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.

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#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?

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#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)
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#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).

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#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.


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#136

A word for baseball fans everywhere

New Hampshire's Mary Jo Ray, 108, was at her first Red Sox game on Sunday at Fenway Park. She went to a game last year but it was rained out. The Red Sox have won five World Series in her lifetime, the last in 1918. ...(The Sox won on Sunday!)

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#135

Criticism
“The essence of a free and civilized society is that everything should be subject to criticism, that all forms of authority should be treated with a certain reservation, and … that once you have produced … a totally conformist society in which there were no critics, that would in fact be an exact equivalent of the totalitarian societies against which we are supposed to be fighting a cold war.” (Malcolm Muggeridge in an interview by Mike Wallace, mid 1950s.)


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#134

Strom Thurmond
I do not recall the precise Latin phrase Dean Acheson used when asked to comment on Senator McCarthy's death, but I recall it was translated as, "Of the dead, say nothing but good." Noble sentiments at all times, however, I am inclined to pass along the observation that after 48 years in the United States Senate the late Senator Strom Thurmond's name is not associated with any major legislation benefiting all Americans. What a waste.


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#133

Point to consider
According to Consumer Reports, August 2003, "Hormel Foods needed 65 years to sell 6 billion cans of Spam. It takes marketers less than three days to e-mail the same number of 'spam' messages to America Online customers alone", to say nothing of the millions of other serviced by alternate ISP.


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#132

Home-Friendly Projectors
The projector industry is leaving many of us behind ["Bright Lights, Big Pictures," April]. Remember those 35mm Kodak-style projectors with a carousel of slides and a screen set up in the living room? Where is the new-age portable projector that can be used standing alone, with a remote and a slot for a CD-R/RW or DVD so you can flash the pictures on the old living room screen? This would make life better for many home users.
Francis X. Archibald, Hanahan, South Carolina
(Letters, PCWorld, June 2003, pg 44.)


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#131

Moving On
"There's an old joke in which a couple married 75 years visits a divorce attorney, who asks why they waited so long. The reply, 'We wanted to wait until the children were dead.'" (Quoted by Jeffrey Zaslow, Wall St. Journal, June 17, 2003, pg D1)

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#130

David Brinkley
This eminent reporter, anchor man and host of a widely acclaimed TV Sunday morning news hour died today in Houston, Texas. Mr. Brinkley inspired confidence and trust in his readers and listeners and is one of a very small group of news personalities who will be missed.

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#129

Break out the Advil
Forget about Bush, Israel and Palestine. We Americans have serious stuff on our plates: Sosa caught with a corked bat, Martha Stewart indicted and Barry Manilow broke his nose. Where is the Advil?

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#128

North Korean nukes
A six man congressional team, including Rep. Joe Wilson, (R-SC), had talks last week with North Korean leaders who discussed their intention to increase their nuclear weapons program. I hope one of the Congressmen, perhaps Mr. Wilson, had the presence of mind to inform the North Korean leaders that the first nuclear weapon they fire on America will be the last one fired by North Korea for at least a thousand years.

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#127

About Henry Brown
Came across a new blog of possible interest to South Carolina Lowcountry readers about (click on the name)Congressman Henry Brown. The blog reports on Mr. Brown's record of service, citing chapter and verse, and is not likely to be favorite reading in the congressman's office.

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#126

Saudi litmus test
"I will believe the Saudi rulers are serious about combating terrorism only after we see a few public beheadings in the public square in downtown Riyadh, preferably broadcast live on CNN."
(Letter to the Editor, The Post & Courier, Charleston, SC, May 25, 2003)
#125


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Armed Forces Day
Today we recognize Armed Forces Day and pause to say a prayer for the men and women who wear the uniform, defend our country and go in harm's way.


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#124

A dissenting voice
A reform but not a stimulus
"Sadly, Mr. Bush's claims are not convincing. The notion that a tax plan's ten-year price-tag provides any measure of its efficacy as a short-term stimulus is absurd. The central component of Mr. Bush's tax plan—the elimination of dividend taxation—would improve the tax code and, probably, long-term growth, but it would do little to boost the economy now. Mr. Bush's people say that ending dividend taxation would raise share prices, which in turn would boost spending. Most economists reply that the boost to share prices would be fairly undramatic (a 5-15% jump is the consensus guess); and any effect on spending would be small and gradual." (The Economist, May 10, 2003, pg. 26).


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#123

Consequences

Robert Ingersoll said, "In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments - there are consequences." Last night I learned that the hard way. After struggling for two years to clear my backyard pond of algae and clear the water so we might enjoy the fish, I finally succeeded this week. It is not important what all the theories, trials and guesses were over the past two years. Only the consequences matter. During the night a heron or egret visited my pond and ate all but two of my fish. Gone are six two-year old comets and shumukins, as well as two new koi and about ten small gold fish I had introduced a week ago. My wife was up around four this morning for a few minutes and looked out the kitchen window. She saw the bird standing tall at the edge of the pond. Since it was still dark and she was only minutes out of bed she thought it was a new piece of statuary I had purchased. When she later got up for good the bird was gone and we discussed it. An examination of the pond established Ingersoll's insight.


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#122

Doesn't "Andre" sound French?
This week in Columbia, SC, the Lt Gov, Andre Bauer, was held at gunpoint by a cop after the Lt Gov swept through two red lights, was clocked speeding 60 miles an hour in a 35 zone, and jumped out of his car in an aggressive manner that scared the officer. The Lt Gov said later he exercised bad judgement but he was running late on his way to preside at the opening of the Senate (about all a Lt Gov in the Palmetto State has to do). Some sort of weird behavior for a man whose name smacks of the French.

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#121