Play Ball

I just went to CBS Sportsline to check the Yankee score and saw my first outrage of the new baseball season (and it's not these argyle caps). The CBS website has a clock counting down the seconds until interleague play. Yes, let’s forgo our celebration of Opening Day. Instead let’s literally count the seconds for the next 46 days until the abomination of interleague play. I can’t speak for every baseball fan, but I know the highlight of the season for me will be when the Yankees’ race for the pennant is suspended mid-campaign so the Bombers can play the Pirates and the Diamondbacks, followed by the Rockies and Giants. They are still selling this as a novelty years and years after it has gotten tired and annoying (it was always pointless). That goes for the Yankees/Mets “Subways Series,” too. I’ve already sworn off ESPN dot com. If anyone can tell me of a decent website for American sports, please share.

While I’m ranting, my new annoyance is parents talking down to their children. There is a difference between being young and being stupid, but some parents talk to their young children as if they are stupid. It sounds so condescending and disrespectful that I don’t know why anyone would do it. Even if the five year old isn’t embarrassed, all the adults within earshot should be. If the kid is old enough to use the phone, he’s old enough to be spoken to without the sing-songy voice or without referring to yourself in the third person. You don’t need to remind your kid that “Mommy” is at work. If you say “I’m still at work” and the kid doesn’t know it’s you, perhaps you should look into having him tested. There is a way to mirror a child’s enthusiasm and provide positive reinforcement and encouragement without patronizing him like a bunny rabbit. It's sick.

The most E-mailed story in the NY Times is from Sunday and headlined “For Girls, It’s Be Yourself, and Be Perfect, Too.” I typically read any daughter-related items I come across (there was an interesting experiment on Underwater Fathering a few years ago that I highly recommend), so I dug into this extensive article about the pressures on a group of high school girls in Newton, MA trying to get into college. I quit reading about halfway through when it became clear that the subject of the story could be more accurately described as privileged high achievers in an affluent town who happen to be girls. The Times admits that the upbringing in Newton is hardly common, but it’s still odd that the focus of the story is on gender. There are clearly many more girls in “typical” school systems facing challenges that they could write about. The subjects of the article will excel at whatever they do, so I don’t see the “story,” besides these girls being under a lot of pressure. Didn’t we learn anything from The Breakfast Club? It’s not easy for anyone, OK? I think it says a lot about The Times as a symbol of the "liberal elite" that enough readers identify with the story that it’s the most shared on the website.

It looks like the Aloha Motel might not be open for business anymore. I took my first close look while driving by over the weekend and it certainly looks deserted. I’m sure people will be selling and using crack in there in no time, just like the motel guests probably did.