What a weekend, if it rains anymore I’m going to build a big boat and start and looking for pairs of animals. It’s hard to believe a year ago they were making all this noise about droughts around here, how quickly things change.



Margaret posted the link to the DEP website on her blog last year and I used to go to it on a fairly regular basis and watch the numbers change (morbid fascination). I don’t buy in to the whole panic thing and weather does usually go in cycles (rainy seasons and dry seasons). The question is with these things, how can the reservoirs be over 100%? Once they are at 100% isn’t everything else just runoff?

The room formerly known as our garage is returning to a semblance of its originally intended usage. I played hermit for most of the weekend and spent much time moving boxes and sheetrock. It’s amazing how much stuff you can cram into a space if you have shelves.

Also got out on Sunday with Irene (Hi Irene!) in an attempt to go see the Matrix. Anyone who thinks the economy is doing poorly, should have seen the Palisades Mall this past Sunday! I’ve never been there when it was as crowded as it was. There was no parking at all - a feat I didn’t think was possible. I couldn’t explain why the place was so crowded. I didn’t know if people were just tired of being cooped up in the house with their kids (due to another rainy weekend), or the fact that Jersey (there seemed to be a lot of Jerseyites there) malls close on Sunday due to the blue laws or the thought in most peoples minds that the sales tax was going up and mistakenly thinking they could make buys under the wire (it went into effect on a Sunday - June 1st).

They just raised the property taxes here and now they’re raising the sales tax too! I think the one on clothing purchases under $100 is the one that hurts working families the most and is really quite stupid. If they’re going to do this with the sales tax they should just repeal the state income tax and raise the sales tax a few more points to compensate. The only thing it’s really going to do is drive people to surrounding states where the sales tax is lower - it seems so stupid.

Anyway, we both made our way over there, having no idea the place would be the mob scene it was. It was very discouraging. It took me 45 minutes just to park - if I wasn’t meeting Irene, I would have given up after 10. I’m never that desperate to spend money that I can justify driving around 45 minutes to find parking at a mall.

We wound up leaving the mall and driving over to Nyack to have a cup of coffee. The Starbucks virus has even penetrated the ’burbs! Nyack is really beautiful though, it just makes me think about how this whole area is being overbuilt and how the congestion is ruining the character of a lot of the smaller villages in and around the area. There was this comic, Judge Dredd (yes the same one they made the movie from with Stallone in it) which took place in the future. They envisioned MegaCity 1 an urban sprawl which ran down most of the east coast of North America and in from the coastline a hundred miles or so. When I say urban sprawl, I mean unbroken concrete! Maybe not in a hundred years but then again, if you think what this area was like a hundred years ago it might not seem so far-fetched.

Lastly (for today) two short items:

WOMAN HIT BY FALLING HS STOOL

The headline to this story made me laugh, “Chicken Little, it’s raining turds!” Actually, a bizarre story involving a pregnant woman and some stupid behavior.

Also, in the news locally (New York) this week, a Bronx woman died of a heart attack while trying to break up a school yard fight between her daughter and another girl. It’s a sad story to be sure but what makes it strange is that this 57 year old woman was mother of 18 children! Think about that for a second, 18!

They could have a baseball game at the family reunion and have two complete teams with just her kids! Everyone has a hobby, I guess we know what her husband’s was. After 18 kids though, this lady should have made it to 150!

I rented a few DVDs this week, one was Love Liza with Philip Seymour Hoffman which I took a chance on since I had watched PT Anderson’s great Magnolia again the other day. I was thinking how Magnolia would make a good double feature with American Beauty - if they still had double features. Movies come and go so fast now, it amazes me. The other flick was Adaptation, the film with Nicolas Cage and Meryll Streep which was done by Spike Jonez and Charles Kaufman (who had done Being John Malkovich together).

Adaptation was pretty bad - more artifice than art. The story is all over the place. I guess he (Kaufman) was trying to show the “writer’s process” but wound up being more self-indulgent than anything else. Nicolas Cage is well on his way to baldness - think his uncle Francis Ford Coppola. Meryl Streep is always a pleasure and still very watchable - she’s someone who brings a lot to the table in every gig she takes. Overall, she couldn’t carry the piece alone with the script structured the way it was. Brian Cox (the first Hannibal Lechter) was also in it - he’s always fun to watch (X2, Rushmore and the original Red Dragon).

A night later I was flipping and saw Jackass on MTV. I hadn’t realized Spike Jonez was part of that crew. I am ashamed to admit it but, I love watching Jackass mainly because it can elicit some true belly laughs (and considering my ever-expanding girth those are some big laughs indeed!).

Love Liza had Kathy Bates in it (as well as the aforementioned PSH). Kathy Bates is another actress who’s quite talented. It had a good cast but again the story just didn’t hold up. Don’t believe the blurbs! Movie just plodded along at a snail’s pace with scenes connected by long montages of landscapes as perceived by PSH character who has a unique way of altering his perceptions (on the heels of his wife’s suicide). I’m not ruining anything for you if you decide to see it. I thought the cinematography wasn’t that good. It was evidenced it the opening sequence of the film and didn’t get any better.

I was doing the CostCo thing again last week when I came upon Miller’s Crossing on dvd which is a favorite of mine. Infinitely better than either of the other films and if you haven’t seen it worth checking out.

Today was a good day/bad day.

I’ve been mainly staying around the house not having the car, I’m starting to see floor and can walk in the garage (although not completely yet). Today I had a few errands to run so, I wound up going out - and there’s the good move/bad move.

Kitty had to go for her haircut. It’s sad she was around the bed waiting for me to get up so she could have her morning treat of a fresh can of wet food - it’s part of kitty’s daily ritual to make a nuisance of herself prior to getting fed (just in case you didn’t know she was waiting for her food). She jumped up on the bed and was in the process of giving me the “kitty massage” when I got up and bundled her in my arms. I made my way over to her carrier and when she heard the unmistakable noise of the door to the carrier being open she made the most sorrowful meow she could muster - please don’t put me in there!

So we took the short trip to the vet and left her in their care. Having shaved her many times they are used to her not being a happy camper when she’s being shaved.

I returned home and went about collecting myself and trying to figure out what I would be able to get done today. I was cleaned up and contemplating the day when the phone rang and it was the vet letting me know kitty was ready. Since it was nice out, I was thinking about taking the trip down for Dim Sum and I thought about Harry since I hadn’t spoken with him in awhile. As fate would have it, Harry called leaving a message and we made plans to meet for lunch.

So, Harry calling and making plans to be out was the good news - being home during the day and being out in the burbs means there aren’t many people to see during the day as most everyone is at work. I stopped off to pick up a few items at the local supermarket, got back in the car and was behind two other vehicles (a car and an SUV) waiting to pull out of the parking lot.

There was about three or four feet of space between me and the SUV when all of a sudden the reverse lights came on and the driver floored it plowing into the front of the car - scared the living shit out of me, No explanation for it, no nothing - by the time I was able to hit the horn it was already too late. Of course, the SUV had a tow hood on it which acted like a battering ram. I got out of the car shocked, I couldn’t believe what had happened (remember, I haven’t had the car for almost a week now and I only got it back the day on Tuesday).

This young woman gets out of her SUV (trying to shush the two kids in the back), saying “Oh, I didn’t see you.” (No shit Sherlock) I was apoplectic - I was shaking from it, it was really caught me off guard (the impact that is), nevermind the fact that a pedestrian had walked across between the cars a few minutes before while I was waiting for her to pull out - I called the police and filed an accident report.

The cop was an ass (too much to be bothered by?) and I was belligerent towards the woman at first when she started by blowing the whole thing off (she was very non plussed by it). It turns out she had forgotten something and one of the kids was looking like he’d be late to school, she just threw the truck in reverse and decided to back up into the parking lot - for all I know she was probably on her cell phone too which made an appearance shortly after we were wrangling through things.

My next car, I’m getting a lazy boy to sit in while I drive, have a wide screen tv with a phone and a microwave this way I can just put my entire fucking living room on wheels - it’ll be bigger than a hummer and if anyone gets in my way I’ll just roll over them (maybe get tires on the thing like they have on the things on the Extreme Vehicles shows on the Discovery Channel). What ever happened to getting in your car and driving?

Anyway, kitty looks like a cross between a poodle (with her hair uncut around the bottoms of her legs and around the face) and a little lioness. She got the treat of her wet food the moment she set foot back in the house and I wound up having a really nice lunch with Harry so, SUV wielding soccer moms notwithstanding it was still a pretty good day.

Today is finally nice out! Now I can finish the yard work I keep putting off. I hit some of the yard with the wheed whacker (intentional misspelling there) before the cord on the thing ran out leaving me with a lawn that has receiving a partial haircut.

I had to go into the backyard and was really bummed looking at how it had fallen into disrepair - so much to do so little time.

