Lucky we to once again have the talents of writer/designer/pub quizzer Scott Turner on this page.
Greetings, Pub Quiz Bonus Returners…
A few things this week I just can't figure out:
AIG got $170 or 180 billion in federal bailout
money. The controversial bonuses were $165 million — less than one
percent. Rather than all of these contortionist moves to recoup the
bonus money — taxes, lawsuits, pleadings on bended knees — can't the Geithners, Bernankes and Franks just, you know, demand one-percent back? One frakkin' percent?
hexxes, tears and the stinkeye — things can't help but look up.
Speaking of AIG's bailout money, why isn't Barney Frank — who made a big deal and justifiable deal out of Citi spending $400 million to slap their dopey name on the Mets' new stadium — not shooting the same stinkeye AIG's way? AIG handed $8 billion to the British bank Barclays, who's also paying $400 million to slap their dopey name on Bruce Ratner's proposed basketball arena here in Brooklyn. Or, if you prefer, why is U.S. bailout money going to a British bank that participated in the slave trade, supported South African apartheid, helped the Nazis freeze French Jews' money during WWII, bankrolled Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe and was an enabler for the Congo civil war and is paying $400 million to slap their dopey name on Bruce Ratner's proposed basketball arena here in Brooklyn?
Why didn't the t.v. show Life on Mars garner enough viewers to keep its New York 1973 head off the Nielsen
ratings chopping block. Clever show, great actors, compelling stories,
social commentary, funny lines, and groundbreaking. Okay, I know the
answer to this one: it's not a reality show about models in kitchens
getting screamed at by a master chef while he's swapping wives with a
nanny on an island in Borneo staffed with apprentices trying to win a record contract.
…not so much with the standing-a-chance.
How come, when
we pass someone on the street and our eyes meet, we often make that
pursed-lip/tough-up face. It's like we're saying "yes, we must
acknowledge each other, it's a tough task but here we are knowing what
the other is going through and it's not your fault or mine, I blame
society and you're probably a good person so I don't blame you and
we're caught in this conundrum of confused confrontation but we're
bearing up all the same, good work"? Next time I'm just saying "good
morning."
face it — saying hello has become a really tough task
Why don't autumn leaves in New York city turn colors 'til November these days, and why aren't there any buds on the trees, even though it's now officially springtime?
Are there really very few people that don't know about this two albums: Ali Farka Touré's Niafunke and The Levellers' Letters from the Underground?
It's a good thing CD players are sealed shut, 'cause these two discs
would go flying out, scaring the dogs and putting gashmarks in the
walls around here, I've been playing them so much.
How come the Mets' owners are disconnected from the human condition in such an imbecilic and soul-masticating fashion?
Why is healthy food expensive and crappy food cheap? Okay, that's solidly rhetorical, but still…
And, bringing us full circle, why were the AIG bonuses unassailable
because they were part of some inviolate contract, but the Big Three
car companies were told to renegotiate contracts with their blue-collar
assembly line workers if they wanted some of that yummy-good TARP money?
AIG's Hank Greenberg, a UAW member. Contracts are contracts, except when they're not.
Luckily for you, these are not the questions I'll be asking at this Thursday's Rocky Sullivan's Pub Quiz. No, these are left for me to consider from deep in the inner recesses here at Pub Quiz Actual.
But if you can shed some light on these issues of the day, let me know. It is, after all, the Season of Renewal.