Today is Sunday, August 21 and there are only 96 days until Black Friday, the day when people have the opportunity to go out at 6 AM and act like crazies to buy gifts that they could get for half the price if they waited a week or so.  Today we remember the birthdays of Hubert Gautier, William “ Count” Basie and Dame Janet Baker.  On this day in 1680 the Pueblo Indians took possession of Santa Fe from the Spaniards, in 1841 John Hampson patented the venetian blind and in 1959 Hawaii became the 50th state.  Slow day for holidays with today being National Spumoni Day and National Senior Citizen Day.

I have, on a number of occasions, commented on people who back into parking spaces.  I always wonder why they feel it is necessary to do this. Realistically it is harder to back into a space properly than it is to back out of the space.  I also wonder what they are up to that they need to be pointing out for a quick getaway.  I am sure that they do not give much thought to what they are doing, they just feel the need to back into the space.  Well, this past week I had the rare opportunity to see the front and back end of one such adventure.

I had to go grocery shopping and had parked my car and was walking through the parking lot to the store when a guy pulled into the lane in his SUV and after three or four tries finally got his car backed into the space.  I spent some time in they store. It is still tough for me to find things in this store.  I am used to shopping in the store where I used to live and got to know that place well.  I have been going to this one for about a year and still do not know where everything is … but I digress.

I completed my mission, loaded my purchases into the car, put the cart in the drop off space and was heading to my car when I saw the SUV guy coming back to his car with a cart load of stuff.  I decided to watch to see how he was going to get his stuff loaded into his car.  What he did was he attempted to get his tail gate open, but couldn’t because the car behind him was too close.  So he climbed into his car, pulled it forward and then went and started loading his things.  What made it interesting was that he had to pull his car out so far that he was blocking the lane and cars could not get through.  One of the cars that was blocked was a police car.  The officer got out and informed the guy that he couldn't block the lane like that, made him close his gate and back into the space so that cars could get through.  I don’t know how it all worked out.  When I left the man and the officer were discussing his alternatives and the man did not appear happy.

I have had an ongoing rant against people who do not speak the English language properly.  What bothers me the most is when they are reading something and still say it incorrectly.  One recent example is a commercial I saw for a phone network.  The person was listing features and he said ekcetera.  If you are reading from a script and you see the word et cetera, why would you add the letter “k”?  I hear people do this all the time and have never been able to figure out why they do it.  I have also heard people add a k to the word especially and say ekspecially.  I realize that in the greater scheme of things adding a k where it does not need to be is not a terrible thing, but why do people do it?  I don’t mean to be picky, well, actually I do mean to be picky.  We have enough problems understanding why a word like laughter is pronounced differently when you add an s to the beginning – slaughter – without people adding letters that are not even there.

Okay, now a brief comment on another of my favorite rants, commercials.  I saw one the other evening that showed people swimming in a pool in a tropical setting.  The voice over said that “If palm trees could talk, I think they would speak Spanish.”  Palm trees come from Africa, Asia, the Pacific Islands and North America.  Why would they speak Spanish?  The weird thing is that the commercial was not for anything from Spain.  Or it may have been and I was not paying attention.

One last thing I wanted to discuss was a wake I went to the other evening.  The mother of a friend of mine passed away and I went to the wake.  One thing I noticed was that when a single individual comes in, expresses sympathy to the family and then sits down by himself, he attracts attention.  I did not know most of the people in the room, so when I came in, I spoke to my friend and his wife, expressed my condolences and then went and sat down.  The place was crowded with family and friends and there were a number of people standing.

All do a sudden, I noticed people starting to leave.  Someone who had been looking at me curiously came over and said, “The priest just got here.”  That explained the fact that suddenly the room was not so crowded and there were places to sit.  Why is it that people take off when the priest shows up?  Generally, the priest says a few prayers and then leaves.  Why do people feel they have to run out before he gets started?  Are they afraid that between the wake and the funeral they might get too much religion?

Another thing I want to mention is that while at the funeral home I needed to use the rest room.  I went downstairs, found the room and went in.  As I was standing at the urinal I had the time to look around and I noticed that the wallpaper was a design that consisted of all heads of pretty young women.  If it weren't for the fact that there was a urinal, I might have thought I was in the wrong room.  What would possess a funeral home to use that design in the first place and why in the men’s room?  I got done and out of there as soon as possible.  I don’t like being watched when I go.  Especially by a wall full of women.

This week our fact tells us that from 1725-1765 a Russian peasant woman had 69 children.  She gave birth to 16 sets of twins, 7sets of triplets, 4 sets of quadruplets, having a headache as an excuse for avoiding sex and the invention of the condom.

Go have some Spumoni, love a senior citizen and have a nice week.