Published writer, compulsive reader, Old School Whovian, Match Game enthusiast, NKOTB fan, data hoarder, and - surprisingly, given that list - married with four kids. Welcome to my take on life, fatherhood, entertainment, and whatever strikes my fancy. Enjoy!
Today is Lump's 1st birthday, a grand occasion indeed. My Mom called near midnight to wish her well but she spent the night at Lisa's Mom's. Later today I'll take the little girl swimming and out to eat.
If you are one of the many people online who wish us to change her nickname, use this occasion to post your ideas in the comments section. Then maybe we'll host a poll to pick a winner. Who knows?
We Love you Lump! Happy Birthday and a 100 more!
The Associated Press recently published an 1800 word article alleging that United States bombing raids killed Korean civilians 58 years ago. In contrast, an article today concerning the threat of a North Korean nuclear program deserved a thousand fewer words, topping out at 780.
Apparently a story with an anti-American bias is worth more column inches than the 'mere' threat of nuclear war.
I don't use the word 'bias' lightly. A factual story, delivered in context, has a right to be told whether or not it presents this country in a good light. The AP story fails to live up to that ideal.
In the article people were not 'killed' by the U.S. They were 'suffocated, burned and shot to death' in air raids. Despite contrary explanations in the very text, attacks were 'indiscriminate'. The South Korean government - not the North - is referred to as having been a 'right wing dictatorship'. Story after story of terror and pain are told to enforce the article's slant.
"Of course the U.S. government should pay compensation. It's the U.S. military's fault," said survivor Cho Kook-won, 78.
I am not indifferent to his suffering, or that of any family member who suffered a loss in the Korean Conflict. But in my opinion, instead of clamoring for cash Mr. Cho and his countrymen should instead be thanking the U.S. and U.N. servicemen who came to their aid.
Context: In June of 1950 communist North Korea, backed by financing from the Soviets and with the eventual direct assistance of Chinese troops, crossed the border into South Korea and began a war that nearly erupted into WWIII.
Despite the recent victory in WWII the U.S. armed forces had been dramatically downsized. In the chaos of the war's opening weeks the North Korean forces ran roughshod over the peninsula, truly killing indiscriminately and nearing a total victory. U.S. forces were beaten back time and again, suffering great losses, including an American General taken as a prisoner of war.
By the war's end three years later more than 36,000 Americans were dead, with another 92,000 wounded and 8,000 MIA.
North Korea remains, by all accounts, a bleak nation controlled by a dictator that has established a cult of personality that borders on idolatry. Personal freedom is non-existent and the military is all powerful. Threats of war emanate constantly from the government.
Assuming they had survived the hands of the invading North Koreans, that was the future that awaited South Korea.
U.S. and U.N intervention prevented that from happening.
It's in the confusion and terror of the war's beginning, with the North Koreans advancing steadily and a wave of thousands of refugees fleeing before them (inadvertently blocking lines of retreat, supply, and reinforcement) where most of the A.P's. stories occur.
Without question civilian casualties took place, and at American hands. But this is no My Lai or even Dresden. Instead this is a tragic case of confusion, fear, and pure survival instinct.
To quote parts of the article seemingly ignored by the author as he crafted his conclusion:
* . . . a report by U.S. inspectors-general that [said] pilots couldn't distinguish their South Korean civilian allies from North Korean enemy soldiers.
* "The declassified record shows the Americans' fear that enemy troops were disguising themselves as civilians led to indiscriminate attacks on "people in white," the color worn by most Koreans
* "Civilians in villages cannot normally be identified as either North Koreans, South Koreans, or guerrillas," wrote the inspectors-general, two colonels.
* the U.S. Army, fearing infiltrators, had adopted a policy of shooting South Korean refugees who approached its lines despite warnings [emphasis mine]
* "I'm very, very sorry about hitting civilians," said [a] retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, who flew with the 6147th Tactical Control Squadron.
It is certainly not a flattering portrait, but hardly that of an army killing for pleasure or hate. Most Nazi's, I'd imagine, did not feel remorse over accidentally killing a civilian.
