Eucalyptus - Entitle Yourself to Our Opinion

February 2 Permalink

Today is the birthday of Jerry O'Brien. He played one game at second base on August 2, 1887 for the Nats.

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Dwight Kidder had a post a while back on using closed captioning to teach reading. I figured that out some time ago and it's my first recommendation to parents wanting to get their children to read early.

February 1 Permalink

Marc Fisher has also been watching the Maryland Nighthawks. Their ambulance chaser owner is a former graduate of my now non-existent high school.

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Dexy's Midnight reads Tom Verducci and believes the Nats may be dumping ground for Bud's favorite people such as Sosa and Smulyan. Those people with last names beginning with "S" - they stick together, you know.

January 31 Permalink

Today is the birthday of Jim Manning, who managed of the 1901 Senators to a 61-73 6th place finish. As a player he played every position except pitcher, catcher and first base in Boston, Detroit and Kansas City.

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Banks of the Anacostia tries to figure out the meaning of the characterization of Alfonso Soriano as a "Happy Man". When I see those words in quotes, I can't help thinking of the story "The Happy Man" by Jonathan Lethem. Click on the profile in The High Hat and search on "happy man" for a brief synopsis of the tale. Compared to that, a surly overpaid player is trivial.

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Watched the Tripping the Rift episode "Ghost Ship". The ship is running on fumes and must travel through the Bermuda Quadrant to reach a service station. There the crew board a ghost ship.

Apparently the crew of the El Dorado, as the ghost ship was known, experienced hallucinations of their worst fears and went mad. Chode is afraid of losing money. Six is afraid of growing old. Gus is afraid of vaginas. Whip is afraid of insects and T'nuk is afraid of being eaten.

All must confront their fears and the hallucinations go away. However, we never get back to the original plot point of running out of fuel and the crew gets back on their ship without mentioning fuel.

January 30 Permalink

I learned a new word - anesis

Anesis: a figure of addition that occurs when a concluding sentence, clause or phrase is added to a statement that purposely diminishes the effect of what has been previously stated. A neat example of the device is the 1925 Rodgers and Hart lyric, “We’ll have Manhattan … the Bronx and Staten Island too.”

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Harper may need to update his ratings. The Pirates are getting a new mascot, in addition to the Parrot.

Why does a team need more than one mascot? Don't they have more than one suit? The only multiple mascots that make sense are Edgar, Allan and Poe of the Ravens because they are just duplicates of each other.

January 29 Permalink

Today is the birthday of Art Allison and Bill Krieg. Allison played first base, outfield and catcher for the 1875 National Association Nats. Like the Molinas, his brother Doug was also a catcher, but Art really played only three games out of 168 behind the plate. Krieg played first base and outfield for the 1886-1887 Nats.

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Jay Mariotti says:

Frank Thomas wore No. 35 on 35th Street. He was the rock of Mount Soxmore for 16 years, triggering Ted Williams comparisons and wearing out the pinwheels atop the exploding scoreboard. He has been called the greatest player in White Sox history by the team's owner, general manager and field manager. His nickname, The Big Hurt, has stood among the most distinctive in U.S. sports...
Some men are leaders, others are losers. Some are kings, others are mopes. Some are selfless souls who can will a team to a trophy, others are brats for life whose negative vibes interfere with championships. Are you surprised when I say the Sox might not have won the Series if Thomas was healthy all season? That's how destructive his me-me presence can be, as exhibited by his latest Big Blurtfest, far from the triumphant proceedings at SoxFest this weekend.

Interesting that he brings up Ted Williams. You could replace every reference to Frank Thomas with Ted Williams and White Sox with Red Sox and it would be something a print columnist has previously written. Even a war hero doesn't get a pass as a human being. Ted Williams should get as much blame for the Red Sox not winning a World Series until 2004 as Frank Thomas does for the White Sox not winning a World Series until 2005.

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Watched the Numb3rs episode "Bones of Contention". A woman dies from a fall down the stairs at a museum dedicated to Native American heritage. She apparently has found a 10,000 year old European skull. This would nullify the claims of the local tribe that makes a lot of money off casino gambling.

It turns out the chief himself did it. He got in with the help of a security guard who got ejected off the tribal rolls for not being racially pure enough. The chief promised to help him get it back. The chief reburied the skull on sacred tribal lands.

Obviously taken from the Kennewick affair, I don't take well to tribal lands being held since they crossed the land bridge. I think any claims should date to whatever federal, state or municipal government that broke the treaties in the first place. Tribal territories were not etched in stone between the melting of the ice caps to the arrival of the Europeans. They changed frequently due to war, disease or treaties.

Also, I think the borderline between family or tribal remains and archaeological dig site should be around 500 years. I'd prefer to put the line at one generation before the generation that someone alive today can remember. We're not desecrating the bones your great-grandmother, it's somebody much further back you never knew.

January 28 Permalink

Baseball Consents To Revised Lease Deal. Apparently they're close and all it took was a baseball academy in the inner city.

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Watched the Monk episode "Mr. Monk and the Secret Santa". Someone has obviously poisoned a bottle of wine and sent it to Captain Stottlemeyer. The card says it's from the body shop down the street.

During the station Christmas party, the Captain misplaces his gift for Terry, one of the detectives. Alice, Stottlemeyer's assistant, tells him to give the bottle. Later on Terry drinks from it and dies.

The Captain is convinced it was Frank Prager, the brother of someone Stottlemeyer killed in the line of duty. Several months before, Frank shot at Leland and missed. Monk poses as Santa Claus in order to get Prager's daughter to reveal where her father is hiding. However, it's all a red herring and he didn't poison the Captain.

It was Alice who poisoned the bottle, intending it for Terry with whom she had a painful breakup. She knew Stottlemeyer didn't like port and wouldn't drink it. When the time came for presents, Alice took Leland's intended present and suggested substituting the bottle.

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Went on to the CSI episode "Still Life". A woman reports her son missing from the playground. She is Karen Matthews, a widow of the war in Afghanistan who has grown estranged from her in-laws.

Witnesses saw the boy Jesse with a man in a Las Vegas 51s baseball cap. The man and his wife are arrested in a convenience store with the boy who they call Adam. The couple are the Espositos and DNA evidence proves Adam is their child, but why does Karen Matthews have pictures all over her house of Jesse?

Archie determines Karen photoshopped Adam in her pictures from ones the Espositos had posted on the net. She did have a real son, but he disappears from photographs just after her husband's funeral where she fought with her in-laws. Apparently that sent her over the edge and she killed Jesse with her own anti-psychotic drugs. Karen buried him in the backyard but reburied the body somewhere else when the neighbor's dog started to dig it up. Since then she's been creating an elaborate fantasy in her home right down to the mess made by a child.