Today, I learned that Americans are outraged about Burma*. I found this out from our own President George W. Bush, who relayed this information to the United Nations.
Burma?
Outraged?
Which Americans?**
In fairness, the President didn't actually say how many Americans, and if it's more than one, his statement was correct. However, in video of his address, obtained by the ZiggyBackRide staff, Bush makes it sound as though this outrage is rampant througout the Union.
I have long since given up on asking "what is he thinking" type questions, but I will take a moment to wonder what the President's staff thought would be gained by sending him into his highest profile address in some time to virtually ignore Iraq and to proclaim that Americans are outraged by what is happening in Burma. I was surprised that a roar of surprised and delighted laughter didn't erupt in the UN assembly when the President finished this statement. I would definitely have had to leave the room***. I do, however, look forward to seeing Jon Stewart's facial expression when the camera is back on him after this video is shown tonight.
* Also known as Myanmar. The US doesn't officially recognize that name.
**I'm sure there are some outraged Americans. As amazingly insane as it is that President Bush decided to represent this as a major concern of Americans before the UN, there is some ugly stuff going on in Burma. Americans would not be wrong to learn more and even decide they are, indeed, outraged. Currently, however, Burma appears way on down the list of items about which I, personally, am outraged. It is wedged in between the fact that no one seems to give Texas any chance of beating Oklahoma in football this year, and the fact that it is muggy today.
***Not out of disgust or protest, as the Cuban representative left, but so that my laughter, or my subsequently urine-filled pants, wouldn't disrupt the session.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Sunday, September 09, 2007
The Dumpster Duo
I've seen some great/interesting things in my neighborhood over the years (see posts from Aug. 1, 2007 and Feb. 16, 2006). The next in this line of intriguing scenes came today when I came home from the first game of a new 30 and over Jewish men's league basketball season (which my team one, but during which I airballed another free throw - that's 3 in my last 4 or 5 games!) to get ready to go see The Lion King* (on stage). I drove into my parking lot to find the following scene.
Can't read the sign? Take a closer look...
I do love the idea of the lazy, unneighborly discarder of the mattress being called out by the neighborhood conscience, who knows it's wrong to make a mess, but who thinks nothing of hanging a sign on a dumpster calling the mess "retarded."** Welcome to the neighborhood!
This is post #200. Look for the ZiggyBackRide Bicentennial Celebration at post #202. Congratulations to us all!
* The Lion King was very good. I'm a fan of the movie and this was my first time seeing it on stage. Amazing costumes and good music. I did actually think the staging was a little messy, at times, but overall, very enjoyable. I'll have to think about where it ranks among major musicals I've seen. The show was part of a strange Sunday for me. Early basketball game, then The Lion King, after which I hurried to Temple to teach an 11th/12th grade class about God, and then to a bar in Midtown for a meeting about setting up housing options for families of patients at a local children's hospital. Where does a fun, odd, rewarding day like that come from, anyway?!?
** Speaking of the high schoolers, I have noticed, of late, that a lot of kids are, first of all, using the word "retarded" and, second, misspelling it. I see "retarted" a lot. If you insist on throwing that word around, I feel like it's one you really need to be able to spell correctly.
Can't read the sign? Take a closer look...
I do love the idea of the lazy, unneighborly discarder of the mattress being called out by the neighborhood conscience, who knows it's wrong to make a mess, but who thinks nothing of hanging a sign on a dumpster calling the mess "retarded."** Welcome to the neighborhood!
This is post #200. Look for the ZiggyBackRide Bicentennial Celebration at post #202. Congratulations to us all!
* The Lion King was very good. I'm a fan of the movie and this was my first time seeing it on stage. Amazing costumes and good music. I did actually think the staging was a little messy, at times, but overall, very enjoyable. I'll have to think about where it ranks among major musicals I've seen. The show was part of a strange Sunday for me. Early basketball game, then The Lion King, after which I hurried to Temple to teach an 11th/12th grade class about God, and then to a bar in Midtown for a meeting about setting up housing options for families of patients at a local children's hospital. Where does a fun, odd, rewarding day like that come from, anyway?!?
