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.

RIP Scooter

What more can possible said about the Scooter?

So many wonderful memories have been recalled and so many wonderful things have been said by thousands of baseball fans already today.

Phil Rizzuto was like a member of the family. He was like your dad’s uncle, and he shared the New York Yankees with me through the first twenty-four years of my life. It is with uncles, fathers, and grandfathers that we first experience and learn about baseball.

I am glad that I was able to listen to Scooter and Bill White call baseball games for so many years. White was the consummate professional who perfectly complimented Rizzuto and had an obvious affection for him. Rizzuto was above all a Yankee fan and his excitement and his style came from wanting his Yankees to do well.

The simple, honest enthusiasm of my youth was reflected in Rizzuto’s enthusiasm in calling a ballgame. I think part of the sadness for so many of us comes from the realization that we have not felt that way in a long time!

Senate Passes Children’s Health Bill, 68-31

New York Times - August 3, 2007:

The Senate defied President Bush on Thursday and passed a bipartisan bill that would provide health insurance for millions of children in low-income families.

The vote was 68 to 31. The majority was more than enough to overcome the veto repeatedly threatened by Mr. Bush. The White House said the bill “goes too far in federalizing health care.” But Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and chief sponsor of the bill, said, “Millions of American children have hope for a healthier future tonight.”

The bill would increase spending on the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program by $35 billion over the next five years.

“Covering these children is worth every cent,” said Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, who helped create the program 10 years ago.

The House passed a much larger bill on Wednesday, presenting negotiators with a formidable challenge in trying to work out differences between the two measures. Still, the strong commitment to the issue by Democratic leaders virtually guarantees that they can work out a compromise before Sept. 30, when the program is set to expire. But that compromise is likely to be unacceptable to Mr. Bush. If Mr. Bush vetoes the bill, the future of the program would quickly become an issue in 2008 campaigns for Congress and the White House, in the context of a broader debate about universal coverage for health care.

The House bill, which passed on a vote of 225 to 204, would increase spending by $50 billion over the next five years. The Senate rejected a proposal by Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, to match that increase — and to cover the extra cost by raising taxes on people with incomes exceeding $1 million a year.

Both bills would raise tobacco taxes. The federal excise tax on cigarettes would rise to $1 a pack under the Senate bill and to 84 cents a pack under the House measure, from 39 cents a pack.
The House bill would sharply reduce federal subsidies paid to insurance companies offering private health plans to Medicare beneficiaries. Many Democrats say these plans, which serve nearly one-fifth of the 43 million Medicare beneficiaries, are overpaid. The Senate bill does not deal with Medicare.

Michael O. Leavitt, the secretary of health and human services, said Congress was jeopardizing health care for millions of needy children by passing bills that “the president will have no choice but to veto.”

Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, a Republican who helped write the Senate bill, said he intended to try to persuade Mr. Bush to sign the legislation that emerges from Congress. But Mr. Grassley said that he would fight the proposed cuts in Medicare payments to private plans.
“It’s a question of equity for rural America,” Mr. Grassley said. “Before 2003, rural Medicare beneficiaries rarely had private Medicare plans to choose from. They did not have the same choices people have in urban America. These plans can be a good choice for people with a chronic illness, for lower-income people and for those who want extra benefits.”

Insurers say the private plans would disappear from many parts of the country if Medicare payments were cut as proposed by House Democrats. But AARP, the lobby for older Americans, has endorsed the House bill. It says the “excess payments” to private plans cause higher premiums for all beneficiaries, including those in traditional Medicare. In the final Senate vote, 18 Republicans and 2 independents joined 48 Democrats in supporting the legislation. All the no votes were cast by Republicans.

Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan, set forth the case this way: “As lawmakers, we have a moral obligation to provide health care coverage for the millions of uninsured children. Health care should be a right, not a privilege, and covering every child is an important step toward this goal.”

But the Senate Republican whip, Trent Lott of Mississippi, said: “If you want to go to government-run, socialistic medicine, this is it, this is the way it’s going to happen. Even my colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle are buying this deal.”

Senator Baucus insisted that “this is not a huge massive expansion. This has nothing to do with national health insurance.” Under the bill, states can use federal money to pay health care providers or to help families buy private insurance. Senator Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota, said, “To suggest that this is somehow socialized medicine is one of the most far-fetched arguments I have seen on the Senate floor. This care is provided by private physicians, using private insurance companies.”

