8-Ball in the Corner Pocket

Boston Legal is changing nights. Starting next week it's on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. Past seasons are available on DVD. It's silly, in a deadly-serious way. Like a rattlesnake in a clown suit. Check it out.

Did you see that baseball fan the other day? He caught a fly ball in an upper deck, was waving it around triumphantly, then accidentally dropped it over the edge! (The one that got away.) If he'd hung on to it, he'd never have made it on the news all over the country. Sometimes tragities turn out better than what you'd had planned. Like half way to California on my motorcycle in 1966. Got ripped off for all my money. (Country boy in the big city personified.) But from New Jersey to Memphis, all I'd seen was gas stations and motels. From Memphis to Maywood in Los Angeles County, I had to stop and deal with folks and see things to be able to keep on going. Was way better. (I wasn't so expansive at the time.) I'd figured to make the trip in about eight days. Ha.

Wheels, mortgage or rent, food, utilities, appliances, lawn and pool care, lovers, sitter, clothes, cable, home security, entertainment, running errands, a dog. Each person or couple can do it all themselves, or how about a group marriage of six or eight friends? AIDS and other STDs make swinging or getting some on the side risky--and condoms are such a drag--and so much time is spent working to pay for everything folks need individually. How about getting together and splitting the payments, purchases, and chores, restrict sex to the group, and have more time and money for the fun stuff? But it's gotta be tighter than just roommates, it won't work without the open sex. (And when demanding a group marriage license, it'll make those same-sex requests seem tame.) What could such a lifestyle be called?

Now let's see if I've got this right. A growth-based economy on a finite planet. Who could predict reaching limits? Already food riots are starting in "developing" countries with the stability of some governments even being threatened. And in the U.S. food prices are rising like the price of weed did when they started the war on drugs and some stores are even rationing already. Free world-wide birth control would certainly help the planet, but one of those kids might grow up and send a dollar to the church, so the eternal-life pushers will certainly never allow that to happen. I just heard the salmon failed to show up to spawn in many streams in the West this year. Holes in the ozone. Dead sections discovered in the oceans. But TV commercials continue. Spend, spend, spend. Use, use, use. Ya gotta love it.

I have really mixed emotions about writing this blog. I'm just a single guy who's pretty much bummed around my whole life. (Judge Joe Brown would hate me.) I know there are hard-working folks out there struggling to raise kids and put them through school and all. Folks with medical problems and people needing care. Everybody can't just party away. But can't there be some kind of effort towards learning to enjoy the hours we're alive, regardless of the details? Why can't we help ourselves by using less and at the same time have a better time? LIke how about some kind of exchange stores? Trade stuff instead of everybody buying new everything. I know I embarrass myself with some of the things I say, and some of my suggestions sound corny, even to me, but if I can ruin just one life--stop one person from simply working his or her life away only to survive and avoid criticism--then it'll be worth it. And that'll be several tons less garbage in their lifetime to deal with at the same time. Win/win as they say.