Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene

  • Life is boring without electricity. I'm getting reminded of that today.

  • I hear this line all the time in TV shows and the occasional movie:
    "What are you doing here?"
    This strikes me as something you never hear in normal life, because it's kind of rude. But it must be in a screenwriters' manual somewhere as an all-purpose trick to advance the plot.

  • How many marriage proposals do you think the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten, gets per week? I'm thinking it's gotta be dozens. At least.

  • I have no problem with people pronouncing "nuclear" as noo-kyoo-lur. But hearing "artic" or "antartica"—it's fingernails on the chalkboard.

  • Actually, I've never been that bothered by fingernails on the chalkboard either.

  • I wish we had more newspapers with Picayune in their names.

  • I've always been fond of Jefferson Starship's We Built This City on Rock and Roll. (Ah, here's the video. Knee deep in the hoopla, indeed.) Wikipedia has a good summary of why this shows my complete lack of musical taste.

  • Irony: Consumer Reports sends its subscribers piles of junk mail hawking add-on products: newsletters, website goodies, gift subscriptions. Without exception, they use cheesy marketing gimmicks ("NON-TRANSFERABLE. For Recipient Only", blares their latest envelope). Pretty much the same kind of tactics they deride in the magazine.