"To read a newspaper is to refrain from reading something worthwhile." - Aleister Crowley

This afternoon I heard Peter Schickeley's version of the 1812 Overture (called the 1712 Overture, by PDQ Bach) on the local classical station. Outstanding!! He works in spoofs of everything from Happy Birthday to the Beatles. Turns out it's from an album titled, "1712 Overture and Other Musical Assaults by PDQ Bach." I may have to make that my next musical purchase.

Today a jury awarded Apple over $1 billion in damages to be paid by Samsung for patent infringement. That is a WHOLE lot of money. Does a company, even one as big as Samsung, have the funds to write out a check for that amount? Do they go to Bank of America and get a loan? How does that work?

The USADA (U.S. Anti Doping Agency) says they're stripping Lance Armstrong of his seven Tour de France wins and his Olympic medal. Except that the International Cycling Union says the USADA doesn't have the jurisdiction to do that. The USADA doesn't put on those events or sanction them, the ICU does the sanctioning and the events are put on by their respective agencies (the Tour and the IOC). Turf war. Meanwhile, Lance says, "You can't fire me; I quit."
Bizarre, the more so because there isn't any hard evidence of his cheating. He's passed every drug test he's ever taken, over 500 in all. How did he do that?

If you have the option, skip the whole pacemaker business. It's a pain.
It's also expensive if you don't have insurance. Thankfully, we do. We got the hospital portion of the "bill" today. At the bottom of the third page of itemized charges ("suture, 4 @ $24 ea") is the summary:
Charges - $57,739.00
Adjustments - $35,777.90
Payments - $21,961.10
The payments came from our insurance, the adjustments are the hospital's write-down. We had a $140 co-pay.
The pacemaker itself runs $12,002.00
We haven't rec'd the doctor's bill yet.

I am SO old that I remember when the two political conventions were covered by all three networks, gavel to gavel, and the parties actually took a series of votes to decide who would be the party's nominee. That made for some fascinating viewing as the haggling went on out front and the real deals were made in back. Now the conventions are infomercials - bad ones.

I worked on the Rambler this morning. The rear wheels are done and I should have finished the fronts, except I couldn't get the brake hoses off the wheel cylinders. Rusted solid! The good news: the local O'Reilly's could get hoses from the warehouse in just a couple of hours, and I picked them up this afternoon. I still have to make the hard lines for the rear wheels and then bleed the system, but maybe, just maybe, by Monday afternoon Louise will be roadworthy.

I have a dilema.
I get my hair cut at the nearest Super Cuts because it's cheap. Not a lot can be done with this batch of straw so there's no point paying for artistry. But there's one lady who manages to get even my very basic haircut wrong, leaving it looking like a hack job. And she's brutal! I think she got her training at the USMC basic training camp, where the emphasis is on speed with no consideration for comfort.
I go about once a month when it fits with my schedule. No pattern. Except that no matter when I go she's working, and she's always the next one available when it's my turn. When I went in today there were three gals cutting hair and two guys waiting. Sure enough, I got Mrs. Attila the Hack.
It's not like I can say I want to wait for _____. I don't know any of them, don't know their names. And I can't bring myself to say, "Anybody but Mrs. Attila." That seems unkind or worse.
So, I'll wear a hat for the next week. Except for Sunday at Pathway, where the people are too kind to say anything.

Why don't I go somewhere else? I've thought about it, and then recalled the adage: "The devil you don't know is worse than the devil you do."