Cannot for the life of me understand what the big deal is about New Year's Day.
It's just a tick on the clock and a turn of the calendar. Some numbers change.
People attribute all sorts of new beginnings to Jan. 1. How does anybody really expect anything to change because a number on the calendar changes?
It's great for calendar makers, but not for many other people.
The world can't even agree when the year changes, or even what year it is.
We have a main calendar, but the Chinese, the Vietnamese and the Jews, just to name three nations, have different calendars and different numbers of years. And they tend to go back more than 2011 years.
New Year's Day is an event that is over as soon as it begins. The clock ticks. Some big glittering ball slides down a pole.
WHOO-HOOOO! It's another year.
Then what?
Well, a lot of people get really drunk, some people get killed and then a really boring day ensues.
College football used to make Jan. 1 worthwhile, but the plethora of bowl games and holding the championship game 10 days later combine to make New Year's Day bowls all but irrelevant.
The TicketCity Bowl? The Outback Bowl? Seriously?
Where's the Sugar Bowl? The Orange Bowl? And why is the Rose Bowl reduced to a minor event?
Face it. New Year's Day isn't worth getting excited about.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Take a number
"I don't want to become a statistic."
Ever used that line? Used to be a little more common than it is now.
In today's digital society just about everybody is a statistic. Not necessarily the way that phrase used to be intended -- a death, an injury, something bad. But statistics are kept on each and every one of us.
Your choice of car or truck. Your faith. Your political views. What you eat or drink. What you watch on the TV and what web sites you visit. Whether or not you read a newspaper.
Now, I'm becoming a statistic-- in that old meaning.
The odds are overwhelming that I'll join the ranks of the unemployed some time next summer.
Won't exactly be an exclusive group I'm joining. One in 10 Americans who want a job can't get one. In some areas, it's a lot worse.
But it's not exactly a case of misery loves company either.
We all make choices in life.
Way back in my teens I chose newspapers as a way to make a living. Loved sports, but stank at playing them. So I wrote about them. And I could turn the occasional phrase.
While it's never paid all that well, it's been a good life. The only one I ever really wanted. All I know.
But newspapers are dying.
There are many more ways -- faster ways -- to get information. Television and radio put a dent into newspapers, but it's the Internet and smartphones that are driving papers into the ground.
Why wait for the morning paper to get the scores when you can crank up the laptop and get them right now?
The corporations that own most newspapers in the United States are trying to stay above water by cutting as many corners as they can. And that usually means cutting payroll.
The company that owns the paper where I work has laid off thousands over the past few years. Having survived those layoffs -- which tend to come around the holidays, thanks very little -- it's unlikely I'll survive the streamlining project that will eliminate my job the middle of next year.
Don't know yet what I'll do. Having played with ball games as a job my entire adult life, odds are I'm not qualified for much.
Maybe more schooling in my mid-50s.
Maybe whatever work I can find. There's a wife, children and mortgage to look after.
Being a part of this business has been a gamble for a while. Guess I was betting I could hang on another 15 years and make it to retirement before the newspaper business fell apart.
Looks like it was a bad bet.
But, hey, thanks for playing.
Ever used that line? Used to be a little more common than it is now.
In today's digital society just about everybody is a statistic. Not necessarily the way that phrase used to be intended -- a death, an injury, something bad. But statistics are kept on each and every one of us.
Your choice of car or truck. Your faith. Your political views. What you eat or drink. What you watch on the TV and what web sites you visit. Whether or not you read a newspaper.
Now, I'm becoming a statistic-- in that old meaning.
The odds are overwhelming that I'll join the ranks of the unemployed some time next summer.
Won't exactly be an exclusive group I'm joining. One in 10 Americans who want a job can't get one. In some areas, it's a lot worse.
But it's not exactly a case of misery loves company either.
We all make choices in life.
Way back in my teens I chose newspapers as a way to make a living. Loved sports, but stank at playing them. So I wrote about them. And I could turn the occasional phrase.
While it's never paid all that well, it's been a good life. The only one I ever really wanted. All I know.
But newspapers are dying.
