Michael Offutt's Blog, page 142

30 Rock wants you to know getting imprisoned in a sex dungeon is the worst it will get

Last week was so sad. We had "The Clone Wars" season 5 finale and the 30 Rock series finale. But alien/immortal Kenneth Parcell would want you to know that life doesn't get any worse for you if you've been locked up in someone's sex dungeon. So if that's your situation, it's okay to be pessimistic. But otherwise, you really have no excuse not to be optimistic about the present and the future.

Tina Fey is unquestionably brilliant. I mean she totally owned her role as Sarah Palin during the 2008 election year, appropriately shaming that dunce for such clangers as, "I can see Russia from my house." But aside from that, her splash on Saturday Night Live led to the writing and creation of one of my favorite series, not to mention the New York Times #1 bestseller Bossypants (which is incredibly funny btw). And by the end of "30 Rock," I not only concluded that it's a shining example of how a drop of speculative fiction can improve any tale, but that the immortal Kenneth Parcell is the allegorical stand in for fiction writers everywhere. It's almost like that "tug on the ear" thing that Carol Burnette is famous for doing. Kenneth Parcell was Tina Fey's "tug on the ear" to all of us out here in t.v. land to let you know "the characters you invent will be immortal, just like Kenneth Parcell."

For those of you who didn't watch 30 Rock...well, shame on you. It was really funny and had a lot of great moments. Here are some facts pulled from the 30 Rock Wiki:

Kenneth is a perpetually cheerful immortal NBC page from Georgia. He came from pig farmer stock, and his best friend is his mother.

Throughout the series, Kenneth's age is questioned. Sci-fi website io9 called him an alien (but I don't think he's an alien). Kenneth told Tracy and Jenna that he'd kept a bird for almost 60 years. He's snapped at Tracy before when he asked Jack if there was an age limit to being a page. Kenneth responded "Who said I've been alive forever?!" When Frank played an iPhone application that emitted a low-pitched sound only those over 40 could hear, Kenneth was in agony. We've seen Kenneth packing up a photo given to him by Fred Allen dated 1947 which reads "To Kenneth, you're the tops!" We've also seen a tombstone which shows Kenneth's birthday as May 27, 1781. He's also claimed that his parents at some point were technically brothers. Interesting, eh?

Kenneth also had quite a "coke" problem during his "Wall Street days." This is revealed to mean he used to work at Blockbuster Video and was addicted to Coca Cola around the time that the film Wall Street was popular on home video.

His personality is definitely religious (and he's part of a fire and brimstone church that has services in a basement). Kenneth also reveals that he has no political views since "choosing is a sin." Instead, he always submits write-in votes for God. According to Jack, these all count as Republican.

And let's not forget the most awesome moment in the series finale that shows you how strange Kenneth really is:

So here's my take: Kenneth is not an alien but just a really nerdy/geeky angel that's stuck here on earth and wants to control NBC. From the looks of the final panel above, that's exactly what he got. And maybe that's just the final validation I needed for my own story. If Tina Fey writes about weird angels, then it's okay for me to write about them too. And the characters I invent, just like Kenneth Parcell, will be immortal too.

Also: huge nerd props for featuring a Bespin Cloud car from Star Wars in the window behind Kenneth.

Have a great Tuesday.

The entire fight between Palpatine, Darth Maul, and Savage Opress should leave you awestruck

This weekend's season finale of The Clone Wars reminds me continuously why 1) I wish I had this kind of programming when I was a kid and 2) why Star Wars is so cool and can continuously reinvent itself. For those of you who have kept up with the storyline, Darth Maul and his apprentice/brother Savage Opress (it falls to him to continue the legacy of the lightsaber staff) have taken over Mandalor from Duchess Satine. Remember: Darth Maul only got cut in half when he battled Qui-Gon Jinn in Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. With the technology available in the Star Wars universe, he now has a cybernetic lower half that is hinted about via a belt of shiny illuminated buttons that girds his waist.

I first spoke of season 5 in this post located HERE . And as predicted in that post, my favorite scene happened in "The Lawless" which premiered this weekend.
Obi-Wan and Duchess Satine (the ruler of Mandalor)
have found themselves in this situation a lot.Season 5 Episode 16 called "The Lawless" ended with a spectacular lightsaber battle between Palpatine, Darth Maul, and Savage Opress. Needless to say, it did not go well for either of these upstarts. I had a few favorite lines, most of them spoken by Palpatine.

