Red Sox Nation
A local doctor wrote an article in today's The Post & Courier, Charleston, SC, about the beloved Red Sox and the "Curse of the Bambino." I sent him the following e-mail:

Hello Doctor,
I hope you are some sort of peek-a-boo doctor because if you were my head shrinker I would flee from you. I will be 72 come October and have been a conscious Red Sox believer since the end of World War II. I can recall those heady days when Rudy York, the lumbering, over weight, hard drinking, Detroit-castoff, first baseman almost had a heart attack trying to run out a triple when he belted one off the center-field wall. There was no EMS at the time, but undertakers were starting engines in their meat wagons as the old Indian lumbered around the basepaths. Your story in today's Post & Courier about the Curse of the Bambino and recitation of the horrors suffered over the years was a harsh way to start the day. I may have to forego whatever it was I planned to do and just do something else to pleasure myself and erase the memories of Bucky Dent and Billy Buckner (I really love Billy and think he was treated shabbily by his neighbors). On an upbeat note I do have a favorite memory of the '75 series. My mother (who died a couple of years ago) was visiting at the time here in Charleston. Our children and my wife's relatives were also in the house for a family get together. We had a TV in the bedroom and in the evening I went in and turned on Game Six. In a short while my mother came in and sat on the edge of the bed ( "Just want a glimpse at the action. Have to get back to the guests," she said.) After a few minutes she was sitting up on the bed alongside me with our backs against the headboard and we stayed that way until Fisk's homerun. It was a great Mother/Son moment and one I treasure. No one in the family ever uttered a word of criticism about us being more interested in the Red Sox than with them. It was a moment.

"...if not this year...then surely '04"

Thanks for the memories.

If not already there, visit my website.
E-mail your comments
#140

Why?
If in 2004, Congressman Henry E. Brown (R-1st District SC) is unbeatable in the Republican Primary and won't have credible Democratic opposition in the General Election, why does he continue to raise money? Is there no end to the line of lobbyists and special interests willing to fill the coffer of an incumbent congressman not in need? Why?

If not already there, visit my website.
E-mail your comments
#139

California Here We Are
"Jay Leno's complaint on Monday...that California is the 'laughing stock of the nation' smacked of self-fulfilling prophecy...Other characters [considering entering the race] include nearly 400 Californians - including assorted oddballs, mischief makers and the self avowed 'smut peddler who cares,' Larry Flynt - who have taken out candidacy papers." (Jackie Calmes, The Wall Street Journal, August 7, 2003, pg. A4)
If not already there, visit my website.
E-mail your comments
#138

California Politics
"The [California] public has reacted to these soulless exercises [political campaigning solely on television] with disdainful apathy; Californians tend to be more interested when the state's nutty kernel of political extremists put some hot-button initiative - about race, immigration or taxes, inevitably - on the ballot." (Joe Klein, Time Magazine, August 11, 2003, pg. 21).

If not already there, visit my website.
E-mail your comments
#137

California recall
From The Economist, August 2, 2003, pg. 29: "Californians do not like Mr. [Governor Gray] Davis, but they may also decide that a recall process, originally meant to get rid of crooks not incompetents, has been distorted." Each person who plans to run against Mr. Davis - who pledges to fight like a Bengal tiger - have until August 9 to come up with $3,500 and 65 signatures. The recall election is scheduled for October 7, 2003.


If not already there, visit my website.
E-mail your comments
#136