Month: October 2006

I came across the TIME magazine Quotes page this week. These sets of paired quotes show that the reality in Iraq is a sometimes thing:

Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2006
“People are bewildered because of the weak response by the Americans. They used to patrol the city every day, but when the violence started, we didn’t see any sign of them.” – Unidentified Balad (Iraq) Resident, asking why American troops had not intervened when sectarian killings had begun

“The President has made it obvious, we’re going to win. And that means, ultimately, providing an Iraq that is safe, secure, and an ally in the war on terror.” – Tony Snow, the White House spokesman responded when asked if the U.S. is winning the war in Iraq

Monday, Oct. 16, 2006
“The fact is, America has achieved successes here by removing a dictatorship and establishing a stable, democratic system.” – Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi leader, during an interview

“It’s not going to be ‘stay the course.’ The bottom line is, [current U.S. policy] isn’t working… there’s got to be another way.” – Iraq Options Committee Participant, on the one thing on which the 10-member panel has reached a unanimous consensus

So my questions are:

1. What do you think will be the US position in Iraq in six months, in a year? I’m increasingly convinced that the Baker panel, whose report will come out after the elections, will have a timetable – the same term, or a euphemism meaning the same thing – that will give political cover to the Administration that it had “stayed the course” while, in fact, cutting their losses, not to be confused with “cutting and running”. There will be lots of troop in the region, probably in Kuwait.

2. The Democrats need 15 seats to take the House and 6 to take the Senate. How do they do? I think the Democrats might barely take the House (16-20 seats). The Senate could go either way (5-7 seats).

3. Will there beArmageddonddon in the “Left Behind” sense? Perhaps there will be, but I think it is an abomination of Christian belief to sit around waiting for it, or worse, to root for it. “No one knows the day or time” to me means one tries to live life fully feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, et al.
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Mark Evanier addresses What would Jack Kirby think of the war in Iraq. (And if you don’t know who Kirby was, check this out.

“Mighty Carlos has struck out.” With the bases loaded.

I fully expect that the headline in one of the New York City tabloids will feature my title, quite possibly not on the back page, but on the front. And it was terrible game to watch, because of the emotional roller coaster. Endy Chavez takes a 2-run homer for the Cards and turns it into a double play defensively for the Mets; then he comes up in the bottom of that inning, only to pop up. The crowd (and I ) were deflated when the Mets fell behind in the top of the 9th, but energized when Valentin and Chavez get on. A called third strike on Beltran to end the inning, the game, the season for the ‘Mazins.

Don’t have a strong rooting interest for the World Series now, though I suppose I’ll support those upstart Tigers of Scott’s; the Cards were in the Series two years ago after all, though the Redbirds were swept by the Red Sox.

This week, George Will, who I agree with a lot on baseball (and infrequently on other topics) wrote about Baseball’s Real ‘Golden Age’, which was not in the post WWII era, when there was a Subway Series in 1949, 1951, 1952 and 1953, and almost in 1950 as well, but now, because of revenue sharing and other factors, a number of teams have a chance at the postseason. I wasn’t looking for a Subway Series, which, BTW, also took place in 1921, 1922, 1923, 1936, 1937, 1941, 1947, 1955, 1956, and 2000. I recognize that it’s a bore for those non-New Yorkers. I just wanted one team, the one from Queens.

This means my streak of picking one, not two, not none, but precisely one of the participants in the World Series is still intact.

Go send Fred, who coincidentally mentioned me in his column this week, your condolences.

My current TV is a 19″ set I bought in 1987 for a couple hundred bucks. It works fine, though the guy who installed the DVR couldn’t believe we had a TV SO antiquated that one still has to get up and turn the TV off and on manually, even with a remote control. I don’t have a V-chip, or an SAP button to listen to sporting events in Spanish. I know that eventually I will be in the market for a new TV; the incumbent will give out, and mandatory HDTV is finally on the horizon.

So, I’m reading the November Consumer Reports Annual Electronics Issue, and it has an article about plasma and LCD TVs, the CHEAPEST of which is $1000. Sure glad they are other items on the market, because I, and moreso my wife, would choke at spending four figures on a television.

Which got me thinking about the shows I watch, and don’t, again. Always at least a week behind, I’m pleased, though confused, to find that there are a number of shows that I watch (Earl, The Office, Grey’s Anatomy) that are repeating the season openers next week, six or seven weeks after the original broadcast. In fact, with the Friday night repeats, I think this is the third time Grey’s opener has been on.

