I was gone from my home on Friday...

from before 7:15 a.m. and didn't return until just before 10:00 p.m.  In that time I went to my class, fought traffic to get to the movie on time ("Argo" was a simply terrific film), went over to Mr. B's Sports Grill to play BuzzTime Trivia with my friends/teammates and then finally rushed home to watch "Blue Bloods" before sitting down at the computer for a bit.

I was very tired.  Very, very tired.  I needed to write a review of "Argo" and address a controversy about its casting within that review and I pushed that off until Saturday.

Things I am pondering at present:

I feel badly over having not doing an "in the headlines" recap of Friday's news.  There just wasn't a window of time during which I could do it.  I shouldn't feel badly but I do.

I do feel badly that the woman in Texas who glued her kid's hands to the wall as part of beating her within an inch of her life will not live the entire 99 years she was sentenced to spend in prison.  99 years isn't long enough for that kind of mother to be punished.

I'm pondering the fuss being raised (not all that much) about "Argo" and the fact that Ben Affleck cast himself in the role of a real life person who happens to be of Hispanic ethnicity.  Let me say that word again.  Ethnicity.  There is no Hispanic "race".  Hispanics self-identify their race on the U.S. census, some as white/caucasian and some as "other".  Perhaps someday social constructs will be re-defined to create a Hispanic race, but that's not how it stands today.  Ethnicity is not as critical as critical in casting as race might be considered.  No one is going to cast Denzel Washington in the role of a white, real-life President of the United States.  Just as no one is going to cast Ben Affleck in the role of famous real-life black men of history like Malcolm X or Martin Luther King.  But it was fine to cast a Hispanic-American actor named Benjamin Bratt as a real-life Italian-American soldier for a film about a World War II military operation entitled "The Great Raid".  Why was Bratt so perfect for this role?  Because he happened to be an almost dead ringer for the real-life person at the time of the operation for which he became famous.  And because he's a decent actor who carried off the role quite well.

I'm pondering the bad luck of getting together with my friends last night for one of our now rare outings to somewhere we used to go regularly on Friday nights to play Buzztime trivia.  The bad luck was involved in our favorite server, who always treats us like royalty having to work the day shift that particular Friday, leaving us in the hands of a less competent but more than adequate server.  Still, it's like the difference between a filet mignon and a rump roast no matter how you slice it.

At a time when the economy is still in turmoil, I'm pondering the notion of women's shoes costing more than some people's rent and now comes along a cocktail with a price tag of nearly $9,000 for one drink.  At the Playboy Club in London, a "Salvatore's Legacy" will set you back $8,824.  It contains four ingredients that are over 100 years old, two of which are from the 1700s.

I'm pondering, wait, that's political.  Okay, I'll ponder that, but leave it out of this.  I'm pondering instead why a paramedic in Detroit is being punished for giving a blanket to a man who was cold.  A blanket that had been donated to the department for victims of fires, and therefore didn't cost the city a single cent.  The man was cold, the paramedic helped him.  Don't punish him for that.

I'm pondering how many people who will tune into the next Celebrity Apprentice will be doing so to see how many episodes it takes for Gary Busey to have a major meltdown, or to flash his "privates" in public again.  I'm pondering just why Omarosa is a celebrity now.  I know why Brande Roderick is on the show, the Donald likes hot blondes.  I'm pondering why it is that more and more, Lisa Rinna reminds me of Kris Jenner. 

And finally, I'm pondering how many families were without power for hours and may have had food in their refrigerators spoil because of power lines taken down for the movement of the space shuttle Endeavor from LAX to its final resting spot at a museum.  A number that is only growing as the shuttle creeps through the streets.