Man, has it really been that long since I've written in this blog? My word, time just seems to fly by.
First it was the elections (I hope you read my piece about the GOP on the Independent site), then I actually had some work to do out of town. I just got back a couple of days ago and had more work to do. Who was it that feared having nothing to do in retirement? I couldn't have been me.
Anyway, I'm back.
I need to apologize to my readers -- I had a scoop and didn't even know it. I found out from Alderman Sergio Rodriguez that he no longer worked at the New Haven Housing Authority on Election Day, Nov. 6. The news wasn't published in the Independent until three days later.
Ordinarily, it's nobody's business when a person, even an alderman, loses his job. Alderman is a voluntary position and being otherwise employed isn't part of the job description. But Rodriguez's opposition in the 26th Ward primary brought up federal law that said a person whose job involved federal funds could not run for city office.
The question is now moot, but some group or another is not satisfied with that and seems to want to keep it alive and get a ruling from the feds, even though there is no more violation, if there ever was one. Sergio told me he inquired three times about any possible conflict before announcing his intention to seek re-election to the board. He said he was told that his particular job at the Housing Authority involved no federal funds.
I say let's leave Sergio alone and just wish him good luck in his job search. As an alderman, he shows up and solicits feedback and problems from constituents so he can represent them. Sure, he goes along with the mayor on most things -- I wish he didn't -- but he does what he can.
Leaf me alone
Global warming has apparently given us a local problem with leaf collection.
I live in Westville and New Haven's Public Works Department decided that our leaf collection time was last week.
The problem is that most of our leaves were still on the trees last wek. Blame global warming.
So, what are we to do. When the leaves finally fall -- they are starting to do it now and today's ( Nov. 15, 2007) wind and rain will bring a lot of leaves down -- it will be too late to have them picked up by the city. What's a citizen to do?
I have an idea. We can put the leaves out with the snow and have them plowed away. Sorry, but that won't work since the snow is no longer collected from city streets and dumped as it used to be. You know, it's bad for the environment to dump all that chemical-laden snow into the Sound.
I guess we'll just have to leave the leaves unraked on our lawns. All in favor, say aye!
I read that San Francisco wants to issue identity cards just like New Haven does. No comment.
I just got called away.
Until next time...
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Friday, November 2, 2007
Vote even if you don't have a choice
Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2007 and You Are There -- at least I hope you are.
Of course, I'm talking about Election Day, when the good people of New Haven get to return John DeStefano Jr. and his merry band of Democrats to City Hall.
Republicans don't do well in New Haven. They are running two people for the 30-seat Board of Aldermen, and one of them is the lone Republican on the board. The only other GOP hopeful is a guy named Malone, running in the 25th Ward in Westville.
Rick Eiser is running for mayor on the GOP ticket and Ralph Ferrucci is on the Green Party line. Neither has more of a chance than the Washington Redskins (can you say redskin in New Haven?) had against the New England Patriots last week. (New England won 50-something to 7)
So, why vote? Because you can.
Look, I'm not going to wrap myself up in a flag and say that hundreds of thousands of American servicemen and women have died to give us the right to vote (although they did) and that we have a civic duty to maintain our method of government (although we do).
Most of us don't really have a say in who our aldermen and women are and who sits on the second floor of City Hall. We could have a say if we want to join the Democratic party and work our way into the seats of power. We could become one of the backroom pols who say who runs for what.
We don't even have a real boss anymore. Democratic kingmaker Arthur Barbieri used to sit up in his downtown insurance and travel agency and pass on who wanted to run and kept the really inept from seeking office. It was corrupt, but it was colorful. We didn't have any Joe Ganums and Phil Giordanos. Those are the two idiots who are in jail for corruption on Joe's part and being a horrible child molester in Giordano's case.
I guess what I'm saying is vote the idiots in one more time, but start working to clean up city government. Get involved -- show up at Board of Aldermen meetings. Call the alders...their addresses and numbers are on the city Web site
www.cityofnewhaven.com/Aldermen/index.asp
and tell them what you think. But it can't be like -- I want you to do this or that and don't bother me. You need to become involved. Volunteer for boards and commissions. Keep bugging the alders to pass that ethics rule.
DeStefano, who will be the next mayor, is a really nice guy who has some interesting ideas.
He reminds me of my former colleague Bobby I.
Bobby I is an African-American journalist -- or at least he was until he got divorced and ran off to Thailand to live in a monestery. I'm not sure if he's still there, although I heard he was back in the states.
Before he decided to shave his head and become a Buddhist monk, he would sit in the newsroom between deadlines -- sometimes during deadlines --and smoke a huge cigar (you could do that then) and talk about how every kid should get a computer so he or she could keep up in school. Society should make sure that every child not only had the same chance at success (no problem with that) but that every child should be given, at government expense, the best implements like computers and high-speed Internet and software and all kinds of fancy calculators to be sure he or she succeeded. Not only opportunity but results should be guaranteed.
When asked how all this would be paid for, he said it was up to the government to figure it out.
Well, have a great weekend, and for those in the Tribe, a good Shabbos.
Until next time...
Of course, I'm talking about Election Day, when the good people of New Haven get to return John DeStefano Jr. and his merry band of Democrats to City Hall.
Republicans don't do well in New Haven. They are running two people for the 30-seat Board of Aldermen, and one of them is the lone Republican on the board. The only other GOP hopeful is a guy named Malone, running in the 25th Ward in Westville.