Both bills would offer bonus payments to states as an incentive to find and enroll low-income children. The Congressional Budget Office says the Senate bill would cover 3.2 million uninsured children, including 2.7 million who are currently eligible but not enrolled. The House bill, it said, would cover 4.2 million children, including 3.8 million already eligible for benefits. In addition, both bills would provide money to prevent 800,000 children now on the program from losing coverage.

The current allocations of federal money, totaling $5 billion a year, are not enough for states to maintain their current programs. Senators of both parties said the bill would help Mr. Bush fulfill a promise he made at the Republican National Convention in New York City on Sept. 2, 2004. “America’s children must have a healthy start in life,” Mr. Bush said then. “In a new term, we will lead an aggressive effort to enroll millions of poor children who are eligible but not signed up for the government’s health insurance programs. We will not allow a lack of attention, or information, to stand between these children and the health care they need.”

The Bridge

Here are the President’s comments regarding the Minneapolis bridge collapse:

“We in the federal government must respond and respond robustly to help the people there not only recover, but to make sure that lifeline of activity, that bridge, gets rebuilt as quickly as possible.”

Who has raised concerns about how soon the bridge can be rebuilt? In any report of this tragedy, has any witness or rescue worker or local official paused long enough from describing the horrible images they have seen to ask about rebuilding the bridge?

It is this fake bravado from Bush that also sent hundreds of rescue workers into the rubble of the WTC while the government lied about air safety. While the truth has still not come out after congressional hearings, we did hear from Christine Todd Whitman that the Bush administration thought it was important to restore activity as soon as possible in order to prove something to the terrorists. Ironically of course, the outcome of this policy was a higher and still rising death count from the attacks.

So here we go again. Nearly 100 victims are still in the depths of the Mississippi River and the safety of 77,000 other bridges across the country are suddenly called into question, but by all means let’s make sure we rebuild this bridge as quickly as possible and restore “activity.”

How crass to mention “restoring activity” during a rescue operation, when “activity” for the George Bush can only refer to burning gas on your way to the store to buy something on credit that you don’t need and can’t afford.

While Bush was trying to prove something to the terrorists with his post-9/11 bullhorn posturing (as if terrorists are going to receive and be persuaded by a message from us), I’m not sure to whom he is trying to prove something here. I think this is just business as usual. Strong words from a weak man who hasn’t been able to back up anything he has ever said with either ability or integrity. A man, who with everything he says, proves that he just doesn’t get it.

Maybe I am overly obsessing on one comment, but seriously, screw him. Screw George Bush. Nowhere is he seen or heard where I am not reminded of what he has done to this country. I sicken thinking of the toll this administration will continue take on us over the next seventeen months.

Seven Inches

Inspired by my blog entry about the vinyl punk singles at The Record Archive, my cousin Jennifer bought me a starter 45 as well as a gift certificate for my birthday. I went back this past weekend and bought three more, since I was pretty much called out to buy some of these oddball records that I had romanticized so much. So here they are, along with my ignorant opinions, which as a member of the record-buying public I am bloody well entitled to:

Thee Cellar Dwellers
“Wonderin’ Why”
1987
Carlisle, PA
$3

Sounds like: The Byrds, The Animals

Lyric approximation:
“Don’t you know girl there’s a cloud in your head
You know girl you’d be better off dead”

Record cover: B+
Song: C-

Released on Get Hip Records, which is still in business and looks from the website that it might have more interesting stuff to offer than this rather forgettable two minute “mid-tempo garage number” as they described it.

The Tinglers
“White Boots In The Night”
Date Unknown
Webster, NY
$3

Sounds like: Spinal Tap

Lyric approximation:
“White boots in the night, mini-skirts... ooooh! They wear them so tight
They got micro stitch and leather, talking pens and bulletproof sweaters”

Record cover: A
Song: B-

Produced by Tony Gross and released on his TFI label, this song has catchiness going for it. The other lyrics have to do with psychedelic rivers, and the B Side includes a saxophone and Lou Reed-sounding vocals, so I’m not sure what The Tinglers were going for. Much like Tap, "they reside in the where-are-they-now file.”

