Staying up until 2 a.m. when you have to get up at 6 a.m....

is never a good idea.  But I just couldn't fall asleep.  Today will be a busy day too.  Three hours of class, session #2 of 24.  And yes, even though I already know this chapter from top to bottom, I actually read the material and did the exercises.  Well, some of them. :)

Later I'll be making a run to the used book store, as I'm out of books I haven't read recently, so hopefully I can find another half-dozen books or so for $2.43 or whatever they charge.  I have to admit to giving in to temptation and paying $2.75 last time to buy an old Star Trek novel from the time after the original series had ended its run and before "The Next Generation" had started.  There was a lot of Star Trek fiction being published then and some of it was actually quite good.

There's a quote from Governor Moonbeam (the old nickname of current CA governor Jerry Brown) from when he was not running for election, where he admits he liked not having to lie about his campaigns.  That led me to form my latest plank for the Centrist Party platform.  We will make no promises we can't keep.  All our commitments will be to try our best to _________ whatever we're proposing.  We won't promise a chicken in every pot, or pot in every medicine cabinet or anything else we can't deliver on.

So some guy was on Letterman fronting his band, but he was wearing what looked like an evening gown.  Hey, who cares?  If you can play the music, no one is going to pay a lot of attention to what you're wearing as long as you aren't naked.  Boy George's appearance didn't hurt his music career.

Speaking of music, what do the following songs have in common?

"Beat It" - Michael Jackson
"Mickey" - Toni Basil
"The Cat's in the Cradle" - Harry Chapin
"Like a Virgin" - Madonna
"Our Love's In Jeopardy - Greg Kihn

They were all parodied by Weird Al Yankovich

"Eat It"
"Rickey" (Ricky Ricardo)
"The Cat's in the Kettle"
"Like A Surgeon"
"I Lost on Jeopardy"

So what do the following songs have in common?

"Dancing in the Dark" - Bruce Springsteen
"Jump" - Van Halen
"One Night in Bangkok" - Murray Head
"The Christmas Song" - Nat King Cole
"Babe" - Chrissie Hynde and UB 40
"Caribbean Queen" - Billy Ocean

They were all parodied by a DJ named Dave Ryan that used to be on the air in Las Vegas when I lived there.

"Glowing in the Dark" - about the proposed nuclear dump site
"Slump" - about the then not too good minor league baseball team the Las Vegas Stars
"One Night in Henderson" - all about the cloud of odor that permeates that city
"The Christmas Song" - all about a poor slob who had his fast food hours cut back just before Christmas
"Channel Three Queen" - about a reporter on the Channel 3 news that Dave had a crush on, and his lusting after her.

Love parody songs.

More stuff I saw:

Passing by that adult novelty/lingerie/shoe store, the door was open and there was a life sized mannequin just inside the door.  Gotta get a closer look.

A man on his cell phone in a theater that wasn't completely empty, but was close.  I glared at him for a moment as he was having a conversation while the movie was going.  He left soon after.

Some abandonded furniture inside a now closed furniture store.  There's a sign on the building saying the location is available for lease.  But whoever left, left their counter behind and one other piece of something I couldn't see clearly.

A really bad movie called "The Cold Light of Day".  That was what was showing in the theater above.  It sucked.  Some totally implausible stuff in that movie.  One example.  The hero had hidden his gun in a trash can somewhere in Madrid before making his way to the U.S. Embassy.  Once there, the villain takes him for a ride in her car.  At one point during the ride he says he's getting sick, and uses that as a pretext to flee.  Now Madrid is a big city but somehow he gets out of the car close enough that he can run three blocks back to that same exact trash can and find his gun still there.

The Yankees losing a game they should have won, costing me my win streak in a contest.

I heard but didn't see a commercial about a talk radio program hosted by "The Bikini Chef".

 
"Dave" - all about the host himself