Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Abstinence is not an option.

Protect yourself out there.

Fer da ladies

If the other day's post about hot-not hot female politicians left you....unhappy? unsatisfied? bothered? I don't know how it might have left you, but if you were hoping for equal time, here goes.

John McCain (wait, it's not about him)...John McCain's daughter has been getting attention in the press and political circles, mostly because she's John McCain's daughter and she's willing to talk/write. And she's been willing to trade uglies with the Laura Ingrams and Ann Coulters of the world.

She writes a blog for a political site, the Daily Beast. Her latest post there is about a 27-year old GOP congressman from Illinois. Aaron Schock is his name and TMZ has apparently been sending their papparrazi after him because he was voted the "Hottest Freshman" by the Huffington Post's readers.

So, for you ladies, here's a link to a google image search for him. Enjoy.

He looks like Doogie Howser to me. And if you want to see the abs as he lounges by the pool, you'll have to follow the link to McCain's blog or go find it on TMZ. I'm an enabler, not a peddler.

Song of the Day: Gloria



Classic U2, from when Bono was in full voice.

The French give up?

They put up a fight, anyway. I don't recall the last time American workers stood up for themselves this way.

Socialists, blah, blah, blah.
---Better vacation
Wine drinkers, blah, blah, blah.
---35 hour work week
Cheese-eating surrender monkeys, blah, blah, blah
---Taking hostages and getting negotiations

Guest comment

Joe found out I posted about his blog and the video and came by to say thanks.

You don't have it bad. Joe has it bad. Really bad.

Monday, March 30, 2009

This link will be on every blog

In case you wrote this letter, here's your answer: Yes, you have to visit and read everything I post here.

Song of the Day: Who's Gonna Save My Soul?

Had a bad breakup? Most people have, at some point in their lives. The guy writing this blog and whoever made this video certainly have...

Squeamish stomachs, beware.



The tune, which you can barely hear through most of the video, is by Gnarls Barkley.

We've come a long way

In fifth grade, a classmate and a kid from another class were killed while playing in a gravel pit.

In high school, a kid was killed when his car exploded, if I recall. Both he and his twin brother were in our class.

Senior year a kid who had been in our class throughout school until he fell back a grade in high school, was killed with another local kid who had graduated a year or two earlier.

I have a bad memory, but I don't recall much more than an announcement and brief remarks at school in regards to any of those deaths. It's quite different now, and that's a good thing. The measures being taken right now in Milton--things that are unfortunately commonplace in schools today--seem like they would be important for kids. I say seem because, though nothing was done to counsel or comfort my classmates and I, I don't recall any really strong negative impact. Not beyond normal human reaction, anyway.

Put in their situation, I would hope to have as much help as teachers have in these situations today.

Obama says what everyone was thinking

Jay thinks we live in strange times.

Yeah, I'd say when a company is/has been tanking so publicly and dramatically for so many years and yet it takes the President of the United States to suggest maybe it's time to step aside, it's strange times indeed.

Hell, so what if the company did get billions in bailouts? He can't be that bad. He probably got a pretty decent bonus not long ago, right?

I think he's a little off-base with the snark about the UAW. The problem with the company is not that they pay workers too much. It's that people don't like or trust the cars they make. Besides, the entire wage split between Toyota and GM has been debunked pretty well. That argument is so 2008.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Song of the Day: When I'm Sixty-four



Happy Birthday, Dad! I Love You.

You are looking live at....

[Booming Musberger voice]
"You are looking LIVE at Wichita, Kansas.

[Musberger, halting suddenly]
No? Wait. Let's do it again.

[Booming Musberger voice]
You are looking LIVE at Greensboro, North Car...What?

[Confused] No? Ok, let's try it again.

[Booming Musberger voice]
You are looking LIVE at Orlando, Florida where...What?!

[listening to earpiece]
Then what the hell are we looking live at?

[listening to earpiece]
That's Boston? Is that on the BC Campus? BU?

[listening to earpiece]

[booming, incredulous]
That's the Boston Garden!??!?! No, I know it's the [mocking] TD Banknorth [/mocking] Garden now and it's not the old building, but still. Don't the Celtics still use the famous Parquet floor?

