The building really was called the BellSouth Tower until Bellsouth was assimilated by the Death Star AT&T not too long ago. And it was this past week that the bright blue AT&T logo was lit on the building, replacing the Tennessee tri-star logo, and looking for all the world like a creepy glowing cyclops eye.

Which reminds me, I really oughta stop giving money to those shmucks.

Normally it’s one of my missions in life to grab the nutcase propoganda that people leave around and take it to the nearest trash receptacle post haste, but since this was a genuine publication of Jack Chick, I had to grab it and peruse it later, presumably in order to see how long it would take for my head to explode.

As I was stuffing it into my bag (and I didn’t have to be very discreet about it since I was the only one on the bus besides the driver), I noticed another one about two seats ahead of me. This one had a cartoon picture of the Twin Towers on the cover next to the legend “So What?” I figured I’d try to pick that one up on the way off the bus. But at the next stop, the driver got up and retrieved it. I hoped that she was just going to stuff the trash in the little bin next to her seat, but as I got off the bus I saw she was reading it.

I hope she laughed derisively at it, as I plan to mine, shortly before I throw it out.

• Your recording contract lasted longer than your marriage.
• You wonder what the Northern Baptist Convention is like.
• If he had his way, the headliner at your Fourth of July celebration would have half of the crowd deported.
• You didn’t know Nashville had a hockey team until the lockout.
• Your weatherman spends 45 minutes of prime airtime describing a five-minute storm.
• Your new guilty pleasure is circling the new Hustler Hollywood in your car because the Musica statue just isn’t doing it for you anymore.
• You wish Jack 96.3 would just shut up.
• You’re still wondering how to buy stock in E-Cycle.
• You’ve been dropped from TennCare, gas prices are too high, you can’t pay your rent, but you can still afford to buy a state senator.

But what was voted second place was actually the best:

• You used to like Bill Frist

E=mc^infinite

This is, of course, because Jesus is the light of creation (or whatever) and God is infinite. Therefore light is infinite. Whatever.

It occurred to me later that the implication of this is that the first, tiniest nuclear weapon would have annihilated the entire Universe with its infinite energy. Had I thought of this at the time, I’m not sure I would have mentioned it anyway. I typically prefer to nod politely, say nothing and then take some time later on to feel really depressed. I did try to reason with him that Jesus’ light as described in the Bible (which I suppose it is) is not necessarily the same thing streaming through the window right now, that one’s spiritual, and the other’s physical. Didn’t make much of an impression, I’m afraid. Some days I wish I were any good at debating, but I’m not at all. Usually debating just irritates me, and leaves me feeling sour for days on end. So I typically don’t bother.

(Which is not to say I didn’t have a little fun taking on the impossible task of debating the late noted Usenet kook, Alexander Abian way back when. It’s far easier over the ‘Net, when you have the luxury of time to come up with a good response.)

P.S. I don’t want to give the impression that the “Life in Nashville” section of this blog is solely dedicated to bashing people who don’t believe the same things I do. A) There are plenty of rational, normal people around here, (as I see it), and B) I fully intend to write about other elements of life around here. Haven’t quite gotten to my treatise on the bus system yet, but it’s coming sometime soon I’m sure.