More random than American Idol, anyway

Underneath the huge white letters of ZEN FOODS was a display of Freschetta frozen pizzas in a glass case. I bought two of them because I knew they were the right size to fit in my narrow freezer. Have you ever noticed how you couldn't fit a big frozen pizza in one of those side-by-side freezers?

OK, for one thing, Giant Food is the actual name of one of the supermarkets around here. I don't know who came up with the name or what that person had been smoking, but it remains Giant Food.

For another thing there are the good doughnuts. And they were calling to me across the Potomac. Right now there's a mixed dozen sitting in the front seat of my car because I had to park a block and a half away and it was raining when I carried the rest of the groceries in. I did get my required one hot glazed in addition to my dozen mixed, and I ate that one in the parking lot. In that way, my doughnut craving was satisfied.

Mmmmm.

Another thing I noticed: a couple of houses down my street somebody found a baby's pacifier on the sidewalk and stuck it on the fence, as I have seen happen to a single glove many times. Does anybody really think some mother is going to pick up that pacifier from a fence and give it to her child? There could be anthrax on it!

Oh, I like how the New York Times is calling the Himalayan Palm Civet a "cat" and NPR is calling it a "raccoon-dog". In any case, it seems that the latest theory is that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (that's SARS to you and me) sprung from the Civet while it was being killed as a rare edible delicacy somewhere in remotest China.

But seriously, last night on MSNBC I heard of an actual physician (an Indian gentleman) who seems to think that SARS came from outer space. Ooooooookay. You may wonder what I was doing watching MSNBC in the first place, which is a valid question.

See, my TiVo is messed up, so I was back to my channel flipping ways a few days ago when I discovered that MSNBC managed to lure Keith Olbermann back into its clutches. So I've tuned in to watch his show a couple of times. Because he snarks the news when appropriate, and I can't resist that.

And although I could fit more news in here, because the bandwidth is just endless, I'm going to spare you any more random things I've noticed over the past few days.

before - after