13 Monday Feb 2012
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
At some point, either shortly before or shortly after I retired from The Frost School, I made a list of some things I would like to do with my freed up time.
I was only one degree of separation away from one of Washington’s best French chefs, and I thought how much fun it would be to spend an entire day in the kitchen with him from the time he walked in in the morning until he left at night.
12 Sunday Feb 2012
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
Over this weekend we saw two performances that we highly recommend if you live in the DC area and like live theatre.
But you’ll have to ‘act’ quickly as one of the performances ends Feb. 18 and the other ends Mar. 11.
11 Saturday Feb 2012
Posted in Go Sox
Feb. 11.
Truck Day.
That not so inconsequential time when all the Red Sox Spring Training gear is loaded up at Fenway and leaves for Fort Myers.
Ah, I can feel the juices begin to flow again.
For those of you for whom these major events matter, here’s a list of significant baseball dates for 2012:
06 Monday Feb 2012
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
First the films.
Le Havre ****1/2
You’ll have to look around to find this film, but if it’s playing in your area, it’s worth the effort to see it.
In a time when many films are filled with violence and bad guys (just watch the previews of coming movies), Le Havre offers something quite different: a film made up almost entirely of good people, a view of humanity that doesn’t make it to the screen too often.
30 Monday Jan 2012
Posted in Family and Friends
I saw an article recently in which the author writes that doctors die differently from the rest of us. That certainly caught my attention, and while there are no studies to back up what he writes, he does seem to point to factors that all of us might want to consider.
Ken Murray, MD, in How Doctor’s Die, writes:
“It’s not a frequent topic of discussion, but doctors die, too. And they don’t die like the rest of us. What’s unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little. For all the time they spend fending off the deaths of others, they tend to be fairly serene when faced with death themselves. They know exactly what is going to happen, they know the choices, and they generally have access to any sort of medical care they could want. But they go gently.”
29 Sunday Jan 2012
Posted in Go Sox
We’re getting close to ‘pitchers and catchers’ and the end of the Stove League.
So how did the 30 major league teams do (there are a few deals left to be made)?
In case you haven’t been paying attention, or have only been paying attention to your own team, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe gives a one paragraph summary of what each team did over the winter.
28 Saturday Jan 2012
Posted in Go Sox
After reading the recent MillersTime post of Sally Jenkins’ articles on Joe Paterno, friend and Penn State grad David Stang wrote a letter to Sally.
No reply from Sally, but if you have one or thoughts about what Dave wrote, please feel free to add your thoughts in the Comments’ section.
David’s letter:
25 Wednesday Jan 2012
Posted in Go Sox
The Yankee I always feared the most made it official yesterday as he announced his retirement.
It wasn’t only that bloop single off Pedro in the 2003 that made me ‘hate’ him, tho that is still one of the more painful examples of what he could do to the Sox.
Jorge didn’t have as much talent as Derek, Mo, or ______ (put in any one you choose). You always (almost) knew what Mo would do to you in the 9th. And you knew that Jeter would always get on base when he needed to. You didn’t know how Jorge would beat you, but too often he did something to hurt you.
He had grit. Had he been on the Sox, he would have been one of the “Dirt Dogs.”
I can’t think of any better compliment to make about a ball player.
If you didn’t see his retirement announcement in its entirety yesterday, check it out below.
Tek, are you are there?
23 Monday Jan 2012
Posted in Go Sox
WaPo photo
Virtually every news source has articles about the death of Joe Paterno and opinion pieces about his legacy, about how he will be remembered, and, particularly, about how his handling of the Sandusky outrage has or has not affected how he will be judged.
Paterno only gave one reporter, Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post, an interview. He spoke to her from his house and his bedroom over a two-day period just before he died.
If you want to see what Paterno himself said, the two Jenkins’ articles (one came out just before he died and then second one came out today) are linked to below.”
If you only have time for one of them, perhaps read the one that was published today.
Jan. 23rd article: After a life of wins and losses, others will judge Paterno’s legacy.
Jan. 14th article: Joe Paterno’s last interview.
21 Saturday Jan 2012
Posted in The Outer Loop
Bill Moyers is back.
He is two weeks into his new show, Moyers & Company, and it is quite similar to his previous shows. He takes one or two guests for an hour and let’s them discuss what is happening in our society, in our system of government and politics.
I’ve embedded his second show below. It’s 56.47 minutes in length. He lets his guests (David Stockman and Gretchen Morgenson) talk. Neither Democrats nor Republicans are spared, as the show lays out how we have arrived at a system that is not so much broken as it is ‘fixed.’
If you’ve got the time and are interested in trying to understand what is happening in our political and governmental system, click on the link below. (Disclaimer: I didn’t know, until I watched it, that at the very end he suggests folks go to an interview with Ellen Miller).
20 Friday Jan 2012
Posted in Family and Friends, Go Sox
We’ve been doing some renovation in our house, and although I’m not sure exactly how it relates, my wife got me to clean out my closet area.
Don’t tell her the following:
18 Wednesday Jan 2012
Posted in The Outer Loop
If you spend much time at all on the Internet, you no doubt have seen something about the controversy over these two bills that are in Congress.
Proponents of SOPA (Stop Online Privacy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) say the legislation is needed to preserve copyright infringement and to stop illegal downloading and other forms of web piracy.
Opponents say these laws, if enacted, could end the Internet as we know it.
Hyperbole?
18 Wednesday Jan 2012
Posted in Family and Friends
The Rialto. The Bellevue. The National. The Orpheum. Keith’s. The Savoy. The Opera House. The Paramount. The Metropolitan.
If you grew up in Boston, and depending upon your age, then these names probably mean something to you.
17 Tuesday Jan 2012
Posted in Family and Friends
11 Wednesday Jan 2012
Posted in The Outer Loop
I know it’s pretty much ‘accepted wisdom’ that the last year has not been a particularly good one for our country. As is too often the case, what seems to grab media (broadly defined) attention tends to be more problem oriented, more negative stories than positive ones.
But I came across the following blog post where writer Andrew Sullivan steps back a bit and sees 2011 in a much more positive light.
Check it out, including the second YouTube link, and see what you think.
Comments, respectfully made, are always welcome.
