Cheating again but I have a good excuse...

I suspect I'm going to be up later tonight than I was the past few nights and I may sleep later in the morning.  Since I have class, that might force me to skip the morning blog if I don't get a headstart tonight.

Tonight I saw something that truly frightened me.  I don't believe that fines will stop people from driving and texting, or driving and talking on their cellphones.  But I actually saw an idiot reading a book in rush hour traffic on the 405.  You can't convince me there's any safe speed above zero to be reading a book.  Glancing at a map, or written directions is one thing.  It's just a glance.  But reading the book held above the steering wheel is just unsafe.

We're skipping trivia on Wednesday night.  One of our team will no longer play as a team of three, and we don't have four players willing and available to play tomorrow night.  I suspect that our Wednesday night outings will soon end.  Especially since there's a new "league" to play in on Thursdays that has a big final event in January or February.

The Lakers showed me nothing to be excited about tonight.  They won't win anything if they can't play defense.  Winning basketball is more about keeping the other team from scoring than it is scoring yourself.  Defense wins.  It's true in most sports.  In football a defense can create turnovers and those can lead to direct or indirect points.  The baseball team that has the best defense and the best pitching will win in the long run.  Hockey teams that shut out their opponents will win eventually.

I'm a supporter of civil rights.  Of equality of treatment.  But for civil rights leaders in Minnesota to cry foul because the roster of the Minnesota Timberwolves basketball team doesn't have "enough" black players on it is ridiculous.  Blacks make up 75% of the players in the NBA.  Blacks represent 12% of the total population.  I think on the face, the NBA has done more than its share to promote diversity.  The T-Wolves tried to sign two black players as free agents in the off-season, but both chose to go elsewhere.  That they would deliberately be signing more white players than black players is just dumb.  They want to win.  They're going to sign the best players available without regard to the color of their skin.  But suddenly, they're a racist organization.  Those civil rights leaders in Minnesota need to shut up and go bother the Nazis in Skokie.

Las Vegas police have arrested the moron who stole $1.6 million in Venetian Casino chips.  The casino cancelled those chips and replaced them right after the theft, so the thief wasn't going to get paid anyway.  Now he gets to spend some time in the gray bar hotel.  Another Darwin Award nominee, even though he didn't manage to kill himself.

FEMA uses the Waffle House index to determine where to send assistance first.  Seems that Waffle Houses stay open under the harshest conditions, so when one actually closes, or starts serving a limited menu, that's where help is needed most.  Why doesn't someone get them some help with most of their menu, which sucks aside from the waffles.  The waffles are pretty good though.

In 2000 we had hanging chads.  Now we have a hanging crane.  What c-word for Words with Friends will pop up in the news next?

So Disney and George Lucas were negotiating on the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney.  Robert Iger (CEO of Disney) and George were on the way to lunch when they got around to haggling over the price.  Lucas suggested the next street sign with a number on it, in billions.  Good thing someone painted a big dot after the 4, on the 405 sign.  Otherwise Disney would be in a lot of trouble.

BTW, did you know that Walt and Roy Disney are the only siblings to ever be Grand Marshals of the Rose Parade?  I think I mentioned that the other day and said something in error.  The current Rose Queen is the 95th, but the parade itself is well over 100 years old.  My bad.

One last factoid.  Christopher Lee is 90 years old.  He was therefore, 80 years old in 2002 when Star Wars II, Attack of the Clones opened, and that means he was in his very late 70s when he filmed his lightsaber fight scenes.  Did he do that himself or have a double?  The answer can be found in tomorrow's blog.

High Executive Personal Assistant  is another want-ad subject line that caught my eye.  So is the executive saying he's high-level, or that he's just high?  I didn't see any 420 friendly references in the ad, so maybe he just needs an assistant to edit his syntax.

Last ad today.  There were separate ads for female go-go dancers and for male go-go dancers at a club in West Hollywood.  At the same club?