[listening to earpiece] I thought so, and didn't they move all the Championships banners and retired numbers from the Celtics and Bruins over from the old place?

[listening, nodding]

[back to booming, this time angrily] Then can someone give me a god-damned explanation why I can't do my signature introduction of the Boston Garden because the friggin' court looks like it was built in China, sold through Wal Mart and installed in a bubble in East Middle Nowhere, America? Isn't it bad enough that we can't keep track of the carousel of coaches at these schools and the players that only stick around for a year or two? That teams from the West bracket are playing in the same building as teams in the East bracket?

That's not enough? Now the NCAA feels like its necessary to turn every venue into a milquetoast soundstage for TV? They don't even want the people that travel to Boston to sense the history and tradition of the local franchises?


[calmer, but still irritated]
Now that I think of it, is there any reason to believe we're looking live at anything? They might've played these games two weeks ago to make sure they could redo the endings to make them more dramatic. Actually, no, the tournament would be much better this year if they had done that.

Ok, get ready, I'll do this again...

END

Did you see they put Boston College logos on the court? Real local flavor. Any reason they're the only Boston school that plays Division I basketball in town that has their logo on the court? Seriously, don't BU and Northeastern also play in town?

PS--Sorry Sean. Mrs. noternie was mad that Duke lost, too. Not as mad as she was that Memphis lost, but they both damaged her brackets. She and I both had Memphis winning it all. 'Course I had Duke losing much earlier, out of spite more than scouting. :-)

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Song of the Day: Hershey's Is...

Someone walked by singing this and I hadn't heard it in forever. Comes flowing right back, though.

Blood was about to flow from my mouth

Such is the force with which I have been biting my tongue. Alas, it has been released.

A woman I know is married to a man who went to Duke. I do not like Duke. Not one little bit. I have not liked them for a very long time. Through her, he knows this.

He scored a ticket to Duke's third round game at the Garden tonight and word just came in that he's been wondering about the unkind remarks I have no doubt been making about his school and team. The truth, I told her, is that I have been restraining myself in an attempt to be mature and gracious. No matter how I feel about his school, I feel good about the fact that things aligned in a way where Duke would play in the third round of the tournament in Boston and he'd be able to score a ticket.

But they couldn't leave it alone, I guess.

After a few minutes she had goaded me into making a few remarks about the school, the team, the coach, the fans and the games and costumes of players past, which will no doubt reach his ears. I am not proud that I did this and will not repeat them here.

Please know, Sean, that I have been a victim of entrapment. Enjoy the game.

P.S.--That AllBrackets.com is a great resource.

P.P.S.--Go 'Cats!

Just remember you read it here first

I have had a series of serious ideas for improving things the Red Sox do, mostly concerning NESN. Show ideas and such. I don't have the time, money or connections to make them happen. None of them has shown up on their own, as a result of anyone else thought process, so maybe they're still original. More likely, the Red Sox are not interested in producing new programming for NESN that will either entrain existing fans or solidify new ones (hard to imagine). With little evidence, I'm convinced they're just happy to collect the money form the infomercials. I can't believe the lack of programming is the result of not having good ideas. If it is, someone over there contact me through the comments section here. I've got a few ideas for you.

Anyway, I had another idea for the Sox, which I'm giving away for free.

I'd like to see the Red Sox create a baseball-reference.com type site for themselves. Really comprehensive resource for Red Sox stats, information, etc. But they could use their partnership with the Boston Globe and NESN to expand on what baseball-reference does.

They could copy Baseball Reference and include a page with full box scores and scoring summaries (from the point they started existing) for each game in franchise history. But along with the individual game, the Red Sox could include Boston Globe coverage of that game and NESN highlights of that game. Three top headlines from the Globe on that date in history. Other interesting historical stuff. Cross promote all you want.

It seems it would be easy to build. Isn't it just a matter of some scripting and code to pull together the data from the separate entities the team already taps into in one way or another (Globe, NESN, STATS/Elias/MLB?, etc). And they could tie it into Red Sox Nation membership, if they wanted to bleed the populace a bit more.

My boy Clay

Adam Kilgore from El Globe:
"SARASOTA, Fla. - Clay Buchholz has been perhaps the most impressive Red Sox pitcher this spring, a fact he reinforced yesterday...

