Among this morning's ponderings is...

the lack of patience or clear thinking by people in large crowd situations.  I went to a screening of Jack Reacher last night.  It was held in a large auditorium and drew a big crowd even though it was a press screening.  The theater were it was held has a big parking structure with plenty of room.  You do have to validate your ticket and pay $4.00 under normal circumstances.

But the screening's organizers thought of everything.  They had free soda and popcorn on a table outside the auditorium for attendees.  And they had it "guarded" so that people going to other films wouldn't  raid the tables.  The best part was they gave us a piece of paper to take care of the parking validation.

That didn't stop a long line of the screening's attendees from lining up to pay for parking, which is the normal process before exiting this garage.  I went straight to my car, sat in the long line of cars exiting, handed the little slip of paper to the attendant at the exit and I paid nothing.  All those fools in line wasted $4.

Traffic was heavy going to the area of the theater (I planned to stop nearby and eat before the movie).  So I just got off of the main thoroughfares and got there very quickly using side streets.  Are we such lemmings that once we're in a line of traffic we don't just find an alternative?  I had to have saved at least 20 minutes doing what I did.

Why do people go into a restaurant to buy food when they don't have the money?  I understand hunger.  I understand lack of resources.  The systems in place to feed people who can't feed themselves are strained.  But I saw a couple in a restaurant last night who were two dollars short of ordering what they wanted to order and "solicited" donations from patrons until they gathered enough cash.  Perhaps if they weren't ordering the most expensive item on the menu the missing two bucks wouldn't have been a problem?  Yeah, it was at least two dollars more than anything else.  Hey, more power to them, they got what they wanted and someone walked away accurately feeling like a generous soul.

Palm trees are lovely but the winds last night reminded us of the downside of having palm trees lining city streets with large branches everywhere.  I just drove around them but I'm sure that running over and over such branches is not good for tires.  Ah well, we don't get those kinds of winds all that often.

I understand the occasional check-in on Facebook.  Heck, I check-in when I go to movies.  But now I'm seeing people (plural) on Twitter who are somehow doing check-ins at just about every place they pass by.  They can't be walking in to all of the places I'm seeing, not in the limited time between their check-ins.  I won't stop following them yet, but if the volume increases...I'll have to ponder that more.

What genius made diet soda so addictive?  Yes, it has no calories but when you drink a ton of it and it makes you feel more hungry, the concept of "diet" is no longer part of the equation.

This Date in History:

On this date in 211, Publius Septima Geta, co-emperor of Rome goes to meet his brother without his bodyguards and is murdered by the Praetorian Guard.
On this date in 324, Licinius abdicates as Roman Emperor
On this date in 1154, Henry II is crowned at Westminster Abbey.
On this date in 1606, the Jamestown settlers set sail for the new world.
On this date in 1777, General George Washington's forces settle in for winter at Valley Forge.
On this date in 1843, Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" goes on sale.
On this date in 1924, the last Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost is sold.
On this date in 1941, Adolf Hitler becomes Supreme Commander-in-chief of the German Army.
On this date in 1963, Zanzibar gains independence from the United Kingdom.
On this date in 1984, the agreement between the UK and China under which China will resume control of Hong Kong in 1997 is signed.
On this date in 1998, the House of Representatives forwarded articles of impeachment against President Clinton to the Senate.  The reason that they couldn't use the stain on the blue dress as evidence is that everyone in Arkansas has the same DNA.

And on this date in 1944, the man who rose to fame as "Venus Flytrap", Tim Reid was born.