It must be TV week.

I’ve been resisting writing about LOST even though I religiously make sure I am home each Tuesday night to watch every new episode as it is broadcast.

I was going to write about LOST a little before now but I wanted to use writing about the series as an excuse to put up some wonderful drawing that Mike Wieringo did while he was still alive - but more on that in a moment...

I’ve really been enjoying the season thus far and like every other series there have been high points and low points throughout the season. Episodes where I am joyful over what I have seen and others where I think the producers might have wasted a bit of the precious time remaining in the series’ life.

I think we’re only about four episodes out from the series finale and its been quite a ride so far. The series too has moved so far away from its original premise, there have been a lot of answers which has been good mostly. Part of me though finds I could drive a truck through the logic of some of those answers at times.

Last week’s episode offered up that the voices characters heard on the island were the voices of people who had died on the island and couldn’t ‘move on’ for whatever reason. It didn’t explain though how it was that Shannon saw Walt at one point as an apparition (since Walt wasn’t dead) or how Jack’s father Christian was one of those who was stuck on the island (since he died in Australia).

I have my favorites among the cast in terms of actors and characters. Characters I like and characters I’m not crazy about. I’ll write a little more about that on another day (if I have the time) but, today I was going to write about one thing that had been running around in my mind and that was how there was one character that had never really been a favorite of mine, a character I didn’t identify with or feel strongly about either in a positive or negative fashion but who over the end of last season and beginning of this season became something of a favorite even though he hasn’t been seen much of late.

Yes, I’m talking about Sawyer.

Again I didn’t feel strongly about Sawyer until the second half of last season and only then what appealed to me about the character was the way the writers followed such a logical path towards his redemption. Beyond that Josh Holloway did just a terrific job of selling it. Even more was the chemistry between him and Elizabeth Mitchell as Juliet. The two actors just worked really well together and I don’t think there were any fans out there who would’ve seen the romance between the two coming.

And it was so strong and so believable.

Which made it all the more tragic when ‘Sawyer’ lost ‘Juliet’. I mean maybe I’m just a big softie but it was truly a gut wrenching thing to watch, Juliet dying not just once (at the end of season five) but again at the beginning of season six. The impact of losing someone you love is horrid, it’s like an amputation of the heart and here they had two characters doing it twice - the horror.

And the resultant bitterness of Sawyer’s character in the aftermath, the resentment towards Jack, the way the character just moved from grief to the numbness of not caring all was so exquisitely plotted out, I think it was one of the series high points for the entire run.

And in the process, what happened is what happens whenever a writer does a really good job writing something... this character who was remote to me suddenly became a character I cared about - a character I felt empathy for.

Just amazing.

Anyway, that’s been just one of the things I’ve been enjoying when I get a chance to watch some TV (although I find myself watching less and less TV).

I’ll be trying to throw up some other things about LOST before the series eventual finale in a few weeks and I wanted to note once again the beautiful image that graces this blog post.

I asked (and got) permission to use it and I want to make a tip of the hat to Matt Wieringo. There still are a bunch of really wonderful images up on Mike Wieringo’s blog and if you’re any kind of a Mike Wieringo fan I heartily suggest you take some time to go over and look through the blog to see a lot of great unpublished work. Also note there is a wonderful scholarship program that has been established in Mike Wieringo’s name at his alma-mater.

People don’t know what they’re talking about.

I just watched the end (last episode) of The Sopranos.

It ended perfectly.

I can clearly remember how some people were really upset when the final episode broadcast but I can’t for the life of me see what the problem is.

Maybe it underscores just exactly what’s wrong with our society today in people have to have everything spelled out for them. People are so entirely unimaginative they can’t allow for even the slightest hint of vagueness in their entertainment.

Is there about to be an attempt on Tony Soprano’s life? Is the restaurant they’re all in at the end of the show about to be robbed? Is it just a matter of sitting down for another dinner together with life just going on? What a wonderful way to end the series. It leaves so much out there still.

If they ever want to revisit the series they can but truthfully, the character‘s life was winding down in many ways. Sure Tony vanquished his enemy in Phil Leotardo, Tony got to see what a hollow ghost Junior had become but simultaneously Tony lost trusted underlings in Sylvio and Bobby. Tony also killed Christopher.

While things looked as if they had calmed down after the conflict with their New York associates the truth is there is no denying some retribution would be had for killing the head of a family. Plus, lurking in the background was the cloud of an indictment soon in the offing. Nothing was settled at all, life continued on but as viewers we left the character behind like a book we finished and put up on the shelf.

