We are two weeks from election day and I feel a need to discuss the one candidate whose appearance on the ballot really upsets me. Surprisingly it is not Delaware’s anti-masturbation witch who, in a debate in front of law school students, was unaware that the first amendment provides for the separation of church and state. No, I can actually understand her candidacy. It is Linda McMahon’s senate campaign that troubles me.
Everyone who knows me understands that I am a wrestling fan. At 37 I really shouldn’t admit that publicly but it is true so you would think that I would be overjoyed at the WWE CEO running for senate. The possibility of the Undertaker having a serious role in governmental affairs is enough to make anyone happy. However, the fact is that wrestling’s dark side is very dark and at some point you have to look at the person in charge. But first we need some facts.
So, here is a breakdown of Wrestlemanias 1, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 in terms of numbers of wrestlers on the cards and the number of those wrestlers who have since died. For the record I picked those cards simply due to the fact that they are round numbers and will give a good sense of the sense of time. I’m also giving age and cause of death for completeness sake.
Wrestlemania 1 (3/31/1985)
Number of wrestlers on card: 22
Number of deceased wrestlers: 5: The Executioner (56, natural causes), Special Delivery Jones (63, stroke), The Junkyard Dog (45, car accident), Andre the Giant (46, heart failure), Big John Studd (47, Hodgkins disease).
Notes: The Executioner was “Playboy” Buddy Rose in a mask for those who are wondering. Andre the Giant died of a heart attack that was mainly due to the disease that caused him to be a giant. It was always my understanding that Andre was told when he was younger that he wouldn’t live to see 40 so the fact that he made it to 46 is pretty impressive. While 5 out of 22 is a high number for the most part I wouldn’t tie all of these deaths to the wrestling culture. You could also note that special guest timekeeper Liberace and special guest ring announcer Billy Martin have also both passed on.
Wrestlemania 5 (April 2, 1989)
Number of wrestlers on card: 38
Number of deceased wrestlers: 8: Hercules (47, heart disease), Big Bossman (41), “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig (44, drug overdose), Owen Hart (as the Blue Blazer) (34, in ring accident), Dino Bravo (44, murdered), Andre the Giant, “Ravishing” Rick Rude (40, heart failure), Bad News Brown (63, heart attack)
Notes: I could also add in Miss Elizabeth (who died of a drug overdose) given that she was the focus of the Hulk Hogan – Randy Savage main event. I’m getting my data from Wikipedia (which is surprisingly detailed when it comes to pro wrestling) and they don’t list a cause of death for the Big Bossman but I thought he had a heart attack. Owen Hart of course fell to his death from the rafters of the Kemper Arena in Kansas City. They say that he still haunts the arena and this is one of those few urban legends where I actually know who “they” are.
Wrestlemania 10 (March 20, 1994)
Number of wrestlers on card: 20
Number of deceased wrestlers: 6: Owen Hart, Bam Bam Bigelow (45, drug overdose), Luna Vachon (48, likely drug overdose), Crush (44, likely drug overdose), Yokozuna (34, heart failure), Earthquake (42, bladder cancer)
Notes: I put down likely drug overdose for Luna Vachon and Crush because it isn’t entirely clear what the actual cause of death was but it seemed readily apparent that drugs played a role. I’m also not entirely sure who wrestled as Doink the Clown on this show as about a half dozen people put on the makeup in that role so he may very well be immortal. “Earthquake” John Tenta’s death was one that has always bummed me out because he was a really great guy and is one of the few people on this list whose death had nothing to really do with the wrestling business.
Wrestlemania 15 (March 28, 1999)
Number of wrestlers on card: 25
Number of deceased wrestlers: 3: Owen Hart, Test (33, drug overdose), The Big Bossman
Notes: Not much, really, other than it is really depressing to write Owen’s name down over and over again.
