7.29.2006

The Stepford Wives...living right next door. Hitler would be so proud.

I have just read an article about Home Owners Associations in our country. They are set up under the guise of keeping neighborhoods clean and uniform...providing a positive living experience for everyone that lives there. You know, no rusting cars in the front yard, no rotting piles of garbage, that kind of thing. Sounds nice doesn't it?

But wait....

As I read on it turns out that these "associations" can fine you for things like painting your house an unapproved color, or not cutting your lawn enough. And that if you don't pay the fines you can actually be, get this, FORCLOSED ON. Now how is that even possible? I mean seiously people? What kind of acid are you taking the day you agree to give John Q Dimplehead across the street the power to tell you it's not okay to paint your house THAT color blue? And to risk losing the home YOU are paying for over it? How does that even begin to sound like a good idea?

Ahhh...the American Home Owners Association. Stepford Families of the world now have a place to call there own. Somewhere they can all gather and homogenize and teach their children that diversity is a word somewhere in the "d" section of the dictionary.

Hitler would be so proud.

Apparently Ken Jennings isn't boring...who knew?

Sadly, I have had nothing of interest to say for the last several days. This annoys me. Am I losing my touch? Am I getting old? Have I forgotten how to be a wise ass? No, I just haven't had the time to sit down and write anything.

Let's recount the last several days of my life shall we? On second thought, screw that. I just lived through it, it would bore you to tears, let's talk about something else. Let's talk about...ummm...Ken Jennings. You heard me.

I was reading the news, something I do a lot, and there was an article from the AP that claimed Ken Jennings was hatin' on good ole' Jeopardy. Can you believe it? I mean how dare he? After all Jeopardy did for him? How could he hate on them and an American icon like Alex Trebek. I have to admit, I was curious. So I went to my trusty search engine and typed in "Ken Jennings". The first link that came up was the link to his blog.

I was intrigued, what could a man who had so much useless trivia rattling around in his brain that he won 2.5 million dollars on Jeopardy have to say that would be interesting to me, the general public? I clicked on, eager to see.

I started reading the first post, which by this time had nothing to do with Jeopardy, and found myself giggling and smiling and nodding in appreciation of things that Ken had typed. "Why," I thought incredulously, " Ken Jennings isn't stodgy or boring. Ken Jennings is amusing and intelligent and darn it, I kind of like him." Who knew?

I am proud to say that I know read Ken Jennings blog on a daily basis. I am also proud to report that anyone with a brain will be able to go there, look up the blog post in question and know in about three sentences that he wasn't diggin' on an American Icon. Go on, read it, I dare you!