A peek at the life, times and thoughts of John during his two-year stint in Knoxville.

1. I've noticed that increasingly restaurants are going to ketchup spigots instead of packets or pumps. The stuff that comes out is red, but it is *not* ketchup. Ketchup is the stuff you have to beat the bottle to dispense, not something that flows out smoothly at the nudging of a lever.

I'm highly suspicious.

2. While buying gas this evening the woman on the other side of the pump was quite unhappy. She complained aloud to somebody that her pump wasn't working. Further loud comments revealed that what wasn't working was the metal piece you can use to rest the pump handle on so you don't have to do it manually.

Since it wasn't working, she thought it was broken. The man she was voicing this to (again, quite loudly) suggested she pump it manually. This was unthinkable to her because she wouldn't know when to stop. Apparently in her mind the pump will stop when a piece of metal is holding the handle in place, but she won't know to stop when the same forceful push of the handle when the tank is full. Hmm.

She decided that she would pump by hand, but she was only getting $10. Why risk it, right?

3. I'm not paying a lot of attention to this whole John McCain/lobbyist story, but I heard one of his lawyers use a great illustration saying the newspaper article about it was like cotton candy. Bite into it and there's nothing there. Very nice mental picture. It reminds me of the Barack Obama plagiarism charges. Fluff it up and make it look like a big deal, but when you bite into it there's just no substance worth getting worked up about.