Sunday Morning Coming Down

Hurricane Andrew is in my rearview mirror, but I remember businesses closing for good in the South Dade Area and large areas where people once lived having many destroyed homes and few residents. I also remember tent cities that lasted for months. I remember FEMA cars, blue roofs, MREs. Traffic signals were down, and I remember vividly trying to direct traffic on US1 and Red Road. It was both an epic failure and a major life lesson.  I was woefully unprepared and undertrained and was thrilled when the Florida Highway Patrol relieved me and said they would need two experienced traffic officers to direct traffic.  I wasn't even given a whistle or any indication I might be held responsible if there were to be a crash at the intersection. (I'm relieved no one ran me over). I retreated to my apartment which was really warm. The cooler still had ice and a couple of silver bullets left from a sweaty night.  Having replaced some fluids, I called the traffic and transportation fol...

  I was asked to wait after I had my latest set of flu shots. I made an appointment and was seen in a timely manner and then it went downhill.  A guy who I recognized came in from begging on the corner of 80th and US 1. He proceeded to make a cell phone call to complain about not being able to buy ice or water with some benefit from a Medicare Advantage Program.  The poor recipient of his complaint had the company blamed and then she was blamed for being from the Philippines and unable to approve his purchase and the guy got louder. I wanted to yank his phone from him and tell her the ice was necessary to keep his insulin cold and that he at times bought water because he was homeless and lived out of his car.  My time out to make sure there were no side effect from the shot was almost over and I left without intervening.  I'm not sure if any intervention might have worked, short of buying him ice but that is for another day.  10/12/2022, saw ...

 Last Sunday I went to Publix across the street from the University of Miami and there was a younger looking fellow that was playing sort of classical music at the entrance to the parking lot. Along with the boom box amp, there was a request for donations. As a long time Miami resident, panhandling kind of goes with the territory.  Usually, it's just a request for any level of support greatly appreciated.  And then there's the exceptional panhandlers who sell fruits and vegetables, cold water, chewing gum, putting lessons?, and in this case electronic violin selections. Just about every intersection has these folks dodging traffic while trying to supplement their income. I do my best to ignore these folks that just have the cardboard signs. I've bought chicle, water, and limes, and if I still played golf I might have asked the guy in the golf shirt for a tip. The guy with the violin got called out Next Door like he was some kind of a fraud.  Something just didn't see...

The storm that became Hurricane Andrew formed in the Atlantic Ocean on August 16, 1992. If you lived in Miami back then you probably still have vivid memories of the hurricane and the aftermath that you will carry with you for the rest of your life. Today was sort of a hurricane season rehearsal.  I had bought a charger than can do more than charge your phone, like add air to tires, jump start your, a light that you can read by and two USB ports.  The instructions say it should be used monthly and recharged and recharged monthly. While on the phone I was cutoff and thought it was my cable company, a few minutes later I opened the fridge and realized the power was down. My cell phone was recharging on the new charger.  I was able to get information from FPL, that help was on the way and would be restored at 4:15pm.  FPL missed the mark by a little over an hour, but my cell phone got a full charge pretty quickly.  After a light lunch at American Legion Post 31, I ...

Superman on TV was always fighting for "Truth, Justice, and the American Way".  Yes, Superman is aspirational and a comic book creation.  To most watchers these days it seems almost corny to look up into the sky and for people to see Superman disguised as Clark Kent flying off to help friends, catch bad guys, do the right thing while fighting off really bad guys who would sap his powers with Kryptonite. This morning I came across a series of tweets by Jennifer Mercieca describing what real leaders of a democracy would be saying about the shortcomings of the previous administration as revealed in the past ten days or so. A serious statesman would comment about how important national security is, admitted mistakes were made in the proper retention of documents related to national security and promised actions to correct previous mistakes and thank agencies and the good people responsible for maintaining our security in the FBI and Department of Justice for all their efforts. In...