Bizzarro Records Compilation
“Pale Incompetence”
1998
Hampshire, IL
$1

I have not been able to figure out what the hell this is. The back of the sleeve shows five songs by five bands, but the information inside is totally inconsistent. It shows graphics for different bands altogether, and whereas the back of the sleeve makes it look like Sidekick Kato does “The Ballad of Kleenex,” the inside graphic says that The Humdingers do that particular number. Plus, there aren’t even five songs on the thing. There are four songs, one short instrumental, and one track of nothing but the crackling of the needle on the vinyl. Pale Incompetence doesn’t even come close to describing this effort. If I was attacked by zombies like in “Shaun of the Dead,” I would throw this record first.

The Speed Kings
“Speedkings Ride Tonight”
2001

Sounds like: The Ramones, Motorhead

Lyric approximation:
“Cruisin up on the strip all night, keep it up till the morning light
switch blade knife, bike chain whippin’, Speed Kings ride tonight”

Record Cover: A
Song: A-

This is Marky Ramone’s band and rocks like you’d expect. With B Side “Hotrods-R-Us,” it’s pretty familiar rock territory but it sounds great and was probably a blast to see live.

I also took another chance and bought The Quitters first CD "The Quitters are King." These are local guys who play at The Bug Jar who nobody ever wants to go see with me. Sounds pretty good the first time through. A lot of two minute garage rock songs. More to come.

I have a feeling that by the time I get "White Boots In The Night"out of my head someone is going to come over wanting to hear it and I'm going to have to spin it for them. Ooooooh!

The Writer's Almanac

Some advice:

Find some time during your day to visit Garrison Keillor’s “Writer’s Almanac” webpage. You can reach it from here through the “Daily Read Links.”

The Writer’s Almanac is a wonderful escape and a reminder during the work day of things that transcend the routines of our daily lives. Things like reading and writing and composing and discovery. Every edition of the Writer’s Almanac celebrates the births of notable and unfailingly interesting people, such as Alice Munro, Marcel Proust, and Henry David Thoreau, who built a cabin on Walden Pond when he was 27 years old; ”To live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach."

The Writer’s Almanac closes with a poem, which if you are lucky, will take you someplace else, if only for a few moments. I put on my headphones and listen not long after coming into the office in the morning. That is when I most need to be able to look beyond the cube farm and find some point of context for the rest of the day.

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.

Ribs

My first foray into the world of real barbeque was Saturday.

Using the advice of a friend at work, I slow cooked two racks of pork ribs over charcoal and was pretty pleased with the results. I bought all my equipment the night before, unfortunately forgetting to buy a thermometer, which made me especially nervous considering my lack of experience. The ribs were tender and not overcooked, which satisfied my main goal the first time out. The fun comes in learning as I go and continuing to improve until I come up with something truly exceptional.

The key to cooking the meat is using indirect heat, which sounded strange to me at first. I have a small roasting pan that I filled with water and put on one side of the grill, with the ribs on the grate over that. On the other side I put the charcoal. I was surprised at how intense the heat was inside the grill. It took about three and a half hours to cook the ribs. I had soaked some mesquite wood chips overnight and threw them over the coals periodically throughout the whole process. I actually used the entire bag, about the size of a loaf of bread, because it was so much fun and because the smell was incredible. The mesquite smell is exactly the smell of Dinosaur BBQ. One of the things I will change next time is use about half as many wood chips. The smoky flavor overpowered the rub and the sauce I used. The second thing I will change is cooking under lower heat. I probably should have waited another fifteen minutes to put the meat on, and I probably should have put fewer additional briquettes on the fire halfway through. I think the combination of the high heat and the smoke put a chocolate-colored crispy layer on the surface of the ribs that wasn’t very enjoyable. Temperature can also be regulated by using the air vents, and in that respect I was flying in the dark because I didn’t have a thermometer. I hate the idea of regulating the temperature too precisely as if I was using an oven, but it would be nice to have some idea what the temperature is. There is really no way to guess.

