Apologies for the lack of morning blogging...

but when I woke up this morning it was much later than usual and I wanted to try to finish watching at least one episode of yesterday's DVD of Season 1 of "Third Watch" in what became a fruitless attempt to mail it back today.  It will have to wait to go back until Monday, which means I'll get one less disk next week.

As I look at my schedule for next week, that's not a big loss.  I have appointments at the VA Hospital on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, the latter of which will cause me to miss part of my class that day.  It also means I have to do the graded review assignment this weekend and turn it in on Monday, or risk not having enough time to do it on Wednesday.  Not a great choice.

I won't bore you with the rest of my over-scheduled week, although just looking at it is wearing me out.

I had an interesting discussion yesterday about children and learning the Pledge of Allegiance.  Someone who I won't identify further and I were discussing this topic.  He was adamant that kids in school should learn the Pledge and I don't necessarily disagree.  I was merely trying to make the point that rather than just inculcating the children in school with a devotion to country by forcing them to memorize and recite some words, I believe that they need to learn just what those words mean and the history behind them.  He took me to task for not being able to express a valid opinion on the topic, because I myself don't have kids.  So I asked "do you have kids?"  He answered in the affirmative and told me that he has three, one that is 16 and two others who are not yet in school.

So I asked the natural question.  "Does your 16 year old son know what the words in the Pledge actually mean" and he said he didn't know and then told me that my question was out of bounds.  Out of bounds because it wasn't his choice to not be involved in his son's life and thusly to not know whether or not he knows the meaning of such things.

Am I the only one who finds more than a modicum of hypocrisy in being told my opinion on a topic is invalid when I don't have kids, when the person lecturing me has yet to experience what kids deal with on this particular topic?   Maybe I am, but it's there.  Fortunately I'm giving out a pass on this one, because the PIQ (Person in Question) had had a few drinks.

Yes, my leg hurts.  Yes, I didn't walk today, although I did make a point to make what walking I did have to do today thus far be more than usual by going the long way around.  And yes, I am going to make an appointment to see the doctor to check out the leg and see if the problem really is a worsening of the tear in my medial meniscus.

I hadn't been to Universal's Citywalk in a long time but I was there yesterday.  Again, I wonder about those who claim the economy is so weak, when I see so many people spending so freely on entertainment and the like.  Clearly not everyone is feeling the negative effects of a weak economy.  I thought the same when I was in Beverly Hills on Thursday and saw throngs of shoppers going in and out of stores on Rodeo Drive.  They can't all be browsing, some of them were carrying bags with new purchases in them.

I have a question.  Is the name of the store "Forever 21" designed to play on the desire for eternal youth? 

There was a trailer I saw today for a film I had heard nothing about before.  It is opening next April and it is a biopic of the late Jackie Robinson. The film, "42" may not be a remake of "The Jackie Robinson Story" that came out in 1950, and was later re-released in a colorized (no pun intended) version, but it's clearly the story of how Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League baseball.  Everyone knows who Jackie Robinson was.  Almost no one knows who Larry Doby was. 

Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier on April 15, 1947 when he first played for the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League.  Less than two months later, Larry Doby broke the American League's color barrier by playing in his first game for the Cleveland Indians on July 5, 1947.

Late last night (almost midnight) I happened to be a passenger in a vehicle and saw a curious sight.  A food truck parked at a major intersection in the mid-city area, surrounded by hungry people with the midnight munchies.  I'd have thought food trucks would be long-gone by that hour and was I ever mistaken.