12/31/2007

No entries since October 9, how about that? Month by month there has been a steady decline in my activity here, and blog entries are not the only things that haven’t gotten done, trust me. The longer the silence, the more pressure there has been to come up with something profound to say upon my return. I don’t think I am going to be able to measure up to that. The end of 2007 has just gotten me to think about how this blog started at the beginning of the year and all that has happened.

I haven’t really been into New Year’s as a celebration since I was a child and the years I could remember were few. I remember 1977 turning into 1978. As a kid, there seemed to be so much wonder in what the new year would bring, including the excitement of getting older. Now that I’m old I know that December 31 is just another day that marks the passage of time. I look back and despite all the excitement there must have been at the time, there wasn’t anything really remarkable about 2002 turning into 2003. It’s best not to get our hopes up anyway. We live a touch-and-go existence. A really great year is too much to ask for. It’s best to hope for a year where we are mostly fortunate, and I think we have been. A long December and there’s reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last, someone said once ; )

I read about Jim Leyritz yesterday, finally. What a truly depressing end of the year. Coincidentally I had just met Jim Leyritz a couple of months ago at an appearance he made at a car dealership here in town. This was something I had meant to write about because the guy from Vision Ford, which sponsored the appearance, was such a clown.

I spent about ten minutes talking with Leyritz and the person from the dealership who apparently booked the appearance. The topic of Derek Jeter’s trip to Rochester for a stag party came up, and we laughed about how the club owner falsely promoted it as a public appearance and how fans showed up. They guy from Vision confided in Leyritz the name of Jeter’s friend getting married, “TJ” or something, so the guy was trying to establish I guess that he is some kind of insider. Poseur is more like it. At one point between all his important cell phone calls, he asked Leyritz to confirm the pronunciation of his name. His description of the call he had with the booking agent, though, was the perfect display of arrogance and ignorance. The booking agent provided a list of players available for appearances, one of whom was Roy White. The guy got a big kick out of explaining how he had scoffed at Roy White to the booking agent and chose Leyrtiz instead. Imagine denigrating one former major league ballplayer to another. What credentials does this kid have, other than the silver spoon? And Roy White was a damn good ballplayer. I was in shock and I didn’t say anything. I didn’t think I wanted to get into it with him, but I should have called him out just to embarrass him. It’s like telling David Bowie that Mick Jagger is a horrible singer. And by the way, do you pronounce it “Bow-ee” or “Boo-ee?”

I had Leyritz autograph a copy of The Daily News I had saved from the extra inning playoff game I went to in 1995 when he hit the game winning home run against Seattle. It’s a weird thing to have now. Another memory sullied, sullied right along with Andy Pettite and his fake apology. What is not sullied for me about that game though is watching Don Mattingly in person for the last time, and the sounds of “Don-nie Base-ball” at the Stadium like nothing I have ever heard.

How appropriate that this Christmas I got a copy of “The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty” by Buster Olney. We are looking back already. 2008 is upon us!

Where have all the good times gone?

When I heard George Steinbrenner’s comments about Joe Torre two nights ago, I was surprised. Everything that Steinbrenner says lately, even the most innocuous stuff, comes through one of his spokesmen. I was curious about where these comments came from, and found that Steinbrenner had provided them to the NJ Bergen Record in a phone interview. Steinbrenner has not only been shielded from the media, but he has appeared confused the times that he has appeared. When the TBS broadcast team acted like this was the same old Steinbrenner who antagonized Billy Martin, that this was the same old Steinbrenner trying to motivate the troops, it didn’t add up to me. Regardless, it seems unlikely that Torre will be back. Considering how badly Steinbrenner wanted to can him last year, he won’t offer him a new contract. Despite what I said before, I would like to see him back. He managed the team back from nowhere to a playoff spot, which seems forgotten now. The reason the Yankees are out is the same reason for most of their recent failures. They don’t have stud pitching and they can’t hit it, either. Next year with Hughes and Chamberlain in the rotation maybe they will be on their way. Maybe it’s been enough with Torre. It’s too bad. The Post said that Tony LaRussa isn’t interested in the Yankees job, but Bill Madden at the Daily News says he is very interested. Can anyone imagine that A-hole in pinstripes?

