Fri 30 Nov 2007
Posted in This, that and the other
at 12:05
Penn State’s football team is often more popular in the state than either of the NFL teams, but there was a spell earlier this decade when the Nittany Lions were losing, and criticism of head coach Joe Paterno was rising. One particular complaint was his supposed lack of creativity in offensive play-calling.
All this is by way of introducing something Pat said this morning that made me laugh. I was reading Kevin McDonough’s TV column in the newspaper and fuming at the seemingly mandatory reference to Steely Dan’s 2001 wins as symbolic of much that is wrong with the Grammy Awards.
Assuming she’d already read it, I read aloud one offending passage: “…out of touch, accentuating the safe and accepted over the innovative and interesting…”
And Pat said, “Are you reading about Joe Paterno?”
I’m telling you, she’s good… and I’m lucky. 
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Thu 29 Nov 2007
Posted in Thursday Thirteen
at 11:11
Self-indulgence alert: I know the cats are more interesting, but two of my three baseball sim league teams won their divisions this season and that makes me happy, and yes, self-indulgent.
For years, I used games like Strat-O-Matic and Diamond Mind to replay seasons of real-life teams, like the 1984 Detroit Tigers. Now that I’m in draft leagues on the web, it calls for more creativity in naming teams.
- San Jose Hackers — Since the team was in a league of computer-based baseball, I wanted a name with meaning in both computers and baseball. Hackers are skilled with computers (”crackers” are the bad guys); after I had that, I imagined that Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems should own a ball club. The team would play at Sun Field, of course. Yes, I know that in baseball, it’s not a good thing to be a hacker. All the more reason! I like irony, y’know?
- South Jersey Hackers — Another league, but it already had a “San Jose” team. But back then my email was sjhax AT hotmail, and I wanted to keep it. The year I rebuilt the team with young players, they were nicknamed the “Script Kiddies.”
- P’burg Shooters — I’ve lived in or near 3 towns called P’burg: Perrysburg, Ohio; Parkersburg, West Virginia; and Phillipsburg, New Jersey. I acquired and named this team shortly after my brother-in-law Dan died of cancer. We used to play Strat-O-Matic, and sometimes after one of his teams finished a big inning, he’d give me the dice and say sweetly, “You’re up, Shooter.”
- Arlington Nationals — Arlington was a town near where I lived. Their imaginary ballpark would have been a place where other teams’ dreams went to die.
- Bloomdale Derricks — Small Ohio town that used to have an oil industry. Sounded authentic.
- Go Home Yankees — I learned one day that there’s a Go Home Lake in Ontario. You can probably guess the rest.
- Deep Space Nine — Although I’m not a sci-fi fan, I had heard of that Star Trek show, and thought it’d be a nice complement to the Mudville Nine.
- Ocean City Red Knots — Baseball is a sport with Cardinals, Blue Jays, and Orioles, so I continued the tradition with this team and several others. The red knot migrates as far as 9,000 miles. It stops to rest and refuel along the U.S. Atlantic Coast near shore towns like Ocean City (both New Jersey and Maryland).
- Vermilion Flycatchers — Another team named for a bird, and for a nearby city.
- Shepherd Hills Redtails — Named for the red-tailed hawks that soared over the development where I was living.
- Blue Ball FenceBusters — The ‘Busters were supposed to be a power-hitting team, but that did not turn out to be a self-fulfilling prophesy.
- Azusa Lusas — Not a great team. But even the Lusas got lucky sometimes…
- Lehigh Valley Hex — This is an exception here. Instead, this was my entry in the “Name The Team” contest for the minor league team that starts play in Allentown next season. Named for the hex signs in Pennsylvania Dutch country. Alas, the team chose another name.
I can’t take credit for this last one: one guy called his team the White Clouds, because they started out on a roll, but ended up in the toilet…
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Wed 28 Nov 2007
Posted in The Good things in life
at 0:05
My older sisters may know the details of this story better than I do, but I’m going to tell it the way I remember it. While we were all still living at home, many years ago, a car slid off the road in a snowstorm and knocked over our mailbox, post and all. No sooner did our father put it back up than a snowplow knocked it down again.
That next spring, he dug a hole several feet deep next to the road and set a large steel pipe in it. Then he filled both the hole and the pipe with concrete, and when it finished drying he said something to the effect of ‘I’d like to see them try to knock it down now.’ Well, the box still came off from time to time, courtesy of local youths with a baseball bat or a powerful firecracker, but that pipe wasn’t going anywhere.
And as of the summer of 2006, when I last stopped by the old address, the house was empty, but that post was still standing strong…
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Tue 27 Nov 2007
Posted in This, that and the other
at 19:55
Pat told me about an ad in today’s newspaper. It reads:
“Incredible Doorbuster”
“Fog-free shower mirror with radio, air compressor, mini revolving tie rack and more.”
“$19.97″
Mighty versatile little item, isn’t it?
I’m no copywriter, but it sounds like they have a little punctuation trouble… or maybe that should have read “doorbusters.”
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Posted in This, that and the other
at 13:15
Pat’s at the hospital, but she’s probably feeling better right now than I am. She’s doing a followup… excuse me… I gotta…
SNEEZE!
Sorry. Anyway, she’s undergoing some followup testing, a couple of months since her surgery. Meanwhile, I’m hacking and coughing with an occasional sneeze thrown in for good measure. I could have dragged myself to work this morning, but odds are they would have yelled at me to go back home before the whole department gets infected.
Our Good Cats have been nagging asking me to go outside for a couple of hours, but although it’s sunny today, it’s also pretty windy and chilly. Besides, I’m sick, cats. (Cough-cough.) So they’re out of luck until Pat gets home.
In the meantime, here’s what I found this morning via AaronCook.com:
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Posted in Cats, Lizzie, What is a Good Cat?
at 0:05
Our Lizzie Bennet doesn’t give Pat any trouble when it’s time to have her claws clipped. She just leans back and relaxes while Pat waits on her hand and foot, and that attitude of entitlement is undoubtedly another of the qualities that defines a Good Cat.
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