The big news last week was two I landed two big projects. I always worry about work - although I enjoy not working those nasty bills just keep appearing in my mailbox. Work also seems to be an excuse I often use to escape from doing other things in life which will help me get ahead or significantly change my life.

Still, somehow I managed to get work. I don’t have to put in face time at an office or suck up to anyone so, the jobs rank as pretty good by my standards. Knowing me I’ll be up late a bunch of nights (3 or 4 in the morning) with the TV on as I mow my way through them (two catalogs). There’s a little design work involved as well which is an added plus and it’ll get me through the summer for the most part.

That doesn’t mean I’m still not looking. Like my friend once said to me, “You should always be looking.” A statement which I’ve taken to heart over the years.

Today I got the car back. After three weeks of intermittent failures and getting mysteriously stuck several times - I never realized how much I missed my car until it wasn’t working.

It went into the dealership on Friday and finally came back today. First waiting for the part then. waiting for the mechanic who decided to take a long weekend but, at least it’s done.

Some people get up in the morning to take care of business, other people get up just to be in the way

Norman Solomon Back in the late 80's, early 90's I wound up living in a Y for a few years. It was located up in Westchester (Tarrytown) and wasn’t a terrific place to live but it wasn’t bad either (certainly not as colorful as the SRO I lived in Manhattan for several years in the mid 80's).

Places like that can be interesting if only for the mix of people they bring together (which is an understatement to say the least). There were a few alchies (I may have botched the spelling there), a couple of petty crooks and some hard working if poor people (of which I was one).

I made friends with a few of the guys there, mainly the ones who seemed normal, sane and had a good relationship with the people who ran the Y (usually by working for the facility, which I did as well).

There was Norman (Solomon) an overweight and loud man, Norman was known for his knowledge on almost everything under the sun and would offer his opinion on it to you whether you wanted him to or not. Norman, who was rumored to have recorded an album in the mid 70's (Side A - Norman Talkin’... Side B - More Norman Talkin’ with the bonus cut, Norman and Carlton talkin’ about women). Warm days Norman could be found on the front steps of the building, clad in an obscenely tight bicyclists garb of spandex pants and a equally tight checkered spandex shirt which emphasized his girth.

Norman would usually be in the company of Carlton who always wore a jeans jacket, jeans and a baseball cap and was Norman’s opposite being short and slight of build. They would spend the afternoon shooting the breeze and chatting with whomever made their way into the building.

There was Artie, tall, rangy and good-natured - with his loud infectious laugh, known both for having one of the nicest rooms in the facility and his ability to sneak ladies in for overnight visits into the otherwise male only dorm.

Brad was boisterous and friendly. He ran the front desk (as well as living in the facility) and was really good working with the kids during the day camp the Y sponsored during the summer months. Brad seemed straight as an arrow but it belied the skeleton he carried around in his closet. Notwithstanding, he was always a good guy to me.

Lastly, there was Kevin. a line worker at the local auto plant. Short, but solidly built (from his years working the arresting gear on an aircraft carrier), Kevin knew just about everyone in town by name. The smile he walked around with was permanently affixed to his face. He set goals for himself and set about achieving those goals: he wrote, tried to mount production of a play locally, ran religiously and was always trying new, different things (whether it be conditioning the callus of his knuckles by repeatedly pounding them into buckets of various grades of buckshot or trying all kinds of Chinese medicinal herbs just to name a few).

Kevin and I were about the same age and wound up becoming friends, hanging out and having breakfast every once in a while or catching a movie. Kevin was a good entry into town life since he seemed to know everyone and they most of the towns people found him quite charming. The Y being situated next to a volunteer firehouse, I wondered why Kevin who seemed to know everyone at the firehouse never joined the brigade. It seemed like something he would do.

Also, I would tell Kevin he should think about running for some kind of village office but at every juncture Kevin would downplay the idea and there was a very simple reason why he did. It was the same reason that although he was subject to annual layoffs from the GM factory he never considered taking a job somewhere else.

It was as simple as his color.

As gregarious a person as he was, Kevin didn’t feel there would be a place for him among the all-white boys club of the firehouse - even though he knew everyone there and was on a first name basis with them. The same thing went for running for village office (although he was good friends with the village’s current mayor). It was the same thing with the job, GM even with the frequent layoffs at least had a benefits package that offered a certain amount of security and Kevin wasn’t sure with a high school education he would be able to find the same kind of opportunity outside of GM - especially being black.

As Kevin described it he had a goal (which he did in fact achieve) which was to make it to the age of 35 without winding up dead or in jail. When I think about it now it makes me really, really sad. Not that Kevin made his goal for which I am infinitely happy but, that our society is such, it made it really clear to him there was only so much he could expect.

All the guys I mentioned above were adult black men. Two out of the five of them are dead.

The two who’re dead died at young ages (somewhere between 45 and 55). It just came to mind because I was reading this story. I don’t profess to be an enlightened soul or above the pettiness which can embrace all of us to our detriment but, when I read stuff like this I realize most people out there (myself included) have no idea of what it is like to be black in America and to have to deal with this crap on a daily basis.

A few years back, I grew my hair long and it seemed in retrospect I was pulled over more, ticketed more and had more run ins with the police than I had ever had before in my life or since. It made me mad but, I could always cut my hair. Even though, I would normally be a “law and order” guy and give the benefit of a doubt to the cop, there’s just no way you can read or hear of something like this and not think it’s wrong. Especially coming on the heels of police lobbing flash/bang grenades into people’s houses. It just makes me think about how much in this country has to change.

I hate f**kin Roger Clemens.

When I was a Yankee fan, he pitched for the Red Sox so, you could not like him even though you respected him...

...through the years he’s become more of a punk.

When he hit Mike Piazza a few years back, it was obvious he had been head hunting. Piazza had managed to crush the ball the few times he faced Roger and well, let’s face it Roger didn’t appreciate getting bitch slapped like that by Piazza. Consequently, Roger figured bustin’ Piazza upside the helmet (and cracking it in the process) would make the catcher think twice before digging in when facing the Rocket. It was ironic listening to the Yankee apologists justifying Clemens poor sportsmanship on the heels of cries of outrage after Clemens had hit their own fair haired lad (Jeter) while Clemens was pitching for the Blue Jays.

Today was a lot of fun, from the opening of the game when the Red Sox protested making Roger remove his "300 win" emblem glove, to the Red Sox hitters working the count (and Clemens) getting hit after hit with a two strike count. Instead of looking like the invincible Rocket, he looked like a 40 year old brat. It was a performance reminiscent of Clemens playoff appearance against the A’s while he was with the Red Sox in which he got tossed for arguing calls with the home plate umpire.

Seeing Jeter look blankly out of the Yankee dugout as the mighty Bronx Bombers went down to their fifth straight loss was almost as delectable.

Part of being a Met fan the last few years has meant suffering the crowing and insults of Yankee fans. Nevermind I didn’t like a bunch of the teams moves, nevermind I saw some of my favorite players shown the door, I’d be stuck having to defend my team just because some Yankee fan needed an excuse to feel good about themselves that day.

Well guys, you got Weaver, and you got Wells, and you got Mussina, and you got Clemens, and you got Giambi, and you got Matsui, and you got Contreras, and you got Karsay, and you got Mondesi, and you got White, and you got just about every player money could buy outspending every other team in baseball...

...and now you got swept by Texas at home this season (a first) and you got swept in a four game series with Toronto (a first) and you got about 12 losses out of the last 13 home games, and since you beat the Mets in 2000 in the World Series you know what else you got...

...nothin!

You lost to Arizona, last year Anaheim beat you and if the season finished today you wouldn’t even win the wild card. So, maybe I can finally get through a baseball season watching my team play, enjoying it and not having to listen to your (Yankee fans) crap! Me and the fans of all those other teams who’re sick of listening to Yankee fans are enjoying every minute of this.

This certainly feels like one of those Al Goldstein moments.

So, I woke up this morning feeling pretty good having spent much of Sunday making a dent in él gigantico mess. I made a big dent in the foyer, cleaned up a lot of the basement and moved stuff around in the garage. It reminded me of helping Roberta move into her new place which was much smaller than her old place. You really had to look carefully to figure out how to make everything fit. Cleaning up around here is very similar in that you clear an area, and then move more stuff into the area to sort and put away (I’m embarassed it’s that messy). Interspersed in all of this are projects I have to finish. There are always a lot of odds and ends to do around here, wiring, plumbing, painting - it never stops just when I finish fixing one thing three other things break.

I rented this dvd a few weeks ago, it was an anime movie called Spirited Away. I picked it up because there was nothing else I really wanted to see and I thought it looked interesting.

