Here's Looking at You, Kid...

It started last night. We had just left a play from my old high school, and I started to notice arcs of dark light in the corner of my vision when I shifted my eyes from side to side. Then this morning, I saw a couple of dark "floaters." They looked like small spiders hovering before me. I called my ophthalmologist's office to see if he has hours and if I should be looked at. He wasn't in, but he was set up for a few hours at the area Senior Center. I found him, he took a look, and told me to meet him at his office. He didn't have hours today, but I guess it was that important. He numbed my eye and took a look around inside. Turns out I am undergoing what's called a vitreous detachment, common for my age. He said by age 80, 80 percent of the population would have experienced such a detachment. He added that there was a 90 percent chance of no serious issues with me, but if he saw any tears in the back, it was laser surgery right then! Bottom line, while there was a little capillary bleeding, overall I was okay. He will check me regularly over the next several weeks to make sure things remain routine. No exercise or heavy lifting for me (as if I would) - I also shouldn't read the paper because of the rapid back and forth motion of my eyes. I can use the computer and read books, but I have to do so slowly. Ah, the joys of growing older.

It's that simple... really!

Two thousand or so pages of a health care bill! These clowns in Washington are going about it all in the wrong way. I say we should work backward! The bill self-states it is "To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes" (those last four words are disturbing. They allow anything else to be slipped in, but that's another story).

If the folks in our nation's capitol just took the rest of the words and said, "Okay, this is what we want to create - affordable, quality health care. How do we get it?" we might just do okay with it. It's that simple... really. The way it is now, I believe they are saying, "How can we take care of big business first?"

Give the people affordable, quality health care! Is that too much to ask? I don't think so.

Wal-Mart Let Me Down

ARRRGH!!!!!

It is not often that I get truly excited anymore. Maybe a month or two ago I read that Stephen King had a new novel on the horizon - it was supposed to hearken back to his earlier style of writing, which was what I really enjoyed. It was also his longest work to date (1,088 pages), even longer than the uncut The Stand. I love long books. The scheduled date of release was today, November 10th.

Meanwhile, along the way, Wal-Mart got into it with Amazon - a price war of sorts on some of the more popular book titles. The short of it is that King's book was selling in both places for just under $9! The companies hoped that people who bought one book would buy others. Wal-Mart made a big deal of being a place consumers could always count on for having the lowest price even if it was by a penny (the CEO himself said so in an interview I heard just a few days ago [at least I think that's who it was {and when}]).

Soooo, I thought about camping out by the Wal-Mart door this morning to be one of the first to get and start the book, but I had other things to do (like sleep [never quite enough]). Besides, I knew the store'd have plenty of copies, so I would still get one no matter when I got there. I had other errands to run, so I waited and got to the store around 11:00 AM. I took a deep breath and headed to the book rack... and there it was! Unfortunately, the price sticker was just under $24! I thought there was a mistake.

When I got home, I went online and found the price online at both Amazon and Wal-Mart had risen to $17.50. I didn't know the $9 price was for pre-order only! Arrrgh! There was no way I was going to spend $24 for a book, so when I went back to the store later in the day, I asked a manager if they matched their online price. "No." I tried to look pathetic, but it didn't work. If I wanted the book TODAY, I had to fork over $24. I have to admit that I thought about it.... I did end up buying a Lee Child paperback to hold me over.

When I got home, I did order it... from Amazon along with a couple of other books (free shipping). I gotta save a few bucks where I can.

I don't know if I should send Wal-mart HQ in Arkansas an e-mail or not. Usually all that happens is someone down there has the store manager up here call me, which I don't like (I am sure the manager doesn't like it either). However, the next time I get one of those surveys....

Tonight I spent four hours watching a movie that was just under three hours (less if you count parts that might have been cut). "The Godfather" has to be one of the best movies ever! Virtually everything about it is great! It aired on AMC, which touts its philosophy of "story matters here."


Unfortunately, I was struck by a few things. First, I found myself really getting into the story and characters, but throughout the viewing experience were incessant commercial interruptions (hence the extra hour). I found myself thinking how much they hurt the flow of the story. When there weren't actual commercials, there was the constant network logo in the lower right hand corner of the screen and intrusive ads for the network's other shows in the lower left corner, which actually was big enough to cover several inches of the movie. I may be wrong, but I believe at one time the promise of paying for cable TV was no commercials - that by paying a premium for TV stations, commercials wouldn't be needed. Silly me.

I think everything became clear to me years ago during a basketball game I happened to have on (I don't watch basketball, so I am not sure of the circumstances - maybe it was the end of a game and I was waiting for the news). Anyhow, the thing I hate most about basketball is it often takes three hours to play the last two minutes, but that's another story. In one of the end zones (or whatever the area outside the end of the court is called), there was a long low box-like device that featured an ad for something or other. Then, right before my eyes, the ad slid up into the box and another ad appeared for something else! I don't know why that bothered me so much, but it did!

If I didn't know better, I'd say that TV shows are just filler between the ads, which are really what's important. When I was a local DJ (many years ago), in the weeks before Christmas the ad load picked up so much that I really wanted to say, "We'll be back with more ads right after this short musical break!" It was that bad.

On TV, group them if necessary, but leave the picture alone! Too much is too much!

xxx

Hey, we'll be back for more ranting right after this message: "Be sure to catch the latest edition of Berman's Bits, updated every Sunday, which can be found at www.bermansbits.com." (One thing I can promise you is there are no ads there.)

Shhh!

Don't Ask! Certainly Don't Tell!

In my weekly column (not coming out until next week [so don't bother looking for it until after November 8th]), I have juxtaposed two Bits that deserve a closer look and a bit more comment! Denial is a powerful force and allows certain things to continue unabated. The two issues in question are (1) how broken our schools really are and (2) how broken our military really is. They are not broken to the extent that they have stopped functioning (they're close), but neither is functioning well or coming anywhere even close to their potential.

Both institutions produce some fine, more than competent people, but it that because of or in spite of the systems that are in place? Without going into excruciatingly boring details that cite numbers and statistics, trust me when I say the public doesn't have a clue. All so many people care about is their latest tattoos or piercings or which Brad Pitt haircut looks best.

Schools are producing workers barely capable of getting and keeping minimum wage jobs and the military is asking an overstretched body of people to deploy multiple times to fight and risk all in unpopular wars that existed long before we got involved and wars that will continue long after we finally realize much more than military might is needed and we finally disengage. The first (suggesting there may be more to follow) high-ranking US government official recently quit because he has "...lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan" and has "... doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end." At least someone gets it, and if there is one, more will eventually follow.

The solution to return us to the status of producing the best and the brightest will only come when more of the current best and brightest stop following like sheep and admit there is a problem. Then, and only then, can we move forward.