And you'll forgive me if I discount the memory of an elderly man, only twelve at the time, who swears there were no North Koreans near his village. Or the woman who claims the killings were deliberate because pilots should have recognized their status by the presence of cows in their village.
Tragedies? Yes. Acts of calculated malice? No.
It does very little good to point fingers at a group who sacrificed much to defend your people.
If blame is to be laid anywhere, point it clearly at North Korea and its communist allies.
After the play last Friday (8/1/08) my nieces decided to stay overnight. That evening Lump, who's stood unaided for awhile now, took two careful steps towards the youngest of the pair!
Excited, I called Lisa's attention to the feat and she again repeated the two-step walk towards a Sesame Street doll called Abby Cadabby!
Now in our household you aren't 'walking' until you do ten continuous steps, so this doesn't 'count'.
Note how she grabs some food from the table, smearing it all over her face for yet another messy picture, then positively sighs with contentment!
All this is very exciting as we come up on her 1st birthday!
Last Friday was the final day of College for Kids. For the finale we were given handmade invitations to attend their theater performance of 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff'.
That night as I tucked YaYa in she began to cry. "My play sucked! There was no music for my dance and people forgot their parts. It was embarrassing!"
"Yeah," I said truthfully. "It wasn't the best, but none of it was your fault. And you know what? Once I blog about it no one will even care. All they're going to do is say 'oh how cute YaYa and LuLu are' and smile. I guarantee it."
Sure, I could have told it was a grand play. But she was there to see it wasn't she? Why lie? The room was cramped and as hot as summer asphalt with ten fewer chairs than audience members, there was no music for an extended dance number, the dialogue was inaudible, much ofthe cast hemmed and hawed and acted shy, a screaming toddler drowned out the opening narration, and the costumes were half-baked.
Worst of all, I brought the best snacks for the after play social, and mine were dollar store cookies for Pete's sake!
[that's a lie. There were some great brownies]
We got there early and stole some chairs from a neighboring room to seat ourselves.
Lisa was braving a horrendous toothache that day. That's my Dad and two of my nieces off to her left.
LuLu played the evil cat of an evil witch.
YaYa was a cat. Her dance was entirely made up of moves from her spring recital.
At the end they all sang a song and held up a banner.
And that was that.
Here are the girls with some of their pals
Then we had the after-theater social.
My sister was at the play too - I tried to include the photo near the top of the post but it wouldn't take.
Even the baby had a snack!
* * * * *
Afterwards we laid on the grass and waited for the inside of car to cool off before loading up the kids. Danged if there wasn't a cloud that looked just like a rubber ducky.
Once we were in the car we remembered leaving the girls clothes behind, so YaYa and I ran back. When we left the building Lisa was nowhere to be found, so she and I repeated our cloud-watching for a good 10 minutes until Lisa spotted us in the traffic and picked us up.
Despite the production value, a very fine afternoon indeed. :)
Before we kick this off, a word of warning: offensive (to some) material ahead.
A little secret: Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle is one of my favorite comedy films of all time. I just plain laughed my ass off.
Not so much with the sequel, Harold and Kumar escape from Guantanamo Bay. While on their way to Amsterdam Kumar decides to light up a bong on the plane and the pair, mistaken for terrorists lighting a bomb, are tossed in Gitmo. They promptly escape and start a cross-country odyssey to clear their names and ruin Kumar's ex's wedding.
On the way they run into a 'bottomless' party, the KKK, an inbred cyclops child, a unicorn, George W Bush, and of course, Neil Patrick Harris.
Most of the movie is just a rehash (no pun intended) of the first film and so the jokes seem played out. It's not difficult to watch but I don't remember laughing at many parts -with the exception of the Neil Patrick Harris scenes.
NPH plays a heterosexual drug addicted prostitute loving version of himself. He does shrooms. He drinks and drives. He waxes poetic about his love child. He frequents whorehouses. He sees mythical animals. And he's funny as hell.
Neil Patrick Harris: I have a lost love story of my own.
Kumar Patel: Oh yeah?
