jimsjournal
It's still winter out there -- 02/05/04

The high temperatures have been getting above freezing every day this week -- not very far, just a few degrees, except for Tuesday when it hit the low 40's (around around 6° for those of you who live in a metric world) -- but Nancy's school had an hour delay at the start of the day on Wednesday because some Tuesday evening rain had turned to black ice many places as a wake-up greeting (Jill almost slipped going out to bring in the morning paper) -- and our forecast for Friday is for "ice pellets" -- by which they mean snow in the morning changing to rain and then to sleet and then to freezing rain. It's still winter out there...

Hmmm, I think I may work from home tomorrow.

I worked from home every day this week except today... and I started out my day this morning with phone meetings from home and didn't actually get over to the office until almost ten o'clock. And when I parked my car I realized that I had left my lunch in the refrigerator at home. Oh well, I had been wanting a 12 inch Subway tuna sub (I used to get sandwiches at Subway at least once or twice a week but I've been working from home so much that I've not had a Subway sandwich since mid-December). The afternoon brought the joy and delight of a three hour telephone conference call... well, actually, a phone conference combined with Intranet-based computer conferencing. It was still longer than I like to be on the telephone.

When I got home from work Jill was getting ready to leave to go to a concert with Lia... she didn't think she would have time to get anything to eat... so I reached into the refrigerator and handed her the lunch I had left behind (turkey on whole wheat roll with lettuce and taboule, a baggy of carrots and green beans, an apple and a pear). Problem solved.

Despite not being big football fans Nancy and I watched the Super Bowl on Sunday (okay, okay, so it's the first football game I've watched since last year... hmm, I don't know if I did watch it last year... but I watched it the year before that) but neither of us caught the half time "entertainment" -- she had papers to grade so was paying no attention. I was downstairs because I was cleaning up in the kitchen and just watching intermittently and when half time came I was surfing around to see if there was anything more interesting than the weather channel. Of course it was impossible to miss seeing endless replays on the morning news (with a crucial blob of scrambled pixels over the area in question).

Now the NFL and the FCC are upset with MTV and CBS (civil war strikes the alphabet!) and we've had a new term introduced into the language -- "wardrobe malfunction" -- and Ms Jackson's attempt to jumpstart a fading career (or take some of the spotlight from her brother?) seems to have caused a bigger commotion than she had bargained for. I don't quite see what all the fuss is about. I have also seen some clips of their "performance" and, frankly, I think the wretched crotch-grabbing antics of some hip-hop scumbag wearing a shirt made out of the American flag, backed up by what looked like a chorus line of cheap hookers, was more offensive than Jackson's attempt to outdo Brittany Spears in the slut-of-the-week contest.

It does appear that Michael is not the only Jackson to employ plastic surgeons. I've never understood the impulse to pump up breasts like that, it looks so false. I have no problems with an exposed breast on television except to wonder why it couldn't have been an attractive one... I'm not just talking about the silicone implants... people were describing her as wearing sunburst shaped pasties under her bustier (referring, of course, to the decorative nipple covers worn by strippers, not to those little Welsh meat pies) but DrudgeReport.com shows a close-up view (warning -- everyone I know who has looked at this has said "Ewwwww!") where it is obvious that this is a metal sunburst shape where her nipple is protruding through the center and it is held in place by a pin through the nipple.

Hey, NFL and CBS and FCC bureaucrats (and NBC news which delighted in showing the unveiling over and over and over...), she flashed her boob for a few seconds. Big deal. (Somebody referred to it as a "tempest in a C cup") Ignoring the endless hype of the game and the organized violence that is professional football (and we won't mention steroids and drug use and non-role model behavior), these people think that charging two million dollars per thirty second commercial is okay but Janet Jackson is indecent? And they think a commercial built around getting a laugh from the ignition of equine flatulence is tasteful family entertainment? Okay, right.

Well, after all, people do refer to television as being the boob tube....

I had thought I might comment on current political events, but I think the Super Bowl half time is enough of a freak show for this entry. Maybe in another day or two...



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