hiway29

In the late 70's, early 80's, it was a labor day tradition for a wonderful woman to host a picnic at her home for all the 'believers' in the area. It was a great time of food, volleyball, just hanging out with no time frame and no 'agenda'. Not your typical way get together, which was one reason it was the favorite event of the year. The corps dude who had been in the area for years enjoyed it as much as anyone. One year he went back to Emporia for 6 months and they sent out a newly ordained corps guy as a replacement. You could almost see the smoke coming out of his head as he tried to process this 'good time' everyone was having. He couldn't stop it, but did his best to ruin it. First thing of course was we had to have a meeting and a teaching, because you don't do anything in the way without teaching the word, right? He brought the day to a halt, gatherd everyone around, and spent the next hour at least turning it into a branch meeting. He then sent everyone home. In times past , there was no set time, and pockets of people would go late into the night talking and living. This dude would have none of that. The saddest part was the insult to Babe, the host of the party. A more wonderful believer you never met. She had been healed of ms, and had the purest heart, and up to then had not seen much of the legalism in action. She could care less about the rules. There's a lot of other stuff this guy pulled in his time here, but that was a big warning shot.

Fasting one day a week sounds excessive to me. I fasted for 3 days as a 'wow', for some forgotten reason other than being told the wonderful benefits. I was working at a McDonalds and broke down with a quarter pounder. Ten years later I did the colon cleanse after much promotion from the way. 6 months later I had ulcerative colitis, which ultimately led to surgery removing my diseased colon. I'm not saying the cleanse was responsible-and I'm not saying it wasn't.

I think Jr's biggest mistake was leaving Seattle. He'd own the city by now, and maybe, just maybe, his career path wouldn't have been derailed, like it has in Cincinatti. Has he done anything in Cincy between dl stints ? It's not always about the money, and there's a lot to be said for sticking with the team you grew with. Tony Gwynn comes to mind.

I used to think I was literate, but I've been lost by most of the clues here. Guess I need to read more.

I'd say the Russian connection is they had launched Sputnik, which lit a fire under this country to get on the stick. That way cool tune celebrated our answer at the time.

That was a good game at old Dodger Stadium today. A tight pitchers duel for 6 innings, then the Dodgers amazingly breaking it open in the 7th, featuring a home run by Matt Kemp (I just saw a picture of it on Yahoo sports, where he's referred to as Jeff Kemp. They writer must have heard of Jeff Kent before and figured it was close enough.Maybe he only watches sportscenter, where west coast teams don't exist.But I digress). Lots of Cubs fans there. I wonder what they do when the Cubs aren't in town (or winning-I've been to other Cubs games here with barely a whisper from their fans). With the Cubs up 3-2, you'd have thought they were in the World Series, with the fist bumping, and finger pointing in the nearest Dodger fans face.(not that the Dodger fans were so wonderful-one guy held up a Cubs hat in one hand, while giving it 'the finger' in the other hand for about 5 minutes, until he was escorted from the stadium-He was quite proud of his achievements.) When Jeff ,I mean Matt Kemp hit the homer in the 7th, the wind went out of their sails, except for the guy behind me that had to throw his beer in disgust. (The smell of beer on a hot day is one of my least favorite odors). Zambrano must have thought it a good idea though, as he knocked over 2 gator ade jugs in the dugout and tore his shirt off as he left the game. A fine day at the park, though I'll take my usual seat in the shade on the next day game.

As I was about to leave work yesterday, I was handed a ticket behind home plate for the Dodger game today, so I'll be spending Saturday afternoon seeing these Cubs up close. I 'm also looking forward to seeing Lou Piniella, and Joe Torre at the same time.

Yes, I'm watching the finals, and believe it or not, I'm a Celtics fan. Guess it goes back to the Celtics of my childhood, and the Byrd vs Magic rivalry in the 80's. I won't be saying it very loud out here. Nicholson seems to be at every game-at least every game that I've caught on tv.

I thought Stephen King was at most Sox games. He's a huge fan, but I like him and many of his books anyway.

I ate White Castle sliders at 1 am , while I was cleaning office buildings in the middle of the night in Columbus, Ohio. I assumed that 'slider' was not a positive term for them, thinking it as good a description as any for it's effects on the digestive system. I liked those 'onion chips' on the side. All this talk of fast food makes me hungry, though I gave up 99 % of it 2 years ago, and have lost over 40 lbs as a result. I lived on the stuff from college until then, and it was kind of like breaking an addiction. (Nothing like the anguish I went through giving up cigarettes though !) I said 99%, because I did eat an egg mcmuffin last month, and admit it tasted pretty darn good.

I'm fairly certain that the only way Bobby Murcer won't throw out the first pitch is if he's not alive to do so. The Yankees have been very supportive through this , and Bobby still broadcasts 50 games a year. This is a moment that needs to happen.

I just remembered I did have something to say. I just read Bobby Murcer's new book 'Yankee for Life'. Bobby was my favorite player for a time , on the worst Yankee teams ever conceived, circa late 60's. He just missed the 77-78 championship years, having been traded for Bobby Bonds in 74, and brought back in '79. Nice book-especially since Bobby had brain cancer in 2006, and so far is a survivor. There's something about major crises that can bring out the best in people, and Murcer's 'journey' is quite inspiring. I wish him well. His goal is to throw out the first pitch in the new Stadium in 2009, and I'm REALLY hoping he gets to.

