Sunday Morning Coming Down

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...