BUZZURRO

Yesterday I received a phone call asking for my phone number.
I turned to Buzzurro and told him that I received a phone call asking for my phone number.
How did she call me on the phone in the first place if she didn’t have it ? Sheesh.
I said to Buzzurro: “Before you know it, I’ll start receiving emails asking for my email address !” and we laughed about that possibility.
I spoke too soon.
Today I did receive an email asking for my email address.

ANYBODY but Bush…..

How about Ahmeninejad of Iran ? Or the Wahabist rulers of Saudi Arabia ? What do you think they’d do with your non-islamic uncovered headed butt when you wear short sleeve shirts in public like you were in your car ?
(it was a female driver)

Is this a frivolous lawsuit ?

I’m not a lawyer, but I’d have to say “Yes”. It’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard. An AIDS group is suing Pfizer over Viagra saying that their ads promote sexual diseases.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A major U.S. AIDS treatment group plans to file a lawsuit on Monday that accuses drug giant Pfizer Inc. of illegally promoting recreational use of its blockbuster impotence pill Viagra.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) told Reuters it wants Pfizer to be barred from marketing Viagra as a lifestyle or sexual enhancement drug. The nonprofit organization said Pfizer’s actions had led to risky behavior by men and an increase in HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

I agree with the AHF that Viagra is a sexual enhancement drug but unless you are a nun living in a convent I don’t see why a drug that enhances or creates sexual function harms society.
Why the lawsuit ?
It’s unprotected sex that causes sexual diseases and a raise in the spread of HIV anyway, not whether the man uses a pill to get an erection or not.
If anything they should sue everybody, man or woman who ever had sex.
Shouldn’t AHF try to prevent all sexual behavior because that might lead to sexual diseases ?
No, of course not, no one is arguing that they should, so why penalize the men that can’t get an erection naturally but need to do it with pills ?

According to the lawsuit brought by the AHF, the men in the Viagra advertisements are younger then the average user of Viagra.
Yes, most of the men using Viagra are probably older, but why would a commercial using younger men be an action worth suing over ?
In all industries, especially clothing, the models are thin and beautiful and not like the majority of consumers, yet I’ve never heard of a lawsuit against Giorgio Armani because the models he uses are thinner and more handsome than the normal men who buy his clothes.

Besides some of the men who might need Viagra are indeed young men who have prostate cancer and can’t achieve an erection during or shortly after their prostate cancer treatment.
They might be more likely to buy a product that advertises with people closer to their own age group.
Using younger models to advertise a product is certainly not a crime, nor is a matter to have a lawsuit over.

Also in the article is this statement:

Studies show evidence of recreational Viagra use among men who have sex with men, sometimes to overcome the erection-inhibiting effects of alcohol or street drugs such as ecstasy and crystal methamphetamine, AHF said.

And so what !
Viagra is mis-used by an illegal segment of our society (drug users) So are hypodermic needles.
So are little straws.
Yet I don’t see any movements to sue the manufacturers of hypodermic needles or little straws because there is evidence that they increase drug use.

I’ll finish this post by saying that I am not a lawyer or legal expert in anything, but I really don’t agree with this lawsuit against Pfizer.
It is frivolous and to offset their costs of legal fees, Pfizer might raise the prices of their other medicines.
That would effect many people, and not just the Viagra users or people with AIDS.

I dedicate this Pino Daniele’s song to Buzzurro and he dedicates it to me, J.Doe for it’s title alone… Pigro (lazy) HA HA HA.
Actually it’s very romantic.

The chorus starts:

Ho bisogno di te
Ho maledetto bisogno di te
per riempere il mio cuore….

and the translation:
I have a need for you
I have a damn need for you
for filling my heart…

My translation as you can see, sucks. Sounds like a song of a wife beater, not a lover. Oh well, it really is a romantic song.

Wouldn’t it be a better world if all advertising in the world were true ?

I’m really tired of all the advertisements that say for example “Buy Tide because it’s the best you’ll ever get!” and then the same company comes out and says “Buy Tide New and Improved version because it’s really the best you’ll ever get! ” as if to say that their original product stinks.