Well, turned out it was great! Story about a little girl and her family in the middle of a move to a new home and the strange adventure she gets sidetracked into. I highly recommend it for people with kids (10 and under) but, I have to admit as an adult I enjoyed it a great deal. The drawing was great and the characters were really unique. Just a wonderful, well thought out film and good entertainment.

While I’m at it, and I seem to have a spurt of energy. I just thought I would post some of the things I currently have sitting on the shelf and pick up for reading in my library, I thought it would be interesting.

So, what am I reading?

Currently on my “shelf:”

1. The Evolution of Useful Things by Henry Petroski

2. The current issue of National Geographic

3. The current issue of USA Today’s Sports Weekly

4. War in a Time of Peace by David Halberstam

5. The Blue Guide for New York City

6. 52 New York Weekends by Michael Schumen

7. ...and a whole slew of comics (two weeks worth) including: Amazing Spider Man #53 (possibly the best book out there), Nightwing #81 (a monthly favorite), Daredevil #47 (I can’t figure out why I keep buying this, something about the combo of art and writing), Soldier X #11 (good writing), Black Panther #59 (giving the book a chance - so far it’s been entertaining), Batgirl Year One #6 (just a marvelous, terrific book, the one worth getting if you don’t buy comics), Beware The Creeper #2 (checking it out), Superman Metropolis #4 (a mistake buy), Global Frequency #4 and #6 (I came late to it and am trying to catch up but, has the same kind of buzz I got when I discovered Planetary), Hunter The Age of Magic #23 (soon to be cancelled), Batman Gotham Knight #41 (soon to be dropped), Batman Legends of the Dark Knight #167 (a good story compensating for passable art), (Dial H for) Hero #4 (moving up the charts with a bullet), JSA #48 (a favorite), Gotham Central #5, #6 and #7 (I don’t know how it’s doing but, it’s one of the best books out there), Birds of Prey #55 (a marginal read), Batgirl #40 (another marginal read), Green Arrow #26 (going downhill very, very fast), Arkham Asylum Living Hell #1 (checking it out), Lucifer #38 (a personal favorite if not popular), Adventures of Superman #616 (consistently well done book), Incredible Hulk #54 (experiencing a renaissance of sorts), Green Lantern #164 (soon to be dropped), Robin #114 (a good, consistently well done book)

Also this past week, the car went to a specialist (read as the dealership). The local general practioner (read as the local garage) was unable to find anything wrong with it last week.

This whole car thing has gone on for the last three weeks and it becomes a little benumbing after awhile. First I replaced the battery myself, then to the local garage and now to the dealership (with the annual inspection thrown in for good measure).

So, here we are on the holiday weekend and the car went in this morning and they seem to have found the problem! Get this - a crankshaft sensor! The computer doesn’t know the car is running, working with computers all the time and having suffered through my own indiginities with them, I shouldn’t be surprised the car has been visited with the same kind of torture.

The flip side is there’s lots of yard work to do and I still have a garage full of junk I was in the process of organizing (literally hard to walk in) so, I am forced to confront the nightmarish mess of my own creation.

Today the Mets are at 21-25 and starting a 3 game series in Atlanta.

I went to my first Mets game at Shea stadium since September 11th on Thursday afternoon. Stricter security measures were enacted after the 11th and they only served to keep me away from the ballpark. My understanding was that patrons were no longer allowed to bring in anything from the outside in with them.

I think baseball tickets are exorbitantly high-priced here in New York. All the years I went to Yankee games (when I was a Yankee fan), I made it a much more affordable proposition by bringing chicken from the Popeye’s over on River Avenue and a bag of chips and other munchies. I continued the habit after I changed my allegiances to the Mets.

A few years back I had a Mets Saturday plan and often we would pack a lunch and tote in various snacks with us to the ballpark. The snacks were always better than whatever you could get at the stadium and way cheaper too - sorry, I just don’t think paying $4 for a undercooked hotdog on a gummy roll is any kind of deal. The stricter security at the stadium combined with a bunch of off-season moves I didn’t like were enough incentive to keep me away.

This year, the Mets actually implemented a tiered pricing structure for games depending on the which visiting team the Mets are playing. This isn’t such a smart move if you are next to last in your division as you are almost guaranteeing higher priced game tickets won’t move once the team is out of contention.

Well, I was working and busy the first part of the year and feeling a little flush so, I decided to indulge and get tickets to a few games. The first tickets I got were for this past Thursday. Years past, the first game of the season I would normally go to would be one sometime in April. Invariably, I would wind up freezing my butt off. This year, I thought I’d avoid the chill by getting tickets for my first game of the season in May.

Yesterday, I think the high topped out at around 54° (that’s being generous), there was a steady breeze making it feel about ten degrees colder than the high and there were intermittent rain showers. When it wasn’t raining, there was this crappy mist thing going on - which was actually worse as the seats we were in which were shielded from the rain were no escape from the mist which seemed to get everywhere.

On the good side, the Mets won! All these big contract veterans Steve Phillips bought in are injured and they’re playing rookies and bench players. It’s lots more fun to watch these guys play. They play hard and you can see by their play they are really jazzed about being in the big leagues. As a fan, I’d rather watch these guys play (win or lose) than a bunch of veterans who take it for granted.

The other thing is, they aren’t a bad team! Maybe I’m too much of a fan but, I like this team better than the one the Mets left spring training with and I think they actually might have a chance to make things interesting. The next week (with the series in Atlanta, one in Philly and one at home against Atlanta) will tell the tale.

So, they do have more extensive security at the ballpark now but, it’s just a matter of figuring out what you can bring in and what you can’t. It looks like if you package things the right way you can still bring in your own food.

More proof Steve Phillips is making Mets fans crazy.

If their record wasn’t 19-25 this wouldn’t be as funny.

I read the news today, oh boy...

Today the terror alert level was raised to Orange.

Do people have discussions about this?

“Hey Dave, did you hear? The terror alert level has been raised to Code Orange!”

“Wow, thanks Steve! I’ll have to remember my gas mask tomorrow!”

What does this stupid crap mean anyway?! Do I do anything different? No.

Do you do anything different? Probably not.

So, what is the point. Is it some kind of justification in the public’s mind for all the spending that’s going on in the name of “national security?”

This may sound slightly blasphemous to some but, would stuff like this even had made a difference on September 11?

“Hmmmmmmm... maybe I should tell someone about these arab looking men without luggage, purchasing one way plane tickets (with cash no less!) to Los Angeles here in Bangor, Maine. We are at Code Orange, the government wants me to be more vigilant.

Am I the only person that thinks all that’s required is a modicum of common sense? In the words of Ben Grimm...Sheeeessshhhhh!

Not too long ago, Margaret had posted something on her blog written by (if I remember correctly) a Pakistani writer regarding America’s obsession with therapy and analysis. I went back but, the link isn’t there anymore.

The gist was that the United States as a nation was full of people trying to justify their feelings. If there is one lesson to learn from September 11th, I think it’s this: We are a nation of self centered, self indulgent people with a very narrow world view, f**k with us at your peril.

I can’t help but think given all the events since September 11th, if these clowns responsible had been able to look two years down the road they might have thought twice about doing it. I mean think of it. Since they’ve done it we’ve used the event as justification to invade Afghanistan and then Iraq.

Do you feel any safer now than you did on the night of September 10th, 2001?

Why should Steve Phillips be put out of Mets fans misery?

The Mets have the second highest payroll in baseball with $117 million dollars being spent on player salaries.

This includes:
Mo Vaughn $17,166,667
Mike Piazza $15,571,429
Jeromy Burnitz $12,166,667
John Franco $3,833,333
Rey Sanchez $1,300,000
Scott Strickland $950,000
Grant Roberts $310,000

So, it winds up Steve Phillips is paying $51,298,096 to players currently on the disabled list. Some might say its not Phillips fault but, caveat emptor! If you spend a lot of money on older players and you overpay for them, having them wind up on the disabled list is the risk you take. Also, this doesn’t include the $4,875,000 the Mets are paying Roger Cedeno or the money they’re paying to David Cone who is currently on the disabled list as well.

Maybe after the Mets fire Steve Phillips he can become the CEO of a Telcom.

I just looked in on this site and found this which seems more relevant than ever. Man, do I miss Calvin and Hobbes.

Wow! I look up and three days has passed!

The horror of automobile ownership continues... the car went in to the shop the other day. Cars have a way of letting you know when you’ve been neglectful and the one I have now is no different. I bought this car new, it was the first new car I ever had in my entire life. Prior to this I had a series of used cars so, I was no stranger to the world of the roadside breakdown. Luckily, I haven’t been a resident of that world for the last few years - I guess I’ve been spoiled.

Anyway, I got stuck alongside of an entrance ramp to a local parkway on Wednesday. I was trying to race into the city and the car decided we wouldn’t be doing much of anything that day. It had acted up on Tuesday as well so, I wasn’t totally surprised when it happened but, I sure wasn’t happy about it either.