Wrestlemania 20 (March 14, 2004)
Number of wrestlers on card: 50
Number of deceased wrestlers: 3: Garrison Cade (29, heart failure), Eddie Guerrero (38, heart failure), Chris Benoit (40, suicide)
Notes: It is still insane to note that this card (which was only six years ago) ended with Eddie and Benoit hugging in the ring both holding championship belts and a few years later both would be dead. As everyone knows Benoit murdered his wife and son before committing suicide in a series of events that I don’t think I’ll ever quite understand. Also, 50 wrestlers on a card is way too much. This show could have really used an editor.
Wrestlemania 25 (April 5, 2009)
Number of wrestlers on card: 47
Number of deceased wrestlers: 0
Notes: To my knowledge, the last appearance of a wrestler who is now deceased is Umaga (36, drug overdose) at Wrestlemania 24.
Now people can take this information and spin it a lot of ways but I can only see this as being a surprisingly large number of people who died before they reached fifty. This is made more stunning by the fact that they are athletes and should be in better physical condition than the average person. Obviously, drugs in the form of steroids and others play a huge role and this is why I have an issue with Linda McMahon running for senate.
What few people understand is that wrestlers work as independent contractors. The wrestler is not an employee of the WWE and as a result does not have benefits like health insurance and often has to pay their own way to travel from show to show. They are not in a union even though all sports leagues typically have a union and they are on weekly TV but cannot qualify for the Screen Actors Guild. I know that recently the WWE has at least set up programs to help out with insurance and substance issues but for decades pro wrestling has just churned people through the business and often leaving them broken on the other end.
Linda McMahon is the CEO of the WWE. She is on some level responsible for this list. She managed the work environment, she approved the schedule, she was ultimately responsible for the decision to lower Owen Hart from 90 feet in the air on a flimsy harness. I feel guilty knowing that as a fan I supported the business that caused this. But this was her job and she could have easily helped to correct this.
Her only qualification for being a senator is that she managed a billion dollar organization. It just happened to be an organization in which her main public employees were contractors who have a frightening tendency to die young. That to me is not someone you want in public office.
Showing posts with label Wrestling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wrestling. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
The unwritten rules of pro wrestling
· Victory can either be by pinfall, submission, countout or disqualification
· Submission can be signaled by the wrestler tapping out or by the referee lifting the wrestler’s arm and dropping it three times without the wrestler keeping it raised, thus signaling that the wrestler is unconscious. In the history of pro wrestling this has never happened. Every single time the wrestler will let his arm fall twice and on the third try start his comeback.
· If one wrestler offers to shake another wrestler’s hand the other wrestler will look at the crowd using their reaction as to whether to shake hands or not.
· If they do shake hands, within thirty seconds somebody is getting punched.
· If a birthday cake is brought into the ring someone is going to be shoved into the case. Likewise, all trophies carried into the ring will likewise be broken over someone’s head before the end of the match.
· The strongest substance in pro wrestling is the championship belt. Being hit with the belt will cause immediate unconsciousness even if the other wrestler had spent the past thirty minutes seemingly impervious to being dropped on his head or smacked in the face with a steel chair.
· The second strongest substance in pro wrestling is the skull of a Samoan wrestler. It is assumed to have something to do with the fact that they are unable to wear shoes.
· Under no circumstances are wrestlers allowed to acknowledge the camera crew in the backstage segments in which they reveal their nefarious plot to attack another wrestler.
· Likewise, none of the wrestlers backstage watch the show that they are currently appearing on in order to realize that “Hey, those guys just mentioned that they planned on jumping me in the parking lot. I think I should be cautious when I go out there.”
· Newton’s First Law of Wrestling: Force equals mass times acceleration times the number of flips in the air
· Einstein’s Corollary: The cooler it looks, the more it hurts
· If a good guy starts to grow facial hair it means that he is about to become a bad guy.
· Foreign wrestlers are by nature evil no matter where they are actually from. Thus we can hate Nikolai Volkoff even though he is from Detroit. Or better yet the case of Ludvig Borga, a wrestler from Finland who played the role of evil foreign monster even though no one in the crowd could figure out precisely why we were supposed to hate Finland.
