Localized
A freelance breakthough: The Oregonian assigned me to submit weekly copy for the community calendar section. Fifty bucks a week, in addition to the other larger stories that come along. Every little bit helps.
Here's my latest larger story, printed today:
114-year-old church near Aurora builds, dedicates a new sanctuary
Now please excuse me, as I've been requested to make a sandwich for my son's school lunch tomorrow.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Touch Of Nay
My first awareness of horseracing was reading in Sports Illustrated how Canonero II just missed winning the Triple Crown in 1971.
Later, at the drive-in watching a double bill with Fred MacMurray's last Disney movie Charley and the Angel, I saw Dean Jones' The Horse in the Grey Flannel Suit, and remember my dad's code word what seemed a bemused contempt (or jealousy?) toward the bourgeois world of horse owners portrayed on the screen: "Poverty."
I think we left early.
Now here I am, with an onion on my belt, cranking out the interesting racehorse names yet again:
Touch of Nay
Felonious Monk
Who's Yo Granddaddy
Goggles Pisano
Aniston
Definite Maybe
Cat King Cole
Mowgli
Better Than Bonds
El Grego
Cape Kennedy
Bo Diddley
Ouija Board
My Nighty Nightie
Imawhiner
Scoonerwharfbardog
Corporal Tillman
Tax Refund
Annie Savoy
Flip Flop John
Uncle Walter
Clearly Cryptic
Man I'm Pretty
Funkadelic Relic
Greggo
Potroast and Gravy
Governor Jeb
Famous and Reckless
I Said No
Next weekend my wife and I will go to the local track to see live horse racing for the first time. I figure after seven years of working at a horserace wager call center, I'm past due.
My first awareness of horseracing was reading in Sports Illustrated how Canonero II just missed winning the Triple Crown in 1971.
Later, at the drive-in watching a double bill with Fred MacMurray's last Disney movie Charley and the Angel, I saw Dean Jones' The Horse in the Grey Flannel Suit, and remember my dad's code word what seemed a bemused contempt (or jealousy?) toward the bourgeois world of horse owners portrayed on the screen: "Poverty."
I think we left early.
Now here I am, with an onion on my belt, cranking out the interesting racehorse names yet again:
Touch of Nay
Felonious Monk
Who's Yo Granddaddy
Goggles Pisano
Aniston
Definite Maybe
Cat King Cole
Mowgli
Better Than Bonds
El Grego
Cape Kennedy
Bo Diddley
Ouija Board
My Nighty Nightie
Imawhiner
Scoonerwharfbardog
Corporal Tillman
Tax Refund
Annie Savoy
Flip Flop John
Uncle Walter
Clearly Cryptic
Man I'm Pretty
Funkadelic Relic
Greggo
Potroast and Gravy
Governor Jeb
Famous and Reckless
I Said No
Next weekend my wife and I will go to the local track to see live horse racing for the first time. I figure after seven years of working at a horserace wager call center, I'm past due.
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Now Departing
Gerald Ford was the the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life. At least until Bush Senior or (maybe) Carter dies, then they will be the kindest, bravest, warmest...
The Rude Pundit does a good job of summarizing the presidency of Bob Hope's longtime golfing partner, dead at the senseless age of 93.
***
More from the "What the hell does Greg T. know?" department:
The other day I wrote that United 93 seemed like a frontrunner for Best Picture Oscar. Well, Nathaniel R. at The Film Experience blog does a good job of shooting down that notion. Here are his latest Best Pic picks:
The Departed
Dreamgirls
The Queen
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
6-10: Babel, Little Children, Flags of Our Fathers, Notes on a Scandal, United 93
United 93:
Pro
Sober, serious, and respected. Winning critics prizes and top ten lists.
Con
Probably too stark and frightening for typical AMPAS recognition.
Hard to argue against any of his top five, with the possible exception of The Queen, which might be seen as little more than a showcase for Helen Mirren's acting talents. And I wonder if at least two or three of the second five won't fade when voters consider the achievement in dignity that United 93 represents (how wrong it might've gone, in more commericially exploitive hands.) Also, for what it's worth, The Devil Wears Prada, which Nathaniel put at 18, seems like the kind of "sophisticated" crowd pleaser that Oscar likes.
