Deep thoughts cheap shots, and bon mots - the third.

So"Mad Men" is getting even better. I'm on episode #7 of Season One and although I'm still appalled by the smoking and the sexism, the ongoing character development is awesome and the story line now with the agency debating/discussing Nixon vs. Kennedy is priceless! Oh wow, Draper was just a total dick to his wife, though.

Saw lots of tourists out tonight taking pictures of cable cars in the fog--as much as I snark on the tourists, they are good at helping me remember some of the cool aspects of living in the City.

Football sure is gay sometimes. Am watching (for not much longer, as badly as it's going) the Florida-Kentucky game and the announcer has just repeated the probably at least partly apocryphal story of Tebow telling his coach to not be afraid to lean on him, to "ride that horse." Yes, the announcer said more than once, Tebow said to his coach, and I quote, "Ride me!" My god, they look like worldbeaters but also Kentucky looks like absolute shit--kind of like Cal did earlier. And the morning started off so promising with Kansas winning and LSU looking like anything BUT worldbeaters against Miss. State. Oh well.

Um, Outback "Steakhouse" is actually promoting their third $9.99 meal as coming with a "wedge salad?" Seriously? What's next? Free tap water? Fewer ratdroppings in your "loaded" baked potato? Sorry, but I feel justified in slamming Outback coz their ower is a major homophobe. Or am I getting him confused with the owner of Carl's Jr.? Sigh. So many homophobes, so little time to expose and mock them all.

Let's end with a comparison of why we'll eventually succumb to the Germans and/or Chinese. They just don't put up with shit like we do. Witness from "News of the Weird":

Two formerly well-off retired couples in Germany, whose nest egg was largely wiped out by investments in sub-prime Florida mortgages, vented their anger by kidnapping their investment adviser, James Amburn. They took him to the vacation home of one of the couples near the Austrian border, bound him like a mummy and beat and tortured him over several days, fracturing two ribs, in repeated attempts to punish him and extort his own property as partial compensation for their losses. Police rescued him after he managed to send a coded message by fax.

Crisis Intervention: A certain bridge in Ghangzhou, China, has become popular for suicide (12 attempts in a 45-day period in April and May), and with each incident, traffic is slowed or halted for hours while crews attempt to talk the distraught person down or perform rescues. Mr. "Chen" was on the ledge in May, according to an Agence France-Presse dispatch, but he couldn't make up his mind about jumping. One frustrated motorist, Lai Jiansheng, ended the suspense by walking up to Chen and pushing him off. Chen survived, and Lai was arrested.

So the question is: should we turn over our financial leaders to the Germans or to Lai Jiansheng? Discuss.