Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Four non-sequitors.

Another earthquake. Chile this time. That's the problem with earthquakes - you never know where the next one is going to strike. So, while thousands of Americans are building support for Haiti, the earth has beat them to it with another giant tremor in South America. This one was so big that it jarred the earth off its axis to the point that the guys at NASA think that the earth's days are a thousandth of a second shorter than they were two weeks ago. Take that, Haiti pussies. Your earthquake sucked.
I had to call a customer service line today. I got the standard “Your call is important to us. All our representatives are currently helping other customers. Please hold until a customer service representative is available.” So I held.
Don’t you get the impression that there is a large room filled with busy service reps busily taking phone calls? I do. I picture a big warehouse with little divided cubicles and people wearing headsets. The truth is that there are probably two or three people in a garage in India standing around watching “The Price is Right” sipping coffee, when one of them notices that the red light is blinking. I’m interrupting their break.
Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter is proposing a 2-cent per ounce tax on beverages with added sugar. He’s calling it the Healthy Philadelphia Initiative. Whenever politicians come up with a lousy idea, they give it a flowery name so we’ll think it’s something good. He thinks that taxing soda and junk beverages will make people switch to water and sugar-free beverages. I thought that people would stop smoking when cigarettes got to a dollar a pack. Six dollars later and they’re still puffing. People will buy what they want. They’ll complain and keep doing it. It’s simple human nature. If they wanted sugar-free diet soda they would already be buying it.
Former Eagles running back Brian Westbrook was cut by the team last week. He has had two concussions and a variety of injuries that led to the team letting him go. Now, he is looking for work and it's possible that another team will pick him up. I find it fascinating that a guy with a history of injury problems could find work among the 15 or so teams that could use a player, but there is 10% unemployment in the real world and people with actual college degrees and skills cannot find a job among hundreds of companies. Sports is a strange business.

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