Tuesday thoughts

So chalk up Tuesday as a frustrating day...

I got the run-around from the city of Culver in trying to find out what the story is with the parking meters on Overland for this coming weekend is. It took a number of "I don't know, you should call so and so" calls going from one bureaucrat to another before I finally got someone to commit to something. The final verdict is I can park at the meters on Overland as long as I put money in them until 6 p.m. on Saturday. Sunday they allegedly aren't in operation. Now you'll be able to hear my scream of outrage if I were to get a parking ticket for being at a meter with no time on it, this coming Sunday. Stay tuned.

My leg feels a bit better today but I'm going to give it one more day of rest before attempting a short walk tomorrow. Not to mention having to go to the VA again today, something I didn't have to do yesterday if their left hand would talk to their right hand. I extol their virtues when they do well, so I don't feel bad about dissing them for making me go there on back to back days just for a blood test, when I had an appointment the next day where I could have just gone then.

When we played trivia last night, a question was asked.  "What movie won the 2004 Oscar for Best Animated film?"  It's an ambiguous question.  If you're talking about the 2003 Oscar awarded in 2004, it's "Finding Nemo".  If you're talking about the 2004 Oscar for that year, awarded in 2005, it's a different answer ("The Incredibles" I believe).  We got it wrong and we should have asked for clarification although this particular hostess wouldn't have given us any.  It's just as well.  She favors Brit-centric trivia and we struggle every time we go there to play because of that focus.  If it weren't for the insistence of some of my teammates to play there rather than our other Tuesday night location, I'd stop going there.  But I'm a team player.

I was reading an article in the style section of the L.A. Times not too long ago and I've been wondering about it ever since. A man was writing about the "style" of Ricki Lake and in the first paragraph he makes a point about how she's wearing a pair of designer high heels. A valid point in a style piece. But why did we need to know the specific model name of the shoes, and how did he know it anyway? Maybe he's just a fashion reporter and that name was right there in his mind from having written about them on a different day. I admit that I find female and male reporters who report stories that aren't "hard" news to handle appearance differently. The women go into much more detail about how females they are writing about look, clothing, shoes, etc. The men write more about the overall attractiveness of the women without going into details. Being a curious sort, I was taken a bit aback when I found out that one pair of the shoes Lake was wearing retail for over $1,000. I guess I shouldn't have been, when there's a female poker professional whose shoe collection was valued at $1 million and became a property issue in her divorce settlement.

If I didn't mention this before, the Centrist Party is going to propose the legalization of marijuana on a federal level. I say that having never tried marijuana. Unlike the case of Bill Clinton, I can honestly say I've never inhaled. I may have gotten a contact high one time, when I was riding in this guy's Mustang when he and the other two guys in the car were smoking like madmen and the interior of the car stank of that odor. It was so bad I finally just jumped out at a red light and took the bus home. But we will legalize, regulate and tax marijuana, which should also drive the price down.

I've come to another realization about crime and behavior. I was opposed to the legalization of prostitution for a long time. Now I'm in favor of making it legal, therefore safer, and something that can be taxed. It's a billion dollar industry where women are constantly victimized by pimps, johns and where disease can run rampant. But with the proper settings, precautions and regulation, it could be made much much safer. Clearly it's a state's issue and the states need to deal with it one at a time. But I believe all 50 states should undo their laws that make prostitution a crime. I'm sure Xaviera Hollander and Heidi Fleiss would concur. For those of you too young to know how Xaviera Hollander is, back in 1971 she wrote her autobiography "The Happy Hooker" about her life as a call girl.

I'm pondering the purchase of a one year post-warranty package for my laptop and thinking it's a bad deal. It will cost $100 or so for one year of coverage. I can replace my laptop for less than $400 or so. So why would I spend more than replacement cost over a 3 year period for warranty protection. What I need to do is find those flash drives I bought, and start backing up my documents on a regular basis. Anything else on this computer can be replaced. If I had a big investment in the laptop or it would cost a huge amount to replace, the warranty would be cost-effective. It isn't. Sorry, HP.

The ex-wife of former Dodgers owner, Jamie McCourt wants more money. She's filed a motion in court to toss out the settlement in her case, claiming that the value of the Dodgers was fraudulently understated, and even if the valuation was based on errors rather than fraud, the errors were so bad, she should get more money anyway. Raises an interesting question. We no longer worry over who did what in a divorce, it's just irreconcilable differences and split evenly. But in this case, the evidence is she's the one who bailed, having affairs outside the marriage. Should that be considered in issues involving property? I don't know. I'm just posing a question.