Me - circa the end of the Carter era

This was taken in 1980 when I was 6 1/2 years old. It was inscribed to "Big Busha", aka my paternal Grandmother. My Mom (it's her handwriting) screwed up my age on the back of the pick, first writing "5 1/2" then correcting it in pen :)

My Thoughts - The Ryan Braun Case

Dumbest line from Tom Haudricourt's newest Braun article "Now you see why baseball fired arbitrator Shyam Das after he ruled in Braun's favor during his appeal. Certainly, by now, Das realizes he let a guilty player walk." Uh, nooooo. . . . Das let him 'walk' because -, whether or not it would have turned up positive if done right - it was a flawed testing procedure, and that wasn't a sufficient reason to trample a man's legal and collective bargaining rights. Das was fired because the Masters of the Universe had as much respect for due process and legality as Haudricourt, not because he was wrong.

George Scott

RIP Brewer legend George "Boomer" Scott, age 69. :(

Eileen Brennan

I knew her best, as did most people, as the frustrated Captain in Private Benjamin - in my case, the TV show, although she also played the role in the original movie.  RIP

Pregnant with YaYa - 2001

This is a famous photograph in our family, one that was in YaYa's room for a decade, until the frame broke and the pic wound up in a pile of dirt on the floor - such is life in the real world. 

Anyway, this was taken in 2001, when Lisa was pregnant with our firstborn, YaYa. The setting is the driveway of Lisa's Mom's house on 56th St, a house she has since sold. 

Some More Reviews

Spring Breakers stars Selena Gomez and James Franco, and traces the descent of a group of young women from bored college kids to armed robbers to live in lovers of a young drug kingpin. There’s a lot of Girls-Gone-Wild type footage, but there’s never any question that there’s a darker, deeper theme to the film than gratuitous exploitation, and the director has a sure and artistic hand. I was somewhat disappointed in Gomez; this was billed as her big bad break from her Disney roots, but her character poops out before her eternal soul is in any real jeopardy. In short, it wasn’t such a break from her norm after all.

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters fared much better with Lisa than it did with me, which strikes me as something as odd as the sun rising in the West.  It’s cartoonishly violent, full of anachronisms, and the plot isn’t exactly original. Gretel aka Gemma Arterton, it should be said, was disturbingly gorgeous, and that Jeremy Renner guy probably didn’t look so bad to Lisa either.

Evil Dead is a reboot/remake of the original, and as a separate work of ‘art’ it should be judged as such, or so the thought goes. To this I say “phooey”.  Everyone I know who has seen the new version likes it, but they’re fools. The original, campy film is and always will be the best. Why did they remake it? 

Bob Gibson weighs in on the steroid controversy . . .

Quoting Bob Gibson here, re: the Biogenesis scandal and steroids in baseball:  "I’ve gotta say, if it had been me and I thought that somebody else was getting a little bit of an edge, I"M NOT SO SURE I WOULDN'T HAVE DONE THE SAME THING.. I just don’t know … I’m glad I didn’t have to make that decision. You guys would be talking about me instead of them." He also stated the issue has not dimmed his respect for the players involved.  Good on you Bob!

Quote

'You can always judge a man by the quality of his enemies.' - The Doctor ('Remembrance of the Daleks')

On the Hall of Fame

"But baseball players ARE more than just their pure numbers and production. They are. I've always thought of the Hall of Merit (its purely notional status notwithstanding) as the place where the numbers alone are considered. But the Hall of Fame is supposed to be something more than merely that, regardless of how the concept has been abused by idiot voters. It's not just supposed to celebrate the statistically 'best' players in baseball, it's intended to celebrate those players as they were remembered by the generations who watched them, in their historical context. Because baseball isn't a game played by a set of computers simulating imaginary matches and recording the outcomes on spreadsheet. It's a game played by people, and watched by people, given cultural significance, embedded in national and regional memory, and passed down as living history from one generation to the next. A Hall of Fame that doesn't make any sort of allowance on the margins for the human element (i.e. 'narrative') in its membership criteria is a curious, aridly depressing idea. " - from a  greatcomment on BTF

Some pics of my gals at the laundrymat :)

Gulp

t still may not happen, if I can't get the financial aspects in order, but it is now official: I have been accepted into Marquette Law School.

What a Beautiful Sight

There are very few things more beautiful than a drive along the Hoan Bridge and Lincoln Memorial Drive in Milwaukee. The skyline to your front,dozens of church steeples spreading across the landscape to your left, and the lake and the Summerfest grounds to your right. Here are some pics LuLu took from the car last week. 

The MLBPA is a Joke

Controversial but entirely correct post of the day: The MLBPA is a joke. They wouldn't let Arod join the Red Sox in 2004 because he was willing to take a pay cut - *that* was unacceptable and stirred the union to action. But defend the collective and constitutional rights of the players? Step in and stop MLB from leaking confidential info with impunity? Stop MLB from "enforcing" bans that are not of the stated duration and seem to enacted in reaction to rules that change by the day? Nawwww, they'll let that slide.

Movie Reviews

In the Dark is a  pretty tame thriller about a woman  [Elizabeth Rohm] who becomes the target of the man originally hired to aid her after she is blinded in a car accident. It isn't awful, and Rohm is gorgeous,

 but no one’s going to win any Oscars/Golden Globes/Good Effort Medals for this one.  It also looks to be filmed digitally, which to me always makes the film seem . . . off.

Ooga Booga is awful – quite possibly the worst movie I’ve ever seen. There’s a drunk clown named Hambo that wears a pig nose and fondles himself. There’s a n African-American medical student who is, inexplicably, his greatest fan.  Said student  is killed by a racist cop named – wait for it – White, and his soul is deposited into a two foot high caricature of an African warrior Hambo created, complete with doobie dangling from his mouth. Every white person spotted after the initial ten minutes is a bigot and then killed by Ooga Booga, except for one cop spared only because he has a black spouse.

