Before I ponder things this morning....

let's try a "what would you do" scenario or two and see how you'd handle something.

Imagine for a moment that you're in a fast food restaurant.  You've ordered and paid, but one of the items that is part of your order isn't ready.  The cashier tells you to just have a seat and they'll bring it out to you when it's ready.  Ten minutes later, you notice that they now have that item ready but they aren't bringing it out to you.

Do you wait longer?  Do you go up to the register and ask what the problem is? I conducted an experiment when this happened to me.  I waited another five minutes and when my order still wasn't completed, I asked to see the manager.  I got my food for free after complaining, which wasn't why I waited.  I waited to see how long it would take and got tired of waiting.  But what would you do?

One more.  Someone near you in a movie is talking during the show.  Does their appearance influence how you react?  I one got frustrated with someone sitting in front of me constantly texting and I asked him nicely if he realized how disruptive that was.  He turned around and told me if I wanted to live to move to another seat.  So what would you do?

Okay, on to things I'm pondering:

The sign outside the parking structure makes it very clear it is full.  There are no spaces.  So why are people pulling in?  Do they assume that because they see a car or two driving out there are enough spaces for all the cars that entered right in front of them?  It didn't just flash full, it'd been full for a while.

Why do so many people not take umbrellas with them when it is raining?

Why is it that television shows used to be 39 episodes per season and now are barely 22 or so?

Do the drive-thru people at McDonald's ask you if you want fries with your fries when you order fries?

Do woodchucks really chuck wood?  They do in the Geico commercial.

I watched "The Enforcer" on TV yesterday.  Does actors and actresses watch their movies from long ago and wonder where the time went?

I saw a really good movie today.  "Any Day Now" is about discrimination against gay males in the 1970s in child custody issues.  But the child in this case isn't one of the couple's, it is a neighbor's kid who has Down's Syndrome.  The writer who adapted the original screenplay directed and he really got the 1970s West Hollywood vibe down.  Really enjoyed it.  Yet here in 2012, there are states where same-sex couples face discrimination in child custody cases.  Why?  When will the rest of society's bigots learn that same-sex couples aren't any different from heterosexual couples in terms of their ability to raise children?

Why is no one calling for a ban on barbecue forks following the murder of a woman with one in the Valley?

This Date in History:

On this date in 942, William I was assassinated in Normandy
On this date in 1538, Pope Paul III excommunicates King Henry VIII of England
On this date in 1718, Great Britain declares war on Spain
On this date in 1777, France formally recognized the United States of America
On this date in 1862, General Ulysses S. Grant issues a general order, expelling Jews from Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky.  President Lincoln revoked the order a few weeks later and when Grant sought the Presidency, he said that a subordinate drafted the order and he signed it without having read it.
On this date in 1903, the Wright brothers made the first powered, heavier-than-air flight at Kitty Hawk, NC
On this date in 1935, the first flight of the Douglas DC-3
On this date in 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge, the Malmedy massacre takes place.  German soldiers murdered 80 American POWs.
On this date in 1960, the coup against Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I is put down and he returns from Brazil.
On this date in 1969, the U.S. Air Force ended its study of UFOs.
On this date in 1981, Brigadier General James Dozier is kidnapped by the Red Brigade in Italy.
On this date in 1983, members of the Provisional IRA detonate a car bomb near Harrods in London, killing 6.
On this date in 1989, the first episode of The Simpsons is aired.