"Buchholz lowered his ERA to 0.46, more than nine runs fewer than his spring ERA last year. He has struck out the same amount of batters (15) that's he allowed on base in 19 2/3 innings. He has been a revelation.
But because of the Sox' loaded pitching staff, Buchholz knows it's possible he will begin the year in Triple A Pawtucket. He accepts that. Yesterday might have marked the final start Buchholz makes with the Red Sox this spring. No matter where he starts, Buchholz knows the past month has righted his career."


Forwarding this article generated this response from "Sam Spade":
"It's going to be a short stay in Pawtucket for him. Penny is going to be a bust."

To which I replied:
They’ll ride Penny until Smoltz is ready (Jun-ish). When they each blow through two failed attempts at consistency or health, Clay will be brought in. He may get a start or two for the big club along the way in the interim.

They’ll need another pitcher, too, though. Clay will be the backup for Penny and Smoltz, but it’s also likely that one or more of the others will have a spell of bad health. They may look to Masterson to fill that role. But I’d expect Bowden and Tazawa to get some spot starts. At least I hope so. The thought of bringing back Paul Byrd after he clears one of those league calendar marks does NOTHING for me. At all.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Sometimes happiness is...

Sometimes happiness is having a classic 80s song stuck in your head while driving in a warm sun with the scent of a new Yankee Candle Coconut Bay air freshener in the car.



Not always, but sometimes.

Song of the Day: When you close your eyes

The hair!
The drama!
The acting!
The music!

Yep, any of these elements by themselves make this video compelling enough for you to watch every last second. But together?! You may watch more than once. You might forward a link. You might even go download the song for your iPod. I recommend all of the above. Rock on 80s lovers and lovers from the 80s!!

Totally unintended coincidence: check out the record company in the credits.

Camels

Another excellent post on an excellent blog by Kate, who these days is always writing about cancer but is also not really writing about cancer at all. This one is about camels, but not real camels.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Prez Pressers

I was happy to see that Prez Obama was doing another televised press conference in prime time. I've been frustrated by the lack of them during previous administrations.

Nearest I can remember, Ronnie used to do them pretty regular, but Old Man Bush didn't do quite as many. And he had a war! Clinton, despite his obvious prowess as a communicator, seemed to avoid press conferences even more. I remember a lot of talk about Clinton "going around the traditional press to take his case directly to Americans." And this was largely before the intrablogs emailtwitterface space.

Little Bush kept up the Clinton trend. And he had a terrorist attack AND a war!! Certainly he was visible, but not in situations where the press could ask him a series of questions and follow-ups.

I like to see people forced to defend their positions. And I still think the mainstream media are the best ones to offer a serious, legitimate and fair challenge to sitting elected officials.

To me, press conferences offer America it best opportunity to hear a President explain himself and be questioned, not picked apart or boosted by discussions that are more editorializing than serious inquiry.
Sent on the Now Network™ from my Sprint® BlackBerry

Define "Hot"

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm said she won't apologize to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for her crack at last weekend's Gridiron Dinner that the former Republican vice presidential candidate "really set back the cause of hot governors."

At the exclusive Washington dinner on Saturday, which was packed with top elected officials, Granholm also used the quip to needle Pennsylvania's governor. "You know where I'm coming from, Ed Rendell," she said.


Good line, but I'm not sure Granholm is a "hot" governor. Though she had some quirks, with her mouth shut Palin was actually attractive, especially if she controlled the "crazy" eyes. Granholm may qualify as one of the more attractive female politicians, but that's really a relative thing. There aren't that many attractive female politicians.

This is not to demean female politicians or focus only on their looks and not their brains. I dare say that even with the overwhelming majority of politicians being men, most women don't find much to look at there, either.

Song of the Day: See me, feel me



Looks like the glitches with the seeqpod embedded player may have been fixed. So we're going to try this again. The song shouldn't play until and unless you hit the play button.

This was never my favorite songs, but it's pretty good. It's off the Who's "Tommy." A good friend hooked me on the Who back in 7th or 8th grade. In music class we even listened to "Tommy." Some great acoustic guitar work on there, Daltrey's vocals are top notch and Moon and Entwistle provided their usual brilliance in the background, driving and at times, carrying Townshend's songs.

