Tamper-Evident Seals

If you remember the days when one listened to “phonographs” on “turntables,” you may remember the days of the Tylenol poisonings. That’s the time in the early 80’s when some sickos spiked Tylenol bottles with poison, killing some people and sending everyone else into a panic. The changes that came afterward were for the better: medicine now comes with tamper-evident seals.

I suppose on the basis that people put other things in their bodies, not just medicine, manufacturers began to apply seals to other consumables. Juice bottles have seals. So does milk, peanut butter, and (of course) baby food. All fine and good, right?

When I began to find these seals on things in my garage, I began to wonder if maybe, just maybe, we’ve gone off the deep end. I popped open a quart bottle of oil and lo and behold – it was safety sealed! Thank goodness that oil was tamper-free! Nothing should pollute my sparkling pure motor oil!

I thought I’d seen it all until it was time to kill off all my weeds and grass. Popping open a bottle of professional herbicide, I burst out laughing when I saw … a seal!

That’s right. A seal … on a bottle of poison!

Some sicko might try to put baby food in there.

Strange Bedfellows

I just discovered that my humble blog has been included in a list of political blogs in NC. I’m in some good company: Monkey Time, Orange Politics, Ed Cone among many others.

I don’t really consider my site to be about politics, though I will own up to being a political junkie. It’s more of a place where I say what’s on my mind, and sometimes what’s on my mind is politics. I will rant about one thing or another and then feel dumb about ranting, since ranting doesn’t fix things. Its much easier to complain, isn’t it?

Thanks to whomever out there nominated me. I promise to do some more ranting, but only if the mood strikes.

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The ‘Honeymoon Cottage’ Gets Ink

Unless its accompanied by a mugshot, parents usually enjoy when their kids make the papers. My friend Vinnie Petrarca’s “kid” made the paper this weekend, only his kid is the “Honeymoon Cottage”, the house he designed and built. I remember him sharing pictures of its construction, like a proud papa.

Vinnie was a teammate on my Raleigh city league basketball team. He is also a talented architect who runs his own firm, Tonic Design. Vinnie designs as well as he can drive the lane. Maybe even better.

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Van Morrison’s Contractual Obligation Album

Back in 1967, Van Morrison wanted out of his recording contract with Bang records. The only problem was, he owed them another album. So Van sat down and recorded 31 songs in a row, all of them dreadful.

I’ve been chuckling about them all weekend long. Give a listen to them here, and try not to laugh.

[Update to fix spelling in title.]

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