Of Politics, Sports and Stuff

I have two 50th high school reunions coming up in the next few months and for the one at Westtown, we were asked to write up a page or two summary of key life events of our last 50 years as well as what brings us joy. I put it off a week or two past the deadline for getting it published in the mailing, partially because I kept coming back and editing and adding to it (which I've continued to do here as I remember more things), and partially because I procrastinate. It's what I do.  Now that it's finished, I thought I'd post it here as well, if only since it will be helpful for whomever gets to write my obituary someday.  ------------- Wow. I know we’re all wondering the same things: - Where did the time go? - How did I get here? - Where is that large automobile? - This is not my beautiful wife! And yet no matter how much we, and the world, have changed, things are the Same as it ever was . (Fun fact: David Byrne’s sister lived on my hall at Earlham my juni

Interesting column in a recent Washington Post where the author asked people to condense their thoughts on race or cultural identity into six words.  Here are mine: My fellow Democrats: You're obsessed. Stop.  or We = We. Please stop We/They What are yours?

My friend Harry Bryans emailed me yesterday commenting on this Jayson Stark column on the amazing play Chase Utley made in the 2008 World Series. This is part of the email I wrote him back, that I am posting here for posterity: For many years in our 30's, my buddy (since 5th grade) Jim Daly and I used to play in a co-ed softball league. (And we took it a little too seriously sometimes, I'm now willing to admit. Adam Bratis actually saw me provoke a bench-clearing brawl - true story - when I slid too hard in the other team's catcher.) Jim was, and in some respects is still, a very good athlete. Jim played shortstop in the J-Roll way - not many spectacular plays but incredibly dependable - made every throw right on the money. I, on the other hand, was very undependable at third base, but they kind of tried to hide me there, particularly because in co-ed softball, there were so many baserunners, I often only had to touch my base or throw home or to second, which was almost th

Interesting conversation with a young (20ish) voter last night when I questioned her lack of enthusiasm for Joe Biden in the upcoming election even though she is a clear liberal/progressive. When I asked why she found it hard to support him, her main thrust was not about his age, per se, but about his being part of the old guard, wanting to do things the way they've always been done, in a capitalist system young people don't trust or value. And she understands some of the appeal for Donald Trump, despite being almost as old, in that he wants to shake things up or, more excitingly, blow things up.  I told her that reminded me of us when we were her age when Richard Nixon represented all that was evil and wrong with the world. He was the epitome of what we called The Establishment. Totally resistant to any kind of change or accepting that things were way out of whack, the country wasn't go in the wrong direction - it wasn't going in any new direction that would right the

 It seems unfair for me to just list, as I did a few days ago, the things I wish the media, and more importantly our government, would spend less time on, without also listing that which I wish they'd give more attention to, so here ya go: - Universal health care - Affordable housing; finding places for unsheltered people to live with dignity - Universal basic income, in JamieWorld, replacing all welfare of every kind - Good news, as shown at this amazing website on a weekly basis - Fair funding of education - Laws to increase gun safety - Reducing college debt but on a grander scale, free college, starting with community colleges - Pathways to citizenship for those wanting to immigrate here Most importantly, promoting love instead of war. Moving toward a foreign policy where we help other countries with anything but weapons. Working as a peacemaker to bring people together instead of arming them to fight each other. Helping people around the world improve their lives when we are

  Looking at this blog a few days ago, I decided I didn't like the colors of it, so out of boredom, I decided to change it, choosing one of their choices of "themes", and boy do I regret it. Not only did it lose many of the "widgets", as they call them, on the sides, some of which I was able to eventually recover, though I still don't like the way it presents them, but it incorrectly and incompletely displays the posts. The one right below this one, if you click on it, shows correctly that the items I listed were written as bullet points but when one looks just at the blog, it throws them all together as if they are part of a sentence. So I apologize for the new look. Yet once again, I've had to sacrifice reality in favor of beauty.

 Things the media seem obsessed with that I just pass over as soon as I see what the article is about:  AI Anything to do with Israel, especially the latest war Abortion Crime Donald Trump Fantasy Football Golf Space of the Outer variety Women's sports (sorry!) On the other hand, climate change applies in terms of my (not) wanting to read about it, but they actually should be writing about it far more often. Interestingly, it seems like national level politicians spend way more time on things I don't care about than the things I wish they would, too. 

There are just too many applicable punchlines to this actually very important NY Times story about how flowers are learning to self-pollinate (I know!), but I'll provide one direct quote from it here and let you take it in any direction you feel (in-?)appropriate: "(Pansies) can also use their own pollen to fertilize their own seeds, a process called selfing. Selfing is more convenient than sex." Actual verbatim quote from the story. But the best part, again, besides the important bigger ramifications, were the comments from NY Times readers, 90% of which were very serious, scientific observations. But because well, I'm me, this was my favorite comment: "I am a 55 year old married man. I have undergone similar evolution." And I'll add that it gives new meaning to the expression "Go F__ yourself!"

  This is my mantra for 2024:  Focus on the basics. When in doubt, choose love.

  I started this blog, or actually this blog, which morphed into this one, shortly before I had access to Facebook and for better or worse, many of the things I would have posted here have been usurped by FB. This year, I think I will try to do a lot of double-posting to both there and here, so apologies in advance to anyone who sees both and wonders why. Here is the first time I'm doing it, as it seems appropriate both because of the time of year but also because I am resolving to post here more often...which raises a few questions I've asked myself ("'Self', I asked...") many times: - Why do I post anything here at all? - Who is the audience I'm aiming it at? - Do I care who reacts and how? And the answers aren't easy...which explains why I've asked myself "many times". Part of the answer is that I write here for my own amusement. I actually do go back and read 5-10 of my most recent posts maybe 1-3 times a year and actually get a kick