Rick Eiser is running for mayor on the GOP ticket and Ralph Ferrucci is on the Green Party line. Neither has more of a chance than the Washington Redskins (can you say redskin in New Haven?) had against the New England Patriots last week. (New England won 50-something to 7)
So, why vote? Because you can.
Look, I'm not going to wrap myself up in a flag and say that hundreds of thousands of American servicemen and women have died to give us the right to vote (although they did) and that we have a civic duty to maintain our method of government (although we do).
Most of us don't really have a say in who our aldermen and women are and who sits on the second floor of City Hall. We could have a say if we want to join the Democratic party and work our way into the seats of power. We could become one of the backroom pols who say who runs for what.
We don't even have a real boss anymore. Democratic kingmaker Arthur Barbieri used to sit up in his downtown insurance and travel agency and pass on who wanted to run and kept the really inept from seeking office. It was corrupt, but it was colorful. We didn't have any Joe Ganums and Phil Giordanos. Those are the two idiots who are in jail for corruption on Joe's part and being a horrible child molester in Giordano's case.
I guess what I'm saying is vote the idiots in one more time, but start working to clean up city government. Get involved -- show up at Board of Aldermen meetings. Call the alders...their addresses and numbers are on the city Web site
www.cityofnewhaven.com/Aldermen/index.asp
and tell them what you think. But it can't be like -- I want you to do this or that and don't bother me. You need to become involved. Volunteer for boards and commissions. Keep bugging the alders to pass that ethics rule.
DeStefano, who will be the next mayor, is a really nice guy who has some interesting ideas.
He reminds me of my former colleague Bobby I.
Bobby I is an African-American journalist -- or at least he was until he got divorced and ran off to Thailand to live in a monestery. I'm not sure if he's still there, although I heard he was back in the states.
Before he decided to shave his head and become a Buddhist monk, he would sit in the newsroom between deadlines -- sometimes during deadlines --and smoke a huge cigar (you could do that then) and talk about how every kid should get a computer so he or she could keep up in school. Society should make sure that every child not only had the same chance at success (no problem with that) but that every child should be given, at government expense, the best implements like computers and high-speed Internet and software and all kinds of fancy calculators to be sure he or she succeeded. Not only opportunity but results should be guaranteed.
When asked how all this would be paid for, he said it was up to the government to figure it out.
Well, have a great weekend, and for those in the Tribe, a good Shabbos.
Until next time...
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Imus to go where Angels can no longer tread
So, the exile is over and J. Donald Imus is coming back to the airwaves, in Gotham City no less.
Imus in the morning will kick off on Dec. 3 on WABC radio, 770 on the AM dial. Charles McCord will be right there with him, serving up news Sniglets for Imus to comment about. The announcement said members of his little group of yes men would be there with him, but didn't specifically mention Barnyard McJerk, who started the whole mess in the first place.
As you no doubt remember, Imus was canned last April after issuing a sexist and racist rant about the Rutgers University women's basketball team. This blog is probably the only place on the planet that did not parrot Imus' words, I'm proud to say.
WABC was at the top, along with WINS, in bringing rock 'n' roll to New York, competing for the New Haven audience with WDRC in Hartford.
Before and during the 1960s, Musicradio featured such shining disk jockey lights as Alan Freed, Scott Muni and possibly the biggest of them all, Bruce (Cousin Brucie) Morrow.
It turned to all talk in the 1980s, giving birth to such shining intellects as Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham. The station, along with the ABC Radio Network, was sold to Citadel Broadcasting this summer by Walt Disney.
The morning drive time, where Imus will be heard, had been covered by Ron Kuby, the civil rights lawyer who made his bones carrying the brief case for famed attorney William Kunstler, and would-be peacemaker Curtis Sliwa. Sliwa and his Guardian Angels have been in New Haven since summer, working with Eliezer Greer and the armed bike patrol in Edgewood.
Sliwa may be hanging around New Haven more, starting tomorrow (Nov. 2, 2007), because he and Kuby were told not to show up work starting tomorrow after covering the drive time for nearly eight years.
"I've had a fantastic, great run," Kuby said. "Our show has enjoyed the best audience _ intelligent, compassionate, decent and kind. The new owners don't want that kind of show."
Page 2
Charles McClelland, the athletic director for Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas, hasn't had a winning football season since the Yankees won the World Series, or even before. The school's Panthers had lost something like 80 games in a row.
Today, on National Public Radio, McClelland blamed integration.
When asked what happened to his team, which until a few years ago had been quite good, he said that when integration occurred in colleges, the most talented players had other options than the traditionally all-black schools such as his, and took those options. That left his school to recruit those who were left, and the talent pool dried up.
I wonder what would have happened if Imus had said that.
Page 3
The queen, for reasons passing understanding, has honored CNN's Christiane Amanpour with the Commander in the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.
The queen said the award, given something like 20 times a year to fairly large numbers of people, was given in recognition of Amanpour practice of journalism.
I hope not.
CNN tonight is going to show again Amanpour's "God's Warriors" series in which she castigates Jews and Christians for fighting for their rights in the Middle East and gives a free pass and asks puffball questions to Moslems. This travesty was shown once and protests were heard from around the world. I guess that makes no difference to CNN, which is showing the mess again.
Page 4
New Haven's mayor, who welcomes, or more accurately invites, illegal immigrants into town with the promise of a city-issued identity card, now says the city should have no way of knowing if a job applicant has a felony criminal record. Please see
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2007/10/mayor_would_era.php#006823more
According to the New Haven Independent, Mayor John DeStefano Jr. wants there to be a way for felons who have paid their debt to society to re-enter the mainstream so they don't have to do whatever crime got them jailed in the first place in order to make a living.