There are many more ways -- faster ways -- to get information. Television and radio put a dent into newspapers, but it's the Internet and smartphones that are driving papers into the ground.
Why wait for the morning paper to get the scores when you can crank up the laptop and get them right now?
The corporations that own most newspapers in the United States are trying to stay above water by cutting as many corners as they can. And that usually means cutting payroll.
The company that owns the paper where I work has laid off thousands over the past few years. Having survived those layoffs -- which tend to come around the holidays, thanks very little -- it's unlikely I'll survive the streamlining project that will eliminate my job the middle of next year.
Don't know yet what I'll do. Having played with ball games as a job my entire adult life, odds are I'm not qualified for much.
Maybe more schooling in my mid-50s.
Maybe whatever work I can find. There's a wife, children and mortgage to look after.
Being a part of this business has been a gamble for a while. Guess I was betting I could hang on another 15 years and make it to retirement before the newspaper business fell apart.
Looks like it was a bad bet.
But, hey, thanks for playing.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Short attention span blogging
Turns out the Tea Party Caucus, supposedly anti-earmarks, has put in for a billion dollars worth of earmarks. You know, what we used to call pork barrel legislation -- federal bucks to somebody's home district or political ally. The "bridge to nowhere" stuff that wastes so much of our tax money.
How's that for talking the talk (one way), walking the walk (the opposite direction).
To be fair, these were "tainted" Tea Partiers, already in Congress. We'll have to wait and see how the newly elected ones act when they get in power next month.
Can't ever remember having a harder time getting the Christmas spirit.
Ron Santo died. Great Cubs third baseman, longtime radio broadcaster with the team.
Watch the old-timers finally put him in the Hall of Fame. Couldn't you guys have done it while he was still breathing? Kind of hard to enjoy something when you're dead.
Question to throw out -- and maybe find out if anybody's actually reading.
Does anybody who buys a "Choose Life" car tag actually believe in the "choose" part?
World Cup in Qatar? Have a suspicion that the winning side in 2022 will be Al-Qaeda.
How's that for talking the talk (one way), walking the walk (the opposite direction).
To be fair, these were "tainted" Tea Partiers, already in Congress. We'll have to wait and see how the newly elected ones act when they get in power next month.
Can't ever remember having a harder time getting the Christmas spirit.
Ron Santo died. Great Cubs third baseman, longtime radio broadcaster with the team.
Watch the old-timers finally put him in the Hall of Fame. Couldn't you guys have done it while he was still breathing? Kind of hard to enjoy something when you're dead.
Question to throw out -- and maybe find out if anybody's actually reading.
Does anybody who buys a "Choose Life" car tag actually believe in the "choose" part?
World Cup in Qatar? Have a suspicion that the winning side in 2022 will be Al-Qaeda.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
A little of this, a little of that
Election fallout: The Republicans in Congress have already reneged on their "no earmarks" pledge that Tea Party election winners had tried to get their mainstream GOPers to go along with.
Now that's the kind of real commitment to cleaning up government we were looking for.
And while conservatives were thrilled with the results November's election produced, it wasn't all that. The "vote out the Democrats" mania didn't get rid of the real left-wingers. They're safely ensconced in liberal voting districts.
On the other hand, some of the Dems that did get tossed were "blue dog" Democrats, the more moderate to conservative Democrats who fought President Obama on heath care -- and those who could have served to bridge the gap between parties.
So we wind up with even more division in Washington, which was enough of a mess already.
Heaven forbid we actually get anything done in return for the taxes we're paying.
So the president of Ohio State says Boise State and TCU are unworthy to play for a national title.
Based on Ohio State's sorry performance in BCS title games he should know unworthy when he sees it.
Turns out it's not the tryptophan in turkey that knocks you out after Thanksgiving dinner. It's having gulped down two days' worth of calories in a single sitting that does the trick.
Your brain shuts down everything but the digestive system to deal with the caloric overload.
"Scottie, divert all power to life support." "Aye, captain."
More stores have Black Friday sales, and more get a head start by opening on Thanksgiving Day. Actual bargains, meanwhile, are harder and harder to find.
Is there anybody out there?
