Boom

Yanks win 8th straight with a great 14 inning win. Yanks now 39-25 on the year. Boom baby.

When FDR Died

When FDR Died is a 1961 book by Bernard Asbell that chronicles the events of April 12, 1945, the day FDR died while vacationing in Warm Springs, Georgia.

I've owned the book for close to 20 years now, so I'm happy I finally got off my duff and crossed this off my 'to be read' list. It's a very readable, very informal account of the day and the events culminating in his funeral, and I certainly learned a lot. For starters, I always assumed he died in the White House, and I never could have guessed at the extent of the public mourning for the man.

Regarding that mourning . . . well it strikes me as over the top, even creepy. Sharecroppers literally prostrating themselves before his funeral train. A Madison factory going on strike because the owner wouldn't fly a US flag in mourning during a rainstorm. Newspapers refusing all commercial advertising. Stores closed. Concerts cancelled. The public warned that the expected run on mourning clothes could cripple the wartime cotton industry. People of all ages falling to their knees and weeping to the heavens.

I was born 29 years after his death, so I can't begin to put myself in the shoes of your Average Joe of the day, but it seems so excessive. I can understand it for Lincoln, a man murdered by a vengeful enemy in the hour of his triumph, or Kennedy, a young icon struck down in his prime. But for a frail, sickly man who had propped himself up as President for Life? No. It's very nearly blasphemous.  He was a man, not a diety.

I'm sure it's a generational gap. But I'm equally certain my opinion was shared by contemporaries of the event, and that the love affair was not quite so universal as advertised. Said William C Murphy, Jr, later an RNC publicity director but at the time a beat reporter on the funeral train "You guys will be coming back as soon as the old man is buried, but not me. I'm going to sit by his grave for three days and see if he . . . rises."

A worthwhile, detailed look at a watershed moment for the Greatest Generation.

Grade: A -

Boook #44 of the year

Biblical Archaeology Review

I recently subscribed to Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR) and enjoy reading it cover to cover, even if some of it is waaaay over my head. However, I will say it seems like anything authored by the editor himself is below BAR standard. For instance, on the issue of the "James, Brother of Jesus" ossuary, the guy's got a vested interest in it being legit, so a cover piece he wrote about it is as objective and professional as campaign literature. Still, this month's two page illustration of the Bubatite Portal's Sheshonq relief is worth the price of a subscription all by its lonesome. Anybody else read BAR?

The Lowest Tip Ever

I took the family (minus YaYa) to Hector's on Delaware for dinner. The food was good but overpriced, and the service was awful. We waited forever for drinks, were served in slip-shod fashion, and the waitress was argumentative and rude. Fair enough. I hope she enjoyed her 95 cent tip on a table of five.

Flag Day!

Happy Flag Day. Fly the Stars and Stripes today folks! Indy legend Michael Andretti will be @ the Bay View Piggly Wiggly from 3 -5 today. While you're there, stop in the floral department for great Father's Day ideas!

Quote of the Day

Two quotes of the day. The first: LuLu asked me to get her past a puzzle on a video game she was playing on the Nook. I took it from her, whipped through it in under 30 seconds, and handed it back. She was amazed and wouldn't stop talking about it. Later I told Lisa how annoying it is when your kid seems awestruck that you're smart enough to finish a kids puzzle. "You think that's bad?," she said. "At least they think you have a brain. You know what Smiley said to me? He said "Mom I 'ave a question", then said "ne'ermind, it a hard one" and went and asked you." :( 2nd quote of the day: Lisa: "Why don't you just come to bed? It's ten o'clock. I know you're tired." Me: "No way. I go to bed and the next thing I know it's morning and I have to go to work. The longer I stay up, the longer it is before the start of another workday." Lisa (after a moment of silence): "Whatever. For a smart guy you have a lot of awfully dumb ideas."

Maybe you can provide the answer . . .

Ok, World Wide Web, I need your help.

As a youngster I watched a WWII movie that's stuck in my head for thirty years. Unfortunately, the title was less memorable, and I've been unable to ID the movie to this day. Maybe you can help change that.

Here's what I know:

1. I watched it with my Grandpa, who died in 1983. I would place the viewing as somewhere between 1981 and '83. 


2. We watched it on the "Late Late Show" on CBS (6) in Milwaukee late one Saturday evening.


3. If it was on broadcast TV then, I can't imagine it being made any earlier than 1980 (and that's a stretch). 


4. I remember it being in color. For a second tier WWII flick, I'd say that dates it to no earlier than 1960. 

So we have a twenty year window, 1960-'80.

