Doctor Who Workout

To further your endeavors for better health!  Keep up the good  work!  - Tre

YaYa

WTH Nightline?

Watching Nightline with Lisa and there's a ridiculous story about a kid who, left alone by his Mom who "didn't see the warning on the package", swallowed some small balls. "He could have died!" she said. I was immediately angry. At the Mom, who's fibbing (what package doesn't have the warning?) and at ABC, who would run such a nanny-state piece. Lisa seconded the opinion, and with vigor. "Why don't we just ban dildo's too, so no one accidentally shoves them up their ass too far!"

Terror in Benghazi

RIP to American Ambassador Stevens and the other Americans killed in Libya yesterday, on the anniversary of 9/11 (how anyone could chalk the date up to coincidence alone is beyond me). Stevens is the 8th American ambassador killed in the line of duty.   I could spend the night commenting on the culture and people that promote such idiocy, or the lauded Arab Spring that was nothing more than the bad replacing the bad, but I'll respect Stevens memory enough to leave that alone for now. Again, RIP.

Huh. Look at that.

Thoughts and Prayers

A close friend of Lisa's had a brain aneurysm on Monday, but in her disorientation refused a paramedic's offer to transport her to the hospital. She then drove herself across town to Columbia St. Mary's (despite living near two hospitals) where they diagnosed her and id'd two other blockages in her brain. Then while they were working on her she had a heart attack and is in the ICU at Froedert. Lisa is justifiably upset and any kind thoughts/prayers for her friend would be appreciated.

Mix and Match

In keeping with a longstanding tradition, I have started my fantasy football season 0-1. Eli was lethargic and my running backs . . . well, damn them all. My WR, TE, K and D all did well, and I crept close to the century mark in points. Break 100 pts in a given week and you'll win more games than you lose, so not all is lost. Yet.

 ***
 Last night we watched the premiere of Matthew Perry's new sitcom "Go On". I liked it, which was a pleasant suprise if I'm being honest, but I don't see it surviving long. It's a little dry and at times a little serious for a primetime network sitcom. We'll watch it again.

 Shows we've taken to recording/watching: "Oddities". "American Restoration". "Great Lakes Warriors" We started watching "American Gypsies" but grew tired of it, or at least I did.

 The kids have taken a shine to Full House, the old ABC sitcom from my youth. They really like it - just as they really like Psych and enjoy The Nanny and American Dad (the latter I object to and ban from their viewing, but a sitter has allowed them to skirt the rule. Ridiculous.) They occasionally watch the Brady Bunch too. YaYa is also into anime, and last week, with my permission, watched the Japanese film 'Battle Royale'.

 ***

 I walked the kids home from school Monday, a good 45 minute walk, and to my surprise three of the kids did it without so much as whine or a whimper. I say three because Olivia was pooped 5 minutes into the walk and was not the best company for much of the route. I had been warned; my sister was so sure she was a 'lousy walker' that she asked Lu to have me photograph the event just for the shock value.

 In addition to walking them home from school I've been trying to walk a lot lately just for exercise. There was the epic hike in the rain with Ginger and Smiley, and the other night Smiley and I walked to the store and back around 9pm, with Smiley carrying a bag of laundry detergent and soda home without once asking me for help. The next evening LuLu and I walked to my friends house and back. I like the idea of getting more exercise and of including the kids in that routine.

****

Saturday I finished reading "Fire in the Streets: The Battle for Hue, Tet 1968" by Eric Hammel. As the title states, it's a detailed narrative history of American efforts in Hue during the Tet offensive. It is very detailed at the small unit level, up to and including estimates of how many rounds were expended during an action, and there's plenty of eyewittness accounts to hold your interest. Some flaws: I think the depth of the detail numbs you after awhile, and certainly puts it out of reach of the casual reader. It's also devoid of any overall context or analysis of the battle, reducing it to just a record of a shoot-em-up. Still, I enjoyed it. Grade: B

Book #74 of 2012

****

Best finale of Bachelor Pad imaginable. What a great, shocking moment! All hail reality TV, and all Hail King Jeff!

Bachelor Pad

Best finale of Bachelor Pad imaginable. What a great, shocking moment! All hail reality TV, and all Hail King Jeff!

A Walk Home

Walking the kids home from school, 9-10-12

Thank You David Akers

Whooohoo David Akers aka my 14 fantasy point  - at halftime! -  kicker, who just made history by hitting a 63 yrd field goal, tying an NFL record. I want a Packers win, but another 14 points for Aker in the second half would be swell . . . .

I'm confused

In a military history book I'm reading is the following quote, one I don't fully understand. It rationalizes the failure to secure an area on the flank of the advance, saying.  ". . . there are security advantages to be gained from having a dangling flank curve behind an advancing front line; it prevent[s] the enemy from rolling up behind the advancing front line." How is that the case? By leaving the flank occupied by the enemy and pushing forward, isn't the enemy (by definition) already behind your line of advancement?  If you know, please explain.

If you're tactics are highly stressful, then your enemy will be driven before your line of advance, or destroyed by it.  Enemies behind your line of advance result from imperfections in, or the failure of your tactics.  - Fred

Sure, but the author was arguing that leaving the enemy on the flank - in this case - helped secure the rear of the advance. I do not see the logic involved. - Me

With forces on the flank, the enemy is prevented from sending troops in a circular maneuver to come at the rear from an oblique angle. - Fred

update: I wrote the author of that military quote (Eric Hammel) and asked him to explain. Here's what he wrote back: 

It's difficult in 2012 to know exaclty what I was thinking in 1991, but it seems to me now that I had had a line described to me that looked like this (taking into account the limitations of keyboard symbols:

  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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It would prevent--or at least constrain--an enemy force from rolling up the (in this case) left flank in detail from left to right.