Just yesterday I read an article in the Rochester D&C about home barbeque, with the tired theme of “man conquering fire.” Not only is this a clichéd and belittling notion, it’s not accurate. There is something very pure and basic about it, but it’s also a very social thing. It’s an event. It reminds me of something that the great Jackie Martling said once about drinking beer. If you pull a beer out of a cooler, it’s a party. If you are cooking outside, it’s a party. And when you put the beer and the cooler and the grill together outside, it’s just about perfect. I think I’ve reached the old age where I have the patience to try different things on the grill and maybe not have it turn out perfectly the first time and then give it another go. I also think that with two small kids, things have hurried up to the point that I can really start to appreciate slow. Maybe home brewed beer is next.

Ciao Sopranos

Without the definitive proof that so many people were looking for at the conclusion of The Sopranos, I have come to accept the following.

Tony was murdered by the suspicious man stepping out of the restroom in the moment following the cut to black. I struggled at first to make sense of the abrupt ending. During the last scene in the restaurant, my brain raced to identify and then catalog what seemed like a series of rapid-fire clues that would solve the ending of the series. My initial frustration was based on my feeling that I was one or two clues short of the solution when the screen went black. In the days since, I have contemplated that final scene in the context of the entire last season and reached my conclusion.

The murders of Bobby and Phil this season were notable for how obviously they were set up. Bobby just misses the warning call from Silvio. The camera focuses on the mirrors in the train store, and the model steam engine looks unstoppable as it rolls down the track. Phil prolongs his conversation with wife and grandkids at the side of his car at the gas station. Just as deliberate are the moments leading up to the final shot of the series. I have no reason to believe that in Tony’s case, this setup did not lead to its logical conclusion. One would have to accept that Meadow’s multiple attempts at parallel parking were entirely meaningless, rather than see how it delayed her just long enough to put her where she was to watch the murder unfold. It is much simpler to conclude that Tony was murdered rather than try to make exceptions for why he was not. The murder also gives meaning. I don’t think there is any meaning without it.

Despite the sit down that Tony had with Phil’s men, it seems likely that the New York family would seek revenge for Phil’s murder. The way in which Phil was killed makes it especially so. We have learned that above all, these are men of self-preservation. As circumstances change, so do the methods of survival. Pride dictates retribution on Tony. It seems odd that the murder of Phil was treated like the conclusion of Tony’s problems with New York, with no concern over who would fill the top job and how they would relate to the New Jersey family.

With fears of being indicted, Tony makes final preparations as if he was dying. He visits Junior and Silvio. He tries to make arrangements for Bobby’s kids. He has dinner with Meadow. His final moments are with his family.

One of the most compelling parts of The Sopranos is the way it shows how the actions of the mob affect families. Jackie Jr. gets whacked. Vito’s son is dragged off to boot camp. Unable to leave the family and hounded by the FBI to inform, the Soprano associate with the recent inheritance hangs himself in his garage. The cost to “real” families is enormous, and the welfare of Tony’s own family has been a central theme throughout the entire series. The final scene consisting of Tony, Carmella, AJ, and Meadow comes back to that central theme and gives it the importance it deserves. We imagine that the Sopranos are like any typical family on a typical evening out. We see our own families in them for a moment, until we see the man in the Members Only jacket, or until we hear chimes and the restaurant door opens.

The scene ends at what must be the moment before the gunshot. Showing a gun blast would have given the definitive conclusion, but the actual final shot is revealing as well. We see Tony Soprano in his last conscious moment, looking up at his daughter as she enters the restaurant. Maybe because the death of Tony equals the death of The Sopranos, we are not allowed to see it? Here we have the antithesis of the murders of Bobby and Phil, with their graphic and comical elements. Tony is separated from the other characters in this way. We have already seen countless shootings, including a shooting of Tony himself. This becomes like a Greek Tragedy where the death occurs offstage. We look at Tony’s humanity in that final shot and are left to consider the aftermath of his murder. The imagination creates richer images than could be shown on film. We can contemplate Tony slumping over, Carmella in shock and calling his name, AJ’s clenched face and breakdown, Meadow’s eyes locked with her father’s during his final moment. Meadow could have easily been sitting next to her father at the time. Instead, the hitman drops his gun on the floor and bursts by her on his way to the door.

This conclusion is enough for me. I’m not bothered by not knowing David Chase’s actual intentions. I am not willing to say the ending was an artistic triumph and I won’t start rating it in the pantheon of series finales, but for the reasons I stated above I thought it worked.