And in this, the series finale mirrors life because over the course of our lifetimes many characters move in and out of our orbit and their stories remain unfinished. People we meet during our lives are each on their own journey and we only see a small part of that journey but their stories continue just as our own story continues.

So, what a wonderful ending indeed.

Movie Mondays!


The movie to set the standard for all the movies of this genre to follow it - The Dark Knight surpasses all others and solidly places itself in competition as one of the years best films. A cast of familiar Hollywood names is outshined by Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker, a performance that alone is worth the price of admission! Throw in all the action, gadgetry, along with a tight story and the two and a half hour running time races by. I left the theater spent! Exhausted! It is a remarkably intense movie and the drama of it will hit you like a punch but, it is one of those rare pictures that come along from time to time that is an absolute MUST-SEE!

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

Didn’t I see this?

On the chin of some guy from a Middle Eastern country protesting against the US? I mean to say it is unbelievably thick! Of course, it is a very dated photo – the best term I can think of to describe it is, “The Black Forest.”

This is totally not safe for work, women will very well find it offensive, the only reason I even bothered with it is because I saw it referenced on Tosh.0

(NSFW!) 80’s Demi Moore. (NSFW!)

Movie Mondays!


It’s a good movie but you won’t find it uplifting. A story about a boy who is a bit of a lost soul, angry with his parents, he relinquishes his possessions and sets off on a journey of discovery leaving his family and the life he knew behind. Over the course of his journeys, he makes connections with many but even though he does he cannot let go of his anger until it is far too late. Very similar in tone to Penn’s earlier directorial effort, The Crossing Guard, Into the Wild is a quiet movie that speaks to deep emotional issues. It has strong performances, wonderful cinematography and manages to tell a story without editorializing on its subject. Look for Hal Holbrook making a strong performance in the latter part of the film. An adult movie dealing with adult topics it may not appeal to all.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

Rate the President!

Somebody sent this along to me today, you can actually rate the president and be a part of the opinion polls. Some people will rate him very highly and some people will rate him exceedingly low. But now, THE CHANCE TO HAVE YOUR VOICE HEARD IS HERE!

Click through to go to the poll at CBS news.

Movie Mondays!


A solid film from start to finish, The Kingdom is a tight action thriller with a great cast turning in top-notch performances. Although not filmed in Saudi Arabia, it still puts the viewer in that world trying to highlight differences between Saudi and western society. While some have accused the movie of being jingoistic, it isn’t overtly so and manages to present a somewhat unbiased view painting characters in subtle grays as opposed to stark black and white portrayals. There is quite a bit of blood in both the first reel of the film and the last - if you are inclined towards any kind of squeamishness of graphic violence you should avoid the movie but, you will be missing out on a terrific film. I really enjoyed this.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

Dealing with stupid people.

I’ve had some interesting experiences dealing with people online. You sell things online and you run across all kinds, one would like to assume the people of this world have a modicum of intelligence but a person would be mistaken in assuming that.

Tonight when I got home, this interesting missive was awaiting me for a CD boxed set I have for sale:

There are a lot of bootlegs out there, can you guarantee this is an original?

Let’s think about this for a second if you will and the logic behind the question. If I was someone selling bootlegs, would I necessarily volunteer they were bootlegs? If they were bootlegs wouldn’t it be a question of me looking to make a quick buck? So, isn’t this question akin to asking a crook if he is going to rob you when he has a gun pointed at you?

Where do people come up with this stuff?

Maybe that’s why con men have such an easy time of it, people ask them dumb questions like this and they answer in the negative, “No! I’m not a con man!”

WTF!

I wrote the guy back and immediately blocked him from participating in my auctions – what a tool.

Think about the question you just asked... If I was selling bootlegs and looking to make a quick buck - WOULD I TELL YOU?!? And if I'm on the up and up you realize just how insulting your question is? Did you read the description? Do me a favor find it somewhere else.

Idiot replies thusly:

For your information, there are a lot bootleg copies being sold on e-bay and since you can’t guarantee that your’s is not, I'll take your advice and buy it from someone else.

My parting response:

Good, don’t go away mad... just go away.

Now, some may think that harsh but over the last few months I’ve dealt with the very good and I’ve dealt with the very bad. I tend to go by the golden rule of treating others the way I want to be treated and consequently I undersell. I don’t hype anything I offer up, if anything I actually mark it as lower in condition so I don’t run into problems later but, it’s been my experience there are people out there who are just problem children and I really have lost my patience for dealing with the stupid and the inane (as opposed to the sacred and the profane).

And I get the sense if it wasn’t this it would be something else with this person so before going any further, just get rid of him like scraping annoying gum on the heel of your shoe on the curb - a nuisance you want to rid yourself of as quickly as you can and then proceed along your path.