I like Quadrophenia a bit better in terms of Who rock operas, but Tommy is the original and still excellent in its own right.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Not bad considering

I had a bad first round on my brackets, but the damage wasn't fatal. I have correctly picked 12 of the Sweet Sixteen.
Sent on the Now Network™ from my Sprint® BlackBerry

Friday, March 20, 2009

Song of the Day: Whipping Post

I've suspended Song of the Day because the player went wacky and I don't like using up a lot of space with YouTube embeds, but I wanted to do it today.

Mrs. noternie's had a rough week. This one's for her. A few drinks tomorrow night should help.



If there wasn't a time limit on YouTube clips, I would've loved to post the 22 minute masterpiece version of this song from "At Fillmore East." I just listened to the entire thing on iTunes and may listen again on the way home. Brilliant.

Think Spring!

Someone in my building planted some (plastic) seeds in the elevator...and our minds.

Do yourself a Friday Favor

Try this out. Fun, hypnotic. Play around with different techniques.

If it doesn't work, you might need to install an updated version of Java.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

The mojo is gone

This new pic of Charles Manson was just released by the California prison system. For a long time he still looked like a crazy, powerful guy. Now he just looks like the average old guy. Could it be that the many years in prison and diminished attention and interest in him has finally sapped his spirit? He doesn’t look like he’s still into being "Charley" anymore.

Birds

Boy they're getting noisy, huh? Good to have them back. Noticed them in the yard at home the last few weekends. This morning they were making a heck of a racket here at work.

Last day of winter today. I'm hoping everyone will show as much positive enthusiasm for the coming good weather as they expressed unending unhappiness at the departing cold season.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Music in the cafes at night and revolution in the air

Lest you think I'm the only one that thought of images of the French Revolution or violent reactions to AIG and the current economic situation, in addition to Colbert's pitchfork bit, Jay Fitzgerald of Hub Blog and the Boston Herald, authored this for today's paper.

Seriously, though, check out this part of the story...
AIG, the disgraced insurer that effectively used taxpayer bailout money for $165 million in bonuses to executives, has beefed up security outside its suburban Connecticut office, amid reports of death threats and irate phone calls aimed at employees, some of whom have submitted resignations.


I'm not advocating anything. Just watching and reporting/recording.

Darth Vader has cancer

No, not that one.

Not that one, either.

And not this one.

The guy who wore the suit and helmet majestically in the first three Star Wars movies (based on release date not story chronology) has prostate cancer.

Star Wars fans know that we did see him, briefly. While lying close to death near the end of Return of the Jedi, Vader has Luke Sywalker remove the helmet so that he can look upon his son with his "own eyes." In the version of Jedi that they play on TV these days, they also seem to have Luke looking at a hologram of a Christiansen-Annakin with Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi after Vader's funeral. It used to be Prowse in that hologram.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Stewart-Colbert best 1-2 punch?

Olberman-Maddow also have to be nominated.

This is funny, but kinda not, too. Are we potentially not that far off from something like this? Was anyone else surprised Madoff was able to make it safely to jail? I've been wondering.

Song of the Day: Traditional Irish Folk Song

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Ouch

It's almost an insult, but I guess if you invested with Madoff, this might be the best you can hope for.

Interesting concept

I'm not sure I endorse suicide for AIG honchos, but I wouldn't mind if they released a breakdown of the people who are getting the bonuses, so they can be publicly shamed. If the Boston Herald can do it with public employees salaries, why not these bozos?

Mrs. noternie and I were discussing bonus-gate last night. We got stuck on the fact that they might not be able to do anything about the bonuses now, given they were part of legal contracts. And even if they would've thought to make the bailout money contingent on renegotiating contracts with those bonuses, could they have?

The reason the gov'mint gave AIG so much bailout money is that the company was "too big to fail." So if we (as a country and economy) can’t afford to let the company fail, how can they prevent bonuses?

Even if they knew the bonuses were due and went to AIG and said something like, "we won’t give you this money until and unless you are able to renegotiate away those gross bonuses" what kind of leverage does the gov’mint have?

