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Thursday, September 22, 2011

Selling My Books on the Streets of Brooklyn 9/22

One has to laugh at congress bringing Google executive Eric Schmidt before a committee investigating the company as a possible monopoly. The august body is a monopoly itself - of waste, spending tax payer cash as if it were Monopoly money. I've been using Google since I first came to the worldwide web in 1999. I love it. I've tried other search engines: Yahoo, MSM, Altavista, Mamma, and found Google superior. I don't know how or why it is, and I don't care. Just leave it alone. The only other search engine that has come close is Bing, but since I have my pages set up with Google and since it works so well, I don't want to change. I don't understand how it could be considered a monopoly when there are so many alternatives. Maybe it's just another example of congress eager to penalize those who do well, to level the playing field. They make me sick.
Last night I tuned in to a local PBS station for the season premiere of my favorite show, MI5, which chronicles the work of the team in charge of protecting the UK homeland. It is as well written as any show in the history of television. It concentrates more on suspense than action. Although it does not lack the latter, it doesn't go as far as the exciting 24. It's a lot more plausible. It is shot beautifully in sharp, vivid colors. The only fault I find is its occasional anti-American and anti-Israeli bias. Americans are hilariously referred to by the crew as "our cousins." One of the great strengths of the series is the way its stars leave, and only one has returned. And it all comes without commercial interruption. At least it did until last night, when the dreaded pledge break reared its ugly head. The hosts intimated that there wasn't enough money to buy the entire season seven. I wasn't tempted to fork over any cash. In the age of cable, PBS has become almost irrelevant. There are thousands of alternatives out there and anything that PBS does is available elsewhere. Tax payer subsidies for it should be ended immediately. PBS can be funded by Sesame Street, a muti-million dollar enterprise that owes its existence to the station. All ten seasons of MI5 are available on DVD. If it isn't shown on PBS any more, I'll rent it at Netflix. Gimme a break with the pledge breaks.
An 84-year-old vet has donated books to me several times. He picks them up at the VA. Lately his underwear has climbed well above his belt line. I don't have the heart to say anything. Maybe he is so grateful to be alive at this stage that he just doesn't care about such a thing. Today he gave me three romance novels, two of which Herbie, one of my most faithful regulars, bought. He'd been searching for anything by Cynthia Freeman, who writes about Jewish families. He now has Seasons of the Heart to enjoy. Thanks, guys.
Read Vic's stories, free: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/

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