Jeff's Stuff

We've all seen it. There seem to be an endless supply of people lacking common sense on the roads today. People driving their cars while on their cell phones. Hell, I've seen people sending text messages while driving. I've seen people using PDAs while driving. I've seen women putting on makeup while driving. I even saw a guy shaving (with an electric razor) while driving. I've even seen idiots reading while driving. I'm not talking about some moron who has to check his map to find out what exit to take. I'm talking about the guy who doesn't want to miss a single word of the latest John Grisham novel. I've seen it all.

Well, at least I thought I had. Apparently, I am extremely naïve. Never in a million years would I expect to see what I saw today. If I wasn't able to get a photograph (I at least wasn't driving while taking the photograph) I never would tell the story. After all, who would believe me?

But officer, I had to play. My radio is broken!

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Having just spent a long weekend in our nation's capital, I saw a sign that reminded me of just how stupid our elected officials can be.

Actually, I'm not certain whether the stupidity lies with the elected officials, or with the voters who put them in office. What am I ranting about? Signs that read, "no photography". All around New York City, for example, you see these signs. You see them on bridges and tunnels. They are popping up in more and more places. What's the purpose? To fight terrorism of course!

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My wife recently took her fur her coat out of storage. This got me thinking about the arguments against fur and specifically some of the fanatics that, like fanatics are apt to do, take the issue to far.

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On August 18, 2002, my wife, 10-month-old son and I were on our way home from a vacation in Maine. We stopped at a Friendly's restaurant for breakfast. We were shown to our table, a booth with a high chair situated at one end.

We put Ryan in the high chair and sat down at the booth on either side of him. We ordered our breakfast and, the waitress returned shortly thereafter with two plates of pancakes which she placed in front of my wife and I.

Apparently, at some point soon after, the waitress returned and placed a container of syrup in front of our 10-month-old son. She did not tell us that the syrup was hot. She did not in fact tell us anything. She simply put an open container in front of an inquisitive 10-month-old boy. This container was about an inch high and 5 inches in diameter.

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I grew up near Atlantic City New Jersey. When I went to college, before had a car, if I wanted to return home on weekends I would have to take a casino tour bus. While this was economical (the casinos usually gave rolls of quarters to bus passengers as an insentive) it was a little annoying too.

For one thing, on the way to Atlantic City, whoever was sitting next to me always felt the need to share with me there "system" for beating the casino. On the way home however I found that those same people often had very creative stories explaining why they lost money.

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