Things I'm pondering from yesterday (Saturday)...

Why do we seem to spend more time looking for the parking space closest to wherever it is we are going, rather than just grabbing the first one available and just walking across the lot?  I saw someone waiting for a space at the Westfield Century City mall today and I decided to conduct an experiment.  I waited and timed out how long the person was willing to wait for a space to open up in the aisle where they were idling.  In the six minutes they were there, 11 cars pulled around them before someone finally got into a car and pulled out to open a space they found suitable.  Why?

I've seen almost every episode of "Law and Order: Criminal Intent" and there were 195 episodes over a ten season run.  Yet last night I watched an episode I hadn't seen before and it was clearly based on a documentary I saw a few weeks ago and loved.  What are the odds of that happening?  BTW, the documentary was "The Central Park Five".

I'm going to a screening on Monday and I'm a little bummed that I can't do the press day next Saturday because of another commitment.  Why is it that things usually work that way?  The thing we want to do is prevented by something we have to do and would prefer to avoid if possible.  But we can't avoid it.

How in the world did a car thief manage to steal the same car a second time from the lot where it had been impounded after the first time he stole it?  Someone's got some serious 'splainin' to do over that one.

Why is it that where government can't get the job done, the citizens can?  Maybe because the citizens are the ones negatively impacted by government's inaction?  I'm referring to that whale carcass that was rotting and giving off a very putrid odor on a Malibu beach.  Local governments engaged in a jurisdictional "your problem, not ours" debate and finally the locals just hired their own boat to tow the carcass out to sea.  Government should have done this days ago.

If the pen is mightier than the sword, then anyone facing someone armed with a sword should just whip out their pen.  Oh wait, that wouldn't work, would it?  Guess it is only true metaphorically, or if you own some James Bond type secret-agent pen that fires a laser beam or something.

When will all of us procrastinators finally get around to forming a society?

Why is it when I buy bottled water I get this image of some minimum wage worker filling empty plastic bottles from a faucet connected to the very same plumbing that supplies my building with water?

Why is it public officials make so many errors that evidence an utter lack of common sense?  The latest being the LAPD not bothering to notify the family of "Notorious B.I.G." that they were releasing the autopsy on him BEFORE it was released?

What fiend was behind certain department stores stocking utterly decadent high-end chocolate bars at their payment stations?  You're unhappy because you just tried on clothes that tapped into your negative self-image and there is an over-priced guilt-assauging piece of chocolate at your disposal.

Aside from her status as Charlie Sheen's ex-wife and the fact her mother married a billionaire, why is Brooke Mueller famous?

What do the following people have in common:

Shania Twain
Sharon Stone
Jay Leno
Rachel McAdams
Pink
Me
Jeff Bezos
Macy Gray

Answer:  all of the above named people worked at one time during their lives for McDonald's.  I actually worked there at three different times.  While in high school, and part-time while stationed in Florida, and again while stationed in Mississippi.

McDonald's claims that one out of every eight people in the U.S. worked for them at one time.  I don't find that hard to believe.  Considering they hired approximately 1 million people in the last year, and have a very high turnover rate among their non-management employees, that makes sense.  People move in and out of there all the time.

This Date in History:

On this date in 1793, The American Minerva, New York City's first newspaper was founded by Noah Webster.
On this date in 1835, The Texian Army captured San Antonio.
On this date in 1872, P.B.S. Pinchback became the first African-American to serve as governor of a state (Louisiana).
On this date in 1953, General Electric announced that all employees who were communists would be fired.
On this date in 1979, eradication of the smallpox virus was certified.
On this date in 1981, Mumia Abu-Jamal allegedly killed Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.
On this date in 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court stays the sixth recount of the results of the presidential election in Florida.
And on this date, singer Donny Osmand was born (in 1957).