But yeah, at this point United 93 seems sadly like a near miss, at best.
***
A revealing peek into the mind of the NBA athlete, courtesy of Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly, via Phil Birnbaum's Sabermetric Research blog:
Using himself as guinea pig, Reilly took a bunch of shots overhand and found he hit 63%. After tutoring in underhand by hall-of-fame NBA player (and underhanded free thrower) Rick Barry, and a couple of weeks of practice, he was hitting 78%.
Reilly points out that if Ben Wallace, a career 49% shooter, learned to throw underhand and raised himself to 69%, he'd have made 60 more shots last season.
Why don't players try it? Players don't like how it looks. "I would shoot negative percentage before I shot like that," Reilly quotes Shaquille O'Neal as saying. He says Wilt Chamberlain did it for a few years, improved, but then went back to overhand. "I felt silly – like a sissy," Chamberlain wrote.
The role of macho ego as a prime inspiration for star players shouldn't be underestimated. Shaq and Wilt did the personal calculus, and figured that looking "like a sissy" would threaten their confidence in ways beyond the free-throw line. Better to risk missing a few (or more than a few) FTs than risk messing with the total mojo, I guess. The career stats and championships won by both Shaq and Wilt seem to back their decisions, but one wishes athletes didn't so desperately rely on the macho shit to bolster their egos.
Gerald Ford was the the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life. At least until Bush Senior or (maybe) Carter dies, then they will be the kindest, bravest, warmest...
The Rude Pundit does a good job of summarizing the presidency of Bob Hope's longtime golfing partner, dead at the senseless age of 93.
***
More from the "What the hell does Greg T. know?" department:
The other day I wrote that United 93 seemed like a frontrunner for Best Picture Oscar. Well, Nathaniel R. at The Film Experience blog does a good job of shooting down that notion. Here are his latest Best Pic picks:
The Departed
Dreamgirls
The Queen
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
6-10: Babel, Little Children, Flags of Our Fathers, Notes on a Scandal, United 93
United 93:
Pro
Sober, serious, and respected. Winning critics prizes and top ten lists.
Con
Probably too stark and frightening for typical AMPAS recognition.
Hard to argue against any of his top five, with the possible exception of The Queen, which might be seen as little more than a showcase for Helen Mirren's acting talents. And I wonder if at least two or three of the second five won't fade when voters consider the achievement in dignity that United 93 represents (how wrong it might've gone, in more commericially exploitive hands.) Also, for what it's worth, The Devil Wears Prada, which Nathaniel put at 18, seems like the kind of "sophisticated" crowd pleaser that Oscar likes.
But yeah, at this point United 93 seems sadly like a near miss, at best.
***
A revealing peek into the mind of the NBA athlete, courtesy of Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly, via Phil Birnbaum's Sabermetric Research blog:
Using himself as guinea pig, Reilly took a bunch of shots overhand and found he hit 63%. After tutoring in underhand by hall-of-fame NBA player (and underhanded free thrower) Rick Barry, and a couple of weeks of practice, he was hitting 78%.
Reilly points out that if Ben Wallace, a career 49% shooter, learned to throw underhand and raised himself to 69%, he'd have made 60 more shots last season.
Why don't players try it? Players don't like how it looks. "I would shoot negative percentage before I shot like that," Reilly quotes Shaquille O'Neal as saying. He says Wilt Chamberlain did it for a few years, improved, but then went back to overhand. "I felt silly – like a sissy," Chamberlain wrote.
The role of macho ego as a prime inspiration for star players shouldn't be underestimated. Shaq and Wilt did the personal calculus, and figured that looking "like a sissy" would threaten their confidence in ways beyond the free-throw line. Better to risk missing a few (or more than a few) FTs than risk messing with the total mojo, I guess. The career stats and championships won by both Shaq and Wilt seem to back their decisions, but one wishes athletes didn't so desperately rely on the macho shit to bolster their egos.
