In my never-ending efforts to spread the word about good work, check out the new blog by Glenn Locke of Boulder, Colorado:
http://tallnthin.blogspot.com
The fact that he wrote about my book today has absolutely nothing to do with this plug. I would have done it anyway.
Just not today.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Cough, cough
There's nothing like my second annual early December illness.
And this was a good one -- a nice case of bronchitis. It came complete with chest congestion, a 101-plus fever, and fainting at 4 a.m. on the way back from the bathroom. The biggest problem is trying to sleep -- the bed doesn't work because of coughing, forcing the patient to a reclining chair in an unsuccessful effort to get some shuteye.
I hadn't missed a day of work in 10 years, and I missed a week this time. Somehow, work was done without me. The first few days of the illness were something of a blur -- I couldn't really read, and it almost hurt to watch television. Besides, I was dozing a lot.
After recovering a bit, though, the job of getting better turned really boring. It supposed to be cool to be able to sit home while sick and watch videos or something. All I had, though, was the Ken Burns' series on World War II ... which I had watched when it was originally on. That sure didn't help. I would have killed for a trip to the video store. You can only watch ESPN News for so long.
Let's hope this December sickness doesn't turn into a tradition.
And this was a good one -- a nice case of bronchitis. It came complete with chest congestion, a 101-plus fever, and fainting at 4 a.m. on the way back from the bathroom. The biggest problem is trying to sleep -- the bed doesn't work because of coughing, forcing the patient to a reclining chair in an unsuccessful effort to get some shuteye.
I hadn't missed a day of work in 10 years, and I missed a week this time. Somehow, work was done without me. The first few days of the illness were something of a blur -- I couldn't really read, and it almost hurt to watch television. Besides, I was dozing a lot.
After recovering a bit, though, the job of getting better turned really boring. It supposed to be cool to be able to sit home while sick and watch videos or something. All I had, though, was the Ken Burns' series on World War II ... which I had watched when it was originally on. That sure didn't help. I would have killed for a trip to the video store. You can only watch ESPN News for so long.
Let's hope this December sickness doesn't turn into a tradition.
Friday, December 07, 2007
Stop the insanity
Let me just review the Presidential selection process briefly, just to make sure I have this right.
A bunch of candidates spend about a year campaigning and raising money. The campaigning is mostly done in Iowa and New Hampshire, and fund-raising is done anywhere there is a hand to shake and some shrimp to eat.
Then the business of selecting delegates starts. Well, sort of. In Iowa, voters aren't selecting delegates, they are caucusing in order to pick delegates. Not many people understand the system, but somehow winners and losers are determined -- mostly on a basis of expectations. In New Hampshire, you can vote for anyone you want regardless of party affiliation. So if you are a Democrat who is scared stiff that Rudy Giuliani is the only Republican who can stop a Democratic win (and that's not a ridiculous thought), then you'll sprint to the voting booth and become an instant Republican.
And when we are done with Iowa and New Hampshire, we have clear front-runners as well as candidates who can no longer raise money and head for the hills, leaving a few buttons (we should have more buttons in politics, don't you think?) and signs in their wake. In a couple of more weeks, a few more primaries will be held, and the winners of the two major nominations may be determined.
And it won't be February. Which means the voting population won't be asked to pay attention again until ... un ... Labor Day. Seven months later. In meantime, 90-plus percent of the electorate won't have much to say about the outcome.
Does this make any sense? Do people really wonder why voter turnout isn't too high?
I like the idea of retail campaigning that Iowa and New Hampshire bring to the table. It's charming to watch the candidates work the crowds one at a time on C-SPAN. The two states seem to take the responsibilities seriously, too. It would be a great way to start the campaign. Instead, it feels too often like the beginning of the end.
I'm not sure what might work here -- a "no delegate picked before March 1" rule or something might not be too practical -- but this system makes the electoral college look downright civilized.
A bunch of candidates spend about a year campaigning and raising money. The campaigning is mostly done in Iowa and New Hampshire, and fund-raising is done anywhere there is a hand to shake and some shrimp to eat.
Then the business of selecting delegates starts. Well, sort of. In Iowa, voters aren't selecting delegates, they are caucusing in order to pick delegates. Not many people understand the system, but somehow winners and losers are determined -- mostly on a basis of expectations. In New Hampshire, you can vote for anyone you want regardless of party affiliation. So if you are a Democrat who is scared stiff that Rudy Giuliani is the only Republican who can stop a Democratic win (and that's not a ridiculous thought), then you'll sprint to the voting booth and become an instant Republican.
