{"id":4353,"date":"2010-09-09T14:09:35","date_gmt":"2010-09-09T21:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=4353"},"modified":"2010-09-09T14:09:35","modified_gmt":"2010-09-09T21:09:35","slug":"pauls-grab-bag-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=4353","title":{"rendered":"Paul’s Grab Bag"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"What’s in Paul’s grab bag? Unconnected thoughts and observations too short to rate blog posts of their own, but which might amount to something when aggregated together:<\/p>\n

Damen und Herren<\/strong><\/p>\n

I always wanted to write a lengthy post on restroom signage, complete with illustrations. Well, what do you know?\u00a0 Someone saved me the trouble<\/a>!<\/p>\n

A Dirty Little Not-So-Secret<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The media is starting to talk<\/a> about what goes on between men & boys in Afghanistan.\u00a0 I’m not sure this is news . . . it certainly isn’t news to me, nor is it news to the thousands of troops, contractors, and diplomats who have been posted there.\u00a0 But I guess it’s news to middle America, and frankly I bet administration officials are doing everything they can to suppress the story.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 To keep middle America from turning against the war.\u00a0 More than a thousand American soldiers dead?\u00a0 No problem.\u00a0 Trillions of dollars flushed down the Karzai administration crapper?\u00a0 No problem.\u00a0 Man-on-boy sex?\u00a0 Problem.\u00a0 Look for a new flurry of propaganda about undiscovered oil and mineral wealth in Afghanistan.\u00a0 And more magazine covers like this<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Preferential Treatment at Netflix?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’ve complained before about insanely long waits for first-run movies, but now I’m noticing something new.\u00a0 Kick Ass<\/a><\/em> has been the number one movie in my queue for four months now.\u00a0 Until two weeks ago, Netflix said\u00a0 I could continue to expect a “very long wait.”\u00a0 But then the countdown started: Kick Ass<\/em> went from “very long wait” to “long wait” and then down to “short wait” — I’m on pins and needles now, expecting it to show up any day.\u00a0 Not so fast, valued Netflix customer!\u00a0 When I checked my queue again yesterday, it was back to “very long wait.”\u00a0 If there’s any way to interpret this other than that Netflix is letting other customers cut ahead of me in line, I’d like to know it.<\/p>\n

Balking at Standing for the Not-Our-National-Anthem<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every spring and fall, we attend outdoor concerts at Udall Park in Tucson.\u00a0 Every concert starts with the national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner<\/em>, and the audience stands and sings along . . . as is only right and proper.\u00a0 Every concert ends with America the Beautiful<\/em>, and once again, the audience stands and sings along . . . and if you don’t, people glare at you.\u00a0 Well, let ’em glare, I say.\u00a0 When they make America the Beautiful<\/em> the national anthem, someone let me know, okay?\u00a0 Anyway, the first concert of the fall season is this Saturday, September 11th, and the program will feature “. . . patriotic musical selections . . . appropriate for the occasion.”\u00a0 Sounds like it’s going to be a flag-waving glare-fest, and I want no part of it.\u00a0 Number one, I don’t have to prove my patriotism to anyone.\u00a0 Number two, I don’t have to sign anyone’s loyalty oath, and that’s what this concert will amount to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What’s in Paul’s grab bag? Unconnected thoughts and observations too short to rate blog posts of their own, but which might amount to something when aggregated together: Damen und Herren I always wanted to write a lengthy post on restroom signage, complete with illustrations. Well, what do you know?\u00a0 Someone saved me the trouble! A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,18,7,10,16,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-brother","category-consumerism","category-culture","category-current-events","category-media","category-personal"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4353"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4389,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4353\/revisions\/4389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}