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Thursday, December 27, 2012

November 2009 on FB


The cast of Glee sings the national anthem prior to the Yankee win in game 3!
November 1, 2009 at 12:27 am Friends

Uh, Brett: maybe you could stop blowing your snot on the field every time the camera pans to you. Hillbilly.
November 1, 2009 at 6:30 pm Friends

Arod doubles to left to drive in Damon w/ two outs in the 9th . . Yanks now up by one.
November 1, 2009 at 11:39 pm Friends

and kudos to Damon on some great baserunning!
November 1, 2009 at 11:43 pm

Yanks win! 3-1 Series lead!
November 1, 2009 at 11:48 pm Friends

Although not a scoring play and no out was recorded, THIS was the single most important moment of Game 4.

11.01.09: Johnny Damon steals second base, then sees that no one is covering third and takes another base
November 2, 2009 at 12:58 am Friends

2 outs in the ninth, tie ballgame . . . ARod, I bow to thee.

11.01.09: Alex Rodriguez lines a go-ahead double to left field in the ninth inning, plating Johnny Damon
November 2, 2009 at 12:59 am Friends

Howdy - pecan Supremes, peanut butter cups, mint trefoils, malted milk balls, honey roasted peanuts, fruit slices, dulce de leche, cranberry trail mix, choc covered raisins, choc covered peanuts = all $5 each.

choc covered almonds, or a can of whole cashews = $6 each

whole cashews gift box = $8.

Thanks!
November 2, 2009 at 12:38 pm

I'm watching the absurd hatchet job Nightline is trying to pull off . . . Lisa is literally laughing on the couch. Be biased, oh mainstream media - you all are - but for God's sake, at least pretend to have taken a journalism class. Geesh.
November 3, 2009 at 12:29 am Friends

A disproportionate number of 'Caillou' episodes seem to center around losing and searching for Gilbert, their cat. Just ck out the one playing on Sprout right now. It's like a children's program spawned from Danny phobias.
November 4, 2009 at 1:44 am Friends

Yanks up by 6 in the 5th . . blood in the water, Yanks starting to feed at will. C'mon boys, finish this!
November 4, 2009 at 9:59 pm Friends

Yanks win! Yanks win! 27 ringz baby!
November 4, 2009 at 11:54 pm Friends

Ah, Fox sports is so thoughtless and tacky, asking Matsui if he'd like to return as a Yankee next year just as he receives the MVP trophy. They know full well he's gone next year. Jerky thing to do.
November 5, 2009 at 12:12 am Friends

jeez, Peter Gammons. I love me some Yankees, but your man-love for Jeter and Mo is almost . . . uncomfortable. Tone it down a bit. No need to recite a sonnet about them everytime the microphone is passed your way.
November 5, 2009 at 1:26 am Friends

Heading off to bed. Lu had two teeth pulled yest evening, so I'm sure this morning will be a happy, joyous parenting experience.
November 5, 2009 at 2:56 am Friends

Good news.

A baby missing for five days was found alive and well under her baby sitter\'s bed, and Florida authorities said Thursday they plan to charge the sitter, her husband and the child\'s mother.
November 5, 2009 at 10:23 am Friends

Surprise of the day: Smiley's beaming face is featured in a local weekly paper. We had no idea and were about to toss it out when the photo caught Lisa's eye. How bout that?
November 5, 2009 at 12:06 pm Friends

"The guy wins the World Series, what does he do? He stops to help," said Westchester County police officer Kathleen Cristiano, who was among the first to arrive at the accident scene. "It was totally surreal."

EASTCHESTER - On his way home from winning the World Series, Yankees Manager Joe Girardi stopped to help a woman who had lost control of her car on the Cross County Parkway and crashed into a wall.
November 5, 2009 at 3:27 pm Friends

7 dead, 20 wounded as of the last (unconfirmed) report

Multiple deaths and multiple injuries have resulted from shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, according to a Fort Hood spokesman.
November 5, 2009 at 3:29 pm Friends

Is it just me, or is Pam on the Office really annoying since she got engaged (now married)? The character seems off this season.
November 6, 2009 at 12:39 am Friends

The Southridge store is on the list . . I loved Waldens as a kid. What a shame.

