One of the Greats

Shea Ralph update.

Wingnut Paranoia

How come nobody says this? - Colin McEnroe | To Wit

Almost nobody mentions the fact that Obama -- after living down a cascade of accusations (including from Joe the Plumber) that he would be a soft ally to Israel, that he himself was a Muslim, that he was in the thrall of an anti-Semitic preacher, that he was a confederate of Farrakhan -- picked as his right hand man an Orthodox Jew.

Somewhere on the interwebs, forgot to blog it and can't find it at the moment, is a post that lists a whole bunch of things that, if any one of them happens, the blogger will eat a hat. The list includes things like "President Obama makes it illegal to criticize President Obama," and "President Obama launches an invasion of Israel," &c. All the fear-mongering, wingnut doomsday predictions that have a probability approaching 0 of happening.

McCain Campaign Coming Apart at the Seams

Less than two weeks to Election Day and Palin's giving depositions in her abuse of power scandal, Joe McCain is illegally harassing a 911 operator, and we're finding out the highest paid staffer in the campaign is Palin's hairdresser (nice follow up to the $150K shopping spree news), and ... what a shock ... Ashley Todd turns out to be a race-baiting fraud.

Fox News' John Moody:

If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain's quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.

At least that hack Drudge has the decency to fess up to his shoddy reporting ... well, it's currently under the huge banner that reads, "JOE THE PLUMBER 'SCARED FOR AMERICA' IF OBAMA PRESIDENT"

Is this not the most surreal election season we've ever lived through?

Settling In Here In North Cackalacka

Home projects will probably keep posting on light on my part; however, I'm still clicking 'share' now and again when I get a chance to scan my Reader. If you were to go over there, you'd find items on the following topics in the last few weeks:

• McCain's cluelessness
• Palin's inability to tell the truth
• Sylvester McCoy
• Pedro & Manny
• A Monkey Taking a Shower (video)
  
• The Flaming Lips
• Calexico
• Cussing in a Comic Book

This weekend's project was to stain the fence. Home Depot didn't have a sprayer to rent so I bought one of those 2 gallon lawn sprayers and used that. 16 (!!!) gallons of stain later, it turned out pretty nice. If I do say so myself. I'm pretty sunburnt and worn out. The next project I take on will be an inside job: either painting the kids' room or the living room. Tile backsplash, some landscaping, sealing the garage floor, not to mention all the unpacking still to be done ... I can see where this owning a proper home thing is going to keep me busy

My other ongoing project is to get my books out of attic boxes and into my LibraryThing. Once out of the box, they're either going onto a bookshelf or on BookMooch. Trying to pare down to essentials and books I'm saving for Blake and Amelia when they get a little older. So far, it's been tough putting anything up for Mooching, but I'm making the hard choices to get down to a manageable number.

All-Star Day Daydreaming

One of my earliest memories of sheer youthful summertime joy is of July 4, 1976. My dad hosted a family cookout at the house on King St. My Uncles Rob and Jim were there and Jim's sons Matt, Adam, and P.J. My cousins were these semi-mythical (to me) best friends by blood who, by living in England, were the coolest and most exotic members of my family in my 5 year old mind. Running around and playing with them while burgers and hot dogs flew of the grill, corn on the cob from the farm next door (heavy with butter and salt) was in constant supply, and fireworks went off ... I was in heaven. That memory is hard-wired in a way not many others are.

Billy Crystal has a bit in the movie "City Slickers" about his father taking him to see his first game at Yankee Stadium when was 7 years old where he describes walking up the dark tunnel under the bleachers, holding his father's hand, to emerge into the sun and see the green grass of field in person for the first time. You can just tell he's tapping into a real-life memory.

I mention these two things because I think they establish the time-frame in which you can give a kid one of those memories that they'll be old enough to keep with them their whole life but they'll still be young enough for the things remembered to be larger than life.

I'd like nothing more than for Blake and Amelia's first big league game to be at Fenway one summer between 2011 and 2013 when they're in that 5-7 year old range. Even if they don't turn out to be Red Sox (unthinkable) or even baseball fans, that first site of a ballpark in the sunshine after coming out of a dark tunnel, while holding their dad's hand -- that's a feeling I can't wait to give them.

With any luck we'll be living in NC, not in RI, by then and this experience will involve some planning to line up a flight, a stopover at Uncle Jeremy's, and a rental car because we might as well drive down to the Bronx and show them (the new) Yankee stadium, too.

I haven't been able to watch much baseball this summer but I hope to watch the All-Star game tonight. When I see those guys that haven't played in Yankee Stadium getting out there to soak it all in, I'm going to be thinking about where I want to be in 3 or 4 years with my family: a day game at Fenway, teaching them how to keep score and hoping to catch a foul ball.