Comrade Grumpy
Comrade Grumpy’s Peeve of the Week
Feh to Pharmaceutical Ads
February 21st, 2013
My leg is restless. I am suffering from gastric distress. Since 3 a.m. last Tuesday, dizziness has been an issue. I have joint pain and slight inflammation of the nostrils and eyelids. My hair is falling out. Last Tuesday, at 2:38 a.m., I woke up without any particular maladies. I had a lot on my mind, though, and I wanted to have less on my mind, so I turned on the television. Read more »
Comrade Grumpette
Airport Shuttle Blues
January 24th, 2013
The moment I knew how thoroughly tourism dominated this burg? Back when I called to book an airport shuttle for a Christmas trip to my hometown and was told they only stopped at hotels. Where I come from, shuttles come right to your house. You know, so people who live there can get to the airport? Read more »
Comrade Grumpy's Peeve of the Week
The ESPiNation of Geography
January 5th, 2013
In ESPN world, the dysfunctional Mets and Jets are more important than San Francisco’s high-achieving Giants and 49ers, St. John’s University is better at basketball than San Diego State, and Nevada is pronounced with the word “awwww” in the middle. Read more »
Comrade Grumpy’s Peeve of the Week
Family-unfriendly Hoa’s
December 6th, 2012
One of the unfortunate things about the most American of American sports—that’s basketball, not baseball, pal—is that it requires a 10-foot-tall piece of equipment. And many of our family-friendly Southern Nevada communities believe that such equipment brings irreparable damage to the family next door—you know, the absentee retirees maintaining a vacant investment property. Read more »
Comrade Grumpy’s Peeve of the Week
Unapproved Messages
November 1st, 2012
Yet here are Romney and Obama and Berkley and Heller and Tarkanian and Horsford and every candidate from sea to shining sea, pouring millions—billions?—into their campaigns. The anger intensifies when you realize that, by the very nature of the democratic process—in which each race can have but one winner—more than 50 percent of the campaign cash essentially ends up flushed down the commode. All the while the national debt grows, education remains underfunded and the economy remains a mess. Read more »
Peeve of the Week
Leash-less Dogs
October 4th, 2012
Which sets you back more: a dog leash or someone else's hospital bill on your credit card? Consider that when you meet me this evening on my nightly stroll around my Las Vegas neighborhood. You can't miss me: I'll be the one clutching my chest, grateful I've already purchased my cemetery plot. Read more »
Comrade Grumpy’s Peeve of the Week
Sheep Art
June 21st, 2012
It always scares me. I’m driving down I-15 near Russell, and suddenly (and repeatedly) a massive bighorn sheep jumps out at me. I brake and doubletake. WTF is a massive bighorn sheep—or a horse; is that a horse next to that sheep?—doing so close to the freeway? Read more »
Comrade Grumpette
Cig Tossers
May 3rd, 2012
Ah, spring. Fresh, clean air. Crisp sunny mornings. Flowers blooming everywhere. There’s nothing like a morning walk this time of year to make you appreciate the corpse-like bouquet of a cigarette, abandoned and still burning on the sidewalk, flicked out of a car by someone who thinks that whole crying-Indian-anti-littering campaign in the 1970s doesn’t apply to them. Read more »
Comrade Grumpette
Tape-Measure Receipts
April 26th, 2012
Paperless is the future, right? So why is my grocery-store receipt long enough to be toilet paper for a small nation? It’s not that I bought so many items we need a ledger capable of parsing the federal deficit—I’ve got two bags of groceries and three bags of receipts. Read more »
Comrade Grumpy’s Peeve of the Week
Misfortune Vultures
March 1st, 2012
Lately, I have been waking up at 4:07 each morning with a splitting headache and the sense of being trapped in a long, echoing hall full of real-estate agents, attorneys and talk-radio personalities. The first group is trying to interest me in getting into things I cannot afford, the second group is trying to interest me in getting out of things I cannot afford, and the third group is telling me that I am stupid and responsible for the destruction of the American economy. Read more »