Palpatine: (Upon admitting that he is impressed with what Darth Maul has accomplished he hurls both him and his apprentice against the windows of the throne room cracking the transparisteel glass and says) "You have become a rival! (thus starting the lightsaber duel to the death).
Palpatine: (Upon killing Darth Maul's apprentice) "There is only one reality of the sith: there can only be two, and you have been replaced." At that point, he just cooks Darth Maul with force lightning which reminds one of the same treatment Luke Skywalker received at the hands of the Emperor in the film "Return of the Jedi."

A ton of things happened in this episode. Duchess Satine (who is in love with Obi-Wan and vice-versa and also a major character through at least three seasons) was imprisoned by Darth Maul who is now in control of the crime lord syndicate. She did manage to get a message off to Obi-Wan. Of course, Yoda and the Council of Jedi's can't do anything because Mandalor is a neutral territory, and the senate won't get involved in a territory that has openly declared it's neutrality. This doesn't stop Obi-Wan from going to the rescue. Already a great jedi by this point, Obi-Wan reminds us of why he's such a great hero and also, that he's not immune to love.  All is in vain because this happened (a difficult scene for those in love with the series):
I wanted to scream "Nooo! You can't kill Satine! You bastards!" I hate it when my favorite characters die.

So yeah, Darth Maul using a black lightsaber killed Satine right in front of Obi-Wan, and he couldn't save her (I think that's rather cool, because previously I'd only known of three colors for the lightsabers). It's also quite poetic because now Obi-Wan has lost two people he loved to Darth Maul (his former master went that way as well, and he couldn't save him either).

Obi-Wan also finds out who Duchess Satine's sister is (leader of the rebels on Mandalor). In a way, Mandalor is a mirror of the Old Republic's fate. It's completely overrun by criminals who ultimately are enslaved by the sith in the form of Darth Maul. Although by episode end, it's essentially headless as far as we know unless Darth Sidious wants to use Mandalor somehow in his plots within plots. By far the most spectacular part of the episode though (minus the emotional drama) is when Palpatine took out two powerful sith all by himself because he views them as rivals.

I love how the extensiveness of the universe that Lucas created essentially makes for infinite storylines with characters and villains from the original series popping up all over the place to give credit to what I'm watching.

Below in the 4 minute YouTube clip is the most exciting part of "The Lawless" in which you see the entire interaction between Darth Maul, his apprentice, and Darth Sidious (Palpatine). If hearing about the death of Duchess Satine didn't tug at your heart strings and make you fall madly in love with this cartoon series because of its emotional content, then the entire fight between Palpatine, Darth Maul, and Savage Opress should leave you awestruck  because this is a Saturday morning cartoon. Impressed? Nods head.
Are you watching "The Clone Wars?" If so, what have you thought thus far of season 5? Does the crispy clean super-detailed HD make you think "boy, kids sure have it nice these days with mp3 players, smart phones, and high definition so clear it's better than what we got in movies in the nineties).

Have a great Monday my writer friends.

A perfect rationale for eating cake on a Friday

NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM - I so fat.
Have a great weekend :)

Witch's Nocturne is more fun than 8 seconds on a bronco

"A handsome and likely intelligent guy, who wasn't my best friend and gay, was something of a unicorn in my life. So I maybe let my eyes linger a touch too long on the front of his pants as he approached. And my posture might've stiffened to let him know I was tall and lean, but still had enough curves to make driving dangerous--and fun."

                                                      -- Witch's Nocturne by E.J. Wesley

You know how agents and professional writing blogs are always telling you to write with voice? E.J. has got voice down. You can pick it up in that single paragraph, and it's like he picks you up and stuffs you into Jenny Moonsong's head. It's SO AWESOME.

I LOVE Witch's Nocturne. Finished it in two lunch breaks at work. E.J. brings alive the best aspects of a paranormal hunter by giving us a character that is equally cool to the well-known Anita Blake that we saw in Laurel K. Hamilton's earlier books, Burnt Offerings and my favorite, Obsidian Butterfly. Here's one of my favorite lines from Hamilton (compare the voice with Penny Moonsong):

“Accidental sex. He made it sound like I fell down, and there just happened to be an erection in the way.”
—Anita Blake, Incubus Dreams by Laurell K. Hamilton

Jenny Moonsong on the outside, would not fit your typical Texan. But on the inside she's a gun totin', ass-kickin, mohawk wearin', tomahawk totin' female with size 11 boots (everything is big in Texas). Along for the ride is Marshal and the above tall, dark, and handsome stranger who just happens to be a warlock.