 Alternative histories seem to be all the thing at least for the last week or so or maybe the last five years. The charges and counter charges of what went down at Mar A Lago has brought out commentators of all stripes and it is all about what didn't happen during the general election of 2020, the results of the election in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. There have also been two impeachment trials brought by democrats and dismissed almost entirely by republicans. On January 6th, 2021, there was a riot, insurrection or failed coup attempt depending on who, what, when, and why you believe.  Where it all started is open to conjecture to some, but the preponderance of the evidence is that republicans at the highest level of government tried to muck up the results of the 2020 election for president.  The potential for a bipartisan search for the truth was again rejected by an almost straight party line vote.  Was the republican senate taki...

To let go of something is not always a bad thing.  Same can be said to forgive and forget. And then there is the rest of the story, which can lead you to never again, never again. The Reganism of ""trust but verify" is another "down the rabbit hole" of public policies. It would be step forward if politics were not be subverted by the threat of vetoes in all its forms.  The ultimate truth that incumbents choose their voters and moderates in both parties get primaried by folks that believe moderation in politics is wishy-washy, election results are suspect, as long as it is politically expedient and by extension so is just about anything your opponent is for, without the need for any alternative. Yesterday, I heard a story about a 30 by 30 plan which would save, conserve and improve 30 % of the nation's lands.   The 30 by 30 plan  is the federal push to conserve 30% of U.S. lands and waters by the year 2030. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, right now ...

 The following are members of the United States Senate that voted against a January 6th Commission: John Barrasso of Wyoming John Boozman of Arkansas Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia John Cornyn of Texas Tom Cotton of Arkansas Kevin Cramer of North Dakota Mike Crapo of Idaho Ted Cruz of Texas Steve Daines of Montana Joni Ernst of Iowa Deb Fischer of Nebraska Lindsey Graham of South Carolina Chuck Grassley of Iowa Bill Hagerty of Tennessee Josh Hawley of Missouri John Hoeven of North Dakota Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi Ron Johnson of Wisconsin John Kennedy of Louisiana James Lankford of Oklahoma Mike Lee of Utah Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming Roger Marshall of Kansas Mitch McConnell of Kentucky Jerry Moran of Kansas Rand Paul of Kentucky Marco Rubio of Florida Rick Scott of Florida Tim Scott of South Carolina Dan Sullivan of Alaska John Thune of South Dakota Thom Tillis of North Carolina Tommy Tuberville of Alabama Roger Wicker of Mississippi Todd Young of Indiana. Only six Repub...

I haven't been to an office for a while, but in the "old" days, people left voice mails on your desk phone and there was a business issued e-mail address.  If  the company didn't buy you a cell phone for work you could almost guess they were being used were used for personal stuff.  Like, call me on my cell phone, not on the office line because they might be hooked up to something where there was a record of the communications. With government issued phones I'm surprised that there isn't a record of all communications somewhere and that they can't be recovered, and this would apply to text messages as well. If extraordinary measures were taken to delete text messages, you can be forgiven if you think something is fishy.  In my old experience government computers were rarely state of the art so the erasure of messages might also be related to outdated technology. The time involved with sorting the personal from work related stuff may be so daunting and over...

Thomas Malthus wrote that whenever the human condition improved we added more people instead of trying to maintain a better standard of living when fewer of us died of starvation.  He was also ahead of his time in proposing that increased abundance brought on inflation rather than an effort to improve the standard of living for the poor and disabled. There were examples of a utopian existence for some but a continued level of poverty for the masses. What seems to be happening is a combination of all the situations that Malthus said would limit population growth, a growing middle class under pressure, and environmental stresses that may checkmate increased growth and an improved standard of living for all. Are these issues transitory or are they something that is getting baked into how the Earth is and will become? I'm really not sure which of these issues is the most important, whether it is war, famine, global climate change, or poverty, some other major problem like an ongoing pa...

Yesterday morning I walked the dog past the lift station.  I did not hear the tinkling of water from flushing toilets or showers.  The red light and horn warning did not sound and the formerly working pump did not start.  It had been running as of Sunday PM, the last time I checked. The new guys who worked on Friday were called as soon as I returned to the house and Kenny the new guy was able to repair an electrical connection that had gotten loose. Pump working, alarm possibly not working but there were promises to check everything out later that morning and do any needed repairs. Tuesday evening the pump was working but was unsure about the alarm. Tuesday 10:00pm I got a return call asking if the alarm had been fixed.  And so it goes.