If not, at least I'm getting some crazy ideas out of my head by putting them in here.
Now that's the kind of real commitment to cleaning up government we were looking for.
And while conservatives were thrilled with the results November's election produced, it wasn't all that. The "vote out the Democrats" mania didn't get rid of the real left-wingers. They're safely ensconced in liberal voting districts.
On the other hand, some of the Dems that did get tossed were "blue dog" Democrats, the more moderate to conservative Democrats who fought President Obama on heath care -- and those who could have served to bridge the gap between parties.
So we wind up with even more division in Washington, which was enough of a mess already.
Heaven forbid we actually get anything done in return for the taxes we're paying.
So the president of Ohio State says Boise State and TCU are unworthy to play for a national title.
Based on Ohio State's sorry performance in BCS title games he should know unworthy when he sees it.
Turns out it's not the tryptophan in turkey that knocks you out after Thanksgiving dinner. It's having gulped down two days' worth of calories in a single sitting that does the trick.
Your brain shuts down everything but the digestive system to deal with the caloric overload.
"Scottie, divert all power to life support." "Aye, captain."
More stores have Black Friday sales, and more get a head start by opening on Thanksgiving Day. Actual bargains, meanwhile, are harder and harder to find.
Is there anybody out there?
If not, at least I'm getting some crazy ideas out of my head by putting them in here.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Some unpopular thinking
The popularity of President Ronald Reagan hasn't faded in the two decades plus that have passed since he left office, or in the years since he died.
He made Americans feel good about themselves and the country again after the slime of Watergate and the ineffective Carter years.
That popularity has always let President Reagan's mistakes go unnoticed. The Teflon president.
Would any other president in recent history have been completely let off the hook for 200 Marines being slaughtered in Beirut?
Coming into office talking fiscal responsibility, smaller government -- and leaving the country with a massive and growing federal deficit.
Or having set up the conditions that led to the 1987 stock market crash and the savings and loan collapse of the late '80s?
How about bringing "Greed is good" to reality?On that one, maybe the President was just a little naive. Maybe he really did believe that corporations, freed from regulation, would do the right thing with all that extra profit. Oops.
Oh, and Iran-Contra. Sadly, as we learned of his Alzheimer's Disease in the 1990s, it turned out that maybe the President really couldn't recall.
But of late we're learning other things the Reagan Administration got very wrong. And what makes it worse, from Reagan devotees' standpoint anyway, was that his predecessor -- Jimmy Carter -- was getting something right.
Carter is a lesson to be learned in himself, and we'll get to that in a minute.
But the nation was making headway in alternative energy in the late '70s under Carter.
We could have made years of progress since then instead of still being in solar power's infancy.
A number of solar and other programs started by Carter were dumped by Reagan. Even a solar hot water heater was ripped out of the White House.
And the Carter Administration had gotten a small sedan developed -- via a $30 million grant -- that would get 32 miles a gallon and let four people in that car walk away from a 50-mph crash. Based on that project, the Carter Administration was about to issue guidelines to Detroit to produce cars that would let people walk away from a 40-mph crash.Reagan immediately stopped the program, and eventually the prototype cars were ordered to be destroyed.We only know about those cars because it's come to light that two of them had never been delivered to the government but were still at the factory .
They aren't pretty but would have led to better American cars.
How much less gas would we need -- and more important, how many lives could have been saved -- if that program had been carried forward.
And considering how lousy American-made cars were in the 1980s, which led to the imports taking over, better U.S. cars then might have spared us the bailout GM and Chrysler got in 2009.
In both cases, did massive amount of Big Oil and Detroit money funneled into the GOP then lead to problems we face now?
OK, now about Carter.
There's no bigger warning to those who think outsiders are a magical cure to Washington's problems.
Jimmy Carter was the ultimate outsider. Problem he ran into is that Washington hates outsiders.
And it didn't help that Carter's Administration kept sticking "outsiders" in Washington's collective faces.
Congress and the massive bureaucracy took their revenge, making sure that Carter couldn't get much done.
What Harry Truman said of Dwight Eisenhower, his successor, was true for Carter and is still true in Washington: "He'll say do this, and do that, and nothing will happen."