Because the story is short, I'm not going to spoil the plot. But if you're a fan of dark paranormal stories that don't shy away from blood, language, and violence all in the name of putting dirty bad nasties (DBN's) back into the grave, then E.J. is the author for you. Witch's Nocturne is the second book in the Moonsong trilogy and I can't wait for the third. I've seen werewolves, and now I've seen a powerful coven of witches summoning dark powers under a blood red moon. What's next E.J.?

I give this novella five stars, because I can't wait until the next installment. Witch's Nocturne is more fun than 8 seconds on a bronco at a championship rodeo. And you can take that all the way to the roundup.

If you are intrigued, visit E.J. at his blog HERE. You can also pick up a copy of Witch's Nocturne by visiting his book page HERE wherein you will find links to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other fine online outlets. For 99 cents, you should own this book out of principle. Seriously. Cheapest entertainment ever.

*****
Ellie Garratt allowed me to post on her blog yesterday. If you have time, please go and visit. I'd love to have some more comments to read. 

Drawing inspiration from science fiction

The military is doing all kinds of projects that seem to draw inspiration from science fiction. On an article I read on Forbes the other day, I saw exoskeletons that looked right out of Halo, tiny flying robots, a super-fast running robot, computer-controlled sharks, super-sonic planes, augmented reality contact lenses, flying HUMVs that can transform and go underwater, and planes that don't ever need to land. You can view the whole photo essay at the link above. All of those things were cool, but by far the coolest thing (for me) was the shape-shifting robot pictured above. Sure, it's a long way from the T1000 in Terminator 2. This is a picture of their latest experiment of taking a material that can transition between liquid and solid based on pressure. In their words, "The resulting slushbot may someday be able to slip between cracks or holes in a barrier and re-form on the other side."

How long do you think it will be before someone builds one of these:
Do you think it's weird that so much science fiction seems to become science fact at some point?

I for one kind of think it's a little strange. Fun...but strange.

Have a great Wednesday.

I'm ashamed to say that I love #YOLO because I know someone it describes

This is just awesome proof that Adam Levine can take anything to the top of the charts. But is it a surprise that "You Only Live Once" (featured on Saturday Night Live this weekend) really resonates with an educated America today? Nope. If you have not seen this video, take the time to watch it. It's frickin' awesome.But what is "You Only Live Once" really describing? Irrational fear in America? Not hard to believe when 1 in 5 American adults share the following 8 crazy things:They are unaware who the U.S. declared independence from in 1776. When asked by Gallup, 1 in 5 adults provided answers like Russia, China, and Mexico.A Northwestern University poll says that 20% of Americans believe that the Sun revolves around the Earth. I guess the orbits of the celestial bodies is still up for debate in some parts.A fifth of our country still does not use the internet (Pew research center).1 in 5 believe the Apocalypse will happen within their lifetime (Time Magazine poll).Believe Marijuana is more harmful than alcohol. This simply isn't true.According to the Consumer Federation of American and Financial Planning, 1 in 5 Americans believe the Lottery is a sound financial investment.Do you believe in alien abductions? 20% of America fears those aliens and their anal probes.Cannot find the United States on a map. Have you seen this pageant video? Let this lovely contestant for Miss Teen USA give you faith in how she feels America could solve this dilemma.I'm ashamed to say that I love "#YOLO" because I know someone it describes. And I think if you look around, so do you.

