Hummers and Toy Yodas

There's a big hoopla about a woman who won a Hummer in a radio station contest, only to find out it was a radio-controlled toy Hummer that she had won. She's suing for $60,000, the cost of a new Hummer.

Personally, I think it's plain stupid and greedy to sue over a contest prize not being what you had expected it to be. It's a PRIZE. It's not like it was paid by her employer in lieu of salary, in which case there would be definite grounds for a lawsuit. If she had paid careful attention to what was said in the contest promotion, she could have at least prepared herself for the possibility that she wouldn't win a car she could actually drive. (On the radio today, a man said the judge should force the radio station to award the woman a Hummer so she can go bankrupt trying to keep gas in it.)

Now today I heard on the same station that a former Hooters waitress in Florida is suing because of the results of a contest run at her old job. The employee who sold the most beer was offered what she took to be a Toyota. The fact that no mention was made of an actual model, like a Corolla or a Matrix or whatever, should have been a tipoff. Anyway, when the winner was announced, she was blindfolded, led out to the parking lot, and presented -- in full view of her coworkers and restaurant patrons -- with a TOY YODA DOLL!

In spite of what I just said about the prize being a gift, in this particular case I'd say that she should sue. It seems that in this case there was an intent, not only to mislead, but also to humiliate the winner. Why else blindfold her and lead her to the parking lot where everybody inside could see that there was no car there waiting for her? And as the woman herself said in a statement, employees should expect and receive better treatment from their employers than such deception. I don't know if she should get the cost of a new car, though, but she should definitely get something more than just a stupid doll.

Motown Remixed

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a CD entitled Motown Remixed. The title alone piqued my interest, because I'd had an idea about doing something like that myself for ages now. Of course, not having the equipment, know-how, or access to the original master tapes would have prevented me from being able to carry out my idea, but it was there anyway. Seeing that someone had actually carried out the idea drove me to go ahead and buy the CD, especially when I saw the songs chosen: "Tears of a Clown," "Keep On Truckin'," "Let's Get It On," "I Want You Back," "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone," "War," "Signed Sealed Delivered," and so on.

This past week I bought another, that in my own mind didn't work as well: "Verve Remixed 3," from the same parent company, NBC Universal, which owns both Motown and Verve. Maybe because I associate remixes with R&B and dance music, some of the mixes on the Verve CD didn't click with me, though I have to say that Sarah Vaughan's voice sounds like it was made for this kind of project. I couldn't help thinking that if she were still alive she might lend her voice to some producer's side dance-music project, or maybe even put out a CD of contemporary dance stuff on her own.

I didn't pay much attention to the first two volumes, so now I have to go online and see if I can find snippets somewhere to give me an idea of what they were about. Maybe I'll find them at J&R Music World, or one of the Tower Records shops downtown (NYC, that is; the former site of the Yonkers store is now Westchester Toyota -- looks odd to see cars in what used to be my favorite place to buy music).

People 1, Ebbers 0

In a recent column in the New York Daily News, columnist Stanley Crouch celebrated the 25-year conviction of WorldCom chairman Bernie Ebbers for looting the company he founded. He mentioned that, among other things, this sends a message to all those lower-level criminals who use fat-cats getting off scot-free as rationalization for their activities.

I like this because it's a reminder to those fat cats that corporations are not their personal piggy banks for them to raid at their leisure. When WorldCom was a small company (I'm assuming it was once a sole proprietorship) Ebbers could take what he wanted to his heart's content, as long as he could explain his actions to the IRS, if called upon to do so, in a way that would keep him from landing in jail. What these guys don't seem to get (or not care about) is that once these companies go public, they're just that: PUBLIC. The old head honcho can't do whatever he wants without fear of repercussions.

Sad thing is, even though Ebbers is facing the music, though the 80-year-old founder of Adelphia has already faced the music, even though Ken Lay will face the music, overpaid idiots with dollar signs in their eyes will continue to do the same things, hoping against hope that the IRS, the SEC, and everybody else looks the other way, then acting shocked when they don't.

Reminds me of the title of one of Brand Nubian's old raps: "Punks Jump Up to Get Beat Down." It may seem odd to refer to these "gentlemen" as punks, but when they keep doing these "stupid human tricks" knowing what the penalties are, what else is there to call them?

