Tipping the Cap

Okay, okay, he may be personally responsible for the bringing the greatest amount of shame on the Yankees in recent history. But Curt Schilling's taking his moments in the sun to say some really great things.

First, after he punished the Yankees (on an ankle that shouldn't have been doing anything) he said,

Seven years ago, I became a Christian, and tonight God did something amazing for me. I prayed as hard as I could. I didn't pray to get a win or to make great pitches. I just prayed for the strength to go out there and compete. He gave me that. I tried to be as tough as I could and do it my way in Game 1, and I think we all saw how that turned out. I knew I wasn't going to be able to do this alone. So I prayed as hard as I could.

So he has a better doctrine of vocation than most--I really appreciated "I just prayed for the strength to go out there and compete," not "to get a win."

And then this morning, reportedly:

Curt Schilling just ended his interview with Charlie Gibson by saying: "Tell everyone to vote, vote for Bush." You should have seen the look on Gibson's face. It was priceless.

Now that I've been gracious to him, I can go back to waiting for the Yankees to not give him this chance next year.

Little slice of history

On October 28, 1975, Harry Reasoner told his nationwide audience:

The news today was as usual full of politicians and other movers and shakers, but the odds are overwhelming that when historians look at the bright blue late October of 1975 the only thing they will keep about the 27th is that is was the day Rex Stout died and the 28th was the day the death was reported. Rex Stout was a lot of things during his eighty-eight years, but the main thing he was was the writer of forty-six mystery novels about Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. A lot of more pretentious writers have less claim on our culture and our allegiance.

from Rex Stout: A Biography by John McAleer

One day, I'll try to write up exactly what impact Stout has/has/will have on me. But for now, I'll just leave it at that this. Tho' I didn't know it that October when I was three, it was one of the saddest days in history.

new look

well, while killing time over the last few nights after work, etc. I've tweaked a new template...not sure if I'll keep it or go back to the old one...what do you think? Email me or leave a comment and this weekend I'll decide.

Covenental Fandom

So last week while I'm missing Game 7, my wife and Frodo are watching and talking.

The Mrs: So if the Red Sox go to the World Series, will you cheer for them?
Frodo: No!

(later)

The Mrs: So when you grow up and have kids, can I come over and teach them to cheer for the Red Sox?
Frodo: NO! You can cheer for them, but I will teach them to be Yankee fans.
The Mrs: Well, what if you marry a Red Sox fan?
Frodo: Well, I will tell her it's okay for her, but that we have to teach our kids to be Yankee fans.

Now, I grant you, we clearly have some work to do on the idea of being unequally yoked...but you gotta admire his faithfulness. :)

Yea, The Yankees, art a team unto your children and your children's children.

Amen. And now for our hymn of benediction....

Start spreadin' the news...

Actually Glad I was at Work for This One...

Joe Torre: "None of us want this to happen. We went out there, busted our tails."

Gary Sheffield: "Right now, I'm shocked by the way it all ended. We were one game away, but no one took it for granted. We knew it was going to be tough to close it out."

Bernie Williams: "Those guys kept playing the way we used to play. They have two great horses in Manny and David, but the rest of the team are tough outs, too. They gave our pitchers a run for their money. They just weren't going to be beaten."

All true, but Derek Jeter puts it best: "I haven't even thought about it. It's upsetting to lose, but as far as being the first team (to lose four straight in a postseason series), I couldn't care less about that. They played better than us. That's basically it. You can come up with this or that, but the bottom line is that they beat us."

this is better...

...than the Which OS are You? quiz....

Which File Extension are You?

Spot-On Column

Tom Singer's analysis of the ALCS is spot on perfect...esp. his list of the "three trends brought the Yankees from the brink of a World Series to just plain the brink."

• Mariano Rivera fell into a bed of Kryptonite
• The Red Sox put their celebrated lunacy to good use
• John Olerud

That last item is probably truer than the rest...Clark is making me realize how much I miss Giambi (or Olerud for that matter)...

It's all his fault

See this man here? At least 90% of the problems in my life are due to him.

These include, but are not limited to, the disgusting and disheartening comeback of the Boston Red Sox, books not arriving from an un-named online book seller on time (and then me getting nasty emails from the company when I point that out), my inability to get any sleep, my inability to write a best-selling novel, my nasty inability to finish the take-home test, the way that the light in this room makes me squint too much, the fact that it's raining out side right now...and so on.

How does he do it? I don't know. He's just that diabolical--heck, he even admits it on his own blog!

feel better getting that off my chest. I've now joined the growing legions of blogs in this world griping about him. I'm part of the crowd :)

Your anti-Gov't School article of the Week

Harry Browne tackles the old canard "What happens to the students whose parents are too poor to afford to send them to a private school or homeschool, if we eliminate 'public' schools?" in Education for Everyone.

Talking 'bout Pop Music

I take music pretty seriously. You see that scar on my wrist? You see that? You know where that's from? I heard the Beegees were getting back together again. I couldn't take it, okay!

Okay, I take it a shade less seriously than Denis Leary ('course if I was older, the Beegees getting together again might have had the same effect on me...can't be sure).

I don't listen to a lot of radio nowadays...mostly because the majority of stations 'round here don't play much worth listening to. Mostly relying on people like Julie, Alex and Mike who have good taste to help me find new stuff, or just waiting 'til artists I like put out something new. But there's always a radio playing in the grill area at work, so I'm getting my fill of the radio.

