20,000 Leagues

Continuing the baby image bloc here at The Drama: Ryder, the cutest office mascot in Florida.

The US boasts of seemingly endless expansion of individual productivity levels. The US also cautions against work hours lost due to Web surfing and e-mail. I quote Colonel Potter: Balderdash! I say: More babies and dogs in offices. You'll find people happier and more productive, even those who Web surf. They'll be more frazzled, yes; but ultimately happier and more productive. This is my theory. I leave it to the rest of you to conduct the research.

Personal trivia time.

The first 45 record I bought: "Don't You Want Me, Baby" by the Human League. I recently reacquired this via iTunes, a service for which I apparently have established no criteria for spending decisions (though I haven't purchased an iPod).

Favorite 45 to remember I once owned: "Pac-Man Fever" by Buckner and Garcia.

The sound of Pac-Man eating dots makes me think of Fozzie Bear's "Wokka! Wokka! Wokka!" And have you ever noticed the similarity between Fozzie's attire and Al Bundy's fashion on Married, With Children? I think the Muppet Show's entire goal was to make children more comfortable around people their parents distrusted: figures in pork pie hats and fat-knot ties, jazz musicians, cocaine-shredded drummers, sexually insatiable swine, and foreigners (think: Swedish Chef) with a flimsy hold on the language. And did it work? Seems so. I know very few intolerant bastards who watched the Muppet Show.

Then again, I don't keep intolerant bastards in my life, so I wouldn't actually know if they watched the Muppet Show.

I wonder what sort of culture our current tv- and groin-fearing but gun-loving culture will produce. Arguably, whatever the Japanese produce, for we've outsourced much of our child's visual stimuli to Japanese broadcasts. Having spent time in Tokyo, I'm not sure I'd qualify Americans as ready for the future.
-cK