Fun Photo Study

http://jschumacher.typepad.com/photos/abandoned_bikes/index.html

"Abandoned Bikes of New York". Some of these pictures are kind of sad, but I just love photo essays.

Boomer Mortality Cometh

I'm back at work, a little the worse for wear from the nasty bug that ripped through the family last week. Bleah.

I'm also still in a Formula 44D - induced delerium, so I won't try to put together a structured post.

I just want to say how much I'll miss Johnny Carson. Hard to believe he'd been away from show biz for twelve years. What star power. It seemed to me that he'd always been around, and always would be. The fact that he's gone only punches home the fact that I, moi, am also getting older. Soon to crest the hill and such. Scary.

I always wanted some of those double-eraser pencils Johhny would tap on his desk during breaks. Too late now, I guess. Maybe I'll see if somebody has some on Ebay.

Oh yeah. Poker bloggers might want to note that Johnny was a regular in one of the most exclusive Hollywood home games going for many years. That will be a big chair to fill.

RIP, Johnny.

If You Loved Me You'd Bring Me the Gun

We've all been sick around the house the past few days. Real, 'should I just get through this or go on a murderous rampage because I feel so lousy sick'. I've not been quite as bad, so I took care of the young 'un. It was actually pretty cool, having lots of time with the baby.... except for the fact that I'm sick.

You know what I need? I need somebody with a Tivo to rip a frame of the face of the baby in the new Quizno's ads.

I have a theory about how that kid is the secret love child of Patton Oswalt.

But I need a pic to put side by side with his mug, for, like, y'know, proof.

Guess Who's Coming to the Lobby

Since there's not really much to post about this week... that doesn't sound horribly snarky, anyway... I could expound on how, if you've ever seen the town the mudslide hit in California, it's pretty obvious that you're living at the base of a mud cliff and that sucker just might let go some day. I've often wondered, driving by there, why the hell a person would build a house in that spot. But, whatever. No dumber on the part of Californians than their flyover country brethren who insist on living on flood plains, I guess.

Anyway. One of the guys at work rented Guess Who's Coming to Dinner today. It reminded me of a good Sidney Poitier story I'll relate for you.

In the mid - late eighties, I was working in a camera store in an upscale Atlanta mall. Across the street stood a Ritz - Carlton hotel. One day, in rushed a customer who needed a camera immediately.

"I'm staying at the Ritz, and I just saw Sidney Poitier there. My wife is a huge fan. I have to get a picture with him...."

This was before disposable cameras, so we looked at the lower-end point-n-shoots. The customer selected the cheapest piece of crap that we had.

I warned him that we'd seen lots of these come back defective, and he'd be better off spending the extra 30 bucks for a better model, this being a once in a lifetime picture (I made lots more commission on the piece of crap, so I actually was trying to help this guy out). He decided to gamble on the cheapo.

An hour or two later, he comes back. You guessed it, defective camera. No picture with Mr. Tibbs Poitier for his wife. He tells me he'll buy the better one, and see if he can get another picture.

I wished him best of luck with that.

Two hours later, what do you know. Here comes Mr. Customer, proudly bearing a photo of himself standing in the lobby of the Ritz - Carlton Buckhead with Sidney Poitier.

The front desk had called Mr. Poitier's room, explained this poor guy's situation, and asked if Mr. Poitier would be good enough to come down to the lobby to pose for a reshoot.

He was good enough to do just that.

To this day, I've admired Sidney (can I call him that? no, probably not) Mr. Poitier for being so generous with his time. That's got to be a rare phenomenon in the celebrity world.

Have a good weekend. Watch some movies. We will be.

I Am El Niño. That's Spanish for.... the Niño. - Chris Farley

I commute by bicycle. This is the first winter I’ve done it. I’m not going to complain about the weather in California. It ain’t so bad really.

But sheeeeeite! It’s frickin’ raining, man. I don’t mind getting wet, I have the gear for it. But, the bike and chain get full of dirt and sand, and my clothes show up with wet spots sometimes. It’s kind of like Mother Nature said, "Ya wanna ride yer bike to work? How about three inches of rain in a 30 – mph wind, biatch? You like that? ‘Cause I got more."

Classic California. Three months ago it was so dry everything was on fire. Now we’re washing away.

What we need is some of that nice, stable, Midwestern weather.