Neil Patrick Harris: I'll never forget her. Her name was Tashonda. She's Whoopi Goldberg's stand-in. Her skin was so soft, her lips were so sweet. She had these tiny little Hershey kisses --s that you just wanted to -- on all night long. Anyway, last day of shooting I told her. I said "T-Bird, we're gonna have to break up".
Kumar Patel: Why'd you do that?
Neil Patrick Harris: I didn't think I could take on that kind of responsibility. What a big mistake!
[slaps himself in the face]
Neil Patrick Harris: The point is boys, even though I loved having sex with some hot random shrooms, a day hasn't gone by where I haven't thought of Tashonda.
* * *
Neil Patrick Harris: Let me be clear. There is nothing on the planet that I love more than a hot, new [redacted].
Kumar Patel: Sure.
Neil Patrick Harris: Nothing. What does the P.H. Stands for in N.P.H?
Harold Lee: Patrick Harris.
Neil Patrick Harris: No, common mistake. [redacted] handler.
Note: at this point I damn near peed myself
Without question this is a vulgar, childish movie. I giggled at the moronic menage a trois between Kumar, his girlfriend, and the woman-sized bag of marijuana. I found humor in lines like "Had I known that the monkey had AIDS I never would have done that." And I'll no doubt see H&K 3 when it inevitably comes out.
Still, all in all a big dissapointment.
2.5 out of 4, 60 out of 100. I assume you can add 10 to 15 points to my totals if you're stoned, drunk, or very tired.
A passenger traveling on a bus across Canada's vast Western plains stabbed, gutted and decapitated a man seated next to him in an unexplained attack, a witness told media Thursday.
The victim had been sleeping before he was repeatedly stabbed in the chest by a man with a large knife, witness Garnet Caton told public broadcaster CBC.
The other 35 passengers and driver were jolted by "blood-curdling screams" and fled. "He must have stabbed him 50 times or 60 times," said Caton.
When Caton and two others returned to check on the victim, he said they saw the attacker "cutting the guy's head off and gutting him."
"While we were watching ... he calmly walked up to the front (of the bus) with the head in his hand and the knife and just calmly stared at us and dropped the head right in front of us."
Police then surrounded the bus and arrested the man, he said.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they were investigating a "major incident" that occurred at 9 pm Wednesday (0200 GMT Thursday) on a Greyhound bus traveling eastbound from Edmonton to Winnipeg, but offered no details.
I suppose I should comment on tonight's second loss in a row to the Cubs or risk looking like a sulking loser, but in truth I didn't see/hear the game and only caught the final score on the web. It's lousy but there's a long way to go in the season and I'm gonna O'Hara this one and say tomorrow's another day.
The Cubs still suck, btw. Just in case anyone forgot ;)
* * * *
I spent most of the afternoon at a pair of doctor's offices with Smiley. We're aggressively trying to determine a cause for his lack of speech, and more importantly find a solution. Disgustingly nothing much happened today. One doc officially noted a speech development problem and referred us to someone else. We traipsed over to Doc #2 and were referred again to a different set of doctors, etc. So on Thursday Lisa will take Smiley to Children's Hospital for testing I'd hoped to have completed today.
Meanwhile we're trying to teach him sign language, with mixed results. 'Please' and 'help' seem to have caught on but to cope with years of his speech problems he's mixed in a bunch of signs he created himself. It's all kind of a jumble right now.
But no boo-hoo and no pity fest. The kid's happy and handsome and healthy. One of the doctor's today asked if I had any concerns about him beyond his speech. I dismissed the question immediately. "He's as healthy as a horse. Look at him, the kid's built like a brickhouse."
(for the record, he's 39# as of today)
Knock on wood about the health.
* * *
You know, there's a disturbing amount of flies buzzing around inside my house tonight. I killed three in the bathroom alone. As a matter of fact a big horsefly just buzzed by my head. How big? If this was WWII I'd have mistaken him for a Messerschmidt.
That's truly a scary big bugger.
I guess I'll have to redo the insulation around the window air conditioner.