Gigli, the game?!

Browsing through UrbanDictionary.com by clicking the "random entry" button, I came upon a page of definitions for "Gigli," which apparently has become a verb meaning "to be of really bad quality." But one of the definitions mentioned a PS2 Gigli game. Which, fortunately, turned out to be somebody's idea of a joke.

I haven't been able to find anything about a Gigli game. And what would it be about, anyway? From what I've read, much of the movie seemed improvised; one review said it was about nothing, like "a bad Seinfeld episode stretched out to feature length, and then stretched some more." There's nothing there to base a videogame on, though I'm sure that wouldn't stop someone with enough dollar signs flashing in his eyes.

Mets and Yankees, part 33 1/3

OK, so maybe the Yankees are doing better than the Mets. They seem to be creeping up on the Red Sox, but I can't help thinking (OK, hoping) that creeping is all they do. After 86 years of flogging themselves over that nonsensical curse, the Red Sox and their fans deserve more than just a one-time chance at glory. Here's hoping they last a few years at the top.

As for the Metsies, they keep doing that one step up, two steps back, two steps up, one step back thing. While they dance in place, Atlanta's been creeping up on Washington the same way the Skankees have been creeping up on Boston. Washington will probably not do anything -- to the great relief of every general manager in baseball, since the team does not have an actual owner at the moment ("owned by Major League Baseball" is a sham) -- but I'm hoping the Mets will wake up and remember that if Atlanta makes it to the top, they will NOT go down easily. They have won 13 straight division titles, but some of the most recent ones were squeakers, since the team's stars aren't getting any younger.

Maybe the All-Star break is what the Mets need to turn things around...

Miss America Pageant on Country Music Television

The Miss America Pageant, having lost its network TV contract, will now be seen on Country Music Television. Among other things, this means you must now have either cable or satellite TV in order to watch. New York Daily News entertainment columnist David Hinckley sees a benefit in this new arrangement, one the contestants, and possibly viewers, are sure to like.

He says that, since country music's core fans tend to like women with some meat on their bones (me too), this could mean that contestants may actually get to... EAT!

Some time ago I saw a manipulated photo of a Miss New York from either the Miss America or Miss USA Pagent, and she had been given some ample curves by whoever had edited the photo. The caption said, "Too bad beauty pageant contestants don't look like this anymore." Maybe they will again someday...

Blog title not unique

I see that there's a movie coming out soon with the title Stranger Than Fiction. I s'pose I could pick up some extra traffic from this, so I'd best spruce up the place a little bit, and post more regularly.

I'm the last person in the world to make disparaging remarks about any racial or ethnic group, but it has seemed to me for quite a long time now that the British and Australians will gamble on just about anything. At least, British and Australian bookies will take bets on almost anything. There's an article on page 16 of today's NY Daily News that details the odds British bookies are giving on which major character will die in the next Harry Potter book. The odds favor(?) Dumbledore, who is a 1-5 pick to die, while Harry himself gets the longest odds (of course) at 16-1. And I've read where, in an Australian bar, people were seriously betting on which of two flies crawling up a wall would fly off first.

But then I guess that has nothing to do with ethnicity; given enough beer, and enough money burning a hole in their pocket, anybody anywhere can and will make stupid bets.

Dog-eating catfish dies

Some time ago an elderly friend of mine, who used to be a private chauffeur for a businessman who spent a lot of time in Florida, told me of some catfish that crawled out of overflowing rivers and attacked dogs and , in some cases, ate some of the smaller ones. I took it to be a bit of exaggeration, since my friend is something of a kidder. Then, today, I came across this story, apparently authenticated, about a dog-eating catfish in Germany.

I don't even know how I'd react if I found out that my pet, dog or whatever, had been eaten by a fish. Especially a fish species that I could eat for dinner.

World's most expensive cities

Hard as it is for me to believe, Money magazine says in their poll that little old White Plains, NY, where I was born and where I'm now working, is the third most expensive city in the US to live in. Since I don't live in White Plains myself, I can't vouch for that poll, but I know that it's expensive to park and to buy lunch anywhere around here.

