being nice can backfire sometimes ...and it's not the coolest feeling. leave a parking space, see the guy next to me having car trouble, pull back into spot and mouth "need some help?", his car fires up, reverses, and quickly blocks me from backing out. at a stop sign, older, hefty lady slowly crossing street. me: "go ahead" her: (shrieking) "i can't walk!" then scowling the crap out of me. to her credit, she did have a foot that was all clubby-looking. to my credit, she was walking when she screamed that she couldn't. how cool of me if i see a woman walking slowly toward me and think "she probably can't walk" and then speed off? should have. the worst attempt at being nice occurred on a plane. i had a seat on the aisle next to a chunky, world travely-type fellow - who smelled the way canned urine probably does. tart. so, i leaned away from him for a couple hours and breathed through my mouth. when the plane landed, i watched the seat belt sign as if it was the starting gun at a track meet then darted as far up as i could go. when the doors opened, i walked past a man (who was still sitting and had made no attempt to get up until now) and his wife said, "oh, so that's how it goes? people from the back can just get off in front of you?" i looked over at her and smiled thinking she was kidding. nope. daggers. "that's not how it goes" who is this lady? i've seen that happen on every flight i've ever been on. still smiling, i said, "you'll live" and exited the plane. now i'm standing in the jetway waiting in line for my bag. out comes the husband. walks past me, pauses, gives me a disgusted once over. out comes the wife - even worse, and she's muttering, "it's just bad manners ...i mean who would ...can you imagine..." over someone leaving the plane two seconds before her! so finally, i asked myself "why was i in such a hurry? that's not like me." the smelly guy! i had escaped hell, and these jerks were judging me? not this time. i walked over to them and apologized and told of the smelly guy. they immediately changed their tone and said, "everyone gets stressed traveling" then we parted. it still felt incomplete. and in the end i realized, i had apologized to jerks who over-react to stupid things. i should have just asked smelly to hug them.

"hey grandma, is there actually a word for the n word?" "i don't know sweetie" "grandpa said there is. he said that it stands for nigga" "you'll have to ask him" "that's right, youngster. it does. many, many years ago - back when people still had pinkie toes and thumbs, it was a word they called each other." "yeah, right" "no, it was. they would say 'hey, nigga' ...'how are you doing today, nigga?' - things like that." "bobby told me it was a bad word" "well, it was. you couldn't say it to a dark person." "dark person?" "well, before everyone was one pleasant beige color, people used to be different colors. some were darker than others." "grandma, is grandpa lying?" "you know how he can be, sweetie." "no ...now damnit ...no. i'm not lying. look into my lenses. i am telling you the truth. there were black people and yellow people and red people and brown people and white people..." "wow! that sounds fun!" "no. no, it wasn't. they slaughtered each other regularly because of it." "and called each other nigga?" "now, if you said that back then, and i were dark - i'd get very angry." "what if i said 'i love you, nigga'?" "uhhh" "can i call you nigga, grandpa?" "...well ...i guess" "i love you, nigga" "i love you too, sweetheart."

i was at a mosque recently, which has to be the weirdest place to be dead. they just have walls of crypts stacked on top of each other like high school lockers. and just like high school, there's a cool area to have yours. of course it's much more expensive. "i think as tim's expired body slowly decomposes, he'd love to face the western sun. he always loved a sunset. of course we'll pay extra ...it's what he would have wanted." did tim actually write down "i want my lifeless body stored in a vault until the end of days. and if you can, get me one with a view ...you know, for my incredibly dead body"? if so, i hate tim, and i hope his body is particularly mistreated by

whatever manages to sneak into the vault. and clearly, judging by this photo i took while at the mosque (in the outside cemetery -- probably for those poor assholes who can't afford a crypt with a view) i saw this. you'd like to think your tombstone receives some sort of ceremony before it is installed. "quiet, everybody. here comes the tombstone" not even close. it is handled by maintenance workers in the same way as a sprinkler head. just throw them down anywhere. that's no way to treat betty d. davis. she's forever young for god's sake. but that's what she is to them - just a heavy piece of concrete to haul around during their shift. "shift's over? well, leave this crap here and let's get out of here. right there! yes. just throw all that crap on top of it. i don't care if she's going to join jesus. i'm going to join not being at work anymore."

steven hawking is so smart that if you mention his name people assume you are fairly bright. he's written a book that is essentially "space for dummies" that only geniuses understand. he's discovered particles around black holes that only exist mathematically. hawking radiation is named after him. he's been divorced and charged with domestic abuse. and the majority of this he did from a wheelchair while speaking through a computer (with an american accent even though he is british -- usa!!) he was diagnosed with ALS right about when he started to really gain momentum with physics and his life's work. the computer to help him communicate wasn't operational until about a year after he lost the ability to speak. for a while, he had an assistant who could interpret what he was saying. he'd sort of screech and meow and the assistant would translate "he said this sucks" and then eventually he lost the ability to even meow. so over a year went by where he couldn't communicate at all. imagine having some answers to what the universe is and not being able to convey them. most people can't imagine not being able to get their stupid ideas out there (this for example) via a thousand different outlets and yet no one has anything to say worth hearing. you have knowledge of how black holes work, how the universe may have been created, and what it looks like - and you're trapped inside your body forced to listen to celebrity gossip and small talk? "sometimes if the freeway is backed up, i take surface streets" no one cares or has ever cared about that sentence. ALS would be a much better disease if it was more selective, like if you only got it if you said too many boring things. "the store brand yogurt is okay, but i think..." "whoa, dude - are you sure you want to finish this? you don't want to get lou gehriged."