Sunday Morning Coming Down

Barney Fife tells Andy "Nip it in the bud".  A truism if there ever was one.  It's memorialized on YouTube and the episode is on cable periodically.  This is something easy to talk about but hard to execute.  Talk is cheap, that's why there is so much of it.  Lots of strategies to do stuff fall apart because they are unpopular or because they are not big enough to be effective in the short run and we limit effectiveness by having contradictory policies and values. There has been a lot of righteous hand wringing about Miley Cyrus and her performance on the Video Music Awards.  I didn't see it when it happened but it sure did what was intended and maybe a little bit more. It's not easy to protect kids from stuff these days and if you are overly protective it can boomerang easily and meanwhile the sea level is rising.  Elementary school is a cake walk compared to Middle School and High School. The business terms span of control, micro management, ...

College football starts shortly, it is still hot but in about six weeks it should start getting cooler, somewhere around Columbus Day, maybe if we are lucky.  The hurricane season has been mysteriously quiet this year so far but it still has a way to go before December 1. While stumbling around on Thursday there was a feature on the radio about Cuban Coffee and the time, and the area code for South Florida.  This is a marketer's trifecta.  A small shot of Cuban coffee is pretty much routine at almost any Miami Office and it might well happen at about 3:05 pm.  Rituals are like this and it is one thing I miss since retiring. Watch in your local market for a new brand of Cuban expresso called 305.  Pilon and Llave (the current local Cuban Coffees) are roasted by the same company might need to give up some shelf space if this catches on.  If you are in Doral at the right time of day you can smell coffee being roasted.

It has been said that 1972 Miami Dolphins are a bunch of bitter old farts.  It's been reported they drink a toast every year honoring the team that beats the last undefeated team during the NFL football season.  Each year their record as the only team with a perfect season gets a year older. I remember that championship season, I lived in Miami and it introduced me to a uniquely Miami celebration technique.  Folks stood on corners and banged on pots and pans.  This was inspired in comparison to Morgantown, West Virginia where they burned old furniture. President Obama invited the team to the White House to celebrate the perfect season and probably as a shout out to the National Football League. Not very strangely these days several members of the team decided to boycott the event.  Jim Langer, Bob Kuechenberg, and Manny Fernandez have opted out for political reasons.  These guys have all benefited from their careers in pro football and they have ...

I'm writing this down so if and when I start forgetting stuff I might remember 8/18/2013. This was one those Sunday Mornings that started slowly but had a mission.  Sometimes the mission is as simple as reading the Miami Herald, making coffee, and going to church. Other times it is checking lottery numbers and down loading the results from Los Alamitos after I've fallen asleep watching "The Quarters" on TVG. A quick check of Facebook gave me something to do.  Randy Weidner, trainer for Thunder Struck had an entry in the Northern Plains Stallion Stakes at Canterbury Park and after the race he would be moving on to Prairie Meadows for their meet that opened on Saturday night. Downloading the past performances I remembered Randy saying he had a shot at a futurity race somewhere down the road.  I guess this was it.  On paper it wasn't a slam dunk.  A 4th last out against maiden $7500 claimers might give one indigestion and a reason to sit on your ...

People fighting for your business.  Economists call it competition.  It will be interesting to see if South Florida will be able to support all the gambling venues that are now open.  Hialeah Park is the latest casino to open. The State of Florida has allowed slot machines at Miami Dade and Broward County race tracks and Jai Alai Frontons to allow them to better compete with Indian Bingo and Slots. It took some time for the anti-gambling folks to stop fighting the parimutuel industry, and the crappy economy has made down look like up.  New jobs and updated places for tourists to visit after the sun goes down will also provide locals with something to do and places to hang out when they are bored and they have not drained their monthly social security checks. Jai Alai will pretty much give you a fin in "free" play on an almost daily basis with a players card, the local dog track has the senior crowd standing in line for a chance to win free play or a c...

My representative in Congress is Illeana Ros Lehtinen.  She represents the 27th District in Florida.  She is a Republican and more or less moderate unless it upsets the more elderly Cuban Americans in her district.  She has been in Congress a long time.  To some of her Republican Friends in Congress, (not from Florida) I'm sure they think of her as a hair on fire liberal. I visited her office in support of her support for more comprehensive immigration reform.  She is a member of the Gang of Seven members of the House trying to reform the immigration mess that this country is in.  If you listen to her staff, her views on the issue are similar to our views on immigration.  You would think a Cuban American's relatively enlightened view on the good things that can happen if immigration policies are fair, relatively inexpensive, and understandable would hold some influence on the matter. Legislatively, Cong. Ros Lehtinen is a g...

Saturday afternoon on the way to some politically incorrect activities: gambling and blood sports I was exposed to some even more political incorrectness on of all places on NPR. I wasn't shocked that we have enough DNA from Martha the last Passenger Pigeon to bring back a species from the extinct list.  I was actually kind of amazed that the Audubon Society hasn't been actively been doing the scientific research to bring back the passenger pigeon.  Another interesting nugget was the fact that the passenger pigeon died off at the hand of man through over hunting and that at one time the bird had been so prolific and almost tame that hunters threw nets over them and sold them off as cheap source of protein.  Unfortunately for the pigeons the process was way too efficient.  We now have a way to correct the errors of our ways, bring back the passenger pigeon. The second politically incorrect idea of the hour was actively messing with the weather to slow down climate...

