mstar1

I know that most of you arent Red Sox fans but i saw a great DVD yesterday that y'all would enjoy. Its the 40th anniversary of the '67 Impossible Dream Red Sox and in commemoration they have released a 2 DVD Package that includes the oldest complete game video available anywhere. I remeber watching that game when I was 12, but to see it again sent shivers up and down my spine. Its very simple, no graphics, no endless musical montages, very little announcing, just pure simple baseball the way it was For those of us over 40, one can barely remember a time when the baseball game was 99% of the telecast. There are times when literally the only words you will hear are "Oliva the batter .... strike one .... ball one .... Petrocelli ... over to Scott. One down in the fourth." The job of the TV play-by-play man was to let the camera tell the story and you just filled in the necessary details. The color guy just chimes in when there is a crucial piece of information. He might not say anything for a couple of batters. To get the true understanding of the skill of these play-by-play guys, you need the radio broadcast. For TV, they just shut up for the most part. There is no off-hand conversation. Also, there is no replay of any kind. Just a few cameras, and the main shot was often from behind the batter, from the old press box (where there are now seats). No man (or woman) in the stands. No music other than the organ. You can hear Sherm Feller, and John Kiley, and the crowd noise. It seems so calm and reserved compared with all of the sensory input you would get today. The best part is just watching the players. No matter how many highlights you might have seen of Harmon Killebrew hitting a HR, there is nothing like watching a player dig into the box, hold the bat, take pitches, foul something off. The rhythm of the game requires watching a game, and not just highlights. Watching the pitchers, and the larger strike zones, is also fun. Heres a review: Red Sox fan or not, This is a GREAT piece of history, if you have the chance to see it..do, you'll be glad that you did

I dont like it, it slips out without me thinking about it, but in my circumstance its not a metaphor--- I do have agood friend who is a Yankee fan who has had a very rough few years. He's not a bad guy, but lost about $1mil, his house, his marriage, his license, his cars, and his daughter,...eveerything basically a few years back....Its been a real rough road and he is in bad or at the best--extremely tenuous--shape most of the time... He also is a lifelong Yankee fan having grown up in the Bronx. I know that it is "just baseball" but I have noticed over the last few years that if the Yankees are doing OK that he generally stays at least above water, if they go into a swoon, he often takes a nosedive into the danger zone. There are many other factors of course, but it does run pretty close. A few weeks ago he called me at 2am to bring him to the emergency psych ward, which I did. Its probably a coincidence that the Yanks were on a losing streak at the time, but I do keep closer tabs on him if they are in a losing streak. The 'suicide watch' slipped out and sounds metaphorical, but it is actually realer than you know. He was excited and enthused talking about Texiera which is why I worded it that way.....It actually is keeping me off of 'suicide watch'

of course! I dont think that I have ever been anywhere where there werent illegal fireworks on the fourth of July. We have the official fireworks and the secret ones that most people know about. I rarely have any of my own (its been many years) but I just happened to be in a state last week that sold them, and since I have a combined 4th of july/birthday dealie and didnt know what to get them-I got a bunch in a few giant boxes marked "WARHEADS". Im taking precautions and setting the whole shebang up with help from someone who has experience with a pyrotechnic company . It is dry here so Im doing them over a lake. Don't worry it will all be safe or I wont do them, Its probably only about 20 minutes to a half hours worth Im picking out music as I post but shhhh-dont tell anyone

O hell this is addicting VICTOR PAUL WIERWILLE = I will lucrative power Cult via willpower ire Peculiar view will rot and my personal fovorite CULT - LIAR -LIE -VIPER -WOW! I told you that anagrams dont lie :)

That is the rumor thats keeping my Yankee friends off of suicide watch--- He'd do well with the short porch-never mind a firstbaseman who could actually field in NY --- Its been good the last week to get a glimpse of Jacoby Ellsbury who was just called up to fill in for Coco Crisp ....He was the first round pick in 05 and has had a buildup as the CF of the future... I dont know much about him, but after seeing him beat out an average grounder for an infield hit, steal a base, then score from second on a wild pitch, I'm becoming a believer. They said he had speed, but holy &^%$ I had no idea.... Now if the sox can only get a shortstop who can hit over .190 the rest of the way ( Julio Lugo) , I'll feel pretty good

Im a sucker for interesting acoustic guitar Happy 4th

Greasespot Cafe = Go Escape Faster Scapegoats Free Agape Crests Foe A Grace Fee Stops A Aspect Gos Free Grace Feast Opes Safe Page Sector Serf Got A Escape Grace Fate Posse ..... anagrams never lie

