Vacation in Canada?

Every Saturday or Sunday I go to the Weevil for lunch and most of time there is a waitress there who either wants to know why I wasn't there last weekend (because I was in Vegas, Charleston, or wherever) or what I am reading on that particular day (I usually take whatever book I bought for the weekend). Today it was both so I told her the new book was about a road trip from Patagonia to Canada (really Alaska but whatever). "Oh Canada!" she says, "My boyfriend and I are taking a road trip to Canada this summer!... To see the coffee shops." I thought that rather odd. Who goes to Canada for coffee shops? Then she adds, "We're staying at a bed and breakfast that serves weed for breakfast!"
"Ah, that sounds about like Canada."
"It's going to be a fun trip!"
We make fun of people who drink alcohol before noon (only in Vegas? :)), what a field day people who smoke weed for breakfast would be! I mean, when you plan your whole vacation around access to controlled substances, YOU'VE GOT A PROBLEM.

Rude People In Carts

It seems like the Washington Rd. Publix attracts crazy old people by the dozen. Most of them are nice and just want to say something to somebody, I guess because they're lonely. Tonight's was a belligerent old hag manhandling an electric courtesy cart. Because every aisle ends in a blind turn, I often find myself swerving a cart full of eggs and peanut butter to avoid a collision with oncoming traffic. Sometimes they want to turn, sometimes they're speeding to the checkout counter like me. Tonight coming out of the aisle I barely cut off the old lady in the electric. I said "Excuse me." and made my right-hand turn. A short distance later she yells in a raspy nicotine voice "BEWARE! OF! OLD LADIES! IN CARTS!". Pretty weak to let me get that far away before staging a protest. I didn't bother turning around, it was almost 11 and I just wanted to get home. Thinking back on it now, with what we learned about Joe "Pushdown" R. in Vegas, it would have been handy to have him there. Something like the final confrontation scene in Lebowski when Walter upends the elder Lebowski then let's him stand, only to fall flat on his face. People could be nicer. Or carts should come with cowcatchers.

Satellite Photos Show Changing Earth

I first heard about this the other day while performing audio surveillance on NPR (The Liberal Hype Machine). Then it appeared on slashdot. Somebody has put together an atlas of satellite images taken over the last 3 decades (wow satellites are old now!) that compares locations from around the world, then and now. The contrast is impressive; large swaths of dense green land is replaced with the checkerboard of development. The images at that link are high res and may take a long time to download.