Cars are funny in that you always hope whatever is wrong will be something cheap and easy to fix and you work your way up to more serious problems as you rule things out in increasing levels of severity (much like modern medicine I think). I had taken the car in for inspection last week and was surprised when it came back to me without the hidden expense (something that would prevent it from passing but also costing a few hundred dollars). I had replaced the battery the week before as the car had been acting funny for the last few weeks since the weather started getting warmer. I thought maybe I could get off easy but, that was not to be the case.

So, I’m stuck on this entrance ramp and treated to people whizzing past me, beeping their horns and coming dangerously close to hitting the car. I could live without that excitement. I rolled the car back down the ramp in neutral and wound up in the middle of an intersection. Fortunately I was helped in pushing it off to the side by three good samaritans who just stopped and helped me get it over onto the shoulder (just when your faith in people is at its lowest, something nice happens).

I even got it started and managed to get home without a tow so, I considered myself very lucky. The car went back to the shop (locally). I had reservations about their ability to correct the problem but again, you always hope you’ll get off light.

Well, it came back to me without anything really getting fixed but, it did cost around $90 so, I guess we’re locked into going back to the dealership. I’m glad I rented a car to go up to Boston, it would’ve sucked big time to get stuck up in Massachusetts somewhere.

Saw X2 Friday which was really, really good. Even better than the first probably and managed to stay true to the source material. I think it ran a little long because I started to nod off near the end. Of course, during Daredevil I flat out feel asleep.

This was a good news/bad news kind of week.

The good news was that two people I know who had been out of work for long periods of time got jobs. Tom (a friend from Grey) looks like he finally got a job as a retoucher at night (yayyyyy Tom!) and Roberta is working now as a tailor at a midtown hotel (yyyyaaaaaaaayyyyy Roberta!). Also, my friend Mark is beating me to the altar!

The bad news was that two people had lost their fathers in the last few weeks - my friends Sarah and Louis’ wife Angie so, my heart went out to them. I don’t deal well with people passing, I don’t know what to say to people that will help them and I feel a lot of things you could say wind up sounding empty and clichéd - I’ve lost people and I still get upset thinking about how much I miss them long after they’ve passed. It’s hard to say goodbye to someone you love and particularly hard when it’s your parent.

Last night I saw Comedian the highly touted documentary featuring Jerry Seinfeld. Seinfeld might’ve been a show about nothing but, a documentary about nothing doesn’t really cut it. Don’t waste your time. You’d think with appearances by so many comics (Jay Leno, Chris Rock, Bill Cosby, Colin Quinn, Garry Shandling, Robert Klein, Ray Romano) it would be really funny or interesting, it’s anything but. Actually, you’d probably be more entertained watching paint dry. It’s self indulgent, plodding and painfully long. As much as I love language and find wordplay interesting, two hours of comics sitting in darkened clubs over a variety of meals talking to each other about the trials and tribulations of performing and creating material is just boooorrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnngggggggggg. Nothing revealing about anyone is said, nothing controversial. The movie has the intensity of an infomercial. Imagine: “ooooooooo, look at me, I’m a comic, life is sooo tough, I have to sit around all day trying to think of funny things to say and people are sooooo mean they don’t laugh all the time.”

Please!

The car goes to the auto hospital tomorrow. The horror.

My friend Jack sent me this link which gives new meaning to the old saw about speaking with a “forked tongue.” It doesn’t strike me as shocking, doesn’t strike me as cool, just stupid - which means my age is showing I guess. I had thought about getting a tattoo well before they became so “mainstream.” There’s nothing unique or special about tattoos anymore if anything, they’ve become quite pedestrian and commonplace. I just wonder if all these young, pretty people had given any kind of thought to how that tattoo will look on an old sagging body – not much I’d venture.

Ah... another Monday.

While the rest of the world trudges back to work, I (numbered among the gloriously unemployed) have a week looming large ahead of me.

I've been doing the hermit thing mostly as of late. It's very easy for me to stay in and around the house if only not to spend any money (to use the Godfather reference, I've gone "to the mattresses").

The hermit thing is good because, after awhile I'm forced to get around to doing all the things I put off doing if only due to sheer boredom. There are just so many days you can spend watching the litany of court shows and Springer type shows until you've had your fill and want to do something else. Same thing goes for whiling away the hours surfing the net.

It's like coming out of a coma or something - especially when I look around and see the disaster area the house is. I keep seeing images of people's houses out in the midwest after they've been hit by a tornado and think to myself, "Wow! Our place looks like that and we didn't even get hit by a tornado!"

So, when Monday comes around, I have to sit down and figure out what exactly it is I'll accomplish for the week. Last time around when I was home for any stratch of time I made out this big list which covered four areas, I think it was something like "house," "office," "career" and "personal." The list was so long it was overwhelming (and paralyzing). Now I just try to get a few things done each week to get me closer to whatever ephemeral goal I have in my life.

It works lots better.

Eenie, Meenie, Minie, Moe... catch a driver or let him go.

I got a ticket yesterday.

I hate getting tickets (as if anyone enjoys the experience).

I’ve had a good run though as I can’t remember the last time I got any kind of traffic ticket (parking tickets are another matter). I was going down a local parkway that ends with an intersection with a traffic light leading into a highway. I got caught behind another motorist who decided to stop at a yellow light. I was behind him.

When I looked to my left, there was an unattended police motorcycle standing on the grassy square. The owner of the motorcycle - a portly leather clad office (looking for all the world as if he could be one of the Village People) was on one of those phone boxes along the side of the road.

He walked up to my car and looking in could see I wasn’t wearing my seat belt. I had thought about putting it on but, as the officer was already walking up to the car and could see in it seemed pointless to do the seatbelt dance - it’s not as if he wouldn’t have known.

Sure enough he gave me a ticket.

Now I’d like someone to explain this to me though... it’s a $40 ticket. Okay. But, there’s a $30 surcharge! What the f**k! Just call it a $70 ticket! That’s what it is. It’s not like you can not pay the surcharge. They’ve been doing this for years and I still don’t really understand it. I mean if you get a ticket, you pay what you pay, you don’t have any choice in the matter. Is this just another way of dancing around the fact that it’s really, really expensive to get any kind of ticket. The parking tickets in the city are $100 now!

Anyhow, I was surprised to find Roberta had gotten a ticket for the very same thing while in her neighborhood and only a block from her house (in Williamsburg) so, maybe there’s some edict for the police to generate more money for the city by writing more tickets. If so, buckle up! You have been warned!

I had spoken a few weeks ago about counting change. My final count was... (drumroll please) one thousand, three hundred and twenty one dollars! It wound up paying for the trip to Boston and there being money left over (to pay for the airfare for the Key West trip). I hated the fact that the jars I keep the coins in were now empty. There was always something reassuring about those jars being filled with change. Emergency money if you will. So, I start right in again trying to fill them up.

It seems like things might be turning around with the economy, although I do have noted a few people talking about moving away from New York recently because of how expensive it is here. Our across the street neighbor just put his house up for sale within the last week or so. I got a chance to speak with him yesterday. He was working for an internet company as an “online editor” awhile back and he seemed to change jobs as the industry took a hit.

He and his wife’s story is probably like many people in I believe he was working at a company where they were throwing around money like it was going out of style at a time everything with a dotcom attached to its name was an investment bankers wet dream. Lots of mad money in stock options and salary enabling him and his wife to get a house and have a kid - she stopped working shortly after they moved in and got pregnant not too long after.

Well, when the internet bubble burst, he cut his hair (when they first moved in he wore a pony tail), changed his mode of dress and started putting in much longer hours.

Where are they moving? North Dakota, where her family is from and things are lots cheaper (although those winters, bbrrrrrrrr!). The house they purchased for between $200 and $250k is on the market for $35 0! This is after being in it for only a few years!

Of course, the Metro North fare went up 25%, the subway just went to $2, everyone is talking about budget shortfalls in New York city and in Albany and the tax increase that will go along with it.

I wa s n’t a big fan of Bloomberg’s try at reinstating the commuter tax. A lot of my city resident friends will probably argue that I use city services but, the truth no one confronts is the difference in property taxes between the city and the burbs with city p roperty owners getting off pretty light. Even with the increase! I have friends who’ve been looking to purchase a home (and move from the new mecca of youth - Williamsburg).

Well, they looked at one home up in Westchester (priced at $600k) where the y early school taxes were $11k (and that was on the low end for a lot of the communities up here) - meanwhile they also looked at a brownstone in the city with an asking price of $800k and somehow even though the property was almost 25% more, the yearly tax es are $1,600!

If the tax rate in the city was really comparable to what it is in the burbs it would put the yearly tax rate at more like $13,750. That’s a difference of $12,150 per year for just one property.