So do you think that the stRangers are gonna dump everyone come the 31st? i would think they would at least keep Slammin Sammy, to keep some butts in the seats, even though it might be prudent to let him go... I dunno.... I found some interesting articles on Chadwick this morning, a very interesting guy. He apparently was the first sportswriter, first statistician and widely popularized the game in its infancy. He was/is known as "The Father in the word of Baseball". I had heard the name over the years but never given him his due weight. I suppose we owe him a huge debt of gratitude... He was actually from England and looks sort of like Bullinger. Thanks dude

Thanks for that piece on Henry Chadwick, That has been one of those things (like what the heck does OK mean?) , that has been in the back of my mind for too many decades. I'll take it-- although the Matt Kilroy story in the Wiki article is colorful too.. Good too see you back Strangeone, you were mighty quiet for awhile-- I found THIS----which is the MLB official abbreviations page

Dont forget to vote for that last allstar at MLB.com. I voted for Hideki Okajima myself. who has been amazing...... ...For all the talk about the Red Sox running away they are actually 1 game worse than they were at this time last year...and they finished 11 games out....there is a long way to go yet..... a stupid question that I think about once in a while.. Does anyone know the history or the reason that "K" is used to denote a strikeout? Who thought that up? When I was in my single digit years I marked my scorecards "SO", I didnt switch to "K" until I was about 11. There is a reason somewhere that I have never heard, at least W could stand for "whiffed', F for "fanned". CL for 'caught looking', a lot of possibilities... I dont know about K.

I found a few people with my name--three writers, One who writes poems, another who writes childrens stories and another who writes Catholic inspirational books. There is another guy who is a Scottish Soccer star ( with his own bobble head action figure!) A comic book character from the 1930's-40's who was in the League of Justice. Some politician from Canada..and also a public administrator in Australia (whatever that means...) Im gonna get one of those bobbleheads. You just know youve arrived(well...somewhere)when a bobblehead has your name I was surprised to even find a little tiny blurb about me on Wikipedia

I think that Bela and Chick are on tour right now. I know they were within 60 miles of me a few weeks back but I didnt hear about it (Drat!) until about 10 minutes before it actually happened...so it didnt work out. They may be touring somewhere near you. Im off to a live Prairie Home Companion show tonight up in my neck of the woods (listen in). Local boy James Taylor is one of Keillors musical guests. right now: silence---blessed silence

If this is about what I am listening to right now, Its the new CD from Chick Corea and Bela Fleck called "The Enchantment" which so far is my album of the year, imo a work of real genius. a video advertisement

LINK Beer for flooded Australian town A flood-isolated Australian town was in danger of running out of beer this week until emergency volunteers came to their rescue. Residents of Hinton, New South Wales, were stranded following the severe storms that hit the region on Sunday. There was concern that their pub would run dry before a rugby league match which was due to be played between New South Wales and Queensland. But the State Emergency Services boated in a huge beer delivery just in time. The pub has become a meeting point for stranded residents, Matt Turner, the owner of Hinton's Victoria Hotel, told the Australian Associated Press news agency. "It's a very close community and everyone has been having a great time at the pub just catching up." The State Emergency Services (SES) have been using two flat-bottomed boats to deliver essential supplies to the town, which is expected to be cut off until Friday. In total, 12 kegs and three crates of beer were delivered. "There was some extra room on a boat after the essentials were loaded this morning," said SES spokesman Philip Campbell. "So they will be able to watch the game and have a cold one tonight."

In my way daze I had a cat named Timothy, he ran away and I got a new one who looked just like him-his name of course was Second Timothy Im no church historian but there still seems to be a fairly active church in those parts of the world by my reckoning, no matter what Wierwille said

Driving is a privilege not a right, there are responsibilities that go along with it. If this guy is so out to lunch that he is driving 100 over the limit in a residential area he deserves everything he is getting. Take his car, take his license for (at least)10 years, send him directly to jail, let him out only to work in emergency rooms doing the intake for auto accidents. 15 or 20 over the limit-- maybe, but 100 is reckless disregard and endangerment of anyone in his path, He may as well have been unloading an automatic weapon on a crowded street I do agree with Geo that the car would probably be better auctioned off to benefit victims of crime or some other cause for the community, than given to the DARE program but one things for sure , that guy has forfeited his rights to ever drive it again. He can consider it a $60,000 fine which isnt that far out of line compared to what he could have done

