Good news: No more fake Nyquil in my system. I might be coherent! Let's find out as we wade through some Random Thoughts:
1) I really, really wish I could think of something profound to say about the death of Evel Knievel. As a kid, the man was like unto a god to me. Well, not so much a god as a well-paid, jumpsuited cracker who jumped over shit on a motorcycle. But in the seventies, that was all it took. We didn't know from cable or the Interweb or any of that crazy hoo-ha that would come later. We had three networks, and if one of them devoted an hour on a Thursday night to some redneck leaping over a bunch of semis, you watched. And talked about it at school the next day.
I remember Dale Louk was the coolest kid in school for awhile because he not only had the Evel Knievel action figure and motorcycle but all the accessories, the ramps and stunt garages and whatnot. The rest of us spent recess just watching, begging for the right to at least touch Evel's plastic likeness.
Then we hit junior high, and Evel went to jail for beating up his manager with a baseball bat, and we never really cared again.
2) I really don't pay attention to football, but it's worth mentioning that the Jets actually won another game! True, that means they're only 3-9 for the entire season, and the win was against the even more hapless Dolphins, but still, for the Jets, this borders on competence.
The loser here, of course, would be the Knicks, who can no longer claim they aren't the worst pro sports team in New York.
3) Hugo Chavez lost his bid to be Venezuela's Benevolent Dictator For Life by a narrow but convincing margin. Chavez is the latest proof of the old saw about absolute power corrupting absolutely, but even though much of the defeated referendum consisted of naked power grabs, much in it also involved genuine efforts to improve the lot of the nation's citizens. Chavez is a bit of a douchebag, but he's fairly well-respected by the people of his country; they apparently wanted to remind him there are limits. Sometimes democracy works.
4) On the other hand, Vladimir Putin's party consolidated power in Russia. In the interest of pretending to bow to the niceties of the law, Putin says he will only serve the two consecutive terms as president he's allowed. But he's not planning on going away, and one of the post-presidential roles he's claiming for himself is something called "father of the nation"--which, given Putin's KGB background and conspicuous resemblance to a James Bond villain doesn't sound the least bit ominous.
5) I actually had a dream about the new Indiana Jones movie. That's just sad.