Borders has announced that it will close approximately 200 stores in its Waldenbooks Specialty Retail group in January. The store closings will leave Borders with about 130 mall-based outlets. About 1,500 positions will be eliminated in the downsizing, most of which are part-time jobs.
November 6, 2009 at 3:48 pm Friends

[dabs tears of joy from eyes] I DVR'd the whole thing . . .


NEW YORK (AP) -- Crowds roared, church bells rang and streams of paper rained down on Broadway as the New York Yankees celebrated their 27th championship Friday in a way only this city can, with a parade up the Canyon of Heroes.
November 6, 2009 at 4:08 pm Friends

Did Neanderthals Have Sex with Modern Humans? , Neanderthals were the closest relatives we had, and new hints from researchers suggest that we might have been intimately close indeed.
November 6, 2009 at 3:57 pm Friends

My Mom was hospitalized today. Any extra prayers would be appreciated.
November 6, 2009 at 4:16 pm Friends

Ah, listening to Jonas Brothers sing "I fell in love with a pizza girl, now I eat pizza, now I eat pizza, now I eat pizza everyday" while LuLu sings along perfectly, note for note.
November 7, 2009 at 3:38 pm Friends

LuLu: "Why'd you post that? Thank you for woo-ning my life"
November 7, 2009 at 3:39 pm

Just finished watching the Dr. Who episode "Turn Left". Great episode, wonderful character development, and a grand performance from Catherine Tate. Here endeth my dork status report for the night.
November 8, 2009 at 1:57 am Friends

A 2000 year old mystery may finally be solved.

The remains of a mighty Persian army said to have drowned in the sands of the western Egyptian desert 2,500 years ago might have been finally located.
November 9, 2009 at 6:03 pm Friends

RIP

First diagnosed in 1992, Wilson became a very public cancer survivor and a constant advocate for others fighting breast cancer. Long a television reporter and anchorwoman, she became a founder of After Breast Cancer Diagnosis - ABCD for short - a one-on-one mentoring program for cancer patients.
November 9, 2009 at 11:58 pm Friends

My ballot: Herzog, Martin, Autry, Marvin Miller.

Twenty former major league managers, umpires and executives will be considered for election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame for induction in 2010 by two Veterans Committees, with results of a Dec. 6 vote to be announced Dec. 7 at baseball’s Winter Meetings, it was announced today.
November 10, 2009 at 5:42 pm Friends

Washington-area sniper John Allen Muhammad was executed Tuesday by lethal injection, a Virginia prisons spokesman said.
November 10, 2009 at 10:45 pm Friends

Some guys mugged a guy in Milwaukee . . . and then returned the wallet with a 'thank you' after seeing his military ID inside.
November 10, 2009 at 11:55 pm Friends

Danny Gokey's first song will be released soon on country radio . . .which means I'll never hear it.
November 11, 2009 at 10:22 am Friends

I'm giving you plenty of warning. Someday, somehow, this is what our front door will look like.






A WTF complaint: Smooth Jazz 106.9 just posted this on FB: "Alicia Keys talks about her HIV/AIDS" and then, in a smaller font, continues w/ "Foundation" on the next line. So if u aren't paying attention . . . Damn near gave me a heart attack.
November 11, 2009 at 1:11 pm Friends

Every weekend is the same: Grace moaning that she never goes to anyone's house/we never have anyone over, blah blah. What a crock. Barely a week goes by w/out some sleepover.
November 13, 2009 at 3:40 pm Friends


Seven months after Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan left for New York, the Vatican on Saturday announced his successor, naming Bishop Jerome Edward Listecki of La Crosse as the new spiritual leader of Southeastern Wisconsin's nearly 700,000 Catholics.
November 14, 2009 at 12:19 pm Friends

Venice may be a ghost town soon.