· If a wrestler comes to the ring without entrance music he is going to lose
· Touching a referee will render him unconscious for a good five minutes. However, he will regain consciousness just in time for the match to have a proper finish.
· If a match is announced as having a time limit said match will be a time limit draw. (Sadly, we have done away with time limits in pro wrestling as well as the announcing of home town and weight. Thus we no longer have wrestlers hailing from parts unknown with weight unknown. Parts unknown I always understood but how can you have weight unknown? Is the guy deathly afraid of a scale?)
· Russian wrestlers always lose Russian Chain matches. However, wrestlers with a “dog” nickname will always win dog collar matches.
Wednesday Night Music Club: In honor of their new album here is a Swell Season song.
· Submission can be signaled by the wrestler tapping out or by the referee lifting the wrestler’s arm and dropping it three times without the wrestler keeping it raised, thus signaling that the wrestler is unconscious. In the history of pro wrestling this has never happened. Every single time the wrestler will let his arm fall twice and on the third try start his comeback.
· If one wrestler offers to shake another wrestler’s hand the other wrestler will look at the crowd using their reaction as to whether to shake hands or not.
· If they do shake hands, within thirty seconds somebody is getting punched.
· If a birthday cake is brought into the ring someone is going to be shoved into the case. Likewise, all trophies carried into the ring will likewise be broken over someone’s head before the end of the match.
· The strongest substance in pro wrestling is the championship belt. Being hit with the belt will cause immediate unconsciousness even if the other wrestler had spent the past thirty minutes seemingly impervious to being dropped on his head or smacked in the face with a steel chair.
· The second strongest substance in pro wrestling is the skull of a Samoan wrestler. It is assumed to have something to do with the fact that they are unable to wear shoes.
· Under no circumstances are wrestlers allowed to acknowledge the camera crew in the backstage segments in which they reveal their nefarious plot to attack another wrestler.
· Likewise, none of the wrestlers backstage watch the show that they are currently appearing on in order to realize that “Hey, those guys just mentioned that they planned on jumping me in the parking lot. I think I should be cautious when I go out there.”
· Newton’s First Law of Wrestling: Force equals mass times acceleration times the number of flips in the air
· Einstein’s Corollary: The cooler it looks, the more it hurts
· If a good guy starts to grow facial hair it means that he is about to become a bad guy.
· Foreign wrestlers are by nature evil no matter where they are actually from. Thus we can hate Nikolai Volkoff even though he is from Detroit. Or better yet the case of Ludvig Borga, a wrestler from Finland who played the role of evil foreign monster even though no one in the crowd could figure out precisely why we were supposed to hate Finland.
· If a wrestler comes to the ring without entrance music he is going to lose
· Touching a referee will render him unconscious for a good five minutes. However, he will regain consciousness just in time for the match to have a proper finish.
· If a match is announced as having a time limit said match will be a time limit draw. (Sadly, we have done away with time limits in pro wrestling as well as the announcing of home town and weight. Thus we no longer have wrestlers hailing from parts unknown with weight unknown. Parts unknown I always understood but how can you have weight unknown? Is the guy deathly afraid of a scale?)
· Russian wrestlers always lose Russian Chain matches. However, wrestlers with a “dog” nickname will always win dog collar matches.
Wednesday Night Music Club: In honor of their new album here is a Swell Season song.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Cohesive topics are not my specialty
First off, I have to say that I quite disagree with the argument that Leonard dating Penny is even more unlikely than Raj not being able to talk to women based on one simple point: I am dating the woman of my dreams. How can we consider that to be an unlikely occurrence that a science obsessed guy could be with a pretty girl? I got the girl so why can’t others?
(Clarifications: In the previous sentence “got” in no way implies a sense of ownership in the way guys in Ed Hardy t-shirts will talk about “my girl” in roughly the same tone of voice as they refer to “my car” or “my Ed Hardy t-shirt.” Also, “girl” is used as a colloquialism here as Kim is an intelligent and sophisticated woman, which in many ways makes the Penny analogy slightly suspect. “The” is rather self-explanatory and “I” refers to me. Hope that helps.)
