Sonntag: Frühvorstellung

In case you don't have time for Chinatown.

I'm off for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Tame, my ass!

Since the FDA approved it back in 1981, it has become a multi-billion dollar industry. What most consumers don't know is that Aspertame's approval was one of the most contested in FDA history.... but the makers say it's one of the most tested food additives ever.

And tested, and tested, and tested. If the slogan weren't already patented, they could say, "Billions served!"

_ _ _ _

My current bike chain doesn't require oiling, so my personal slogan (upper right*) is at least personally outdated (the temp is current, though). As far as petroleum is concerned, and speaking of chemical compounds, it would seem there are more pressing issues than melting glaciers. But if folks don't care about their health...

Buy low, sell high!

*[13.02.2013: moved to appear amongst the random quotes in the footer]

HARTtalk

Laying it on tough-guy thick for the redneck, whiteguy, and bluedog, the Senator pontificates about we who would be Rome. I introduce to you a man who is so proud of his words in the wake of the then "recent events", he opens with them again:

"we will find Osama bin Laden, give him a fair trial as we did in the old West, and then we'll hang him."

This, to make the point that "the mission changed" and that's where we lost our way. As if all things pre-2005 were just donkey dory, money well-spent and on the moral high-ground "in that perpetually troubled land."

"We were a nation out for vengeance and right was on our side."

Class A bullshit, Donkey-style.

Schleudergang

A pair of accidents listed in the paper this morning caught my attention:

Two bicyclists were riding side by side in an on-the-street variety bike lane when they collided "for unknown reasons". One rider (56) tumbled into the street where he was run over and killed by a great big truck whose driver just kept on going.

The second accident involved a motorcyclist (25) hitting and killing a female pedestrian (73) after having been struck and flung onto the sidewalk by a car whose driver (53) had overlooked him when making a turn.

I always take note of collisions entangling cyclists or pedestrians, but these two mishaps - both on Tuesday and within earshot of home - include a kind of witless witness/accomplice. Though it's not quite clear who enabled whom, especially in the first case.

Except for the two fatalities, no one suffered even minor injuries, unless you consider the cyclist in the first instance, the press account of which ends in the same three words that so many others like it do: erlitt einen Schock (sustained a shock).

I have to wonder what led to the setup collision with the hapless, soon-to-be deceased.

If it had been a 73-year-old woman out for a hit & run who'd mowed him down, and a truck that the motorcyclist had been thrown into?

You can never be too careful. Look out for the freak before the accident, cuz he don't give a shit about you.

And don't be letting your freak-flag fly when there's somebody else who might end up paying for it.