Historic Venice is approaching the dread status of living museum, with a population now below 60,000 — a largely symbolic threshold considered by some to signal the end of the city's viability.
November 14, 2009 at 12:25 pm Friends

Angel (one of our cats) knocked over a fish tank last night and ate YaYa's Beta. Tears this morning, mitigated by her respect for Angel's prowess. We'll have to buy another soon.
November 17, 2009 at 2:32 pm Friends

Grienke wins the AL Cy Young. His 16-8 record looks modest, until you consider his 2.16 ERA and the fact that he pitches for the lowly Royals.
November 17, 2009 at 2:36 pm Friends
[He would soon be a Brewer]

I just spoke to my Mom, her surgery is due in a few hours. I'll update on that later.
November 17, 2009 at 4:00 pm

You can't blame this one on McDonald's: Researchers have found signs of heart disease in 3,500-year-old mummies.
November 17, 2009 at 9:12 pm Friends

As of an hour ago my Mom was out of surgery and doing well (knock on wood)
November 17, 2009 at 10:55 pm Friends

Project Runway finale tonight. I'm rooting for Carol Hannah, but I think the wise money is on Irena (although I didn't care for the preview of her Bryant Park designs).
November 19, 2009 at 10:25 am Friends

After 55 years the USPS pulls the plug on the program.

Ho Ho No: Postal Service Drops Santa Letters Program, Thousands of starry-eyed children all over the world are writing letters to the jolly man at the North Pole this holiday season, but they will not likely get a response from Santa Claus or his helpers.
November 19, 2009 at 10:33 am Friends

Oprah Winfrey will announce on Friday's "The Oprah Winfrey Show" that she will end her talk show, said a spokesman for Winfrey's Harpo Productions.
November 20, 2009 at 12:40 am Friends

C Penney is discontinuing its "Big Book" catalog.
November 20, 2009 at 2:25 am Friends

What is the point of a Kurt Cobain documentary that contains not one note of his music? I detest Courtney and relish acts of defiance against her . . . but if she denies you his catalog then STFU and shelve the project.
November 20, 2009 at 3:11 am Friends

Two fingers and a tooth removed from Galileo Galilei's corpse in a Florentine basilica in the 18th century and given up for lost have been found again and will soon be put on display, an Italian museum director said Friday.
November 20, 2009 at 9:02 pm Friends

A Vatican researcher has rekindled the age-old debate over the Shroud of Turin, saying that faint writing on the linen proves it was the burial cloth of Jesus. Experts say the historian may be reading ...
November 20, 2009 at 9:01 pm Friends

Listening to a Midway special. Horrific trivia I didn't know: the Japanese took American pilots captured in the battle, bound them hand and foot, attached weights to them and dropped them overboard to drown. The rationale/explanation: they were 'angry at news of their defeat'.
November 23, 2009 at 1:01 am Friends

This is YaYa ice-skating on Sunday. Thanks to my mother-in-law for taking her!


the earlier videos show my granddaughter kind of shaky, the more she went around the rink the better she got.
November 23, 2009 at 10:50 pm Friends

I just took the garbage out and happened upon a possum in our backyard, the first I've ever seen. It looked at me as if to say "WTF dude?", then calmly walked beneath the trampoline. I've been wondering what's been crapping in our (fenced-in) yard. Now I know.
November 23, 2009 at 11:42 pm Friends


Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Hypocrisy?

Yesterday I watched Dark Knight Rises and prohibited the kids from joining me due to the graphic content. Tonight I rented Resident Evil: Retribution and gleefully watched it with Lu and YaYa  Hypocritical? No, mon ami. DK is a stark retelling of the world as it sadly is, while RE is but a cartoon fantasy. Plus, the children must know how best to handle the upcoming zombie apocalypse, and I do feel they picked up a trick or two.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Jack Klugman

RIP Jack Klugman. From The Twilight Zone, Odd Couple and Quincy, I loved your work. And what an instantly recognizable voice. RIP



t's a Wonderful Life

Lisa and I are watching "It's a Wonderful Life" on NBC. It remains my favorite movie ever. No contest - there's not a scene that doesn't make me smile and/or cry.  Just seeing it on the screen makes this awful Christmas week nearly tolerable.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Facebook - October 2009 (bonus coverage of the Yanks run to their 27th World Championship!)