* * * *
I had a great comedic line in that fly section that I edited out to avoid the slight chance of a misconception that would hurt someone's feelings, someone who to my knowledge has never read this blog and doesn't know it even exists. Better safe than sorry.
Still, sometimes the self-censorship that makes this site work makes me gag. One of these days I'm going to have an epiphany ala George Carlin (he of the once clean routines) and just go ga-ga.
* * * *
We got the majority of our Christmas shopping done last week as we hit the pre-season clearance sales, and wrapped up all the back to school shopping today.
Yea us!
One of the most annoying parts of my job (in the summertime) is that I have to deal with a massive influx of Cubs fans whenever Chicago plays in Milwaukee. By and large they're courteous, and I certainly welcome the flow of cash into our economy. There are exceptions to the 'courteous' rule of course, and naturally I ran into quite a few of those today.
Tommorow I'll have to hear more smack from the group, assuming they sober up in time, as the Brewers dropped the opening game of the series at Miller Park.
Online there's quite a brew (no pun intended) ha-ha over the loss, with recriminations and accusations flying this way and that. Blah. It's one game, and with 56 games to go we're two games back of first place. By Thursday we could be one game up on the Cubs. Now is not the time for useless finger pointing.
[Although I will say that to me Rickie Weeks, aka Hole in the Glove, is a waste of a #2 overall pick. Sure he's no Matt Bush, but by now he should have given us a taste of something stronger than potential. When you couple horrible defense with a pathetic average and on base percentage . . .well, I just don't see the attraction.]
If you really want something to worry about, mull over the Suppan disaster on Sunday. The man gave up seven runs - SEVEN - in an inning and not only was kept on the mound but allowed to return the next inning. [Manager] Ned Yost's reasoning: "He was one pitch away [from getting out of the jam]".
Two points here. One I disagreed from the start with the decision to overspend for Jeff Suppan last year, and I hope I jotted it down on Slapinions somewhere at the time. Everyone needs to look smart once in awhile.
Second, I am an unrepentant Yost backer, having noted and dismissed the rabid criticisms thrown at him by fans. There's no excuse however, for the miserable handling of Suppan on Sunday. It was just plain awful, deer-in-the-headlights managing if I've ever seen it.
If we miss the playoffs by one game at the end of the season then Sunday may very well causethe blame to squarely fall on Yost's shoulders.
Frankly, I'm sure I'll be pointing fingers at him too, just as he packs his bags and heads out of town.
Enough of this buzzkill. On with the games - and three consecuitive Brewer wins.
Man, what a week for baseball in Milwaukee!
The Brewers swept a tough four game set down in St. Louis to finish off an eight game win streak that included seven wins on the road. The games themselves were nail biters with three of the wins coming in the last at-bats for the good guys. First there was a Bill Hall homer in the 10th inning, then another last second blast from him the next day, and to cap the series off a cocky dinger off the bat of Ryan Braun. I was privileged to watch all three games and I couldn't have been happier.
After a loss yesterday they came from behind again to win today at home. Once again Ryan Braun and Bill Hall combined to do the job, with Braun homering to tie and Hall singling home the eventual winning run.
Ryan Braun is hitting like a beast.
Tonight's win puts the Brewers in a tie with Chicago for the Central Division lead with 58 games left to play and a pivotal three game set between the clubs coming up next week.
Last year the Brewers started hot, the Cubs cold, and 'round about this time the lead switched hands and flip-flopped the rest of the year until the Cubs iced it. Role reversal in '08???
Oh, and CC Sabathia? Lights out. 4-0 since coming over including *three* complete games. Knock of wood that guy is a workhorse, the kind of pitcher you drool over in a fantasy draft.
No matter how you look at it, this year's race is shaping up to be a doozie.
* ** *
Meanwhile the A.L. East, home of my beloved Yanks, has heated up. As Tampa flouders Boston has discovered its middle relief is no relief at all, and the Yankees have learned how to win on the back of a disturbingly effective pitching staff. As a consequence New York has now taken the first two games of their current series with the Red Sox.