I think the sentiment is wonderful, just like the resident cards. You know, it's funny that the mayor's press releases don't mention the cards after August, as in a string of banks that have jumped up to offer accounts to the illegals (not). So far, one bank has allowed the card, along with a passport, to be used for identification in opening accounts.
I think the felons program will also be good-intentioned but isn't going to work out. You take a doper who was tossed into the klink for stealing from his boss. So, the city hires him or her and puts him or her in a job that requires handling money, maybe like collecting fees as Lighthouse Point Park.
It's a hot day and a little smack or a little crack would make the time go by a little easier. So a few bucks sticks to the fingers.
It's a different story if the city decides to hire a person with a record because somebody thinks this guy or woman is a good risk. That's fine, up to a point. But not to know that a person is a child molester or a dope dealer or a crook? DeStafano said the felon should be given a chance to explain in an interview about his or her particular crime. Perhaps, on the other side of the personnel form, in the middle of the other side, quotated, will be the following words: HAVE YOU REHABILITATED YOURSELF? (with apologies to Arlo)
Well, how's that going to happen if nobody knows the applicant is a felon?
Sorry. No sale here.
Until next time...
Imus in the morning will kick off on Dec. 3 on WABC radio, 770 on the AM dial. Charles McCord will be right there with him, serving up news Sniglets for Imus to comment about. The announcement said members of his little group of yes men would be there with him, but didn't specifically mention Barnyard McJerk, who started the whole mess in the first place.
As you no doubt remember, Imus was canned last April after issuing a sexist and racist rant about the Rutgers University women's basketball team. This blog is probably the only place on the planet that did not parrot Imus' words, I'm proud to say.
WABC was at the top, along with WINS, in bringing rock 'n' roll to New York, competing for the New Haven audience with WDRC in Hartford.
Before and during the 1960s, Musicradio featured such shining disk jockey lights as Alan Freed, Scott Muni and possibly the biggest of them all, Bruce (Cousin Brucie) Morrow.
It turned to all talk in the 1980s, giving birth to such shining intellects as Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham. The station, along with the ABC Radio Network, was sold to Citadel Broadcasting this summer by Walt Disney.
The morning drive time, where Imus will be heard, had been covered by Ron Kuby, the civil rights lawyer who made his bones carrying the brief case for famed attorney William Kunstler, and would-be peacemaker Curtis Sliwa. Sliwa and his Guardian Angels have been in New Haven since summer, working with Eliezer Greer and the armed bike patrol in Edgewood.
Sliwa may be hanging around New Haven more, starting tomorrow (Nov. 2, 2007), because he and Kuby were told not to show up work starting tomorrow after covering the drive time for nearly eight years.
"I've had a fantastic, great run," Kuby said. "Our show has enjoyed the best audience _ intelligent, compassionate, decent and kind. The new owners don't want that kind of show."
Page 2
Charles McClelland, the athletic director for Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas, hasn't had a winning football season since the Yankees won the World Series, or even before. The school's Panthers had lost something like 80 games in a row.
Today, on National Public Radio, McClelland blamed integration.
When asked what happened to his team, which until a few years ago had been quite good, he said that when integration occurred in colleges, the most talented players had other options than the traditionally all-black schools such as his, and took those options. That left his school to recruit those who were left, and the talent pool dried up.
I wonder what would have happened if Imus had said that.
Page 3
The queen, for reasons passing understanding, has honored CNN's Christiane Amanpour with the Commander in the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.
The queen said the award, given something like 20 times a year to fairly large numbers of people, was given in recognition of Amanpour practice of journalism.
I hope not.
CNN tonight is going to show again Amanpour's "God's Warriors" series in which she castigates Jews and Christians for fighting for their rights in the Middle East and gives a free pass and asks puffball questions to Moslems. This travesty was shown once and protests were heard from around the world. I guess that makes no difference to CNN, which is showing the mess again.
Page 4
New Haven's mayor, who welcomes, or more accurately invites, illegal immigrants into town with the promise of a city-issued identity card, now says the city should have no way of knowing if a job applicant has a felony criminal record. Please see
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2007/10/mayor_would_era.php#006823more
According to the New Haven Independent, Mayor John DeStefano Jr. wants there to be a way for felons who have paid their debt to society to re-enter the mainstream so they don't have to do whatever crime got them jailed in the first place in order to make a living.
I think the sentiment is wonderful, just like the resident cards. You know, it's funny that the mayor's press releases don't mention the cards after August, as in a string of banks that have jumped up to offer accounts to the illegals (not). So far, one bank has allowed the card, along with a passport, to be used for identification in opening accounts.
I think the felons program will also be good-intentioned but isn't going to work out. You take a doper who was tossed into the klink for stealing from his boss. So, the city hires him or her and puts him or her in a job that requires handling money, maybe like collecting fees as Lighthouse Point Park.
It's a hot day and a little smack or a little crack would make the time go by a little easier. So a few bucks sticks to the fingers.
It's a different story if the city decides to hire a person with a record because somebody thinks this guy or woman is a good risk. That's fine, up to a point. But not to know that a person is a child molester or a dope dealer or a crook? DeStafano said the felon should be given a chance to explain in an interview about his or her particular crime. Perhaps, on the other side of the personnel form, in the middle of the other side, quotated, will be the following words: HAVE YOU REHABILITATED YOURSELF? (with apologies to Arlo)
Well, how's that going to happen if nobody knows the applicant is a felon?