Nice to see TBS pimp the "A-Rod is in a slump cr*p" every time he steps to the plate. [bleep] [bleeps].
October 7, 2009 at 6:26 pm Friends

2 out RBI hit for A-Rod. :)
October 7, 2009 at 7:06 pm Friends

Followed by a two run blast by Matsui. The floodgates are open.
October 7, 2009 at 7:10 pm

Arod: 3 AB's with RISP and 2 out = 3 hits, 3 RBI. I may just swoon from all the love I feel. Seriously.
October 9, 2009 at 7:20 pm Friends

2 run home run by A-Rod in the bottom of the ninth to tie it up . . . I bow to you, Oh Great One of This and Any Era!
October 9, 2009 at 8:42 pm Friends

Arod does it again. He toyed with Pavano, then yanked one to the opposite field to pull the Yanks even.
October 11, 2009 at 8:07 pm Friends

"There goes an A-Bomb from A-Rod!" lol
October 11, 2009 at 9:39 pm

Congrats to my Yanks as they move on to the ALCS for the first time since 2004. ARod's line in the 3 gms of the 2009 ALDS: .455, 2HR, 6 RBI.
October 11, 2009 at 9:42 pm Friends

Ok! magazine is running with a story claiming ARod has asked Goldie Hawn for permission to marry her daughter (Kate Hudson). This can't wait til we have ring #27 people? There's playoffs to worry about!
October 12, 2009 at 3:04 am Friends

Lisa just took LuLu to the ER after she woke up short of breath with chest pain. Hopefully (?!) it's 'just' her first/last horrific asthma attack.
October 12, 2009 at 6:24 am Friends

RIP
Legendary wrestling figure Captain Lou Albano, perhaps best known for his association with pop singer Cyndi Lauper, died Wednesday, according to World Wrestling Entertainment.
October 14, 2009 at 3:07 pm Friends

"Safety Third!" - Mike Rowe
October 14, 2009 at 8:09 pm Friends

Random Jon and Kate thought: Jon's full name is spelled "Johnathon", which is an odd spelling, but then he shortens it to 'Jon', which to me has always read like a poor man's spelling of "John". Huh. Deep.
October 15, 2009 at 1:35 am Friends

Another night’s sleep lost to this damn toothache, w/ the dentist appt. pushed back another week. At least I got something done 2night, hammering out a column for the Journal.
October 15, 2009 at 3:48 am Friends

Funniest snark comment I've gotten: merging my whine about my tooth with my Mike Rowe Quote, Carlos wrote ""Mike Rowe's dirtiest job would be your dentist"
October 15, 2009 at 12:57 pm Friends

Milwaukee Public Library just Facebooked to say their health presentation @ Center St. library is cancelled today . . due to illness
October 15, 2009 at 12:59 pm Friends

I was going to say this week’s episode wasn't worth a prison riot, but the show in question was actually the Jim and Pam wedding, so . . . yeah, it was.
Apparently one Sheboygan County Jail inmate isn't a fan of
October 16, 2009 at 8:20 am Friends

A-Rod, 0-2 in the bottom of the eleventh, blasts a game tying home run to the opposite field - and w/out full arm extension! Truly, my man love for A-Rod has reached unhealthy proportions.
October 18, 2009 at 12:18 am Friends

Lest we forget, Mariano shut down the Angels for 2 1/3 innings.
October 18, 2009 at 1:15 am Friends

Pope Benedict XVI has has created a new church structure for Anglicans who want to join the Roman Catholic Church.
October 20, 2009 at 1:00 pm Friends

Barnes & Noble is launching the "Nook" in November to compete w/ Kindle.
October 20, 2009 at 4:06 pm Friends

