Month: October 2019

Game Seven

The decade of the 2010’s will have one last baseball game in it, as Houston and Washington are tied at three games apiece in the World Series.

For those of you who don’t follow sports, that means tonight’s game determines who wins the Series itself.

It also marks the first time in Series history that the road team, who has the disadvantage of batting first – has won the first six games in a best four out of seven series in major North American sports. No team has ever won the World Series without winning at least one home game, something Washington may accomplish tonight.

Even though the Nationals have their “ace” (a top starting pitcher) going – I wouldn’t be shocked if Houston won.

Victory And Reality

I must admit to getting hooked in to the hullabaloo that was President Trump’s tweet Saturday night. When a world leader says something big happened, I tend to believe it.

The big news was the capture of the ISIS leader – and like most Americans, I couldn’t tell you who that was for a million bucks and a carload of tacos. Apparently, the leader cried and whimpered his way to his grave – blowing himself up to terminate his miserable existence.

In turn, the Democrats looked at this in their reactions like their pet cat had just given them a lizard as a gift. It was a far cry from a time a few short years ago when Osama bin Laden had been captured and everyone celebrated his demise.

I’m very concerned for what the future of the country might be – as this series of gestures proves there are agitators in our midst. It’s up to us to sort them out, at that will not be easy if those perpetrators all have D’s or R’s as their political affiliations.

Only Father Time Survives Everything

I was saddened to hear yesterday about another one of my middle and high school classmates passing away. It was someone I remembered – perhaps more of an acquaintance than an actual friend, but one of those people who was part of the tableau of my years of wonder.

It was a reminder that all of us have our struggles. If you think your struggles are overwhelming – you’re probably too self absorbed to note what others go through in their lives, and that we all live under the same roof called a sky.

To my classmate, safe travels over the rainbow bridge, and we’ll see you again – sooner or later.

Flashback: “I Put A Spell On You” by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins

There are actually two versions of this song making the commercial rounds in the United States currently – including the 1956 original version.

Plus, it’s the last Flashback before Halloween.

I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got

Occasionally in life, we stumble upon the things that improve our lives immensely. With that in mind, I think I stumbled upon the Rosetta Stone of how to deal with those crazy Asian telephonic scammers.

If they want to “improve” a good or service you have, like credit card debt or a car warranty – claim not to have it. “Sorry sir, I don’t have any credit cards.” Odds are, they won’t bother you once you tell them this.

On the other hand, if they want to “give” you something like solar energy or a back brace – tell them you already have one. Again, the odds are they will leave you alone once you tell them this.

In recent weeks, I’ve had a good deal of success using this approach. I’m not going to say that the Asian scammers won’t come back to my phone – but at least I’m not dealing with them in bulk as I have been. Give it a shot and see what happens.

The Artiste In Me

It’s one of those times in life that I haven’t found a hobby, but yet a hobby has found me.

Clip2comic is an iPhone app where you put in a photo and it makes cartoon out of it. And so, I’ve been taking photos of famous people and ran them through the app.

Sometimes it comes out well, sometimes it doesn’t, but I always seem to find the one color setting that works the best.

I think it gives these photos a bit of fresh air.

A Lap Too Early

I’m sure this is bound to have happened to someone in my blog audience.

You get sometime in the middle of the night for some bathroom relief. You don’t have access to the time or a clock (I was charging my phone last night), but you get the sense the sun is about to rise on a new day shortly. You go back to bed, making the mental note not to fall asleep so deeply.

A few hours go by – and it’s still dark, so it wasn’t that late (or early) after all. You fall asleep.

The next time your eyes open, it’s light out. And you wonder where time went.

The Shepherd Of Questionable Merit

When someone told me that Shepherd Smith had quit on the air a little after 4pm this past Friday, I was dumbfounded. There were rumors on social media of infighting between Shep and some of their other talent – but Smith had been there over a couple of decades, so I thought he was more or less untouchable.

I often say on here that at the age of 48, I often find parallels between current events and events from history. Smith’s exodus (or firing) reminded me of how Brent Musburger met the axe at CBS in 1990, and how no one really expected it or explained it in great detail.

News organizations are different beasts, and perhaps in this day and age obsolete ones. They tell you what you think is relevant when what they really do is insult your intelligence and play games of psychology on you. No wonder these media organizations openly collude with politicians to spin what they say the truth is.

They’d tell you anything to keep you around – so I guess the moral here is not to stay around.

The Shows Of Record

Sunday morning are, traditionally, set aside for the networks to have talk shows usually featuring the leading politicians in our government.

NBC has the longest one going, Meet The Press, that goes back to 1947. Yesterday, moderator Chuck Todd had Wisconsin US Senator Ron Johnson on, a Republican.

It doesn’t take long for the conversation to deteriorate, sadly. Todd essentially accuses Johnson of hiding behind President Trump, who may be facing impeachment in the coming weeks and months. Republicans, especially Trump, have made counter accusations of improper dealings with foreign nations, so both parties are locked in mortal combat.

I doubt NBC will take any action against Chuck Todd, who in my opinion went way out of his way to be a jerk to Johnson. I can’t help but wonder how Tom Brokaw or the late Tim Russert handles that.