Sorry. No sale here.
Until next time...
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
As Maxwell Smart would say, "Would you believe..."
After 40-odd (take that both ways) years in journalism, there isn't much that makes me do a double-take.
After today, my neck feels as if I'd been watching a tennis game with the double-takes.
The first is the word that Nancy A. Nord, head of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, asked Congress NOT to pass legislation that would have doubled the agency's budget, increased its staff and generally strengthened the agency that polices thousands of consumer goods.
Part of its mandate is to keep lead-soaked toys from China and other places out of the hands of children.
Nord, who had been a lawyer for Eastman Kodak and an official at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce before joining the federal government, opposes provisions that would hike the maximum penalties for safety violations and make it easier for the government to make reports of faulty products public, protect industry whistle-blowers and prosecute executives of companies that willfully violate laws.
OK, now we have two double-takes. First, here is a bureaucrat who doesn't want a larger empire with more money and more people to boss around. Second, a person who doesn't think it's a good thing to take lead-saturated toys out of the hands of kids.
The only way you are going to accomplish that is to have laws that hike the maximum penalties and prosecute executives of companies that place the toys into kids' hands and mouths in the pursuit of profit. These folks are not going to pull this poison off the market because the feds said pretty please.
Now for the third double-take. This story was not, NOT on the front page of the New York Times. Yes, there was a reference to it at the bottom of Page One, but really, this is news. This jerk deserves to get canned. President Bush isn't going to do it, because Nord is doing his bidding. He only knows that whatever is bad for his friends who run businesses is bad for the nation, or rather the Republican Party. To him, this is one and the same.
The Times, however, seems not to think this is important. The lead story is some bureaucrat at the Department of Justice pushing somebody at State under a bus by saying the State Department never told Justice that they had offered deals to Blackwater operatives. The one-column story at the left says (wait for it) that foreign fighters of a violent bend are helping the Taliban. Well, I didn't think they were being trained by the Dalai Lama.
There is also a tale about gay enclaves in cities, and Section 8 housing in the city. At the bottom is a yarn about applying for a driver's license in Johannesburg. Yes, we need slice of life stories, but really folks. We also need to get the news out there.
By the way, the folks who put together the Times Web page didn't think the story merited being on the home page and the folks who Comcast's home page together didn't think it was important, probably because Britney Spears wasn't in it.
Page 2
Well, since I'm in mid-rant, why not talk about the price of gas and oil.
My synagogue got an oil delivery the other day. You ready: $2.95 a gallon for heating oil, which is basically diesel fuel that is filtered fewer times than the stuff you pump into your Mercedes.
Gas is also tottering at the $3.00-a-gallon mark. If you didn't know better, you'd think the president of the United States was in the pocket of the oil companies.
This is a photo of an actual gas pump in Amherst, Mass., taken a week or so ago. So, perhaps the gas there may be a couple of cents more today , but really, why do folks in Taxachusetts pay so much less for gas.? By the way, there are places in Amherst and surrounding towns that charge nearly $3.00 a gallon, but there are places like this Hess station that charge a lot less.
It could be that their gas tax is less, or it could be that their state actually fights for rules that don't allow this type of highway robbery. Yes, oil is near $90 a barrel after being over that figure for a few days. Gasoline futures came down 8 cents today (Oct. 30, 2007), but we won't see that at the pump anytime soon.
You know, last year we had storms and the year before hurricanes, all of which sent the price of oil skyrocketing. This year, it's fear about what would happen if Turkey and the Kurds started duking it out. Maybees send prices booming.
The CEO at Merrill Lynch costs that company billions by guessing wrong on mortgages, which will probably cost thousands their jobs.
So what happens to him? He won't get a bonus or a severance package, but he will get a $2 million a year pension and stock options worth scores of millions of dollars.
This imbalance is just fine, if you ask the conservatives. Leave business alone and it will take care of itself. Well, it's just not right that people who head companies screw up and get millions ladled into their accounts and the poor guy who adds wrong and costs his boss a few bucks gets booted out into the street.
Where will it all end?
Page 3
We should end on a positive note. Kudos to the Boston Red Sox organization. They had a rolling rally, a parade through downtown Boston to honor the Sox today for winning the World Series on Sunday night. Everybody in the organization got to ride in the parade, from the players and the money guys all the way to the front-office staff and the people who sell the tickets. Everybody. That's a class act.
Until next time...
After today, my neck feels as if I'd been watching a tennis game with the double-takes.
The first is the word that Nancy A. Nord, head of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, asked Congress NOT to pass legislation that would have doubled the agency's budget, increased its staff and generally strengthened the agency that polices thousands of consumer goods.
Part of its mandate is to keep lead-soaked toys from China and other places out of the hands of children.
Nord, who had been a lawyer for Eastman Kodak and an official at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce before joining the federal government, opposes provisions that would hike the maximum penalties for safety violations and make it easier for the government to make reports of faulty products public, protect industry whistle-blowers and prosecute executives of companies that willfully violate laws.
OK, now we have two double-takes. First, here is a bureaucrat who doesn't want a larger empire with more money and more people to boss around. Second, a person who doesn't think it's a good thing to take lead-saturated toys out of the hands of kids.
The only way you are going to accomplish that is to have laws that hike the maximum penalties and prosecute executives of companies that place the toys into kids' hands and mouths in the pursuit of profit. These folks are not going to pull this poison off the market because the feds said pretty please.