We've created a massive government and it takes care of itself. And for anybody who campaigns saying they'll cut government, don't believe it. They may try, but Washington looks after his own.
That includes Congress. Ron Paul aside, the most conservative Republican will look to have his or her special interests looked after.
Even the best intentions don't last long inside the Beltway. Watch how many Tea Party Republicans change their tune after being caught up in the Washington swirl for a couple of years.
Notice how the one thing the Obama Administration has tried to wean from the public trough and hand over to private business -- the manned space program -- has led to howls just as many Republicans (including self-described Reagan Republicans) as Democrats.
A very sore point in Florida, Texas and Alabama, among other places, where jobs -- and hefty government contracts -- were lost or threatened.
Come on now, isn't that what Ronald Reagan told us to do: cut government and let the private sector take care of it?
He made Americans feel good about themselves and the country again after the slime of Watergate and the ineffective Carter years.
That popularity has always let President Reagan's mistakes go unnoticed. The Teflon president.
Would any other president in recent history have been completely let off the hook for 200 Marines being slaughtered in Beirut?
Coming into office talking fiscal responsibility, smaller government -- and leaving the country with a massive and growing federal deficit.
Or having set up the conditions that led to the 1987 stock market crash and the savings and loan collapse of the late '80s?
How about bringing "Greed is good" to reality?On that one, maybe the President was just a little naive. Maybe he really did believe that corporations, freed from regulation, would do the right thing with all that extra profit. Oops.
Oh, and Iran-Contra. Sadly, as we learned of his Alzheimer's Disease in the 1990s, it turned out that maybe the President really couldn't recall.
But of late we're learning other things the Reagan Administration got very wrong. And what makes it worse, from Reagan devotees' standpoint anyway, was that his predecessor -- Jimmy Carter -- was getting something right.
Carter is a lesson to be learned in himself, and we'll get to that in a minute.
But the nation was making headway in alternative energy in the late '70s under Carter.
We could have made years of progress since then instead of still being in solar power's infancy.
A number of solar and other programs started by Carter were dumped by Reagan. Even a solar hot water heater was ripped out of the White House.
And the Carter Administration had gotten a small sedan developed -- via a $30 million grant -- that would get 32 miles a gallon and let four people in that car walk away from a 50-mph crash. Based on that project, the Carter Administration was about to issue guidelines to Detroit to produce cars that would let people walk away from a 40-mph crash.Reagan immediately stopped the program, and eventually the prototype cars were ordered to be destroyed.We only know about those cars because it's come to light that two of them had never been delivered to the government but were still at the factory .
They aren't pretty but would have led to better American cars.
How much less gas would we need -- and more important, how many lives could have been saved -- if that program had been carried forward.
And considering how lousy American-made cars were in the 1980s, which led to the imports taking over, better U.S. cars then might have spared us the bailout GM and Chrysler got in 2009.
In both cases, did massive amount of Big Oil and Detroit money funneled into the GOP then lead to problems we face now?
OK, now about Carter.
There's no bigger warning to those who think outsiders are a magical cure to Washington's problems.
Jimmy Carter was the ultimate outsider. Problem he ran into is that Washington hates outsiders.
And it didn't help that Carter's Administration kept sticking "outsiders" in Washington's collective faces.
Congress and the massive bureaucracy took their revenge, making sure that Carter couldn't get much done.
What Harry Truman said of Dwight Eisenhower, his successor, was true for Carter and is still true in Washington: "He'll say do this, and do that, and nothing will happen."
We've created a massive government and it takes care of itself. And for anybody who campaigns saying they'll cut government, don't believe it. They may try, but Washington looks after his own.
That includes Congress. Ron Paul aside, the most conservative Republican will look to have his or her special interests looked after.
Even the best intentions don't last long inside the Beltway. Watch how many Tea Party Republicans change their tune after being caught up in the Washington swirl for a couple of years.
Notice how the one thing the Obama Administration has tried to wean from the public trough and hand over to private business -- the manned space program -- has led to howls just as many Republicans (including self-described Reagan Republicans) as Democrats.
