Wednesday, October 30, 2013

The best line in movie history

Graham Stark, long time Pink Panther co star died today.  He was in several of these films as Peter Sellers assistant or other related roles.  In "The Pink Panther Strikes Again"  he uttered these immortal lines:

"I thought you said your dog did not bite?" says Clouseau, to which Stark replies: "That is not my dog."

All this while Clouseau is trying to shake the little beast off his ankle.  RIP Graham.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Signal of the decline of civilization

I was thinking today about a marker for when civilization started going down the tubes. I decided it was when cars started to get antenna retractors. They got them of course because people were breaking off the sticks but why? It’s not that there was something worth stealing just a hatred that made someone want to just snap off the thing. The reaction from the car makers was to invent retractors. And we car buyers have been paying ever since for that meaningless hatred. And we keep paying more and more for these protective measures. Think about how much you pay for all this stuff that would not be needed in a different society?

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Doctors advertising


Ran into this site from an outfit named "vitals" that rates Doctors based on patient feedback.  Sort of like a Yelp except for something important.   In this case it was Oncologists,  You know, cancer docs that you see when faced with imminent death.  Do you suppose dead patients will give out bad rankings?  Do you suppose people who just got lucky and survived will be more likely to give a good ranking?  The whole thing stinks.  I've noticed even TV ads for the "Cancer Center" in Arizona with nice looking rooms and happy people and hope for anyone stupid enough to give them a bunch on cash.  Sort of like the Malibu based "recovery center" where you can spend a weekend and get rid of all your problems.   This whole medical advertising thing is very very wrong.  It depends on stupid people, like the ones who watch TV all day, which is where these ads often are to fork over their bucks to the charlatans and they will get nothing in return.  Except occasionally someone will recover and then we can hear all about it.

BTW, why is my spell checker offering centre?  Didn't we win that war and kick out the Brits?