There are a whole bunch of new shows on that seem interesting that I haven’t even recorded: Friday Night Lights (on at the exact same time as both Gilmore Girls and Dancing with the Stars), Heroes (with that guy Jess from Gilmore Girls), Justice (with Victor Garber, who I’ve liked for years), Twenty Good Years (with Lithgow and Tambour), Smith (with Ray Liotta and Virginia Madsen – ALREADY CANCELLED). Or slightly older shows: STILL have never seen Lost, Desperate Housewives, or any number of programs; I could watch a House marathon on Sunday, October 29, but probably won’t.

I haven’t figured out what, exactly, are my criteria for giving it a try vs. giving it a rest. It’s not just critical acclaim, though that does factor in. Casts matter, writers and directors matter. I’m already leaning on dropping The Nine – one episode viewed – for the same reason I don’t watch Lost; I don’t have the patience for certain types of convolutedness.

I will say that my absolute favorite scene this season was on Brothers and Sisters, where Sally Field, as the recently widowed mother, throws a party for her kids and grandkids and some others, including, it turns out, her late husband’s lover (Patricia Wettig). All of the kids, and the mistress, think that mom doesn’t know about her; they are mistaken, as they soon find out in a riveting jaw-dropping monologue.
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NLCS Game 7. Defending NL Central champs, STL vs. the best team in the league this season, NYM. I taped last night’s game and watched it, mostly fast-forwarded, in about an hour and a half, which was about 50% of the game’s running time, slowing down mostly for balls that were hit.

Wouldn’t have made choices Mets manager Willie Randolph made. Starting picture Maine bats in the 5th, then in the 6th, he gives up a hit, then gets and out and he yanks him? Bradford gets the next batter, Rolen, to hit into a double play, so it turns out to be the right play. Later, he violates the “rule” and doesn’t pitch a lefty vs. a left-handed batter, yet RHP Mota gets Duncan to hit into another double play.

A key of the game is PH Tucker stealing second on a pitchout (C Molina throw is high), and after a Reyes hit, LoDuca hits a 2-run double. Important because Mets closer Wagner gave up a 2-run double to Taguchi, to cut the lead to the final score of 4-2, Mets. if I were STL manager LaRussa, I’d play Taguchi (4 for 4 as a pitcher hitter) and sit Rolen, who can’t hit and even made an error last night.

I was watching JEOPARDY! last week. Here’s the final, under the category famous cartoon characters:
The 1935 cartoon “I Haven’t Got a Hat” was the first of many cartoons that paired him with a cat named Beans. Answer below.
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The paper last Sunday had this headline Car plows through house, killing pig, which struck me as – this is terrible – funny. The subhead: “Driver charged with DWI in crash that destroyed family’s home and beloved pet in Ballston Spa.” It somehow reminded me of Arnold Ziffel, the pet pig of the neighbors of the Douglases on the TV show Green Acres with Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor.

Then, on Tuesday, this follow-up:
Hannahble’s demise inspires wealth of giving, with the subhead: Death of pet Vietnamese potbellied pig in freak auto wreck sparks creation of fund to help other pigs”
Donations may be sent to the Hannahble Fund at Box 561, 5072 Sacandaga Road, Galway, NY 12074…
Unlike domestic pets such as dogs and cats, potbellied pigs are often hard to place, Grossmann Brown said, noting that people often get rid of their pigs because of changing circumstances — including divorce and new landlords that won’t accept such pets
“This was a very bad and scary event and I am glad to be alive. If some other pigs can live a more comfortable life or be saved from harm in Hanners’ way, then I would be honored to be a part of it,” Grossmann Brown said in a statement announcing the fund.
Grossmann Brown and her husband, Randy Brown, are staying in a hotel while they figure out how to recover from the accident that demolished part of their home at 48 Rowland St. at 4 a.m. Saturday morning and killed Hanners.
Grossmann Brown said, fortunately, her two dogs, cat and two parakeets were not injured when the car tore through the house.
Danielle Schrade, 21, of Ballston Spa, was charged by village police with driving while intoxicated, accused of driving her Mitsubishi Eclipse through the front porch at 52 Rowland St., then through 48 Rowland St., where Hanners was sleeping peacefully in his bed.