AROUND THE BLOGGING UNIVERSE: Congratulations to the brilliant David Powers King on sending Woven to a publisher (Finally)! I've been reading about this story for over a year now, and I just want to read it. I'm gonna get the chance soon, and I'm so excited. You can read about his publishing deal HERE.Elise Fallson is the cutest writer I have ever seen make a video. You've got to watch how she does it on her website HERE. And she's got another blogfest coming up where she flexes some artistic muscle. There's only 22 entries and there needs to be more because all you have to do is caption two comic strips that she'll post on her blog on February 18th. Go sign up now at this LINK .Author Joy Campbell is doing a Celebrate Love Renewed blogfest on February 14th. Read about it HERE.Author Andrew Leon is running a Great Chocolate Contest in which you write a story that takes place in the imagination room of his book, House on the Corner. For those of you who haven't read it, I'll summarize (because he doesn't do it on his blog): The imagination room is like the ultimate holodeck on Star Trek. If you L.A.R.P., you would get dressed up with your buddies, go to the imagination room, and boom be transported to whatever fantasy you wanted, whether it's fighting AT-AT's on Hoth or hanging out with the Cullens from Twilight. The thing is, you don't gain any additional powers. It's you and your costume. So you could make this fantasy as dangerous or as fun as you want. Andrew just wants you to take a character that discovers the imagination room above the garage that sits out back of this creepy old house and go to town. Read about his fun prizes HERE. The deadline is February 6th but author Briane Pagel claims he has it all sewn up. I guess we shall seeAuthor E.J. Wesley is going on a huge book tour starting February 4th for the latest Moonsong book. I'm almost done with it (it's short) and will post a review for you soon. But E.J. is giving away cash and books and gift certificates to a book depository for international people. It's like Christmas in February. Go check it out HERE. Have a great Tuesday.No thanks needed for showering your life with more Adam Levine.

My expose on how simply liking Adam Levine reveals six truths about myself

Today I am taking part in the Please Allow me to Re-Introduce Myself blogfest as hosted by the following bloggers:
Stephen TrempElise FallsonCarolyn BrownTo quote Elise in describing this blogfest, it is my opportunity to "tell us something interesting about yourself. It doesn't have to be very long, just something you haven't shared with your readers in a while. It can be anything. It can be about writing. Or blogging."
So as of the last six months, I've kinda had this obsession with Maroon 5's lead singer, Adam Levine, and I really just want to use this blogfest as an excuse to post pictures of him. But, I will relate it somewhat to my books because I'm going to work on a picture of Dylan who's a character in my novel, and I'm totally going to draw Adam Levine in that role. Why you may ask? Because I like to live in pretend-land, and I can. Like seriously guys...I CAN DO THIS. And it's gonna totally ROCK. I just haven't decided if I want to make it color or pencil? I've been debating that all week. But I do know he'll be looking down the barrel of a gun, because Dylan likes to shoot people, and he's really frickin' good at that. First gratuitous picture of Adam Levine. Don't worry
there's more coming your way below.So yeah, in just one paragraph you now know 1) I like Adam Levine 2) He would play Dylan in my fantastical crazy f*cked up mind where I imagine someone in Hollywood actually thinks my story is worth a film adaptation 3) I dig Maroon 5 and want to see them play Mandalay Bay in March (well maybe you didn't quite get that, but I so want to make it happen) 4) I can draw and there are times when I think I can do faces pretty good 5) I'm really indecisive because how often is it that one gets stuck on whether it should be pencil (black and white) or color and 6) I think guns look cool and even though I'm a democrat, all the coolest characters in my book go around with HUGE guns and kill people with them (but in the immortal words of Arnold Schwarzenegger from "True Lies" they are ALL bad.) And I'm being completely serious...all the bad guys in my book that end up getting shot had it comin'. Thank you Saturday Night LIVE for rekindling the thoughts that had kinda faded...ya know? (You just learned another thing about me...I watch SNL). I've so been re-introduced. Second gratuitous picture of Adam. I have to admit ladies, he pulls off the tats. A black and white picture. So help me decide? Should my drawing be black and white or color?I hope you enjoyed this fantastic expose on how simply liking Adam Levine reveals six truths about myself. Now THAT is brevity.Have a great Monday.

Please let the rumors about J.J. Abrams be true

When I read yesterday that Disney was close to securing their new director for the much anticipated seventh installment of the Star Wars series, I was intrigued. When I discovered that this mysterious person may in fact be J.J. Abrams, I had this reaction:
I can wear spandex!OMG I wanted to say "THIS IS THE MOST AMAZEBALLS THING I"VE HEARD IN LIKE EVER!!!"

