My Sick Mind

I'm intrigued by those surveys and opinion polls that determine "The City with the Most Beautiful People" or "The Smartest Towns in the U.S." Mostly because I find it hard to believe that there are more beautiful people in Pasadena, California than in Des Moines, Iowa. Either they're not looking hard enough or they have an odd definition of beauty. Those sorts of surveys try to link people with the city they live in. It's a nice idea, but it strikes me as hogwash. Like the idea of "Southern Hospitality" or "Midwestern Charm." If you come to Philadelphia and are treated well, you're supposed to be surprised. Sports fans have an identity too, whether we like it or not. The Phillies lost the World Series Wednesday night. Being a Phillies fan, I'm supposed to be devastated. I'm not, but that's because I treat sports as entertainment. Like a movie or a TV show, I find that I can distance myself from the proceedings becau...

So, OK New Jersey has a new governor. At least in January. The people have spoken - and we all know how intelligent the people are. They're the same people that have made American Idol a top-rated TV show and Jessica Simpson a top-rated recording artist. Suffice it to say, I have no faith in the voice of the people. The enemy of the state, Jon Corzine can begin packing while our newest, bestest buddy Chris Christie (who curiously has two identical names) moves into the governor's house and will supposedly make things right between the state and its taxpayers (us). Meanwhile, when is the last time you saw taxes go down or some long-term government decision go the way of the common man? I'll give you a chance to think about it. Take all the time you need. ............................ OK ... ready? Never, that's when. So, your new governor has promised to right all the wrongs done by the Evil Empire led by the last guy. That's nice. Write it down, because you don...

There is a new resident at the castle. His name is Thor.   Since Kitty died it's been lonely around here. I found that adopting a cat from the local animal shelter is only a little more difficult than buying a gun. There is a lengthy application process, and they actually call the people you list as references - so be careful.   The PetsMart stores are satellite agencies for the local shelter, and I've been stopping in from time to time to check on the available felines. Last Friday I found Thor. He's a 2-year old Grey Tabby and he picked me out. The shelter named him Thor. It seemed like a cool name, so what the Hell. Besides, I'm mostly calling him Kitty anyway. He doesn't seem to mind.   Initially, I was looking for a kitten, since I wanted to raise one from scratch. But kittens are kind of ornery and I'd feel strange leaving one here all day while I was at work not knowing what kind of mischief he'd be up to while I was gone. They had a f...

Tuesday is election day. It's kind of big here in New Jersey, since we'll be electing a governor. Without going into any political detail, the incumbent Jon Corzine is supposedly hated by the electorate and it's a close race between him and Republican Chris Christie. As usually happens in these situations, the sitting governor has made a lot of controversial decisions including scaling back the property tax rebate and increasing the state's sales tax to 7%. All of this came in the wake of a huge state budget deficit and we are led to believe that if those and other steps were not taken the state could be on the road to bankruptcy. When a guy puts the state on the back of the taxpayers the guy running against him has a relatively easy time convincing voters that the state needs to change. He'll run out a lot of promises about lowering taxes and making things right again. That's an easy campaign to run and an even easier one to win, since none of us likes to ha...

The next time you read one of those newspaper stories about people making a small fortune selling their event tickets on StubHub or some other Internet agency, take it with an appropriate grain of salt. Since my seat-mate was committed to going to a Gov't Mule concert last night, we had decided to put our World Series game 3 tickets on the StubHub and make some money off the deal. The idea was to make enough for me to pay off a small debt and to have enough to pay for next year's 17-game plan. Nice idea, eh? Not so fast, Kimosabe. With a face value of $150 each, the initial listing went up last week for the Princely sum of $2,500 for the pair. Quickly, I realized that the price was a tad bit high, since there were other seats in our section for around $2,000. But I let them sit a few days, figuring that the others would sell and ours would move to the top of the list. Plus, there were greedy New Yorkers involved, and that's always good for business. Long story shor...