 On the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, Bullwinkle would say "Fan mail from some flounder" in response to "Look Bullwinkle a message in a bottle". Dana Milbank of the Washington Post reported that Gallup Organization reported that "just" 27% of Americans reported confidence in their institutions."  This was the lowest level of confidence expressed in the fifty years that question has been asked. Flounder may be a fish, but it is also a verb meaning to struggle helplessly or clumsily. And these days, if you are asked is the country is going in the right direction? It's a tough question to answer.  Yes, or No should be followed because the answer might be both yes and no.  Joe Biden beats Trump 44-41 in a recent poll.  I'm surprised it's close. Things are confusing and competence in a lot of fields is overwhelmed by folks just being angry, misinformed, and struggling.

Joni Mitchell is from Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada and she escaped the fridged winters as a song writer and singer and moved to California.  Whether it is "don't it always seem to go" or "we can't return, we can only look behind, we seem to have forgotten our political history. The Watergate Hearings lead to the resignation of Richard Nixon and people went to jail. Donald Trump was elected without a mandate or a majority of the popular vote in 2016 and impeached twice, but not convicted.   January 6th Select Committee is the actions of a president who lost an election, who cried foul before, during, and after the election and promoted the biggest of lies that he won the election, but it was stolen by people in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Yesterday's hearing clearly showed that Trump ignored the fact that he lost and rallied his followers to scuttle a process of electing our president that needs bi-partisan support to recover. The div...

 I live in a neighborhood with a lot of Tesla cars. The immediate area doesn't seem to have a lot charging stations and there are none at any gas stations I frequent. Obviously, owners of these cars have plug in chargers in their garages and this may become the new standard in the new houses as the older ones are replaced. I have some questions about costs of these vehicles, when everything is factored into their cost, but strategically they make sense with the price of oil so high and the war in the Ukraine.  The impact on the environment is not clear to me, as my perspective may be a little shorter than most. For most of us, the alternative is public transportation. It's marginally better than driving if available, but it is also an adjustment. If the price to park your car was taxed in some fair way, we might be able to change some behaviors that are costly and friendlier to the environment. Go to a dealer and you will have "sticker shock" and a car payment which c...

Politics is a lot of things and a big part of stuff political is ambition. You start out doing scut work, mailings, door hangers (I'm old), showing up at the campaign office to do whatever they ask you to do.  Shortly after finishing the MPA Program at West Virginia University, I was called by somebody who worked in Jay Rockefeller's staff, who asked if I would like to work in a campaign to elect Rockefeller the next governor of the state. I would be a paid staff member coordinating his campaign in an eight-county region in the northern part of the state and have a car and a small salary of $300 @ month and the promise of a much better job if "we" won. I would need to return to Charleston from sunny South Florida and asked the guy on the other end of the line if being a current resident of Florida would be an issue.  I told him I was in Miami, had developed a "Florida Tan" and in my opinion the candidate did not need another out of state person in his campai...

So much for precedent.  If you watched the Judicial Committee Hearings regarding the Confirmation of Supreme Court Justices, you might have hoped for a different decision, but I doubt that you are surprised about the decision, as the Trump nominees would never have been nominated if they had not passed the litmus test regarding overturning Roe vs. Wade. The newest nominees spoke about the importance of precedent and then five justices ignored fifty years of precedent.  The old joke about dogs licking their privates in public seems to apply here.  The Supreme Court has lost some serious credibility in their Roe vs Wade decision.  Just because a majority could strike down a decision that has been around for fifty years, doesn't mean they should mess with privacy issues, a woman's right to control her body, and by implication other rights that apply to others like marriage. You can add the overturn of Roe vs. Wade to January 6th, 2021, almost the entire Trump Presidency...