This is just the present I wanted one week after "Fringe" (the genius series by J.J. Abrams) came to an end. Everything that J.J. touches is just better. He's kind of like nutella. You can put nutella on anything and it becomes instantly better (well most things).
Just look at Star Trek. I know there are some that think that the series isn't better under J.J., but I think those people are dumb. After the Voyager returned from the Delta quadrant with all of that Borg technology, there was nothing left to do. They had quantum torpedoes and ablative hull shielding that could withstand basically anything. And Janeway destroyed the Borg Queen in one of the most spectacular and well written time-travel episodes ever. So yeah...it was too good, and really left nowhere to grow unless Star Trek wanted to go up against super villains on an every day basis which would diminish all of that amazing technology and get boring (not to mention silly and expensive).
So J.J. rebooted the series by having his own bit of time travel (which is entirely in the spirit of Star Trek). And (spoiler alert) he blew up Vulcan, thereby creating an alternate timeline in which anything can happen.
Huzzah for J.J.! You are so smart.
So what will Mr. Abrams bring to Star Wars? Well I'm thinking we won't see anymore Jar Jar Binks. What we will see are glorious lightsaber battles because J.J. understands Star Wars. He knows that every guy in the audience got wet when Darth Maul's dual lightsaber blazed to life in his hands. I think we'll see new force powers too. And maybe he'll explain where the purple lightsaber came from, eh? That would be really cool.
Thank you Disney. I trust that you will create a whole new generation of Star Wars fans. And that, my friends, is a good thing to do. :)
Have a great weekend.

Dwayne Johnson is the most interesting man in the world

If he were to mail a letter without postage, it would still get there.

When it is raining, he is thinking of something sad.

He is fluent in all languages, including three that only he speaks.
The most interesting man in the world? NopeDos Equis would have you thinking that some old fart is the most interesting man in the world. I, however, disagree, and I'm here to make my case to you ladies (and the occasional guy that likes action films and visits my blog).
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is the most interesting man in the world.Dwayne Johnson is "The Rock." He brought us "the smackdown" and was great calling out people from the squared circle by using the words, "Candy Ass." That and he's just HUGE. Seriously, we all know that as mighty as Chuck Norris is, Dwayne Johnson could own Chuck in his prime (sorry Chuck).
Dwayne Johnson dressed up as "The Hulk" for Halloween. There's
not a whole lot of people that could pull that off. Like seriously.When Bin Laden was killed, Dwayne Johnson was one of the first people in the world to know about it and tweeted as much before anyone knew anything. In case you were, ahem, living under a rock and didn’t know, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson tweeted at 10:24 pm Eastern time (more than an hour before Obama’s speech, which was at 11:35 pm Eastern) that he, “Just got word that will shock the world–LAND OF THE FREE…home of the brave. DAMN PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN.”

That's 'cause his cousin is a Navy Seal.

He's one of the few people that actually make a successful transition from sports entertainment to Hollywood superstar.

And now I know he trolls DeviantArt (which is AWESOME). How do I know? Because io9 just clued me in that he's producing a movie exclusively based off of this picture by artist Alex Panagopoulos:
I myself have often looked to illustration to get the old muse flowing. And apparently so does Dwayne! Who knew I had so much in common with "The Rock?" The idea behind this soon-to-be-movie is what do Teddy Bears do when the children who own them fall asleep? I think it's kind of brilliant.
And if you didn't think that was cool enough, Dwayne is going to be Hercules in a new high budget feature film directed by Brett Ratner slated for August 2014 that will TOTALLY redeem those awful Clash of the Titans reboots.

Here's the synopsis taken from io9's own page:

Fourteen-hundred years ago, a tormented soul walked the Earth that was neither man nor god. Hercules, powerful son of the god king Zeus, received nothing but suffering his entire life. After twelve arduous labors and the loss of his family, this dark, world-weary soul turned his back on the gods, finding his only solace in bloody battle. Over the years he warmed to the company of six similar souls, their only bond being their love of fighting and the presence of death. These men and woman never question where, why, or whom they go to fight; only how much they will be paid. Knowing this, the King of Thrace has hired these mercenaries to train his men to become the greatest army of all time. Hercules begins to question King Cotys' motives when he takes his army out to battle and sees them practice on innocent men, women, and children of their neighbors. Deep in his soul something stirs, but is it enough to stop a mad king and his army of the damned from marching across Greece - or even Olympus itself?!

So there you have it. My case for why Dwayne Johnson is the most interesting man in the world.

As for Hercules are you #OMGEXCITED? Okay, I admit, it could be cheesy. But I see all of his movies anyway. He's kinda like the new Ahnold (I saw all his movies too until he starred in that weird one where he was pregnant). I think his career ended with that movie (whatever it was called).
Have a great Thursday.