Let’s be honest: they aren’t saving AIG to save the jobs in the mail room or secretarial pool. Businesses go under all the time with nary a peep. They’re saving AIG to prevent a domino effect. So how does the gov’mint call their bluff? AIG knows you won’t let the first domino tip over a measly $160 mil or so.

I don’t know how stay away from it, but having any companies that are so big you can’t allow them to fail seems like a real problem.

Replacing board members and CEOs (without paying golden parachutes); now there’s something Obama and his folks might be able to insert as a condition of bailout money.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Fake news chews up real news

I've heard interviews with Jim Cramer and he's a likable guy. I've watched a bit of his show and have learned a little and been entertained a bit. But here, he just doesn't get it. Stewart tries to ask why MSNBC and the financial news industry pretends everything is on the level. Cramer tries to salvage himself.

Stewart's a funny guy that does a funny show. But the arrogant newsie-types that dismiss him as a jester are the fools, themselves. Remember how Tucker Carlson took it in the shorts a few years ago when he tried to dismiss Stewart.

Here's the week end face-to-face after the back and forth between Stewart and Cramer.






Justice being served

Howard K Stern was arrested and appears to be on his was toward prosecution for the death of Anna Nicole Smith.

Good news.

And since I'm a fan of DJ Howard Stern, let's make sure you're all aware that Howard K Stern, connected to Anna Nicole Smith, is not Howard Stern, radio genius.

Song of the Day: Knights of the Round Table/Camelot

Overall brilliance, therein containing many tidbits and morsels of brilliance. I would describe every funny thing in this clip, but it would take a lot of time and you might not fully appreciate it.

If you do already fully appreciate it or come to fully appreciate it at some future point in time, congratulations.

For some reason, few women will ever fully appreciate this. As if getting paid less than men wasn't bad enough!

A good job, ignored

Unfortunately, I do not agree with Le Anne Shreibner that espn will carefully consider her observations and suggestions.

"Nobody has ever tried to shut me up or shut me out."

I think this is more a sign they don't care what she thinks and have created her position as a token gesture.

And that's unfortunate. I've agreed with most of her observations and find espn to be valuable, but flawed. In that respect, they share quite a bit with local powerhouse WEEI.

By the way, since learning of the existence of such a thing, I've always thought it'd be cool to be an Ombudsman.

March Madness, Iraq-style

Can you imagine someone getting shot dead as they attempt a game tying free throw in the NCAA tournament? Probably not.

So don't travel to Iraq, where something like that might be possible.

Who knew?

Ron Silver, late actor, earned a Master's Degree in Chinese History from St. John's University.

There's a lot of history there to study.

You can learn some interesting things by reading obituaries.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Song of the Day: We're Brothers Forever

As a general rule, we don't like to repeat songs here on SOTD, but it is mockery week and I don't think the Jaws song was quite up to snuff as mockery. There was another song that I tried to find, but couldn't. I won't tell you what it is because I still hope to find it and feature it in the future and don't want to ruin the surprise. So enjoy this one.

Song of the Day: Show Me The Way To Go Home

Mockery? Well, maybe not. But it's a great tune. Crappy video, sorry. Best I could find, surprisingly.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Song of the Day: The Lady I Know (Chopping Broccoli)

Mockery week continues here at Song of the Day with this Dana Carvey classic. Be careful, it's terribly addictive. You'll be singing, if not eating, broccoli for the foreseeable future.



What a tragedy that we don't have the genius of Phil Hartman anymore. He was one of my alltime favorites.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Song of the Day: Sour Shoes

Mockery week on Song of the Day continues with one of my favorite non-artists. Sour Shoes is one of the longest running goofball callers to the Howard Stern Show. His ability to recall and sing songs on command is amazing. He's known for the high pitched baby voice or shticky announcer voice. He's also known for living in his parents house, despite the fact that he's probably well into his 30s. Other details about him are debatable. There are some other clips of his calls that are even funnier than this, but they include adult language and adult themes.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Song of the Day: The Breakfast Song

The YouTube information on this one says: "This song aired on The Mornin' Show, a local program carried by NBC affiliate WTVA in Tupelo, Mississippi."

It's hard to believe that's true, but it adds to the enjoyment. Make sure you listen all the way through, if you can. The cereal verse is not to be missed. You might also wonder if the female is his dentist. She seems as interested in the song as he does in his dental health.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Song of the Day: Where's the Chapstick?

