Lunch Break

Kunstler is extra, super, delicious this week. Go. Read. Now.
Burger King was doing some kind of promotion in its Watertown huts and the marquee in their several parking lots proclaimed -I swear to God -"Ask us about our Angry Burger." WTF? Is the rage of lumpen America so repressed now that it can only be expressed in menu items that turn people into hulking four-hundred-pound monsters?

Speaking of food, and in very much the same vein Food for the Thoughtless reviews a book called The Food of a Younger Land. The book explores American cuisine before the advent of the interstate highway system, fast food, and chain restaurants. The review is so enticing I intend to snatch the book from the Pio Pico/Koreatown branch of the library as soon as it arrives. (How much do I love "Pio Pico" and "Koreatown" mashed together? There are so many countries in our country...)

Staying on the nostagia stick. The anniversary of D-Day is coming on June 6th. I become a puddle of mush whenever I see the vets who participated interviewed. Just before D-Day the Allies took Rome. Something I did not know until recently was that a segregated battalion of Japanese-Americans, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, took part in the the invasion of Italy. A documentary will be released soon about their battles and bravery. Check it out.


Quote: Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it.
William Shakespeare
Coriolanus

Music: John C. Clark plays guitar...dazzling...

Lunch Break

Photo is of downtown Los Angeles and the snowy San Gabriel mountains.

Quote: I talked to Jeremy on the phone, and he told me that he discovered that he had a very high level of mercury. So my understanding is that he is leaving show business to pursue a career as a thermometer.

David Mamet on HBO star Jeremy Piven leaving his Broadway revival of " Speed the Plow.


F.Y.I.: Piven's role on Entourage is based on real life Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel, brother of real life incoming chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.


Bubble Heads:What throws me about pieces like this: Who saw the housing bubble coming? is that the answer so simple: Anyone with a lick of common sense.

One of the reasons I even give loopy conspiracy theories at least a mental try out is - believe it or not - faith in people. Example: I do not believe Alan Greenspan is this stupid: ...Greenspan continued to deny the possibility of a housing bubble...he said that any comparison between the housing market and a stock market bubble was "rather a large stretch." No it wasn't. At all. It was obvious. So Greenspan either is that stupid, or he was a willing player in the game of inflating the economy recklessly until 2008....

We was robbed! A.P. makes case for USC being A.P. national champs.

Music: Ave Maria on Classical Guitar.