A very sore point in Florida, Texas and Alabama, among other places, where jobs -- and hefty government contracts -- were lost or threatened.
Come on now, isn't that what Ronald Reagan told us to do: cut government and let the private sector take care of it?
Completely random thought
This one comes courtesy of my wife.
The type of medicine called a suppository should actually be called supppose-itory.
As in:
Suppose you have to take medicine, and suppose it's gotten to be taken internally. Now suppose you can't take it by mouth, nasal spray or injection. Now how do you suppose it's supposed to get where it needs to go?
The type of medicine called a suppository should actually be called supppose-itory.
As in:
Suppose you have to take medicine, and suppose it's gotten to be taken internally. Now suppose you can't take it by mouth, nasal spray or injection. Now how do you suppose it's supposed to get where it needs to go?
Friday, November 19, 2010
Wrigley Field football
Remember playing touch football?
Maybe the field wasn't much of a football field. It slanted up or down hill, or there was some obstacle at one end.
Or maybe you were just lazy.
The team that scored would stay on that end of the field while the other team would have to head to the other end to await the kickoff.
Well, that's going to happen in major college football Saturday.
Illinois and Northwestern are going to play a Big Ten football game at Wrigley Field.
Sounds like a great idea. Bringing football back to Wrigley, where the Chicago Bears played until 1970.
There's a wave of nostalgia going around pro sports, fed by wildly successful hockey games played outside -- including one at Wrigley Field.
And, let's face it, for the average sports fan, putting wildly successful and hockey in the same sentence ... well, just try it with a straight face. And this from a hockey fan.
So college football is giving it a go. If it works for hockey, well, college football ought to be a smash, right?
Notre Dame and Army are trying out the nostalgia thing at the new Yankee Stadium on Saturday.
The old Stadium, of course, was the home of the New York Giants until the 1970s.
The House that Ruth Built also played host to a 1946 showdown between Notre Dame and Army, then the elite teams of college football. The result: a 0-0 tie.
New York's "Subway Alumni" of Notre Dame alone should guarantee a packed house Saturday. And NBC (the Notredame Broadcasting Company) should get good ratings numbers despite two blah teams.
So what's wrong with football at Wrigley? Worked before, right?
What's wrong is how they chose to lay out the field. Seating was given a higher priority than the field of play.
Instead of putting one end of the field near home plate and the other in center field, or across the outfield, it was laid out along the first-base line.
You know, those old-style baseball stadiums -- Wrigley, Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium (the Jets' early home), or Cleveland's old "Mistake by the Lake" -- weren't built for football.
A baseball field is just laid out differently, a triangle instead of a rectangle.
So a lot of the seats were built well away from where a football field would be.
Rather than bring temporary seats along both sides of the field, they figured they'd use Wrigley's first-base seats and temps on the other
OK. The field they set up at Wrigley does have enough room for a 10-yard end zone at each end. The problem is that there is ONLY 10 yards at one end, where the bricks and ivy of the Wrigley outfield wall stand.
So what's the problem? It's still 10 yards, right?
Well, the problem is that some plays happen at the back of the end zone, and players can wind up crossing that back line at full speed.
Cross that line at Wrigley on Saturday and you're going to pay a heavy price.
Strangely enough, football players aren't used to recognizing a warning track beneath their feet and slowing down the way baseball outfielders do.
Somehow, this fact escaped the planners of Saturday's game until, well, Friday.
So the decision was made to turn Big Ten football into a backyard game.
Both teams will go the same way -- away from the bricks and ivy -- when they're on offense.
This one will go beyond touch football's "we scored, you walk."
On every change of possession the teams will change ends. Following a punt, play will stop while the ball is marched to the opposite end before the other team sets up on offense. Same with a turnover.
Wonder if they'll actually let you see the switch, or cover it up with commercials.
Might be worth hititng the clicker and watching a little of this one.
To remember what it was like to be a kid playing touch football -- or just to laugh at the idiots who set this thing up.
Maybe the field wasn't much of a football field. It slanted up or down hill, or there was some obstacle at one end.
Or maybe you were just lazy.
