Welcome to The Jungle

I finished reading Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle last week. You probably heard of it – famous novel, came out a hundred years ago, a classic muckraking expose of the Chicago meatpacking industry.

It may be the most depressing book I’ve ever read. If you haven’t, it concerns a Lithuanian family that immigrates to America to seek the American Dream™. Here’s what they encounter/endure:

--Horrific work conditions (unsafe environments, little pay, children having to work)
--Poverty
--Jail (three times!)
--Death (and plenty of it)
--Prostitution
--Swindling
--Crime
--Homelessness
--Disease
--Excess of drink (but curiously never alcoholism)
--“Hoboing” or “tramping”
--Swindling
--Graft
--Sexual harassment

I’m probably forgetting a few things but that’s the gist of it. It’s so macabre it’s almost comical. You expect characters to get hit by an asteroid or trampled by a rhino after a while.

Anyway, the book led to a lot of changes, including the commission of the Food & Drug Administration. Curiously, Sinclair didn’t give a shit – the point of the article was to push Socialism. Indeed, the last 50 pages or so reads like a Socialism pamphlet.

I dunno, I guess it was OK, if a little over the top.

A few people asked me where the name "Otis" came from. Two places:

(a) I watched "A Night At The Opera" last weekend, starring Groucho Marx as Otis B. Driftwood.

(b) We've been having elevator problems at work. A company e-mail was sent out saying Otis, the elevator contractor, had been notified. I pictured this man named Otis, perhaps with a mullet and overalls, in charge of all our elevators. But it turned out the company is named Otis, Inc. Very dissapointing.

A few people asked me where the name "Otis" came from. Two places:

(a) I watched "A Night At The Opera" last weekend, starring Groucho Marx as Otis B. Driftwood.

(b) We've been having elevator problems at work. A company e-mail was sent out saying Otis, the elevator contractor, had been notified. I pictured this man named Otis, perhaps with a mullet and overalls, in charge of all our elevators. But it turned out the company is named Otis, Inc. Very dissapointing.

Say hi to Otis! He's to your right.

More True Stories

So I'm in the supermarket getting some pears. This guy comes up to me and offers to sell me a $25 Supermarket Gift Card for $20.

Now, that's a sucker bet. The card may well have only $1.22 left on it, and there's no way to tell just by looking at it. Plus, even if the card still has all its credit, at best I'd make $5. Not exactly the deal of the century.

I politely decline and the man goes on his way. Now, if you're selling a gift card, you need money badly, and you need money for something that you can't buy in a supermarket. HMMMM.

The guy didn't look homeless or anything, but he REEKED of cigarette smoke.

Got a quad laser, it’s will amaze ya…

Alien Invasion! Guerrilla advertisement for cartoon movie mistaken for bomb threat.

The two guys who planted the ads are charged with placing a hoax device and disorderly conduct

“’It's clear the intent was to get attention by causing fear and unrest that there was a bomb in that location,’ Assistant Attorney General John Grossman said at their arraignment.”

Uh, no champ, it clearly wasn’t. The damn things looked like Lite Brite on blackboard with some batteries.

Look, planting mechanical devices around the city may not have been the best idea, but it’s pretty clear no harm was meant. Why should these two get sent to the pokey?

I agree with Test Pattern, the best part of all this is reporters trying to explain both the Mooninites and the show itself, which isn’t easy even if you watch it.

Describing the Mooninites:
“Trouble-making characters that look like 1980s-era computer graphics.” (Associated Press/MSNBC.com)
“Outer-space delinquents who make frequent appearances on the cartoon." (CNN.com)
"Boxy characters ... named Err and Ignignokt ... Err is described on the "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" website as "rebellious and angry." (Boston.com)
"Two trouble-making, 1980s-graphic-like characters called ''mooninites,'' named Ignignokt and Err” (New York Times)

Describing the show:
“The show follows the misadventures of a carton of French fries, a milkshake and a wad of hamburger meat who live together in a run-down suburban house.” (Associated Press/MSNBC.com)
“The show is an animated comedy about three detectives in the shape of human-sized food products that live together in a rental house in New Jersey.” (Fox News)
“A surreal series about a talking milkshake, a box of fries and a meatball.” Also: “a cartoon with a cultish following” (New York Times)