A collage of thoughts...

I notice things. Sometimes I don't notice something soon enough, and when I do, I wonder how it got by me... not to mention a few billion other people.

So, here are two things I've noticed and questions arising from them:

When was the last time you saw a gas commercial? Remember the funny little cars with dirty engines that wanted Techron gasoline? Remember the ads for BP? When gas cost 19 cents a gallon, not only was there a "put a tiger in your tank" commercial on t.v. every fifteen minutes, but you also got free glassware with every fillup!

What is so different about the economy that gasoline companies don't need to advertise their fuel anymore, now that it costs $2.25 a gallon?


What happened with the telephone wars? Remember deregulation? Remember MCI and Sprint and AT&T and a million other companies competing for your long-distance dollars? Man, they were annoying. When did they go away, and why?

I remember someone warning about telephone deregulation, saying, "If these utilities are allowed to deregulate, your phone bill is going to cost more than your mortgage."

Anyone reading this have a phone bill bigger than a mortgage? For that matter, are you even lucky enough to have a mortgage?

I saw something on television on Sunday, I think, where a woman was saying the gap between the rich and the poor hasn't been this wide in 800 years. That takes us back to the 13th century, the "High" Middle Ages, masters and serfs, caste systems, the Crusades against Islam, the rule of Genghis Khan, the voyage of Marco Polo to "discover" China, an incredible time of religious turmoil for Buddhists, Muslims, Christians and Jews and the birth of universities in Europe.

Following a great deal of growth and enlightenment, the gap between rich and poor was somewhat narrowed by the arrival of bubonic plague in the 14th century, which wiped out 1/3 of Europe's entire population over a five-year period of time.


Poets, prophets and pundits, draw your lines from Column A to Column B and render significant the tsunami, the AIDS crisis, religious intolerance, warring maniacs and extreme poverty. Time to re-read "Cat's Cradle" and ask ourselves: Is mass destruction of people and places the only way to save what is left of civilization?