The Mueller Report was issued a long time ago and sadly it was viewed as a partisan report. Not very much has changed since then regarding the political divide in this country. The following is from the Washington Post: "Perhaps unsurprisingly, the end of the investigation has done little to shake partisans’ convictions about Trump’s guilt or innocence. A 76 percent majority of Democrats thinks Trump committed serious wrongdoing related to Russian election interference or the investigation that followed, including nearly two-thirds who say he committed a crime. Separately, 8 in 10 Democrats think Trump tried to hinder the Russia investigation and committed obstruction of justice in the process." If any thing has happened as a result of the dismissal of the Mueller Report, it has been questioning of the results of the 2020 election, even before the election and promotion of theories without evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the results of the election. T...

I guess just about any holiday is controversial.   Juneteenth is a Federal Holiday to celebrate the emancipation of the enslaved black population of Texas and the Southwest that received the news on June 19th, 1865. If we can celebrate the birth of Baby Jesus, the 4th of July (Independence Day), President's Day, Easter, Labor Day and New Year's Day, I guess we can squeeze in another day. MLK's birthday generated some "heat" and it took some time for states to celebrate Dr. King and I imagine Juneteenth will be more meaningful to some than others. Juneteenth is just a year old and that along with voting rights and civil rights still have a ways to go.

There is little to be proud of when you see how low Trump went in almost scuttling the 2020 election.  Whatever the final results are, I am relieved that the hearings so far have not had what has become a norm of political bickering as in most committee hearings.  I've served on two federal grand juries.  This committee hearing seems a lot like that process. The committee is presenting the information that it has gathered about the background of what happened on January 6th, 2021.  The process is one sided.  The prosecutors in this case are of the opinion that something very bad happened on January 6th, 2021.  To the Republicans in both houses of congress, I would ask: "Hang Mike Pence"?  The mob almost got what it wanted, and the response has been: "forget about it". People need to understand how close we all came to dismantling our democracy.  

The second line is when I'm wiser and I'm older.   The lift station problem has been diagnosed. A second pump needs to be replaced and the sooner the better. Friday AM the repair process begins.  As of 5:30PM, there is a new pump and floats have been installed. And while this is a big problem several hundred feet from the lift station, an expensive development of town houses has experienced a flooded garage.  Yes, it has rained a lot for the last ten days. And the "not so poor people" in the million-dollar townhouses have had a virtual army of workers trying to mitigate the damage caused by the flooding.  The maintenance and repair of the lift station that disposes of sewage and gray water is an absolute necessity. I don't know how long the repairs will last, but the cost per unit is about $100.00.  Many of the issues regarding the pumps relate to flushing stuff like baby wipes and paper towels and even some less biodegradeable items. Any strategic plan to ...

 It's been a while since I've commented on sports.  A lot of things have happened in NBA, MLB, PGA, NHL, NFL, NCAA, and Horse Racing. The top seeded Miami Heat folded their tent losing to the Boston Celtics.  Jimmy Butler did his best to carry the Heat but intermittent cold spells from the three-point line doomed them.  It seems the road to success is paved with whipping the ball around for the open three.  I'm not sure what the analytics say is the winning three - point percentage is but anything below 30 % is a problem. And know I hear Lebron would like to team upp with Steph Curry?

 I've got a nickname at the Legion. I'm known as the guy who watches horse races and I keep a low profile and in football pools I'm called Horse Track. Today in a handicapping contest at Monmouth Park, at Ocean City, New Jersey, I picked the winning horses in the three races that are part of the "Survival at the Shore" contest.  Even with three winners I finished in a tie for 3rd place in the day's contest. and was only about twenty cents short of finishing in a tie for 2nd place. This is only news because there are about 4,000 handicappers in the contest.

This morning I woke up to what was hurricane Agatha and might become tropical storm Alex. It's been a rainy couple of days but there is a forecast that things may clear up as the day progresses. The Rene Condominium is connected to the Miami Dade Sewer System by two submerseable pumps that lift the waste water from a collection concrete silo pit to a ppoint where it is dumped into a sewer line that is located about a block away where gravity takes over and the water is sort of treated at a treatment plant. The pumps are big and have a feature that helps grind up and emulsify stuff that probably should not be flushed down the toilet which when combined with cooking oils and grease causes blockages throughout the system. Repairing these systems is inconvenient and expensive and sewage backups into dwelling units is a major league problem.  I got a report of a problem that one of the pumps was making a loud noise. Further investigation indicated that the pump was not turning off as de...

