Another Week Down the Drain
August 25th, 2006 @ 11:19 pmI mean to post more often. I really do. Every day I come across events and articles I’m dying to write about, but because I can’t/shouldn’t/don’t blog at work (look, they’ve already taken away the sudoku), I keep it inside. Well, that’s not really true. I usually call up or e-mail one of my co-workers and we riff on the story for a few minutes, which yields the very enjoyable instant feedback and communal appreciation this medium does not always deliver. And by the time I get home, I’m usually too tired to write - and quite frankly I’m often a little sick of the computer. But I resolve to be better. (Like a fool I have many September resolutions in mind.) So this is what has been sparking my mind this week:
Bikes vs. Peds vs. Bikes vs. Autos vs. Bikes
Apparently the bicycles are taking over SF, and it’s a little scary, right? First, pedestrians (even blind ones) are effectively trapped on streetcorners by Critical Mass. Second, the the Bicycle Coalition is well on its way to world domination - well, SF street domination via their apparently immense political power. As important as encouraging, bicycling, walking, and public transportation is, I’m a little wary of the practicality of making SF a car-less city. There are plenty of people for whom going car-less just isn’t practical, particularly given how terrible Muni is, e.g., people with more than one small child to tote around. Finally, this is not explicitly a bicycle thing, but while the parking tax on the November SF ballot could be a great method of raising a little more scratch for the city and for Muni, a couple things give me pause. The money goes into the general fund, which means it doesn’t have to be used for any trasit related endeavors or costs and given that the city never has enough money for anything it wants to do, I’m not optimistic that it will end up fixing streets or public transportation. Further, as I mentioned above, there really are plenty of people for whom driving is really the only practical option. Lastly, I’m not really sure what the value is of giving Muni more money when there doesn’t seem to be much of correlation between the quality of Muni and its budget.
The Bright Shiny Glowing Box
I’m kind of excited about the fall television season even though I have no idea what’s going to be on. I’ve barely watched TV all summer, which was impressive for me, but I’m ready to become slavishly devoted to the idiot box again. The Prison Break premiere was delightfully tense goodness and I’m still basking in the summer euphoria of Project Runway (I miss Bradley, I’m still a bit shocked Jeffrey so cavalierly made someone’s mother cry, I kind of want to be there (and kind of don’t) when Vincent finally cracks, I want to rip off all of Angela’s damn rosettes!, I adore Uli and Michael, and Heidi Klum is all kinds of awesome) for a few more weeks.
On the giant, brighter, shinier box, I also saw two movies last weekend, which I don’t think I’ve ever done before. It was the fun, and not at all terrible, Snakes on a Plane and the goofy, adorable Little Miss Sunshine. Both were thoroughly enjoyable. Snakes because it was just fun, it hit all the elements of a classic disaster flick, and the snakes (faulty science and all) were pretty darn cool. Though Little Miss Sunshine resulted in depicting the most unfortunately put upon nice, little family ever, it was a great story and everyone in it played their parts perfectly. I might take a small issue with the divine Toni Collette being stuck in the typical “mom” role where other than trying to make everyone in her family behave, she’s the only one without an issue.
Remind Me Never To Go To Maryland (At Least While I’m Still Black)
The story of a (black) guy in Baltimore arrested for stealing his own car, which looked nothing like the car that the cops happened to be looking for that day, is so obviously disgusting and wrong that you wouildn’t think we’d have to talk about such things happening in this day and age, but here we are. And those geniuses sold his car (which they thought was stolen, so they sold it why?) while he was awaiting trial. And it took the testimony of the owner of the stolen car to exonerate the guy. Nice.
Poor Pluto
I’m just saying. And everyone’s taking it so personally.
And Ew
Don’t Marry Career Women. Thanks Forbes. [via Gawker, Shocker: Forbes Recommends Trophy Wives, via Boing Boing] At least they put up a counterpoint (Don’t Marry A Lazy Man) now, which I’m sure will elevate the discourse between the genders. At least Forbes.com is getting a lot of page views.
