Archive for February, 2007

With a Rebel yell

February 7th, 2007

I saw a Confederate flag vanity plate on an enormous pickup truck the other day.  And this was in the greater-Boston area.  And, yes, I double-checked and the truck did have Massachusetts plates.  All in all, just an odd sighting.  Seeing the Confederate flag kind of freaks me out.  I mean, I love The Dukes of Hazzard (the TV show, not the movie) more than anyone, but something tells me that such displays of the ol’ stars ‘n bars are not examples of zealous Dukes fans.

I’m not up on my state capital goings-on, but we are all aware of the controversy surrounding the rich, old white coots in South Carolina who refused to take down the Confederate flag from the state house.  They played the tradition card and the ‘we must honor our fallen soldiers’ card, but we all know what they were celebrating.  I hate to generalize, but it’s thinking like that which pretty much assures me of not stepping foot in South Carolina or Texas (among others) anytime soon.  Just something on my mind, for what it’s worth.

Casual dining my ass!

February 5th, 2007
A desperate Swedish Girl and I went to a Friendly’s restaurant recently.  We had been shopping and running errands for a few hours and our blood sugar was dropping and we just needed some, ahem, nutrients pronto.  What an awful experience.  First, we were guided to the very first wind-blown table you see when you enter the establishment.  The one where the crowd of losers ordering ice cream practically sits in your cole slaw.  Borrowing a page from my dad, I asked the waitress for another table.  She was kind enough to lead us to a booth with sticky seats.  We were off to a great start.
Next, on her way to the ladies room, Swedish Girl heard the cook yelling at our waitress about my order:  “YOU WANT A F–KIN’ TUNA MELT!?!  I’M GETTIN’ TO YOUR F–KIN’ TUNA MELT RIGHT NOW, OKAY!!!”  I really didn’t want to eat an angry tuna melt after that.  Food is supposed to be prepared with love.  Later, I went to the men’s room to wash my hands and discovered there were no paper towels.  I was so furious that I shook my arms and hands VIOLENTLY to get soapy water all over the mirror (revenge, ya know?) and my wedding band (which is too big) flew off my finger, bounced off the mirror, and I caught it like a wide receiver before it could riccochet into the toilet.  All this occured before even getting our food, mind you.
When the food came, we had to eat while having the assorted slackjawed yokels stare, glare, and drool at us from 13 feet away as they waited for their ice cream.  Since then, I’m tempted to carry crackers and Gatorade with me at all times

A movie re-hashing

February 5th, 2007

I’ve been trying to seek out an idea for a participatory post from the audience, and I think I came up with  one. What was the best & worst movie you’ve seen recently. I’m not asking for your all-time greatest or anything. It’s more like, what was the most recent movie that you really enjoyed. And on the flip side, what’s the movie that you recently watched and particularly disliked.

There’s often a large number of films that fall in between these two categories and just entertain — I’m looking for the extremes. Here are mine:

Enjoyed:
I actually have two:
"The Aristocrats" — Not for the faint of heart.
"Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" — A surprisingly clever comedy that I particularly enjoyed.

Disliked:
"Lady in the Water" — Horrible. I typically like M. Night’s movies.. this one, however, was a waste of my time. I want my 110 minutes back.

What are your recent faves?

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Global Warming

February 3rd, 2007

If you haven’t yet read it, there’s a great piece in today’s New York Times about Global Warming. The Bush Administration finally admits that there is some truth to the claim. The latest report on Global Warming has shown unequivocal evidence of the presence of global temperatures rising as a direct result of human behavior.

There’s still some holdouts, of course. Take this idiot form Oaklahoma:

Senator James M. Inhofe, the Oklahoma Republican who has called the idea of dangerous human-driven warming a hoax, issued a news release headed “Corruption of Science” that rejected the report as “a political document.”

And while the majority of people in this country (and the world) believe that this is the case, some are still stuck in their ways. What is the worst that could possibly happen if we react to these Global Warming reports and start reducing CO2 emissions? It’s not like we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place here. It’s a win-win situation if we do it, and a lose-lose if we don’t.

Let’s just hope that it’s not too late. According to the report,

"…There is a more than a 1-in-10 chance of much greater warming, a risk that many experts say is far too high to ignore."

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Google’s Secret Perks

February 2nd, 2007

Cracked.com offers a unique list of perks offered at the Googleplex Not of which are true, except number seven:

Google employees can commute to work via free company shuttle; it is piloted by retired colonel Buzz Aldrin.

He fills in for when our usual shuttle driver, Mario Andretti, calls in sick

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The ATHF Debacle

February 1st, 2007

If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past two days, you probably know about the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Device Debacle going on in Boston. I somewhat wish that I was still working over at Boston.com to witness, first hand, the panic and hysteria that ensued over the devices.

A former co-worker of mine, who still works over at Boston.com wrote a good summary of the events as they unfolded in his blog today. I thought it was an insightful look at the events, especially considering that I agree with his estimations of how the site responded to this issue versus the way it previously handled events such as this.

Frankly, I think it’s completely absurd the way the city responded to these boxes which have been up around town for several weeks now. Not only that, the fact that they are filing criminal charges against the two men that put these up (at the behest of the Advertising Agency, mind you) is ludicrous. What’s even more insane is that Mumbles Menino wants to file a lawsuit of some kind against Turner Broadcasting.

I highly doubt that such an ordeal was made when a few folks from MIT marked how "Smoot’s" it took to cross the Mass Ave Bridge. It is true that we live in a post-9/11 world where we need to be much more cautious. I’m the first one to freak out if I find a bag unattended in a public place — and but you’d think that they would have cleared something like this with the powers that be.

Either way, a mistake was made and policy should be set. I don’t think arresting two guys who weren’t even doing this as a prank, is the right answer.