Do I feel like an insensitive lout. It’s good to be humbled now and then.
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The Guilderland Chamber of Commerce has been plugging its Pigtacular, including Hogtoberfest. Jane, who I knew from her days at the Albany Y, has been hawking these events. Oy. I’ll have to razz her the next time I see her.
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One Lydia’s favorite book lately is If You Give a Pig a Party. She can hear it four times in a row, and it’s not awful for me to re-read. My favorite page is the hide-and-seek page, where even Carol and I had difficulty finding all the animals initially, especially the dog. (The pig was wearing her party dress, so she was easy to spot.)
Lydia’s also fond of Mrs. Potter’s Pig (mom is neat freak, baby is so messy that mom thinks girl will actually turn into a pig, and she does, sort of), Olivia and the Missing Toy (off a Cheerios box – we’re not proud), and Percival the Pig (trying to keep clean for his birthday tea). Some of her farm books also feature porcine creatures.
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Answer to the JEOPARDY! question, which you may have gotten with the additional clues, but which I had no ideas in the 30 seconds allotted:
Who was Porky Pig? They were known as Porky and Beans. Ah, that mid-1930s humor. BTW, none of the contestants got it right, and in fact all picked cartoon cats (Krazy Kat, Felix the Cat, Jerry) as their responses.
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The Mets lost last night, 4-2, and are down 3 games to 2. Sigh. At least I didn’t see it. My bike injuries seem to have made me extremely achy and fatigued, and the grey skies that made it feel like dusk ALL DAY didn’t help. I went to bed at 8 p.m. last night – highly unusual, let me tell you -and woke up at 3:45 a.m. – not so unusual.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the nation’s population will reach the historic milestone of 300 million on Oct. 17 at about 7:46 a.m. (EDT). This comes almost 39 years after the 200 million mark was reached on Nov. 20, 1967. The estimate is based on the expectation that the United States will register one birth every seven seconds and one death every 13 seconds between now and Oct. 17, while net international migration is expected to add one person every 31 seconds. The result is an increase in the total population of one person every 11 seconds.
As of this writing, 299,999,211 in the US and 6,550,942,258 in the world.
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Felicity Huffman, Marg Helgenberger, Angie Harmon, Rosario Dawson, Tyne Daly, Regina King, Lauren Graham, Daphne Zuniga and Votar appear in a series of PSAs for Women’s Voices. Women Vote. Many of them are talking about “their first time.” And based on Helgenberger’s extended video on ABC News This Week “Sex Appeal and the Women’s Vote,” the double entrende is intentional. “There are 20 million women who did not vote in 2004, and when they take part in the next election, they can change history.” Of course, if they need to register, it’s too late in New York State for the November 7 election.
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To honest, I never knew the name Ed Benedict, who died late last month, but his creations as primary character designer at Hanna-Barbera, including the various characters on The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Quick Draw McGraw, and especially Huckleberry Hound, brought me hours of pleasure in my childhood. First time I ever heard the song “Clementine” was from Huck. When I had an uncontrollable nosebleed when I was 5 1/2 and ended up in the hospital, it was Huck, Yogi, and Quick Draw (and his alter ego, El Kabong) that got me through the fear and the boredom. El Kabong was the masked character that would smash a perfectly good guitar, long before Pete Townsend, over the heads of the bad guys. When you’re 5 1/2, this is very funny.

An appreciation of Ed Benedict
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Stop the Drug War.org has “added The Speakeasy, a new blog featuring our staff of seasoned drug policy experts, the editor of our Drug War Chronicle (the world’s leading drug policy newsletter), the best comments from our 40,000 person strong network of supporters, and upcoming special guest bloggers (celebrities, well-known policy wonks, and other famous personalities).”
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It’s stewardship time atmyy church. One of the questions we’ve been asked is how many people will each of us tell about our First Presbyterian Church Albany website. I said 100. Done. AND I’ve added it to my weblog, along with our former intern Ben Ropp’s Image Remora.
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Underground Railroad History Project events:

October 21 – National Abolition Hall of Fame Inductee Commemoration and Annual Dinner – for information visit www.abolitionhof.org
October 29 – UGR Trolley tour – 1-3pm – led by Paul and Mary Liz Stewart of URHPCR – for tickets call 518-452-1675 or visit www.knowledgenetwork.org
Of special note: November 12 – Bossambajazz at the Van Dyck – 4-8pm – annual URHPCR fundraiser – From the first note, to the last beat, Bossambajazz promises to take you on a magical musical tour. Support URHPCR and enjoy an evening of great jazz and pleasant company at the historic Van Dyck Restaurant in Schenectady. Tickets available through http://www.ugrworkshop.com/ or call 518-436-0562 or 518-432-4432.