What do these things have in common? Not a damned thing, except for the fact that they’ve all been on my mind this morning. I woke up early, congested, and decided to come downstairs and watch a little bit of TV. I flipped through several channels of infomercials and cable porn before settling on “The Bridge” — a documentary about suicides on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The filmmaker showed actual footage of a number of jumps and attempted jumps, which is quite disturbing and somewhat surprising, until you realize that being one of the most popular tourist destinations, there are probably cameras focused on it all day long. Lengthy interviews are also conducted with the loved ones left behind, and with jumpers who lived. I have a lot of trouble understanding how things get so bad that one feels there is no other option, but that’s easy for me to say. I have a good life. Even when things are bad, they’re not that bad.
On a lighter note, when I get out of bid early and my big feet aren’t completely cooperating yet, I notice that I tend to take the stairs in a sideways/sidestep manner.
And yesterday I noticed this on ebay. I wish I could afford it. As a dabbler in collecting cultural artifacts, this is damn near irresistable.
It’s a vintage polygraph machine, circa 1980ish according to the listing. Nowadays they’re computerized. The seller claims it used to belong to a CIA employee and has it listed for a $1,000 buy-it-now price. I can picture using it at home. “Did you brush your teeth? Don’t lie to me, the machine knows everything.” And then later, my kids confessing to their therapists, “My dad used to polygraph us at home.”
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