Extraneous Fact of the Day

Abner Doubleday fired the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter THEN invented baseball. What are the chances?

BTW, Cal Ripken is being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame today, along with Tony Gwynn. Barry Bonds is one away from the record. I was at Camden Yards when Ripken tied Gehrig's record. A fabulous night to celebrate the hard work, talent, and stamina it takes to succeed in the game. When Aaron's record is broken, what will we celebrate?

According to SI, most people surveyed agree with me:

How will you react when Barry Bonds hits No. 755?
I'll cheer him.
25%

I'll boo him.
24%

I don't know because
I won't be watching.
51%

Bumper Sticker of the Day

At Least Nixon Resigned

Quote of the Day

"Today is Barry Bonds' 43rd birthday. That's 206 in human years."

Keith Olbermann

Farewell, Harry

I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in about 10 hours. In a word: Brilliant.

I won't give anything away for those of you who haven't finished it yet (but, really, hurry up! What are you doing, working?)

I will say: Some of my predictions were wrong, some of my theories were not emphasized, and I didn't see many events coming.

There are some nits to pick, which I'll leave to others. I loved it, all seven years of it. Some passages and chapters are more poignant on second reading. Like any good novel should make you feel, I am glad to have spent time in their world and will miss it.

Just Cause He Talks Slow.....

John Edwards: "If there is anyone who would not vote for Barack Obama because he is black or Hillary Clinton because she is a woman, I don't want you to vote for me. "

He can talk a dog off a meat truck.

He also had a female fighter pilot sitting with his wife and recognized her during a question about women being required to register for the draft.

Hillary: Hear Her Roar

"I am proud to be running as a woman and I am excited that I may be able to finally break that hardest of all glass ceilings. But obviously I am not running because I am a woman. I'm running because I think I'm the most qualified and experienced person to hit the ground running on January 2009."

Who Lost Scaife?

Even Richard Scaife has come to the realization that the president has lost any sense of reality.

Oh, Quint Was Talking About That Shark!

"He's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living... until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'."

Courtesy of my brother-in-law Bob.

Deathly Hallows

Dumbledore told Harry about the Horcruxes because he planned his murder. He knew he was going to die, either because he knew the poison in the lake was going to be fatal or because of an injury he suffered. Or, like Obiwan Kenobi, he would become more powerful and more able to help defeat Voldemort if he was no longer alive.

James Potter's family has an important role or some link to Voldemort. He needed to kill him and his son. That's why Voldemort chose Harry and not Neville.

Dumbledore heard the prophecy. Before Snape could tell Voldemort and before the Dark Lord could act, Dumbledore did something to offer Harry protection. See Goblet notes.

Whence the title: There are many forms of death. Ghosts at Hogwarts. Voldemort was mostly dead, but even without a body he could survive. As a memory in the diary. Fawkes, the phoenix. The spirits behind the veil in the Department of Mysteries. The people in the Priori Incantatum. Certainly Dumbledore's role is not over. Nor have we seen the last of Sirius and the Potters.

Snape has some strong reason to have hated James Potter, and thus Harry. Not just because James teased him in school. There is a connection between families or something happened between them. As Dumbledore said to Harry, "Some wounds run too deep for healing."

Snape proved to Dumbledore that he is truly loyal to him. Is Snape a horcrux?

Hogwarts itself possesses great magical powers. Voldemort wanted to go back there to teach but was refused. He is after the Gryffindor sword in Dumbledore's office. The final confrontation will involve the school.

The Dursley's, especially Petunia, will play a key role. Muggles in general are important as are Muggle objects. (There is an Office of Misuse of Muggle Artifacts, where Mr. Weasley works.) Petunia is going to step in to help her sister's son.

My prediction for the two deaths JK Rowling has announced:

Mrs. Weasley. She is the closest thing to a mother Harry has ever had.
Snape will sacrifice himself to save Harry.

