Tretakoff Musings

Penn Jillette is one of my personal gurus. What he says so often makes so much sense to me, I am often frustrated that he is not running the world. He frequently does short vlog entries on Sony's Crackle site; today's is about In-N-Out Burger. If you are not familiar with this practically legendary West Coast chain, they make a hell of a burger and fries, cheap, and fresh. Penn's issue is that they subtly print Bible references in their materials, such as on the bottom of the cups or the fries. Now, I'm one of the first people to decry the blind faith in the Bible; in fact, I highly recommend David Plotz's Good Book for a refreshing perspective on the Bible from a layperson's perspective. Penn, being a devout atheist, obviously has major issues with In-N-Out's evangelism, as he often does with most attempts for folks to blend religion in with secular activities. However, Penn is also a massive proponent of the free market. Combining these two, you get a r...

I have yet another confession to make: as much as I love the English language, it sometimes baffles me. Worse, it confuses me the same way every time in certain situations. For instance, if I am standing in the middle of a block, and some one tells me to go to the "3rd house down on the left," I am paralyzed. Do I count the house I am standing in front of? I don't blame the speaker; I blame the imprecision of the language that allows such vagueness to be communicated. After all, the 3rd house may have a winning lottery ticket, but the 4th house might be a compulsory 24 hours of Michael Jackson homicide coverage. So, it is with the same disdain I look at this e-mail I received. See the call out? A set of 4 lights, only $19.95 each. Nice deal, right? I click through, and, after not being delivered to the product I clicked on (yep, the old bait and switch), I end up finally finding my lights: Wow! Now down to $14.95! Cool! I click through, and get this: Ok, now wait a minut...