Month: June 2008

30 things to know or do by the time you’re 30

I’m 55, so “thirty things to know or do by the time you’re 30” intrigued me. Am I a victim of arrested development? Per the Times Union’s Kristi Gustafson; some of these are damn familiar…

To take your hat off while eating.
Well, yeah. But, and this must go back to some archaic time, I thought the rules for men were different from the rules for women, though I never understood why.

To bring a hostess gift.
I never quite understood the point of this. Someone invites you to an event and I’m supposed to bring something? I mean, I have brought bottles of wine to a party, but i don’t think this is what she’s talking about. Now, my WIFE has had us bring hostess gifts. Does that count?

Have a valid passport.
Yes. Expires July 2011, just as I’m planning a trip to Canada. Really. And we’re trying to suss out just what we need for the child.

How to make small talk.
I used to be REALLY good at it. The skill has dissipated.

Your credit score.
Yes, and it’s not bad.

And your blood type.
Be positive.

How to do laundry.
I was single for a LONG time. Yes, I know how, and I still have romantic sentiments towards the laundromat, even though we have a washer and drier at home.

And scramble eggs.
Probably since I was eight.

Your parents’ birthdays.
September 26, November 17.

How to drive a stick shift.
Well, no. I got into a screaming fight – she was doing most of the screaming – the one time someone, in this case my girlfriend at the time, tried to teach me to drive a stick. “YOU’RE BURNING OUT MY CLUTCH!!!” Haven’t even TRIED since.

And order a bottle of wine.
Beyond the red with meat, white with chicken, not so much.

How to set up, and check, bank and credit card balances online.
Could. Don’t.

How to wrap a gift.
Depends on your standards. It’s good enough for me.

Own a suitcase.
Two, actually, not including the ancient one.

Have a local florist, not 1-800 FLOWERS.
Yes.

How to negotiate.
Hate negotiating.

And compromise.
Often compromise.

How to jump a car/change a tire.
Have done both so long ago that I doubt I could do it currently.

Have a retirement plan.
Yes, and it’s taken a bath the last six months.

When to stop drinking.
Trial and error, but yes. Even know the date of my first hangover 6/9/76; went horseback riding that day.

How to file a complaint.
Have done so, with businesses and the state attorney general

How to make a bed – complete with hospital corners.
No. I once had this conversation with one of my sisters who made my bed, “Now doesnn’t that feel better?” No, it doesn’t; it makes me feel claustrophobic. I can kick out hospital corners in a half night of sleeping.

How to play a sport (excelling not required).
Racquetball, yes.

How much cologne is too much.
Don’t wear, but I’ve smelled it when others have applied too much.

When you need a dinner reservation.
Yes> I was in Charlotte, NC and I had recommended making reservations on a Saturday night. The folks thought it was unnecessary; it was their town, so I yielded. We ended up bailing on choice #1 (90 minute wait), and finding choices 2-5 to be equally inaccessible. We ended up at Pizza Hut at 9:20 pm.

How to read the bus schedule.
I excel at reading the bus schedule.

To tip the maid in a hotel.
Yes.

To make exceptions for children, and seniors.
Yes.

How to apologize.
I really believe so. It does not include “if”.

How to give a good hug.
Actually, I’m very good at this.
ROG

ROG

Another Father’s Day

My maternal grandfather, Clarence Williams, played in the Negro Leagues in 1930s. I’ve never been able to track down any statistics or even exactly what team he played for, though my grandmother thought he played for some team called the Giants. There were several “Giants” teams in the day.

The person I knew as my paternal grandfather, McKinley Green, I’ve mentioned before in these pages. He was a janitor, auto racing connoisseur, and loved the horses. I’ve never found the person who was my real paternal grandfather. I’ve long had a very complicated relationship with my father, who died in 2000, and I’m still looking for information about him.