Welcome 110th Congress
Back in Greg's Dreamland Express™, I explained to both Rush Limbaugh and Nancy Pelosi why women regularly settle for second-rate men. I don't remember the reasons I gave, but there were three of them.
Rush, driving his SUV and with sweat or water on his face, had said he groused about women in his books. A younger version of Nancy cuddled with me (in that twilight zone between erotic and familial) and agreed with my view -- although I suspect I was too insistent on stating my view then and there, no matter what.
Later I met Nancy in a room on the "Island of Misfit Democrats," who'd been released from suspended animation to take over the government. Verne Troyer was to become Secretary of Transportation.
"I'll have to travel by car and train a lot now," Verne said.
"Well, you could go Greyhound," I replied. Verne smiled a little, but for some reason I thought it was a big knee-slapper.
Nancy told me that I'd fit in well here..."if you were real."
***
Memo to: Triangulation Laboratories
Re: DLC Democrats
DLC Democrats know that fighting the monolithic corporate interests head on is risky and hard. Just ask Howard Dean and Paul Wellstone.
So they make what they think is a pragmatic bargain: working to convince enough of the corporate interests that they won't get in the way of promoting what said interests want, which is a money-crazy, greed-is-good dominant meme, one that minimizes the lust for tax-based entitlement. In return, they believe the corporate masters will cut some slack and not work too hard to destroy the remaining traditional safety nets.
An ultimately foolish deal -- if the powers that be couldn't abide Clinton-era prosperity ("Where are my well-deserved tax cuts?", they bellowed.), then it's hard to imagine how any Obama, Gore or Hillary-era recovery would cause any of 'em to abandon their cutthroat Randian ways.
In short, triangulation at best only delays the inevitable return to power of a new and improved Corporate Fascist. Something more is required: a skilled (and likely difficult) blend of uncommon nerve and rhetoric.
If Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Wesley Clark and Bill Richardson don't get this, they shouldn't be president. I suspect that Al Gore now gets this, but unfortunately he doesn't appear to have the stomach for another run through hell to get at the brass ring. Hope I'm wrong on that.
Back in Greg's Dreamland Express™, I explained to both Rush Limbaugh and Nancy Pelosi why women regularly settle for second-rate men. I don't remember the reasons I gave, but there were three of them.
Rush, driving his SUV and with sweat or water on his face, had said he groused about women in his books. A younger version of Nancy cuddled with me (in that twilight zone between erotic and familial) and agreed with my view -- although I suspect I was too insistent on stating my view then and there, no matter what.
Later I met Nancy in a room on the "Island of Misfit Democrats," who'd been released from suspended animation to take over the government. Verne Troyer was to become Secretary of Transportation.
"I'll have to travel by car and train a lot now," Verne said.
"Well, you could go Greyhound," I replied. Verne smiled a little, but for some reason I thought it was a big knee-slapper.
Nancy told me that I'd fit in well here..."if you were real."
***
Memo to: Triangulation Laboratories
Re: DLC Democrats
DLC Democrats know that fighting the monolithic corporate interests head on is risky and hard. Just ask Howard Dean and Paul Wellstone.
So they make what they think is a pragmatic bargain: working to convince enough of the corporate interests that they won't get in the way of promoting what said interests want, which is a money-crazy, greed-is-good dominant meme, one that minimizes the lust for tax-based entitlement. In return, they believe the corporate masters will cut some slack and not work too hard to destroy the remaining traditional safety nets.
An ultimately foolish deal -- if the powers that be couldn't abide Clinton-era prosperity ("Where are my well-deserved tax cuts?", they bellowed.), then it's hard to imagine how any Obama, Gore or Hillary-era recovery would cause any of 'em to abandon their cutthroat Randian ways.
In short, triangulation at best only delays the inevitable return to power of a new and improved Corporate Fascist. Something more is required: a skilled (and likely difficult) blend of uncommon nerve and rhetoric.
If Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Wesley Clark and Bill Richardson don't get this, they shouldn't be president. I suspect that Al Gore now gets this, but unfortunately he doesn't appear to have the stomach for another run through hell to get at the brass ring. Hope I'm wrong on that.
