Stop and Smell the Billboards

Let me say (for what is probably the 1000th time) that LA is a weird fucking place... and I mean that in the best possible way. I honestly love the freaks that populate this metropolis, but sometimes even I don't understand them. Traffic was just bizarre this morning. I have learned when to tune into certain radio stations for traffic reports. I know where to expect congestion practically every day. I can get off the freeway and wind along side streets to get to work. Today though defied all logic. People were just stopping on the freeway for no apparent reason. They weren't merging from one freeway to another. There were no accidents. Just all of a sudden people would bunch up and come to a virtual stop. It was stupid. So I finally got into Hollywood and all along Highland Blvd the billboards had changed over night. When this happens it is apparently ok for people to stop dead in the middle of the street so they can check out the new signage. And these were not tourists. These were regular Angelenos who should have been in a hurry to get to work. But no, it is obviously much more important to oogle the almost naked woman on the new "Nip/Tuck" ad than it is to arrive at your destination in one piece. Granted, I've had a 6-story high Johnny Depp on Hollywood Blvd distracting me from my morning drive since "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" came out in mid-July, but even so, I've managed to control my drooling until the light at least turns red and we've all come to a complete stop. When I'm one of the only people out there with something resembling self-control, the world should be afraid... very afraid.

"Bypasses are devices that allow some people to dash from point A to point B very fast while other people dash from point B to point A very fast. People living at point C, being a point directly in between, are often given to wonder what's so great about point A that so many people from point B are so keen to get there and what's so great about point B that so many people from point A are so keen to get there. They often wish that people would just once and for all work out where the hell they wanted to be." -- Douglas Adams