothing to do with your plans. I would suggest people follow the perennial mantra of my mother of blessed memory: "Be reasonable - do it my way." Slow the fuck down. And live. And let others live.

February 28, 2015

Leonard Nimoy on the origin of the hand signal and LLAP

I saw him on stage as the psychiatrist in Equus back in the 1970's. Remarkable actor in a very difficult role. A real loss to humanity.

February 24, 2015

Q: How many Chris Christie's does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A: Why don't you sit down and shut up, numbnuts?

February 22, 2015

Your Comcast/Time-Warner Bill as written by Henry Miller:

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20150222_Profane_name_changes_greet_some_customers_of_cable_companies.html


he names some cable customers are being called after contacts with the companies that provide them services can be staggeringly profane: scatological and sexual, with allusions to body parts and perverted acts.

They are often mailings of things like bills. Almost all of the names defy mention in a news story, but for some sense of it, here is one of the more temperate ones, received by a female Comcast customer: Super Bitch, which was first reported in the Chicago Tribune earlier this month.

On Wednesday, a Time Warner Cable Inc. customer in Orange County, Calif., received a cancellation letter with her first name changed to a derisive four-letter term for female genitalia.

Esperanza Martinez, 34, said she was shocked at the profanity. She had called Time Warner Cable about an issue with her set-top box and had what she thought was a satisfactory conversation with a representative Feb. 12. Then, bang, the Feb. 16 letter.

===========================
Much more at the link. I like the way the reporter was carefully explaining what had been printed on the bills!

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20150222_Profane_name_changes_greet_some_customers_of_cable_companies.html#7ycKBsQH8rSLVbus.99

February 21, 2015

I just had a flashback to 1976...

The young lady whom I was dating at the time hailed from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and had worked as a desk clerk in a hotel in the city. There was a Jim Smith Society Convention booked for a weekend. The Jim Smith Society, which was started in Pennsylvania, has a membership, obviously, entirely of Jim Smiths. CBS decided that they wanted to cover it for one of those little ditties which they used to do even in the old days at the end of the network news.

Now obviously, the hoteliers were not idiots: they knew that everyone registering would be a Jim Smith or James Smith so they of course asked for the street address as part of the reservation so that they could distinguish the individuals. Well, the CBS producer wanted to show that the staff was confused and befuddled by one registrant after another attempting to get a room key and give credit card information, and the staff explained that it had already been taken care of: that there would be no confusion. That was unacceptable to the producer so they got my then girlfriend to have reaction shots as each of the individuals came up to the counter and when asked their name, replied, "Jim Smith". They went along with the ruse, but she, who was and is a very bright individual, was appalled at having to do so. From what she said, CBS ran the piece with the usual dopey predictable humor at how a bureaucracy just can't get it right.

So when CNN was faking the SCUD missile landings near their outpost during the Gulf War, I wasn't surprised at all. As far as Brian Williams goes or Bill O'Reilly for that matter, they're just fakers and pretenders. Of course, I'm old enough to remember that Bob Schieffer who is considered the Dean of CBS now, was just a young man in the deep shadow of Cronkite, Collingswood, Sevareid, Whitaker (sports), and the others who made that network what it was. Schieffer unfortunately is not what we had hoped he would be in his 'venerated years'. But what can you do?

February 15, 2015

Gee, it seems to be a trend:

a terrorist attack upon a group or individual whom the attackers accuse of blasphemy, followed by a de riguer assault upon a Jewish establishment. Call me paranoid, but I would be willing to bet that you'd have to go out of your way to find a Jewish shop in Mumbai, a Strict-Kosher store in Paris, and a synagogue in Copenhagen but I suppose that COULD be just an extremely random series of events like all the people who don't play golf who are hit by lightning three times in a year. It could happen, just like all of the molecules of your car randomly jumping up onto the sidewalk spontaneously. It is within finite probability...But strangely, I don't see too much around here of this little-acknowledged factoid around these parts…I guess people are preoccupied formulating threads about how Israel is not really a democracy in a strict sense as defined by the "Totem of the 'Important' Poster" or that some Orthodox fellow didn't want a woman sitting next to him on an airliner…you know, those aspects of society critical to the life and limb of individuals who are just trying to live normal lives.

I just thought I'd mention this…

JFF: Just For Fun.

February 12, 2015

Why I haven't been posting lately:

I was informed some time ago that we were almost certainly getting the Convention and knew that I would post something stupid...or, as some of you might be thinking, more stupid than usual. I treat many higher-ups in the local Convention Center and one of whom was instrumental in getting the Rethug convention of 2000 which gave us W. This individual was not particularly happy about that and was pouring the heart out when it was mentioned that we were getting this one...suffice it to say we're gonna have a big party here.