Now for the third double-take. This story was not, NOT on the front page of the New York Times. Yes, there was a reference to it at the bottom of Page One, but really, this is news. This jerk deserves to get canned. President Bush isn't going to do it, because Nord is doing his bidding. He only knows that whatever is bad for his friends who run businesses is bad for the nation, or rather the Republican Party. To him, this is one and the same.
The Times, however, seems not to think this is important. The lead story is some bureaucrat at the Department of Justice pushing somebody at State under a bus by saying the State Department never told Justice that they had offered deals to Blackwater operatives. The one-column story at the left says (wait for it) that foreign fighters of a violent bend are helping the Taliban. Well, I didn't think they were being trained by the Dalai Lama.
There is also a tale about gay enclaves in cities, and Section 8 housing in the city. At the bottom is a yarn about applying for a driver's license in Johannesburg. Yes, we need slice of life stories, but really folks. We also need to get the news out there.
By the way, the folks who put together the Times Web page didn't think the story merited being on the home page and the folks who Comcast's home page together didn't think it was important, probably because Britney Spears wasn't in it.
Page 2
Well, since I'm in mid-rant, why not talk about the price of gas and oil.
My synagogue got an oil delivery the other day. You ready: $2.95 a gallon for heating oil, which is basically diesel fuel that is filtered fewer times than the stuff you pump into your Mercedes.
Gas is also tottering at the $3.00-a-gallon mark. If you didn't know better, you'd think the president of the United States was in the pocket of the oil companies.
This is a photo of an actual gas pump in Amherst, Mass., taken a week or so ago. So, perhaps the gas there may be a couple of cents more today , but really, why do folks in Taxachusetts pay so much less for gas.? By the way, there are places in Amherst and surrounding towns that charge nearly $3.00 a gallon, but there are places like this Hess station that charge a lot less.It could be that their gas tax is less, or it could be that their state actually fights for rules that don't allow this type of highway robbery. Yes, oil is near $90 a barrel after being over that figure for a few days. Gasoline futures came down 8 cents today (Oct. 30, 2007), but we won't see that at the pump anytime soon.
You know, last year we had storms and the year before hurricanes, all of which sent the price of oil skyrocketing. This year, it's fear about what would happen if Turkey and the Kurds started duking it out. Maybees send prices booming.
The CEO at Merrill Lynch costs that company billions by guessing wrong on mortgages, which will probably cost thousands their jobs.
So what happens to him? He won't get a bonus or a severance package, but he will get a $2 million a year pension and stock options worth scores of millions of dollars.
This imbalance is just fine, if you ask the conservatives. Leave business alone and it will take care of itself. Well, it's just not right that people who head companies screw up and get millions ladled into their accounts and the poor guy who adds wrong and costs his boss a few bucks gets booted out into the street.
Where will it all end?
Page 3
We should end on a positive note. Kudos to the Boston Red Sox organization. They had a rolling rally, a parade through downtown Boston to honor the Sox today for winning the World Series on Sunday night. Everybody in the organization got to ride in the parade, from the players and the money guys all the way to the front-office staff and the people who sell the tickets. Everybody. That's a class act.
Until next time...
Monday, October 29, 2007
It's a gas and how about those Red Sox
Well, I'm back. It's been a busy week and I have been bad about writing, but I think that's all over.
I had a project I had been promising to finish and that took a bit of time, plus some work for Paul Bass at the New Haven Independent.
But let's blame the Boston Red Sox. The World Series games have been ending in the wee hours, but it was worth it.
The Sox showed the world that they are for real, taking the last three games of the American League Pennant from the Cleveland Indians and then wiping out the Colorado Rockies in two blowouts and two really good baseball games. The celebrations were muted (only 35 or so arrested in Boston and no serious injuries) and the Sox didn't dance on Colorado's lawn. They celebrated for a while on the field, but then went into the clubhouse so not to stick it up the Rockies fans' noses too much. That was classy.
Now it's time to dance on our own lawn. Jonathan Papelbon earned his time to dance.
It's also time for the Red Sox management to do their part in rewarding those who came through during the season and the Series.
Of course, I'm talking about Mike Lowell, who will be a free agent. To the management of the Sox, re-sign Lowell, even if he wants a multi-year deal at the price you paid for J.D. Drew. When it comes to Alex Rodriguez, this is your response: NO. BAD. DON'T EVEN THINK OF IT.
Lowell is a teacher, a stabilizing factor in your clubhouse. He is a pretty darn good fielder and his hitting wasn't too shabby either. Will he equal his this-year performance next year? Probably not. But he will be out there in his quiet way, making the plays, hitting for the RBIs and teaching the youngsters the right things to do.
A-Rod, in my opinion, is a popinjay who is a disruptive influence and the Red Sox don't need him in any way, shape or form.
Now it is my turn to apologize for what I had been thinking about Drew and Julio Lugo. They came through when they needed to, even if their performance in the regular season was uninspired. I still think Lugo needs to go, as does Eric Gagne and Coco Crisp. Sorry guys, you could be a star on other teams, but just don't cut it in the rarefied air of Red Sox Nation.
My wife is relieve that the games are over. She grew up in a sports-crazy house and she doesn't want to have anything to do with watching sports. Don't tell her about the Patriots, the Celtics, UConn basketball (men's and women's) and the rest.
