We Are Meant To Be Better Than This

Someone I know - someone who is related by blood - posted this on Facebook yesterday:

DEAR LORD, THIS YEAR YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTOR, PATRICK SWAYZIE. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTRESS, FARAH FAWCETT. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE SINGER, MICHAEL JACKSON. I JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW, MY FAVORITE PRESIDENT IS BARACK OBAMA. AMEN.

Several other people promptly "Liked" or commented favorably. Thankfully not related by blood but still too close for comfort.

Har de har har, as we used to say in third grade.

Since when did wishing death on someone become socially acceptable? It made my stomach hurt and kept me awake last night. Is that really what they want? Our president dead, his wife a widow, his two little girls fatherless? REALLY?

I try to think back on the Bush era and think whether I ever wished or prayed for him to die. I complained a lot, I know. I hope I didn't have the lack of class to ever say I wanted him to die.

Reading that made me vow to work on removing the violence from my speech. Talking about killing and wishing people dead...It's really ugly and hurtful and unnecessary, and I believe I am meant to be better than this.

Turns out Katie has some pretty strong feelings about this too.

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."
Kurt Vonnegut

Click on this and be amazed at the absolute accuracy:

Image Source

ps It's Patrick Swayze, not Swayzie

A Short Rant About the Pepsi Logo

I love graphic design in a very visceral way. I love how a line, a color, a typeface, can convey so much that mere words can't. The right combination of elements makes me shivery and pleased all the way down to my inner ear bones.

On the other hand, bad graphic design just brings THE ANGER.

The new Pepsi logo is a perfect example. This must have been a group decision because no one person can screw up that bad on their own.

It makes me fantasize about breaking into their corporate offices and standing on a desk and yelling. The logo just screams "wimpy and lame." Look:

Pepsi has had some seriously whacked logos over the years, but the new one is really awful. The 1973 Pepsi logo could kick the new logo's rear with both hands tied behind its back.

The logo itself is all "I can't decide what to be, so I will be a wavey swooshy thing." Kind of like Nike but not full of motion and bold and also HELLO 40 years too late.

And the type says "I am thin while being fat. And look, someone got creative and messed with my E a little! See how interesting that is?"

Oh typeface. You have nothing in the basement and nothing upstairs. You've plunked your mess down in the middle of the living room and I fully expect to find you camped on my couch in six months, even though you said you just needed a couple weeks to get your act together before you moved out.

I don't know why I bother. I don't know why I care. I don't drink Pepsi, ever. But if I had a chance to stuff the new logo head first into a gym locker, I would totally do it.

Review: Cuisinart rice cooker

I wrote a review of a Cuisinart rice cooker over at my food blog, Snackish. Check it out.

Good Deed of the Day

I was sitting in my car at a stoplight. A young guy, maybe 19 or so, was crossing one way. Hoodie, jeans, bag of fast food in his hand.

A homeless-looking guy - long, tangly hair, shuffling, looking down at the ground and wearing multiple layers of dirty clothes with holes in them, was crossing the other.

I couldn't hear them, but I could read lips.

"Hey," the kid said as the homeless guy passed. The homeless guy literally jumped. I suppose most people never speak to him.

The kid held open his Subway bag right there in the middle of the street.

"Here. Take one if you want."

The homeless guy staggered back a step. He recovered, reached in the bag and took a sandwich.

"Thank you, thank you." The man was sort of bobbing and bowing and almost dancing.

Even as the kid was almost all the way across the crosswalk, the homeless man turned again and yelled "Thank you" one more time.

Parents, What Say You? Volume 3

I was at a coffeehouse that has one bathroom. I went over by the door and discovered that someone was using the bathroom and that there was a cute little serious-faced blond boy of about 8 years waiting before me.

I gave him a smile and we stood there and waited and waited. The person finally came out.

He went in and I waited and waited. He took forever.

When he came out, I feared the Stench from Hell, because I knew no boy ever takes that long to pee.

What I saw amazed me, though. The little stinker had pulled out a long, long strand of paper towels, leaving it attached to the dispenser, and had tied the rope of towels in a knot through the toilet paper dispenser, blocking the toilet.

It was bizarre. He knew I was waiting. He knew I would know who did it. And yet he made this weird barrier? art project? whatever.

I decided to bust him. I walked out, went to him - he wasn't standing near anyone - leaned over and asked quietly "Why did you do that?" He didn't answer, but his mom was nearby and she asked me "What is the problem?"

I said "You have to see this," and took her to see what he had done.

I was kind of chuckling and she was puzzled but took it well, gently leading the kid off while asking "What is up, buddy? Why did you do that?"

I never heard the answer.

So, parents, what say you?
1. Should I have busted him on his behavior at all?
2. Have your kids ever done anything like that?
3. What do you think was up?