The poster child for the devaluation of the dollar is Mac and Cheese

The poster child for the devaluation of the American dollar is Mac and Cheese.
I'm not going to be politically correct when I say, "Everyone knows that mac and cheese is poor people food." Now that I've gotten that out, I just want to say I've eaten a lot of it in my life, it's extremely affordable, and offers little nutritional value and mostly fat, fat, and more fat. That's why it tastes good. Does America have an obesity epidemic? Why yes it does. But I'm not here to talk about that, or why Americans buy so much of this stuff...no, I'm going to rant about how mac and cheese is now the staple in fine food restaurants. It seems that fine food establishments (consider steak houses like Flemings for example) all now have gourmet mac and cheese offerings on their menu. I've ordered quite a few of these. You know what the secret is? Some off-the-collar ingredient that they already have to order "in bulk" to cover their steaks and to stuff other things with. Outback is now offering "Mac and cheese with lobster" which will just be mac and cheese with chopped up lobster bits that they couldn't use on anything else. But you can see this crap everywhere. "Mac and cheese with truffle infusion."
"Oh you just took mac and cheese and chopped up mushrooms in it. How much you charging? $15 bucks a side dish? And you got some bread crumbs to top that with?! Baby sign me the hell UP!"
Another great restaurant here in SLC that I like to visit called Zy has some snooty mac and cheese dish. Again, it has prosciutto (or ham to the layman) or something like that stuffed in it to justify the expense. 
It reminds me a lot of house flippers. You know the kind (I'm getting increasingly frustrated by them, because I'm looking for a good value in a house to own). These house flippers are like vultures, pounding on doors, running teams of people, pressuring owners to sell, and scooping up properties the instant they go to short sale so a Joe like me who has a day job and just wants to own a house...if I'm a second late...the value is gone with five bids on it.
So what do I have a beef about with house flippers...the fact that they think they can throw one ingredient in a pile of crap and increase the price by $100,000. Seriously. This seems to be the case on a house I was interested in. Seized for $140,000...new coat of paint, new carpet, granite countertops and new cabinets and that's it. No landscaping or nothing. And boom back on the market in four weeks for $240,000. WTF?!
All while the houses around it are in the $140,000 range. How does that even work?Imagine going to a nice brunch with your significant other. The waiter comes out and charges you for bottled water when all they are doing is filling up the same bottle in the back with tap water. Then they present their new $15.00 specialty. "Will you be having the Charms de la Luck?" Sure you say and order it. They bring out a bowl of Lucky Charms cereal, only instead of the normal marshmallows in it, they've cut up a package of Circus Peanuts.
I would scream!!!
But that seems to be happening all over the United States. It's called ripping people off, and I'm getting sick of it. Where is the value? I don't think it exists anymore (yes, I know this is a pessimistic attitude).
As authors we work (sometimes for up to a year or longer) to produce a story that costs $2.99 to buy. THAT's a frickin' value. America used to be about value. Now it just seems more and more (outside of authors) that everything is about ripping the next guy off, about taking a shortcut, about hiding expenses or charging outrageous amounts for something that should be really cheap to produce. Cheap ass work. The person who did this on a new house should be
caned like they do to litterbugs in Singapore because cement is the most
expensive ingredient, and they knew it would hold up for two years. By
that time, they are long gone, and you are stuck with a bucket of crap.I see it in concrete driveways that start to flake after just two years. Do you know why concrete flakes? It's because the person that poured it shorted you on your cement (an ingredient in concrete that costs the most money).
I was in a house recently rewiring a light switch for my job. I took off the cover plate (which was mysteriously cracked-like why would that happen?) and discovered that a three-box was actually a two-box and a one-box wedged together and all bent to force the faceplate to fit (which is why it cracked over time). The contractor knew exactly what he was doing and cheated the homeowner by doing a crap job.
My friend James and I have a meme that we do whenever we hang together. It's called, "Where does a rich guy get his money?" The answer is always the same: "Off the backs of the middle class."
Think about that the next time you go on a date with your loved one and splurge for a nice restaurant, and you see Mac and Cheese on the menu. Ask yourself, where is the risotto? Well that would be too hard to make money on now wouldn't it?
/end rant
Have a great Wednesday. :)