A long, strange trip

I just wanted to get my comics, maybe go to the Apple Store and ogle an iPad a little bit. Two months ago, it wouldn't be so hard. Get on the 7 train to either Grand Central or to Times Square. Walk a couple blocks and there you are. Then the MTA shut down weekend service between Times Square and Queensboro Plaza. Now I have to transfer once to get to Times Square, twice for Grand Central (I find it a bit ironic that only a handful of subway lines hit Grand Central Station). So I make my transfers and get my comics and do the whole thing in reverse on a lazy Saturday. I don't really understand why the MRA would cut off weekend service into Manhattan. Why not overnight? Are there that many people using the trains between midnight and 5-6 a.m. weekdays that it would be more of a disruption?

To my fellow straphangers, The train will still be there in a couple minutes, after everyone gets off. We're at the end of the line for the 7 train, not halfway to Manhattan. You have more than just 30 seconds or so to hop on. So please, just back up. Let us off the train, give us more than a single-file space to maneuver. I'm a big dude, and my balance sucks, so sometimes I need a little more space. Oh, and to whoever it was that grabbed my ass this morning: my wallet was in the other pocket. Thanks for playing!

Just a pair of items that have been bothering me. Way back on Day 7, Stacey and I were at the mall, where I bought myself a dashing new winter coat. As we were walking through the mall to JC Penney, I saw something that absolutely appalled me: the mall already had set up its "Holiday Village," complete with photo ops with the guy in the red suit. It's still October! I know we all like to start the holiday season early, but can we PLEASE get through Halloween before the Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa/whatever decorations get broken out? This can only lead to one thing: ABC playing a double feature of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and "A Charlie Brown Christmas." On the same night. In September. Also: when it rains, and you're using something the size of a beach umbrella to keep yourself dry, you damned well better know how much space you have on any given size. Otherwise, it's like someone who's used to driving a Beetle parallel pa...

It turns out that the person who created the Facebook poll asking whether President Obama should be killed was, as the Huffington Post reports it, a juvenile. And apparently, the juvenile isn't being punished for creating the poll. And that, right there, is another example of why the that generation is going to run roughshod over the country - no one is holding them responsible for their actions and they get to be coddled by everyone from their parents to, apparently, the government. We hold forums on how to stop bullying in schools. We take away advanced placement classes because we don't want the kids in "regular" classes to feel like they aren't special. We make sure that every kid gets a trophy, even if they come in last place in a competition. Everybody is special, every kid is unique and no child should ever feel like they've lost, because everyone is a winner. The real world doesn't work that way. If it did, someone would have felt bad about me no...