Which do you think got the most votes for the best Stove League prediction:
* #2 – Pujols to the Angels
or
* #33 – Sox lose their captain and don’t sign Varitek
Stove League Winner – Monica Roper
15 Thursday Mar 2012
Posted in Go Sox
“We Need to Talk About Kevin”…and Eva…and Franklin
13 Tuesday Mar 2012
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
…and the book and the movie.
First I saw the Lynne Ramsay’s film We Need to Talk About Kevin.
That sent me to book by the same title, the novel by Lionel Shriver on which the movie was based.
And now I want to talk with folks who have seen the film, read the book, or done both.
Finally, After 100 Years…
13 Tuesday Mar 2012
Posted in Go Sox
Thanx to the sharp eye of blogger Jere Smith (A Red Sox Fan from Pinstripe Territory) and an email he sent the other day, I learned the Red Sox have seen the error of their ways (Click Here) and are making corrections, at least the ones having to do with the stadium tour.
For those of you who read Go Sox regularly, you no doubt remember (Jere did!) I complained last year that the Sox tour of Fenway was pretty poor (Click Here).
Well, I can’t claim credit for the following, tho I’m tempted, but in a recent press release, the Sox said:
*The ballpark tours will be revamped to provide a more rich and rewarding experience for every fan who visits.
*Tours will be more interactive and historical enabling fans to enjoy a more complete Fenway Park experience.
*There will be 64 plaques, 26 displays of historical items from “The Nation‟s Archive” and 10 historical markers throughout the ballpark totaling 100 items, up from about 46 currently in the park.
Let me and others know if you take the tour and what you think. I hope to do so in June and take Jere with me.
Read This & You’ll Never Watch Baseball the Same Way
08 Thursday Mar 2012
Posted in Go Sox
For those of you who have been around a while, the columnist/humorist Art Buchwald every year use to publish his explanation to the French of our Thanksgiving (le Jour de Merci Donnant). For some reason, I never tired of rereading it.
So taking his idea of repeating something that is (arguably) of interest and value, I am beginning an annual repeat of a column and a link I posted two years ago. The idea to do so came about after I was chatting with a younger sports fan who knows more about baseball than I do, probably because he plays fantasy baseball. But he didn’t know much about Tom Boswell, the author of the article that has changed the way I look at baseball.
And when this young chap read the article, I think it may have also changed how he will now watch baseball.
Anyway, here it is for 2012:
The DH: Good or Bad?
07 Wednesday Mar 2012
Posted in Go Sox
My good cousin’s son turned me on to Joe Podnanski, the writer from Sports Illustrated (SI.com) who also has his own blog, and I’ve been following him for at least six months now. He usually writes longish articles, with lots of details, etc. Some are worth your time, some not.
Podnanski has one this morning about the Designated Hitter, and I think he puts to rest all the arguments about that 40 year old ‘innovation’ to baseball.
Check it out Here.
And add your Comment in the section on this site if you have something to add.
“Footnote” — A Standout Film
06 Tuesday Mar 2012
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
(No ‘spoilers’ in the following)
I was glad the Iranian film A Separation (see earlier mini review here) won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, at least until I saw the Israeli film Footnote.
Now I’m a bit more conflicted.
Footnote opens in NY, and probably LA, Friday, and I hope it will be around long enough for folks to find it and see it.
Bosox: Fisk or Varitek?
03 Saturday Mar 2012
Posted in Go Sox
Little Serow – Don’t Rush
02 Friday Mar 2012
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
For those of you who live in the DC area, the word is out that Komi’s new, next door basement Thai restaurant* is ‘to die for.’
Well, not true.
Or at least my wife and I didn’t think so last night.
2012 MillersTime Baseball Contests
29 Wednesday Feb 2012
Posted in Go Sox
Here they are — the six 2012 MillersTime Contests.