Seems to me for all the crying about the incre dible tax burden on city dwellers there some strange arithmetic going on here. Before they start looking to place a levy on people living beyond the city’s boundaries, I really think they should be looking to assessing property at it’s true value and makn g property owners pony up their share.

And for what its worth I guarantee you they don’t have the level of services city residents enjoy. It’s not surprising though considering there was some news awhile back about building inspectors taking bribe money to lower assessed values of property.

Besides most of the people I know living in the city, rent.

The one thing I don’t understand though is why the federal government is less than forth coming with money for the city - you’d think by now it would be apparent to the people running this nation that when New York city experiences a boom in its economy, the rest of the country seems to do well too.

...and lastly for today...


Last weekend I was in Boston where I got a chance to see the first show on the Lost In America Tour of This American Life. This is the second time I’ve seen a live performance of the show - the first time in Town Hall a few years back.

This time around, we got to see Sarah Vowell and David Sedaris again (and fortunately Boston was the only city on the tour where David Sedaris performed - if you don’t know who David Sedaris is, click on the link to listen to one of the best Christmas stories I have ever heard!), there was also a piece by the publisher of Found magazine.



Ira Glass previewed something he was working on with Chris Ware (of Jimmy Corrigan fame) which was beautiful and haunting. If you haven’t heard of This American Life, you can listen to past shows via Real Audio FOR FREE! I’ve had a lot of days at work that have been made all the better listening to this show! If you don’t know where to begin, here’s one of my favorites.

Also today, did the bulk shopping thing at CostCo. Only the United States could spawn such a store. There really is something slightly surreal about watching all these slow moving (in many cases - obese) people wandering through the aisles like cattle. I half expected a few of the people to “Mooooo” as I walked past (mind you I was one of them today).

Accompanying me on my descent into the orgy of consumerism were Paul and Roberta who had never met one and other. Paul got to take advantage of deals and we got to use his truck as a cargo vehicle. We quickly lost Paul as he got lost among the “bargains.” The next time I saw him an hour or so later the cart he had been wheeling which was empty when I saw him was now overflowing with all manner of bulk items. He had literally built a tower of goods in his cart! The two things we had forgotten to tell him were: 1. They only take cash or debit cards and 2. They don't give you bags of any kind!

Roberta had wisely brought a list with her which I helped her make her way through.

I was the impulse shopper. The end result of my trip? 2-pack of toothpaste, bulk packages of drier sheets (2), bulk fantastic, bulk windex, bulk package of Ivory soap, bulk clorox cleaner, bulk package of Kleenex, bulk bottle of antibacterial hand soap, bulk package of shop (read mechanics) hand soap (GoJo), a case of motor oil, (are we seeing a pattern yet?), bulk packages of batteries (various sizes), two big bags of potato chips, bulk package of Franks Hot Sauce (3-pack), a case of the Mocha Frappacinos.

Mainly dry goods and cleaning supplies. Paul was a little more adventurous and picked up meat there. Roberta picked up meat in the past but, I have to say I’ve walked by their meat case and it didn’t look too hot (if you know what I mean). I have a tendency to be real particular when it comes to perishables (dairy, fruits, fish and meats) and I think I’m better off going to a butcher or local store where I can see how fresh something is and have them cut it to my liking.

I also have to say I saw something on the news recently that confirmed my wariness of buying meat stuff in these places.

Anyway, if you haven’t been, it’s definitely worth going even if it’s only once just for the experience.

Today I think I found the one neighborhood in Manhattan that hasn’t caught the Starbucks virus... Delancy from the Bowery over to the bridge. These days it's getting so you can’t walk a block without seeing a Starbucks so it's now the exception rather than the rule when you don’t see one.

I keep thinking how the Seattle coffee craze will eventually burn itself out, in 2020 people will be looking back on Starbucks with a sense of nostalgia and there will no doubt be fewer of them about.

Although I am admittedly addicted to their espresso brownies as the main course of my daily breakfast (ooooo... nutritious!). Also, I do take home the Chai tea in the container as a drink of choice.

Yo! Yo! Yo! Word up! I was also trying to update my repertoire of slang when I came across this site. Unfortunately it wasn’t as extensive as I would have liked and I think it’s a little dated.

Been trying to limit the amount of time I spend aimlessly surfing on the computer and really accomplish some things around here. I am working on a few longer winded entries (again crashing a few times - so, I’ve begun working on longer entries offline) which I'll post when they’re done. Just a few “shorties” for today though...

...I’m still at a loss to explain why I found an ad for these guys when I was looking through the display ads at the back of MacWorld. I was trying to find a decent printer for a business card project I was finishing up for someone and wanted to get a couple of sample packs. If someone can explain to me how a display ad for them in MacWorld is target marketing I’m all ears.



Also, I heard a very interesting segment on the Leonard Lopate show on WNYC today with the author of Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser. Schlosser’s books are worth seeking out, he focuses on the marginalization of the American worker its something I find myself concerned with as I see the changes taking place around us daily. You can read an excerpt of his latest book, Reefer Madness on WNYC’s website. Of course, you can also listen to the show via Real Audio by clicking on the link to the Lopate show archives above.

I was going to write about the auto show and about someone I know who looks like they are going to jail but, crash, crash, crash. Everytime the phone clicks in while I'm online I get knocked off (even though the call waiting is supposed to get turned off). The jail thing is interesting, consider this a teaser.

I've been trying to stay off the computer, get stuff done around here.

My friend Roberta has been after me to take a trip out to the CostCo by her house. She likes to stock up on food which was something I had thought about until

The odds on SARs? 5.9% fatality rate if you get it. Here’s another link to the CDC so you can get source information on this SARs instead of the rumor and innuendo that normally surrounds these kind of things.

Also, am I the only person that thinks you can have a “sick plane” the way you can have a “sick building?” The air conditioning system in a building in Philadelphia was largely responsible for Legionnaires Disease (if you can remember back that far). That’s part of the problem working in some of these buildings where you can’t open a window, they’re recycling the same crappy air for the decades since the thing was built. Also, how many companies or landlords make the kind of investment to clean out the ventilation systems of their buildings on a regular basis? Is there any reason to think the airlines (which are in trouble as it is) would do any better?

The last few days I’ve been counting change. I got into the habit of throwing my loose change into a wine bottle after working with my friend Tom (who used a larger container, a water cooler bottle).

Every year or so when we worked together, Tom would regale me with stories of wheeling his water jug down to the local bank and cashing in on his hoard of change - it sounded like such a ridiculously simple way to force oneself to save.

I’ve gotten through the quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies (still have the dollars to do) and was up to around $750. Last time I cashed out was about two years back over the holidays and it wound up going a long way towards making a nice Christmas present. This time around it will pay for a few trips.

Lately, I’ve had the time to wrap up a few loose ends - all too often there seem to be an abundance of loose ends (things undone) around here so, it’s very satisfying to see some of the long unfinished projects moving towards completion and getting crossed off my list.

As I had noted, last weekend I got around to turning in old plane tickets for credit. The poor ticket agent at the counter was so nice sorting through the horror of processing these old tickets I had - this must have been something like a ticket agents nightmare since one of the tickets I was cashing in was from ’94 and the other from ’96.

You can only do those kinds of things at specified times (since you have to go to the airport now and I imagine they don’t want you to clog up the processing of departing passengers). When I got there, the airport was fairly quiet. the airport in Westchester is small (one terminal/four gates) so, I was able to walk right up without waiting.

The woman (ticket agent) was so patient, it took her almost an hour to process the transaction. After I had been there about fifteen minutes another customer came up and was waiting to get something done. She had a little boy with her and he wasn’t terribly happy with having to spend such a nice sunny day accompanying mommy to the airport and standing around the check in area - of course he made sure everyone knew it too (there’s some amazingly disquieting noises a child can make when they’re bored or unhappy). I grew uncomfortable having to make someone else wait, and let the agent know if she wanted to I would be okay waiting while she processed the woman’s transaction but, the agent wouldn’t have any of that.

The woman waiting grew increasingly impatient, even more so than her little boy. She whipped out her cell phone and her daytimer and made a big show about what a busy person she was (there were a couple of stage whisper comments in her cell phone conversation and those big dramatic huffs). I don’t think it impressed the ticket agent and I found it a little rude. When the ticket agent did finally try to process her it appeared she had an even more complicated transaction to conduct than I did which involved calling travel agents, first class tickets and turning in other tickets. Real precious attitude she had going there. The airport is over near the Greenwich border and while I don’t think it’s right to make generalizations about anyone, she did have the reek of new money - probably a Lincoln Navigator waiting for her in the parking lot. If it were the eighties she could be a character from a Thom Wolfe novel.