CNN Money - World's most expensive cities

Mets and Yankees, part deux

OK, so they had identical records before Sunday's game; afterwards the Yankees were 38-37, one game over .500, and third in their division at 6.5 games behind the Boston Reds Sox; the Mets were 37-38, one game under .500, and last in their division at 7 games behind the Washington Nationals. But the way the NL East has been shuffling around (even the vaunted Atlanta Braves are doing no better than the Mets this year) the Mets have a better chance of catching and passing the Nationals than the Yankees do of catching and passing the Red Sox.

We shall see what we shall see...

Mets and Yankees

After all the years of hearing Yankees fans heap abuse on the Mets and us Mets fans, I'm so glad to see the Yankees and Mets have identical records as of last night. Not so happy that those identical records are 37-37, but happy nonetheless.

Today's NY Daily News notes how, even though the teams have identical records, the managers' takes on their teams' prospects are markedly different. Mets manager Willie Randolph and his players are quite optimistic about the possibilities for the rest of this season, since they're in the basement with a .500 record. Most teams in the basement are way below .500, but the Mets, and just about every other team in the National League, are beneficiaries of the Colorado Rockies and their horrible record (25 wins -- the Mets' 1962 record of 40-120 may be in danger), as well as the Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants, who aren't doing much better.

I am glad to see, though, how George Steinbrenner isn't micromanaging the team the way he did back before Joe Torre came to town. I don't know if backing off was his reaction to the way Torre turned things around, or just a change in outlook, but even with this lackluster season his $200 million-plus team is having, he's holding his tongue surprisingly well, at least where popping off to the press is concerned.

As for Fred Wilpon, ranting to reporters about what his team isn't doing just isn't his style. Even before he bought out ex-partner Nelson Doubleday, he let Doubleday do all the talking while he [Wilpon] stayed in the background and let the front office people do what they get paid to do. Let's see how much longer George Steinbrenner continues doing the same...

Aunty Spam says your checking account is not safe...

...if you pay by phone using your checking account number and bank routing number. Read about it at her blog

Thing like this explain the name of this blog

In Zimbabwe, two children were crushed when their house was torn down while they were still inside. The government is acting against squatters, and apparently they just want to "remove" the problem rather than make some attempt to solve it. More info can be found at Squattercity, a blog maintained by a writer who actually lived in a squatter city for two years and documented his experiences.

Missing: One radio station...

The other day I was scanning the radio dial, going through my presets, and when I got to 101.1, which is WCBS-FM here in New York, instead of the familiar oldies station I hear a voice-over with attitude announcing something called "Jack-FM."

This makes twice in a few years that a favorite station has dumped the format that made me a listener. I absolutely loved Jammin' 105 (105.1), which played a mix of current and classic R&B; then one Thursday morning I'm awakened by the unwelcome sounds of Ice Cube. I don't dislike Cube, but hearing his voice on what was supposed to be a classic soul station wasn't a good sign. I thought it was a commercial at first, until I heard all the censoring beeps.

I was mad; I wanted to call and let them have TWO pieces of my mind. Then I remembered that the station is a Clear Channel station; complaining is like screaming at a wall; you make a lot of noise without any effect on your intended subject.

Oh well, the world will keep turning...

UPDATE, 6/24/05

OK, so maybe the Jack format isn't so bad. I've been listening off and on, and I have to admit that, all in all, I've been hearing more music I like than I did with the old format. But I still miss some of those oldies; there's now one less station to hear them on. Then again, as has been pointed out elsewhere, WBLS and WRKS have been playing more older R&B; the dance music stations have been playing more 70's and 80's music; and the newest rock station, 107.1 (don't know the call letters) plays a mix of rock from the 70's up to today. And there's always Kool 96.7 from Connecticut, which plays oldies from the 60's and 70's. I guess the old WCBS-FM market is being served; it's just too bad it's not all on one station anymore.

Michael Jackson's acquitted. Biiiiiig whoop.

So Michael Jackson got off. All the charges brought against him, all the negative press from newspapers and magazines that basically tried him in print, and the jury said "not enough to convict." Is it really something to celebrate?