The plot:

a. A U.S. Army company is ambushed and destroyed in Europe by a German armoured force. I remember the German's broadcasting "Is anyone alive?" to the shattered group, searching for prisoners. 


b. a small number of Americans (seven?) escape and try to return to their own lines. 


c. one by one, over the course of the film, they are separated and picked off


d. one GI is captured. When the Germans take the pic of his wife from his wallet and toss it in the mud her frantically dives to the ground to retrieve it, ignoring their screams to stop. They shoot him dead on the spot. 


e. one of the last remaining characters is killed at the conclusion of the movie with a shot to the throat.


Any ideas folks?

Today at Piggly Wiggly

Indy legend Michael Andretti will be @ the Bay View Piggly Wiggly from 3 -5 today. While you're there, stop in the floral department for great Father's Day ideas!

A-Rod by the Numbers

Alex Rodriguez's historic home run yesterday traveled 389 feet, leaving the bat at a whomping 118.4 miles per hour, at an elevation angle of 18.9 degrees, a horizon angle of 120.0 and an apex of 46. In English? It means that statistically that was the third hardest hit baseball of the 2012 season to date.

The Grey

We just finished watching "The Grey" starring Liam Neeson. A group of oil-rig workers survive a brutal plane crash in the wilds of Alaska, only to find themselves hunted by a pack of wolves eager to eliminate the 'intruders'. I thought this was a very well done movie that takes time to develop the emotional center of the characters (no small feat given the scenario). And the ending . . . I grade this one an "A".

The newly renovated LuLu and Ginger Room (in progress)

Well, that's a cruddy shot, complete with smudge on the lens and a mess on the dresser. Oh well. My nine year old (LuLu) took it, and I doubt I could have done better at her age. I'll get better pics in the near future.

 What you're looking at is the 1st concrete step towards reclaiming our home and our lives in this, The Year of The Comeback.

With a new full time job lining my pockets with an extra $5 to spare at the end of the week, we've decided to redo the house, one bedroom at a time. First up is LuLu and Ginger's room, seen above. Last month we spray painted their old red metal bunk bed black, and a few paychecks later picked up zebra print bed sets for the girls.Yesterday, the big plunge, using the remnants of last week's check: two gallons of  paint in LuLu's favorite color of lime green (officially, Harvest Plantain), a half gallon of black to touch up the bed and for the insets on the door, a desk lamp, and light dampening, insulating widow curtains.

While I was at work today Lisa emptied the room and painted it, and when I got home we put the bed back together. There are still touch ups to be done, and the door insets. I also need to replace the closet light, better insulate the window A/C, and buy a new bolt for the bed guard on the top bunk.

Plus it wouldn't hurt for the kids to clean the room either.

Once their room is done its on to Smiley's, then YaYa's, then our own and the entryway. But before any of those, a huge expense: the replacement of our back porch, which is quite literally a safety hazard. It's falling apart, and some steps are supported solely by scrap pieces of wood anchored to the side. I'll take pics of that mess in the next few days, but the contractor has already been hired to replace it.

Progress . . . it makes you feel, what's the word? Oh yeah. Proud. 

Pulo's Pizza

We took the two youngest out for pizza at Pulo's at 1567 W Oklahoma, in the same building where my sister Chrissy once lived in an apartment upstairs. Good food, good company. Oh, and Smiley brought his favorite buddy, Ducky!

Chronicle

I just finished watching 'Chronicle' a found-footage film about a trio of teenage boys who discover . . . *something* . . . in the woods and emerge with super powers. Don't judge the movie by the trailer, or the poster. Very little of the movie is devoted to action/adventure (although the parts that are are spectacular). At its heart, it's a movie about the disintegration of a family and the failed attempt of a troubled kid to rise above his circumstances. I really liked this film. Grade: A

A Perfect Game!

Congrats to SF's Matt Cain for pitching the 22nd Perfect Game in MLB history tonight!

Daughters of Satan

Daughters of Satan is a 1972 horror film starring a young Tom Selleck, here proving he could rock a mustache in every era. He plays an art buyer stationed in Manilla who finds a 450 year old painting of 3 witches being burned at the stake. The one in the middle? Well, she just happens to be a dead ringer for his lovely young wife. 

Believe it or not, strange things happen once his wife is exposed to the painting, and before long a four century old plan for revenge is put into motion - complete with bare breasts, bondage, and a smidge of torture in the buff. 

What can I say? When the daughters of Satan make a plan, they make it easy to watch. 

It's a crud film, but not as bad as you think. The script makes an effort to be coherent, and Selleck does all he can to hold this one together. Unfortunately it is what it is, and his cast mates have presumably been paid *not* to act for the last 40 years. 

Grade: C/C-

A-Rod makes History - Again!

A-Rod makes history (again)! He just hit t his 23rd career grand slam, tying Lou Gehrig for the most all-time. I bow to thee!