The TBS broadcast team tended to be redundant and repeat themselves and say the same things over and over again (imagine them in a seven game series talking about two-out hits and two-strike counts), but TBS scored a colossal victory last night for sports fans. TBS was about the go to a commercial break at the end of an inning when the Indians protested that Posada had caused catcher interference. Unlike every other network currently carrying sports, TBS actually stayed on the field to sort out what the controversy was and show a replay. After the replay cleared showed that the interference claim was bogus, TBS broke to the regularly scheduled commercials. I wouldn’t be surprised if Fox, NBC, CBS, et. al. contact TBS and tell them to cut it out. That kind of stuff is bad for business.

I actually planned on watching the Bills game last night after the Yankee game ended, but after four hours of baseball I was too tired and went to bed. I couldn’t avoid seeing the results this morning. Apparently Dallas scored twice in the last minute to win the game. I can’t even bring myself to read about it, so I doubt if I’m going to be able to ever sit through that game now. It’s great how Paul Byrd waits over 30 seconds between pitches. When the games next round start at 8:30 it will be a real treat for Red Sox fans. Another thing I like is how Joe Borowski licks his entire hand between pitches. I had heard that on cold days, pitchers need the umpire’s permission to blow on their hands. I guess with all the other stuff going on in baseball, what’s a little spit anyway?

Not that there’s a good way to lose, but the Sabres’ two losses so far I think are the worst to watch. They are a team that has no discipline and chases the puck around in their own half of the rink. They think everything is going to be easy, just like they thought it was going to be easy last year. It’s catching up with them early this season.

I caught some of the Democratic presidential debate with the AARP a few weeks ago. Obama was the only one not there. I’m not sure who I prefer at this point. The candidates agreed on most all of the issues. It was a challenge for Judy Woodruff to find any points on which the candidates disagreed. Hillary has seemed like the inevitable candidate for ten years, and that’s part of the reason I’m resisting her. Joe Biden seems charismatic in some ways, but he has some corporate executive type A-holishness there as well that I don’t like. One answer that John Edwards gave typifies why any democrat will have trouble in the general election. When they talked about pulling out of Iraq, Edwards said they needed to involve Iran and Syria, since they have a vested interest in stability in the region. Iran and Syria! I expect many voters are looking for some sort of reasonable approach between that one and the posturing of Rudy Giuliani. Christopher Hitchens thinks that Al Gore is going to win the Nobel Peace Prize and then declare his candidacy. I would probably throw my support to him.

Syd was sick all weekend with a terrible fever. She spent most of Sunday lying on the couch in the front room. Drew is now crawling and climbing and wanted to check out what his big sister was doing. After Syd went to bed, Drew went right back to the couch and I tossed him up there. He couldn’t have been more thrilled. He rolled around and laughed and we played catch with a ball. I had to catch Drew a few times to keep him from falling on the floor. With his sister out of the picture, you could tell he thought he was the king. It struck me as very funny. He is so helpless at his age to do what he wants and express himself, especially compared to his sister. But he won because he stayed up later. Well done!

A Scandal A Day

From the New York Times yesterday:

“With Blackwater and other private contractors in Iraq facing tighter scrutiny, the House of Representatives on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a bill that would bring all United States government contractors in the Iraq war zone under the jurisdiction of American criminal law. The bill was approved 389 to 30, despite strong opposition from the White House. It came as lawmakers and human rights groups are using the Sept. 16 shooting by Blackwater personnel in Baghdad to highlight the many contractors operating in Iraq who have apparently been unaccountable to American military or civilian laws and outside the reach of the Iraqi judicial system.”

From the New York Times today:

“When the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations. But soon after Alberto R. Gonzales's arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency. The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.”