The jurors decided that there wasn't enough evidence to reach a guilty verdict, but that doesn't mean that he's innocent. Yet, the fact that he liked to have young boys sleep in the same bed with him doesn't mean he's guilty, either. He made the repeated mistake of putting himself in situations where shady business is presumed, whether it happens or not. When a grown man sleeps in the same bed with children (not his own), isn't the first thing that comes to mind that somebody is doing something wrong? Hopefully Michael will learn from this and not leave himself open to such accusations.

At the same time, the prosecutor was like a shark. He smelled blood and wanted to rip into Michael Jackson. Like President W acting against Saddam Hussein to avenge his father after a failed assassination attempt, Sneddon tried to clean up "unfinished business" from 1993 by finding witnesses willing to testify against Jackson just so he could finally put him in jail, or so Sneddon hoped. But Sneddon was so intent to find bodies to put on the witness stand that he apparently didn't do much of a background check. He couldn't have, considering all the things that came out about the accuser's family during the trial. As I said earlier, Jackson may very
well be guilty, but who would believe that coming from someone with a long history of scams and fraud?

This trial was a circus from the very beginning, and the jury acted correctly in not jailing a man just because he's a clown.

Here's an interesting site...

"The Museum of Bad Album Cover Art". There's some truly bad stuff here, as well as stuff that's probably not so bad, but the list/site creator just doesn't like them.

Netflix pairing with Match.com?

Someone posted an idea at Cinematical suggesting that Match.com could partner with Netflix to match people according to the movies they like. I suppose, for someone who is using Match.com, that the idea is valid. But being the cynic that I sometimes am, I can see Netflix allowing Match.com to XML Netflix's member database to pitch their services to people, customized according to whatever movies they've identified as their favorite. These companies all have privacy policies that are longer than any other page on their website, but still what would stop them from doing this? I was thinking about joining Netflix, but if this idea catches on with them, maybe not...

Reposted from CraniumAbuse's "Life is a Safari" blog

Here's something from my friend who goes by the name of CraniumAbuse, from his blog http://CraniumAbuse.Chat-Rock.com, reposted with his permission:

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This observational editorial was originally penned in September of 2003. It’s been hit at and edited a time or two over the last couple of years. I’ve knocked the cobwebs and dust off of it, and posted it here for old time’s sake. Here it is, in all it’s decrepit glory:

CraniumAbuse Rant of the Day: X Rated Rant

Not that I want to get off on a rant here, But…

Acronyms, labels, and all of these X’s…

What is it with all of these X’s ?Just what is the fixation with “X” ?

Ever since Y2K (Another stupid acronym), it seems that every version of anything produced has to be labeled somethingX, or Xsomething.

The century turns,and all of a sudden, we’ve broken out in X.

First we had Gen X,as if any generation wanted to be known as X…

Then came X everything. X-Files, X-treme sports, Xtreme Games, X Box, X Men, X-this and X-that.

Car names, all kinds of stuff…Everything is X !What do I drive? I drive a 300ZX !

I used to be married, guess what? Yep, she is now my X.

Back in the day (in the 20th century), way back when…XXX meant strippers or porn. Or the label on a moonshine jar. Or an X in the eyes of deceased cartoon characters.

Back in the day, back when TV was TV…Brand X was always the rival sample that faired poorly against the “New and Improved” version of a show’s sponsor. Brand X was not what you wanted to be in the eyes of American consumers. Now it seems, we are being spoon fed X…Ok, another one, FedEx… Where will it end?

Now, all of a sudden, it’s the fashionable label for anything that has been created post Y2K.

Wazzup wid all dat?

Even things that were going in order,and were only at like 6.xxx --- Arrrggh! See? Even generic notations are .x ! Cpanel went from 7.xxx to Cpanel X. Why?

At least in the case of XML and XHTML, the x stands for Extensible……or was that just by design too ?

Even the operating systems decided that numbers were passé. OS X, XP, or X-anything that goes with those…

Microsoft went from 95 to 98, fixed a bit it became 98SE. Then they lost their freakin’ minds and puked out ME. Which supposedly meant Millennium Edition…Not to be confused with 2000, which is the actual millennium.