Welcome to Mockery Week at Song of the Day. It's been a while since we've done a theme week here. I hope you'll like what we have in store for you. Be sure to shout out for your favorites and suggest others to be featured. This can be stretched longer than the week. But as always, please no wagering.

Let's get this party started.

Someone who knew someone who knew someone forwarded this Youtube gem to me. I liked it so much, I forwarded it to a bunch of other people. One person in the chain hasn't liked it, everyone else loves it and gets it stuck in their heads. I don't want to name names, but it is now on more than one iPod. One woman I work with loved it so much, I encouraged her to put it on her phone as a ringtone. She did. And it is assigned to me. So I am guranteed that any time I call her, she will answer the phone laughing.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Any reading suggestions?

The growing divide between rich and poor and the growing animosity each has toward the other in policy debates is making me nervous for America. It makes me wonder if another revolution is possible.

Fewer people vote. Sure, some because they "don't like politics" and some out of ignornance. But a growing number, I'd suspect, because they really feel the choice is not real. That kind of helplessness, that lack of confidence that people have any control over their own lives or ability to impact the society around them, doesn't seem a good thing to me.

Anyone have any primers on the French Revolution to suggest reading? I never felt I learned enough about that. Maybe I wasn't ready to learn when it came up in school. Maybe it was given short shrift.

Anyway, I'm wondering if I'd find any parallels in there.

I'M NOT ADVOCATING REVOLUTION, ARMED OR OTHERWISE. IF YOU ARE AN UBER-PATRIOT OR GOVERNMENT SPOOK, DON'T BOTHER BUILDING A FILE ON ME. I'M NOT FOMENTING ANYTHING HERE, JUST THINKING.

Song of the Day: Eat It

The motivation for today's SOTD is twofold. One: Bacon and Cheese Stuffed Pizza Burger. Two: Micheal Jackson's announcement that the freakshow will be coming to a cornfield near you.


I wanted to include the video, but embedding is disabled. But I encourage you to follow this link. Weird Al's genius has always been a function of his lyrics and video images, after all.

For your weekend menu?

If you didn't feel like the seasoned pretzels were appealing, perhaps you'll like this dish. You really do need to see all the pictures to truly appreciate the Chef's vision.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Shut up and show up

One of the things that irks me is when people piss and moan about jury duty. You almost can't find someone who gets a jury summons who doesn't at least talk about ways to get out of showing up or doesn't have some strategy for answering questions in a way that will get them disqualified.

I will henceforth refer to these people as bad Americans. I suggest that anyone that complains about or does not willingly participate in jury duty when called should not be allowed to fly a flag at their house. Now that I think of it, they shouldn't be able to vote, either.

The right to be tried by a jury of one's peers is one of the most important elements of our legal system, no?

And for crying out loud, going to jury duty means you get out of work and might get a shot at hearing some interesting tale that one of the local news stations would probably cover with a specially tailored graphics package. Since when does anyone NOT want a day off of work?

The kicker is that most of the time, you never have to serve on a jury, which means you're out of there by lunchtime and have no chance of getting called for the next three years.

There was a time when my frustration over not getting called to jury duty, or getting a summons but being told I wasn't needed in the "call the night before" process, was growing into quite an issue. I was looking foroward to fulfiling my duty and maybe even hearing some good gossipy stuff.

Well, I finally got to go. I even got on a jury. It wasn't exciting and we deliberated about 20 seconds, but I felt happy to do my part.

It's shameful that so many people seem irked by the very thought of it. Maybe not shameful, just un-American.

A song of the day to save

Today's Song of the Day post was the 700th post published on this blog. Go ahead, scroll back and count them all, you'll see.

For a moment after i realized, I wondered if I shouldn't have chosen a different Dead song--What a long strange trip it's been--as more appropriate. But I think that's better saved for a post further into the future. Or when I make a melodramatic final post to the blog.

And really, 20 months isn't really a long trip, no matter the level of strangeness.

Pardon me while I guffaw

This really is good. I hope they give the nonsurgical treatment a good long try. Then let his ten weeks or four months off come during the stretch. Just because he never has been a clutch player doesn't mean he won't ever. It should conjure up plenty of talk about karma and curses and such.