I also hate when a restaurant advertises “a buffet lunch every day” only to find out that Saturday and Sunday are not included.
Are Saturday and Sunday not considered days? How sad for them. Maybe the advertisement should be changed to say “buffet lunch every weekday” but I guess that takes too much effort.

I’m also not impressed by the various sleep aid medications that list drowsiness as a possible side effect.
Shouldn’t drowsiness be the main principle effect ? I mean that’s why a consumer would want to buy a sleep aid product in the first place - for it’s drowsiness causing effects and instead the manufacturer is saying that it only might possibly work and cause drowsiness. Why buy it ?

Or how about the cable company that advertises how you should choose them because they are fast and such a good bargain when they hold a monopoly in the area and you either choose them or choose them if you want cable.
Why pretend that there is a choice ? Why not say “You clients are stuck with us so we can charge whatever we want and give you slow and crappy service because you can’t do anything about it.”

A few years ago while living in Southern California I was in an infomercial for a car wax product.
They made outrageous claims and then used trick photography to make it look like those claims were true.
Of course they weren’t. One claim was that it was fireproof as they showed a car with that was waxed with this product that didn’t burn.
That could be very dangerous if someone were to see it and think they could wax their car with it and drive through fires unscorched.
I was so disgusted that I almost walked off the set.
Truth means nothing to an advertiser.
Then a crew member set me straight. He said to me “Well, a company can’t exactly say to a potential consumer, “Buy our product. It’s OK. In fact it’s just as good as the other products on the market. The companies HAVE to make these outrageous claims to get consumers to buy their products.Nobody really believes these claims anyway”. And with that I finished the shoot.

But still, honesty in advertising would be nice.

I think I listened to this like a dozen times this afternoon:

When Buzzurro and I left New Jersey for a job opportunity I never thought of the music I would hear, we bought a car and set out for our trip across several sates until we arrived in New Mexico.
The radio in our car was set to a jazzy hip hop type radio station, but soon it faded away. By the time we got to central Pennsylvania most of the radio stations played country music I thought to myself “Oh no! I despise country music! Whatever will I listen to?”.
Buzzurro liked it right away and the radio was constantly playing it. We brought no CDs or tapes with us on our trip, and I suppose some type of music is better than none.
By the time Buzzurro and I got to Tennessee I was going crazy. I absolutely hated country music. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I turned off the radio and thought about cutting the electrical wires so Buzzurro wouldn’t turn the radio on when I wasn’t looking. (I didn’t though) I thought I was doomed to a life of never listening to the radio and only listening to CDs. To many people in the urban centers of the Northeast (including me) all country music is depressing.
9 months later I have changed my opinions on country music 100 percent. While I am still not it’s biggest fan, and unlike Alan Jackson’s song She’s Gone Country, I have not, but I appreciate it for what it is.
For one, it is not depressing. Most of the songs I hear are cheerful and uplifting. Some may start out describing sorrowful scenes but end up on a high note, such as one of my favorites, She Let Herself Go by George Strait. It describes how a mother returns home from a shopping trip only to find a note on the table from her husband saying basically that he is leaving her because he doesn’t love her anymore because she ‘”let herself go” , in the meaning that she doesn’t take care of herself anymore. As soon as he left, she ‘let herself go’ in the literal sense. She “let herself go” with the kids to the beach because her husband never wanted to. She “let herself go” on a singles cruise and “let herself go” to New York City. I don’t see how people could ever listen to this song and get depressed.
For another reason, country music is clear. When one hears country songs on the radio one hears the singer’s skill in singing, and not like in many rock or pop songs the mixer’s skill in mixing tracks. Many times I remember hearing Top 40 songs on the radio only to go to a concert of that musician only to hear something totally different. That doesn’t happen with country, or at least not as much.
The radio stations where I live do not play all country music, but the majority do, and frequently I even seek them out.

This is not me yet, She’s Gone Country by Alan Jackson, but I’m getting there.