Interesting taste experience

I bought some Tic-Tacs I thought were wintergreen flavored. When I got them home I realized they were actually green apple. The first couple I tasted I thought were terrible. Later, after some noshing and some dining, I tried them again and they were delicious. I realized that my first reaction was because I expected them to be wintergreen and they weren't. Then later when I knew what they were I could actually taste them. Hmm. There may be a lesson to be learned here.

Retired Numbers/Names

You know how in baseball they retire the numbers of famous players after they retire? On the Yankees, the numbers of Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, and others are all retired, i.e. nobody else on that team will ever get to wear that number.* I think in India they should retire the name Gandhi. It's just weird to see that name on some minor actress. In fact, it always bugged me that Indira Gandhi had it because she was so un-Gandhiesque.

*Interesting sidelight: Mariano Rivera has the number 42. That number has been permanently retired throughout major league baseball because it belonged to Jackie Robinson. Mariano was grandfathered in, i.e. he had the number before they made the rule. So when he retires, nobody will ever wear that number. The odd thing is that he should certainly have his number retired but they can't really do that because the number is already retired. I wonder what they'll do.

Tea Bags

This would probably require some research but I think at the time of the Boston Tea Party nobody used tea bags. Also if I remember correctly the Boston Tea Party was about no taxation without representation. The problem is that the people whom the Tea Party elected to represent them are interested in taxing them and not in taxing the place where most of the money resides--the coffers of the rich. The way it works is this: if the tax is 10% and I make $20,000 a year, the government gets $2,000. But if a person who makes $200 million a year pays 10%, the government gets $2 million. Get it?

Perils of Pedestrianism

It's getting harder and harder to walk around the streets of New York City--or to be more accurate, the streets of Manhattan. Partly it's because more and more smaller buildings are being replaced by more and more larger buildings, which means there are more and more people occupying a static amount of space.

Adding to this is the seemingly exponential growth in the number of tourists. This is in large part due to the state of the US economy and the poor state of the US dollar vis-a-vis other currencies. This makes it more economical for furriners to come here than for us to go there. It also means that many Americans can't even afford trips overseas so they travel locally.

The influx of tour buses is so extreme that the city is considering building a huge parking garage for them just to get them off the streets. And there are areas of the city, particularly in lower Manhattan, where the width of the sidewalks has been increased to accommodate tourists entering and exiting the buses, which cuts into the flow of vehicular traffic.

Riddle

What do you call someone who cuts lesbians' hair so they look more masculine?
A butcher.

Corporate Jets

I was reading an article in the Times today about the market for corporate and private jets. There are jets being sold for $40-$60 million, with an addition $8 million being spent on decorating the cabins to resemble hotel suites. And these aren't being sold at the rate of several per year. They're being cranked out at the rate of hundreds per year.

While the average traveler is being gouged by the airlines and provided with ever-decreasing levels of service, these corporate types, many of whom are probably airline executives, are roaming around in luxury. Aside from the incredible disparity in world wealth this represents, these people obviously no concern for the environment. While the average gnugny is worried about electric cars and recycling his garbage, these people are willing to spew billions of gallons worth of waste into the atmosphere, not to mention ginning up the price of oil. Ironically, this comes at a time when we're being treated to ads from communications companies showing how business can be conducted globally without actual travel. So the main transportation purposes of these corporate jets is to send their people on junkets, many I'm sure to visit their properties in places like New York City where they artificially jack up the price of real estate.

Descartes on breakfast

Cogito Eggo sum.
I think I am a waffle.