 There is no dog in this fight in my house.  I had a student loan and paid it off. I worked and saved money for college.  I contributed some of my wages towards household expenses through high school, lived frugally had scholarships, worked summer jobs and some part-time employment while attending the "U".  And now President Biden wants to cancel $10,000 of student debt. What is this world coming to? Some folks are going to complain that when they went to school, they didn't take out loans or paid them off. Maybe they should get a thank you note for being good stewards of their talents or buy their folks dinner or start saving for their folks' long-term care should it be necessary. One of the reasons for the explosion of student loans has been the overuse of academic credentials as a substitute for relevant experience to qualify for entry level positions or promotions to higher paying jobs. And one of the unintended consequences of such policies was private for profi...

Florida's Senior US Senator condemns the Miami Heat and the NBA for suggesting he be called at 202-224-3121 to drop off a message regarding common sense legislation regarding guns.  Improved background checks and a ban of assault rifles would put a dent in mass shootings which the US leads the modern world in. Senator Rubio rightly points out that China has some serious human rights issues (as does the United States of America) but that is no reason to ignore mass shootings at schools, churches, or grocery stores.

I listened with respect for what Steve Kerr said about the latest round of gun violence that has touched a church, an elementary school, and a grocery store. His father Malcom Kerr was killed by the Islamic Jihad at the age of 52 while serving as the president of the American University of Beirut. The NBA Golden State Warriors, the team he coaches is in middle of another run for a championship.  His plea for action related to gun violence and calling out the NRA and the partisan divide in the Senate that has stopped any meaningful federal legislation in a pregame news conference should be heard. I believe a majority of Americans want action to curb gun violence. NOW!

In no particular order because any top ten list could be jumbled at any time. A global pandemic is still happening.  Maybe it isn't the killing field that it once was, but this story is on going. The immediate past president hasn't been convicted of anything and given the deep divisions in this country may not even get indicted.  And the leadership of the Republican Party while loathing him privately has elected more than a handful of folks who seem incapable of doing anything but sowing more dissention. The Supreme Court which abhors things that are political, may now thru a leaked document may do damage to itself and politicize abortion and just about every issue that will come its way for a long period of time. There is a war going on and wars are expensive in people and treasure. 

The trainer of Rich Strike has endured.  The post-race drug tests came back negative. The connections decided Rich Strike will skip the Preakness and get ready for the Belmont. If I was an owner of a horse that won the Kentucky Derby, I would hope the horse came back from the race and be able to run in the Preakness. The sad truth is few horses are able to withstand the pressure of the races to qualify for the Kentucky Derby and the three Triple Crown races.  Three-year-old horses are not motor cycles that just need a tune up to run their best, race after race. The point system that gives a spot in the Derby has worked well to putting together of twenty horses which makes for an exciting race and more than a few interesting stories and a packed crowd at Churchill Downs. The system needs an adjustment which allows more time off between the Triple Crown races. The Santa Anita, Arkansas, and Florida Derbys give almost enough time for their winners to be ready for the Kentucky Der...

A better story than more Bob Baffert drama and court cases. It was surprising that an 80-1 shot won the 2022 Kentucky Derby.  The connections were thrilled that he got into the race and once you are in the race you have a chance.  That the winner, Rich Strike was claimed for $30,000 and won as a maiden in September of 2021 after a lackluster Maiden Special Weight race at Ellis Park and then got beat in two stakes races by Tawny Port and Tiz the Bomb finishing third in both races. This is hardly a reason for optimism, and if the owners went to look for a softer spot and more black type,  nobody would have blinked but it didn't happen like you might think.  The connections were on the list as also eligible should there be a late scratch and was added to the field after the Ethereal Road dropped out. Rich Strike got some very good luck as Jockey Sandy Leon was able to get Rich Strike through an opening and was able to flash some late speed and pass the tiring favorites....

