Random Thoughts
I finished reading The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem last night. I don't really know what to make of it. It was a good read. It took me a while to get through it, but that was mostly because I've been distracted. I just haven't had as much time to read as I'd like. I believe it's a fairly accurate portrayal of growing up about the same time I did, but in a very different place. I couldn't relate to some of it, but that's part of what made it worth reading for me.
Driving home tonight along a road I don't use as much as some others, I noticed a tattoo parlor I hadn't seen before. It seems like every time I drive someplace different I see a new tattoo parlor. That's not really surprising. I see a lot of tattoos and people must be getting them someplace. I almost think I'm seeing too many tattoos. Some don't look very well thought out. I can't imagine the people still liking them a couple years from now, let alone for the rest of their lives. Makes me think that a growing industry a few years down the road will be tattoo removal services. Doctors should probably look into cheap, safe, effective, relatively painless removal techniques. They're liable to do booming business once people take a good look at what they have on their bodies.
The other thing I saw today that seems like a bad idea is peanut butter taffy. That's nothing new. You see it every year at Halloween. Grey-tan slugs of nearly inedible sticky-sweetness wrapped in black or orange waxed paper. I can't believe anyone actually likes this stuff, but people seem to always buy it to hand out as Halloween candy. It's pretty much the only time you see it, and I don't think anyone's happy to get it. I think people buy it because they don't want to give anything good away, but then they have to figure out what to do with any they have left over. Why do people buy this stuff? And why is it even made?
