An Odd Way to Make a Charitable Contribution

As previously posted, last Saturday Dulcinea and I thought we would take in a film at the Tivoli Theater in Westport. We had a late lunch/early supper at La Fonda El Taquito on Southwest Blvd. One of my favorite Westside eateries. You can’t fail with the fresh tamale or the chorizo and potato enchilada.

When we arrived at Westport in the early evening, we spotted groups of people in various colored t-shirts. Every person in the group had the same color and each group had a different color. We couldn’t read what the shirts said from our car because the script used was very flowery (they should have used Helvetica).

The street in front of the Tivoli was closed off so we had to park a few blocks away. As we walked through the crowd we discovered the t-shirts said “Crawl for Cancer”. 20 Pitchers, 10 People, 5 Bars, 1 Perfect Day. It seems we were in the middle of a charitable event.

Most of the donors looked very young and many were very drunk. It is sometimes difficult to appreciate the humor of drunks when you yourself are not inebriated. Such as the two women behind us who were pissed-off and yelling about the shabby treatment they received on the plaza when they were not allowed to come in off the street to use the restaurant restroom. Actually, pissing in the street seemed to be a popular past time. Some couples seemed about to fornicate, while others were very angry and bitching at each other. There were several crying drunks, and a few humorous characters. Emotions were running high.

All in all, getting drunk out of your mind seems to be a strange way to make a charitable contribution to curing cancer. However, Fidel’s, the cigar store in Westport seemed to take it all in stride. This is the sign they had out in front of their store.

Cry Baby!

I can't believe at this time last week I was lamenting about being overly tired from too much vacation traveling. This is only my fourth day back at school and I am ready for another extended vacation, or how about a sabbatical year?

Don't get me wrong. I love my job. The problem is I love sleeping in late, taking afternoon naps, eating and drinking too much and staying up late even more.

It hasn't helped that each day on my commute from suburbia there has been a major traffic accident. It is tough enough to have to rise before the sun is up, but then to sit in traffic inhaling toxic vapors just because the whole city forgot how to drive this summer is not my idea of a good time.

A list of bad traffic behaviors that piss me off:
1. Tail-gating. If I can't see anything but your front windshield in my rear view mirror you are to close. Back-off. If you were following me that closely walking on a city sidewalk a jury would acquit me for acting in self-defense after I had blown you away with a 12 gauge shotgun.
2. Signaling after your turn is completed. That blinker is to be used to signal your intent to change lanes. I already know when you have so rudely cut me off; I don't need you to then turn on your signal just to remind me.
3. We are moving along well at 80 mph and one set of brake lights come on; who are the idiots that then have to dodge across four lanes of traffic so they won't be caught in a slow lane?

There was a comedian that once promoted the idea that every driver should have a powerful rubber dart gun with darts that said, "Stupid" on them. Whenever a fellow driver pulled an obnoxious boneheaded stunt you were allowed to shoot their car with a dart. At least that way when you saw a car coming, bristling with "Stupid" darts, you would know to get out of their way.