Lord, save me from the morons at the very least I can block them on eBay and that’s worth something.

This is our president.

I’ll let you in on a little secret – I like the guy.

Some people may be really, really surprised to hear me say that but, it’s true.

A lot of people I know, people whose opinions I respect for the most part would have you believe he is an evil, evil man but I disagree.

Mainly, it’s because I don’t think of the President as a dictator. As much as people want to attribute amazing powers to the Chief Executive when he really is only the most public face of our government. This is also a reason why I wasn’t extraordinarily perturbed when George H.W. Bush was President either.

Barack Obama also is a parent.

I have a lot of trouble believing anyone who is a good parent wants to make the world a darker place, a place with more struggle, a dysfunctional place for their children (again reminds me of Bush Jr.).

And I’ll tell you something else...

George Bush Jr wasn’t the problem. Barack Obama isn’t the problem either.

Our government is the problem.

I’ll give you a f’r instance here: Recently, the senator from the great state of Kentucky, Jim Bunning, decided to take a stand against wanton government spending, spending wildly out of control. Now while there were some things Bunning was railing about he actually was on the mark on, he pointedly hurt (or went to the wall) a lot of people who could ill afford to take a bullet just because Senator Bunning wanted to make a point.

And the fact that it even happened at all underlines just how dysfunctional our government really is right now.

And I don’t use the word dysfunctional lightly here because anyone who has been paying even the slightest bit of attention over the last year can see example after example where the members of Congress have made a big show of taking a stand while in the process grinding the gears of government to a halt.

And as Americans... we all should be very, very mad.

We should be mad at our leaders because instead of doing the Nation‘s business, they are so concerned with their petty bickering, with polarizing every issue that the end result is very little does in fact get done.

So, here and now I want to put something before all of you and I want you all to seriously think about what I am proposing because I am totally serious about this and it is something that should concern every American taxpayer.

Congress, the Senate and the House, comprises a membership of 535 individuals. Each of these individuals, duly elected by you and I to represent our interests in the Federal government are really our employees. Now, whether or not you realize it, we the people of this country are really great bosses. It might well be that we are the best bosses anyone in the world could hope to work for!

What do I mean?

Well, here’s a juicy little tidbit of information you should roll over in your head for a little bit:

Salaries
As of January 2009, the annual salary of each Representative is $174,000.^[11] The Speaker of the House and the Majority and Minority Leaders earn more, $223,500 for the Speaker and $193,400 for their party leaders (the same as Senate leaders). A cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) increase takes effect annually unless Congress votes to not accept it. Congress sets members' salaries; however, the Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits a change in salary (but not COLA^[12]) from taking effect until after the next general election. Representatives are eligible for lifetime benefits after serving for five years, including a pension, health benefits, and social security benefits.^[13]

Now, that’s just salary alone it doesn’t even begin to factor in other things like offices, supplies, staffs, travel and all the other perks that come with the gig. I don’t know about you, but I think I could manage to squeak by pretty well on that per year.

Thing is, most of us in the workaday world are judged regularly by our performance and Congress is so busy fighting with one and other unfortunately very little gets done and what does get done seldom is in the best interests of the nation as a whole.

So, again let me put this before you...

Since many of us have jobs that are measured by our performance and Congress has considerably underperformed over the last several years, since many people have lost their jobs
 and even the people who are still working have in many instances faced reduced salaries, since Congress is all about fiscal responsibility and also sending a message and setting an example for the American people.

HOW ABOUT A PAY CUT FOR CONGRESS?

Our nation spends close to $11 million dollars annually in salary alone for these people (again not including their staffs and all the other perks). About the only thing we can be guaranteed they will get done in a legislative session is to vote themselves another pay hike if it’s on the schedule, I think it is well and full time Congress showed they are serious about controlling government spending, about having some empathy for all the Americans who are struggling and facing hard times.

If the members of Congress took a pay cut, they would still be making close to $100k per year and let‘s face facts, that’s nothing to sneeze at. Isn’t it about time We The People held these guys feet to the fire? And if you think they would be unduly suffering if we did something like that, let me ask you one question: How many people do you know who get fully vested lifetime benefits after being on the job for ONLY FIVE YEARS!

Movie Mondays!


David Tennant comes into his own as the third season of Doctor Who races towards a dramatic two part finale marking the reappearance of one longtime Doctor adversary and also of a traveling companion from an earlier season. Freema Agymana’s Martha Jones after a bumpy start, endears herself to viewers over the course of the series. All in all, Season 3 continues to carry on the Doctor Who tradition by being entertaining and family friendly. There are hits and misses but, I have to give the show high-marks for continuing to draw me back eagerly with each new episode. Even when it’s at its worst, Doctor Who still manages to be head and shoulders above most of the material in this genre on TV today. Well worth a watch!

