Into the Deep End
A madness has swept through the land. As I drive across Los Angeles every day from one end to the other to get to lacrosse practice I literally watch the gas station employees changing the signs to reflect the constantly rising prices. I'm not sure whether it's the so-called economic crisis, the government's "response" to it, or all the talk about it in the media, it basically comes down to the fact that people aren't buying enough. So the answer, of course, is everybody has to go out and buy more stuff, except that people don't have enough money. Other people are selling their stocks and are opting instead to keep their money in safe places, which causes the value of the money to go down. So you either spend all your money on crap and have none, or you hang on to your money while it becomes worthless. Meanwhile, Starbucks has become a perfect symbol of the whole sorry mess. Folks have finally woken up to the fact that neither the hype nor the coffee nor the faux Italian labels are worth what you pay for them. One thing's sure, double mocha caffe lattes will never be a fuel alternative.
posted by John M Crowther @ 7:51 AM
8 Comments:
You say “one thing's sure, double mocha caffe lattes will never be a fuel alternative.” How do you know?! It’s Liberal pessimism such as this which is responsible for the decline of our once great democracy. If our scientists, the best in the world, can turn corn as high as an elephant’s eye into Ethanol who says we can’t turn a doppio espresso into gasoline. (Some of the espressos I’ve been forced to drink at pseudo-intellectual dinner parties already tasted like motor oil. Light a match to it and all the phony Liberals drinking it would’ve exploded.) I’m not a Democrat –did you guess?-- but I agree with one of them who says “yes, we can, yes, we can.” Yes, we can turn every damn Starbucks on the corner into an Exxon station.
Bravo John. Bello. Che Dio ti benedica. Da un Conquistatore di Orizzonti ad un altro.
Robert
Hey, Robert, what the hell is “un Conquistatore di Orizzonti”? I was a choir boy once so I know a little Latin. Are you saying that John is like Cortes lording it over the Aztecs on the horizon or what? As far as I know John never hurt a fly. I don’t get it.
Da un Conquistatore di Orizzonti ad un altro. Translation: From one Conqueror of Horizons to another. Grazie, Roberto. I recommend Robert's funny and delightful blog to you all:
www.robertbrodiebooth.blogspot.com
Titled An Englishman in Rome, it's really more ab outhis dog Jump.
Hey Mr. Mann, anything's possible, I suppose, but by my math-challenged calculation it would cost $384 worth of latte grandes to fill up the tank of my Nissan Sentra. Of course, we may be headed that direction with gas if you conservanazis have your way.
Hey John, I still don’t get it. I know I sound like a dope but “a conqueror of horizons” can mean a lot of things. In bed, in the sky, on a piece of paper? Is he saying you went from being a Don Juan to Charles Lindberg to Leonardo Da Vinci? Wow! Please explain.
I only translated it from the Italian. You'll have to ask him what he meant.
Great cartoon John! PS Why are they still making these gas guzzlers when there's so much better more fuel efficient technology around?
If you go to Robert Brodie Booth’s website, as John suggests, you’ll see a watercolor emblem “conquistatori di orizzonti,” or “conquerors of horizons.” It reminds me of that lovely song Jeannette MacDonald sang in the train in an early sound Lubitsch musical “Monte Carlo,” the DVD of which is finally available.
Beyond the blue horizon
Waits a beautiful day
Goodbye to things that bore me
Joy is waiting for me
I see a new horizon
My life has only begun
Beyond the blue horizon
Lies a rising sun.
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