Watching her just made me think about the times I have been impatient or boorish. I don’t think I would have stuck it out as long as she did, I probably would have just come back another time when I could get things done quicker. It reminded me I have to write an email to the people at the airline about how nice the agent was.

My blog sensei suffered a great loss today, Margaret sent me an email informing me her pretty companion of 17 years Miss Betty passed.

My pet cat Elric died when I was 19, we had raised her from a kitten and she lived an incredibly short life for a cat but that didn’t stop her from taking a large place in my heart. When she passed I was inconsolable and until The Big S brought Anna into my life more than 15 years later, I hadn’t had another pet.

Even though Anna introduced herself to me by biting me on the heel and our relationship got off to an adversarial start I couldn’t imagine my life without her today. My great joy is to have her climb atop my ever increasing belly and make herself at home when I lay down to sleep. She is a noisy little heater, purring contentedly away as she lulls me into dreamland.

So, my heart goes out to you Margaret, I know you’ll miss your furry friend.

So the Mets have won a couple of games. I even watched Armando do the unthinkable and actually save a game last night. The thing that’s of note though is the people who are playing when they’re winning, Shinjo or Timo Perez in the outfield, this kid Gonzalez they just called up, Vance Wilson behind the plate, Tony Clark at first, Wigginton getting the key hit, Jay Seo starting, Jaime Cerda relieving. All those big signings Steve Phillips made, Cedeno, Vaughn, Cone, Sanchez not really working out the way he probably thought they would. Of course, you couldn’t help but notice over the last week or so, there have been a bunch of stories on the papers, on TV and on the web about Phillips being on the hot seat and in danger of losing his job. Yogi Berra said once “It gets late, early” and the 2003 Mets season is no exception. There’s a lot of dead weight on this team and I for one would feel tremendously better as a fan if the Mets would shed a few of those big contracts (see Vaughn, Alomar, Burnitz and Cedeno) to bring back some younger players. You can be in last place with much less of a payroll (nevermind the second highest payroll in all of baseball after the Yankees). If I owned the team I think I’d be pretty concerned about how Steve Phillips throws money around with abandon. Then again, he seems like a lot of management types I’ve run across in my lifetime in that he plays fast and loose with other people’s money and not his own.

Went to the Auto Show Tuesday night - more on that later. I saw this car and immediately wanted it. I guess it says loads about me that I want a station wagon (plus two of the 6 cars I’ve owned over the course of my lifetime have been station wagons). I just thought it looked really cool and was functional as well (I’m a big Home Depot kind of guy).

One of the great advantages to working from home:

When I am home and I’m at my desk on the computer (whether it be surfing, working or writing), the mere fact I am at my desk means my lap has miraculously transformed into what our cat perceives as the best place in the entire house to come and make herself at home. This means I have a warm, purring creature making herself comfortable, head butting my arm as I try to type, licking my forearm if she’s really happy and ultimately curling up putting her head down in a position of extreme feline relaxation.

Somehow, no matter how nice the office I’ve been in, no matter how nice the people I’ve been around the atmosphere never has come remotely close to competing with what I find working here with the cat on my lap.

Today is Easter. I tried writing something about Easter 5 or 6 times just to have my browser crash (so much for dialup connections and old browser software).

My people are Cat’lick. Like lots of other families, we’ll make the trek in the car to be together on the holiday in observance.

The holiday is one of those signposts marking the passing of the year. We (my family) come together on a regular basis for Christmas, Easter, Fourth of July, a bunch of birthdays around Columbus day (my birthday is around the same time but, it‘s never been included) and Thanksgiving.

Our trek will take us across the river, over the Tappan Zee to what I still think of as my Uncle‘s house.

They’ll be a lot of good natured teasing, catching up with one and other (since the last holiday), a big meal and maybe the often occurring card game among the male relatives.

The meal will be a sumptuous repast with antipasto (cold cuts, pickled veggies and bread), a pasta course, a main course (ham probably since it’s Easter), lots of side dishes and finishing, a pretty sizable selection of desserts accompanied by coffee. I’m always a little apprehensive in advance of these gatherings but, each passing year I find myself coming away increasingly glad I went. I like my family - it helps that they’re nice people.

I should probably note that family as I refer to it is (was) my father’s older brother, his wife, their children, their children”s spouses, their grandchildren, their grandchildren”s spouses and now even their great-grandchildren (new baby in the family). My own grandparents (father’s parents) used to have these kinds of functions when they were alive and my Uncle and Aunt took up the banner after the grandparents passed. One of the things striking about these gatherings is it doesn’t seem long ago I was at “the small table,” the table reserved for the kids. My immediate family was very disjointed - my father married a few times, my mom’s family missing in action so, my Uncle Gerry and Aunt Ena provided something which figured very large in my life in that they gave me a place to be on the holidays - they gave me a place where I belonged.

The last few get togethers we’ve had haven’t been at Ena and Gerry’s. Gerry (my uncle) passed a few years ago. The change of venue has been strange - not being in the house of all those shared memories made things very different. Something was missing. As I thought about Easter, I thought about being back at the house again and I kept coming back to what would be missing... and what was missing would be Gerry.


So, on Easter morning I sit and write about the holiday, I think about my Uncle Gerry (who has been gone almost three years now) and how much I still miss him. Gerry was a very special man who had the unique quality of making the people around him feel special too. He was funny, he was loud and every time I would enter his house he would greet me with his booming voice, “Hello! Don Philippo!” There was never a doubt about that special quality he had when you were in his presence. I regret I never got to quite know Gerry as a man, as a person and consequently he looms larger than life in my memories. Gerry was the glue for our family and he touched all of our lives.

The last few years of his life, Gerry suffered from emphysema (a result of the twin evils of a smoking addiction and perc - a chemical he was exposed to regularly as a dry cleaner). He struggled on a daily basis to get a breath. Gerry hid the extent of his illness from some of us by staying ensconced upstairs during get togethers and then, appearing freshly scrubbed and looking quite well. It wasn’t until shortly before he passed, on a cold November day I went to help out and rake leaves for Ena and Gerry. It was then, I saw how ill Gerry had become. He was in his room with an oxygen tank and mask, wrapped up to keep warm, recovering from a cataract surgery Gerry had recently had - as frail as he may have been, Gerry never looked bigger in my eyes.

I visited Gerry in the hospital (in what would turn out to be his final days) and can’t forget how Gerry gave Ena a hard time about something in front of me. As Ena turned her back, Gerry gave me a conspiratorial wink letting me know he was just running Ena through her paces in the way people who have been together a long time do with one and other - Gerry wasn’t upset at all just playing the role she wanted him to play.

Anyway, since it’s Easter, I think about the legacy of my Uncle Gerry. Each of us in the family carries him in our hearts and we are still a family together even after Gerry is gone, a testament to him and how Gerry made each of us feel special. We all still miss him (I know I do, terribly so) and he will be in my thoughts today. Fortunately, we all still have each other and maybe that’s what holidays are supposed to be about anyway.

oops I did it again.



Ouch!

Oh, and I guess I should put the word out I’m looking for freelance.

Later today I have to go to the airport to get tickets for a trip. I have a bunch of old tickets I never used and finally decided I should get off my ass and figure out a place to go.

I used to travel quite a bit in my early thirties and somehow over the last few years I haven’t done it (travel) really. I guess it underscores all the other stuff that has been going on.

I planned a trip for us (The Big S and myself) to go to Boston. I’m pretty good at stuff like that (planning trips). We go up on a Saturday (I rented a car and a good thing too since mine acted up a bit this week leaving me just nervous enough to worry about getting stuck somewhere - which doesn’t have the same fear as it used to with Triple A and a cell phone).

The itenerary is:

Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon.

I haven’t been to Boston in years, the last time was to visit a friend who was going to law school up there and living with a woman in a really scummy part of town. The nice thing was I managed to meet up with my friend Sarah (with the "h") and wander around the city with her.

I’ve met Sarah in different places around the world (Rome, Boston, Key West) and like traveling with her, now that she’s a mommy she’s too busy too travel that way but, I always hope they’ll be a day in the future (when we’re both silver haired) where we’ll be able to do stuff like that again.

Anyway, it should be a nice trip (the Boston one that is).

The tickets I’m picking up are for Key West. I haven’t been to Florida in awhile and there was one New Years where I flew down to Miami on New Year’s eve to spend a week with someone I was seeing who had moved down there. Being from New York, nothing was as great as being on the beach, lying in a deck chair when midnight hit drinking champagne and watching fireworks go off in celebration of the New Years arrival. So, I decided it would be nice to spend next New Years’ in Key West.

I was on the phone with the woman making the reservations and asking her about how to go about turning in the old tickets for credit. I asked if I had to go to the ticket office in Manhattan. She said they didn’t have them anymore and that they had closed them all down.

As she put it “they downsized.”