Happy Birthday Mr. President!

Happy 88th Birthday George Herbert Walker Bush!

Joan Rivers and Shiloh

Shiloh 1862 by Winston Goom (yes, the same guy who wrote Forrest Gump) is a work of popular history about the epic Civil War battle that nearly ended the Union's thrust into the west (and with it U.S. Grant's career). Groom has become a prolific author of military history in recent years but this was the first time I've read his non-fiction. The verdict? 

Good? 

Yes.

 Shelby Foote good, as the blurb on the cover indicates?

No. 

This is a work of history meant for the masses, more of a detailed introduction to the battle than an in-depth historical work. You'll learn a lot about the battle if this is your first exposure to it, but I can't say I walked away with any more information than I knew going in, aside from some accounts taken from civilian diaries that help make the narrative more accessible.

Groom writes smoothly, and you'll find he delivers the information with ease, so no problems on that score. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I thought I detected a hint of southern bias at some points in the book, especially in the  'wrap-up' sections after the battle concludes on the field. And, as usual, too little emphasis is given to the monumental second day, when the Union not only rallied but mauled the Confederate Army to retake the field. 

Grade: B/B+

Book #42 of the year

And now for something completely different . . . 

Joan Rivers' new book, I Hate Everyone . . . Starting with Me is vulgar, occasionally repetitive, and laugh out loud funny. It's not for the faint of heart, but those with heart problems  probably won't survive the $26 price tag anyway. 

My only complaint is that it's obvious Rivers hasn't been slumming in awhile. If you're going to joke about McDonald's or other fast food places, it might be a good idea to check out a recent (post-1985 menu);. McDonald's does offer healthy options, and it doesn't serve onion rings (at least not in any of the franchises  where I've eaten. 

Anywho, damn funny. 

Grade: A 

Book #43 of the year

Lost trivia

Trivia of the day: Matthew Fox, star of "Party of Five" and "Lost" is the great-great-great grandson of General George Gordon Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg and the Overland campaign of '64-'65. Howabout that?

Happy Anniversary

Congrats to Jeanne and Jaspare on their wedding anniversary (26 by my count)! Also, a big shout out to Faith, who graduated from 8th grade today. Congrats kid!

A Ugh Day

It's been a long, sluggish, waste of a day. My sleep last night was interrupted every few hours by a nightmare, and so I've been walking around in a daze all day. Usually I like to do *something* productive on my day off, and I had thought of taking the kids to see the Cave of the Mounds today, but instead I settled for a bbq in the backyard and two naps. The most productive thing I've done was take out the trash and recycle another box worth of books from my office/"someday it'll be a" bedroom.

The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe

Just finished watching the 2011 Doctor Who Christmas special " The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe". Delightful, touching, funny and packed with memorable lines, this one is grand. Kudos again to head writer Steven Moffatt and lead Matt Smith who continues to inch his way up the list of all-time great Doctor's. The last scene, where the Doctor sheds a tear of joy? I was misting up myself. Grade: A++

Primeval

I've finally finished watching the complete (to date) BBC series Primeval.

For those unfamiliar with the show, rips in time ( an "anomaly", yet another word I can never pronounce correctly) have started popping up throughout the UK. Their existence is a state secret, which is rather difficult to accept since they routinely spit pre-historic creatures out into shopping centers and highways.

A less than crack team of experts is assembled to contain these incidents. There's the evolutionary scientist and his protege, a young female zoologist, and a nerdy computer geek. Somehow, the British government deems this group up to the task; forget the dinosaur on the motorway, that's suspension of disbelief on an epic scale.

Is it high literature of the airwaves? No of course not. It's about dinosaurs romping through your kiddie pool. But it is good fun, and over time the show evolves (no pun intended). The military is brought in to back up the group and by season 4, when the new lead assumes control of the team, it has morphed into a well-funded and professional operation.

As time goes on the characters grow and change too, and what starts out as a harmless creature feature of the week becomes a show with a moderately complex conspiracy running beneath the surface.

Connor, the before mentioned computer geek, steals the show, becoming a confident and able part of the team over the years, but I have a soft spot for James Lester (played by Ben Miller), the droll and nattily dressed bureaucrat overseeing the operation. Oh, and Lucy Brown  is hot. Majorly hot.

It's a very good show. Go stream it on Netflix.

Well well

Tsk tsk. A state worker sent me an email blasting my column 

*from her state email address *, presumably on work time. I then received two automated email notices from a state address indicating her attempts to abort the message, apparently ixnayed either by her side or by gmail. Thanks for spending tax payer $ to write a personal response to a community columnist in Milwaukee. Great way to back up your email claiming the reforms weren't needed.