Also this should cause a good deal of laughter around the country. Clearly Owens still has something left in the tank, but there's also too much still coming out of his mouth. The guy just doesn't understand how obnoxious people find him.

The combination of these two stories almost had milk shooting out of my nose. Good times, I tell ya.

Song of the Day: (The) Passenger

One title, two great songs.

The first, a peppy clip from the Grateful Dead. I'm not even close to being a certifiable Deadhead, but I like them. I saw them live at the Boston Garden back in the early 90s with Bruce Hornsby sitting in on piano. I listened to Dead Set a few million times in college. This is one my my favorite songs from that tape (I had it on cassette first), though I'm this isn't that version. No matter. Good stuff.


This one's from the Batman Returns soundtrack. I'm a big fan of this cd. It was on very heavy rotation for a few years when it came out and still returns consistently. Good variety of artists and song styles. The Passenger is by the late Micheal Hutchence and come near the back end of the order.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Eat this

"Kathleen's Pretzels"
2 boxes of hard, salted pretzels
2/3 cup begetable oil
1 envelope of dry Ranch Dressing mix
1/2 t Garlic Powder
1/2 t Dill Weed
1/2 t lemon pepper

Spread pretzels in baking pan.
Mix all other ingredients and pour over pretzels, stiring pretzels to coat.

Cook at 275 degrees for 20 minutes.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Budget crisis solved?

Layoff cops, sell horses?

Seriously, no mention of what happens to the horses. It's not like horses can just be given away at the pound. I read a story not long ago about a horse rescue that couldn't keep up with all the horses that people were trying to get rid of.

I'm pretty sure my brother-in-law and his friends will buy most of the bikes, but whither the horses? Could it be cheaper to keep them?

U2's new album

I have it loaded in my iTunes/iPod. Listented to it once, but wasn't really paying attention to most. The plan is to listen to it again on the drive home.

I'm looking forward to it. The Joshua Tree is one of my Top 10 favorite albums of all time and I've liked their last two albums. It's a tribute to Bono and the band that they can continue to put out good stuff even as Bono's voice fails.

Song of the Day: Smile

I'm told trumpeter Chris Botti is a pretty big deal, and not just because he dated Katie Couric, though that seems qualification enough to me. He teamed up with Steven Tyler for a version of this classic, which may surprise Tyler fans and non-fans alike.

They played it live at Symphony Hall a bit ago, I'm told, with Tyler's dad in attendance and the recipient of the dedication.

I hereby dedicate it to everyone that is fed up with this year's winter weather. My calendar says Spring beings in nine days. Keep hope alive and try to smile, for Pete's sake!

Monday, March 2, 2009

Civil War in GOP

There's some unrest in the Republican Party. After the finger pointing over the last few elections, they've settled into soul-searching. Who does the Republican Party want to be? What does it want to stand for most?

There seems to be a growing rift between the philosophical conservative purists, who think the party has left the traditional conservative blueprint that led to Ronald Reagan's success, now considered mythic within party cirles and the populist sloganeering that helped the party peak in the 90s and early 2000s.

At the heart of the issue is half-deaf drug addict Rush Limbaugh. While embracing most of the conservative planks of the party, he does so in a way that turns off some of the moderates the GOP relied on to win and hold power. Essentially, Reagan begat Gingrich who begat Limbaugh who begat Coulter.

It's all playing out very publicly, most recently at their big C-PAC (Conservative Political Action Committee) get together. Limbaugh was the big final speaker and had the crowds going nuts. But that doesn't sit well with the party chair.

Because I'm a liberal, I'm rooting for Limbaugh to prevail.

Song of the Day: Inner City Blues (Make me wanna holler



I read the book before I really learned of or learned to appreciate this song and the album it comes from, one of my all-time top ten. If you don't have it in your collection, you should.

I listened to Marvin Gaye's "What's going on" from first song to last the other night in the car. It's soooo good, start to finish. And the lyrics are surprisingly (and disappointingly) fitting for our time.

The book was a surprise. It was on the reading list for one of my journalism classes. It was about as far from my life experience as could be, but it's brutal honesty and underlying hope carried me through a second reading a few years after the first.