I've come to the conclusion the entire universe is conspiring to drive me crazy. First, U.S. Air: called to see if I can get frequent flier miles for past flights and yes, as long as they were within six months, and they were. No prob at all with the Florida trip in October, no prob with the one from LAX back to Philly, which leaves the one where I missed the flight and got on another. I won't go into any detail, but will just list two long phone calls and an e-mail because I didn't know the flight number of the plane I finally got on and neither do they! It's incredible to think they don't have a record somewhere--what if the FAA should come calling?--but that's what they tell me. Still isn't resolved.
Next ordeal was with the godforsaken state of New Jersey. After applying for a "homestead benefit" or some cockamamie thing (it freezes your taxes, but oh, not really), I got a letter saying they want this, that,and the other thing, because they have no record of me ever filing an N.J. income tax return. I called, talked to some moron, and, after a ten minute hold, he casually admitted, yes, they have them, lah-di-lah. Guess they just mislaid the last fifty years of so of my returns.
Staggered out to Rite-Aid to get some old pictures duplicated. Woman was "just learning" this machine a three-year-old could master and I was there for 35 minutes while she tried and tried, first cutting the heads off a group, then mangling otherwise. She was very apologetic and insisted on paying for the mayhem (80 cents), but it was another annoying happenstance.
Other than the above--easy sailing...
WIDER: From a review on Tuthdig.com of the new Garry Wills book Outside Looking In:
"Wills makes a chilling and telling observation about Michael Dukakis, whom he overheard on a plane while covering his presidential campaign. Dukakis and a friend were discussing death. 'You think of dying?' Dukakis asked. 'Of course,' the man replied. 'Don’t you?' 'No, never.' 'I was no longer surprised,' Wills concluded, 'to hear such an answer from Dukakis. He is the supreme government wonk. If there is no government program against dying, why bother to think about it?'”
Geez.