It may be a bit early for some of you to focus on the best seven months of the year, but remember, in case of a tie on any contest, the individual who submitted his/her prediction first will be the winner. Also, be sure you include your Tie-Breaker predictions as some of the contests last year were decided by the Tie-Breakers.
The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, by Mike Daisey
23 Thursday Feb 2012
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
In preparation for an upcoming discussion on Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs, a friend sent a link to the transcript of the one man play I’ve posted below.
If you are a consumer of Apple products, I urge you to spend the 20+ minutes it will take to read Daisey’s The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs.
If you are interested in Steve Jobs and what he created, even if you do not use any of his/Apple products, I think you also will find the time spent reading it worthwhile.
And if you do not belong to either of the above two groups but are a consumer of electronic products, one who hates them, or perhaps just want to understand how something so successful can come at a significant human cost, you too might be interested in the link below.
Katherine Boo: “A Decent Life is a Train That Hasn’t Hit You”
22 Wednesday Feb 2012
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
Last evening we went to see and hear Katherine Boo, author of Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity (mini reviewed at MillersTime here.)
I didn’t find out what I wanted to know, but what I gained was better than what I had come to learn.
Vote for Best Stove League Prediction
21 Tuesday Feb 2012
Posted in Go Sox
So with Spring Training underway, I declare the end of the 2011/12 MillersTime Stove League contest.
We have six predictions that came true (five if you count the one that two of you predicted): #2, 7, 10, 31, 32, 33.
We need seven of you to vote for which prediction you think is best. Which one should be declared the winner?
A Book & A Film: Both Highly Recommended
20 Monday Feb 2012
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
‘ Tis strange – but true; for truth is always strange;
Stranger than fiction; if it could be told,
How much would novels gain by the exchange!
How differently the world would men behold!
How oft would vice and virtue places change!
The new world would be nothing to the old,
If some Columbus of the moral seas
Would show mankind their souls’ antipodes.
-Lord Byron his satirical poem Don Juan, 1823
A book and a film for your consideration.
The book is non-fiction, tho I wished it were fiction.
The movie was fiction, based on a novel, and I kind of wished it were true.
DC Area Dim Sum: Good News/Bad News
17 Friday Feb 2012
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
The good news:
Hollywood East Cafe, now in Wheaton, MD, a few blocks away from their former location on University Blvd., has doubled their dim sum offerings from when they first opened their new restaurant, and the quality of what they offer seems better too. They now have some dumplings that I haven’t seen nor tasted anywhere else in the entire DC/Md/VA area. They’re simply terrific.
If you live in DC/MD area and have stood in line for Oriental East because you think they have the best dim sum this side of Virginia, check out Hollywood East. I suspect you will be pleased.
The bad news:
Ping Pong Dim Sum has opened their second restaurant, this one in Dupont Circle. It is as bad, perhaps even worse, if possible, than the one in Chinatown.
These two ‘faux’ dim sum factories largely serve dumplings made elsewhere, and when they are steamed, these frozen whatever they are, are not even bad versions of true dim sum.
Save your appetite and money for the real things.
Finally, A Thoughtful & Informative View of Obama
16 Thursday Feb 2012
Posted in The Outer Loop
Those of you who have followed MillersTime/The Outer Loop know that I’ve reserved this part of MillersTime for my thoughts and for articles by others on issues that face our country (and sometimes the world beyond the US). When I do post here, it is my hope that these articles truly inform and are not meant to compete with the news cycle or the current ‘Inside the Beltway’ political view of the moment or what is ‘politically correct or incorrect.’
That said, I’ve also stated clearly from the beginning of MillersTime that I was (and continue to be) hopeful that Barack Obama would be ‘the real deal,’ would be a terrific president.
This morning I read the article by James Fallows of The Atlantic Monthly which I have embedded below. It is, I believe, the best thing I’ve read to date on Obama and his presidency.
It is long and will take you minimally 30 minutes to read. Know that I don’t encourage you to spend that amount of time very often.