The $1.29 potato and $4 gas

I'm sure you've seen them, hermetically sealed Russet potatoes that come out of the microwave almost as good as the baking potatoes done in the oven. They are not shriveled or puckered. They are a taste sensation, and travel well. I took them to work, when I had a job, and had a tasty microwave potato, sometimes topped with chili. Until this week, you could buy one of these puppies for 79 cents. OK, so that's the price of a pound of baking potatoes, but I was employed and had the extra 79 cents. Apparently, the wrapped potato is a popular item because today, I discovered that these potatoes are now $1.29 each, almost twice as much a pound of Russet potatoes. And if you want a similarly wrapped sweet potato, it will set you back $2.29 each. Even if I was still employed, I wouldn't spend $1.29 on a single potato, wrapped or not. Now I have tried to duplicate the same effect by enrobing a potato in plastic wrap before microwaving. But the result was not as good. If you have one of those seal-a-meal devices that were so popular a few years ago, you may want to try sealing your potato before microwaving. Or you can do what I now do, bake them the old fashion way: in the oven.

I was thinking about complaining, but realize it's useless. I promise you the high cost of gas will be cited as the reason why in one week, the price of a convenience item jumped from 70 cents to $1.29.

Like banging my head on a wall

I wish one of two things would happen: Either Mel Gibson stops making movies or I stop watching them. The only saving grace is that I don't pay at the box office, I pay for the cable, and then I see his movie and hate myself in the morning (usually it doesn't take that long).

This time it was Apocalypto, which has to be one of the dumbest running, jumping, falling down movies ever made. On this side, we have the good Mayans, who make babies and jokes and in the other corner, the bad guys who kidnap people and sell them into slavery. Our hero, Jaguar Paw escapes the slave market and is pursued back to his own forest for the next 40 minutes by the bad guys. Naturally, he prevails, I mean, he IS, the good guy. Early in the movie, Jaguar Paw lowers his heavily pregnant wife and toddler son to a hole or a dry well, or some other inconvenient location. Once their life line is cut, and it is, they are helpless to escape. See, this is a very deep hole, which, of course, immediately fills when it begins to rain. Mrs. Jaguar Paw could have treaded water until she floated to the top, or used outcroppings to stand around and wait to float to the top, but she chooses to nearly drown, and then, balancing on a rock, with her son on her shoulders, she gives birth--I kid you not--and all three survive when pop shows up just in time to haul them out.

Jaguar Paw has kill three of his five pursuers and races out of the forest to the sea he is saved by the timely arrival of the Spanish. The bad guys have pursued him all day and all night without stopping but they are so dumb struck by the big ships that they all forget about Jaguar Paw. And that's how the movie ends, well, Jaguar Paw saves his family and they go deeper into the forest for "a new life."

Oh, yeah and the whole thing is done in Mayan. This film is neither interesting or educational. But who is the lunatic in this asylum: he who makes the crap or she who watches it?

I'm tired of Heather Mills

I've never been much of a Paul McCartney fan and so I have no vested interest in his ongoing break-up with Heather Mills--other than I wish they would get on with it already.

Mills simply does not know when to shut up. Apparently, their's was an unhappy union from the start. But, considering Heather had more to gain by becoming Lady McCartney, one can almost understand why she put up with him for four long years. I guess he needed viagra, as if he is the only man of his age to rely on pharmaceuticals for a stellar performance. Another of his great sins is that he admitted that he was partially to blame for the end of their marriage. Well, duh, isn't that always the way? Too bad Heather can't admit that maybe she had something to do with the end as well. However, Heather seems to be a spiteful bitch who wants to come out of this as a cross between Mother Theresa and Princess Diana. Not even her lawyers want to deal with her anymore--and lawyers will represent anyone as long as the legal bills are paid. Anyway, according to the British tabs, Lady McCartney has tapes of conversations with her then husband and at least one of her step-daughters. I guess wondering why she would tape them in the first place is useless. She keeps threatening to use these tapes in court, where I am sure they will have less of an inpact since she, or someone close to her, reveals the contents to the tabs. Heather, who made a name for herself by marrying Paul in the first place, wants to be known fort her charitable work--which apparently she cannot pursue until the financial settlement meets her needs. And that, apparently, is really what this is about. Heather wants money and lots of it, Paul would prefer to keep his money to himself. Meanwhile, Heather continues her assault on Paul's character, somehow convinced that the public who has lionized him for 40 years will suddenly change its mind. Yeah, when pigs fly.