And when we are done with Iowa and New Hampshire, we have clear front-runners as well as candidates who can no longer raise money and head for the hills, leaving a few buttons (we should have more buttons in politics, don't you think?) and signs in their wake. In a couple of more weeks, a few more primaries will be held, and the winners of the two major nominations may be determined.
And it won't be February. Which means the voting population won't be asked to pay attention again until ... un ... Labor Day. Seven months later. In meantime, 90-plus percent of the electorate won't have much to say about the outcome.
Does this make any sense? Do people really wonder why voter turnout isn't too high?
I like the idea of retail campaigning that Iowa and New Hampshire bring to the table. It's charming to watch the candidates work the crowds one at a time on C-SPAN. The two states seem to take the responsibilities seriously, too. It would be a great way to start the campaign. Instead, it feels too often like the beginning of the end.
I'm not sure what might work here -- a "no delegate picked before March 1" rule or something might not be too practical -- but this system makes the electoral college look downright civilized.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
On the border...
Gotta throw in a quick note about one of the fun sports/television traditions north of the border.
It's Grey Cup week in Canada, as the Canadian Football League stages its annual championship game. That means one big party, and it lasts for week. Our friends to the north do it up right.
For those of us with access to the CBC, which means in a border state, we get to see "Grey Cup Classics" if we stay up late enough. At about midnight, I think, the CBC each night in the week leading up to the game shows a game from the past.
It's charming, especially the old ones. One game earlier this week must have been from the early 1960's. There were no graphics, no replays. Numbers on uniforms were all over the place, unlike the modern system of standardizing numbers by position. One game the other night had the Ottawa Rough Riders and the Saskatchewan Roughriders -- that's right, two of the nine teams in the CFL had the same name, more or less.
It's kind of like watching ESPN Classic, but this is really classic stuff. I'd imagine it would be even better if I had heard of more than a couple of the players. You won't see NBC try something like this. Too bad; it would be fun to see a couple of those old AFL games from the 1960's in their entirety.
(Oh, and give yourself 10 points if you recognized the title from the Al Stewart song. I think he said it's the only top 20 hit about gun-running in Africa.)
It's Grey Cup week in Canada, as the Canadian Football League stages its annual championship game. That means one big party, and it lasts for week. Our friends to the north do it up right.
For those of us with access to the CBC, which means in a border state, we get to see "Grey Cup Classics" if we stay up late enough. At about midnight, I think, the CBC each night in the week leading up to the game shows a game from the past.
It's charming, especially the old ones. One game earlier this week must have been from the early 1960's. There were no graphics, no replays. Numbers on uniforms were all over the place, unlike the modern system of standardizing numbers by position. One game the other night had the Ottawa Rough Riders and the Saskatchewan Roughriders -- that's right, two of the nine teams in the CFL had the same name, more or less.
It's kind of like watching ESPN Classic, but this is really classic stuff. I'd imagine it would be even better if I had heard of more than a couple of the players. You won't see NBC try something like this. Too bad; it would be fun to see a couple of those old AFL games from the 1960's in their entirety.
(Oh, and give yourself 10 points if you recognized the title from the Al Stewart song. I think he said it's the only top 20 hit about gun-running in Africa.)
Monday, November 19, 2007
Predictable
The end is finally coming in the Barry Bonds case. Finally. We're all sick of hearing about it, but we can almost see the finish line.
The likely result is that Barry will do a good impression of Marion Jones, saying he made some mistakes concerning steroids and his testimony before the Federal grand jury, is sorry, and accepts responsibility. It would be nice if he would do this on the courthouse steps, just to keep up with the others in this boat.
The other option is that we go through a trial, which will have plenty of television coverage on its way to a breathless and probable conclusion. A Pittsburgh paper found that 99 percent of all Federal indictments result in convictions. In other words, these guys don't mess around, and they are pretty darn good.
And it was all so unnecessary. At the start, Bonds could have been happy being a multi-time baseball MVP and not worried about Hank Aaron's home run. His ticket to fame and fortune would have been assured. Nope, not enough.
Or, he could have simply told the truth before the grand jury. Jason Giambi did that. Sure, he took a hit in the court of public opinion, and he's headed down the slope right now, but he's not headed to jail like Bonds may be. Bonds opted to deny the charges.
Bonds made a bargain -- take his chances by cheating and then denying it (allegedly). He broke the biggest record in American sports, and made millions of extra dollars. Now he'll pay the price, which looks like a chance at jail time. Did he make a good deal, as Howie Mandel would ask? Tough call.
