--Yesterday I had lunch at Wendy’s where I polished off
a #1 with
cheese, no pickles, and a Coke.And
while I was standing at the condiment bar, collecting all necessary
lunching equipment, this conversation took place between me and a
woman cleaning tables in the dining room:
Wendy’s employee:Well, hello Joe! Me:Hey there, how ya doing? Wendy’s employee:Oh, can’t complain, can’t complain.How are those girls? Me:Doing well.They’re
growing up fast. Wendy’s employee:Ha!You don’t need to
tell me about it.My two are
already up and out of the house. Me:Amazing, isn’t it? Wendy’s employee:It sure is.…Well, I
don’t want to hold up your lunch.Tell
Linda I said hi. Me:I’ll certainly do it.Take
care.
Never saw her before in my life.
--I finally watched No
Country For Old Men a few
nights ago, and thought it was excellent.I went into it without knowing much, I thought it might be a
western (no joke), and that’s the best way to watch a movie, I
believe.
I had
heard a lot of complaints about the ending, but don’t really
understand the controversy.It’s
not as if there were a lot of unanswered questions remaining; the
tale, as they say, had been told.
Perhaps it has something to do with the fact it didn’t end the way
folks wanted it to?Maybe the conclusion wasn’t satisfactory because a certain
person didn’t get what was coming to his creepy ass?And the good guys didn’t exactly come out on top?Just a hunch.I could be
wrong.
On a semi-related note:I’d
received that disc from Netflix on March 11, and didn’t watch it
until the end of April. And
that, my friends, is an example of piss-poor flixmanship.
As soon as I get caught up on 24
(one season remaining), The
Wire (two seasons, or three
counting the one that just aired), and The
Fugitive (a half-season to
go), I’m changing my plan to one disc at a time, and switching the
emphasis back to movies.
Adapt or die, or whatever.
--I work with a woman who
tells long, complicated stories, with loads of atmosphere, character
development, dialogue, conflict, etc.Oh,
she loves to talk, and she’s very good at it.
We get along fine, but I inadvertently made her mad a few nights ago.During one of her monologues she described a man as being
“colored,” which I found amusing.
What is this, 1965?
She
said, “Oh, sorry if I’m not up on all the latest phrases, college
boy.”Which made me laugh
even harder.College boy?
She eventually went on with her tale, and about ten minutes later
referred to a neighbor’s kid as “special retarded.”I almost fell out of my chair, and she hasn’t said much to me
since.
I’m sorry, but that shit’s hilarious.
-- Also, I'm reminded of a Surf Report Rule of Thumb:The narrator is always a bad-ass in the retelling.
--I just finished a book by
Lee Child.Apparently he’s
very popular, but I’d never heard of him before we went to England
.While there I saw roughly eight to four million posters advertising his
new novel, on the walls of subway stations.I read these things over and over again, while waiting on
trains, and became mildly intrigued.
So when I got back, I looked him up on Amazon.He sounded like a worthy diversion, and I bought one of his
books at Borders.And it kinda
got on my nerves.
It’s simply loaded with sentence fragments. A little of that’s
OK, I’ve been known to do it myself, but he goes overboard in my
opinion.It’s page after page
of:
Jack entered the room.Dimly
lit.Chair in the corner.Half-eaten sandwich on the side table.Flies buzzing around it.Big
flies.Bottle green.Thursday.Evening.Late in the day.Very
late.
That’s not a direct quote, but it could’ve been.The story was interesting enough, but the writing style made me
feel anxious and nervous.It
was like hanging out with a speed freak.Or a man with a plate in his head.
Big plate. Necessary plate.
--After I scratch a few more things off my to-do list, I think I
might join a religion that requires a uniform.Any suggestions?I’d
like for it to include a hat of some sort, if possible.
-- Steve and I are making our annual pilgrimage to the Baseball Hall
of Fame on May 16. We want to get up there before the school year
ends, and
the place becomes overrun by vacationers and screaming booger
factories. Cooperstown is one of the best places on Earth, and we're
feeling its powerful pull again. Oh yeah.
--And speaking of
“colored” men, I was thinking up fake kitchen-based names for
blues singers while taking a shower today.…What?You don’t do
that kind of thing in the shower?Oh,
so I’m
the freak?Is that the way
we’re going to play it?
Anyway, here are a few I came up with:
Walter “Salad Spinner” Jones
Jimmy “Cake Mix” Williams
Robert “Spice Rack” Washington
Willie "Toaster Strudel" Jefferson
Freddie “Sandwich Bag” Walker
Bessie “Celery Salt” King
John “4-Slice” Dixon
And, believe it or not, I had about twenty others.But that’s a fair sampling of my showertime work today.Care to take it from
there?Use the comments link
below, and please limit yourselves to the kitchen.We can do other rooms later.
--I should’ve reminded you
guys of this earlier, but I hope you remembered that yesterday was Hock a
Goober Thursday.I celebrated.Did you?
-- And I'm thinking about buying one of these,
as a solution to the no-stereo purgatory I find myself in. It's
inexpensive, but receives rave reviews everywhere I've looked. Even
better than the high-dollar Bose, some folks say.
Plus, the bunker is literally a former walk-in closet; I don't need a
Woodstock sound system in here. Something the size of that iVoice would probably do
the trick.
I've got a big honkin' 80 gig iPod still in the box, bought with
Amazon gift certificates when I decided to downgrade my camera
purchase. And I'm thinking about adjusting my musical plan of
attack.
A decent docking station, and most of my CDs stored on the iPod...
that might be the way to proceed: as some of you suggested. Yes, it's
2008 and probably about time for me to transition into the new
millennium. Right?
-- I don't know when I started tracking visitors to TheWVSR with
Sitemeter, but within the next week or so we'll pass 10 million
pageviews. Ten million! Sweet sainted mother of Encyclopedia
Brown's nemesis Bugs Meany. I find that to be amazing, and thank you for
your continued interest in our questionable endeavors here. It's been
fun, and continues to be fun.
--And that’s about all I can
manage, boys and girls.But I
do have a rare treat for you today, from one of our Long
Time No See contributors.Click
here to reveal the mystery contestant, and a very funny Friday
bonus.