(Also, just for those wondering, Kim and I are celebrating our eight month anniversary; yes, our first date was on Valentine’s Day. As Kim eloquently put it, this marks my longest relationship by, oh, roughly seven months. And you know what, for eight months I have been completely unable to get the smile off of my face.)
Switching gears so fast that I probably just blew out a transmission I must officially offer my condolences to the wrestling world on the passing of the legendary Captain Lou Albano. Best known for his penchant for rubber bands (around his beard, pierced through his cheek), presence in Cyndi Lauper videos and starring role as Mario on the Super Mario Brothers cartoon show the Captain passed away today at the age of 76. The manager of champions will be well remembered for all of the tag teams that he led to glory; the majority of which were Samoans as for some reason the WWF tag champs in the seventies were always Samoan. The mystery as to who officially anointed him with the title “Captain” has never been answered. I always assumed that it was nautical in nature.
Other news of the day was the Dow breaking 10,000. This was met with cheers by those of us on the Trade Floor. I’m not making that up; you actually heard a round of applause when we saw five digits for the first time in a year. Now as most people know financially speaking the fact that the Dow broke 10K is meaningless but from a psychological perspective it is very important. Given that at time psychology is more important than economics in understanding the stock market it is something to pay attention to. Basically, it is a sign that the market believes that it has some strength and that there is hope for the future.
The problem is I really have an issue with it. This just does not feel like a 10,000 Dow market to me. We have no job growth and while they say tech and banking is leading the way back I’m just not entirely sold on the fact that the growth is really there. With a jobless recovery I’d feel more confident in the 9,000 range. What I really think is happening is that the dollar is so weak (1.49 to the Euro) that the markets are higher due to the devalued currency. That worries me even more. Still, I was on the record for saying that we wouldn’t see 10,000 until next year at the earliest so take it as a good sign. I hope.
(Clarifications: In the previous sentence “got” in no way implies a sense of ownership in the way guys in Ed Hardy t-shirts will talk about “my girl” in roughly the same tone of voice as they refer to “my car” or “my Ed Hardy t-shirt.” Also, “girl” is used as a colloquialism here as Kim is an intelligent and sophisticated woman, which in many ways makes the Penny analogy slightly suspect. “The” is rather self-explanatory and “I” refers to me. Hope that helps.)
(Also, just for those wondering, Kim and I are celebrating our eight month anniversary; yes, our first date was on Valentine’s Day. As Kim eloquently put it, this marks my longest relationship by, oh, roughly seven months. And you know what, for eight months I have been completely unable to get the smile off of my face.)
Switching gears so fast that I probably just blew out a transmission I must officially offer my condolences to the wrestling world on the passing of the legendary Captain Lou Albano. Best known for his penchant for rubber bands (around his beard, pierced through his cheek), presence in Cyndi Lauper videos and starring role as Mario on the Super Mario Brothers cartoon show the Captain passed away today at the age of 76. The manager of champions will be well remembered for all of the tag teams that he led to glory; the majority of which were Samoans as for some reason the WWF tag champs in the seventies were always Samoan. The mystery as to who officially anointed him with the title “Captain” has never been answered. I always assumed that it was nautical in nature.
Other news of the day was the Dow breaking 10,000. This was met with cheers by those of us on the Trade Floor. I’m not making that up; you actually heard a round of applause when we saw five digits for the first time in a year. Now as most people know financially speaking the fact that the Dow broke 10K is meaningless but from a psychological perspective it is very important. Given that at time psychology is more important than economics in understanding the stock market it is something to pay attention to. Basically, it is a sign that the market believes that it has some strength and that there is hope for the future.