I don't know what took everyone so long in this case, but at least we seem to be headed toward some sort of closure.
About time.
The likely result is that Barry will do a good impression of Marion Jones, saying he made some mistakes concerning steroids and his testimony before the Federal grand jury, is sorry, and accepts responsibility. It would be nice if he would do this on the courthouse steps, just to keep up with the others in this boat.
The other option is that we go through a trial, which will have plenty of television coverage on its way to a breathless and probable conclusion. A Pittsburgh paper found that 99 percent of all Federal indictments result in convictions. In other words, these guys don't mess around, and they are pretty darn good.
And it was all so unnecessary. At the start, Bonds could have been happy being a multi-time baseball MVP and not worried about Hank Aaron's home run. His ticket to fame and fortune would have been assured. Nope, not enough.
Or, he could have simply told the truth before the grand jury. Jason Giambi did that. Sure, he took a hit in the court of public opinion, and he's headed down the slope right now, but he's not headed to jail like Bonds may be. Bonds opted to deny the charges.
Bonds made a bargain -- take his chances by cheating and then denying it (allegedly). He broke the biggest record in American sports, and made millions of extra dollars. Now he'll pay the price, which looks like a chance at jail time. Did he make a good deal, as Howie Mandel would ask? Tough call.
I don't know what took everyone so long in this case, but at least we seem to be headed toward some sort of closure.
About time.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Yikes
My former high school classmate, Becky Harbison, had some comments about seeing excerpts on the Rob Ray book in The Buffalo News. And she even let me comment on the comments.
So I did.
Thank you, Becky. Head to http://clarencegrad72.blogspot.com/. And it was nice to see another Clarence Class of '72 member, Jim Donnelly, at today's book signing. Jim had a heck of an outside jumper in his day, even when he had a broken leg back then. He just swung the cast forward, leaning back, and stuck another jumper.
So I did.
Thank you, Becky. Head to http://clarencegrad72.blogspot.com/. And it was nice to see another Clarence Class of '72 member, Jim Donnelly, at today's book signing. Jim had a heck of an outside jumper in his day, even when he had a broken leg back then. He just swung the cast forward, leaning back, and stuck another jumper.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Don't look ahead...
When the National Football League season was announced last spring, there was much sadness among fans of the Buffalo Bills. Fans looked over the week-by-week lineup and said the Bills looked like a candidate to capture the first overall draft choice for the spring of 2008.
Then a funny thing happened. Teams started to play games.
Here we are at the midpoint of the season in Buffalo, and the Bills are 4-4. They aren't going to the Super Bowl, but they are on the fringes of playoff contention. So what happened?
People used the 2006 as a way of predicting what would happen in 2007. And that never works. Teams go up and down the ladder quickly these days, what with injuries, free agent movement, etc.
In the Bills' case, Buffalo has beaten the Jets twice. New York was a playoff team last year and looked too strong for the Bills in April. Now the Jets don't look too strong for anyone, except for maybe the Dolphins and Rams. The Bills also beat a weakened Ravens team, playing without its starting quarterback and some other key people, and a Bengals team that seems to have an arrest every few days (I exaggerate, but not much). That puts Buffalo at 4-4, and it hasn't even played the Dolphins yet.
I know football fans need something to do in the spring -- witness the popularity of the run-up to the NFL draft, even though one trade can change the entire mock draft order -- but let's keep the ups and downs of teams from year-to-year in mind before writing off a season.
Then a funny thing happened. Teams started to play games.
Here we are at the midpoint of the season in Buffalo, and the Bills are 4-4. They aren't going to the Super Bowl, but they are on the fringes of playoff contention. So what happened?
People used the 2006 as a way of predicting what would happen in 2007. And that never works. Teams go up and down the ladder quickly these days, what with injuries, free agent movement, etc.
In the Bills' case, Buffalo has beaten the Jets twice. New York was a playoff team last year and looked too strong for the Bills in April. Now the Jets don't look too strong for anyone, except for maybe the Dolphins and Rams. The Bills also beat a weakened Ravens team, playing without its starting quarterback and some other key people, and a Bengals team that seems to have an arrest every few days (I exaggerate, but not much). That puts Buffalo at 4-4, and it hasn't even played the Dolphins yet.
I know football fans need something to do in the spring -- witness the popularity of the run-up to the NFL draft, even though one trade can change the entire mock draft order -- but let's keep the ups and downs of teams from year-to-year in mind before writing off a season.
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