** Speaking of the high schoolers, I have noticed, of late, that a lot of kids are, first of all, using the word "retarded" and, second, misspelling it. I see "retarted" a lot. If you insist on throwing that word around, I feel like it's one you really need to be able to spell correctly.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Abbott and Costello's Municipal Madness
I'm watching the late local news following the opening game of the NFL season. I don't watch often and I'm thinking that my civic pride and my sanity are much better off as a result.
Memphis mayor Willie Herenton, known less and less as a concerned community leader, and more and more as an arrogant man who believes he is entitled - possibly by the Lord, our God -
to the position of Memphis mayor, was asked why his campaign t-shirts have a slogan on the back that is the name of a profane rap song. His response, and a point which he proudly presented, was that he doesn't know about the song, but that the reporter obviously does. Interesting! No. Fascinatingly, hideously stupid. Way to "Shake The Haters Off," Mr. Mayor.
He was then asked why he has not accepted any invitations to debate his opponents. He actually answered that it was because he would destroy the others because he has so much more experience with debating. They are lucky, he says, that he has chosen to sit the debates out.
This, of course, brings to mind the big-mouthed, cowardly bully who refuses to back up his words because "he'd beat the other up too badly." We've all seen someone like this in action (if not in person, then in The Breakfast Club when Judd Nelson's character backs out of a fight with Emilio Estevez's), and anyone with half a brain has recognized that the person is full of poop. Personally, I have only seen children and drunk people employ this strategy of running scared.
Mayor Herenton is not a child and didn't appear inebriated. I believe he is either stupid or - more likely and worse - he chooses to appeal to stupid people who are capable of buying such a load of crap. It is disgusting. He is likely to be re-elected. Wake up, Memphis! There's still time.
In other news, three employees of the Germantown* Performing Arts Center were fired this week for tying noose knots with excess rope on the Center's stage. According to the employees, those "hangman's noose" knots are often used in theaters to store hanging ropes. I don't know if that's true or not. Germantown city administrator Patrick Lawton defended the firings, saying, "This is very insulting to the African-American community. I can't imagine anything worse."
While I greatly appreciate Lawton's sensitivity to citizens of all colors, I must question his powers of imagination.
In yet other news, I have decided that I am okay with four-day work weeks. My office was closed on Monday, in observance of Labor Day, which I am convinced - after very little thought on the subject - is little more than a mediocre Abbott and Costello routine...
Time to go to work.
-We don't have to go today.
Why not?
-It's Labor Day.
Labor Day? What's that?
-A day to celebrate.
Celebrate what?
-Work.
So we're celebrating work?
-Sure.
Why?
-Work is good.
So why don't we go do it?
-Because it's Labor Day.
On Independence Day, we're free.
On Thanksgiving Day, we're grateful.
On Labor Day, we're... lazy. Nice.
*Germantown is the suburb of Memphis where I live. Mayor Herenton is not my mayor, but as Memphis looks idiotic, so do its suburbs. I really like this community. I think it's a great place to live and has a lot to offer. I would like to keep it that way.
Memphis mayor Willie Herenton, known less and less as a concerned community leader, and more and more as an arrogant man who believes he is entitled - possibly by the Lord, our God -
to the position of Memphis mayor, was asked why his campaign t-shirts have a slogan on the back that is the name of a profane rap song. His response, and a point which he proudly presented, was that he doesn't know about the song, but that the reporter obviously does. Interesting! No. Fascinatingly, hideously stupid. Way to "Shake The Haters Off," Mr. Mayor.
He was then asked why he has not accepted any invitations to debate his opponents. He actually answered that it was because he would destroy the others because he has so much more experience with debating. They are lucky, he says, that he has chosen to sit the debates out.
This, of course, brings to mind the big-mouthed, cowardly bully who refuses to back up his words because "he'd beat the other up too badly." We've all seen someone like this in action (if not in person, then in The Breakfast Club when Judd Nelson's character backs out of a fight with Emilio Estevez's), and anyone with half a brain has recognized that the person is full of poop. Personally, I have only seen children and drunk people employ this strategy of running scared.
Mayor Herenton is not a child and didn't appear inebriated. I believe he is either stupid or - more likely and worse - he chooses to appeal to stupid people who are capable of buying such a load of crap. It is disgusting. He is likely to be re-elected. Wake up, Memphis! There's still time.