Broadway By The Bleeech

What else happened on our vacation?

We went to “Broadway By The Beach,” which is a god-awful “attraction” that consists of shops and restaurants nowhere near the beach. It’s kind of like an outdoor mall. The worst part about it is that there are speakers placed about 30 feet apart throughout the entire acreage that blasts mind-numbingly trite and overplayed popular music. My problem wasn’t that they played music, or the music they played, because it’s all to be expected. The problem was how loud it was, as if the music was an attraction. Just a little quieter and it would have rightly been background music that you would only hear in your subconscious, but no, it was just loud enough that you actually had to raise your voice to have a conversation. And the fact that every step brought you one step away from one speaker, yet one step closer to another speaker was right out of Orwell.

I didn’t really mind going, because this was a family vacation and in fact I am not as big of a beach Nazi as I am made out to be. I actually enjoyed watching Syd at “Build A Bear.” So much of what she does is interesting to me only because it’s her doing it, whether it is filling and emptying a sand pail a million times or picking out an animal to stuff and outfit. Syd also enjoyed the Dept. 56 store because they had a huge Halloween display, and Syd loves Halloween and all the assorted monsters and gimmicks more than I think she even cares for Christmas. As soon as I got her out of the store, she ran right back in to check it out. It was a riot. I don’t know if she is a future Slytherin or not.

We were pretty much starving by lunchtime and got orders to head towards Tony Roma’s for lunch. I had never heard of it and thought it was noodle place, but in fact it’s ribs and assorted meats. Make a note to yourself – they serve one of the most flavorless and non-enjoyable pulled pork sandwiches you will find anywhere. The cold beer was great, as were the special effects. Dee insisted on changing Drew right in the dining room. I suggested going into the restroom, but Dee was concerned about cleanliness, and since the dining room was practically empty, she proceeded to change him in the stroller. As soon as the diaper was off, Drew peed right in Mommy’s face. To think we could have missed it!

It's A Shame About The Ray

I feel like I’ve told these vacation stories a million times already, so the task of retelling them here feels tedious. I might as well jump into the tale of how I got stung by a sting ray.

As everyone probably knows, splashing around in the water is one of my favorite recreational activities, especially in the ocean where the waves knock you about. On Monday evening I noticed a red brushburn or rash under my right forearm and figured it must have been a jellyfish sting. It was more severe than any jellyfish sting I had ever had, but being so far south I thought that maybe the wildlife was a little more fierce. While I tried to sleep that night, the burn seemed to sting worse and worse every time it brushed against the mattress or was touched by the sheet. When I woke up I found a blister that was about ¼ the size of a dollar bill, dimpled where my arm hairs were poking through. Dennise called a pharmacy to get some advice on how to treat what we thought was a jellyfish sting, and learned from the pharmacist that the predator had actually been a stingray. I found out later that typically a ray will scoot away when it knows you are coming, but when you surprise it, the ray will sting you with its tail. The fact that I got stung on the arm must have meant that I put my hand down near where one was. I noticed later two small spots on my stomach and two small spots above my knee where it must have grazed me as well. Anyway, half of the blister really started to bubble up pretty grotesquely during the day and caused me to worry that it would break or that I would keep bumping it into things. It actually didn’t hurt at all unless I bumped it into something or one of my kids kicked it. I had to drain it and dress it for three nights until it actually started to heal sufficiently.

It didn’t keep me out of the water or really affect my vacation too much. Other people were still enjoying the ocean, so for me to stay out just because I had gotten stung didn’t make too much sense to me. It’s not like if I had learned that someone else had gotten stung, it would have affected me. I love the water too much, although I understand that people who don’t feel the same way might have had a different reaction. Dee obsessively kept asking about it. I didn’t think about it nearly as much. She also kept trying to place herself at the scene of the crime, thinking that I was stung while we were in the water together and checking herself for burns. I guess I can’t blame her, because a ray sting is a lot cooler than a dumb jellyfish burn.

The sting actually kept me out of the pool, not the ocean. With all those little kids in the pool peeing and doing who-knows-what, I would have been just asking for an infection and amputation at the elbow.

To Myrtle

I am going to try to write a vacation-related post every day this week. It won’t be a diary per se, but I think I can come up with at least five amusing entries. And at the end I will share my thoughts on The Sopranos.

