Monday, September 25, 2006

the addicted american...

An op-ed comic in this morning's Richmond Times Dispatch shows a man hugging a gas-pump while exclaiming "I can guzzle again!" -- noted mentally as I filled up before driving back to D.C. just after noon, and gas was indeed down to $2.05 for the regular. Transitory relief though it may be, I am nonetheless dismayed by the prospect of our having learned nothing from the last five years.

Sidebar: Pretty damned convenient the timing of the price-drop too, don't you think?

Meanwhile, Al Franken replayed in its entirity Barack Obama's energy speech given at The George Washington University last week. In it he pointedly uses the phrase "Americans addicted to oil."

And last night, Bravo replayed NBC's series pilot "Studio 60," the opening scene of which Judd Hirsch goes on, Howard Beale-like, about the vast television wasteland, likening the TV remote to a crack pipe. I saw this as my 85 year-old father was flipping around and away from my program of choice, the New England Patriots playing flat against the Broncos.

I appreciate there is longevity in my genes, but my father with a remote in hand is a monumental pain in the ass.

Good to escape, even on a Monday, but as I write this I can't help but remember my last visit with my physician, who, although informally, diagnosed me with having "I T addiction."

At least the television is off.

6 comments:

Spared said...

We are indeed addicted here. I didn't notice until I had to return to the States. I really miss walking tot he cafe to get an expresso and spending hours just talking and laughing, oblivious to how long a walk it was back home or what show I may be missing on television. Petrol in Europe is way more expensive than it is here, by comparison and it forces people to make healthier choices regarding their life. Forces them to prioritize... and unfortunately, as gas prices go down people will settle back into old routines, despite the cries once heard that change was needed. Short sighted, short attention spans, short term memories...Not exactly what makes us great...

Naahm Deplume said...

it's "espresso," Claudine.

Naahm Deplume said...

And, G, whydaya think I was biking in the District? Imagine all the moolah I'd be saving now, eh?

As for conspiracy, I wish I could believe you (and I wish I got the memo from my comrades in the VRWC in time so I coulda invested and made a boatload of moolah).

Naahm Deplume said...

Also, my TV went off, somewhere in the 3rd quarter (whimper, whimper).

Barking Up Trees said...

personally i think "expresso"'s pretty funny...

Spared said...

Ya, it's pretty funny. Even funnier that it was the dorky Americans in Argentina that were heard pronouncing it that way even after being corrected a million time. Lord knows you can't teach a stupid American dog new tricks.

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/expresso.html