Congestion

I've never liked buses. Even in London, I never liked buses. It's such a tiresome and ridiculously frustrating mode of transport. A few years ago, the London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, had the genius idea of introducing the congestion charge - which was a charge created to supposedly ease congestion in Central London. If you wanted to drive into the city, you had to pay five pounds a day (about ten bucks). I could have solved London's congestion problems overnight. I'd abolish buses. Stop. Start. Stop. Start. All they do is hold everybody else up because they can't get out of the way.

The same is true in Manhattan. I have two buses that run local to me. One goes downtown and one goes cross town. The downtown bus stops every two blocks - EVERY TWO BLOCKS! The cross town one is even worse. Every block. That's insanity!

Now I'm not suggesting you abolish buses in Manhattan. There are people who need to use them. But come on now - let's be sensible about it. On every block there is a stop and on every block there is a set of stop lights. How do you expect to get anywhere without aging considerably?

Personally, I think for downtown buses, there should be a stop every five blocks and for the wider cross town blocks, say a stop every three blocks. It would ease congestion considerably and you can't honestly tell me, that people are going to be up in arms about having to walk, at the very most, two and half blocks to get to a bus stop.

Athletes Smathletes

Alas, Football season (American Football that is) is almost over and I shall have to find something else to do with those long Sunday afternoons for seven months. I love football but I have to laugh when commentators refer to the players as athletes. C'mon guys, the only athletes on the field are the wide receivers, tight ends and running backs - and maybe the quarterback unless you're talking about Drew Bledsoe who seems to have forgotten what his legs are for.
You cannot seriously talk about a 280+ pound linebacker who comes off the field after one play and needs to suck on an oxygen mask - and use the word athlete in the same sentence.

It's like one of my other favourite pastimes. Darts. Being English I love the game of darts. I used to go with some mates to Lakeside to watch the world darts championship which incidentally is going on right now back home in Blighty. Again, you can't call that a sport. Half of those guys can barely move they're so big. The only thing they move is one forearm - to throw darts and drink beer. It's not a sport, it's a pasttime. Turns out, one of the competitors at this years competition collapsed and got taken to hospital - all 26 stones of him (that's 364 pounds). Guess he must have tried to stand up. Surprised they even got him in the ambulance.