When I became a father in 2004, I had a great deal of optimism about the world. I still love being a father, but the world? I’m not so sure about it. I guess I wanted the world to be freer now than when she was conceived, and I’m not at all feeling that’s the case. I want it to be safer, and given tornadoes in unusual places, more violent hurricanes and the like, not so certain about that one.

There are are some men who just always wanted to be a dad, but I wasn’t one of them. I like being Lydia’s dad – I LOVE being Lydia’s dad – but we’re getting a lot of those “Are you going to have another?” questions. That’s nobody’s business, of course, but I suspect if we were to have another child, he or she would be adopted. In fact, in the period we were “trying to get pregnant”, we got a lot of literature on the topic. We’re not actively pursuing the issue now, but if we do, you’ll be the 100th to know.

I got a handmade card and a two peas in a pod thingy for Father’s Day. I do enjoy this part.

I’m watching the Tonys tonight, my annual opportunity to say, “So THAT’S what (name of actor better known for TV or movies) has been doing lately. I thought maybe he was retired. Or dead.” I expect this person will watch; since Whoopi Goldberg is hosting, I’d bet money that this guy won’t be tuning in.
***
Evanier has on his page this Fiddler on the Roof/Avenue Q mashup. I LOVE Fiddler and plan to see Avenue Q this fall.
ROG

ROG

Russert, Sports, Obamas

Yeah, I know I’ve written a lot about dead people lately, but-
This one was only three years older than I, a political and news junkie from upstate New York, just like me. I RELATED to Tim Russert. He worked for politicians I had voted for, Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Mario Cuomo. He was a sports fan. I did not always agree with him. But more than most in his profession, I thought he tried hard to be fair. And he clearly enjoyed his work.

So, I get a terse New York Times message at 3:28 pm, “Tim Russert, the host of the NBC program ‘Meet the Press,’ has died of an apparent heart attack at age 58, his family confirmed.” No story, just a sub-headline. No story on the NBC networks. But soon enough, I found it was all too true, as Tom Brokaw broke the news:

I did not know that he was on the board of the Baseball Hall of fame until I read about it yesterday.

This begs a different question for me. Why did I continue to listen to the news on MSNBC for another hour after his death was confirmed? Why did I watch the CBS Evening News, which Harry Smith was anchoring, but for which Katie Couric showed up to tearfully explain how Russert had hired her to be deputy Pentagon correspondent for NBC some years ago? I don’t know. Sometimes, you keep watching to try to make sense of it all.
***
The good news is that In a blow to Bush, the Supreme Court restores habeas corpus re: Gitmo. the bad news? It was a 5-4 vote, and most of the five are considerably older than the four.
***
Apparently, the FOX News ‘baby mama’ comment towards Michelle Obama was, I’ve read. FOX trying to be cool by referencing the Tina Fey movie that came out a little while back.
***
The basketball officiating scandal had specifically targeted game 6 of a series between Sacramento and the LA Lakers. Apparently, there is a group called the League of Fans who had complained about this years ago. The founder of the League of Fans? Ralph Nader? The page looks as though it was all but defunct for about a year, except for a recent flurry of press releases. the group also has taken positions on steroids, public financing of stadiums and other topics. Interesting, albeit somewhat dated stuff.
ROG

ROG

Triskaidekaphobic? Not me.

No, I can have “bad luck” any time, usually brought on myself.

1. I went to the local comic book store on Free Comic Book Day last month and bought a book called Persepolis, actually The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, which is about that Iranian girl talking about the period before and after the rise of the Ayatollah Khomenini. It was made into an Oscar-nominated film in the past year that I meant to see but didn’t; it’ll be out on DVD June 24. See, FCBD CAN generate sales.

Generally, I don’t bring books with me when I travel, but I was so intrigued about reading this particular book that I took it with me when I went to my work conference the day after FCBD. Naturally, I left it at the hotel. I realized this even before I got home and called the hotel to ask them if they could send it to me, and they replied quickly. What I didn’t know was that the charge for sending me the book would be $30 – at least $5 more than I paid for the book in the first place. The actual shipping cost was $10.40, but there was a COD charge. And it would have been $1.60 more if I had paid in cash, for then the post office would have had to pay to buy a money order to send to the hotel. Now I could have just blown it off, and bought a new copy of the book, but since I had initiated them sending it to me, I felt it was my error and that I should just eat the extra cost.