They top that all off with, you know it, “X”P.Which at first wouldn’t run anything but the junk that came on it. Well, that proprietary diet and any other OEM spam disguised as HP or Compaq “services”… Including links and helpful little items like AOL.(which by the way, is the antichrist)

Mac’s OS, went from 9.xxx to OS X…

Ok, so you might say…“You Moron, X is the next character after 9 in the Roman numeral system. OS 9 naturally went to OS X, like Duh.”

To which I would reply…Yeah, how many buttons came on your iMouse? Like iDuh.

And like 9 is a Roman Numeral?As were I suppose, OS 8, OS 7, OS 6, etc…Would not then, those be OS VIII and OS VII, OS VI, etc. ?

And, don’t even get me started on the iDumb iDea of iUsing “i” before everything Mac.

Not to be outdone, other software wannabe monopolies followed suit… DreamWeaver and Flash became “MX”…I suppose their own branded version of X, the “M” for Macromedia.

I suppose that if I’m to hold my head up high and become politically correct, I should change my favorite moniker to CranX. Or even better yet, how about iCranX ?Has a certain contemporary ring to it, does it not?

I’m sure there are other Xamples, Xemplary Xtensions and Xplanations…… but I see no Xcuse for it all.

Alright kind and patient folks, I’ve abused your, and my, craniums just about long enough I think.

Sorry, that I got off on a rant…

Well Xcuse me !

That Folks, was your Cranium Abuse of the day.My little rant, for this month anyway.Stay tuned for more senseless babble, inane ramble, and maybe even some occasional useful content.No promises though, on the useful part.

Thanks, and Have A Great Day !

- CraniumAbuse

Stranger than Fiction, mark 2

So here we go again, this time on Blogger. I'd had a blog under the same title at BraveJournal, but I see that Blogger has quite a few features that BraveJournal doesn't offer, so the whole thing is being reposted here. All posts were reposted under the dates the originals were posted at BraveJournal. Sorry to all those who commented, but I have NO IDEA how to carry over comments, except to add them to the original post... OK, that's the solution.

See, talking to yourself has some benefits, even if it is by computer rather than out loud.

Everything bad is good for you?

A few weeks ago I picked up Time Out New York magazine, which I do from time to time, just to see what's going on around the area. On the cover was a shapely woman in a lounge chair, reading a book called "Everything Bad Is Good for You." I laughed at the title and assumed that it was just something mocked up for the photo shoot. Lo and behold, it's a real book. The author contends that things like junk food, "bad" TV, and all the elements of pop culture that critics tend to moan about actually make better people of those who participate in them. He calls it the Sleeper Effect, after the premise of the Woody Allen movie "Sleeper," where scientists are amazed that 20th century doctors scoffed at the nutritional value of junk food while promoting vegetables.

I got a nice little chuckle out of that, especially since the review I read indicated that the book was written in a style that suggests the author doesn't want to be taken too seriously.

Then a few days ago I read where prosecutors and judges are beginning to discuss among themselves what is called the "CSI effect." People serving on juries have watched the various CSI shows, heard all about forensic evidence and have begun asking for forensic testing (and getting exasperated when the results don't come back as quickly as they do on the shows). Also, more colleges are offering forensic science courses apart from law enforcement or medical coursework.

So, everything "bad" isn't good for us, but some of it is...

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Today I heard a song on the radio about Aunt Jemima, of all people. It was on a show featuring folk musicians (When I'm in my car I hit the seek button until I hear something interesting, whatever and whoever that may be), and the song was lamenting the changing of Aunt Jemima's picture on the pancake box from the traditional pic to "Oprah." I had no idea that the original pic was of a real woman named Nancy Green, who had befriended the originators of the Aunt Jemima pancake recipe.

It seems a bit paradoxical that those folks who protested that the image was derogatory either didn't know or didn't care that it was an image of a real person, one of the first well-known advertising spokespersons in fact, who happened to be a not-necessarily-photogenic black woman who could cook.

The song's chorus pointed out that unlike a few advertising icons, including "Mr. Clean, this was a real live mama, by the name of Nancy Green." I was trying to find the lyrics online but so far without success. I went to the Fairleigh Dickinson University website and email the hosts of the show (it was on WFDU, the school's station) and asked them for info. I could probably not contact the host without the aid of the Internet, which is both a playground of the perverted and a playground for those who think. "Everything bad is good for you"? Hmm...