The title is a clue from this morning's Mini Crossword in the New York Times. And in a lot of ways the idea isn't that attractive even though leaving the workforce to spend more time with your family, friends, hobbies is attractive. One of the more problematic issues of aging is health and, in many ways, it is like dealing with the old car you might have.  It still runs but it needs more maintenance after the odometer has rolled over.  You might not like it but health related visits to the doctor are the check-in, conversation starter with the close friends I lunch with, ran with, worked with and socialized.  Even during the pandemic phone calls were health related check ins. Recently, I have been to a few meetings at my church where being elderly was discussed and this morning, I read an article about how the latest pandemic has messed with our sense of time. I reminded of the Chambers Brothers and the extended version of their hit: "Time Has Come Today". I wondered ...

"  In the days after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol building, the two top Republicans in Congress, Representative Kevin McCarthy and Senator Mitch McConnell, told associates they believed President Trump was responsible for inciting the deadly riot and vowed to drive him from politics. Mr. McCarthy went so far as to say he would push Mr. Trump to resign immediately: “I’ve had it with this guy,” he told a group of Republican leaders." This is from the NYT. I've heard this song and dance many times before.  And the upshot of it they would do something about it. Now in spite of the existence of tapes regarding these conversations for the most part with very few exceptions Republicans voted against any investigation by Congress of the who, what, when, why and where the riot came from and what would be gained by pushing the lies and legally dismissed allegations of fraud. Greene, Gaetz, Brooks, Boebert, Cawthorn and several others who seem to have little interested in govern...

Guessing the "wordle" in three tries is good.  Less than three guesses is blind ass luck. I don't care about streaks, and I really don't want to spend too much time pondering an answer. Sometimes I just stop and go away and take a break. Sometimes you just need a timeout.

 In the middle of the night, I heard a program from Las Vegas that discussed in serious detail gambling related stuff regarding the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship. You could bet what conference will win the tournament, or what #2 seed will go the furthest, or the combined seed of the final four: will it be over or under 12.5. And finally: What will be higher? Sister Jean's age 102 or the most points scored by a team in the round of  64. And they gave some advice: only one time have all four #1 seeds made it to the Final Four.  (2008). Some people bet for entertainment and some think they can make serious with their brackets.

 This is a movie slash story about leaving your really rural roots for a job up north.  This movie hit home with me because I listened to a lot of fiddle and banjo music doing my time in Morgantown, WV. The setting of the movie was depression times in Kentucky and there was no mention of coal mining.  The family left a bucolic but poor in money existence for the chance of a job at a car plant in Ohio. As in most memoirs but not all the good outweighs the bad.  The family knew they were leaving a way of life that wasn't all that bad, but it was limited.  I'm reminded of "The Waltons" but in comparison the Waltons were upper middle class compared to the folks in this movie. Very little of the move to Ohio is covered and the flashbacks to the way things were was at times a little confusing, but the music was something that kept me from switching to the Golf Channel.  You can watch it on Amazon Prime.

Edwin Starr sang "War" in 1970.   I'm not a military expert and am surprised they are still fighting. Three things that I hadn't thought about were 1) the refugees the war has generated, 2) the war seems to be generating a lot of coverage on TV that was almost invisible in comparison to Iraq and Syrian conflicts and 3) how this will end. How this war will end is troublesome because Putin may be the only person that can stop it and he may lack the motivation to end it. Last night, it seems there was fighting and a fire at a nuclear power plant. A million plus refugees are another humanitarian issue to be addressed.

The World is in a dangerous place. One of the biggest truisms of modern life has been that war is too destructive to be an effective tool of policy.  You destroy something and you find you have bought it.  It is for that reason that a strong competitive military exist as much to deter wars as fight them. The stakes become too high and as we have learned the conflicts are not resolved. Economically, Europe is a major market for Russian Oil and Russian Oil is financed by banks around the world.  Oil may not seem like a giant part of the economy, but it touches transportation and is something that consumers are very aware of as those costs are integral to a modern economy.  It is possible to use substitutes for oil but that can take time and be even more expensive as supplies are disrupted and demand continues and may increase for nonproductive uses.  This is a worldwide problem and will require folks to cooperate and sacrifice to contain its spread. It is possible...