RIP Vic Mizzy, age 93, the man who gave us the theme songs from Green Acres AND The Addams Family.
October 20, 2009 at 4:10 pm Friends

Uh, why are you on Facebook right now? You should be watching Glee on Fox.
October 21, 2009 at 8:08 pm Friends

If you happen to be in England, lucky you. Not for the commie medicine that weakens your soul ;) but because Sarah Jane Adventures will be on in ~11 minutes on BBC1
October 22, 2009 at 10:20 am Friends

Who wants to buy some girlscout nuts? LuLu’s goal is 45....damn her ambition! LOL....
October 25, 2009 at 12:12 am Friends

Sure it was great watching the Pack win and the Bears collapse (sorry Ken), but best of all, this NFL.com headline: "Favre fumble, INT help end Vikings' run". Sweeet!
October 25, 2009 at 7:47 pm Friends

Yankees win the pennant! Yankees win the pennant! Best. Anniversary Present. Ever.
October 25, 2009 at 11:08 pm Friends

Anyone who looks at Arod's #'s in this ALCS, and the impact he had, and *doesn't* think the MVP snub was PED based . . . well, share your stash, cuz it must be kind sh*t.
October 26, 2009 at 1:07 am Friends
Had anyone else heard of this? A Columbian soccer team was kidnapped in Venezuela, chained in the sun to trees for weeks, then brutally murdered. A freakin' TEAM.
The Los Maniceros massacre was the kidnapping of twelve members of a Colombian amateur association football team Los Maniceros (Peanut Men), ten of whom were later murdered. The dead were aged between 17 and 38.[1]
October 26, 2009 at 10:44 am Friends

I'm watching Tony LaRussa's press conference as he names Mark McGwire as the Card's new hitting coach. Kudos to Tony for the helping hand to restore Mark's place in baseball.
October 26, 2009 at 11:20 am Friends

"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do."- Henry Ford. 'Course, Henry never met the Prez.
October 27, 2009 at 9:23 am Friends

{shudder} I just had the misfortune of reading something penned by Joy Behar. Wow.
October 27, 2009 at 10:14 pm Friends

Hot damn, the Escort is fixed and back in my hands! Now the big question - how to cover the check I just wrote to pay for the repair. Eek.
October 30, 2009 at 4:56 pm Friends

Reminder: if you are setting your DVR to record Kate Gosselin's much anticipated interview w/ Natalie Morales, it's on Monday under the title "Kate: Her Story" *not* "Jon and Kate Plus Eight"
October 30, 2009 at 4:06 pm Friends

And don't get me started on the Duggars. I love me some Duggars.
October 30, 2009 at 4:55 pm

The Phils will start Blanton in game four, saying Lee shouldn't pitch on 3 days rest . . but they'd toss Lee back out there for a possible gm 7 on 2 days rest!? Okeedokee
October 30, 2009 at 7:32 pm Friends

"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important."- Bertrand Russell
October 30, 2009 at 10:59 pm Friends

Arod homers, Yanks win and take a 2-1 lead in the Series.
10.31.09: Alex Rodriguez is awarded a homer after the umpires use instant replay, the first postseason homer ever awarded in this manner

Never Give In

"Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. " - Winston Churchill

Shopping

Shopping for Mom's gift with Dad at the 27th St. Walmart 

Saturday, December 22, 2012

A Powerful Quote

"Anyone can carry his burden, however hard until nightfall; anyone can do his work however hard for one day." Robert Louis Stevenson. (a quote POW James Kasler held dear during 6 years of torture in Hanoi)

Air War – Vietnam by Frank Harvey

I’ve finished reading my 103rd book of the year: 'Air War – Vietnam' by Frank Harvey, a 1967 expose advertised as the story of “What our Airmen are really doing in Vietnam!” and “The headline making eyewitness story of America’s devastating new brand of warfare!”.  

