Robert Benmosche, new CEO of AIG — which continues to hold $182 billion of the taxpayers’ money, and seems in no hurry to return any — will be paid about $7 million per year. That means typical people, who earn a median $50,000 a year, are being taxed so yet another plutocrat can own an… Read more »
Posts Categorized: rants
Pontiac G5 Rental Car
So I’m currently driving a Pontiac G5 while the Mercedes is in the shop. I don’t think I can easily explain the many problems I have with this car. It is a very good example, I think, of why the American auto industry is in the toilet.
Friday Five: Bally’s Encino
Things That Currently Suck at the Encino Bally’s Total Fitness They refuse to post a sign at the front desk alerting members when there is no hot water in the locker room showers, which happens several times each week. When I joined a year ago there were multiple sets of complete ranges of free-weights. Recently,… Read more »
Rescue Me on DirecTV FXHD
Let’s get something straight right now: Denis Leary’s Rescue Me is the best show on television. Heroes is pretty damn good, but since Friday Night Lights jumped the shark and West Wing ended years ago, Rescue Me is the current champ. A few seasons ago I had some problems getting my DVRs to record the… Read more »
Elevator Warning
Both elevators in my office include this notice: SHOULD THE ELEVATOR DOORS FAIL TO OPEN DO NOT BECOME ALARMED. THERE IS LITTLE DANGER OF RUNNING OUT OF AIR OR OF THIS ELEVATOR DROPPING UNCONTROLLABLY. PLEASE USE BUTTON MARKED “ALARM” OR TELEPHONE (IF FURNISHED) TO SUMMON AID. Here are a few of the issues I have… Read more »
The Douche Hat
The chapeau pictured here has become pathetically popular in Los Angeles lately. For a year or so we referred to it as The K-Fed, but now we just call it The Douche Hat. (This should not be considered a compliment.) Even K-Fed hardly ever is seen in public donning it these days, it’s become so… Read more »
Hacked Checking Account
Well, it’s finally happened. After over a decade of using the Internet for 10+ hours/day, someone has attempted to steal my identity. I went to my Washington Mutual online checking account to review my balance this morning and discovered a dozen charges that were most certainly not made by me (or my wife). Someone using… Read more »
Cotner and Santa Monica
In keeping with Obama’s new “Era of Responsibility”, I’m going to start a new recurring feature here at davidgagne.net. I was thinking of naming it “Assholes Who Refuse to Pay Attention to Traffic Signs”, but I think instead I’ll just go with the name of the intersection. Since I am forced to take the same… Read more »
iTunes Plus
I like the idea of iTunes Plus. DRM is lame and so ’90s. So the fact that Apple is now allowing me to get DRM-free tracks is great. But why in the world do they insist I upgrade my entire library in one fell swoop? I’m not going to shell out $200 for music I’ve… Read more »
J.Crew Follies
I am astounded by how bad the J.Crew website is. The .jsp filenames indicate that the site is Java. It is tragically slow and the senseless implementation of AJAX makes it near impossible to use. It’s almost 2009! How can there be so many horrible shopping cart systems on the ‘net? And for such a… Read more »