The problem is I really have an issue with it. This just does not feel like a 10,000 Dow market to me. We have no job growth and while they say tech and banking is leading the way back I’m just not entirely sold on the fact that the growth is really there. With a jobless recovery I’d feel more confident in the 9,000 range. What I really think is happening is that the dollar is so weak (1.49 to the Euro) that the markets are higher due to the devalued currency. That worries me even more. Still, I was on the record for saying that we wouldn’t see 10,000 until next year at the earliest so take it as a good sign. I hope.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Well, it is technically KFC
Just my luck, as soon as I post my analysis of Mickey Rourke’s appearance at Wrestlemania he decides to chicken out. So I feel that there is only one recourse in this situation. I, the legendary Cajun Assassin, will come out of retirement to challenge Mickey Rourke any place, any time, any style of match. If he wants a scientific wrestling match I’ll take him down with my patented Cajun Crab. If he wants to make it extreme I’ll take him on in an electrified barbed wire deathmatch. No matter what he decides I’ll make sure he feels the pain that he has inflicted on the wrestling fanbase.
(Some people might laugh at that paragraph. Others will recall that I have a wrestling mask in my office and wonder if I might not be kidding around.)
Ok, it’s late and I’m tired and I am just going to list a few strange things about this part of the country that I have noticed over the past few months. Just a sample of the apparent Bizarro World that I find myself in.
· Within a half mile of my apartment is a “Kennedy Fried Chicken” and a “New York Fried Chicken”. I never thought that any restaurant would scare me more than a KenTacoHut. I was wrong.
· There is an establishment near where I live called “The Bar”. In a way, that seems to be the exact type of place I would find myself drinking. If you are too lazy to name the place I’ll probably fit right in.
· No one in this town knows how to drive. Seriously, I thought the drivers in Kansas were the worst but I was mistaken. Sure, you would occasionally find yourself stuck behind the Joad family on K-10 but they would at least drive. Today I was stuck on a two lane road behind a driver who apparently accelerated and braked at the same time. I’ve never seen a car leave a stop light and not have the brake lights go off before. Drove me insane.
· Apparently an inch of snow is a winter weather emergency that results in school being cancelled. This wouldn’t even be an emergency in Kansas (where they once dismissed everyone from work and I didn’t even notice that it was snowing). But any thought of snow turns this area into a 70’s disaster flick.
· Way too many DJs at the bars. I have no problem with dance clubs as some people enjoy them. I however would rather listen to people play their own music instead of just borrowing someone else’s. The problem is I just have been unable to find a good bar with cool bartenders, an interesting clientele, and a properly stocked jukebox. It shouldn’t be that difficult.
Coming on Sunday: The Return of the Super Blog. Yes, the live blog returns in its traditional form. Who will win the big game? Will Bud Light cover the spread in the Bud Bowl? Will the fifty bucks I put on heads pay off this year. Join me and find out.
(Some people might laugh at that paragraph. Others will recall that I have a wrestling mask in my office and wonder if I might not be kidding around.)
Ok, it’s late and I’m tired and I am just going to list a few strange things about this part of the country that I have noticed over the past few months. Just a sample of the apparent Bizarro World that I find myself in.
· Within a half mile of my apartment is a “Kennedy Fried Chicken” and a “New York Fried Chicken”. I never thought that any restaurant would scare me more than a KenTacoHut. I was wrong.
· There is an establishment near where I live called “The Bar”. In a way, that seems to be the exact type of place I would find myself drinking. If you are too lazy to name the place I’ll probably fit right in.
· No one in this town knows how to drive. Seriously, I thought the drivers in Kansas were the worst but I was mistaken. Sure, you would occasionally find yourself stuck behind the Joad family on K-10 but they would at least drive. Today I was stuck on a two lane road behind a driver who apparently accelerated and braked at the same time. I’ve never seen a car leave a stop light and not have the brake lights go off before. Drove me insane.
· Apparently an inch of snow is a winter weather emergency that results in school being cancelled. This wouldn’t even be an emergency in Kansas (where they once dismissed everyone from work and I didn’t even notice that it was snowing). But any thought of snow turns this area into a 70’s disaster flick.
· Way too many DJs at the bars. I have no problem with dance clubs as some people enjoy them. I however would rather listen to people play their own music instead of just borrowing someone else’s. The problem is I just have been unable to find a good bar with cool bartenders, an interesting clientele, and a properly stocked jukebox. It shouldn’t be that difficult.
