category archive: gripes

my daughter, my hero

We’ll catch them and put them in jail! But first we’ll tie them up with rope and squirt glue on them! That’s what Violet said about the lowlife SOBs who broke my car window last night to steal a crate of CDs that were on their way to the rummage sale to benefit Ike and […]

uh, no, not exactly

Science reporting isn’t an exact, um, science. In this article,”Japan Scientists Develop Fearless Mouse,” my jaw dropped when I read this: Scientists at Tokyo University say they were able to successfully switch off a mouse’s instinct to cower at the smell or presence of cats showing that fear is genetically hardwired and not learned through […]

wrong, Bill

We recently noticed that our TVs are now picking up HBO, apparently for free, though no action of our own doing. Maybe someone in the neighborhood was fiddling with one of the cable boxes up on the telephone pole and decided that we just weren’t watching enough boob tube. I realize that as an ethical […]

smartass time!

Here’s what I just emailed to Delta Airlines over the recent insanity: I’ve had my share of less than pleasant experiences with Delta flight attendants, but I’m not prone to blame them for their occasional surliness: they’re working in a difficult industry, for difficult management, and often with difficult customers. The story in the news […]

bitch goddess Katrina

It’s really bumming me out that the process of overcoming a massive tragedy like Hurricane Katrina and all the associated challenges has so quickly deteriorated into the kind of heated partisan rhetoric that characterizes… well, just about everything these days. Democrats and Republicans alike, nearly everyone holding office right now just looks like a blustering […]

two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen, infinite insanity

When I was around, oh, 11 years old I guess, my family took a trip to Niagara Falls. I will never, ever forget what my dad uttered the moment we all laid eyes on the star attraction of that famous tourist and honeymooners’ town: “Holy SHIT, a lotta water!” Pardon his French, but he was […]