Daytime TV and...

I took my car to the Jeep store to get an oil change yesterday, I was informed I need to get the 4 wheel drive system serviced and there was a minor recall too. I told them to take care of it all...this left me with a lot of time on my hands.

I sat down in the customer lounge with a cup of free coffee, The VIEW was on the huge TV, had to be at least a 65 incher. The sound was down, I was reading, I looked up from time to time and saw women yelling at each other, went back to my book, looked up, now they were laughing...I have no idea about what or why.

I wandered around in the show room, then out on the lot...it was lunch time. I strolled across the street to a sandwich shop. Nice little place owned by an Asian lady and her husband. She handles the money, he makes the sandwiches. I ordered the daily special, chips, large drink and the special sandwich,, bologna and cheese. I haven't had bologna in years. I ordered it on sourdough with everything, lettuce, tomato, peppers, red onion, deli mustard, mayo with sharp cheddar. It was at least 5 inches thick. I sat outside , it took me 45 minutes to eat the damn thing, it was huge.

Full, I needed a walk. The Jeep store is in the Thousand Oaks Auto Mall. It's big, 17 car stores, every thing from Fiat to Rolls Royce. I wander on the Mercedes Benz lot...Cakes needs an new car, I know what she likes. Here it is.

Nice isn't it? I looked at the sticker, she's not getting it. Why? It's a long, long way from need to desire.

Just for grins, I walked down to the Rolls Royce-Bentley dealer, O'Gara Coach Westlake. No asphalt lot here, the cars are parked on manicured grass around a pond 1 salesman on duty in the showroom, 9 cars on display inside, 6 Bentley's, 3 Rolls. I'm adding up the sticker prices in my head as I look at the cars, divide by 9, average price, $250,000. over 2 million in inventory in the show room, there are 22 cars displayed out side, 5 and a half million parked in the sun including a Rolls Royce Dawn convertible with the top down The leather smell wafts through the showroom. I'm getting dizzy from it. The salesman calls the upholstery "hides". I have on khakis, a Boston Bruins t shirt and flip flops, he makes no assumptions about me. He asks what I'm interested in, I tell him my wife needs a car. He asks what she's driving now, I tell him a BMW 550, he smiles a says, a very good car. He tells me about Bentley's lease program, I can get Cakes a Bentley GT (2 door hardtop) for 10k down, $1,886 a month for 36 months and get this, 2500 miles a year. I smiled, shook his hand, took his card and scurried back to the real world. I didn't bother to look at O'Gara's selection of Lamborghini automobiles.

A little sidebar is in order: I know a corporate car guy in Florida, his family has a Rolls store, number one in North America. One salesman, the guy makes over 500k a year. To put things in perspective, He only sold 22 cars last year. World wide, Rolls builds and sells just over 4,000 cars a year, less than 25% in North America. The majority are sold in the Middle East.

I wander past the Porsche store, Land Rover, BMW, Lexus and Ford stores. Finally, I'm back at Jeep. I check in with my service guy, about an hour to go. Back to the waiting room, grab a bottle of water, set my phone to their free wifi. I check the news, read my email and look up, a stunning blonde woman, not a kid, is on the TV and like Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London" her hair is perfect. At minimum, a 500 hundred dollar Beverley Hills cut, color and style.. Her make up is top flight too. This blonde is in a padded cell, she's wearing a straight jacket, she's being restrained by a large man, obviously a psych ward attendant. A large, powerful nurse has a box in her hand, she opens it and inside is a huge, horse sized hypodermic needle containing an evil looking amber fluid.

A commercial comes on, I go take a pee. The rest room has an automatic light switch, as I'm standing there peeing, the light goes out. The switch is across the room. Fun.
I felt my way out out of the restroom, the TV is still on, Something has happened in the padded cell, the blonde's hair is mussed up and she's very upset...who wouldn't be?

My service guy Chris sticks his head in the waiting room, asks me if I'd like a complementary wash. I take it. When I finish with Chris, a woman is throwing a Molotov Cocktail on the TV...the show ends with an office on fire and a guy handcuffed to a piece of furniture all while a woman is laughing hysterically. The credits come up, It was General Hospital.

I wonder what my grandmother would think of one of her "favorite" shows today? Apparently GH has been on the air for 55 years. I don't think I've seen it since I had the Asian Flu in the 70's and I was too sick to find the remote.

I need to make a call, someplace quiet...

It was a luncheon in the conference room. Sandwiches, beef, turkey, ham. You know the kind. Shrimp on ice, big cheese tray. Typical catered lunch to kick off a promotional event for the fall television season. A welcoming talk, responses by the guests.

I was seated across from a guy, one of the guests, he was wearing muted plaid sport coat, looked like silk. His shirt was a tattersall button down, he wore a knit tie. The tie picked up the color of his jacket and the shirt. He was telling stories and asking questions while we ate.