We set the alarm for 4:00 AM so we could make our flight on Saturday. The good news about the early start was that we flew in to Myrtle Beach before noon. The bad news was that the rental place wasn’t ready for us until about 2:30. We really needed to get to the “home base” for the kids’ sake, so it was a bit trying waiting for the realty place to give us the key. We stopped at the grocery store first to pick up some things, some of which were eventually eaten and some of which were thrown out at the end of the week and wasted. I myself wasted about a half gallon of milk by backing the rental car over a styrofoam cooler with ice that I had bought to preserve the food until we could get inside the condo. It was funny, aggravating, and embarrassing at the same time, although I was too exhausted at that point to react much at all. Dennise's mom was able to salvage what was left of the milk. I thought the container had exploded, but I had just crumpled it a bit. At the store I got the week's beer, including a case of Natural Lite, which I associate with that part of the country. The kids were really great throughout all the travels the first day. When their grandparents arrived, we went to a hotdog stand near the beach for lunch, which looking back I think is one of the better memories of the trip. I think there is always something special about the first moments of a vacation, like the first time you see the beach, the first time you step on the strip, or the first time you check out the rental, get settled, and have that first beer. Everything is new and different and you are excited with the anticipation of the entire week ahead of you. The hot dogs and the cold beer were good, too.

We were all able to sit together on the first leg of the flight, but the second plane from Atlanta to Myrtle only had two seats in each row. Dennise was going to sit with Syd in the pair of seats on the right side of the plane and I was going to hold Drew on my lap in the single seat on the left side of the plane. Because there were fewer oxygen masks on the left side of the plane, however, the lap baby had to be on the right side. That meant Dennise had to have both kids. Syd slept and Drew was well-behaved, so it actually worked out quite well, but we were a little nervous about the whole idea.

I sat in the front row seated next to an army colonel named Mike who was returning from Iraq on two weeks’ leave. Mike had actually entered the gate with us and helped us by carrying our stroller down the passage. Before the stewardess made Drew move, Mike showed a real interest in Drew, even holding him for me while I buckled my seatbelt. I told him that I thought it must be good luck for Drew. We chatted for the entire trip, and I had the fortune of meeting a very remarkable person. We talked about our families and our jobs, and I was in awe of the fact that he commanded a brigade of nearly 4,000 people, which are more people than are employed at my company. Most people can’t imagine even serving in Iraq. It was hard for me to fathom doing so and also have such an incredible amount of responsibility. I think everyone cares deeply about those who serve this country, in that they are members of families just like ours. I had never been so deeply struck by the quality of people who serve this country, though. Leaders such as this would do very well in the private sector, but they choose to do much tougher work. Mike talked just as easily about the three provinces in Iraq he covers and the Iraqis he works with as he did about his wife and two kids, who I felt I knew by the time the plane landed.

I found this news article about Mike this morning. He is stationed at FOB Kalsu, named after Bob Kalsu of the Buffalo Bills, the only active pro football player to have been killed in Vietnam.

http://community.adn.com/?q=adn/node/105222

That night we had dinner at a place along the beach that we were able to walk to. Syd had a blast running up and down the beach. On our way back, she got down on all fours and somehow ended up face first in the sand. Her mouth was characteristically open. We cleaned her off the best we could and she was back to “normal.” We have a few pictures of her sandy face. She looks like the worst “Survivor” contestant ever.

the Modfather

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3fDXsPE0Sc

Better stop dreaming of the quiet life cos it's the one we'll never know
And quit running for that runaway bus cos those rosey days are few
And stop apologising for the things you've never done
Cos time is short and life is cruel but it's up to us to change
This town called Malice

Rows and rows of disused milk floats stand dying in the dairy yard
And a hundred lonely housewives clutch empty milk bottles to their hearts
Hanging out their old love letters on the line to dry
It's enough to make you stop believing when tears come fast and furious
In a town called Malice

Struggle after struggle year after year
The atmosphere's a fine blend of ice
I'm almost stone cold dead
In a town called Malice

A whole street's belief in Sunday's roast beef gets dashed against the Co-op
To either cut down on beer or the kids new gear
It's a big decision in a town called Malice

The ghost of a steam train echoes down my track
It's at the moment bound for nowhere just going round and round
Playground kids and creaking swings lost laughter in the breeze
I could go on for hours and I probably will but I'd sooner put some joy back
In this town called Malice.