Now most of the time, the radio is turned to a Spanish-only station. Now based on my education from Wall of Voodoo and Tom Petty, Mexican Radio sounded like a wonderland, but I just don't get the allure. Part of my beef is that I can't understand a lick of it. This really annoys me, it's the same reason I don't listen to opera, operetta, most choral stuff--if I can't understand the words, what's the point? Although I do have to appreciate the fact that there are "rock" artists other than Weird Al who are promoting the accordion.

But the last couple of weeks, somehow the tuner's been changed to Top 40 stuff--and I miss the lyrical depth of the Mexicans... Not all of it's bad, mind you. For example, Bowling for Soup's "1985" is a fun song. Two songs I'm hearing incessantly are really getting to me.

1. Brittney Spears' "My Prerogative." I'm tempted to expose myself to intense radiation so I could perhaps grow 8 more thumbs so I could give it 10 thumbs down. Really, little girl, couldn't you have picked a better role model than Bobby Brown? And if you were going to do a cover, make it somewhat original, put your stamp on it. I will admit that I owned, and liked, Bobby's Don't Be Cruel album that the original song was on. But that was 1988, and what worked in '88 doesn't work in '04--you've got to do something other with the original. Brittney can be tolerable, even slightly fun, when she's doing silly bubble-gum pop. But now that she's decided she's the second coming of Madonna, she's just sad. And then this...Warhol's 15 minute clock is ticking, m'dear.

2. Some silly girl group is doing a cover of Bryan Adams' "Heaven" (and no, I'm not on an anti-cover rant...some of my favorite tracks are covers). The lyrics are semi-vapid, a little cliché, and the music's uninspired. But for some reason when you put Adams' raspy voice and "heart" together with them, it works. With these wannabe's...blech. Sadly, as popular as it seems to be, I live in fear of Jessica Simpson covering "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" or Christina Aguilera doing "Straight from the Heart."

If either of those happen, I will spill blood, I just don't know whose yet.

early mornin' chuckle

from the Borowitz Report:

Elsewhere, Major League Baseball announced that the third meeting between the Yankees and the Red Sox on Friday night will focus entirely on domestic issues, including the economy, education, health care and taxes.

Who's your Daddy?

Close but no cigar two nights running...

Yeah, I ditched the debate. Felt a little bad about that, due to work schedules, it was the only one I could've watched. But hey, it's not like it was going to change my vote.

So instead I get to watch Lieber own the Sox. Pedro did okay, but it wasn't at the same level. Sure, off to Boston for 3, but Kevin Brown showed some good stuff last week...should be able to hold his own.

eh, it'll do...

Which OS are You?

in the end, just a man...

I guess I'm getting to cynical...my first thought when I read the headline about Christopher Reeve's death was, "Oh man...right before the election? Kerry-types will have a rallying point on the stem-cell research issue." Second thought, "What're they gonna do on Smallville?"

Then it hit me, Reeve was dead. Superman, in a sense, was dead. Reeve's work taught me everything I knew about Superman for years to come. Watching him fly, made me want to. It made me think I could. I can remember the feeling of elation sitting there in the theater, watching him fly, watching him save the day (watching him do really stupid things with Richard Pryor...ick). Maybe my boys feel the same way when they see Toby Maguire swing across the screen (actually, I think I kinda feel that way), but I can't think of anything else on the Silver Screen that could get that kind of reaction from a kid.

And he owned the role. He was Superman. Dean Cain, John Haymes Newton, and Tom Welling couldn't do anything without being compared to him. The same will be true for whoever Bryan Singer gets for the role. (tho' he did seem to pass the baton to Welling in his work as Dr. Swann on Smallville)

Granted, that caused some problems for him as an actor...but, Somewhere in Time, Remains of the Day, and Speechless (to name a few) showed he could pull it off. And he seemed to be getting better parts before his accident. And then the way he kept going on, kept acting, directing, working for research...he seemed more super then than in the movies (for the moment ignoring the ethical problems with some of the solutions he championed).

You will be missed. You may not have had the powers (or the weakness to green glowing rocks), but you were in your own way, a hero.

this is why I HATE night shifts

I totally missed this:

and all the excitement that led up to it.

"It was pretty shallow, but I was going to be aggressive. I was going all the way," Jeter said. "You have to force someone to make a play. I decided to take a chance."

Force 'em anytime, Derek...whoo-hoo

does it get better than this?

Sitting with my kids, watching post-season baseball. Teaching them, having fun with them...and soon to trade them in for hanging with the Mrs. and watching post-season baseball. Maybe read a little Calvin while doing so...

Good times.

Now only if it wasn't top of the 6th with the Twins up by 1...

guess this means I survived the 7 year itch

Well it was 8 years ago today that my far better half made the biggest mistake of her life and said, "I do."

Since then there are many days I wish I could re-do, said many things I shouldn't have said, and didn't say many more things that I should've said. But on the whole, best years of my life. Looking forward to many more, Lord willing.

interesting quote

Found this in the .sig on a contriubtion to a discussion list, thought it was worthy of note.

"I am convinced that the battle for humankind's future must be waged and won
in the public school classroom by teachers who correctly perceive their role
as the proselytizers of a new faith: a religion of humanity that recognizes
and respects the spark of what theologians call divinity in every human
being. Thess [sic] teachers must embody the same selfless dedication as the
most rabid fundamentalist preachers, for they will be ministers of another
sort, utilizing a classroom instead of a pulpit to convey humanist values in
whatever subject they teach, regardless of the educational level --
preschool day care or large state university. The classroom must and will
become an arena of conflict between the old and the new -- the rotting
corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evils and misery, and
the new faith of humanism." John Dunphy, "A Religion for a New Age,"
Humanist, January-February 1983, p. 26