Harvey spent several weeks embedded with Navy and Air Force pilots in 1966, and what emerged is a frank portrait of the air war at the time.  It is frank, in that it discusses the good and the bad, but it is by no means prescient; while more a dove than a hawk, Harvey is a bit awed by the blunt power of our weaponry and overestimates our success. Not the greatest stylist in the world, Harvey still composed an entertaining account that is filled with details of everyday life that would now otherwise be lost to time. 

Grade: B

Friday, December 21, 2012

The Tragedy at Sandy Hook


For a nation at peace – or at least, at peace on its own soil – the elementary school shooting in Newton,

Connecticut is truly a tragedy beyond our comprehension. 26 victims are dead, twenty of them childrenv of only six and seven years of age.

Tragedy? It’s a nightmare.

Here’s another bit of trivia I noticed as I sat down to write this: there’s been so many of these mass murders that we now unconsciously rank them in order of their misery. How many dead? How many wounded? Were they all adults? Was the shooting at a workplace, or at a place of worship?? Was the shooter unknown to them, or someone they feared?

These mass shootings aren’t an epidemic; they’re a damn competition to see who can ratchet up the most attention from the grave.

I don’t know what motivated the killer. I’ve heard plenty of rumors, but I’m old enough to remember the half-truths that emerged post-Columbine, misconceptions that still skew our attempts to understand the horror. Just a few days ago the media publicly labeled the wrong man the Connecticut shooter, so you’ll have to forgive me if I doubt what they scrounge up now. Whatever the eventual consensus is on his motivation, I call foul.

I was bullied, and I know what it feels like to be an outsider, but I can guarantee you the thought of picking up a gun and killing children never occurred to me, or to the millions who share a similar lief story. I do not believe that video games, TV, or bedwetting inspired his actions. Gun ownership isn’t to blame (though let’s get real: no one could walk into that school with a baseball bat or a knife and kill twenty-six people). Maybe his Mom was great, maybe she was awful; either way, plenty of people deal with the repercussions and live a normal life. If he was truly mentally ill, then yes, he needed help, but blaming his illness would be to wrongfully smear the millions of American with mental illness who aren’t murderers.

Go back for a moment to what I said about this being a competition and look at all the attention paid to these shootings. The victims are the focus at first, but soon enough we hyper-focus t the killer and reduce the victims to historical footnotes. In time what remains? I can’t tell you the name of a single Columbine victim, but I can rattle off the duo of ‘Klebold and Harris’ without pause; show me a picture of a victim of the Colorado theater shooting and I’ll draw a blank, but I can ID the killer from any photo lineup. We do the same with everyone with blood on their hands – in time, they become the focus ofour memories and achieve a dubious, sick immortality.

I don’t blame the media. When dozens of people are murdered it is news, and must be reported. I blame you and me, the people who three weeks after the tragedy eagerly scoop up a magazine about it, or years after the fact plop down hard cash for a true-crime book with a lurid title. If it was up to me,the killers would never get their name in print. “We” don’t need to learn from them to prevent future deaths; that’s a job for psychiatrists and law enforcement, and they are welcome to immerse themselves in their biographies if it will do any good.

Take away that promise of fame, that proof that their otherwise worthless life was worth remembering,and I think some – not all, but some – of these future tragedies will be avoided.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Say What?

Whoa! 3x Olympic runner and 7x national champion Suzy Favor Hamilton, a Madison resident, has admitted leading a double life recently as a prostitute. "[I was]drawn to escorting in large part because it provided many coping mechanisms for me when I was going through a very challenging time with my marriage and my life." Uh, ooookay.

Night by Elie Wiesel

Book #102 of 2012: I have finished reading Night by Elie Wiesel, his account of his time as a teenager in a Nazi death camp.  It is terse, shocking, and rumbles along towards a horrible fate at breakneck speed. The pages that involve his relationship with his father were filled with agony, still felt keenly after many decades.  I began to tear up reading it, and was so moved at his loss that I put down the book and texted “I love you Dad” to my own Father (this, in the middle of the night).  A masterwork. Grade: A+