Did you ever have to rent a shopping cart at a supermarket before you could use it? At one time this was the policy of the local Pathmark in my neighborhood. They would charge you 25 cents before you took the cart and return it to you later. They got more sophisticated as time marched on and attached devices to the carts that chained them together, each with its own lock that could be released when a quarter was inserted into it. A strange thing happened as they were charging money, more carts seemed to disappear than ever. I think that people felt that they were buying them, which was a ridiculous thing since a cart was worth at least thirty dollars. Be that as it may, I was walking one day and I noticed that a person had left their garage door open and there was at least thirty carts in the garage. It looked like a small line of carts you would see in front of the supermarket. The house was about six blocks from the Pathmark and apparently this person would take a cart from the store each time they shopped and never bring it back. Others must have been doing the same thing. Finally the store changed its policy and gave the carts out for free again and the problem seemed to diminish. People still took carts but apparently not in the numbers they did when they paid the quarter.

Graphic Source: Blast CD

As we develop more and newer medical tests, not much attention is given to the pain that some of them cause. I often wonder how we can ignore this? There is nothing like having a piece of skin cut from a very sensitive spot without any anesthesia. Many women are forced to endure this during a test and one can only wonder why we have allowed this to happen. The doctor performing the test will say something like, "you will feel a little pinch", when in fact it is more like a searing hot pain. We are a strange race indeed.

One thing that I can't figure out is what is going on with blogs? There are actually some where people write down what they are doing every day for all to see. What is the point and who would want to read that? Even the most interesting person in the world would look boring if you had to read things like "I went out for the newspaper at 8:00 am and returned home at 10:00 am". Gee people, who cares? Why are you doing this? I saw one the other day where a fellow wrote down what he did on his job every day. He worked in a park and I really didn't care that he raked leaves for a couple of hours then trimmed trees. I find it hard to believe that these types of blogs attract anyone. Of course there are the more salacious blogs, but most of them are just gateways to X rated sites and are constructed to get you to go to the main site and buy a subscription. Looking at some of these blogs just wants to make you scream, "Close Down Already!" I guess I shouldn't say this because maybe that is the way some people feel about my site, but I just can't help it.

I realize that what seem strange to me, might not seem strange to someone else, but even taking this into account I just can't understand why some people have to parachute off our monuments. First of all that seems to show an irreverence toward the monument itself and second of all, it is against the law, not to mention dangerous to themselves and the people below the monument. Yet, every once in a while, someone parachutes off a building in New York. Some times they even climb one showing no regard to others if they fall. Can you imagine walking under a tall building and a body comes hurtling down from somewhere above the 50th floor. You would be a puddle of mush if it hit you.

Graphic Source: Blast CD

Then there are the artists. I like art as much as anyone else. There is nothing like a good painting to liven up a room or start a topic of conversation, but what is Jackson Pollock all about? Here is where I get a lot of email. Jackson Pollock, in case you don't know, was a painter who did what I consider splotch work. To visualize one of his works, think of a solid color background that someone splattered with a paint brush with different colors on it. Next tell the art elite that he was a genius and died and they will all want one of his paintings, making the paintings valuable. This sort of reminds me of a group outing where everyone is trying to get on the same elevator even though it is clear that there are too many people for them to all fit. The heard instinct takes over. I remember when a painting sold for thousands of dollars. It looked terrible to me, but the art critics said it was a work of genius. It turned out to have been painted by a chimpanzee, but it brought big bucks. Someone actually thought it was genius. Well they made a monkey out of him. There is a chimpanzee in Britain that is getting big bucks for his paintings. His name is Congo and his paintings are being sold at auction , the last three brought more than 14,000 pounds. Gee, I guess that some people just don't have anything else to spend their money on. What about charity? It was thought that the abstract paintings, what else could they call this crap, would bring about 800 pounds but they fetched over 20 times that amount. In the same auction a painting by famed artist Andy Warhol failed to reach its opening bid price. I guess there is no accounting for taste or is Congo a better painter than Andy Warhol? Here is the kicker, the guy that bought the monkey art said he had been prepared to pay double the amount if necessary. This guy actually felt that he had gotten a bargain. Maybe he would like to buy some of my kid's finger paintings for a few hundred each? The art critics replied that Congo is the most renowned animal artist in the world. Oh give me a break. When Dali was asked about this he replied, The hand of the chimp is crazy human; the hand of Jackson Pollock is totally animal’.” This sure clears things up doesn't it ?

Graphic Source: Clipart.com

What about all those crazy websites that are out there. At the risk of holding myself out for ridicule, I don't understand some of the stuff on the internet. One site I found is devoted entirely to old British tv test patterns. If you are old enough you will remember that when a station went on or off the air it would display a test pattern. Another British site concentrated on showing you people who sleep on mattresses in the street. It was called, appropriately, Street Mattress. The third British site that makes no sense is named Bad Taste Unlimited, it should be named What Is It About? The theme avoids me, as does the meaning of the clicks on different objects. If I were to pick one of the biggest wastes of time, this site would rank right up there and they proudly display an award for the ugliest site, this just kills me. One site that admits they are useless is Monty Python's Completely Useless Web Site. If fact they are fun. They feature pictures from the show, music, video and many different fun things on the site. It just goes to show you how names can be deceiving, but you knew that already, didn't you? There is actually a website that boasts a big red button. When you push it, nothing happens. You can sign their guest book and let the world know why you pushed the button. If that isn't exciting enough for you , you can go to the Traffic Cone Preservation Society site and even become a member. They have assigned scientific names to each cone type along with a description. I didn't know that cones differed in different countries. Well still not too exciting. Lets ramp the excitement up a bit and visit Becky's site where she has collected 5600 different banana labels. She also has 93 broccoli bands and 157 asparagus bands. Wow I am really getting excited now. If you truly want excitement we will have to send you the "all your base belong to us" site. There you will view videos that make no sense, but at least they are interesting for a few minutes and the music is hot, it sounds like something right out of a video game and may very well be. If you want to try it, go to http://allyourbase.planettribes.gamespy.com//video1_view.shtml . Did you miss the movie "Its A Wonderful Life"? You can now see it reenacted on the net in only 30 seconds by bunnies at http://www.angryalien.com/1204/wonderful_lifebuns.asp , if you like it, you can view their entire film library at http://www.angryalien.com/ . Actually I think that this site is quite cute and imaginative and I usually get a laugh out of it.

I guess I have said enough today but there is so much out there that I find strange, that I could easily fill a book with it. Well who knows, maybe someday I will.