I change mine around. My current one is the great west Rose Window at the Cathedral Of St. John The Divine in New York City, which I could write on for hours but will spare you. It was the very first stained glass window that I ever saw when I was about 7 .Having never been in a church, never mind a massive cathedral it had an enormous impact on me. I had never quite seen a window like that!. The 40 feet across kaleidoscopic colors set in stone transported me to somewhere else for a moment, which was the first time I ever remeber anything like that happening. Somehow years later I ended up being a stained glass window maker and later met the man who made it, who by then was 103, who told me his story of seeing his first window which was very similar. I have been lucky enough to restore some sections of it No pictures can do it justice To me (ymmv)its a timeless piece of art, and still a guiding star. If you are ever in NYC its worth the trip

I might have posted this before---but today its official, we all made it to another one,

I honestly hadnt heard of most of the other players, they were probably mostly guys who got a quick look see at the bigs and then never really made it, Of course the one speaker that they had for anouncements was pretty bad and hard to understand..."Now..barten fo Ora Ken Birds %$^raveling awe stahs, formiongly of the Chicago crububs. foist xxbasman, nummah seven, Pee Resteno Who? What he say? Did you hear who he said? So it was hard to tell. Its was funny in a small town sort of way.It fit the scene perfectly., as far as interleague play--blah-If they are going to do it then they should finally level the rules--it just screws up both teams

Being out in the middle of nowhere I dont get to near as many games as I'd like to but tonight I had the rare privilege of seeing a barnstorming team "Oil Can Boyd's Traveling AllStars" in a scene that was reminiscent of the 30's. A bunch of former Major Leaguers (Delino DeShields, Marquis Grissom and Oil Can were the most recognizable names) against a local team of college players. It made me nostalgic for a time that I never saw, only have heard the stories of from my father who used to see Negro League All Star teams, and other barnstormers like the House Of David pull into little towns and play teams from the local factories. The only thing missing tonight was passing the hat. Good baseball. Americana through and through An ESPN crew was there filming for an upcoming documentary

Yea that would have been a little rough. It would probably be the first nudist colony where everyone was actually 'hot' I'll also forgo eating them, I think that I will leave that to the pros and drunks

Thanks for everyones suggestions and concern, It's the next morning and Im back to normal-( ok I wont stretch things-my LEGS are feeling OK , I on the other hand was never 'normal') The burning slowly dissipated of its own accord and by 11pm last night was only a strange tingling. What a strange plant, I gotta wonder what it is protecting, It certainly didnt want me to go an further. anyways--watch out for them...

To day was a gorgeous day where I was, it is about 85, I wore shorts to work. I was at my workshop/studio sitting outside this morning admiring the mountain view. The River is only about a hundred feet away or so but becomes overgrown with weeds making it hard to access. There is a place about a quarter of a mile away to access the river and sit on the rocks but I thought it would be good to walk down through the tall weeds and make a path. I walked in like a stupid bear tromping down chest high weeds. I walked through some plants that looked like this: Im not one of those people that knows every plant, or even many, so I paid no attention, just kept going-- I walked about a step into them and something didnt feel right--eh I thought a little pricker bush or something, no big deal--- I walked about another half step and my legs felt like they had been doused with gasoline and were on fire. No Joke. I expected to see them swelling but it was just a sensation, I looked closely at the plant and there were hundreds( thousands maybe) of miniscule little barbed needles, I had them all over my legs everywhere. I decided that the river idea was out and went back to my shop....I talked to a few people and there is no serious threat, just alittle discomfort. The burning sensation , stayed hot as a toaster for several hours, Its finally starting to dissipate now after about 5 strange hours and I have a weird pulsing vibration in the legs, which makes me feel if I looked down that my legs would be in that half and half Star Trek state when someone is being beamed up. Im sure it will be eventually be fine, but if you see that plant that is pictured up there you just may want to avoid it, expecially if you are in shorts. It will definitely wake you right up. Im off to the river, ( a different river!) to soak my legs now

Yo Yo Ma Silent Woods by Antonin Dvorak

Ive done three over the last 20 years or so with my ULC license, including my father to his childhood sweetheart one morning at the breakfast table. So far I have only done people that I have known for awhile that I absolutely believe should be married. Its fun. Having been through a quick marriage myself that was ill conceived and painful to get out of, I am wary of marrying people that I dont know, although I have been asked a few times. As much as I love being part of joining two together, it scares me to join the wrong two together knowing what pains that can bring. One of the three marriages that I performed (which I thought would absolutely work) ended very badly. It still bugs me. Do you do pre marital counselling or assessment before you agree to perform the weddings?