One thing about the pandemic has been dramatic change in my viewing habits. I like PBS/English/Commonwealth dramas and instead of going to the movies I have reserved time in the afternoon for streaming shows that might look promising. Quite by accident I came upon "Seven Days In Utopia".  I would call it a "Hallmark" movie about golf. Definitely not "Tin Can. However, it reminded me of good times on the golf course and in particular of Hickory Knoll a small 9-hole golf course that had been bought by a Bensenville family that owned the Foremost Liquor Store at Mason and Green Street. It was a family affair and at the time maybe a real estate speculation possibility. The course still exists and the "clubhouse" is under renovation.  It's a "hilly" course by Illinois standards and I'm glad it is still a golf course and it is planned to reopen soon in 2022.

 I hit the dice at a game played at a local watering hole.  It was worth about $250.  Second roll I think and los dados came up with 5 deuces.  I bought a round of drinks for my bar mates and tipped the barmaid. I've told this story before but this morning I was reminded that it is 2/22/22.  I'm surprised I did not post this on Face Book so I might have been reminded of this longshot coming in. 

Ezra Klein pretty much nailed it in his 2/6/2022 column for the New York Times. "It’s easy to speak as if policy smoothly reshapes reality. I’m more guilty of that than most. But policy lies downstream of society. Mandates are not self-executing; to work, policies need to be followed, guidance needs to be believed. Public health is rooted in the soil of trust. That soil has thinned in America." " You know what’s better than a vaccine mandate? A society that doesn’t need one."

It's almost time for the Super Bowl. The poohbahs of the NFL would probably like to have a do over on at least three things that happened in the recent past. Flores being fired. Flores suing NFL and teams that interviewed him. Flores allegation that he was offered $100,000 for losing games and moving up in the draft to get a "franchise quarterback If Coach Flores hadn't been fired the dirty laundry of the NFL coaching merry-go-round could have continued for another cycle and he would be held out as a potentially great coach that reflected the majority of the NFL's players. The owner of the Dolphins would be saved from a double dose of embarrassment and maintain a relatively positive image in Miami. Tanking has happened too often in Miami sports history, and you might even wonder if Ross had a Fan Duel account.   And finally, I imagine that Cincinnati beating Kansas City and the resulting Super Bowl matchup is probably the least favorite matchup. As things look now Bria...

The passing of the rock legend Meatloaf is sad, but "Bat Out Hell" will live on as a tribute to the performer and teenaged angst.  The album was released in 1977 and the songs were more like scenes from high school dances, college parties and dating/ love gone wrong into middle age. The songs were written by Jim Steinman, and he had similar hits with Celine Dion, "All Coming Back to Me Now", Bonnie Tyler, "Total Eclipse of the Heart", and "Tonight Is What It Means to Be Young" from the Movie "Streets of Fire". I could go on like a rock critic might, but the music speaks for itself.

This morning I walked a dog named Nene.  From the Spanish it means Baby, more or less. From there I kind of went down the "rabbit hole" of songs about dogs.  Puppy Eyes was an answer in today's mini crossword in the NYT, Paul Anka wrote "Puppy Love" which isn't about dogs but there are a lot of crossovers between dogs and love.  Patti Page recorded " Doggie in the Window?" in 1953.  The song was #1 on the charts for about eight weeks and sold about 2,000,000 records. "Hound Dog" by Elvis Presley was a really big hit, but it him got bounced from the Ed Sullivan Show.

Demographics change and elections have consequences.  Electoral results for Illinois from 1960 to 1988 showed that Illinois was a swing state in elections for the presidency. Nixon thought he got screwed in the election of 1960.  He blamed it on Mayor Daley and the Cook County Democratic Party.  Johnson carried the state handily in 1964, as did Nixon in 1968, and overwhelmingly in 1972. Gerald Ford carried Illinois narrowly in 1976. Ronald Reagan won easily in 1980 but did not get a majority of the votes cast and then won decisively in 1984. George H.W. won a slight majority of the votes in Illinois and the Presidency in 1988.  Since 1992 the state has been solidly a Blue state It should also be noted that the population of Illinois has declined since 2014 and its political has slumped from 27 to 20 representation. Cumulative voting was adopted in Illinois in 1870 at a time when a number of deep divisions, political, economic, social and cultural all ran along a sing...