Yesterday Joba Chamberlain buzzed Boston's Kevin Youkilis high and inside, and today payback came with a 98 mph fastball that struck A-Rod on the elbow.
Youkilis is a putz and from what I hear disliked even on his own team, but I doubt there was any intention to actually strike the guy. Intimidation has always been a part of the game and its made all the more important by how much these teams despise one another. For what it's worth Joba is now crawling around in Youkillis' head getting him flustered, and that alone might have made it worth the retaliatory hit on A-Rod (provided there is no damage to #13).
* * * *
For Christmas: I want some commemorative item from Yankee Stadium. I've seen $100+ items, but it can be as simple as the $25 coin I saw that includes certified infield dirt.
Yes, I'm serious.
* * * *
Memo to the Arizona announcers, our old alum Darren Sutton and the never-gonna-be-Hall Mark Grace: you suck. Quit yakking about nonsense and call the game, and for the love of all that is right in the world stop encouraging people to bring signs to the game. They are for the sole benefit of the cameras. They are obnoxious. They appeal to the crass insticts of the pack. They are unwanted, unneeded, and unholy.
Just stop.
First off I'd like to say 'thank you' to Rose for featuring me as one of this weeks AOL Guest Editor's Picks. I'm flattered. :)
* * *
This week, as has become a tradition in our house, we packed the kids off to the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee for the summer College for Kids program. Unlike prior years LuLu was now old enough to go and attended with her sister.
The program was started 20 plus years ago as a way of providing fun and educational summer classes for kids in Milwaukee. I attended one of those early classes and loved it.
And despite the rather hefty cost ($~150-300 per child per class - scholarships and discounts available) I do think it helps a child transition to college down the road. Not by increasing test scores or anything like that, but just by making them more comfortable and at ease in the college enviornment. Between all the times my Dad took me to campus when he was a student and my own experience at College for Kids, I was right at home when I began school there in '92.
Heck, YaYa already knows the campus layout better than some of the incoming freshman, I kid you not.
Anywho, they're taking a cooking class, a reading class, and an acting workshop. Of the three I think the reading class was a mistake. We booked it long ago when we thought YaYa might need extra help with the subject, but as it turns out she needs about as much help with reading as I need lessons in how to eat cookies. Still, it's her favorite of the three and Lu is still learning, so all is well.
On Monday we continued another tradition. In Downer Woods, a nature preserve on the north end of campus, there exists a pile of branches and twigs that mimics to a 'T' the pictures of Eeyore's house from Winnie the Pooh.
Each year we hike into the woods and visit with Eeoyore.
So after we picked up the girls on that first day
we all headed over to that part of campus and make the trek.
It's always a pain to get a stroller through the back to back 90 degree turns of the entrance.
but it's worth it.
Unfortunately when we got to the 'house' it was in shambles, a victim of the fierce June storms we had. I cannot express how truly depressing the sight was - the 'slam da book' end of our novel tradition.
There were no crying jags or things of that sort, just a overall sense of sadness. Lu took it hardest as she genuinely believed it was his home, worriedlymentioning to me several times that he would need to rebuild it or find another place to sleep. Sometimes it hits you like that; they seem experienced and worldly and with one sentence you remember they're just your little one.
On the way out the kids started to collect bugs (moths mostly) and we convinced them otherwise by telling them to 'take only pictures, leave only footprints'.
I guess the kids were a little tired after the day's events
But we followed this up by stopping at my Mom's house to celebrate my nephew's birthday.
Stand by for more pictures of College for Kids next week as the girls have parts in the class play!
Dear God what an awful series. I cannot put into words my distaste for the four game sweep the Brewers just suffered at the hands at the Cubs. Five games back now. Ugh.
But these are the Cubs. It's never to late to re-enact 1969, right? ;)
Anyhow, check out this (somewhat) tongue-in-cheek comment I left on Bucko's site:
I'm just sayin'.
Dan
The MLB trading deadline passed at 4 p.m Eastern time today and some big names changed hands.
Tags: Ken Griffey, Manny Ramirez, Ivan Rodriguez, Brewers