Speaking of UConn, how about those UConn football players. They are ranked nationally and could be in a major bowl game if they can get through Rutgers (tough team) and West Virginia (ditto).
In New England, it's good to be a fan these days.
Until next time...
I had a project I had been promising to finish and that took a bit of time, plus some work for Paul Bass at the New Haven Independent.
But let's blame the Boston Red Sox. The World Series games have been ending in the wee hours, but it was worth it.
The Sox showed the world that they are for real, taking the last three games of the American League Pennant from the Cleveland Indians and then wiping out the Colorado Rockies in two blowouts and two really good baseball games. The celebrations were muted (only 35 or so arrested in Boston and no serious injuries) and the Sox didn't dance on Colorado's lawn. They celebrated for a while on the field, but then went into the clubhouse so not to stick it up the Rockies fans' noses too much. That was classy.
Now it's time to dance on our own lawn. Jonathan Papelbon earned his time to dance.
It's also time for the Red Sox management to do their part in rewarding those who came through during the season and the Series.
Of course, I'm talking about Mike Lowell, who will be a free agent. To the management of the Sox, re-sign Lowell, even if he wants a multi-year deal at the price you paid for J.D. Drew. When it comes to Alex Rodriguez, this is your response: NO. BAD. DON'T EVEN THINK OF IT.
Lowell is a teacher, a stabilizing factor in your clubhouse. He is a pretty darn good fielder and his hitting wasn't too shabby either. Will he equal his this-year performance next year? Probably not. But he will be out there in his quiet way, making the plays, hitting for the RBIs and teaching the youngsters the right things to do.
A-Rod, in my opinion, is a popinjay who is a disruptive influence and the Red Sox don't need him in any way, shape or form.
Now it is my turn to apologize for what I had been thinking about Drew and Julio Lugo. They came through when they needed to, even if their performance in the regular season was uninspired. I still think Lugo needs to go, as does Eric Gagne and Coco Crisp. Sorry guys, you could be a star on other teams, but just don't cut it in the rarefied air of Red Sox Nation.
My wife is relieve that the games are over. She grew up in a sports-crazy house and she doesn't want to have anything to do with watching sports. Don't tell her about the Patriots, the Celtics, UConn basketball (men's and women's) and the rest.
Speaking of UConn, how about those UConn football players. They are ranked nationally and could be in a major bowl game if they can get through Rutgers (tough team) and West Virginia (ditto).
In New England, it's good to be a fan these days.
Until next time...
Friday, October 19, 2007
A few thoughts to end the week
Sorry I've been absent some, but blame it on the fact that we are a two-computer shop and one of those has been ailing.
My desktop caught a mechanical cold from a friend's computer. No, not a virus, but a cold. A week after he told me his computer's power supply had died, mine did as well.
Fortunately, we were able to save the hard drive with all the memory and Mike, the very same Mike who won the Bring Me the Head of Joe Torre contest, cobbled together a computer from bits and pieces that will serve until we can get a new one. Thanks so much, Mike. I hope the pizzas and Chinese food were enough of a payment.
Many of you plugged in the past week to read the Coulter blog, especially after a plug by Paul Bass in the Independent. But nobody left a comment. That's a bit disappointing.
It's raining hard now, but the weather forecasters say it will be nice tomorrow (Oct. 20, 2007). I wonder why weather forecasters on television can't just give you the forecast. It's not a weather forecast, it's a weather promo. And sometimes a false one. Will it snow tomorrow. Tune in to find out later in the newscast, so you can stay through all the stupid standups that pass for news.
You know, all this talk about us not getting enough exercise may be the same as the rap against Americans a few years ago for not saving enough.
It turned out that when we were compared with Japan, for example, we saved just as much as they did, only we saved it as equity in our homes, while they saved in banks.
This thought came to me while walking through a big-box store the other day.
There are a couple of truths about those stores. First, whatever you want is located at the other end of the store, no not that end, the other end. If you want two things, they are located at the opposite ends of the store from each other. So, if you spend any time at all in those stores, whether it's Home Depot or Target (pronounced tar-JAY), then you are getting lots of exercise.
You just have to stop those visits to the snack bar.
It's funny how stories come back to you.
I remember about 20 years ago or so, my boss at the Journal-Courier of New Haven was put on a diet by his wife. His assistant was tasked by the same wife with making sure he got exercise each day.
The J-C, now the New Haven Register, is on Sergeant Drive, and the pair could be seen each day walking the length of Sergeant Drive from the Register building all the way to where Ikea is today. But the man wasn't losing any weight.
So some co-workers followed them to see what was up. They were taking the walk, all right, but what neither was telling the wife was that they were stopping by the Howard Johnson's in the hotel for an ice cream sundae along the way.
Anyway, have a great weekend and for those in the Tribe, a great Shabbos.
Until next time...
My desktop caught a mechanical cold from a friend's computer. No, not a virus, but a cold. A week after he told me his computer's power supply had died, mine did as well.
Fortunately, we were able to save the hard drive with all the memory and Mike, the very same Mike who won the Bring Me the Head of Joe Torre contest, cobbled together a computer from bits and pieces that will serve until we can get a new one. Thanks so much, Mike. I hope the pizzas and Chinese food were enough of a payment.
Many of you plugged in the past week to read the Coulter blog, especially after a plug by Paul Bass in the Independent. But nobody left a comment. That's a bit disappointing.