472 more days of ineptitude, dishonesty, and cruelty.

Randy Kuhl as no surprise strongly supports George Bush’s veto of the bipartisan bill to expand health care to more uninsured children. I put so much support behind Eric Massa in his race for Kuhl’s office last year because this is exactly the type of disgraceful representation I wanted to avoid. The only reason Kuhl supports my district is because we are gerrymandered with a bunch of small-minded hicks along the southern tier who believe any lies they hear from a republican about a democrat wanting to cut their precious social security. You can’t pick up the Elmira paper without reading some letter to the editor from someone who couldn’t get his prescription filled and went to Kuhl’s office for help and one of Representative Pothole’s flunkies went and sorted it out for him. By the way, Kuhl was one of the 30 representatives mentioned above by The Times who voted against the bill to “Require Accountability for Contractors and Contract Personnel Under Federal Contracts, and for Other Purposes,” goose-stepping right behind Bush. Only 30 out of 419 representatives put Bush and Cheney above all else, and one of them does it in my name as my representative!

New York Yankees - unbelievable. If they lose to another team of young upstarts they all need to go, including Torre, the former Yankee coaches, and the managerial-go-round basecoaches. I'm not bailing out and I'm not pointing fingers, but they have to play to their potential. Lose to the Angels once, I guess it happens. Lose to the Angels again, and maybe you were unlucky. Lose to Detoit, then lose to Cleveland... Like Jimmy from South Park would say, "Come on."

I love that the games are on early. I love that TBS is not trying to outfox Fox with the gimmicks, crowd shots, distractions, and "attitude." I like the roving reporter in the crazy sportcoats. He actually has interesting things to say. Accusing LeBron James of being a frontrunner - and LeBron's answer - were brilliant. His drum isn't the only thing the Indians superfan hasn't changed since 1973. He's still got the same haircut, mustache, and eyeglasses as well.

Good points made by Jerry Sullivan at the beginning of the week regarding why Buffalo will give Edwards every chance to win the quarterback job. Losman has shown that he does a lot better when he's pushed by another QB, but he may not get a chance to show it this time.

Good Gravy Marie

It’s been a tough year for the Match Game. Less than four months after losing Charles Nelson Reilly, we have to say goodbye to Brett Somers. They are now truly a match made in heaven. Au revior, Brett!

On the Yankees: This is such a great time of the year. This team is so much fun to watch and has put together such a great second half of the season. Now that the weather is starting to get a little colder the excitement is really building for a postseason run. Unfortunately the problem is that it’s going to be a lot colder in the postseason and the games are going to run so much later. They made the point on ESPN the other night that Yankees/Red Sox games run so much longer than games between any other two teams. The same goes for the post-season when so much weight is put on every pitch thrown and the game slows down. One thing that the series this past weekend showed me once again is how much I just hate hate hate the Red Sox. Sure enough those emotions come out because they are always there. My dream is to open my bottle of Manny Ramierez wine the night the Yankees eliminate the Red Sox in the playoffs. That would be the sweetest wine ever.

On the Bills: JP Losman’s dedication to the city of Buffalo, the fact that he lives downtown, and his ability to get over 2,000 Bills fans to show up with rakes and shovels to clean up the most depressed parts of the city I think only serves to make it more painful when he doesn’t pan out as a franchise quarterback. I believe this only because Tom Donohoe drafted Losman, and everything else Donohoe touched as President and General Manager of the club has proven to be a total failure and has been dismantled. I don’t believe that Levy and Jauron are against Losman because he is not “their guy.” I haven’t totally given up on Losman based on what he’s done on the field the first two games this year. I just believe in the poison of Tom Donohoe.

