Sunday Morning Coming Down

Jose Fernandez, ace baseball player, died in a tragic boating accident in September, that happened late at night and early the next morning.  Two other friends were killed.  The toxicology that was released Saturday and almost as expected drugs and alcohol were involved. One of the dead was a celebrity otherwise the boating accident would have been forgotten and the report filed for the lawyers to sort out later.  The families continue to mourn.  I'm not sure the official report is news as it is hardly new because it was so predictable and avoidable.

Los Alamitos Race Track is in Cypress, California and home of the Bank of America Challenge Championship, a series of stakes races for quarter horses.  The finals are being held on Saturday, October, 29, 2016. The realist in me says Bank of America has made a business decision to support a group of folks that use credit cards frequently. And on the other hand they have also promoted a sport, and folks in the sport that will never have a chance to run in the All American Futurity or the All American Derby or some of the million dollar races run in Texas or Oklahoma.  Quarter horses from Challenge races can qualify for the finals on a win and you're in basis. My best quarter horse friend Randy Weidner has a horse in the Challenge Championship from Ajax, Ontario.  Fantsy Pants will run out of the four hole. He knows his horse will be 50-1, I think she will be more than 50-1.  In a twelve horse race she will have to beat the eleven other horses.  Who knows?...

There is a big business in getting autographs to sell or going to a convention and paying somebody and in return getting an picture and an autograph.  There are celebrities that get paid for showing up at clubs?  Baseball player sign baseball cards and jerseys and a lot of fans wait till players have showered and stick a program or baseball in their face to sign. And presidential candidate will sign posters, hats, take selfies, and all sorts of other things. I'm really disappointed that former presidents have seemingly gone in this way to pay for a lifestyle to which they have become accustomed while being in office. This kind of self dealing may not be exactly illegal but  it really doesn't do much to allay the fears of most folks that the whole thing is rigged.

1)Finished the ballot just before 12:30pm at the Coral Gables Library. 2) The process was smooth, weather was good. 3) Most selfishly, I hope the phone calls will stop once they figure out I've voted.

Yes it is true the Marlins of Florida screwed up World Series dreams of the Cleveland Indians in 1997 and the Chicago Cubs in 2003.  Now that the Marlins are out of the way, Chicago or Cleveland will go onto win the World Series in 2016. Jeff Conine, who played on both Marlin teams, hopes the Chicago Cubs will win this year.

If the Cubs can win five more games this year they will have won the World Series for the first time since 1908.  I invite everyone to become fans of the 2016 Chicago Cubs.  This may seem silly, juvenile, and unimportant. If you live in Europe, Africa, or Asia you can take a pass on this invitation, but that does not mean the story isn't important. I think a lot of baseball fans will breathe a sigh of relief if  the Cubs win.  Things can go right, the team that played best this year, will be the champions and the USA can cross that off the country's bucket list, elect a president and try to be a better place to live, there are lots of other things to focus on. But the celebration will be monumental if we fly the "W".

The 2000 Election in Florida was screwed up.  Punch card ballots had pregnant chads, hanging chads, and a butterfly ballot that confused some folks in Palm Beach and to complicate matters the result were virtually a dead heat. Fast forward 2016 Election, and the candidate that is trailing is complaining about the election being rigged even before the first ballots are counted. And the conventional wisdom from Republicans is that they have once again missed an opportunity to win the presidency.  And the conventional wisdom may be correct one more time. It won't be because the election is rigged, the reason will be the rejection of a candidate that is tragically flawed and hardly a Republican.