It's raining hard now, but the weather forecasters say it will be nice tomorrow (Oct. 20, 2007). I wonder why weather forecasters on television can't just give you the forecast. It's not a weather forecast, it's a weather promo. And sometimes a false one. Will it snow tomorrow. Tune in to find out later in the newscast, so you can stay through all the stupid standups that pass for news.
You know, all this talk about us not getting enough exercise may be the same as the rap against Americans a few years ago for not saving enough.
It turned out that when we were compared with Japan, for example, we saved just as much as they did, only we saved it as equity in our homes, while they saved in banks.
This thought came to me while walking through a big-box store the other day.
There are a couple of truths about those stores. First, whatever you want is located at the other end of the store, no not that end, the other end. If you want two things, they are located at the opposite ends of the store from each other. So, if you spend any time at all in those stores, whether it's Home Depot or Target (pronounced tar-JAY), then you are getting lots of exercise.
You just have to stop those visits to the snack bar.
It's funny how stories come back to you.
I remember about 20 years ago or so, my boss at the Journal-Courier of New Haven was put on a diet by his wife. His assistant was tasked by the same wife with making sure he got exercise each day.
The J-C, now the New Haven Register, is on Sergeant Drive, and the pair could be seen each day walking the length of Sergeant Drive from the Register building all the way to where Ikea is today. But the man wasn't losing any weight.
So some co-workers followed them to see what was up. They were taking the walk, all right, but what neither was telling the wife was that they were stopping by the Howard Johnson's in the hotel for an ice cream sundae along the way.
Anyway, have a great weekend and for those in the Tribe, a great Shabbos.
Until next time...
Friday, October 12, 2007
Why aren't more people yelling at Ann Coulter?
Ann Coulter pulled a Don Imus Monday on a national talk show, but nobody in the general community seems to care.
Coulter said Jews should improve themselves by becoming Christians. In other words, Judaism as a religion needs to be "perfected". There is something wrong with the people who practice this faith and, by extension, with the religion itself. It's OK, but you can do better by becoming a Christian, according to the right-wing yakker.
It's not a new idea -- in fact it's thousands of years old and called replacement theology. The idea: God chose the Jews to be His people, but they blew it by not believing the Jesus was the messiah, so now God threw them over, changed His mind as it were, and chose Christians.
I wonder how it would play if she called African-Americans inferior to whites, or Hispanics inferior to African-Americans, or Greek Orthodoxy inferior to Roman Catholicism. You can't get away with that. The Rev. Al Sharpton would scream, as he should do. Sharpton screamed at Don Imus for referring to some African-American young women basketball players in racist and sexist terms.
It's Friday. I just went through more than 70 news sites, from CBS to the Huffington Post, I didn't see one Christian news site or one minority news site condemning this travesty. There were those who said people give Coulter too much ink and air time, those who say people should be able to say whatever they want and those who yawn.
Don Imus lost his job in April and has not yet gone back on the air, although he may be close. Ann Coulter continues to be paid for her idiocy and people continue to tune in to see what she has to say, buy her books and make her a wealthy woman.
I guess it's OK to denigrate certain groups. Blacks say they are respectful, even jealous, of the way Jews helped each other out of the ghettos such as the Lower East Side and East New York and Brownsville.
I think Jews should be respectful, even jealous, of the way people like The Reverend Al and Jesse Jackson are quick to get into the face of people who denegrate their people. They march, demand, get themselves on television and get people fired.
Imus apologized and so what? Ann Coulter told CNBC host Donny Deutsch she was sorry for her remarks and that they were misconstrued. The National Jewish Democratic Committee has called for her to be banned and more than 500 posts have been made in the blogosphere commenting on Coulter. The ADL has condemned. The Jewish groups have condemned.
But I didn't find one from the black civil rights groups and I should have.
Page 2
I guess I should cluck about the chicken controversy.
The way I see It: On one side, chickens are said to make good pets. The hen-vocates say they are smarter than dogs and more loyal than cats. On the othe side, they don't wear diapers. But then again, neither do dogs.
I had a pet chicken once, for a few days. My father worked in a factory and was forever bringing home something. One time it was a dog and a few years later, a cat. So when I was about 10 years old, he brought home a chicken. He put some twine around the chicken's neck and tied it to a stake he drove into the ground near our home.
I thought this was going to be a pet for me. I fed the chicken and played with it, leading it around by the twine leash.
Then, the foul day came when my father told me to bring the chicken and get into the car. I had no idea we were going to see Max Prager, the ritual slaughterer. I guess my father didn't know how attached I had become to the chicken and I was in the room when the hen was slaughtered. It was to be our dinner.
When I got out on my own, I refused to each chicken for years, until I was married.
Anyway, I can't see the harm in allowing some people the freedom to have a few hens around. No roosters, though...they make too much noise much too early.
If people can have dogs, especially the little yappy ones that never shut up, why not chickens?
Page 3
Who says life doesn't imitate art?
Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize yesterday (Oct. 11, 2007), along with some United Nations agency.
Congrats to Gore, who has been in the forefront of the fight against the global warming that Bush and his cronies say isn't happening.
There was a full-page ad in the New York Times this week asking for Al Gore to allow himself to be drafted into a presidential run. I wonder if this wonderful award will spark some interest in the mind of Gore and his family.
Or, maybe, it will be deja vu all over again. A Clinton-Gore ticket in 2008.
It looks as if anyone can beat the Republicans because of a previous bad presidency. The last time we had that situation, in 1976 because of President Ford's pardon of Richard NIxon, we ended up with Jimmy Carter. Let's not do that again, shall we? Carter, arguably the worst ex-president in history, will give up that title when Bush is retired in 2009, so let's make sure whomever we run in 2008 isn't another Carter, a weak, naive, religious hypocrite who hates Jews.