In other news, three employees of the Germantown* Performing Arts Center were fired this week for tying noose knots with excess rope on the Center's stage. According to the employees, those "hangman's noose" knots are often used in theaters to store hanging ropes. I don't know if that's true or not. Germantown city administrator Patrick Lawton defended the firings, saying, "This is very insulting to the African-American community. I can't imagine anything worse."
While I greatly appreciate Lawton's sensitivity to citizens of all colors, I must question his powers of imagination.
In yet other news, I have decided that I am okay with four-day work weeks. My office was closed on Monday, in observance of Labor Day, which I am convinced - after very little thought on the subject - is little more than a mediocre Abbott and Costello routine...
Time to go to work.
-We don't have to go today.
Why not?
-It's Labor Day.
Labor Day? What's that?
-A day to celebrate.
Celebrate what?
-Work.
So we're celebrating work?
-Sure.
Why?
-Work is good.
So why don't we go do it?
-Because it's Labor Day.
On Independence Day, we're free.
On Thanksgiving Day, we're grateful.
On Labor Day, we're... lazy. Nice.
*Germantown is the suburb of Memphis where I live. Mayor Herenton is not my mayor, but as Memphis looks idiotic, so do its suburbs. I really like this community. I think it's a great place to live and has a lot to offer. I would like to keep it that way.
Saturday, September 01, 2007
The Adventure Begins
As I begin writing this 198th post of ZiggyBackRide, it is 11 minutes until the beginning of College Gameday, the college football preview show to which I look forward each week of the glorious season that begins, in earnest, today. It's time! We must protect this house!*
But, in the end, he might have overdone it. Here's The Littlest Longhorn Fan in the... ummm, well, that's my shower curtain behind him.***
* The old catchphrase from the Under Armor commercials that aired during College Gameday. We'll see if this year has new Under Armor genius in shore for us. I was under the impression that there would be a new College Gameday theme song this year, but the show just started and it was still Big and Rich with Cowboy Troy, offering me a little zing in my zang zang if I will but come along. Not sure what I think about that.
*** For some reason, everything just seemed to go right through him. This is the first time I've ever taken a picture of The Littlest Longhorn Fan on the toilet and you would think it'll be the last time. Not so fast, my friends. I simply can not promise that. It's still all about honesty here at ZiggyBackRide. Hook 'Em!
I am not only excited about Gollege Gameday, though. I am excited about the college games that make it possible. Tonight, a new season of Texas Longhorn football begins and the excitement is building in my home, which is a sanctuary for Longhorn spirit (as well as for wayward laundry and mail, and for the slowly dissipating smell of recently soaked carpet, but we'll focus on the Longhorn stuff for today, if that's okay with you).
The Longhorn Band waits to explode into song as soon as even the slightest pressure is applied to the "play" button. The orange candle is ready to burn, and - thanks to The Littlest Longhorn Fan, the Texas jersey koozie (I guess that's the word) that "watches" every game with me - orange food and drink are available.**
I salute you, Littlest Longhorn Fan, for your hard work in procuring the important foodstuffs that will enable the 'Horns to be victorious!
It was not easy for the little guy. He's not a licensed driver and he has no legs....
But he collected all the right stuff and earned the right to stand proudly atop the Gatorade....
He even took a minute to pose for a pic with old friends...
But, in the end, he might have overdone it. Here's The Littlest Longhorn Fan in the... ummm, well, that's my shower curtain behind him.***
Pace yourself, Littlest Longhorn Fan! This is a long adventure and there's no telling where it could lead....
* The old catchphrase from the Under Armor commercials that aired during College Gameday. We'll see if this year has new Under Armor genius in shore for us. I was under the impression that there would be a new College Gameday theme song this year, but the show just started and it was still Big and Rich with Cowboy Troy, offering me a little zing in my zang zang if I will but come along. Not sure what I think about that.
** If you are not familiar with this tradition, see "My Stitions ARE Super" post from October, 2006 or post Rose Bowl posts from January of 2005.
*** For some reason, everything just seemed to go right through him. This is the first time I've ever taken a picture of The Littlest Longhorn Fan on the toilet and you would think it'll be the last time. Not so fast, my friends. I simply can not promise that. It's still all about honesty here at ZiggyBackRide. Hook 'Em!
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