I once doubted myself just to see what it feels like

I have a new idol. Who the hell wouldn’t want to punch a magician?

I’ll start with the Air France disappearance, which immediately made everyone in my office think it was a new promotion for the DVD box set of Lost. For all we know, maybe the smoke monster really did bring the plane down. I will say this though as a veteran of a number of trans-Atlantic flights. I’ve always had a hard time sleeping on planes so I was happy when American Airlines started allowing you to call up a little inflight graphic of where you actually were and how fast the plane was going. For someone who is as data obsessed as I am this proved to be a very useful feature. However, you do find yourself looking at a map that features Goldfarb, Greenland and wondering why it was chosen to be highlighted. Then you realize, “Oh, that is probably the one airport that we can try to reach if something goes wrong.” That and those moments when the entire map is water makes it even tougher for me to fall asleep. I just feel better when I am over land.

Also, apparently something happened at the MTV movie awards last night. That is very much a tree falling in the forest with no one around type of moment. I know part of it has to do with my age as I am so far out of MTV’s target audience but even so is it really a part of the cultural framework anymore? It has nothing to do with music or with movies and when was the last time there was a decent Rock N Jock game? Nickelodeon and Disney have a much bigger pull on popular culture than MTV at the moment and that is rather disturbing.

Staying in the news, as the proud owner of General Motors (hey, if it is my tax dollars at work I’m going to put it on my resume) I have to say that I am looking forward to the day where my push for tail fins and bigger cupholders produces greater profits than the world has ever seen. Actually, as someone who has only owned GM cars I have to say that I am saddened by all that has gone on. I’m one of the few people who actually likes Pontiacs and have had mine last a rather surprisingly long time without requiring any significant maintenance. (Well, other than the security system failing and believing that I was trying to steal my own car. Twice.) They really are good cars and a pretty sizable portion of our economy so it is a bummer to see them fail. I do think that we have touched bottom with the recession though we still will be in it until the end of the year. I’m just expecting it to be a long slog back to where we were before and there will be a lot of pain along the way.

Anyway, I’m off to grow a beard.