If I'm not mistaken, Patton's right flank was open during the September 1944 part of the advance across France, but XIX Tactical Air Command "dangled" on that side of Third Army and thus provided that sort of flank protection.

I'm Disgusted

I am thoroughly disgusted with having to work as much as I do. I know there are folks here on FB who work more hours and others that seem to get all happy-wappy by working two jobs, but honey, that ain't me. Last weekend I worked 29 out of 48 hours and have pulled several 12 or 13 hour days since then for no appreciable financial gain. Something has to change.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Last night Lisa and I found ourselves at the Value Cinema, watching "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter". 

The book was ok, but stretched a gimmick too far. The movie just plain SUCKED. Hokey dialogue, a 4th grader's grasp of history, anachronisms galore, and the mandatory African-American best friend who is treated as Abe's social equal by everyone despite, ya know, it being *1840*. 

Some of the action scenes were wicked good tho', and Mary Todd was hot - possibly the only time that's been said in the last 150 years. 

Lisa slept through most of it, including one embarrassing snoring incident, making her like *the worst date ever*, but the movie wasn't *that* bad. Grade: C-

Never use the verb "sucked" when critiquing a vampire movie. -Fred

it was a 9:55 movie and it was a loooong day!!! - Lisa

excuses, excuses - Me

Quote

It is often better to do the right thing for the wrong reason that the wrong thing for the right reason

Michael Clarke Duncan

R.I.P Michael Clarke Duncan

Two Quotes

"You're worrying about how other people feel at a time when you should only be worrying about yourself."

"There is no such time," she said. -Mr Monk and the Two Assistants, pg 29

Cast down your bucket where you are - Booker T Washington

The Yanks are Back

Thank you Lord! Arod is back in the Yankee lineup for the first time since July 24th. They cut his rehab stint short and recalled him because they needed him, the presence of "The Captain" be damned. Since he went on the DL the Yanks are 18-18 and saw their lead in the division trimmed from seven games to two. I know they sometimes need to give the appearance of fallibility so that fans in other cities mistakenly think they have a shot at a ring, but enough is enough. Time to start doing what Yankees do best: Just Win Baby.

Napoleon

"Josephine told lies practically all the time, but with elegance. I can say that she was the woman whom I have loved the most," Napoleon 

"He [Napoleon] might have been a better man if he had been more and better loved." - Madame de Remusat

Oddities

Watching "Oddities" with the bookends and Lisa . . .

Quote

In 3 words I can sum up everything I've learned in life; it goes on. - Robert Frost

Hiroshima by John Hersey

I finished reading John Hersey's "Hiroshima", a great early example of "new journalism". It was superb, and I have since passed it on to Grace. If I had a complaint it is that the bombing is presented without any context. There is no discussion of Japan's rape of China, its attack on Pearl Harbor, the torture and murder of thousands of American POW's, the fierce resistance on Okinawa that cemented the certainty that a conventional invasion of Japan would be an epic bloodbath, etc. It was not the TOOL that was evil, but the war that spawned it. That is touched on for a sentence or too in the epilogue, but that was not enough  Grade: A+ (book 73 of 2012)

Eastwood's speech

Just watched Clint Eastwood's speech at the Republican convention. Obviously age chipped away at his delivery, but his opinions were spot on. Well done sir, thank you.

Quote

"My father always wanted to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding, and the baby at every christening," Alice Rooselevelt,  TR's daughter, on her Dad's thirst for the limelight

Guest of Honor by Deborah Davis

Friday I finished reading "Guest of Honor" by Deborah Davis. It's a non-fiction account of the 1901 White House dinner of Teddy Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington - the first time a black man was invited to break bread with the President, and an action that enflamed the South. I respect the dinner and the courage it took for all parties - but I think the book as a whole failed to live up to the importance of that moment. It was organized loosely, spending far too much time tracing the biographies of the two men and then relegating the dinner and its aftershocks to less than a third of the book. Also, while I know its a work of popular history and not a scholarly treatment, I could have done without some of the annoying hallmarks of that genre; such as endless times when successive, often irrelevant anecdotes and trivia were used to establish the feel for the time and place. One thing it did do well was re-establish the brilliance of Washington, a man long dismissed by historians weened on the jealousies of his rival W.E.B. DuBouis. Grade: C+/B- (book# 72 of the year)

You are so freaking smart. You need to become an editor for some these independents. They'd be in tears but smarter for it. Pays well too. - Violetta

Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants by Lee Goldberg

Thursday I finished reading "Mr Monk and the Two Assistants" by Lee Goldberg, a book based on the tv show "Monk". I liked the premise (bringing back the old assistant Sharona and having her lock horns with Natalie) but I thought the book was flat, with a messy plot and no real zest. Goldberg is the writing partner of William Rabkin, author of the Psych novels, and judging soley from this effort I'd say Rabkin has the lion's share of the talent. Still, the dialogue worked well so perhaps Goldberg is just handicapped by his history as a scriptwriter. Grade: C [book #71 of 2012]