Posted in commute, humor, life, love, travel on March 30, 2007| 4 Comments »
Why don’t they re-name the Discovery channel the Motorcycle Channel? Or the Chop Shop Channel or the Gearhead Channel?
That way it might be appropriately named for all the crafty mechanics who customize motorized assemblies of metal, rubber and plastic into assorted odd shapes, like the balloon guy at kids’ birthday parties. (more…)
Posted in baseball, predictions, sports on March 29, 2007| 1 Comment »
Here are the brackets I have for the NL for this year’s baseball pool. I find the National League more difficult to handicap than the AL, and it isn’t only because they throw two more teams into the mix. Too many teams in the NL have a mix of mediocre to good talent, so it’s hard to place them. A few middling infielders and outfielders have career years and they can be hitting with the best. Otherwise, they remain mired at or below .500. What to do with that? (more…)
Posted in animals, art, dogs, pets, travel, walking on March 28, 2007| Leave a Comment »
The view across the bay was misty one recent morning, as I walked the dogs along the shore. So gray that the skyline of San Francisco, off in the distant northwest from us, beyond the Hornet museum, was obscured. The ridge of the peninsula range dipped down and was swallowed by mist — we could have been looking out at the Pacific. As we walked the sun slowly burned the low clouds off, until the tallest of the skyscrapers caught shimmers of reflected sunrise, then a few more reddening reflections as the sun rose and the buildings gradually emerged, as if the amorphous gray of the mist was condensing and rising in rigid Bauhaus shape, with distant windows bright with molten color. (more…)
Posted in humor, politics, predictions, sports, travel on March 26, 2007| 21 Comments »
Here’s the thing about the news in papers: to be newsworthy all too often means something has gone wrong. Not always, of course. But natural disasters, man-made disasters, crime and villainy all too often make the front page (“if it burns or bleeds it leads”), and you so rarely see headlines reading:
“Analysts Are Unanimous — Economy Couldn’t Be Healthier”
“Weather Nice Everywhere! Slight Pre-dawn Rain Good for Gardens”
“Rice Apologizes at UN — GOP Admits Unilateral Militarism Was Self-Defeating”
“Perfect Commute Yesterday — Even Baby Turtles, Frogs and Crabs Crossed Roads Safely”
“Peace Breaks out Everywhere”
“Hell Freezes Over: In Same Year, Clippers, Cubs & Vikings are Champs!”
“Everything Going Well!”
“Hell Thaws Out — Blackhawks win, too!”
Which is what makes the sports page so nice. (more…)
Posted in life on March 26, 2007| 2 Comments »
I’m an uncle again. I now have four nieces. Darling little Nina Ann was born to my immensely proud brother and his equally proud and far lovelier wife last Wednesday evening. Sweet little Nina, who is the apple of everyone’s eye (except perhaps her sister) was 6 pounds 9 ounces, and 20 inches long at birth.
I held her in my arms for quite a while on Sunday, but she would not open her eyes. She did some of the other things newborns do, as her little body adjusts to being out here in the world (especially hiccup), but looking around was not one of them. (more…)
Posted in commute, life, travel, writing on March 23, 2007| 10 Comments »
I had jury duty yesterday. We live a couple miles from the court building in Oakland, where I served on a jury a few years ago. So was I sent there?
Nooo.
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Posted in baseball, predictions, sports on March 22, 2007| 3 Comments »
I participate in a baseball pool. We play for “pride units.” The point is to pick how good (or bad) all of the teams in major league baseball will be — two lists for each league. It’s very simple on it’s face — the devil is in detailing in March how a team will perform over the six month season.
Every so often my shrewd judgment is rewarded and I do well in the pool. When that doesn’t happen, of course it’s bad luck or the players’ and managers’ fault. (more…)
Posted in art, books, life, love, novels, writing on March 21, 2007| 13 Comments »
What has depth and worth any more? Can we even talk in terms of heavy, or is the notion as trite as a mass media portrayal of hippies? (more…)
Posted in baseball, beer, commute, life, love, sports, top of the world, travel on March 19, 2007| 4 Comments »
Every so often you read or hear a story about someone who has life by the tail. They’re living the dream, life is all beer and skittles. Southerners refer to it as being in high cotton, dairy farmers hoping for rich milk noted when the cows were in deep clover.
I heard once that Mickey Mantle occasionally walked to work, using shoeleather for his commute from midtown Manhattan up to Yankee stadium in the Bronx. I’ve no idea if he did it often or even did it once, but it’s so striking to consider.
Can you imagine how cool it must have been to be Mickey Mantle walking from midtown Manhattan to Yankee stadium some sublime late summer afternoon, on your way to a ballgame as not only a Yankee but as their biggest star? (more…)
Posted in commute, humor, life, travel, walking on March 16, 2007| Leave a Comment »
There’s never enough of it until there’s too much.
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OmbudsBen 