On the Sabres: Tickets to the “Winter Classic” apparently sold out instantly this morning. I think the idea is cool and I liked when Michigan State did it, but I’m a little skeptical of the whole thing. I say that having attempted to get tickets myself. I don’t see this as a hockey game so much as a spectacle, although it is certainly an engaging one. I think people want to go because they don’t want to miss out on an event and because they want to drink. Once you get past how cool it will be to see a hockey game staged in a football stadium, I don’t think there will be much to watching actual hockey unless you are in the minority with great seats or unless you are watching the scoreboard. If you are paying more to go than you would pay to see the Bills, you are going for an event and not to watch a game. And I’m not being critical because I am in the category as well. This will be very cool to watch on television anyway, especially on the afternoon of New Year’s Day in the comfort of a living room. The announcement of the event at least takes some of the focus off an organization that perpetuates its worst off-season with the recent suspension of Teppo Numminen. It would be a shame if the “Winter Classic” turned out to be the highlight of the Sabres season, but it could work out that way.

#85

I was dropping my kids off at day care around 8:00 this morning and the experience left me feeling a different connection to the victims of the terror attacks six years before. I related to these people before as peers, as fellow New Yorkers. Six years later I am a parent of two children, and I relate to these people now as parents. I ascribe to them the same feelings that I now have as a parent. As someone who never personally knew any of the victims, it adds a lot more reality to the emptiness that these past six years must have been for tens of thousands of people. A shared humanity means that we all appreciate these things, but nothing like having children can so profoundly affect your point of view, especially with things that deal with safety, security, and well being.

On a similar theme, I have been looking for updates on Kevin Everett continually since Sunday. It sounds like tonight there is even more reason to be hopeful. I remember when Mike Utley and Dennis Byrd were hurt and I was certainly concerned for them. With Everett being a Bill though, I feel like we really need to “be there” for him, as vague as that may sound. He went out there and played for us and he is our guy. It makes me think of Joe Ferguson battling cancer and the outpouring of support he received from Bills fans. I really believe in these things. I am praying for a miracle and I am hoping that the Buffalo community is counted here.

Shrinkage

Consumer News: I have bought Breyer’s yogurt because it is the only brand that offers eight ounce containers. All of the other brands have gone down to six ounces while charging the same price. For a couple of weeks I couldn’t find Breyer’s on the shelves at Wegman’s. I asked a person in the dairy department about it, and he said that Breyer’s went to six ounces, so Wegman’s stopped carrying the brand. He said that the only reason they offered Breyer’s at all was because it came in eight ounce containers. So I’m basically through with yogurt. What good does six ounces of yogurt do a growing boy like me? I might as well buy a package of six grapes while I’m at it. It makes as much sense. Is the amount of plastic that goes into the landfill worth it for three spoonfuls of yogurt? I’m done!

It gets better. I went on the internet and found that since Unilever bought Breyer’s, they have also shrunk the size of their “half gallon” ice cream containers to 1.7 quarts and started adding fillers to their ice cream. It made me recall those Breyer’s commercials where the little kids would try to read the list of ingredients on the competitor’s cartons. The kids couldn’t read all the chemicals, but they could read the Breyer’s label because it said, “milk, sugar, vanilla,” and so on.

It turns out that people are so pissed with Unilever about the ice cream, that the Wikipedia entry for Breyer’s has been locked due to vandalism! What a tremendous innovation, to not only give people smaller amounts, but add fillers to what you do sell them to make it cheaper to produce. People get big bonuses for coming up with these ideas. It reminds me of how The Simpsons in syndication have gags cut out so they can show more commercials. You think about how it’s somebody’s job to watch a Simpson’s episode that was created by many talented and creative people and cut out 90 seconds of it so three more promos can be shown for another rerun that they show on the WB. That is precisely someone’s contribution to the entertainment industry and American society. This should be a soul-crushing occupation, but sadly I’m sure it’s not. These people could be kissed by a Dementor and just get right up, pop in a breath mint, and be on their way.

In other news, the US Open is underway and I haven’t caught any articles in the New York papers covering how expensive all the concessions are. No exaggerations do justice to the actual price of something like a sandwich at the US Open. A sandwich is like $14. Every year it’s sublime. The prices are ludicrous, people complain, the people at the US Open don’t see what the problem is. Maybe it’s not even news any more. That would be a shame because the whole thing was so amusing to me.

