Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Misplaced Priorities

Let’s see if I understand this. People are losing their homes and others, having already lost their homes, are living in their cars or pitching their tents in washes. The dollar is cratering, rising food costs are squeezing family budgets, education is seriously under-funded, college graduates can’t get jobs and Arizona struggles with its budget.

In the mean time an assistant basketball coach gets a nice raise to $725,000 and an absentee head coach draws down $737,790. In addition there are performance bonuses he probably won’t get unless the assistant coach performs a miracle; in which case his earnings kick up to over a million bucks.

Decades ago one of our greatest universities, The University of Chicago, gave up on intercollegiate sports. Students still got to play games, most stayed in school for four years, and no one ever got a degree in “Family Studies.”

What a world.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

That 3:00 a.m. Call


This big debate about who will be ready when the 3:00 a.m. call comes is just so much political campaign hooey. No one is effing ready when the phone rings at three in the morning, you’re lucky even to find the damned thing.

Huh? Hoozat? Schnozzz… uhhuh? Terrorists? Wrong number. Zzzzz.

You know who I want to answer that call?--- A light sleeper!

“Too Many Germans, Too Little Text”

That used to be the comment made about any instance of scholarly screed that endlessly over-analyzed too small a body of information or text. You know, that three volume work on the “Epistosomous Fragments”--- a handful of papyrus fragments found in some 4th Century B.C. desert kitchen midden.

I was reminded of that old saying by my early morning reading of a selection of nationally syndicated political wise guys. Pretty much the same things are being said over and over again, particularly about today’s ‘crucial’ primary, but none of it is really new. Shut up, already. Wait for the votes.

Monday, March 03, 2008

Tired of Politics? Then Try These!

Sabrina, my plum, I think you’ll like this first recommendation as much as your old Uncle does. As I’m sure you know, I admire pretty women of all ages but I prefer them nicely dressed, as do the sharp-tongued but hilarious ladies who preside over Go Fug Yourself.

This is fashion commentary of a high order, taking on the dress failings of the Over Aged Destroyers, Starlets, and
Bimboi of the red carpet set."The day Sharon Stone stops thinking she's every man's dominatrix fantasy is the day Courtney Peldon wins a Golden Globe. Look at this woman -- she's a nutjob, and proud of it. Are those her nipples I can see through that shiny armor? Are those hot pants she's wearing under those strips of filmy fabric? "You know what? It doesn't matter. They are what she says they are, because she makes the rules, you weak little maggot, so get down on your knees and beg mommy for a cookie before she rips out a hunk of your hair and spanks you with a slice of Honeybaked Ham."----GFY

God, I wish I’d written that.


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If all of that is too, well, much the politically exhausted might want to take a breather with Stuff White People Like; perhaps while seated in a chair designed by a famous architect from the 1930s.

"--- as with all things, white people will do whatever it
takes to secure authenticity including paying thousands of dollars for a small piece of furniture. "If they are able to acquire this prized furniture, they will forever refer to it only by the designers name. “I spend hours in the van der Rohe, just looking through these beautiful books of his work.”

And now, back to politics.