The Day the Muzak Died?

I'm not sure how it happened, but I found out about real news via the Onion, which noted that the Muzak company (elevator and hold music) filed for bankruptcy.  Turns out it's true, but that's not the point.

What got me is that I had almost forgotten about the term "elevator music", which maybe is their problem.  I work in a lot of different places these days, and I can't think of the last time I rode an elevator that was playing music.  Now, maybe I'm just not hanging around the classiest places, but I remember back when most public elevators in businesses had heart-stoppingly boring music playing, and you'd think that I'd stumble on it now and then if it was still popular.  It's almost the same thing with hold music.  These days, if there is anything playing at all, it's either some radio station that's local to the business's call center or propaganda from the business itself.  Usually, though, it's just stone cold silence, often making me think I've been disconnected.  (Since I'm usually on a cell phone these days, I don't even expect a dial tone to clue me in.)  Anyway, has this stuff largely disappeared, or am I just frequenting the wrong kind of establishments?

Who's your favorite president? Okay, now which one's the best?

C-Span released their 2009 Historians Presidential Leadership Survey today.  It ranks all the past presidents in a number of categories and called the overall winner as...drum roll please...Abraham Lincoln, who, you know, totally rocked.

As I'm sure everybody already knows, James Buchanan is officially the WORST.  PRESIDENT.  EVER.  Actually, I admit that before checking Wikipedia, I couldn't remember what he might have done that would warrant that title.  Apparently he didn't really do anything.  As in, he did nothing to stop the South from seceding.  That might have been it.

For the record, W came in number 36 (out of 42, if you have to ask).  Obama is still leaping tall buildings and shooting laser beams out of his eyes, so historians haven't noticed him yet.

The link at the top goes to the official C-Span survey page.  It has the whole list, as well as breakdowns of the categories in the survey.  A little light reading for political junkies.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!  Whether you celebrate the Christian Saint, the cheesy romance, the massacre, or something else, everybody has an opinion.  Enjoy it however you want.

Franny and I both used to hate the day.  Actually, hate is too strong a word.  Apathy is closer.  (I may have mentioned this before, but...)  However, 10 years ago today, we took it back from the monsters in the greeting card industry.  You see, ten Valentine's Days ago, Franny agreed to marry me.  Since we still like each other after all this time, we still like the day.  We don't go overboard, but we do make sure to take the excuse to eat too much chocolate.  (Of course, other things, like rain or Tuesday, are good excuses too.)

My proposal was simple, but effective.  I found several conversation hearts that said "MARRY ME" and decorated a cupcake with them.  (It was one of the sad, mass-produced cupcakes from the grocery store bakery with too much sickly-sweet icing that Franny for some reason, LOVES.)  I was nervous as hell, and my overtired bride-to-be almost ate the snack without looking at the messages, but I slowed her down and the job got done.

For fun this year, I got another bag and dug out all the "MARRY ME" ones again.  Apparently morals have changed in 10 years, as there was a grand total of one.  However, there were several saying "FAX ME".  Perhaps, in 10 more years, they'll add "TEXT ME", you know, to keep up with the times.  There was also one that said "30 GIRL".  Can anyone tell me what that's supposed to mean?

Happy Friday the 13th

I hope you like Friday the 13th.  Apparently, we have 3 of them coming at us this year.  If you're into superstitious nonsense, here's a list of 13 tidbits about the date.  We can also apparently expect another Friday the 13th movie, as in another Jason Voorhees craptacular slashfest.  I really thought we played that one out.  In the 80's, they threatened to do 13 of them, but they seemed to get tired of it after about nine of them years ago.  However, I guess somebody needs to pay the bills, so here they go again.

I missed Charles Darwin's 200th birthday yesterday.  It's also the 150th anniversary of "On the Origin of Species..."  I'm not trying to a start a war, but his natural selection and evolution theories definitely influenced my view of the natural world, so I'm just putting out a thank you.  Apparently, England went a little loony yesterday, with Darwin events all over the place, including a reenactment of a debate between a Darwin supporter and a Church of England bishop.  Richard Dawkins (Darwin's rottweiler) was to play the part of Darwin's guy, and someone from the Church was going to be the bishop.  However, the Church guy was going to skip the part about which side of his opponents family was descended from monkeys.  Apparently, the Church of England is somewhat more scientifically enlightened than it was 150 years ago.  In the U.S., however, we apparently still want to fight about it.  Louisiana has taken the lead by adopting guidelines allowing teachers to bring in outside, unapproved material to add additional "facts" and debate about controversial topics, a plan aimed squarely at bringing anti-evolution material into science classes.  Say whatever you want about creationism, but it isn't remotely scientific (which is kind of the point) and has no place in science classes.  Happy now Chuck?  See what you started?