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

Movie Mondays!


One of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time! I’m not usually a fan of Will Ferrell, the obtuse dunce act in most of his films leaves me cold. Here though, he is perfectly cast as a hapless IRS auditor, a man who suddenly finds himself thrown out of step with the rigid box his life has become. Maggie Gyllenhaal exudes an earthy sexiness as the antagonistic baker Ferrell is obligated to audit while realizing his days may be numbered. Emma Thompson is the writer who may control Ferrell’s ultimate destiny and Dustin Hoffman is a literary professor to whom Ferrell turns for help in his predicament. The cast is rounded out by seasoned pros, Queen Latifah, Linda Hunt and Kristin Chenoweth. Truly it is one of the more enjoyable, quirky comedies I have seen in a long time and great fun too! You won’t be disappointed.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

You can’t fix stupid.

Following up on the earlier post regarding Toyota, is this story about the man in California who panicked while driving his Prius.

Sikes called 911 from the freeway on Monday and reported that his gas pedal was stuck. In two calls that spanned 23 minutes, a dispatcher repeatedly told him to throw the car into neutral and turn it off. Sikes later said he had put down the phone to keep both hands on the wheel and was afraid the car would flip if he put it in neutral at such high speed. 

Yes, a car will flip if you suddenly yank the steering wheel to one side but I where did he get the idea the car would flip if you put it in neutral?!?!

“It does not appear to be feasibly possible, both electronically and mechanically that his gas pedal was stuck to the floor and he was slamming on the brake at the same time,” according to the memo. The memo did say that investigators found the front brake pads were spent. “Visually checking the brake pads and rotor it was clearly visible that there was nothing left,” it said. But the wear was not consistent with the brakes being applied at full force for a long period, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, citing three people familiar with the probe, whom it did not name. The newspaper said the brakes may have been applied intermittently.

You know if you don’t maintain a car bad things happen and again, Toyota can’t recall all the bad drivers in the world or people who panic and don’t know what to do when there is a problem with a car. Maybe Toyota should include a new book in all it’s cars... Driving for Dummies.

You know you’re white trash when:

You’re ordering stuff like this for your house – I give you the Toilet Tattoo:

I saw this somewhere on the Amazon site – I think it was in one of those panes with special deals and sometimes you see something so tacky you can’t help but look. It’s like a really bad car accident. No better place to express yourself than the place where you take a dump and won’t your visitors be impressed when they ask to use your facilities?

The joke.

I was telling this to someone not too long ago just to make them laugh. This is something of an in-joke and if you don’t have a point of reference it will be lost on you so come back when I have something more heady posted.

Question: Why does Brian love using #2 pencils when he draws?
Answer: Because he knows everything he draws, turns out sh*t.

The story of Toyota and the dummy.

No doubt if you’re reading this you are well aware of the woes of Toyota, the people who put the kamikaze back into driving. It brings to mind images of thousands upon thousands of Toyota drivers across the nation wrapping bandannas around their heads as they slip behind the steering wheels of their cars. If you’ve been off in a cave somewhere (like one of those soldiers lost on a Pacific island after WW2) you might not know what I’m talking about so let me bring you up to speed:

Many drivers filing complaints with Toyota and the government say their acceleration problems had nothing to do with floor mat interference or sticky gas pedals — the culprits the company is pointing to. Outside experts have suggested electronic problems.

Toyota has recalled 8.5 million vehicles, more than 6 million of them in the United States, mostly to fix problems with floor mats trapping gas pedals or with pedals getting stuck. Toyoda said great strides were being taken by his company to put “safety first” and it was working hard to refit the millions of cars and trucks that have been recalled.

 What amazes me is the unbelievable lack of driving skills exhibited by many of the people involved.

Say it with me people...

Neutral

Say it again...

Neutral

Once more...

NEUTRAL

Yes, let’s go over what those letters on the steering column or the center console mean once again for all of us who were napping during driver’s ed, shall we?

D means Drive

R means Reverse

P means Park

N means Neutral

When the car is in D it makes the car go forward by turning the wheels, some really complicated cars may even have a D1 or D2 (but most of you out there can get by without those).

When the car is in R the wheels turn backwards making the car go backwards but we really shouldn’t use R unless we’re trying to get into a parking space upon which we move the gear level to...

P which is where the shifter should be when the car is stopped as it locks the wheels and keeps the car from moving.

