Thought That Came Unbidden

Note to self: never take notes from stoners again on what constitutes mood setting music.

Second note to self: early ’90s prog-rock…not so much with the happy.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled program.

Went to the grocery store today only to discover that even though tomorrow is the first of September, and even though kids are back in school, and have been for a week or more in some places, that the first wave of Halloween candy is already stocked and ready for purchase.

There’s just so much wrong about that I don’t even know where to start.

When someone says “I saw so-and-so on the street. I’ll give you three guesses who she was with, and the first two don’t count.” what does that actually mean?

Does that mean you only get one guess?

Does it mean the answer is so obvious that you should be able to get it in one guess?

Things I think about while staring at the ceiling and cursing the inattentive barista.

Dear Ms. Barrista,

Starbucks is a monolith that dominates the coffee landscape running small businesses into the ground. I tolerate this because, well, it is a monolith which means it is convenient. Starbucks sells bad coffee – burnt, overroasted – in pretentious sizes (grande or medium?) for way too much money per cup. Again, this is tolerated because, well, we really have no other choice. What can’t be tolerated is innattention to detail.

More specifically:

When someone asks for decaf fucking give them decaf!

Regards,
The involuntary insomniac

I have suspected for the last five years that TSA was completely ineffective, that they exist only to make people who are traveling utterly and completely miserable and to help complete the traveler’s transmutation, begun by the airlines of course, from human being to cattle. The reaction to the latest foiled terror plot only confirms this.

TSA’s latest advisory states, “Beverages purchased in the sterile area must be consumed before boarding because they will not be permitted onboard the aircraft.” (Just for fun, here’s a .pdf of the TSA notice.)

I find this particularly amusing as it is a nearly flat-out admission that the screening procedure we are all subjected to is virtually useless. They can’t even guarantee that items purchased inside the secured area aren’t a potential hazard.

The BBC lists full advice for passengers boarding in the UK. The part I particularly like: “Any liquids discovered will be removed from the passenger.” Does that mean they’re doing complete blood transfusions on board aircraft now? Just how far are we going to go with this?

Maybe I’m just cynical, or maybe it’s that I’m naive: all of these foiled terror plots and all of their attendant uproar just reek of political fundraiser to me. Just far enough out from the election to people are calmed down but close enough that people remember it.

And assuming the idiots they have in custody were actually trying to blow up commercial aircraft, not unheard of after all, with a combination of gel/liquid explosive and electronic detonator why haven’t TSA and the UK’s internal equivalent taken the other half of the necessary step and banned electronic equipment from flights?

Oh, right, that might inconvenience business travelers. Can’t have business inconvenienced now can we?