Coming on Sunday: The Return of the Super Blog. Yes, the live blog returns in its traditional form. Who will win the big game? Will Bud Light cover the spread in the Bud Bowl? Will the fifty bucks I put on heads pay off this year. Join me and find out.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
From the edge of the pop culture universe
Time for a trip through the pop culture universe…
Mickey Rourke to appear at Wrestlemania 25: From everything I have heard from my sources it is official that Mickey Rourke will face Chris Jericho (formerly known as “Lionheart” Chris Jericho and “Y2J” Chris Jericho, real name Chris Irvine, and no I did not have to look any of that information up) at Wrestlemania 25. This will mark the second appearance of an Oscar nominated performer at Wrestlemania (the other of course being Dame Judi Dench’s appearance in a Barbed Wire Deathmatch at Wrestlemania 19).
There are a lot of things that strike me about this and none of them are good. First off, for Mickey Rourke this will essentially derail any comeback hopes that he imagines. As much as I love wrestling this is a real step down and you just can’t figure out how it makes sense. It also shows just how twisted the wrestling business is. Vince McMahon hated the movie when it came out because it showed in vivid detail the dark side of the business and how it takes performers, turns them into stars and leaves them as poor shells of their former self. He didn’t want anything to do with it. Now that it can make him some money and a few additional pay per view buys he will welcome it with open arms.
My biggest issue though is I don’t know how the match will work. Not the physical nature of the match; I think the two of them could put together a decent match. Rourke trained as a wrestler for the role, looked realistic in the ring, and Jericho works a style that should translate to an entertaining match. The problem is that Jericho is a bad guy right now but I expect the crowd (filled with hard core fans) to cheer him over the movie star encroaching on their turf. The celebrity is supposed to be the hero in these situations and I expect Rourke to be booed like mad (unless of course he has Marisa Tomei in character as a stripper as his valet. Then he’ll be the babyface.)
Children with unpopular names more likely to be delinquents: I saw this article on Yahoo today and I have to state that this is the most poorly worded scientific study that I have ever seen. Mainly in that they have confused “unpopular” with “unique”. Essentially what they did is they looked at the rates of occurrence of certain names in the population and correlated that with juvenile delinquency rates. What they found was that those names out on the Long Tail had higher delinquency rates than those in the front end.
Now I’ll assume that they did the math correctly and accounted for the fact that of course the bigger samples will look more like the average just due to their size. What really bothers me is that they called them unpopular names and tried to justify their results based on the fact that “the children may not like their names” or that “they may be picked on”. This seems ludicrous especially given that one of the names chosen as an unpopular example was Alec. There was no work done to connect the name with popular conceptions so unpopular is the wrong term since it implies a social stigma. In reality, what this shows is what was discussed in Freakonomics: that people of lower income levels tend to give their children uncommon names and that people of lower income levels tend to have higher delinquency rates.
See, I told you I should have been a sociologist.
Wednesday Night Music Club: Sigh. I could spend all day listening to Beth Orton. And then to see her in a cowboy hat just makes my heart go all aflutter.
Mickey Rourke to appear at Wrestlemania 25: From everything I have heard from my sources it is official that Mickey Rourke will face Chris Jericho (formerly known as “Lionheart” Chris Jericho and “Y2J” Chris Jericho, real name Chris Irvine, and no I did not have to look any of that information up) at Wrestlemania 25. This will mark the second appearance of an Oscar nominated performer at Wrestlemania (the other of course being Dame Judi Dench’s appearance in a Barbed Wire Deathmatch at Wrestlemania 19).
There are a lot of things that strike me about this and none of them are good. First off, for Mickey Rourke this will essentially derail any comeback hopes that he imagines. As much as I love wrestling this is a real step down and you just can’t figure out how it makes sense. It also shows just how twisted the wrestling business is. Vince McMahon hated the movie when it came out because it showed in vivid detail the dark side of the business and how it takes performers, turns them into stars and leaves them as poor shells of their former self. He didn’t want anything to do with it. Now that it can make him some money and a few additional pay per view buys he will welcome it with open arms.