There used to be a ticket office in White Plains. I noticed it was gone a few years back and I thought they had just opted for a different location. It made me sad they didn’t have the ticket offices in Manhattan anymore. I remember going to one over by what was then the GM building, those ticket offices just added to the whole cosmopolitan aspect of the city, there was something very glamorous about them which I can’t quite put into words.

This could be a good year for travel. I want to get back to Italy again and will probably jaunt down to NC to see the aforementioned Sarah and her brood. Plus, I desparately want to go and check this out. I’m thinking some early September weekend when the Phillies are in town.

Some random thoughts watching the Mets game last night:

Tick tock... tick tock... the clock is ticking on Steve Phillips career as Mets GM. Another bad year and Mets fans will be free of this buffoon. As bad as the start has been, Art Howe isn't on the line the way Phillips is.

I actually feel sorry for Roger Cedeno. They had close ups of his face as he came to bat in the eighth inning of last nights game. A players face can tell you things and Roger’s expression spoke volumes. He looked so unhappy (never mind he was being booed by the home crowd) and so uncomfortable (overmatched) at the plate. Give this man a trade or send him to the minors!

Roger hasn’t really been too happy since he was traded to Houston. Phil Garner benched him for the remainder of the season in Detroit after he and the manager had words. Last year was a wash for him. I can’t blame Cedeno for signing a big contract if Steve Phillips was dumb enough to overpay. His stats have never matched up to his first go round with the Mets. Small wonder, the thing I don’t understand (and how it could have escaped all those people in baseball is beyond me) is how people can’t recognize how much Roger benefited from having Ricky Henderson as a teammate for a season. All year long the season they were teammates you would see shots of them sitting next to each other on the bench as Rickey tutored Roger on the nuances of each pitcher. The tutoring lead to a team record 66 steals which Roger never matched again once he and Rickey were no longer teammates.

How many players won’t be in Mets uniforms by the end of the season? Benitez, Alomar, Burnitz, Cedeno, Vaughn, Weathers? I guess it’s just wishful thinking on my part that Mo Vaughn could wind up with the Red Sox as part of a package with Benitez, of course the question would be what they would bring back. I was talking to the guys in the post office the other day about Vaughn being a walking advertisement for slim fast - he’s looking too much like the Jimmy Dean poster boy and this is after he supposedly lost weight! Here’s a guy who makes Steve Balboni look svelte! The only hope I have for him is that Don Baylor can tutor him in how to get hit by a pitch.

Art Howe does seem like a nice man but, I don’t see him lasting in New York.

Will Phillips managed to get fired before the trade deadline?

I stopped being a Yankee fan because I was a big fan of Don Mattingly, Buck Showalter and Mike Stanley. They all got were shown the door in one off season of Steinbrenner’s tantrums. Tino Martinez and Joe Torre arrived and the Yankees just won and won and won.

I didn’t think it was a testament to the ability of Torre as much as it was the result of work done by Gene Michael (when Steinbrenner was banned from the day to day operations of the team) and Showwalter bringing the team back from the morass it had fallen into under Bucky Dent and Stump Merrill. It probably wasn’t a coincidence either that the Diamondbacks won the year after Showalter left (like the Yankees) and I was surprised Boston didn’t do a better job trying to lure Billy Beane and Showalter there.

The point I was getting to, is that I’m really liking Matsui. The Mets have gotten rid of their Mattingly type players (see Olerud, Ventura and Alfonzo). Even though I am liking Wigginton and still like Timo Perez and Shinjo, the high turnover the team has had over the last few years makes it hard to root for them. It just looks like it will be a very long season.

McMansions are becoming a big problem in this neck of the woods. Such a big problem, towns are enacting ordinances against them!

I really noticed it the other day. The weather got warmer and I was taking one of those leisurely drives through the backroads on my way home from Tarrytown. One of the nice things about living so far from the city is you can go on a meandering country drive on a warm sunny day through some beautiful countryside.

It's a little bit of an indictment considering my rants about the evils of SUVs and fuel usage but, there are less obvious roads to take when running errands and I don't think it's as great a crime to decide to forego the frenzy of the parkway.

Anyway, one of the roads back from Tarrytown takes you through the Rockefeller estate. The place is gigantic and a lot of people don't realize how much land it covers but thankfully it's largely undeveloped. After you get beyond the border of Sleepy Hollow and enter into the unincorporated parts of Ossining (really Briarcliff) there's a lot of beautiful countryside. It's this hidden valley that's situated between the cut the Hudson makes and the valley for the Pocantico River. There's a couple of golf courses back there and a Pace University campus and then until recently there was a lot of open land.

Over the last five years there's been building with these monster houses going up on really small lots. I don't quite understand the allure of building this monster house just to put it up between other monster houses that are so close to each other you could spit out your window onto your neighbor's window.

All the trees wind up getting chopped down. They look ugly all bunched together like that (there's usually a SUV or two parked in the driveway). It makes me wonder if you had the money to buy one of those things, wouldn't you want a little more privacy? Why not just buy a bigger place in the city?

Abra-Kebabra, Spanish Kiss, Back End of the Batmobile?

All the wonderfully nasty British slang readily defined which I came across in my search for the origins of the term McMansions, some slang which may find its way into my vocabulary.

"My brother lost his life because of this stupid smoking law."

The lead story in the news today was the stabbing death of a bouncer in a nightclub in the East Village. The family of the victim felt the new anti-smoking law in New York city was to blame.

You know every time I commit a rape or a murder, it's really not my fault at all, it's those nasty laws that get in the way... get real people!

Put out your f**kin cigarette or go outside and smoke.

Call it what it is people! Some clowns got too drunk, took exception to being told to go outside to smoke (or put out their cigarette) and used it as an excuse to commit violence on someone who was trying to do his job for which they should be brought to trial and if found guilty of murder put away to contemplate the stupidity of their actions.

What's next? I didn't feel like stopping because the light was red?! Grow the f**k up, accept responsiblity for your actions, life is tough - so you have to wait to smoke your cigarette... like life is a big party for the rest of us.

Please!

Now that the weather is getting nice, I post these two items for all the concrete bound city dwellers - take a nice boat or train ride and get out into the country:

May 10 - November 2: The Sleepy Hollow Cruise on NY Waterway NY Waterway offers cruises on weekends and holiday Mondays up the Hudson River from Manhattan to Tarrytown, with visits to several historic properties throughout the season, including Kykuit, the Rockefeller Estate, Philipsburg Manor, Washington Irving's Sunnyside, and Lyndhurst. Cruises depart from West 38th Street and 12th Avenue in Manhattan. Choose from a full day trip or get away for the weekend with a Saturday night stay at the Dolce Tarrytown House, a luxury, full-service inn. Call NY Waterway at (800) 533?3779 for reservations. Preview your trip on-line at www.nywaterway.com.

May 1 - November 2: Kykuit Excursion on Metro North Excursions to Kykuit, the Rockefeller Estate, via Metro North Railroad from Grand Central Terminal and 125th Street begin May 1st. The package includes admission to the estate and roundtrip rail fare. Package price per adult $27.50, seniors $25.50, and children 5-11, $19.00, children under 5, $18. Visitors take a short taxi ride from the station to the Visitors Center (not included).. Tickets available only from Metro North. Call 1 (800) metro-info. In New York City call (212) 532-4900, or purchase tickets online at: www.mnr.org

I'm pretty much for supporting our troops once they're on the ground somewhere (if you hadn't noticed - I have a great deal of admiration for anyone who is willing to serve their country) but...



..uuuummmm,





...weren't there supposed to be large caches of chemical weapons?



...wasn't there talk about a nuclear program?



...big quantities of biological weapons?



...are we missing something here?

The other day I was working at a client. He's in his early 50s. They were ordering lunch (I passed having brought fruit from home) and he opted for the Number 1 from Wendy's.

This caused me to give him a bit of a double take from the other side of the room - he knew why I was doing it.

"What?!?!"

"Just curious if you upped your Lipitor dosage?"

Which lead us into a conversation about how he had changed medications and for awhile had gotten his cholesterol down below 200, though it ultimately climbed back upward leading him to believe any benefit he had gotten from the new medication was temporary while his body adjusted to it.

This in turn brought the conversation down the path of various medical perils we have encoutered in our passage through life.

Bearing witness to this was the kid that works for him who is all of about 22 and has the energy level to match. Since it was Friday, he was planning different ways he could abuse his body all of which included consuming massive quantities of beer leading to an intensive hangover the following day.

Which caused my client to make an observation on how his employee managed to have great appetites of both food and drink and couldn't foresee a day when he wouldn't be able to indulge in those appetites.

Ah... youth. (:>)

Today's math question:



On one of the paradoxes of city living, is the following true?



People in large apartments furnish them in a spartan manner.



People in smaller apartments have their belongings virtually coming out the windows.