The Manny talk hasn't kept me away. Insane overtime hours, and most of 'my' teams playing awful, have. If you don't have anything good to say, and all that-though that hasn't stopped me in the past. I really haven't had anything to contribute, as I've been too wrapped up in 'real life'. Hopefully that will change. I MIGHT have tickets behind home plate for the Cubs at Dodger Stadium this weekend, but I won't know until Friday. I could use a ball game.

I keep a number of small items in a little treasure chest. My wow pin, various way nametags, high school ring, an extracted molar, and a few other items. I don't know why.

This topic reminded me of the time( well, ,one of many times) I was raked over the coals by the limb leader in Ct. He happened to see me drive by on the states busiest highway, and was astonished that I didn't display a way bumper sticker. I had 2 thoughts. One was frustration that I couldn't even drive down the street without doing something 'wrong', and the other was wondering why he'd even want to advertise the way on my piece of junk 200 dollar car which was all I could afford, and was usually stuck on the side of the road while I took advantage of the guy in my twig who knew how to fix cars, to come out and do repairs for free. I was handed a bumper sticker, and practically followed out to my car to make sure I put it on. I don't recall if he made me pay for the bumper sticker, but it wouldn't surprise me if I did.

sounds like the Mod Squad to me

Thanks. I didn't think it was the same guy, now I know.

TV theme songs have gone by the wayside in today's market. They want to get you in before you have time to change the channel. I guess I'm a dinosaur, but part of what gave a show it's identity was the theme song. Just thinking of the Dick Van Dyke, or Dobie Gillis theme , connects you with memories of the show. I'm not sure you're referring to the same guy, but I just read an obit about the man who wrote the Star Trek theme. That was his major claim to fame according to the LA Times. If he also wrote Dick Van Dyke, and Andy Griffith's theme, I'd argue that.

The one and only Groucho-You Bet Your Life- and wouldn't a dvd packed with those be nice. I'm crushed at work, so anyone can jump in with a new one.

Nice job, Chuck.

I'll be at Dodger Stadium Saturday night, to see the Cardinals playing like the 'gas house gang'. That is, if it doesn't rain -we had tornadoes in LA yesterday ! My latest favorite player is Blake DeWitt. He wasn't supposed to make the team this year before Nomar went down, and Andy LaRoche got hurt. When Nomar came off the dl, they sent Blake back down-until Nomar went on the dl again 2 days later, and they had to call him back. Now I don't see how they can take him out of the line up, and I certainly hope they're not thinking of moving him aside for Andy LaRoche. I don't know what to make of Nomar.

Actually, I DO have Torii Hunter, since I live in Angels country, and see a whole lot more Angels games than Yankees these days. Hunter is awesome-certainly on my short list of players I'd pay to watch.

The Yankees are clearly going nowhere this year. Of course I said the same thing last year, and they wound up in the playoffs ( not for long, but they shouldn't have gotten that far). At this time last year, Joe T looked like a man who's time had past. This year, Joe G looks like a man without a time. It's still mid May-with 4 1/2 months to go-not that I think it will make a difference. I'm glad Joe T is here in LA-but even he couldn't fix Andruw Jones-who mercifully looks to be out for the season. Between him and Jason Schmidt, the Dodgers could have saved about 70 million.

I don't remember the year, '80 or so, when they displayed some experimental snow mobile outside the main tent at the rock. I recall looking at that thing in disbelief. THAT'S where our 'abundant sharing' is going ? I could almost, sort of, understand the plane and the motorcoach, but wtf was this ?

I've never seen it, but 'Horror Hotel' with Christopher Lee sounds too good to ignore. Think I'll hunt it down. The mention of 'House on Haunted Hill' brought back another memory , and I promise this is the last one. I went to the theater to see 'House' when I was 10 or so. It was playing with an old Bowery Boys haunted house movie, and the less said about that, the better. The draw at this matinee was that between pictures , there would be LIVE appearances by Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolfman, so how could I NOT go. The only thing was this was deep in the heart of neighboring Bridgeport, Conn., which was the 'big city', compared to Stratford, and not a theater my parents normally let me go. Somehow we got a ride, and sat in the balcony, which I was thankful for when I saw the barrage of candy and soda that was tossed from the balcony to the seats below. After the lousy Bowery Boys movie, they tried to quiet the crowd down for the live monster show, but it was impossible. A fevered mass of screaming. food tossing kids put the skids on the monster show. Frankenstein made a brief appearance, and that was about it. "House on Haunted Hill' was pretty darn good, though. Another Vincent Price thriller. He seemed to be in everything back then. The story was hokey in retrospect, but they knew how to push the scare buttons, with flying skeletons, monstrous arms appearing around corners, and ghostlike figures appearing out of nowhere. Not a bad afternoon. I didn't go back to that theater for years, being drawn back by the showing of the cheesy Batman movie serial from the 40's, durng the height of the Batman TV craze. But that's another story.