2. My friend Uthaclena came up to help me fix my computer. We went out and bought some wine after dinner and I put one of the bottles in the freezer. The next day I opened the freezer door to find that the cork had popped out of said bottle with slushy alcohol across the bottom of the freezer. Fortunately, it spilled only about 10% of the volume. I sat the wine on the counter and it reconstituted into the potable beverage. I suppose it could have been worse; the bottle could have exploded, with broken glass everywhere.

Oh, I must thank my friend Lori in Florida, who I knew from when we went to church together about a decade ago. Because of my injury, she was kind enough to let me dictate content to her over the phone, type it, then e-mail it to me. She did this for about seven posts, including today’s, and I am most grateful.
ROG

ROG

The Last Hall of Fame Game


You may have heard that the Hall of Fame Game in Cooperstown, an exhibition contest between two major league teams, will be having its last outing this coming Monday. Some writers have suggested that it’s a “que sera sera” moment, that “all things must pass”, that should end because it’s not practical. I wonder if they’ve actually ever gone to this game.

Have they seen the parade?





Have they checked out the guy guy in the No. 7 Yankee car who looks a little like Mickey Mantle – and who, incidentally, is a bartender at a local resort?

Have they seen the kids who scurry for the candy being tossed from the cars, snacks that they can easily get cheaply at the local CVS? It reminds me of tourists grabbing for cheap beads they pass out during Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

And then you get to see the players in the trolley cars, with you trying to suss out the ones you actually might recognize.

You get to the stadium and you have the home run hitting contest, where almost inevitably some player you’ve never heard of beats out the league home run champion from the previous season.

You take your score card and you dutifully mark down the names of the starting lineups, but it’s of no use, for they brought in all these extra players from AA, whose names aren’t all on the rosters – check out all those uniforms with the numbers is the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s – and the managers put them in and out of the game like origami.

My father-in-law Richard and I have gone to this game for 8 of the last 9 years. The only season I missed was the year after the Red Sox first won the World Series this decade, and he was able to secure tickets for that game the day of. Not so incidentally, he took all of these pictures.

Last year when I went to the game between Toronto and Baltimore with my father-in-law, there were five home runs hit just in our outfield section. One landed to my right and then careened to my left in front of my face. Another was just beyond our reach.

But my favorite part of the Hall of Fame Game involved begging the center fielder to throw the ball to your outfield section after his warm-ups with the left fielder. In fact, last year’s center fielder for the Toronto Blue Jays, Vernon Wells, was a master, systematically taunted each section with the ball, throwing it to one area only to reveal a secret second ball in his pocket, which he then tossed to the other section. It was marvelous theater, and great fun.

I understand the logistical difficulties of Major League teams showing up in this tiny Otsego County burgh, but I don’t think the solution to this game/issue is to put an International League game there as some have suggested. There was an IL game played this year between Syracuse and Rochester, and the Syracuse team perhaps can continue to host the game, but it would be a weak substitute. Did you know the single A (short season) Oneonta Tigers already plays a game on Doubleday Field annually and before them, the Oneonta Yankees? It’s hardly comparable.

What would be more interesting would be to have an old-timers’ game played at the Field. In fact, this suggestion was floated about by the long-time fans of the game when they were standing in line waiting for tickets on a cold winter afternoon. There are already many baseball veterans who line the streets on the two Hall of Fame parade weekends selling autographs, so it is a natural extension of what’s been going on already in the town.

A more radical idea is to have a game between a couple teams there count in the standings. I’m not suggesting it – yet – but the notion intrigues.

In some form, Doubleday Field deserves Major League baseball.

ROG

ROG
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