N, Neutral means the drivetrain is disengaged from the wheels entirely and while the engine may whine (or race) when the car is in Neutral is doesn’t matter how high the engine rpms are because none of that energy is being transmitted down the driveshaft and into the axle to turn the wheels (as it does in either R or D) so, whenever we have a problem where our engine is racing it’s always a good idea to move the lever into N.

N... like in Nimrod.

N... like in Numbnuts.

N... like in Noodnicks.

N... like in Nincompoops.

After the car is in N we gently apply the brakes until the car slows to a stop and then we turn the key to the off position. If we are on a highway when this happens, we should put on the flashers (actually putting on the flashers anytime this happens is a good idea).

So, that’s our basic automobile operation lesson for today. All you Toyota owners out there try and take it to heart.

Movie Mondays!


Crippled by the writers strike, Season 4 of LOST was the shortest season of the series so far, with only 14 hours of television and 13 episodes. Even limited as it was, LOST still managed to cram a lot of story in flash forwards and flashbacks as well as the events taking place on the island over the course of nine days. The season can be broken down into two parts, the eight episodes filmed prior to the writer’s strike deal mainly with the fate of the Oceanic Six - the six crash survivors lucky enough to escape the island. However, as the episodes prove, maybe getting off the island wasn’t lucky for these six at all! The last of the eight episodes featured the return of a favorite Lostie in a surprising role. After a three week gap (fortunately not to be experienced by the home viewer), LOST fans were taken on a roller coaster ride that led to the three hour season finale! Lots of questions are answered but many more present themselves and the body count continues to rise! We find out who was in the coffin at the end of the Season 2 finale and it is an answer guaranteed to shock you! Lies, betrayal, deceit, double crosses - LOST's Season 4 continues to prove why it is one of the best shows on TV today!

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

The funniest email of the week.

Subject: movie stoeryboards i did....
guys..i briefly worked on this film,drawing storyboards...and quit, when they wanted me to work essentially for FREE...looking at this trailer,it looks like they had no problem using some of my storyboards though....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXXXXXXXXXX

 And the clown was still wildly overpaid.

(I won’t even make fun of the spelling errors or punctuation – they just underline the stupidity of the sender)

Today, I’m on my way into the city and I’m taking the train in.

The Metro-North has two kinds of trains; fully electric, used on the lower portion of the line and diesel locomotive pulling passenger cars on the upper portion of the line. That’s the kind I’m on right now, one of those diesel jobbies.

Another difference in the two trains is how you enter the car. The electric trains have doors controlled entirely by the conductor but the diesel’s have alcoves at either end of the car. There is a door to the platform from the alcove (controlled by the conductor) and a door from the alcove into the passenger car itself.

The door on the car I’m in is broken. They have automatic doors now and this one just isn’t working meaning you have to slide the door open and closed yourself.

Easy enough.

And if you don’t close the door, it’s very drafty and noisy so of course the next stop after I get on, some idiot opens the door and plops down in the set of seats right next to the door.

Given the choice between sitting in a drafty, noisy car and not, I loudly say, “CLOSE THE DOOR!”

And lo! Aforementioned moron gets up and closes the door but not before he replies (although he really doesn't know who said close the door), “PLEASE!”

Priceless.

PLEASE, use your common sense.

PLEASE, stop being an asshole.

PLEASE, show some consideration for the other people riding in the car.

That work for you bunky? Simply amazing.

Today is a great day!

Why, you may ask?

Well, even though there is an incredible amount of snow on the ground, even though the temperature requires one to wear a heavy coat, even though the trees are still bare, TODAY IS THE FIRST GAME OF SPRING TRAINING!

Once again another baseball season heralds the prospect of warmer weather and delightful summer afternoons.

The beginning of spring training and the start of the baseball season is about renewal to me. I hate New Year’s Day and today is everything New Year’s Day should be. The beginning of a baseball season sets the clock back to zero. It means everyone has a clean slate and the past is well and truly behind us. The preceding year is just another year for the record book and everyone has a chance to go all the way to the World Series.

Being a Mets fan, the last few years have been especially brutal.

First there were two seasons of September swoons after being a game away from going to the World Series (in 2006) and last year was like watching the professional sports equivalent of Survivor as every week bought a new injury to another key player on the team.

This season, expectations are very, very low for the Mets.

Most pundits are predicting the Mets to finish no higher than third in their division and many are anticipating the firing of one or both of the pair of Jerry Manuel (Manager) or Omar Minaya (General Manager). This is somewhat ironic given the team last year was picked to go all the way.

