I was amazed yesterday....

when the VA got me in and out in a timely fashion.  I can only hope they are as quick tomorrow as I go back for the second time in two days, but it won't happen.  I have an appointment to see a specialist (an allergist) and that will undoubtedly mean waiting well beyond the scheduled appointment time.

I shouldn't grouse.  But given how many hours of my second (or third life) I've spent waiting somewhat impatiently at the VA, I do grouse a little.

We played trivia last night and had a really lame category.  Bad things that people found in their food.  The answers involved fingers, skin, a snake, a condom and worse.  That's not trivia.  That's disgsting.

No classifieds today, I just didn't feel like it.

Papa John's has 16,000 employees nationwide.  Many of them are going to find their hours being reduced so that the company can avoid the mandate of Obamacare.  Now I'm going to share a secret.  That school I used to work for...used to do essentially the same thing.  Not cutting people's hours back, but hiring them to work schedules that were as close to qualifying for benefits as possible, without actually making them eligible for benefits.  The test was 16 teaching hours, on the theory that there is 1.5 hours of preparation for every hour of teaching, or 30 non-teaching hours per week.  Suddenly part-time teachers were being capped at 14 or 15 teaching hours, while part-time non-teaching employees would be hired for 28 to 29 hours per week.  Considering it saved the school $4,000 per such employee per year, it was no surprise that when I left in 2004, there were around 200 full-time employees receiving benefits, but over 100 part-timers who did not get benefits.   Every time there was a discussion about creating a new position, shaping it so it wouldn't qualify for benefits was part of the discussion.

So this is nothing new.  It's just going to be done more publicly and garnering more publicity because now there is a more stringent law on the topic and people are going to do what they can to avoid the costs involved.  One estimate is that it would cost between $5 million and $8 million per year for the company to comply with the mandate without cutting hours (referring to Papa John's).  Their net operating profit last year was just over $50 million.  So while some are trying to claim that this could be done for just a few cents in increased pizza prices, that math doesn't add up.  They'd need to generate a 10% increase in net revenue to cover this expense.

Traffic was really bad last night.  There's a street that runs adjacent to the 405 going South just to the South of Culver Boulevard.  It's off of Sawtelle next to the freeway and traffic backs up there often.  It was backed up onto Sawtelle last night.  The street is two lane, with the left lane going straight onto the freeway on-ramp or turning left, and the right lane being right-turn only.  So I'm second from the intersection when some asshole speeds down the right lane, bypassing at least 20 cars, and then cutting in front of me rather than turning right as he was supposed to.

I wanted to get out of my car, pull the jerk out and knock some sense into him.  For about a pico-second.  Then I settled for honking and mental finger gestures.  Until I could take it no longer and I cut him off while going up the on-ramp.  I admit it.  I lost my temper.  I'll try to be a better person next time.  But after waiting almost 12 minutes in that line, to be cut off that way by some self-important jerk who thinks he's better than every other driver is just very maddening.

Is there an office somewhere that people make money coining phrases for the things that are often discussed?   Super-Storm Sandy?  The Fiscal Cliff?  One media outlet starts with these things and then suddenly everyone is using them.

There's a biological anthropologist (a woman) who says there are nine white lies a woman should never tell her husband:

1.  I never talk about our personal life with my friends.
2.  I had only one glass of white wine at dinner.
3.  I've never seen so and so outside of work.
4.  I always watch what I eat.
5.  I was not with this woman you hate, I was with two other women.
6.  These new shoes, oh they were on sale.
7.  I didn't forget to go to the bank, I got busy and figured I'd go later.
8.  Of course you're great in bed.  I'm totally satisifed.
9.  No, that doesn't bother me at all.

Do any of you have any additions to this list?

We have the current White House sex scandal involving retired General David Patraeus, the General in command of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and some really "interesting" women and now comes the Waffle House sex scandal.  The CEO of the chain of breakfast eateries is claiming that a former housekeeper with whom he had consensual sex is blackmailing him, while she claims she was forced to have sex with him or face the loss of her job.

Speaking of General Patraeus, I looked at his military record (not the actual record file, I didn't have access, but I read through reports about his military career).  He has a very impressive record of service, but anyone who describes him as a combat veteran is gilding the lily.  He was never in a unit directly involved in combat until he was a two-star general and commanding the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq in 2003.  Generals don't usually see actual combat.  Since World War II ended, you can count the number of U.S. general officers who died as a result of injuries suffered in combat on one hand.  I'm not knocking the man's accomplishments, merely trying to point out that calling him a combat veteran isn't entirely accurate.  I'm the first to admit I never saw a shot fired in anger, and I am in no way a combat veteran. 

Pat Robertson is excusing General Patraeus by saying "he's a man".  On a related note, Robertson refused to disclose whether or not he consulted with God personally before delivering this defense of Patraeus.