Things I'm pondering this morning...

if the winter-blend gas is on the way, why would prices be going up at the pump?  If the Exxon/Mobil refinery has been back on line for more than 24 hours, why would prices be going up at the pump?  I don't blame gas station owners, I blame the oil companies that sell them the gas.

Why does traffic get so snarled when the President is in town?  Why in the world don't they just put him in a helicopter and avoid snarling the streets and freeways that are bad enough to begin with?

Why is it when Liam Neeson says something about how he might convert to Islam because of his experiences in Istanbul, the media reports he IS converting?  Do they know what he's doing better than he does?

Why is Esquire to be believed as the authority as to who the sexiest woman alive is?  I think Mila Kunis is pretty sexy, but the sexiest woman alive?  That's more than a bit subjective.

Does anyone who sees the big billboard for a particular strip joint as they drive by the billboard at Sawtelle and Pico end up going over there for a drink and a lapdance?  When the "Nudes Nudes Nudes" marquee was there on Century Boulevard, passed by everyone going to LAX, very few of the cars took time to pull into the converted bowling alley to check out the nude, nude, nudes.  Now it's a parking lot.

Did I really read that Rosie O'Donnell loves Honey Boo Boo and wants to buy her family a house?  I think I'm going to throw up in my mouth.

Can I write the introductions of the Vice-Presidential Candidates for their debate?  In this corner, the man who lied about his marathon time, and while supposedly a serious math wonk, couldn't explain the details of his tax plan to Chris Wallace, Paul Ryan.  And in this corner, the confirmed plaigirist, a ma who thinks it's still possible for GM to lead the way among automakers in the 20th Century, and a man who said that his boss, Barrack Obama calls "jobs" a three letter word, Joe Biden.  Naw, they won't use those.

What in the world would cause guests at two different weddings at the same hotel to get into a major brawl where one person ends up dead?   Weddings are supposed to be happy times.  The fighting isn't supposed to come until much later.

What would possess a woman to go into Joran Van Der Sloot's jail cell alone and have sex with him, after he's killed at least two girls in violent ways?  We know she did, because she's pregnant with his child. Now there's a child who will need a lot of therapy.

How does Governor Moonbeam sleep at night while his proposed tax increase is being marketed as new money for schools when everyone knows that's a lie?

That a Tiger's player broke an unwritten baseball rule by kissing the ball before pitching it isn't all that interesting.  But why there is such a stupid rule is kind of interesting.  Who cares if the ball gets kissed?  As long as it isn't spit on, what's the big deal? (there's a way to throw an almost unhittable pitch known as a "spitball").

Why can't Big Bird stand in for one of the moderators at the remaining presidential debates?  Or maybe Oscar the Grouch?

Why is it we never see the big, elaborate marriage proposals on the TV news, where the woman says "no?"  I'm sure they happen.  Not every woman being asked for her hand in marriage says yes.  Why do they refer to it as asking for her hand anyway?  Wouldn't you want the whole woman?  Or is the hand thing yet another fetish we didn't cover in abnormal psych class?  Just reminded me of a passage from that long-ago book "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex", but were afraid to ask.  In it, a woman who was divorcing her husband because she'd discovered he had a warehouse of women's boots.  When asked how she'd allowed him to do it for so many years without saying something, she replied "I thought he kept saying he was going to spend some time with his old books".

What's the big deal about the outgoing mayor of San Diego dropping the f-bomb here or there.  Was he wrong when he said "the governor stole our f***ing money"??  No. 

I've heard some good and bad excuses for parking tickets, and having a car booted and towed.  I'm a fan of the show "Parking Wars", which is great entertainment.  But I have sympathy for a man in Pittsburgh who lost his car over $1,000 in parking tickets, which piled up on his car after he suffered a stroke.  The city should help him out.

Why in the world would you deny a sixth grade boy who is wearing a pink mohawk to show support for his mother's struggle with breast cancer, a chance to try out for the basketball team?  That principal ought to be ashamed of herself.  Doesn't she know who Dennis Roman is?

We see motivated people inspiring us all the time, but has there been a more motivational story of late than the Indiana man who wanted to join the U.S. Army so badly, he lost over 160 lbs to be able to do so?  Having had to run for four hours to make weight on my enlistment date, I can relate to his struggle.

Going to a screening tonight.  Haven't been to this screening location before, but considering it's so close traffic shouldn't be a problem.  President Obama will be gone by then and traffic should be light.  It is Columbus day after all.