When the luncheon finished, the talks given. He said to me, "I have to make a phone call, someplace quiet." There was another conference room, a small one. He motioned to one of his co-workers and I led them both to the small room. He said this won't take long."  The three of us went in to the room. He took a folded piece of paper out of his inside coat pocket. "How do I get an outside line?" I told him the 3 digit code. He dialed and spent 4 minutes on the phone. I know how long the call lasted. I was facing a wall clock. He finished his call and the other man took the phone and read off his sheet of paper to whoever was on the other end.

The three of us talked about many things for the next 20 minutes, then it was time to go. We shook hands and they left.

The men were betting football, the call was to a bookie in New York. The tall, dark man was Ed Bradley. The man who sat across from me at lunch was Morely Safer.

Now they are both in the cosmos.

Inconvenient Facts

Fix our problems, why no we wouldn't think of it...

Mississippi (God Damn) ranks at the bottom of all states in the US in almost every category, income, poverty rates, teen pregnancy, if it's a bad thing Mississippi wins the category. What is the state government in Mississippi doing about their state's problems?  Nothing.

Last week, rather than taking a long hard look at why their state is a loser. The legislature passed a law allowing people to bring guns to church, no concealed carry permits, no training, no nothing. In Mississippi you can pack heat for Jesus.

Voter fraud is virtually non-existent in the US...

Kansas has spent millions of dollars to root out voter fraud. They found 3 cases, two of the fraudulent voters were a husband and a wife, who had a home in Kansas and another in Colorado, they mistakenly believed they could vote in local elections in both states.

The 'crusade" against voter fraud is really a crusade to keep the "wrong" people from voting. Wisconsin actually slowed down their vote processing machines in Madison, the most liberal city in the state, making the lines even longer.

Republican controlled states have cut the number of polling places. They've also made it even more difficult to register to vote. Maricopa County AZ, slashed the number of polling places for their primary citing budgetary reasons. Maricopa County is a blue spot in a red state. Funny the red counties had the same number of polling places as they've always had.

In Texas a University picture ID doesn't qualify you to vote, but a Texas gun permit without a picture does.

Elections...

Our election campaigns are far too long. Ted Cruz announced his candidacy for president 11 months before the first primary. 

Voting is a pain in the ass in the US, it's hard to register and for a lot of people it's hard to get time off to vote on a Tuesday.

Why not automatically register everyone to vote when they turn 18?

In California, when you get a driver's license, you check a box to register to vote and yes, even though we issue driver's licenses to non-citizens, they don't get to register to vote.

Why don't we vote on Sunday?

Business...

Les Moonvies, the Chairman of Viacom made less money in 2015 than he did in 2014, he dropped from over 70 million in compensation in just over 67 million.

Uber drivers in Charleston, SC make a $1.70 on a five dollar fare and they buy their own gas and pay for their insurance. Uber is simply a cab company without the overhead.

Investment bankers destroyed the radio business, it took them less than 20 years to do it.

Tesla has 267,000 deposits on their new lower priced car.

Demographics...

By 2020 over 52% of the US population will live within 100 miles of the coast. I'd like the talk about "Coastal Elites" to just stop.

I read a story the other day that those of us who live on the coasts don't understand the "real" Americans because we don't eat at chain restaurants and or watch network television. I see a lot of cars in the parking lot at Olive Garden restaurants and all the other major national chains in California and the LA television stations are doing just fine.

As a coastal elite I don't eat at Olive Garden because the food sucks, same reason I don't eat Pizza Hut pizza or eat at Taco Bell. One the other hand I could eat a double-double animal style from In 'n Out Burger at 6:45 in the morning with no problem.

Entertainment...

HBO's "Confirmation", the show about the Clarence Thomas' hearings for the Supreme Court drew a complaint from former Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson. Simpson didn't like the way he was portrayed. When it was pointed out to him that the dialogue from the hearings was word for word from the hearing transcripts, he shut up and went away.

Downton farewell and an Oddity

We watched the last of Downton Abbey last night...happy endings all around. The Executive Wife was happy with the ending and depressed because the show is over.

Here are a few of the online comments about the show and the character's futures.

Bates and Anna name their son Norman. They immigrate to the US and buy a small motel on the California coast.

During the "Red Scare" of the 50's Daisy is arrested by Scotland Yard for heading up a Soviet Espionage ring and dies in prison in 1991.

Mr. Barrow has taken over for Mr. Carson (Carson remains as "Managing Butler") Mr. Barrows hires a new Footman, the new Footman is gay. A romance ensues and there is another wedding at Downton, but not until 2013 when same sex marriage is legalized in the UK. Barrow and his long time partner become the oldest couple to marry under the new law.

In 1961, 86 year old Lord Grantham once again heeds the advice of his fellow club members, invests his dwindling fortune in 4 young musicians "who will change the world and culture"....Gerry and The Pacemakers.

      This is The Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus....

          If you remove the vowels from his name you get RNC PR BS