It is an awful movie, and aside from that virulently racist against Caucasians. If you reverse the color of the characters, this would be decried as Klan propaganda. So why is it ok as is?

The Last Ride is a movie about Hank Williams Sr, played by ET’s Henry Thomas, who in the last days of his life travels across the South on his way to a concert he’ll never get to play. It’s a quiet but entertaining film, somewhat spoiled by the notion that no one ever seems to pick up on who the passenger is, not even the driver that serves as his sole companion on the ride.

Oblivion, starring Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman, is a better than average sci-fi flick that  places Cruise in the role of a glorified janitor on an abandoned Earth, repairing drones damaged by alien insurgents.  There’s a big twist in the plot that’s worth waiting for, but even before that I was drawn into the world and its characters. I liked it.

Congratulations! A new prince is born!

It's a BOY! Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, has given birth :)

Dennis Farina

Actor Dennis Farina, age 69, has died from a pulmonary embolism. Often typecast as a hardnosed cop or a gangster, his face and voice were unmistakable. RIP. 

Hostess is back!

Hostess, the snack company that went under last year, is back. That's great for the nostalgia lover in me, but Twinkies? Blech. Here's a couple pics of Junie enjoying a Hostess display at a local grocery store. 

Helen Thomas

Noted - not necessarily good but noted - White House correspondent Helen Thomas has died at 92. RIP

Aw, How Sweet

On the way out of work I was exhausted and droopy eyed, and voiced the hope that I didn't fall asleep on the freeway and run off the road. To which my  co-worker Mike Steinke blandly responded: "Drive fast. Take risks." Well played sir, well played.

update: soon it became a catchphrase on our shift, but morped to "Drive fast. Take chances."

Celebrating our Anniversary at Charcoal Grill

Happy Anniversary you sexy brown eyed beast :)

xoxooxoxo  - Lisa

Question

I have two old 3.5" floppy discs. One contains the complete text of a book I wrote at the turn of the century, the other the only extant copy of my 60 page senior thesis. Both discs were in storage until recently. Neither one works when I try them in the computer, although the book disc does show a directory. Ideas?

On the possibility of a civil trial in the Zimmerman case

Regarding the possibility of Zimmerman facing a civil suit from the Martin family, which (like the OJ trial) I view as a form of double jeopardy, "If Trayvon’s parents pursue civil action against Zimmerman in state court, they will likely encounter a major obstacle, the “immunity” provision of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law that became part of Zimmerman’s self-defense strategy at his criminal trial. The 2005 law, which allows a person to use force to prevent imminent death or harm to himself, can also shield a defendant from liability in a civil wrongful-death case."

Cory Monteith

Cory Monteith, aka "Finn" of Glee, age 31, has died of a drug overdose. I'm in shock. 

Two Quotes from Junie

Junie was goofing around on our office chair when she tripped and 

fell off, landing on her face. Lisa and I both checked for injuries (to 

date, Junie is the only kid who has yet to have stitches). Thankfully

the damage was minor. “You’re ok, but you’ll have a fat lip,” Lisa 

told her.

Immediately Junie, who had faced down numerous injuries without 

blinking,  was aghast.

“FAT??!!!,” she said. “I gonna have a fat lip!”

Junie, you see, has a wee bit of a distaste for the 

weight-challenged, despite having yours truly as a father.

********

Junie came home from a weekend with Lisa’s mother singing a song

 that went like this “Chock-o-lat, you drivin’ me crazy” and she 

sang it over and over. Apparently this tune was belted out by a 

mechanical monkey she saw at Grandma’s, and as far as I was 

concerned it was singing about the wonders of chocolate. Lisa 

wasn’t so sure, and translated that first line – goodness knows how – as “Jungle Love”

Sure as day, it WAS “Jungle Love” by Milwaukee’s own Steve Miller.

Another favorite of hers, this one from the cartoon “Phineas and 

Ferb”:  “My name is Doof and you do what I say, my name is doof 

and you do what I say.”

George Zimmerman

BREAKING NEWS: Jurors have found George Zimmerman NOT GUILTY in the shooting of Trayvon Martin.

Not Ideal

Overheard at the optometrist: a vastly overweight woman loudly telling the clerk how her doctor has cut off her supply of pain pills, then asking if Obamacare will pay for the designer glasses she wanted.  Hells bells, even if you support that awful overstepping of government power,  you should do your best to keep people like that hidden from view. She ain't helping your case.

My Dad many moons ago

My Little Pony

I'm not sure why or how it happened, but all four kids are now obsessed with My Little Pony. I didn't even know the show was still being produced/rebooted.

My Boo

Hangover 3

I watched Hangover 3 yesterday. It was funnier than the second movie, but like that instalment I'd classify it as a buddy/action movie with occasional laughs, whereas the original was ROTFLMAO funny with a dash of action. For what it is, it works.

The Domes

I've posted about the Milwaukee Domes before, so I'll spare you much of the standard preamble. This past Monday we took advantage of free admission (and having only our two youngest in house) and visited the Milwaukee icon. 

It was a trip probably (and sadly) most memorable for the fact that I was nursing a bad knee injury that left me sidelined by the second dome, and by the third Lisa was forced to get a wheelchair for me to finish the circuit. :( 

Here's Smiley posing by a Sausage Fruit tree. 

On the way back, because the Domes are in our old stomping ground, we showed the kids three of the flats we once rented. This one, on Orchard, did not at all impress the kids. We rented the upper back in '97. Our last flat is still well maintained and pretty, but Smiley no longer has any recollection of it, and Junie never set foot in it - some small proof that we have moved up in the world in the last decade.