The team that scored would stay on that end of the field while the other team would have to head to the other end to await the kickoff.
Well, that's going to happen in major college football Saturday.
Illinois and Northwestern are going to play a Big Ten football game at Wrigley Field.
Sounds like a great idea. Bringing football back to Wrigley, where the Chicago Bears played until 1970.
There's a wave of nostalgia going around pro sports, fed by wildly successful hockey games played outside -- including one at Wrigley Field.
And, let's face it, for the average sports fan, putting wildly successful and hockey in the same sentence ... well, just try it with a straight face. And this from a hockey fan.
So college football is giving it a go. If it works for hockey, well, college football ought to be a smash, right?
Notre Dame and Army are trying out the nostalgia thing at the new Yankee Stadium on Saturday.
The old Stadium, of course, was the home of the New York Giants until the 1970s.
The House that Ruth Built also played host to a 1946 showdown between Notre Dame and Army, then the elite teams of college football. The result: a 0-0 tie.
New York's "Subway Alumni" of Notre Dame alone should guarantee a packed house Saturday. And NBC (the Notredame Broadcasting Company) should get good ratings numbers despite two blah teams.
So what's wrong with football at Wrigley? Worked before, right?
What's wrong is how they chose to lay out the field. Seating was given a higher priority than the field of play.
Instead of putting one end of the field near home plate and the other in center field, or across the outfield, it was laid out along the first-base line.
You know, those old-style baseball stadiums -- Wrigley, Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium (the Jets' early home), or Cleveland's old "Mistake by the Lake" -- weren't built for football.
A baseball field is just laid out differently, a triangle instead of a rectangle.
So a lot of the seats were built well away from where a football field would be.
Rather than bring temporary seats along both sides of the field, they figured they'd use Wrigley's first-base seats and temps on the other
OK. The field they set up at Wrigley does have enough room for a 10-yard end zone at each end. The problem is that there is ONLY 10 yards at one end, where the bricks and ivy of the Wrigley outfield wall stand.
So what's the problem? It's still 10 yards, right?
Well, the problem is that some plays happen at the back of the end zone, and players can wind up crossing that back line at full speed.
Cross that line at Wrigley on Saturday and you're going to pay a heavy price.
Strangely enough, football players aren't used to recognizing a warning track beneath their feet and slowing down the way baseball outfielders do.
Somehow, this fact escaped the planners of Saturday's game until, well, Friday.
So the decision was made to turn Big Ten football into a backyard game.
Both teams will go the same way -- away from the bricks and ivy -- when they're on offense.
This one will go beyond touch football's "we scored, you walk."
On every change of possession the teams will change ends. Following a punt, play will stop while the ball is marched to the opposite end before the other team sets up on offense. Same with a turnover.
Wonder if they'll actually let you see the switch, or cover it up with commercials.
Might be worth hititng the clicker and watching a little of this one.
To remember what it was like to be a kid playing touch football -- or just to laugh at the idiots who set this thing up.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Gotta start somewhere
"I may not like what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."
That's the way we used to view freedom of speech.
Now it seems more like, "I don't like what you have to say and I'm going to silence you."
Well, I'm going to say some things.
Sometimes they'll just be throwing something out there. Other times it'll be what I really believe, and it may not be that obvious which is which. It might be on a serious matter, and it might be something as inconsequential as a ball game.
So -- if there's anybody out there -- bear with me. And don't take it personally. As the classic comic strip "Pogo" once said, "Don't take life so serious. It ain't nohow permanent."
Will get to actual stuff next time. If you're out there, thanks for giving this a look.
That's the way we used to view freedom of speech.
Now it seems more like, "I don't like what you have to say and I'm going to silence you."
Well, I'm going to say some things.
Sometimes they'll just be throwing something out there. Other times it'll be what I really believe, and it may not be that obvious which is which. It might be on a serious matter, and it might be something as inconsequential as a ball game.
So -- if there's anybody out there -- bear with me. And don't take it personally. As the classic comic strip "Pogo" once said, "Don't take life so serious. It ain't nohow permanent."
Will get to actual stuff next time. If you're out there, thanks for giving this a look.
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