I don’t listen to many of the baseball pundits for one very good reason - they have one primary goal in most instances and that’s to generate as much controversy and stir up as much interest in their columns/shows what have you. So, when they shy away from picking the Mets to do anything good I’m actually a bit relieved. Also, these are guys who never go out on a limb in terms of prognosticating. They always, I MEAN ALWAYS, take the safe bet. It’s very rare to see a writer or broadcaster who sits down and analyzes baseball and goes against the easy money.

Shhhh... I’ll let you in on a little secret.

A baseball season is usually over by May.

Sounds weird, no?

Well, bear with me.

Since the baseball season is so very long and teams play 162 games not counting the post-season, playing .500 ball (winning as many games as you lose) is more important than a lot of people realize. If a team played .500 ball over the course of the season, their record at the end of the season would be 81 and 81.

Playing .500 ball nets you 81 wins over the course of a season.

Yet, most teams that win their division and wind up going to the playoffs do so with a win record of somewhere between 95 and 100 wins - sometimes less, rarely more.

So, lets say a team needs 97 wins to win the division and go to the playoffs.

That’s only 16 games above .500.

To put that into the context of a baseball season?

A team that has a couple of good winning streaks, a couple of good weeks, not losing a single game over a 7 day period, say going 6 and 0. All that team needs to do is have two or three weeks like that over the six months of the baseball season and they can play .500 ball the rest of the time and they’ll most likely win their division.

If a team gets off to a bad start in April and winds up in the second week in May below .500 they can ruin their season. Inversely, if a team starts off the early part of the season and has a record of say 15 and 5... well, guess what?! THEY ONLY HAVE TO WIN SIX MORE GAMES THAN THEY LOSE THE REST OF THE WAY!

The funny thing is you rarely hear broadcasters and newspaper writers talk about these things. If you watch baseball with any regularity though and think back to past seasons, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s very simple.

Anyway, today is the first day of the season and my team will be playing the Atlanta Braves and it will even be on TV! I’m excited, I’m hopeful, but most of all I’m looking forward to the Mets getting off to a hot start because if they can it will make the entire season a lot better for everyone.

PLAY BALL!

Movie Mondays!


Amazing! Spectacular! Peter Krause fresh off the heels of Six Feet Under stars in this SciFi channel mini-series with a great cast and excellent performances. Krause is a detective drawn in to an amazing subculture based around a mysterious event that happened many years ago. Alternately funny and scary, The Lost Room strikes a perfect balance between the two. My biggest complaint if anything is that SciFi has not pursued this as an ongoing series. Considering the dreck they normally air and the failed attempts at a continuing series from the last few years, one has to wonder why The Lost Room hasn’t been further developed. The camera loves Julianna Margulies, Kevin Pollack is wonderfully cast as a man who won’t let anything stop him to achieve his goals and Margaret Cho is the jaded woman in a dry-cleaning store who seems to have a lot of the answers. If you haven’t seen it, you missed out on one of the better pieces of television over the last few years.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

Movie Mondays!


THIS... IS... GARBAGE!!! I couldn’t resist mocking the ‘This is Sparta!’ line. While there are some things that work in this flick, a lot of things don’t, making it border on unwatchable. I read the original Frank Miller material when it first came out, the problem with the movie is it veers a little to close to the source material. The dialog is stilted; none of the characters more than a 2D cutout and for something that supposes to be epic there is a surprising lack of drama. The things that work? The color palette for the film is highly saturated; it makes each scene look very rich and painterly. Aside from that, whether it’s the heavy metal score, the excessive gore or the plastic performances - unless you are under the age of 18 and/or hyped up on testosterone, stay away! If you are just a gore junky, do yourself a favor and see the recent ’Hills Have Eyes’ movies. Choppy cuts, start/stop camera work and green screen backgrounds do not a classic make.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

When keeping someone alive isn’t the best choice.

Over the last few years, I’ve come to the growing realization although medicine has made tremendous technical advances we are still in a place where we have a lot to learn about the nature of diseases in general and the human body specifically. Our bodies are amazingly complex machines but there is so very much we have yet to learn about how they work.

Perhaps, coming to this conclusion is one of the reasons why I find my expectations of medical personnel to be scaled back and when I say scaled back, it isn’t a matter of me expecting people to do a bad job, more a question of realizing after all people are fallible and treating patients isn’t akin to doing a simple math problem no matter how much we may wish it so.

Everyone has good days and bad days and one of the things I try to impress on anyone when I talk to them about going to doctors, being in hospitals, etc is the people charged with care are going to make mistakes and when they inevitably do we can’t overreact. The best advocate for a patient is the patient themselves and it means educating yourself, working with your practitioner and setting up the kind of circumstances leading to success as opposed to failure.