The resignation of Alberto Gonzales is like all the resignations under George Bush. A guy who gave rational people severe reservations when he took the job shows total ineptness and contempt for the rule of law and the American people, and it takes numerous attempts before the President finally lets him resign. Because once again in this administration, loyalty trumps ability. And Bush looks all the worse for saying that the problem is everybody outside of his administration, not his hand-picked cronies who are driving the country into the ground from the inside. It’s a shame that congress didn’t stand up to this nomination in the first place. Instead, they let Gonzales’ tenure lead to its inevitable scandals and then tried to run him out with months after months of hearings. The Justice Department and whatever is left of due process has paid the price. TWO Christmases will pass before this guy is out of office.

Find other demotivating posters at the link below. It was hard to pick my favorite, but I posted the “Stupidity” one because I thought the picture was hilarious. That's how I was holding my head about halfway through my fantasy football draft.

http://www.despair.com/index.html

Drive

It was past time that I got the oil changed on both of our cars, and luckily I can just drop them off at a garage near my office and then walk to work. There is no need to make an appointment or wait for the car to be finished. It’s a perfect setup and I can’t imagine anyone not doing the same thing. But nearly every time I need to take the car in, the same thing happens. One of the women I work with will see me walking down the street and express a ridiculous amount of concern. They ask “Did I see you walking down the sidewalk this morning?” in the same tone of voice you would use to ask “Was that you I saw digging through the garbage this morning?” It takes some effort to assure them that everything is all right. I guess since it would take a series of calamities to get them to walk a few blocks, they assume that I’ve had some serious misfortune. They invariably offer to drive me the next time. What bugs me the most is how deeply ingrained and reflexive this lazy attitude is - "If there is any way I can avoid expending the effort and time required to walk somewhere, I should take it, obvious to the other costs involved." So I got the oil changed in the Saturn on Wednesday with no problem. Yesterday, I was walking back to the garage to pick up the Ford and sure enough I got busted. A co-worker calls from her van, asking if I want a ride. I decline and she insists that it’s on her way, not understanding at all. How come it is the walking of two blocks that seems like the waste?

From today's Buffalo News on the growing trend of families with three or more cars: "The trend, mirrored nationwide, is most prominent in the region’s growing suburbs, such as Clarence. Affluent and purposely designed to mostly keep people and places distant from each other, Clarence has dealt with the subsequent need to drive everywhere by accumulating the county’s largest percentage of households — about one of every four — with three or more vehicles." I used to live in New Jersey, and I'm reminded of it everytime I drive down Transit. The good life!

Dennise had on one of the music channels that we get through the TV and it was playing “Rehab,” but it was the Jay Z “remix.” It sounded for a few seconds like the DJ had his mic open and he was just yelling and talking over the music. I thought “What the hell?” Then it broke into the “rap” part of the song where Jay Z shows what a super talent he is. He is such a super talent that he waited for Amy Winehouse to write a hit song so that he could add a rap verse in the middle of it and then release it four months later. Kick ass.

Expect to keep seeing a lot of Michael Vick jerseys this year. If people went out and bought OJ jerseys after the double homicide, they are certainly going to keep the Vick jerseys they already bought.

I replaced the mechanism in the upstairs toilet tank on Wednesday. One of the main problems with our house is that there is no way to completely turn off the water anywhere. I can’t turn the water off at any of the sinks or the commodes because there are no valves. When I turn off the water in the basement, I still get a pretty decent trickle. There were a few minutes when I thought I was going to flood the house, especially after I cracked the old fill valve and there was no turning back. I was home alone with Drew, who of course started screaming from his crib. I had to set him up in a seat in the hallway, where he watched me while I knelt down in a puddle of water and tried to figure out the instructions. Everything turned out perfectly, except I had to dirty many more towels than I was hoping to.