Bayer faced lie.

I thoroughly dislike the Bayer Corporation. Mostly because of their history during World War II as a provider of the chemicals to kill millions of Jews and other targets of the Nazis. But also today, because they are greedy manufacturers of wildly overpriced medicines and poisons and create many commercials which are outright lies. One of their favorites is to suggest that in the event of a heart attack taking a Bayer aspirin can be a lifesaver. Possible? In rare cases, maybe, but I wouldn't put much faith in it. But I particularly dislike all of their commercials in which the heart attack sufferer says, "My doctor put me on a Bayer aspirin regimen." I doubt that their doctors specified Bayer. If they did, I think they're irresponsible for suggesting the most costly aspirin when far less expensive aspirin will do the same job. Has you doctor ever said, "You should replace high-fat oils with more Pompeii Virgin Olive Oil."

Let's face it: They all suck!

It is no secret that I detest Comcast as I detest all cable services for their greed and frequent incompetence. I could switch to AT&T or Dish, but they would be no better. Like all services they start out with a reasonable fee and gradually increase it. They're all despicable. And one of their most despicable ploys is the following. When they know they have screwed up your service somehow and while it is a neighborhood- or city-wide problem, they will never admi it. They try to make you feel that somehow it is your fault, the customer's. This afternoon I lacked Comcast's phone, cable and computer services for several hours because of their error. But this is what the tv legend read:

WE'VE DETECTED AN INTERRUPTION IN YOUR SERVICE.
PLEASE CHECK THE CONNECTIONS. IF THE PROBLEM
PERSISTS, PLEASE CALL COMCAST AT 1-800-COMCAST.COM
FOR SUPPORT.

In case anybody, but anybody, reads me regularly, I will not be whining or complaining this week. But I will soon be back to griping, carping and intermittent praising. But while I'm taking a break you really should be reading a far more well-written and trenchant blog than mine: http://mycatsaredemocrats.blogspot.com/

Shame on you, Don Draper!

I can't help it. There is a grammatical error that many people make and it drives me mad. When I was a youngster in school, this error was completely frowned upon by our teachers. Today most people don't even know it's incorrect. Sadly, it is practically an obsession with me. And tonight on Mad Men, Don Draper was guilty of using it. Don Draper! Leading Madison Avenue maven, admired writer of great advertising, someone who should know better. But when his wife told him she had suffered a miscarriage a few days before, he said, "I wish you would have told me." That was it. I completely lost all respect for Don Draper. He might as well have said, "I ain't got nothing happening at the agency tomorrow."

Future imperfect.

What is wrong with Americans? Have they no sense of justice?  HuffPost just announced the birth of George W. Bush's  first grandchild, Margaret Hagar, Jenna's first child. In the comments section there were nothing but joyous congratulations and praise for the grandparents George and Laura. Do none of these well-wishers remember that Georgie lied to get us to go to war with Iraq, and that that lie cost thousands of American lives, men and women who will not be making joyous announcements about their own babies because they died in George's unnecessary war?  Do any of these congratulators care that thousands of those who aren't dead are crippled, blind, deaf, mental disturbed, drug or alcohol-addicted, unemployed, and tortured by memories they would not have if George, with his enormous ego, hadn't chosen to do a cowardly "by proxy" battle with Hussein?  Jenna and her husband have a new baby. Good for them. Fortunately they have the money and status to give it the best of futures. But that doesn't change the fact that that baby's grandfather is a mass murderer and has ruined the lives of thousands of families all across America and done additional damage to innocent men, women and children, including newborns not named Margaret, in Iraq.  I wonder if Jenna and her husband appreciate just how vile and polluted gramps really is.

Jonathan.

Jonathan Winters died Thursday, April 11, at age 87. Naturally the lazy and ignorant media announced his death with an immediate reference to the tv sitcom Mork and Mindy. Forget that Winters was one of the most brilliant and influential comics of our time, that he starred in the the Stanley Kubrick film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and more than a dozen other films, often in dramatic roles.  No, all these naifs can think of is Mork and Mindy. Forget his long history of television specials including Omnibus, Playhouse 90, Hollywood Squares, The Twilight Zone, and the Wacky World of Jonathan Winters. No, their narrow little sitcom minds rush to Mork and Mindy. Forget his guest appearances on Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, David Letterman and such brilliantly realized characters as Maude Frickert, or the speed with which his mind could take a single prop and created a dozen scenarios. It's a sad fact that when many of our greatest stars die, the unsophisticated little desk clerks assigned to write their obituaries have such a tiny frame of reference. Jonathan Winters, a giant of comedy, was born November 11, 1925 in Dayton, Ohio, and his death is a great, great loss.