Wednesday, April 30, 2008

5 things I think are odd today.

Gum. It has about 30 seconds of flavor and then it’s just a rubbery blob. I don’t get the whole gum thing. People chewing gum where I can hear or see them makes me gag – literally. I have to move away.

Brenda Martin. the Canadian chick who moved to Mexico and then committed a crime and went to jail and has been whining and crying about it for so long and so loud that Canada is sending an MP down to bring her home. Now she’s apparently worried about her mother’s health if she has to see her daughter finish her sentence in Canada. Huh?

Germany/Austria. What the hell are they putting in the drinking water over there? First Armin Meiwes, then Natasha Kampusch, now Josef Fritzl.

Mayor Larry giving Councillor Clive Doucet some sage advice : "You can't listen to the public if you are on your own political high horse in terms of your own personal agenda.”

People standing on escalators. Makes me cuckoo. You’re walking along. You come to some stairs. You step on. And then you stand there waiting for them to take you for a ride. They’re stairs, not a carnival ride! Walk up and/or down them. Or if that’s too much of an effort at least get the frig over to one side so normal people can get by.

14 comments:

Jazz said...

I was wondering about the whole thing in Austria too.

As for escalators, I think the idea is that they DO the work for you - thus keeping people nice and chubby. Aren't there real stairs beside the escalators in Ottawa? People don't just stand stand on them, the way should be clear.

Anonymous said...

Hi XUP,
Of course you are correct about everything except for the gum and the escalators ;)

Gum is good. And it's ok to stand on an escalator.

XUP said...

jazz- there are always real stairs - off in a corner somewhere doubling as the emergency exit, they're dark and creepy. And there are elevators for those who can't manage any sort of stair & like I said if you want to rest on the escalator, fine, but there are people who can and want to move faster than an escalator and half of it should be clear for people who want to walk.

robin - please explain the joy of gum to me.

Anonymous said...

Does anybody have any idea what Larry meant by that?

Anonymous said...

Gum tastes good and the flavour lasts longer than you think. Anyway, you can always have another piece.

Sugar-free gum may actually be good for your teeth. Anyway I don't think it's bad for them.

Most importantly, chewing gum provides a harmless displacement activity for former smokers.

I rest my case. Now I think I'll have another piece of delicious sugar-free peppermint gum.

XUP said...

zoom - I think he was projecting...explaining why it wasn't right to have a Plan B Transit plan

Robin - but doesn't all that generation of saliva fool your gut into thinking it's getting food? Who knows what happens when no food arrives. If I was a gut I'd get really pissed off and wreak revenge.

JB said...

XUP, are you implying that maybe they should call it 'gut' instead of 'gum'?
Gum's always held the same 'taste frustration' for me, actually.

I'm not so sure Brenda Martin is guilty, though. Why would the perpetrator of the crime, who's already serving his time, and has no reason to lie, say that she had nothing to do with it, and had no knowledge of it?
...and with our country's recent track record in Mexico, why should we expect any Canadian to get a fair trial there?

Escalators - if meant to be climbed, and not just a place to relax between floors - should be constructed with stairs which have the same rise/height as regular stairs, to make them as easy to climb as the non-motorized kind.

For the in-a-hurry Urban Peds like yourself, maybe the country could pass a law forcing all 'standers' to stay to the right so the speedy ones can get by.

XUP said...

jb - in larger cities there is usually an unwritten law that standers stay to the right. & I know Mexico has problems, but word is they've proven without a shadow of a doubt AND to Canada's satisfaction, that Brenda Martin is guilty. Do you know how many people in prison not only say they're innocent, but spend all their time filing appeals? As long as she keeps crying the blues she keeps getting our attention. She has a whole website and gaggle of followers on her side now. And let's not forget she chose to move to Mexico.

Bob said...

I was going to lay a great big "Pishtosh" on your escalator beef until you qualified it with staying to the side to let harried urban pedestrians hurry by you, on the way to having a stroke.

Does anyone know what anything Leisure Suit Larry says lately means? I voted for the man, thinking he was bright and a ray of sunshine at city hall, to run it like a business. Now I just think he should be locked up in a rubber room. The guy's a total loon. He's called eccentric just because he's worth pantloads of money; otherwise, he'd just be dismissed as a nutbar, along the lines of Jane Scharf (sorry, non Ottawans. You're now saying "What the hell is Newsguy Bob talking about?)

XUP said...

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha - Bob voted for Mayor Larry!

Meanie said...

maybe i should hang out with you while i kick my gum habit....i JUST blogged about it the other day. i make myself gag a little too sometimes.

XUP said...

Hey! Meanie - long time no chat. Come and hang out. I'll be there with my hand under your chin saying, "spit it out NOW!"

Kimberly said...

Gum baffles me too. I seriously don't get it.

XUP said...

Kimberly - Let's be non-gum-chewing best friends!