Nobody 832

Sunday September 5, 2010

Nobody # 832

Nobody Asked Me But:

"Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist." -- Physicist Stephen Hawking, in his just published book “The Grand Design,” co-authored with Cal Tech physicist Leonard Mlodinow.

With this, Hawking says his total good-bye to divine creation. And did you know that the Cambridge seat from which he is retiring, Lucasion Professor of Mathematics, was once held by Sir Isaac Newton?<<<

Question of the week: If you/I had my entire summer free, how and where would you spend it?

Answer: Since balance is everything, I want two summers – one foreign and one domestic. I’ll start with the foreign. I (actually, we, always we) would take a flat in London and use it as a base to explore the city and the countryside. We would rent chairs in St. James Park and ride the Eye, spend days in the British Museum and the British Library, shop Old and New Bond and Barb would learn to like Indian food. We would buy summer rail/bus passes and explore from Plymouth to Inverness (with a couple of trips to Paris thrown in). Oh, and eat at places like this one pictured, where we ate in 2006.

Next week - domestic.<<<

WHAT DO THEY WANT?

President Obama is responsible for a monumental health care bill, a stimulus bill that helped avoid a depression, a history-making financial reform bill, a bailout that enabled General Motors and Chrysler to survive. He nominated two excellent women to the Supreme Court. He restored America's image in the world. And most Americans are giving him a grade of C or lower. What do they want?

The health care bill follows the tradition of Social Security and Medicare, both of which most Americans wholeheartedly support as untouchables. And yet many of those same people view it like a plague. What do they want?

Many people are calling for deregulation, which caused our present financial mess. That is like saying “It hurt so much when you hit me before, please do it again.” What do they want?<<<

As I have written previously, each issue of The Sporting News Daily has a response to a set list of questions by an athlete or coach. I worry about those who proclaim themselves non-readers or list Dumb And Dumber as their favorite movie, but occasionally someone will have answers that partly restore my faith that intelligence and sports are not enemies. This past Wednesday there was one of the latter, Derek Dooley, the son of legendary Georgia football coach and athletic director Vince, and the new coach at Tennessee. Dooley reads, (Pat Conroy, Stephen Ambrose) loves hamburgers (“They are like football players, they come in all shapes and sizes and you can find some good in all of them”) and believes it was a travesty when Shakespeare In Love beat Saving Private Ryan for the BP Academy Award in 1998.<<<

Why I get discouraged, Part 2010

U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that inmates should not be allowed to file late petitions for release even if they can prove they are innocent.

To deliberately leave innocent people incarcerated is not only a monumental miscarriage of justice. It shows the very face of evil.<<<

GOURMET IS IN THE TASTE OF THE EATER

We had grilled cheese sandwiches last night. The crusty bread was from a bakery in Montrose, the Tillamook cheese was sharp cheddar and the Cab was a 2005 from Châteaux Michelle. Now that was a gourmet meal.<<<

Signs of the Hypocralipse:

Glen Beck – How do you hold an “honor rally” when you have no honor?

LA Times – The paper keep saying that test scores are only a part of their teacher-evaluation scheme but then promote them as if they were the whole thing.

Most Republicans – for claiming that Democrats who criticized President Bush during wartime encouraged our enemies and endangered our troops but now vehemently criticize President Obama thereby, one supposes, encouraging our enemies and endangering our troops.

Most Republicans again – (1) They say that a majority of Americans are against locating the Islamic center close to Ground Zero (several polls) and they must be listened to. (2) They say that even though 71% of the people (CNN poll) think the war in Iraq was unsuccessful, they must be ignored.<<<

Have you ever noticed that when someone says “it’s not really about the money,” it usually is?<<<

Separated at birth – Joe McCarthy and Glen Beck – both climb the fame and power ladder by lying and making unsubstantiated accusations.<<<

Charlie Chan had this piece of advice for the tea party – although with a foreign name and having been born in Hawaii, they might demand to see his birth certificate before listening: "Mind, like parachute, only function when open."<<<

Did you know:

That Foyle’s War takes place in and around Hastings, as in the Battle of, (1066) and that the name of the actress who plays his driver Sam is Honeysuckle Weeks?

That U$C has produced more NFL players (468) than any other school? Of course, most of them had four years of playing for pay before they were even drafted.

That according to About.com, Lawrence of Arabia is one of the top 10 action films of all time. They are kidding, aren’t they? Most of the action in “Borance” centers around watching the sand grow.<<<

Question for Michelle Obama critics – since her trip to Spain, many of you are referring to her as Marie Antoinette. Does this make her a socialist Marie Antoinette?<<<

I love Nora Ephron’s titles:

Her play – Love, Loss and What I Wore;

For her new collection of essays, I Remember Nothing.<<<

I’m a George Clooney fan but “The American” is not one of his best – or near best – or very good efforts. There were a few compelling moments, but most of the film was strangely without energy, which, I suppose, is a polite way of saying it was boring. It was also dialogue light to the point that I expected to see Buster Keaton show up any moment. And I hope that those tattoos on Clooney were fakes. If not, his Cary Grant image is gone forever.<<<

Crowd estimates for Beck’s big day are growing like Pinocchio’s nose.

CBS news – 87,000

Sarah Palin – more than 100,000

Beck – 350,000 – 600,000

Michele Bachmann – no fewer than 1,000,000.<<<

And finally, here is last week’s stock market summary: Helium was up; feathers were down. Paper was stationary. Elevators rose, while escalators continued their slow decline. Mining equipment hit rock bottom. The market for raisins dried up. Coca-Cola fizzled. Balloon prices were inflated. And Scott tissue reached a new bottom.<<<