Fame...It Has Its Benefits.

I've tried to live my life following the Golden Rule. I'm sure you know it. Do onto others as you would have them do onto you. So I sure don't want to make Brad Pitt out to be a disillusioned guy, but Prosopagnosia?

Prosopagnosia is a condition better known as face blindness, where the ability to recognize people's faces is impaired. Yep, face blindness is better known all right. Four people rather than two have heard of it. Prosopagnosia? Never heard of it. Oh, face blindness. Why didn't you say so in the first place! 

In an Esquire magazine interview Brad said, "So many people hate me because they think I'm disrespecting them. So I swear to God, I took one year where I just said, This year, I'm just going to cop to it and say, Yo people, Okay, where did we meet?.....But it got worse." Later in the interview he says he made a "conscience change" to stop using drugs.

Gosh, it would be terrible if he didn't remember my name. I would hate him forever (like Gollum and Bilbo).

I couldn't get a hit on Web MD. Wikipedia already has Brad Pitt listed under "notable cases." Maybe he does have the disease, far be it from me to imply otherwise. I just find it fascinating that a regular guy like me has the same problem and it's called forgetfulness, or ageing. 

I don't suppose his prior drug use or the movie star status that has him meeting a gazillion people a year would have anything to do with his problem.

And here is another thing that puzzles me.

Wanda and I eat very little meat. We are not vegans, we are not vegetarians, and we don't keep Kosher. We just don't like to cook it. No steaks, no chops, no chicken. We go to In & Out for a burger every couple of months so our diet is varied. Wanda is going to make our friend Tony's chili for the Nevada City gathering. Since I was going to Safeway this morning I offered to pick up some ingredients.

By the way, the reason my medication was delayed. The Safeway phamacy tried to bill the wrong insurance company, I have two. They have never done that before. I've been getting it there for years and the clerk that took it has been there for years. I didn't ask. I was just glad they got it straightened out yesterday.

One of my tasks was getting a one pound tube (ground not links) of Safeway brand breakfast sausage. I saw spicy sausage and mild sausage, italian sausage and polish sausage. I saw Farmer John's and Jimmy Dean sausage, but I didn't see BREAKFAST sausage. I'm Jewish, how was I supposed to know PORK sausage is breakfast sausage? Wanda was putting it in chili and I sure as Hell don't eat chili in the morning. I found the butcher, he found the sausage, and I called Wanda at work to ask if I had what she wanted.

My next item was one pound of 80/20 ground beef. I saw one pound packages of 90/10 and 93/07. The 80/20 was in two, three, and four pound packs. So I got the butcher again. He said he would be happy to package one for me but he suggested one and a quarter pounds. "I always suggest getting the extra, he said. When you cook a pound of 80/20 you lose a quarter pound of fat."

I called Wanda again and asked her, a pound or a pound and a quarter? Here's what I don't get. If the beef is 20% fat and you lose 20% of it, why do we pay for nothing?

"Our mobile strategy is as simple as it is audacious. We want to make mobile tools that become indispensable for our customers while shopping in our stores and online," said Gibu Thomas, global head of Wal-Mart's mobile division, on Wednesday at the CTIA Wireless conference in Las Vegas.

"It's fascinating to think that in less than 10 years, smartphones have gone from being the next big thing to mature and mainstream," Thomas said. "As transformative as it was for the early adopters, it is far more transformative as it's adopted by the masses. And it has incredible transformative potential for retail, shopping in the store."

Aside from liking the word transformative, a lot, Mr. Thomas is working out a strategy that will make the smart phone synonymous with Wal-Mart. He says their goals are creating shopping tools that become second nature to the customer. They want you on your Wal-Mart app when in the store.

By leveraging data the store can develop predictive capabilities and generate a suggested shopping list. For example, you are in the toy department and need something for a 12-year-old boy and want to spend under $30, good luck with that. You can talk to your phone and get an answer with all the purchase possibilities.

In other words, Wal-Mart and your smart phone can tell you what to buy. Me...? I'd much rather call Wanda.