el rinconcito

In my travels for work this week, every single place I went where there was a television, it was tuned to Fox "news." I guess there is a conspiracy. This was also the week that Sarah Palin was hooting about her new book. Of course she would sit for a lengthy interview on Fox. They would never call her to the carpet about anything on there. This makes me realize more than ever, that except for DVD's and pre-recorded shows, I have no need for a TV in my home. The old 1960's adage, "Kill Your Television", is more meaningful than ever.

One of the Fox announcers was at a bookstore signing party she was giving. He kept talking about the mob of people waiting for a signed copy. With the tight lens of the camera, I could only see about fifteen people, but I guess somebody's buying them as the sales numbers have been good, unless it's the Supreme Court into the numbers game again (Stop the counting! We declare Sarah's book the winner!). One after another, people kept coming up to the camera to brag about how long they had waited in line: 2 hours, 3 hours, one man said 4.

Even though my Big Mac in front of the TV in the posh "McCafe" was a particularly good one, very hot and fresh, when the man said "4 hours", my throat and stomach tightened. Some cool sips on my Dr. Pepper didn't help any. I kept thinking, "what empty shattered lives", though I once waited in line 5 hours for a ticket to an Elton John show decades ago. I could think of so many other things to do with 4 hours, like masturbate. No, wait. That only takes about 5 minutes.

To me, Sarah Palin is a major representative of the status quo. The status quo sucks. It has enough rich and powerful friends already. It doesn't need wage-earner me waiting in line for it.

As I crisscross the Carolinas this week for work, one of my stops was Hardeeville, South Carolina. They have good food and Internet there. Hardeeville has a local net provider and my hotel was connected to it. The upload/download speeds were mind blowing. My cable net connection at home is from a national carrier, and while the download is great, the upload sucks.

I ate both the soul food and the Mexican seen advertised in the following pictures. The soul food wins in this town.

I like the mix of English/Spanish in the images.

Dots are gumdrops, by the way. I'm in Charlotte, North Carolina, for work again. I had some good tacos for dinner. The Dots are for a late-night snack. They are low in calories, fat free, and only a few scarey ingredients. I guess fruit would be a better choice, but I wanted candy.