Mary Fioratti » Culture

No School on Friday or Monday

Mary — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 17:59:09 +0000

Weird. The kids already got a Spring Break. Now they still get 2 extra days off for “Easter” this weekend – a religious holiday that about half of the population does not observe, recognize nor celebrate other than a store bought basket of candy and maybe dinner on Sunday.

I guess its always nice to get a day off from school – unless you are a parent trying to support a family and can’t find day care for those 2 days.

When I was in school, Spring Break was tied to Easter. Now they just seem to throw days off from school around however it suits the School Board and to Hell with the parents.

Remember Simon and Garfunkel?

Mary — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 17:59:33 +0000

Did I even spell Garfunkel right? I think the actual spelling of their name involves an ampersand instead of the word “and” but I was told to not use ampersands in a blog title. So it’s probably not going to be right even if I did spell it right.

I loved this duo’s music when I was a teenager. It really spoke to me. My favorite song they did was called “Sounds of Silence.” I still remember every word to that song and it still means a lot to me.

Gummy Bears vs Fruit Snacks

Mary — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:43:17 +0000

When I was a kid, a new candy was introduced to the word. They called them Gummy Bears. It wasn’t long before this candy was a big hit and there was a surge of new competition. There were gummy coke bottles, gummy worms, and eventually they decided to make gummy vitamins to help convince the little kiddies to take their daily vitamins more readily.

Now they are selling gummy fruit snacks. Come on, people. Everyone knows these are just gummy bears make to look like fruit and packages as “healthy” instead of as “candy.” Gimme a break.

Lint Roller

Mary — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:31:40 +0000

I know I buy a new lint roller gadget every couple of months and it is supposed to be on the shelf by the bleach in my laundry room. But now that I want to use one and get all this dog hair off my pants, I can’t find a lint roller anywhere in the house.

I know that I haven’t thrown any away. So where the hell are they? This is maddening. I don’t have time to go to the store and buy one – I have to leave for my appointment and just needed to vent before I go. Worst case, I’ll tear off some duct tape and use that. But I really wish I had a lint roller to do the job – that’s what I bought them for.

Fake Commercials

Mary — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:38:26 +0000

Do you ever notice that a lot of TV commercials are so totally fake that the scenes they depict are laughable? Like the one where a girl in a big city, like New York City, comes walking home from work and finds a package left on her front step. She opens it up and find a new Kindle or tablet or some kind of electronics in the box.

Do you REALLY think that people in New York City come home and find packages contained electronics waiting for them on their door step. No way! I know what it is like on the street of the city. Those packages would be snatched up and stolen within minutes of being dropped off. The brazen thieves would open the box right on the door step, take the Kindle out of the box, stuff it in his backpack and leave the empty box on the sidewalk as he rides off on his Schwinn.

From Movies to TV Series

Mary — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:34:21 +0000

Holly wood sure does love to exploit a winner. They take what seems to work someplace and duplicate, twist it or rework it to get every last dime out of a show. Lately L.A. has been raiding British shows and trying to put an American spin on them. some of those shows never make it to the major networks but they are popping up on the cable channels. I need to look into more of these reworks and see what is original and what is a spin off – or a rip off.

May Your Christmas Be Merry and Bright

Mary — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 17:20:52 +0000

Years of hearing Christmas carols and piped in Christmas music while shopping have left me a little numb about music this time of year. I just realized that I don’t even the know the words of most carols well enough to get up with a karaoke microphone and do a decent job of singing any of them. How did that happen? You hear them year after year, but you never really listen to the words and try to sing them on your own. Maybe I should learn at least one or two carols – keep them in my pocket until I need them.

Word Play

Mary — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:15:56 +0000

Have you noticed that some people are masters of word play? They take every day, common speech, add a few more complicated words, and spin lies. Without going into politics, it is amazing to listen to professionals who have been trained in word play. Spin doctors are really good at this. They take a situation and twist it around or push it out in a different direction. All the while they are using language to deceive you or achieve some goal, such as sell you a product or change your beliefs. I like the Indian reference to this by saying that those men “speak with forked tongue.”

Dept Store Makeup Counter

Mary — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:10:19 +0000

This time when I went to the mall I decided to take a look at the makeup counters in the big Department stores. Most of the time I avoid that whole area, as all these overly made up women are always looking for someone to pounce on and give them a free makeover. I don’t want a makeover but I do want some new lipstick. I’m not sure there is enough difference in the quality of the lipstick at the mall to make it worth $30 when I can buy good stuff at the drug store for only $12. So I took a look and the women were so busy gossiping among themselves that they never even came over to help me. So fuck ‘em. I left.

Talking Heads

Mary — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 19:19:30 +0000

Do you have a favorite news braodcaster? There is not much difference in the local news here, but we have 4 channels that do the news every night. I like some of the personalities, but none of them have a full team that I like for the entire 30 minute show.

The anchors on Channel 4 and Channel are the kind of people that I wish were my neighbors. People that I like in a general way and respect. I think they are basically good hearted and well mannered. But the weather forecasters on Channel 5 seem to be more accurate and more informative than the ones on the other channels.

I don’t care about the sports news and usually don’t much attention to the sportscasters on any of the channels. I used to like a guy named Rudy, but he retired and just comes back once in a while as a fill-in. Channel 5 let their main guy retire recently and that was good riddance. But they haven’t replace him with anyone significant. They are all just talking heads with no personalities. Boring.