When I moved to Minneapolis' Prospect Park neighborhood two years ago I was told that a favorite activity of the predominantly ultra-liberal residents was "the evening constitutional," a walk around the 'hood. Tonight I saw/heard a graying White guy in button-down shirt and khaki pants yapping on his cell phone (through a wireless headset) about a patent application, trailed by a leashed dog and a much younger Asian woman carrying a dog toy. I don't think that this is what the neighborhood's old hippies had in mind....
I've had a netflix account since April of 2004. For the first time ever, yesterday I returned a couple of movies without watching them (only had mild interest in "Walk the Line" and "All About my Mother," and not much free time lately). Also, I've only been to the theater twice so far this summer. This is turning out to be a summer of few movies....
For some reason, people frequently stop me to ask for directions...even when I'm in a strange city and have no idea where they want to go! Today a woman asked me about an address on 21st Ave. S. Since we were in SE Minneapolis I asked her if she meant 21st Ave SE. (A quirk of Minneapolis street design is that there can be, say, a 2000 21st Ave S just east of downtown, and a 2000 21st Ave N close to the western rim of the city). Before I could sort out her specific destination a bus pulled up behind her (she was in a bus-only lane in front of the U of Minnesota's Coffman Union), so she rolled off with my assurance that she was going in the right direction for SE streets/avenues. I think that she probably wanted to end up across the river in the Seward neighborhod, though. Oh well....
This week's SciFi Wire poll is about cancelled major network Sci-Fi TV shows from the 2005-2006 season. I can't believe that all (Invasion, Surface, Night Stalker, and Threshold) but one (Ghost Whisperer) bit the dust, with the crappiest one returning. Oh well, at least Supernatural survived netlet The WB's transformation into CW....
Last week I got my car washed at a place around the corner from my house. While waiting I looked at a job application. In addition to the standard stuff (address, position applying for, U.S. citizen?) the following four questions appeared: what is $125.31 plus $135.21? what is $135.21 minus $125.31? what is 1036 divided by 4? what is 7 times 9? Huh!!?? If you are a cashier you might have to do some calculations if the register breaks down, but why put that on an initial screening for everyone? Crazy!