Hard to Plan a Good Party

April 30, 2013

Some people host Superbowl parties, with lots of snacks and camaraderie and exciting plays to take up the evening.

I like watching the Kentucky Derby which, when shorn of the endless blah, blah, blah, lasts about 2 minutes. Kind of makes it hard to plan a worthwhile bash.

TV Notes—2012–2013 Season

April 30, 2013

My Top 2 shows for this past season were “Vegas” and “Monday Mornings.” “Golden Boy” also gets a nod.

Of my old favorites, the last few episodes of “Castle” have been as funny as the first season, and I’m still a “Hawaii Five-O” fan; but every other show I can pretty much take or leave.

Geological Ramblings

April 15, 2013

Flying out of Phoenix, I noticed that the mountains there look like somebody dug up a lot of dirt and made a bunch of piles around a flat plain. As the flight progressed, the mountains started to look more like the ones around Salt Lake City, which look like they were waves that turned to stone right as they were cresting.

I like thinking of mountains as big waves that got ossified. It makes more sense to me than thinking that a tectonic plate “crashing” into another one at the whopping pace of one inch per year threw up a big mountain range. I guess we all have our delusions.

I was also tickled to see an impact crater on the Phoenix flight. I’d never seen one before.

Freedom to Alert the Suspect

April 19, 2013

I was shocked, and very displeased, this morning to see a TV reporter telling the public which building the police were getting ready to search with a SWAT team for the Boston Marathon bombing suspect. (As if he couldn’t be watching TV himself.)

Can’t the media tag along to verify fair play (especially if it turns out that authorities are going after the wrong guy)  but hold the reports until the suspect can’t watch the police’s private plans being broadcast on TV?

At the Movies

April 18, 2013

“What a lovely voice you have! Do you use it this much outside the theater?”

“Excuse me! Can we stop the show so these folks can carry on their conversation without all this distracting background noise?”

“Is this conversation private, or can anyone join in?”

“There are twelve people in this theater, and you sat in MY row to talk?”

“Wow! I had no IDEA that a popcorn bag could make that much noise!”

“So—this constant texting is like having your blankie with you, and the glow from the phone screen is your night light?”

Bible Story Revisited

April 1, 2013

Nothing makes a regular churchgoer feel more sympathy for the brother of the Prodigal Son than hearing,

“On Easter (or Christmas), please park in the lot across the street so that visitors can have the close parking spaces.”

(Brought to you by the people who come to church regularly, make their contributions, and volunteer in order to help keep the church running; who are then asked to park far away—often while wearing high heels— while the twice-a-year churchgoers swan in and take the close spots.)