The toothiest thing I saw today.

You may have received this in the mail from a major health insurance provider:

The Beav!

Cute. Beaver. Teeth. Ok.

Then you open it up and:

Better? More like MURDER!

The horror!!

That beaver is sure to fall to the grips of evolution now. Pretty sure he cannot swing an ax.

The Sickest thing I saw today.

I left my liberal nest in Minneapolis for my home suburb of Eagan on the 4th of July.

Eagan is a nice middle to upper-middle class 2nd ring suburb that is home to offices of several major companies, including the headquarters of West Publishing, Old Country Buffet, U-Line shipping products and Northwest Airlines plus outposts of Coca Cola, Tastee Bread, Unisys, EcoLab, and every big box chain store one could name.

Guess which company had the most American flags out for the holiday:

Why it was the world's largest defense contractor Lockheed Martin.

Fantastic.

The Desperate Time-iest Thing I Saw Today

There are a lot of foreclosed and abandoned houses in my neighborhood and around the country- unfortunately.

And people have been scrounging around for metals of value too, sometimes going so far as to break into construction sites and empty homes to cut out the copper pipes.

Sometimes the results are explosive.

The abandoned house that sits where I pick up the bus had this sign in the window:


I am not sure who hung it- the thieves who took the pipes or the bank that probably has ownership of the property. Maybe the people who lost the house took the pipes when they left?

Sigh.

The Plain Stupidest Thing I saw today.

This incident occurred whilst I was transferring buses downtown on a lighty snowy day last week.

It was a gorgeous morning, cold, light glittery snow falling with the sun peaking out around the skyline.

Ah.

It was also hella slippery because there is ice everywhere hiding under that glittery snowfall.

I stopped at the lightrail tracks over to my waiting bus because the lightrail train was already dinging away at the station, calling out "Look out, I am a big train and I am moving now."

A young man who apparently does not speak lightrail train came rushing up behind me:



I literally screamed! He ran out right in front of that train to get to a bus that was waiting at a stoplight for the train to pass. I am sorry, but what a self-centered idiot!

In his leap to beat the train, he could have slipped and fell and really been clobbered by that train...or the train might not have been able to stop..wait...one should just ALWAYS assume that the train will not be able to stop!

PLUS, the guy got on a bus to the University, and at that time of day those buses come about once every 3 minutes.

After the train passed, I crossed the tracks and got on the same bus the guy got on. I stood in front of him in the aisle fuming. I could not decide what to say to him. I could have just said, "Good thing you risked your life and the mental health of that train driver to get on this bus that is still stuck at the friggin' stoplight!" or "You are a f-in idiot for running in front of a MOVING TRAIN!".

Of course, being a Minnesotan (see #6 at this link), I did not drudge up the courage to directly confront him before he hopped off on the West Bank campus. I really need to shake off that part of my Minnesotan-ness.