Jesus v. Buddha v. Allah

This is a cartoon depiction of a concert I attended in Memphis. I almost fell out of my chair laughing when this musician, Martin Sexton, did this. It was clearly unintentional on his part, but it was funny b/c the crowd didn't quite play along to him.

I heart cockroaches!

Cockroaches are in some ways more disturbing than rats/rodents/other varmints. They are larger here and they come out of nowhere. Marcos almost knocked down his entire bookshelf trying to swat one.

My old roommate Amanda has the funniest cockroach story. She once tried to kill a cockroach and severed it in half with one swat. The horror story was not over, though. This cockroach was pregnant and she found tons of eggs....then, even though the momma cockroach was half dead, it still managed to collect itself, "re-chi", and scurry off with half of its body remaining!!!

This was too much for the cockroach-phobic Amanda. She screamed in sheer terror and continued to smack it wildly---and it wouldn't die!! Next thing she knew, her doorbell was ringing and someone was knocking at the door. She cautiously opened the door and a group of men dressed in black SWAT gear shouted, "Freeze, you're under arrest!" (you can imagine their disbelief when all of this was caused by a tenacious bug.....)

Apparently, her neighbors had mistaken her screams and the smacking sound with someone being abused!!!

Neighborhood crackheads

Perhaps you can't see the man in the center right portion of this photo, but he is our neighborhood crackhead. He walks up and down our block with a shopping cart and he moves a bit like a zombie. Coming from the Haight-Ashbury district, I should find his presence midly comforting, but I don't. He walks like a cross between a zombie and a robot, with minimal use of muscles. His cigarette is stuck in his mouth but his lips don't form a supportive "o" around it. I don't know why he collects bottles or cans, because there is NO COIN RETURN for any can in the lovely state of Tennessee. I think that's my requirement for where I'll live next--I must live in a state that has a coin return for cans (Marcos, I hope you are reading this) . Jesus, Oregon enacted the coin return for cans back in the 1970s and is moving on to water bottles. Tennessee is sometimes like being in a country in the Middle East, without the good food. Everything is about 20 years behind the rest of the country.

I went to a job interview yesterday and the woman had a snapshot of Nixon on her wall (clearly she had taken it). I asked (as casually as I could), "did you get to meet the president?" She retorted, "you're the first person who asked me that point-blank. I did take that picture and no, I'm not a Republican." I was mildly relieved. Another interview I went to I found a copy of Ann Coulter's "Treason" on the bookshelf. I felt a visceral pain in the gut of my stomach when I made that discovery. Ann Coulter is certifiably insane. That's like having a copy of Hitler's "Mein Kampf" on my business bookshelf.

Thought for the day

jogging today I saw this pleasant notice:

Bumper sticker on a Georgia plates car

"If you were to die today, would you go to HEAVEN or HELL?"

Getaway to SF this weekend

Overheard conversation between a little 6 year old girl and her mom at the 16th St. and Mission BART in San Francisco.

Litle girl: Mom, since we are in SF today, are we going to see some real HOBOS today?
Mom: Hobos! I was once a hobo myself! What are you talking about hobos?
Little girl: Mom! No you weren’t!
Mom: Yes I was! I was homeless and lived in Golden Gate park from the age of 14 to 19.
Little girl (voice shakes): No you weren’t! You weren’t a hobo!
Mom: Yes I was, I was a hobo. Don’t judge your own kind! Judge and be judged.

i miss san francisco.

Another day in Memphis

As I went to get my morning coffee, I saw a woman with an unusually short skirt standing in front of the First Congregational Church today, about one block from my house. Although it was indeed hot, her skirt was more like a shirt. Suddenly I realized that she was not waiting for a bus.....then, out of nowhere, the neighborhood ice cream man circled around and proceeded to pick up this lady! He probably figured, the kids won't be out of school for another 2 hours....

Just another Tuesday in Memphis.......