Oktoberfest

This is the image we all have of Oktoberfest in Munich. I'm fraid the the reality is more like this. I don't know about you, but I live in a big city, the last thing I want to deal with when enjoying myself is big crowds and long lines. F that!

Regis & Kelly

I'm watching the 25th anniversary show with Regis and Kelly today (don't ask why) when they bring out the old one, Kathy Lee Gifford. She looks like a plastic surgery disaster but that's not the issue. What amazes me about this program is that the house wives who watch this show accepted that Kathy Lee was replaced by a younger, firmer version of herself in Kelly Ripa. Isn't that what all house-fraus dread the most? Their husbands leaving them for a younger woman? Isn't that exactly what happened here? They didn't replace that old hack Regis with some young buck. Doesn't anyone see the irony here?

Ominous

Is it me or do these public service ads look like something you would seeing in Nazi Germany around 1938 or Stalinist Russia? Yes, we have reasons to be afraid, no one more then the people of New York. But are campaigns to turn in ones neighbors really what we need? A city of stoolies?

Only In New York

Staten Island ninja thief flees after homeowner stabs him


Phil Chiolo shows bruise he got from man dressed as ninja who broke into his Staten Island home.
A ninja-clad burglar was sent scurrying from a Staten Island kitchen early yesterday when the homeowner stabbed the samurai sneak in the shoulder.
Phil Chiolo said he had just gone to bed when he heard what sounded like a pan hit the kitchen floor about 1 a.m. in his Jefferson Ave. home in Dongan Hills.
"When I got into the kitchen, the door was jimmied open," Chiolo said. "To my surprise, there was a man standing there dressed in a ninja costume, with nun-chucks and everything. All I saw was his eyes."
The thief immediately struck Chiolo across his collarbone with the nun-chucks, he said.
The professional disk jockey tried to run.
"As I turn around, he hit me again in the back of the head," Chiolo continued.
Chiolo clutched the kitchen counter, spotted a knife block on the top and grabbed a 4-inch blade.
"My intention was not to stab him," he said. "I wanted to scare him, but he tripped over a kitchen chair and fell on his a--."
Still swinging the nun-chucks, the ninja struck Chiolo on the leg. That's when Chiolo plunged the knife deep into the burglar's shoulder.
"He showed absolutely no sign of pain," said Chiolo, who lives with his brother, Richard. "He was either high on something or completely numb. He got up with the knife still in him and ran out the kitchen door."
Chiolo called the cops, but the burglar, believed to be responsible for 13 other heists in the area, was still on the loose last night.

I am still chuckling, a freaking ninja. Of course he vanished into the night with a steaknife in his chest, he's a ninja!

http://gothamist.com/2007/09/07/staten_island_n.php

Sometimes It's What Is Not Said

Ehh, no one is listening to me and my ramblings anyway. I just feel very strongly when I see our rights slowly being eroded at every turn. The other day my kooky ex-neighbor was yelling at someone as he often does. A store owner came out and told him to be quiet, my friend responded with "It's a free country". I was floored, I haven't heard ANYONE say that in years. When I was a kid, you used that phrase all the time. It was an excuse to get away with saying what you wanted, going where you wanted and pretty much doing what you wanted. But that was all before Giuliani, 9/11, Imus and everything else. Now you have to be careful what you say, especially online or on the phone. And God forbid it's not PC or Sharptons goons will destroy you. You can't go where you want. Your name might be on some secret no fly list. Whole areas of the globe are totally off limits now because of our meddling foreign policy. In New York City you no longer can dance in a club not zoned for it or smoke in a bar, in certain city parks you can't even fly a freaking kite. Yeah, I'm afraid the term "It's a free country" is about as relevant today as saying "When's the next pony express rider coming by"?