Suucki & Suucki

Article about this Kurt Cobain ad for Doc Martens here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/business/media/05adco.html

This is really one of the most profane things I think they could come up with. The Heather Chandler memorial spread in the Westerberg High yearbook was more tasteful. It’s precious that Saatchi & Saatchi considers these ads a beautiful tribute to four legendary musicians. And she is including Sid Vicious as legendary musician! In the same breath as Joe Strummer! And not to pass judgment, but in terms of these guys’ eligibility for heaven, can we just not go there? Especially when you consider the demise of Kurt and Sid, it’s totally depressing. They are selling image and cheap, meaningless, shopping mall sentimentality. If you want a tribute for Joey Ramone, pay $7 to see a punk band at The Bug Jar.

A couple of really embarrassing things from last Friday:

We had our third bi-weekly neighborhood happy hour, and on the way home we were walking with our next door neighbor and her daughter. I was pushing Syd in our wagon and Dennise was carrying Drew. I got tired of pushing the wagon up and down the street while everyone else ambled home, so our neighbor’s daughter pushed instead and I took her scooter. So I started scooting up and down the street and was doing pretty well until I ran into a pinecone and fell off. I didn’t fly off or do a flip or anything, the scooter just hit the pinecone and stopped and I fell like a tree. I had two outstretched hands to break my fall so I actually went down pretty softly, but it wasn’t my coolest moment. I was thinking, what am I doing, I am going to be 35 years old! When my dad was 35, I was eleven! When I was eleven, I had a better chance of seeing President Reagan on a scooter than my dad.

Anyway, I’m afraid to say the biggest embarrassment was at the party itself. Neighbors have taken turns hosting these get-togethers, and I’ve wondered if and when the time comes for us to host, what five CDs would I put in rotation to best let everyone know just how cool and awesome I am and how much more with-it I am compared to everybody else. We don’t have the nicest house, we won’t have the best food, we don’t have the nicest things, but I really thought we could shine by putting on some awesome tunes. The music at the other parties has been fine, but kind of predictable. I wasn’t able to listen too closely last Friday, but I thought I heard some unfamiliar Elvis Costello before it went into (what else) Dave Matthews Band. So as we were leaving I asked Ryan what Elvis Costello CD we were listening to, but it was Coldplay. And this mistake of mine can never be undone. Even though I barely really heard the music and only caught a few bits of it, really no excuse will suffice when you bring up Elvis Costello and it's Coldplay. Dennise was standing right there and she knew exactly what I did and she made this sound like she was a schoolgirl who realized I just said something out of turn to the teacher. So that’s a credit I guess to how well she knows me, because she understood that in my mind I had just stepped into a big pile of dogshit. Then Ryan goes into this spiel about who Chris Martin is, and what Coldplay is like, and basically just trying to introduce me to the whole thing. Every second was just unbearable because I really wanted to find a hole to go crawl into. So now we have to move!

Charles Nelson Reilly

In honor of Charles Nelson Reilly, I wanted to post the picture of me and Dennise as Charles and Brett Somers at Hauer's Match Game Party. I like to think that I gave a convincing and humorous portrayal without hyperbole or parody. The first round of The Match Game was very stale, but then we broke into Hauer's liquor cabinet and started doing shots before the second taping. The one-liners, insults, and double-entendres really started to flow from then on. Speaking of taping, I think my sister used an entire tape on her camcorder filming the "episodes." I wonder if it's ever been watched.

Another funny thing about the party is that Hauer invited a bunch of his friends to be contestants, but he didn't tell them ahead of time. So they walked onto the Match Game set quite by surprise and here I am in character as CNR and I wasn't sure if I was suppose to break kayfabe or not. After a while we passed the props around and each took a turn in different roles. It was a real blast.

It was an honor to get to play Charles on The Match Game. I never understood why all the Brady kids wanted to play Dopey when they put on a production of Snow White in their backyard, but on The Match Game, there isn't even a close second to CNR.

Charles was taken from us too soon, but on the bright side I heard that he was leaving his BLANK to science.