More Selections from the Pacific Grits Diary

Once again I am delving into the old diary for some highlights from the past year.

Sunday, October 28, 2007


I saw something about the Geico caveman TV show, wherein it was referred to as a “travesty of television.” Nothing could have pleased me more.


I watched a trailer for a new vampire movie, and was stuck how classless vampires have become in the past thirty or forty years. At one time, vampires took pride in their appearance: tuxedo, medal, silk-line cape. They were immaculately groomed and kept their fangs sharpened. Now, the vampires you see walking around look like street kids. Where do they keep their coffins?



Monday March 17, 2008 St. Patrick’s Day


Went to court to fight my ticket for running a red light near Sea-Tac airport on January 10. I was in Denver at the time of the infraction. These people are mad. The judge dismissed my case outright.



Sunday, April 20, 2008


My friend Mike, who lives a few miles away down in the valley, posted this: "I can't believe it's snowing again."10 AM Sunday: the thermometer on the back porch reads 50 degrees. The sun is out, yet snow and hail are raining down fairly hard this morning. It's either snow and hail, or the fallout.

Selections from the Pacific Grits Diary

Friday, September 29, 2006


Mom’s birthday – called her from Emerald Downs. I bet on a horse called Linda J in honor of mom’s birthday, long odds. But no dice, lost the $5 plus fifty more, then experienced a slight resurgence betting on some short odds ponies in the sixth and seventh races.



Friday, October 13, 2006


The Steve Johnson Fan Club 2006 Conference was under way today. The event was a smashing success, despite miserably low recruiting levels. I was presented with a nice pen for my service to the organization.



Friday, October 12, 2007

I assisted my sister, working with cosmetics professionals, in choosing her new scent. I steered her toward natural essences, and she seems pleased.



Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Eduardo’s Pizza. Mmmmmm. Connie’s is good, Pizzeria Uno and Pizza Duo are very good: Eduardo’s is nearly as good as Gino’s East, the best deep dish I’ve found in Chicago. I relish every opportunity I have to partake of this monstrous delicacy they call Chicago Style pizza. And only in the Windy City, oh yeah!

The Law of the Quantum of Solace

I was just reading a recent copy of the Gleaner. There is a farming slump on, and the potential for a downturn in the banana sector. I read the sports standings as well, as I follow the Western Basketball Division Frutra/Oasis Purified Water Development League.

The Gleaner, Jamaica's newspaper, is referenced in several of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels. The Bond of the books spent much of his time in the Caribbean. Fleming's short story, "Quantum of Solace," is collected with short stories "From a View to a Kill," "For Your Eyes Only," "Risico" and "The Hildebrand Party" in For Your Eyes Only. The title "Quantum of Solace" comes from a line of dialogue in the story.

The story, less than 20 pages long, is set in Nassau, the Bahamas, and is a story within a story, told by Nassau's Governor to James Bond following a dinner party.

I actually find the back story to this short story rather fascinating, though it is not explored. Bond happens to be in the Bahamas because the US Coast Guard is onto arms smuggling out of Miami to Castro's rebels in Cuba, so bases have been set up in the Bahamas and Jamaica to facilitate the arming of the Cuban rebels. Bond is there to stop it, and while in Nassau its Governor entertains Bond with an odd tale about the fate of a marriage.

And in the telling of this sordid tale the Governor uses the phrase "The Law of the Quantum of Solace."

The Law of the Quantum of Solace states that relationships can withstand many things -- infidelity, crimes, disease. But there is a point wherein civility no longer exists, and one person in the relationship does not care if the other is alive or dead. It becomes a matter of self preservation at that point, for the other.

Whether or not the new new Marc Forster film has anything remotely to do with Fleming's short story remains to be seen. But perhaps the essence of Governor's Law will remain intact. We'll find out on November 14.

Calling the Election

The Pacific Grits blog is calling the 2008 presidential election for Barack "Barry" Obama at 12:30 PM Eastern Time, before any of the polls have closed.

Pacific Grits gives Obama/Biden 336 electoral votes to the McCain/Palin campaign's 202. Our crack squad of pollsters surveyed three people and have projected that Obama will win both Ohio and Florida, two toss-up states that McCain must win in order to get the 272 electoral votes needed to take the election. The projected loss of both Ohio and Florida effectively eliminates McCain from the race (PacGrits Poll Margin of Error +/- 87%).

An exit-type poll of former Arizona residents indicates that his aunt is voting for Obama, but his mother and other aunt are voting for McCain, giving McCain the edge in his home state. But swing states Arizona, Montana and the Dakotas do not have enough electoral power to dig McCain out of the electoral morass.

The presence Alaska's Governor Palin on the GOP ticket virtually assures a win there, but Alaska's three electoral votes will not be enough to change the election's outcome. (Pictured at left: Palin at the North Pole.)

Pacific Grits anticipates the swearing in of Obama on January 20th, 2009, and the arrival of the much ballyhooed change and prosperity some time between 10:30 AM and noon on Wednesday, January 21st, 2009.

A Blast from the Past - 1992

Dateline Santa Monica, California. Chris always had a thing for horsies.