Supercilious Saturday

Food for Thought

Excerpt from Omaha World Herald (9/17):  "Olive Garden offers 'Pasta Pass' again. Olive Garden is bringing back its 'Pasta Pass' that lets people gorge on as much pasta as they want for 7 weeks. And friends & family are welcome to pig out too this year. The restaurant chain known for it free breadsticks says it will sell 1,000 of the $100 regular Pasta Passes starting THU at 1:00p CDT on it's website. It will also sell 1,000 family Pasta Passes which will cost $300 & let cardholders bring along up to 3 guests . . . " [Who says we don't live in the greatest country in the world?!]

Theological Saturday

Also from OWH (8/22):  "Give us this day our daily brew. More churches are setting up in-house coffee shops to gather the flock & welcome new members . . . Coffee at church used to mean grabbing a foam cup filled w/Folgers & dumping in powdered creamer. These days, more places of worship here & nationally are going big w/coffee, serving quality brew, providing froufrou * creamers & comfy furniture so people can linger as they sip . . . " [If anyone should be leading the charge on this trend, it should be Lutherans. I'm just sayin'.]
* My one caveat. I'm a Seattle's Best Dark #5 guy w/half & half. Froufrou creamers? That's for Methodists. **
** No offense.

Criminal Minds

Excerpt from Norfolk Daily News (8/21):  "Locked in hotel safe. The odd case of the baby in the hotel safe has been solved, Canadian police said THU, explaining news reports helped locate the Brooklyn family outside Toronto. A spokesman for the Niagara Regional Police Service . . . told Newsday the incident resulted from a game of hide-and-seek. The girl, 3, got locked in the safe in the family's hotel room at the Howard Johnson by the Falls while playing w/siblings, he said. She was in good health." [This is a little dated, but I just can't get the image of a 3-year-old, locked in a hotel safe, out of my mind. Do we really trust the Canadians to handle an investigation of this magnitude? Wouldn't we all feel more reassured if authorities handed it off to our own DOJ? You know, the ones investigating those top secret email leaks by "she who shall not be named?" Oh, wait . . . ]

Political Saturday

Also from OWH (9/16):  "Biden's authenticity a political plus if he enters presidential race. Joe Biden's unique trait as a politician is--& always had been--his honesty. Sometimes that honesty gets him into varying degrees of trouble. Sometimes it makes it seem as though he's the closest thing to a real person you could possibly hope for in politics . . . The Joe Biden on display w/Colbert is the person who has inspired remarkable loyalty--over decades--from a tight-knit group of staffers who would form the core of his presidential brain trust if he decided to run in 2016."

• How do you define "authenticity?" If you define it as "honesty," you may need to do a little research on Joe's previously failed attempts to run for the Democratic presidential nomination & what brought him down. Just to whet your appetite, check out Jonah Goldberg's column from National Review Online.
• If you define "authenticity" as "he calls 'em as he sees 'em," isn't "she who shall not be named" being "authentic" in her support for maintaining federal funding for Planned Parenthood? 
• Doesn't "she who shall not be named also have a "tight-knit group of staffers?"
• I don't want "the closest thing to a real person." I want a "real person." Am I asking too much!

Whatever Saturday

Also from NDN (9/17):  "Facebook working on 'dislike' button." The 'dislike' button you've been waiting for is finally coming to FB. During a townhall TUE, chief Exec Mark Zuckerberg said FB is responding to years' of demand from users who simply aren't satisfied w/the 'like' button alone . . . People want the button because they need other ways to 'express empathy' beyond liking a post, he said. If someone posts about a death in the family, for example, users want an option other than clicking 'like.'" [I'm not exaggerating when I say that the addition of a "dislike" button could spell doom for my blog posts.] 

Also from OWH (9/17):  "Russian pranksters claim Putin hoax call to Elton John. Two Russians pranksters say they fooled Elton John into believing that Russian President Vladimir Putin had given him a call. The British star on TUE posted a message on Instagram, thanking Putin for calling him to discuss gay rights in Russia. Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the reports, saying that Putin never called John . . . " [Because Hollywood celebrities are so much more intelligent than the rest of us.]

A True Story (as far as I know)

Lois shared the following anecdote with me the other night. Rachel, our daughter, asked her little boy, Bentley, our 2-year-old grandson, to show her his knee. He touched his knee. She asked him to show her his other knee. He touched his other knee & said, "Duh."