My biggest issue though is I don’t know how the match will work. Not the physical nature of the match; I think the two of them could put together a decent match. Rourke trained as a wrestler for the role, looked realistic in the ring, and Jericho works a style that should translate to an entertaining match. The problem is that Jericho is a bad guy right now but I expect the crowd (filled with hard core fans) to cheer him over the movie star encroaching on their turf. The celebrity is supposed to be the hero in these situations and I expect Rourke to be booed like mad (unless of course he has Marisa Tomei in character as a stripper as his valet. Then he’ll be the babyface.)
Children with unpopular names more likely to be delinquents: I saw this article on Yahoo today and I have to state that this is the most poorly worded scientific study that I have ever seen. Mainly in that they have confused “unpopular” with “unique”. Essentially what they did is they looked at the rates of occurrence of certain names in the population and correlated that with juvenile delinquency rates. What they found was that those names out on the Long Tail had higher delinquency rates than those in the front end.
Now I’ll assume that they did the math correctly and accounted for the fact that of course the bigger samples will look more like the average just due to their size. What really bothers me is that they called them unpopular names and tried to justify their results based on the fact that “the children may not like their names” or that “they may be picked on”. This seems ludicrous especially given that one of the names chosen as an unpopular example was Alec. There was no work done to connect the name with popular conceptions so unpopular is the wrong term since it implies a social stigma. In reality, what this shows is what was discussed in Freakonomics: that people of lower income levels tend to give their children uncommon names and that people of lower income levels tend to have higher delinquency rates.
See, I told you I should have been a sociologist.
Wednesday Night Music Club: Sigh. I could spend all day listening to Beth Orton. And then to see her in a cowboy hat just makes my heart go all aflutter.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Kids today have it so good
I’m not entirely sure why I am posting this other than it is awesome on more levels than I can count. If there is anything that would make me want to be a kid today, Feist appearing on Sesame Street would top the list.
(But how did they miss having the Count making an appearance? Isn’t that the most obvious connection?)
(And before anyone asks, yes I did watch the end of Monday Night Raw tonight. Every few years pro wrestling decides to run an attempted murder angle. You know, one where someone rams a car into another human being, on camera, without a) any of the camera people trying to stop it, b) any of the other people in the arena trying to stop it or c) anyone getting arrested for what is clearly a felony offense. Sigh. Given the amount of actual murders and death involved in our great sport you would think that they would try to avoid the fake ones.)
Kind of a bit at a loss for a topic tonight. Right now I am writing in an attempt that my apartment will magically clean itself while I’m not looking. This is another one of those strange travel issues that I have never quite understood. One of my big things before I leave on any trip is cleaning my apartment. This is very important to me. All of the dishes are done, the garbage is taken out and everything is in order.
Of course, when I come back from a trip I am so tired I just throw all of my stuff wherever there is space. And since there is nothing in the sink I realize that I can take a day or two off from doing dishes. Add in the fact that Saturday night went a little late this week my apartment has a few days worth of stuff that just needs to be addressed. Except I really don’t want to deal with it. There is nothing fun about doing dishes or paying bills. Sure, I have to get all of this done but I wish I could do it in a way that wasn’t so time consuming.
Otherwise today was just another day of job searching and interviewing. Monday is a big posting day so I scour the internet for jobs that either interest me or sound funny enough that I feel like sending them my resume. I think I applied to one job just because I liked the company’s name. I don’t know what they do but they sure sounded cool. It’s probably not the best way to find a job but it works for me.
Hopefully I am nearing the point where the interviews will begin to lead to offers and then I can get back into my usual routine. I miss having a job at times. True, staying up late and sleeping in has been a lot of fun but I am getting to the point where I just need to do something. Plus I don’t know how much longer I can stay in this state of limbo. I don’t know where I’ll be living a few months from now and that is beginning to wear on me. Answers should soon be forthcoming. What they will be I don’t have the faintest idea.
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