I'm not sure the minimum wage is fair but that is something different, sort of.  Yesterday the NCAA decided it would no long sell jerseys of famous college football players.  I don't think they did this for any other reason than that they were in an awkward place. Why would they be able to mess with a Heisman Trophy winner who was trying to make a buck selling his signature on a jersey that could have been obtained from NCAA website.  In exchange for a scholarship, why should a player be required to sign away his rights to almost everything to the college giving him a scholarship in the name of faux amateurism. The players know they are being exploited to a greater or lesser extent to provide entertainment for alumni and programming for TV, radio, Internet, gamblers, and everyone else that watches their games.  The scholarship does not always lead to a degree or a job.  It might lead to serious injuries and other problems related to not being able to handle ...

The opening of the Casino at Hialeah Park will be any day now.  Probably next Saturday, is the latest rumored opening.  Meanwhile the new staff is being trained, there is a new cocktail waitress in the Mediterranean Lounge on the second floor and I spent a pleasant afternoon watching races from Saratoga, Louisiana Downs, an Monmouth Park. The kind of updated lounge on the second floor of the was quite the place during "season" when Hialeah had horses like Citation, Seattle Slew, Devil's Bag, Alydar and others. I could bet on races from home, over the internet, but I am both curious to watch the progress at Hialeah Park and figure I should support horse racing while I can.  You don't know what you've got till it's gone might be a truism or a cliché. In a few months I hope that Stolicknaya will be fast enough to visit Hialeah Park.  Shortly, I will need to get an owners license to spend time on the backstretch as a member of the Thunderstruck Stable. Randy...

It has been reported that the founder of Amazon.com has purchased the Washington Post Companies for $250,000,000.  The Washington Post is a newspaper company, it owns TV stations, and Kaplan University. Jeff Bezos has an estimated net worth of 28 billion dollars.  His purchase of the Washington Post might be considered chump change as it is less than 1% of his net worth.  He has made a considerable amount of money in the stock recently.  He is not the only uber wealthy person to buy a media company.  John Henry, Warren Buffet, and now Jeff Bezos have their hands on major media companies. I have a little part time job with the Miami Herald.  The newspaper business is not what it used to be.  On one hand I'm glad that there are wealthy people willing to invest in newspapers.  But, I am more than a little bit puzzled as to why a hedge fund manager, a wealthy investor in his 80's, and now a logistics, marketing, and computer guy are buying co...

Stolicknaya almost got a chance to run in the second race at Canterbury Park on August 2, 2013. The horse encountered problems right out of the gate and never recovered.  The racing form chart was charitable in its comment.  Jack Jesse was disqualified for "drifting" inward at the start, causing interference with rivals.  Stolicknaya broke out, no rally and finished last except that Jack Jesse was disqualified and placed last.  Start was "good" except for Jack Jesse who succeeded in screwing up the race for #2,#4, and#5. The #1,6,8 benefited in the race because they benefited from the foul. The race was supposed to be 870 yards.  A marathon of sorts for quarter horses.  The horse has to go around a turn and as a result horses have to start very quickly to get over to the rail to minimize the amount of distance they need to travel.  Stolicknaya should have benefited from from the #2 post but got tangled as the six hit the five, t...

Johnny Manziel wins the Heisman Trophy 2012.  He's only 20 years old and imagine a college football player that goes to a fraternity party.  If you're Johnny Football that's news. Maybe it is a little naïve  these days to think that going to a University of Texas frat party if you attend Texas A&M and are the Heisman Trophy winner that you might be asked to leave, that there is drinking at the party, bad language and that the whole thing will be recorded on someone telephone. Maybe Normal, Illinois isn't Austin and I'm not a Heisman Trophy winner.  I was the manager for the basketball team in high school and to some as nerdy as they get.  I am ever so glad they did not have cell phone cameras in the 1970's.  This isn't a shout out to Tricky Dick.  Why didn't you burn those tapes? Parents have a lot of things to worry about when they send their kids off to school. I'm not sure when the kid get the lecture about bad behavior when they ar...

Sometimes and some places you need to draw the line.  I'm not sure you are obligated to tip the person at the register.  If you go to the pizza joint to pick up a pizza you ordered over the phone, I think anything you leave in the jar is optional. I'm commenting on this because a famous pro quarterback was called out for leaving only $3.00 on a $74.00 carryout order. Long story short I'm glad I fly under the radar almost all of the time.  There are very few absolutes in this world.  During the holidays I give a few dollars to the mail person even though that job is handled by different people all of the time.  The guy who brings the newspaper also gets a tip, and bar maids, bartenders and waiters or waitresses receive a portion of the bill when it is settled. This is one time that I think just because you are famous that is unfair to get clobbered with an extra charge or risk being called out for being cheap if you don't over tip for se...