I think there might be some kind of city dweller Algebra at work here. There has to be an equation where you can represent the size of the apartment and it's relationship to the amount of clutter. The larger an apartment the more sparsely furnished it is the smaller an apartment the increase in the amount of personal possessions occupying every inch of available space. Any math whizzes out there care to take a crack at it? Anyone else notice the same thing?

I was beginning this entry on the dichotomy of city living (just an observation that occured to me while I was watching the movie last night). I did a web search of the phrase and came up with a link to the Talking Cock website. It's not what you think (certainly not the vulgar flash animation I had imagined - but had to find out for myself with the fascination of a car accident witness), just shows how words possess the power we assign to them and assumptions are always a bad thing.

I am a big fan of Alan Arkin (back from the days when he was Yossarian in Catch 22 — which if you haven't seen or read it has striking relevance in today's times). Arkin's presence in a movie is usually an indication of something good as he tends to pick quality projects and brings a lot to the table in terms of his own abilities.







I watched Thirteen Conversations About One Thing last night on dvd and it's worth the rental. Click on Arkin's image above for the plot outline at imdb. Good cast which includes John Turturro, Amy Irving, Matthew McConaughey and the aforementioned Arkin.

Why Sung is so quiet



Production Artist

(detail), 2002

Binder clips, toys,

plexiglas, text, etc.

24" x 30" x 24"


Because his mind is always working


Check out his beautiful artist's statement and his work.

There's a deal for registered Quark users, I'm going to call them (since I just got the upgrade to 5 a few weeks ago). They'll upgrade you to 5.0 and then I think give you 6.0 for free (which runs on OS 10.2). You can find the details at http://www.quark.com/products/xpress/50_discount/

So, the other day, I was writing about Hideki Matsui and I linked to a couple of sounds I found online (as well as images of Matsui on the Yahoo sports pages). So, I came back, I was clicking on links in the blog (just to listen to the sounds myself) and I got sent to this image:




Which I found slightly ironic considering the sounds in question are were sampled from Toho company's copyrighted material (the original Godzilla films) and I would bet dollars to doughnuts the people running the website in question aren't paying any kind of money to Toho for using sound clips from their movies.

So I removed the links from the body of the text of the entry but if you want to paste them into a new browser window and hear the sounds the first one is for the picture:


http://www.stomptokyo.com/cgi-bin/gdisplay.cgi?file=gtheme2.wav


and the second one is for the word Godzilla:


http://www.stomptokyo.com/cgi-bin/gdisplay.cgi?file=zilla4.wav

I guess bandwidth piracy sucks but, piracy of copyrighted material is okay if you're making money off of it and forcing people to look at your sucky popup ads. Welcome to the weird ethical standards of the worldwide web.

Last year the drought was the news, the reservoirs were at about 56% and everywhere you could read or watch stories on the sorry state of the reservoirs.

Margaret had posted this link on her blog and I admit I would check the levels frequently almost as if I was watching some kind of race. So, if you want to see just how much rain or snow we've gotten over the last few months and whether or not we'll be enduring another dry summer check it out.

Oops, I did it again!



It looks like it's going to be a long season for Mets fans. I change the channel thinking they should win this one but, I can't help but get that uneasy feeling when I see Art Howe brining Armando in with one out in the eighth.











Speaking about that other team, I will admit to watching part of the Yankee home opener. No question about it, I watched Matsui go back on a ball that looked like it would get by him and I had to be impressed. I make the admission, I am a Godzilla fan!

Sometimes I come late to the game. I've been making my way through the first season of the HBO series Six Feet Under which is well worth the watch (and I highly recommend it).

One thing that stands out is the title design. Rarely do I find a sequence so elegantly edited and married to the music that accompanies it. It's quite comforting in days of staccato edits, quick cuts and jerky camera work something like this is still being done. I'm not alone since the title sequence did win an emmy. The people who made it are a Chicago firm called Digital Kitchen and can be found here.

Pick your own thousand words.

Big news from Baghdad today about the bombing near the Palestine Hotel. Originally, it sounded slightly reminiscent of the lawyer jokes which have been around for years and are so prevalent Yahoo has a category devoted to them. Reporters haven't managed the same level of contempt our society has assigned to lawyers... yet.

Also, somewhere I'm sure there was a news director asking someone if they had tape of it.

I spent a large part of Sunday composing a post about Easter, each time having the application crash on me, maybe later this week.

On the same day Junior is in Ireland to discuss how to divvy up Iraq, they report to have successfully bombed Saddam to bits am I the only person unsettled by the synchronicity of this announcement? How convenient.

Speaking of baseball.





Armando Benitez proves yet again why Mets fans should feel nervous when he trots in from the bullpen. Just when I was beginning to feel good about this season, this happens.

I haven't felt this way since I was a Yankee fan watching Dave Righetti get out of the bullpen car in Yankee stadium. Righetti had a habit of turning games into nail biters, just like Benitez has a tendency to come up short in pressure situations (see against the Braves in 2001 or against the Yankees in the World Series).

I had two conversations with Yankee fans in the last two days (one at a family gathering, the other at the butcher) which made them apoplectic. In brief, I postulated if Erick Almonte the kid the Yankees have promoted from triple a to spell Jeter while Jeter recovers proves to be the real deal, would now be the time to trade Jeter?

I can hear the screams from Yankee fans as they read this but, hear me out. Jeter is now entering his ninth season as a major leaguer. Also, he still is owed $135 million dollars on a $189 million contract that runs through 2010 at a time when player salaries are actually starting to decline. His contract at the time it was signed was the second largest player contract in the history of the game. If the Yankees can win without him, does it make sense to tie up all that money in one player and take the hit in salary cap numbers?


Jeter's stats are showing a slight decline over the last two or three years. He is approaching his 30th birthday and will be 36 when his contract runs out. The Yankees would in effect be paying $20 million dollars for a 36 year old shortstop. Jeter places #13 on the power poll list but #2 in salary. Do shortstops hold up well? Is there any reason to think Jeter will be any different? And think about this, what could you get for Derek Jeter? What would come back in a trade? Does it make sense to carry the contract when you can win without him?

I've been caught up reading the bound galleys of this soon to be published book. It was excerpted in last Sunday's NY Times magazine (sorry I don't link to the NY Times site, I'm always annoyed at the registration logon). Moneyball is a good book and I recommend it to any baseball fan. It's a quick easy read and an interesting insight into how teams are trying to counter the Yankees deep pockets. The whole discussion of baseball parity is really a bit disingenuous, people keep talking about how there needs to be parity for the sport to survive but, in truth even before the leagues expanded baseball was dominated by a select few franchises.

I have my own ideas about how you could fix baseball, more on that another day.

My friend Sarah sent me an email (not to be confused with Sara no "h"). Her mom acheived celebrity status by making the front page of the Philadelphia Enquirer. I can see her mom's argument, I wouldn't want a museum taking things from my family's grave. The flip side to that is I can understand the museum's position too but, why would you fight to keep something you don't even display?

I worked again this week, not a lot, just enough to build contempt for work.

Anyway, working reminded me about something my friend Mark did awhile back. Mark has a wicked sense of humor and could possibly be the only person on the face of the planet who is more cynical than I am. Each year he'll do a christmas card (which inspired me to do my own for awhile - about four years running). So, I had thought it was funny when I got it but, I have to admit I was amazed when I saw it pasted to someone's door at Grey Direct. So, here's Mark's Reindeer by Committee. Check out Mark's website if your looking for an illustrator or designer.

Yesterday, I was thumbing through this Kohls circular (one of the many which deluge my mailbox on a somewhat regular basis) and I noticed all the men were sporting "six packs" (not the ones you see at the 7-11) and all the women were willowy (although truth be told they all appeared to have "chicken legs" and were slightly bow-legged at that - what's that about?). None of the circulars I get have pictures of the people I see when I go to shop in those stores. I never see the annoying hyperactive kind wailing at the top of his or her lungs, just these cherubic stepford kids. Never see the obese men who haven't seen their nether regions outside of a mirror since their late teens and none of those ladies that find new and interesting ways to push a shopping cart in places it was never meant to go. These people are models! Geeez! Put them in a garbage bag with a sash and they'd look good, no wonder our country has a weird self image problem.

The new plague? SARS arrives in New York. 11 cases and climbing. Sometimes, mother nature finds ways to deal with pesky species. Then again, I'm always confused about the difference between bacteria and a virus. We're spoiled though, it hasn't been that long since the discovery of anitbiotics. Think you shouldn't be concerned about SARS? Might be what people thought in 1918. Knowledge is the key though, this link is to the CDC's conference call on SARs as of the 27th.

Margaret has put a link to my blog on hers! It is like being acknowledged by your sensei.

DOMO ARIGATO SENSEI SAVAGE! Cue very disciplined and formal bow.