Nobody 773

Sunday, June 21, 2009
Nobody 773

Nobody Asked Me But:

ON WAR

War will be akin to sane
When
Politicians kill one another
and
The young dance in the streets.

(This is from my poem Black Hawk Down)<<<

Since home and teaching are the two greatest factors in the successful education of our children, I have a question: Once the governments legislate to make it easier to fire bad teachers, will they follow with laws making it easier to fire bad parents? Just wondering.<<<

BOOK REVIEW

“The Stain”

A plane lands in New York City but stops dead on the runway, which is appropriate since all but four of the passengers and crew are seemingly dead. But are they? CDC Dr. Eph Goodwater teams up with Abraham Setrakian who has survived more than human monsters at Treblinka and Vasiliy Fet, NYC rat-catcher supreme on a vampire hunt that ultimately leads them to the subway tunnels under the World Trade Center excavation.

Despite a slightly Buffyed-up ending, Pans Labyrinth director, Guilleramo Del Toro and mystery writer Chuck Hogan have teamed up to write an exciting novel and, what’s better, it is the first of a trilogy.<<<

And while on the subject of books: We may present the Edgar (Allen Poe) or the Agatha (Christie) award for best crime novel, but we fall far short of the UK’s charm. It was just announced across the pond that Ian Rankin’s “Exit Music” has been shortlisted for
 Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year.<<<

Is it correct to say that Blue Cross and other private health insurance companies who increase their profits by canceling policies for the very sick have made a killing in the field? Just wondering. And tell me again that we don’t need a private health insurance alternative.<<<

SPORTS PAGE

Seth Davis at sportsillustrated.com: “This is the discomfiting reality of today's college basketball recruiting world, which is driven almost totally by NBA agents. As I've said before, agents are to college basketball what steroids are to baseball: They're cancerous and they're everywhere, and everyone knows what's going on -- yet no one is doing anything about it.”

Reaction: My solution is simple. Governments, national and state, should enact laws making it illegal for sports agents to have ANY professional contact with kids before they are NBA eligible. Anyone who violates these laws should face heavy fines and a permanent loss of license.<<<


He said it, not me. But I agree. - Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News: “I think USC deserves our praise for somehow remaining under the salary cap — and in two sports — for as long as it has.”<<<


Is my memory failing or has American geography really changed? When I went to high school in Memphis it was located in the mid-South. So how did it end up as a AAA Pacific Coast League city?<<<


“With a respectable 4.23 ERA.” - When I was young, respectable and 4.23 ERA were not allowed in the same sentence.<<<

Q: What key weapon was invented in 1955 to help men in their eternal power struggle with women?

A: The wireless remote control.<<<

FOR HISTORY LOVERS ONLY

Did you know: that Paul Revere fought in the Battle of Gettysburg?

That’s Paul Joseph Revere, the grandson of the Midnight Rider.<<<

AND HOW ABOUT THIS?

I knew that we gave a huge amount of aid to the Soviet Union during WW II, but every time I see the actual figures I am again amazed.

15,000 airplanes

7,000 tanks

375,000 army trucks

We were so accommodating that legend has it that when the image-conscious Soviets asked for 18-inch condoms the US shipped them in cartons marked Medium.<<<

MOVIES

My “Don’t Make Her My Momma” award for the worst mother in movie history goes to Eleanor Iselin, (Angela Lansbury) in “The Manchurian Candidate.” Her manipulation and control of her brainwashed son, ((Laurence Harvey) was bad enough, but to have a crush on him too. That’s below and beyond the call of motherhood.

However, if I wanted a “killer” mom (literally) I would I would gladly sign on as the son of runner-up Beverly Sutphin (Kathleen Turner) in “Serial Mom.”<<<

Did you know: that Gene Kelly was “singing in the milk” as well as in the rain? The dairy stuff mixed in to make it show up better on the screen. Whole or 2%? Who knows? What am I supposed to be, some kind of expert?<<<

I am not saying that the new conservative columnist for the NY Times, Ross Douthat is a bad guy, but I am suspicious of anyone who was born in New Haven and then went to Harvard.

And he certainly has it wrong in calling author Dan Brown anti Catholic, when what he really is anti-talent.<<<

Action: Arizona lawmakers move to end domestic partner benefits.

Reaction: As the nation moves towards the light, the state where I grew up once more chooses the darkness. As Lincoln said, “I have to laugh or I will cry.”<<<

The ethics question taken is from Randy Cohen’s excellent weekly column in the NY Times. The solution, right or wrong, is all mine. How would you answer?

My friend Natalie had a small party, to which another friend brought a movie on his portable hard drive for all to watch. When Natalie got up to get a sweater, she tripped over the cord, killing the hard drive. She offered our friend $300 to replace it, but he demanded $1,800 to cover data retrieval too: the drive contained his digital artwork, not backed up. Who owes what?

jt: Friend two is the debtor. He owes Natalie an apology. Hers was an accident for which she offered to pay a reasonable sum. His was no accident. He was irresponsible in not backing up data that he valued highly.<<<