I’m getting a little sidetracked here...

What bought this to mind was an article I read:

Ray Gosling, 70, made the confession in a television programme this week about assisted suicide, ahead of the publication of new government guidelines on the issue next week. He said he killed the unnamed man as he lay seriously ill in hospital “in the early period of AIDS” — likely to be during the 1980s.

Medical science has made some great advances but while they can prolong a life, there are many times when they cannot offer to maintain the quality of that life. After seeing a few people, people dear to me, do this dance I have come to the conclusions there are some dances a person should just sit out.

Now, we all want doctors to do their level best to help us get better, to do everything in their power to save us but, what happens when a patient won’t get better? What happens when a patient suffers from some kind of tremendous blow to their health and well being and all they can look forward to is an ongoing battle where the best prospect is not winning but losing incrementally? There is the something the Chinese called Lingchi:

In this form of execution, the condemned person was killed by using a knife to methodically remove portions of the body over an extended period of time. The term língchí derives from a classical description of ascending a mountain slowly. Lingchi was reserved for crimes viewed as especially severe, such as treason and killing one’s parents. The process involved tying the person to be executed to a wooden frame, usually in a public place. The flesh was then cut from the body in multiple slices in a process that was not specified in detail in Chinese law and therefore most likely varied.

In essence is the way medicine approaches the patient a modern day form of torture?

Someday, very soon we are going to have a discussion not about what to do to treat a patient but instead what not to do. And we are touching on that now peripherally as part of the health care debate in the sense many people who are opposing government sponsored health care would have a person believe when the government speaks about taking up the onus of medical care part and parcel of the burden will be condemning the elderly:

The republicans charge that Democratic health care reform would, in Sen. Charles Grassley’s words, “pull the plug on Grandma.” According to Sen. Jon Kyl, the bills before Congress would ration medical treatment by age. Rep. John Boehner says they promote euthanasia.

Maybe though, just maybe, it is time for all of us to ask ourselves what is truly ethical in these situations. I have seen what it means to prolong a life and there are times when it is not pretty, when it is something you would not wish upon your worst enemy let alone someone you love and care about. If the Hippocratic Corpus rests one leg on the premise of ‘Primum non nocere’ can it be there are instances where this compels a physician to do nothing aside from easing a patient’s pain and is the only thing standing in the way a threat of reprisal via litigation?

As medicine advances improve the ability to prolong a life is it time for us to distinguish the difference between whether or not it means prolonging someone’s pain?

A true gift.


One of the blogs I occasionally follow had a terrific post the other day I thought I would share:

Woody Allen's comedic acumen spans all genres. It has yet to be matched. However, the first several years of his career are rarely discussed. It is a fascinating period. Comedy devotees swear by the recordings of his stand-up act. At the time of his 1963 debut comedy record, Woody was a smart up-and-comer who'd already logged ten years in the business. But he was far from the personality we think of today.

The whole ‘dating the adopted daughter of your girlfriend’ thing still registers high on the creepy scale for me but, Allen’s career prior was undeniably an amazing one (since, not so much). The blog post is a long one but I have to say it’s a great read, check it out.

The Bronx cheer.

Give us a new stadium and we’ll give you a World Series but all those other things we promised?

F**k you.

Good article in the Daily News about the failure to fulfill most of the promises made to Yankee stadium area residents regarding new parks and other facilities:

Somehow, Yankee Stadium was built on schedule. So were the huge parking garages around it. So was the new Metro-North station.

You know how they say everything old is new again? (repost)

Well in that spirit, have a listen to this old song originally released back in the eighties, I was loading music into iTunes the other evening and I found myself smiling while listening and thinking the lyrics very aptly apply to life today:

(reposted because I didn’t put the video up the first time around!)

Movie Mondays!


72 minutes I’ll never get back, wasted on the likes of Sarah Silverman who somehow thinks her obnoxious, unfunny routine plays well because of her gender and appearance. Take any of these jokes and have them spew from the mouth of a middle-aged white guy and they are horribly offensive. While Silverman can be watchable as an actress, she should leave the writing to someone else. Given the choice between a trip to the dentist and being forced to watch this again, I’d choose the trip to the dentist... it’s less painful.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

You know, nobody loves you when you’re...

I was jobbing around the other day when I came across this sign. I had seen the sign before but, this time when I saw it, it resonated.

Not because I feel down and out but because there are so many people I know who are living life close to the edge. People who are in their 50’s or 60’s and who are finding the road tough going. There isn’t the safety net our parents had - a safety net of pensions and lifelong jobs. All that is gone and employees today are and have been for at least the last decade and a half (if not more) disposable.