NFL football coaches get hired knowing that there will be a time when they will be fired or "retired". And others may aspire to be a head football coach and never get a chance to be a head coach.  There are only 32 positions and there is no guarantee that an interview will result in a job offer.  The backstory on the "Flores Firing" seems to be that the guy has a prickly communication style that did not go over well in the office, and he wanted almost complete control over football operations, which was a non-starter. The word surly comes to mind which is very loaded term these days. It was also implied that some players were dissatisfied with his playing favorites in the Lockeroom. Two winning seasons and this year's winning streak should have given him another chance in theory, but coaches are easier to replace than players. He will get another job. The current owner and GM are also a mixed bag.  Tua maybe more Griese like than Marino and if Tannehill wins a S...

 I was struck by the fact that only two Republicans showed up at the Anniversary of the 1/6/2020 riot at the Capitol.  Liz Cheney and her father attended the program.  Former Vice President Cheney said he's deeply disappointed in Republican House Leadership and its response to the 1/6/2020 riot.  He told the New York Post:   “It’s not a leadership that resembles any of the folks I knew when I was here for 10 years.”   It was an important historical event.  I couldn't agree more,  and the complete absence of any other republicans is mystifying. Quite a number of republicans were elected during the last general election.  They were on the same ballot and the idea that the election was stolen from the former president should have been dismissed by republicans a long time ago. Nobody likes losing elections. But the idea that the thousands of precinct workers and software engineers were in on a big fix is just more sour grapes from the losing pres...

There is bad weather in the Northeast.  Folks are stranded on I-95, trapped overnight amid snow and cold.  In the not-too-distant past that might have prompted ads extoling the warmth of Miami and an escape from winter weather worries. Unfortunately, the rest of the story this year has been, Omicron, "Get the vaccine", and record number of flights cancelled. I've reopened my windows and turned off the AC.  It's almost like eating outside. As an aside, these last few months have been filled with training two small dogs.  One, a neutered male, seems to prefer standing on three legs while peeing, his half-sister has also compromised, she squats but lifts her left leg.  They both enjoy the great weather.  Mochi will hop up on a chair to assist the leashing process, Nene, now hops up in my lap, she still needs a few moments to curb her enthusiasm.

It was a great game.  The final score was 48-45. Ohio State rallied to win on a last-minute field goal beating Utah.  Lots of action lots of scoring and I had no dog in the fight.  I do have a soft spot for Big Ten football having grown up in the mid-west and getting coverage of all the schools in the conference because that's what the Chicago Tribune did. Not as a complaint but there are now fourteen schools in the Big Ten. The additions of Nebraska, Penn State, Rutgers, and Maryland have done nothing but split the conference into East and West Divisions and added a playoff game for the conference championship.  It's all about the money, TV, and The Rose Bowl which gives a Big Ten School a chance to shine even if it doesn't make it to the playoffs. It would be a pleasant surprise if everyone played in their respective bowl games as a fitting end to their college careers but for an expanding number of players, the post season bowl games are a threat to their careers ...

I read a book called Innumeracy.  In some ways it is a book about choices we make based on the basic misunderstanding of large numbers.  Very large numbers are hard enough to understand and mercifully we can escape some consequences of not understanding the risks involved and being one person in a large population with a bit of caution.  1 in 10 is a very likely happening, 1 in 100 less likely but still not out of the ordinary, and you might have to wait a while for a 1 in a 1000 to happen. Silly me, I play the lottery, bet on horses, and really like rolling the dice.  the odds of getting 5 of a kind rolling five dice once is 1/1296. And so it is.  It is not exactly a charitable action, but I always contribute a dollar to the pot and roll the dice twice hoping for 5 of a kind.  It doesn't happen often and there is no guarantee that you will be paid the true odds for your roll because the house takes 50% of the pot. The game is for entertainment purposes onl...