But let's say Gore gets drafted and, with Hillary Rodham Clinton by his side (deja vu with a twist), he wins. So we have a somewhat liberal Democrat with a Nobel prize in the White House.
Remind you of anything? Right -- The West Wing with Nobel-laureate Josiah Bartlet (economics) as a president who had to be drafted and who served two terms. By the way, there was a real Josiah Bartlett, from New Hampshire, who was a signatory of the Declaration of Independence. See, you learned something.
If I were a betting man, I'd bet Gore will not run. But I wouldn't bet a lot.
Page 4
Have a great weekend and for those in the tribe, even though we may need perfecting, have a good Shabbos.
Until next time...
Coulter said Jews should improve themselves by becoming Christians. In other words, Judaism as a religion needs to be "perfected". There is something wrong with the people who practice this faith and, by extension, with the religion itself. It's OK, but you can do better by becoming a Christian, according to the right-wing yakker.
It's not a new idea -- in fact it's thousands of years old and called replacement theology. The idea: God chose the Jews to be His people, but they blew it by not believing the Jesus was the messiah, so now God threw them over, changed His mind as it were, and chose Christians.
I wonder how it would play if she called African-Americans inferior to whites, or Hispanics inferior to African-Americans, or Greek Orthodoxy inferior to Roman Catholicism. You can't get away with that. The Rev. Al Sharpton would scream, as he should do. Sharpton screamed at Don Imus for referring to some African-American young women basketball players in racist and sexist terms.
It's Friday. I just went through more than 70 news sites, from CBS to the Huffington Post, I didn't see one Christian news site or one minority news site condemning this travesty. There were those who said people give Coulter too much ink and air time, those who say people should be able to say whatever they want and those who yawn.
Don Imus lost his job in April and has not yet gone back on the air, although he may be close. Ann Coulter continues to be paid for her idiocy and people continue to tune in to see what she has to say, buy her books and make her a wealthy woman.
I guess it's OK to denigrate certain groups. Blacks say they are respectful, even jealous, of the way Jews helped each other out of the ghettos such as the Lower East Side and East New York and Brownsville.
I think Jews should be respectful, even jealous, of the way people like The Reverend Al and Jesse Jackson are quick to get into the face of people who denegrate their people. They march, demand, get themselves on television and get people fired.
Imus apologized and so what? Ann Coulter told CNBC host Donny Deutsch she was sorry for her remarks and that they were misconstrued. The National Jewish Democratic Committee has called for her to be banned and more than 500 posts have been made in the blogosphere commenting on Coulter. The ADL has condemned. The Jewish groups have condemned.
But I didn't find one from the black civil rights groups and I should have.
Page 2
I guess I should cluck about the chicken controversy.
The way I see It: On one side, chickens are said to make good pets. The hen-vocates say they are smarter than dogs and more loyal than cats. On the othe side, they don't wear diapers. But then again, neither do dogs.
I had a pet chicken once, for a few days. My father worked in a factory and was forever bringing home something. One time it was a dog and a few years later, a cat. So when I was about 10 years old, he brought home a chicken. He put some twine around the chicken's neck and tied it to a stake he drove into the ground near our home.
I thought this was going to be a pet for me. I fed the chicken and played with it, leading it around by the twine leash.
Then, the foul day came when my father told me to bring the chicken and get into the car. I had no idea we were going to see Max Prager, the ritual slaughterer. I guess my father didn't know how attached I had become to the chicken and I was in the room when the hen was slaughtered. It was to be our dinner.
When I got out on my own, I refused to each chicken for years, until I was married.
Anyway, I can't see the harm in allowing some people the freedom to have a few hens around. No roosters, though...they make too much noise much too early.
If people can have dogs, especially the little yappy ones that never shut up, why not chickens?
Page 3
Who says life doesn't imitate art?
Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize yesterday (Oct. 11, 2007), along with some United Nations agency.
Congrats to Gore, who has been in the forefront of the fight against the global warming that Bush and his cronies say isn't happening.
There was a full-page ad in the New York Times this week asking for Al Gore to allow himself to be drafted into a presidential run. I wonder if this wonderful award will spark some interest in the mind of Gore and his family.
Or, maybe, it will be deja vu all over again. A Clinton-Gore ticket in 2008.
It looks as if anyone can beat the Republicans because of a previous bad presidency. The last time we had that situation, in 1976 because of President Ford's pardon of Richard NIxon, we ended up with Jimmy Carter. Let's not do that again, shall we? Carter, arguably the worst ex-president in history, will give up that title when Bush is retired in 2009, so let's make sure whomever we run in 2008 isn't another Carter, a weak, naive, religious hypocrite who hates Jews.
But let's say Gore gets drafted and, with Hillary Rodham Clinton by his side (deja vu with a twist), he wins. So we have a somewhat liberal Democrat with a Nobel prize in the White House.
Remind you of anything? Right -- The West Wing with Nobel-laureate Josiah Bartlet (economics) as a president who had to be drafted and who served two terms. By the way, there was a real Josiah Bartlett, from New Hampshire, who was a signatory of the Declaration of Independence. See, you learned something.
If I were a betting man, I'd bet Gore will not run. But I wouldn't bet a lot.
Page 4
Have a great weekend and for those in the tribe, even though we may need perfecting, have a good Shabbos.
Until next time...
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