People are living off their savings, they’re having trouble finding work and in some cases they’ve just given up looking. These are the people who don’t show up in those high unemployment numbers we’ve seen over the last year or two.

I don’t profess to have an answer. I know it isn’t industry specific either but what it means is something has to change in this country.

I get a lot of emails from people all across the political spectrum and the one common thread in all of these emails is the underlying anger evident in people’s words. Anger when the government takes some kind of action or anger when the government doesn’t act. Most of what I get in these emails are platitudes, chanted repetitions of the same stale party line whether it be from the left or the right. To me what it underscores is our system is broken and ineffectual – there is no grey area anymore only stark contrasts, polarizing extremes which stunt any forward progress by our nation.

And who pays for all of this?

Why you and I of course and we pay billions upon billions of dollars to feed this great, monstrous beast we call a government as it thrashes about in its death throes while we sink further and further into irrelevance.

The guy who disagrees with you is not your enemy, he is merely a fellow citizen who doesn’t share your opinion and if you cannot find common ground the only thing left is to fight until you are both dead.

Wake up America.

Capitalism at its finest.

Winter can be so cold and when I saw this article over a month ago it was just so very disheartening:

...instead of taking unsold items to sample sales or donating them to people in need, H&M and Wal-Mart have been throwing them out in giant trash bags. And in the case that someone may stumble on these bags and try to keep or re-sell the items, these companies have gone ahead and slashed up garments...

If dogs used the computer...

Would Facebook instead be Assbook?

Hitting a hornet’s nest with a bat.

I posted this on a board recently:

Yankee fans are delusional if they see the World Series repeat in their future. Petitte and Rivera are a year older (really don’t expect more than 10 wins out of Petitte). Vazquez is not going to have an ERA under 4.00 in the AL East. The bullpen aside from Rivera is made up of the following names: Marte (era 7.27), Robertson, Aceves, Ramírez, Albaladejo and Boone Logan (era 5.19). Not names that instill confidence. Gardner hasn’t even appeared in a full season’s worth of games over the prior two years (total to date 150 major league games) and has shown no home run power. Swisher is one year removed from a .219 BA (and he only hit .249 last year). Posada your primary catcher is 38 and his backup is Francisco Cervelli. Nick Johnson winds up on the DL when someone else hiccups. And finally the bench is Jamie Hoffman, Greg Golson, Ramiro Pena, Juan Miranda (and now Randy Winn). An injury or two to a key player and this team will sink like a stone. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see the Yankees finish third in the division this year.

Telling a Yankee fan their team isn’t put together well is akin to telling a priest or minister you worship Satan – that’s how extreme the response is. I stand by what I wrote though.

Ironically enough for the world of Yankee fans out there who think I single out their team an dismiss me as one of the legion of Yankee-haters (and admittedly I have my moments when I despise the ballclub from the Bronx), last year round about alte July early August I was talking to someone who I regularly talk baseball with and pointedly said to him the Yankees would go all the way.  The funny thing was the person is a devote Yankee fan, die-hard and wasn’t sure.

What struck me about the Yankees last year was the ‘team’ aspect of the group, the intangible marking championship clubs.

True. Verifiable. Begining of August, I called it.

And if you look back over the course over the half dozen or so years I’ve written the blog there have been more times I’m right on the money when it comes to baseball than I’ve been wrong (see comments regarding Johan Santana).

The Yankees this year are just not that good a team but of course, only time will tell.

Thank you Phil Mushnick.


One of my pet peeves (among the many) is the manner in which Italian Americans are portrayed in popular media. I’ve talked about it before, the very clear double standard existing in today’s politically correct society, a double standard many chose to ignore.


Let’s face facts, people don’t like it when you rub their noses in their own hypocrisy.


This weekend though I read a good article in the TV section of the Post of all places by a writer who I normally look to for his sports coverage.

If Italian-Americans are hurt by such programming — as they should be — invite spokespersons from other groups to speak on that programming. Invite American black, Hispanic, Jewish, Protestant, Gay, Asian, Irish and Muslim leaders to speak their feelings about “Jersey Shore.”

Chances are, all hyphenated-Americans would agree with aggrieved Italian-Americans. Then we’ve got something more unified, more significant.

It shouldn’t be that only Italian-Americans detest “Jersey Shore” — that’s no surprise.

Rather, it should be that none of us like such portrayals of Italian-Americans — or anyone else.

Sounds like a good plan but the problem is who will stand with us when many won’t even acknowledge there’s a problem to begin with.