My Sick Mind

I usually don't believe these Web Quizzes, but once in a while, one gets it right on the nose: You're Invisible Man ! by Ralph Ellison Most of your life, people have either ignored you or told you that you were wrong. You've been duped, mistreated, misled, and neglected. Maybe it was because of your race, or some other uniqueness that people were quick to condemn, but now you just want to crawl into a hole and disappear. After all, nobody knows your name. But you just might speak for everyone. Take the Book Quiz at the Blue Pyramid .

Over at Sparky's Philly Transplant, he ran a little meme [I still don't know what that means] that he got from One Gal's Musings . They're calling it The Grown Up Meme. Confused? Meme to. It's one of those questionnaires that asks a lot of unrelated things about my life, and since I'm neither flush with new ideas or particularly personal here, I decided to crack the door open a bit. So, here's the thing: 1. Do you have a college degree? Yes, a bachelor of science in Accounting. Ask me to add any two numbers. Nothin’ to it. 2. What was the amount of your last electric bill? $51. Don’t hate me. I live in a small condo and I’m on the equal-payment plan. 3. Do you have life insurance? No. They’ll bury me in a potter’s field or sprinkle my ashes in a bunker at Bulle Rock. Life insurance is a waste of money for single people. Once I’m dead, my responsibilities end. 4. How many hours per week do you work? 40. There is occasional overtime, but I can’t count on it. ...

I admit that I sometimes have an odd slant on things. Not always does my viewpoint align with the common man [or woman]. Tonight, I saw something on the TV that I hope a lot of other people saw, so you can tell me whether or not I'm way off base here. Ready? Then we'll begin. I realize it's summer, and networks are either starved for programming or they just don't care because they figure people are on vacation or whatever and not watching. Well, include me out of that list. I don't stop enjoying television just because it's summer, and I think that it's a chicken or egg deal where ratings are off because people aren't watching, but people aren't watching because the programming stinks. In that vein, NBC on Friday night presented the Miss Teen USA pageant, where young girls aged 16 to 19 paraded themselves in front of America wearing bikinis, skin-tight tops and shorts that required them to shave their pubic hair. While I realize this isn't as b...

I have no idea how it became to be known as Federal Express, since, much like our own Federal Reserve Bank, it is not a branch of the Federal government. Maybe they figured Federal made it sound important, and Express made it sound fast. Maybe. As you may or may not know, I recently ordered some paste for my cat that is supposed to help with his kidney disease. It was ordered on August 20, and left the warehouse in Henderson, Nevada on the 22nd, arriving in Phoenix, Arizona on the 23rd, completing its 273 mile journey at nearly 12 miles per hour. I could have taken it by bicycle in less time. Here, on the blog, we will be tracking the exciting journey of the Renal Paste Tubes and following their progress across our great nation. Stay tuned for updates as I'm sure the "Express" part of Federal Express will soon kick in, and the nearly one pound package will arrive here in New Jersey, scorched from its blistering path across our nation. I'll bet a soccer ball would...

On my way home tonight, I was greeted by a radio ad for an Aerosmith show that is coming to The Borgata in beautiful Atlantic City. It got me to thinking [it doesn't take much] that Steven Tyler is 59 and Joe Perry is 57, and they abused themselves mightily for several years and yet they are still touring and earning a living as musicians. It got me thinking about the amazing resiliency of the human body and how much abuse it can withstand without either collapsing under its own stress or merely giving up completely. The Aerosmith boys put that idea to the ultimate test and lived to tell about it. Others, like Jim Morrison, Nick Drake and Lenny Bruce tested the body and the body failed, due to its intolerance for abuse. Maybe the ones who are still alive knew when to stop? Immediately after the Aerosmith ad came the news that Britt Reid, one of a pair of the troubled sons of Eagles coach Andy Reid, was arrested yet again . This time, he drove his car into a few shopping carts a...

Saw it written and I saw it say, Pink moon is on its way. And none of you stand so tall, Pink moon gonna get ye all. And it’s a pink moon. Pink, pink, pink, pink, pink, Pink moon. Nick Drake - (1948-1974) .

Whenever the subject of time travel comes up, I always say that I’d like to go back to America in the early part of the 20th Century. I’d like to watch guys like Walter Johnson and Ty Cobb play baseball, partly for the historical significance, but mostly to see how good they were – really . In a lot of ways, it was a screwy time in our history, and I’d have to be careful not to come back too close to Prohibition or the Great Depression. I figure anyplace between 1905 and 1925 or the mid 1930s, unless I went back with a lot of money, in which case it wouldn’t matter. I’m not sure where my fascination for that period of time comes from. Maybe it’s my childhood memories of watching The Three Stooges after school? Some of the early shorts with Curly are little snapshots of life in America in those days, and not all of it is good. What I always found fascinating was that, no matter how poor “the boys” were, they always wore suits. Sometimes they were making soup out of their own shoes or ea...

One of my favorite spots in the city, the Independence Brew Pub has closed its doors. According to the Inquirer , the owners are $800,000 in debt and cannot continue. It was centrally located, across from the Reading Terminal Market , upstairs from The Gallery and next to the Convention Center. I could never figure out why it was never crowded when I went in. I suppose that’s where the 800 grand comes in. Where’s the next best place in Philadelphia for freshly brewed beer? Cat update: After several failed attempts to get him to eat his expensive prescription food, I have cried “uncle.” He’s been eating regularly and it appears he has gained some weight, so I’m going to try a different tack. I found a Renal paste that I can make him eat by smearing it on his teeth. I’m not giving up without a fight, and since the cat doesn’t understand the severity of his condition, I’ll try this stuff. He won’t like it, but anything is better than nothing. He's been on a steady diet of salmon, t...

HUNTINGTON, Utah - A mine company attorney said Monday that safety experts believe drilling a bigger hole and sending a rescue capsule into the coal mine where six men have been trapped for two weeks is impossible because the mountain is too unstable . On Friday , I said the that the families of those trapped miners are going to want closure. Now that they’ve drilled 4 holes in two weeks and there’s still no sign of life, the mine company appears to have given up on the search. Do you smell something? **sniff – sniff – sniff** Lawsuit. The families demanded that rescuers immediately begin drilling a 30-inch hole into which a rescue capsule could be lowered. Spokesman/lawyer Sonny Olsen said the families believe it is "The safest and most effective method to rescue their loved ones. If rescue is not possible," he added, "the capsule is the only method to recover our loved ones so that they can have a proper burial." There we go again with the “proper burial” stuff...

Weather-wise, I got lucky. Mid-August evenings in this part of the world can be balmy, stormy or just plain hot. Saturday was cool and dry, and the only hot stuff was going on at the Mann Music Center with Nickel Creek and Fiona Apple on Saturday night. Nickel Creek is on some sort of a farewell tour and their friend Fiona is along for a genre-bending experience as she turns her angst-ridden tunes into angst-ridden bluegrass. In some ways, it makes perfect sense. Nickel Creek uses the lighter than air sound to convey serious and sometimes morbid thoughts and Fiona is sometimes just plain morbidly serious. On the surface, you'd think it wouldn't work, but in actuality, it works just fine. Nickel Creek's Chris Thile said, "I think people get confused about what makes a good collaboration." One would tend to want to put bluegrass bands with bluegrass bands and pop acts with pop acts, when in actuality it's the kind of musician, not the kind of music [that matters...