And in the end, Voldemort will die. Harry will not.

I've read that the last word in the book is 'scar'. Harry's scar will disappear when Voldemort is dead.

First Ladies, for real?

Jeri Thompson is too attractive to be First Lady?

Eleanor Roosevelt was ugly. Hillary Clinton is too ambitious.

Really?

First Lady Passed

Lady Bird Johnson died at 94 yesterday. I hadn't realized the woman-behind-the-powerful-man role she played in LBJ's career nor her influence on the environment and the Head Start program.

Interesting to see how appreciation of her type of First Lady compares with the first First Lady to step out from behind her husband to run.

Overall, Clinton is viewed favorably by 48%, unfavorably by 50%. An earlier survey found that 46% would definitely vote against Clinton no matter who the GOP nominates. Rasmussen Reports

So sad...

Sent November 3, 2004:

I woke up this morning to one of the saddest I've experienced in a long time. I'm sure I wasn't the only one. we fought the good fight, though. When we took PA I was sure we had it made. Well, time to carry on.

I found this email from my mom buried in my inbox. We're still carrying on. And still sad.

I Believe that November Never Happened

Speaking of that sad November, I found this email I wrote after the end of the election. A bit histrionic and bombastic, I'll admit. Who do I think I am, Barack Obama? It was a bad week I usually pretend didn't happen. I like to think Bush was only elected once.

On this rainy day after the day after, I'm reading loads of emails and articles and blogs and talking to my friends and co-workers, trying to sum up how I feel about the election results.I think it's important to remember why we feel the way we do, why we so wanted John Kerry elected that we were willing to give money/time/effort/energy to this campaign.



These are a few things I believe: I believe that our country is great because we allow the guilty a fair trial; because we have the right to shout at the top of our lungs that our elected officials are wrong; because we have the right to be secure in our homes and our bodies; because young men, and not a few women, have gone willingly to countries they had never heard of to fight for some other peoples' freedom; because I am free to worship in any way I choose whatever God I believe in and so do you, in your own way.



I believe that our country is weakened by hunger and homelessness and the helplessness of too many. No nation can call itself great when kids can't go to the doctor when they're sick; when working people can't afford to provide the basic necessities for their families; when people of color are still stung by racism in their jobs, on the highways, in court, at the airport, and in the hearts of others; when we gobble up our natural resources without regard to the rest of the planet's people or our environment; and when we are so willing to give up someone else's rights in order to feel safer ourselves.



I'm proud of my father's service to our country and feel a little guilty when I see young men and women who are willing to join the service when I wouldn't for love or money. I am not a pacifist. Afghanistan, the Balkans, Kuwait were wars we had to fight. Our military has been used to secure the freedom of half the world and to feed its victims after the fighting stopped. But, our commander in chief must ensure that our might does not ever again overwhelm our obligation to ensure that we are right. Our principal duty is to ensure that those who fight our wars are given all the support we can muster; that when they are overseas, their families are able to make ends meet; when they come home, with bodies and minds injured, we take care of them as long as they need us to; and when they tell us we are fighting the wrong war in the wrong way, we listen to them.



I believe that we must never send soldiers to war unless absolutely necessary and that when we do, we send them with every weapon in our arsenal, especially the truth. No less a patriot than Thomas Jefferson said, "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." I believe that for all our Founding Fathers did wrong, what they did right is still shocking in its genius. They created a system of government that is constantly self-correcting. They called for "a more perfect union." They didn't assume the one they created was finished. They laid out a form of government that doesn't welcome dissent: it demands it. Read the Declaration of Independence. And the first sentence of the Constitution. We the people... We hold these truths... We own this government, like it or not. It's not them doing to us; it's us doing to and for each other. When my representative votes to deny my neighbor his right to live as he pleases or tries to stop my friend from making her own choices about her body, or spends our tax dollars recklessly, I have an obligation to speak out. It's the price we pay for being proud to be Americans. That's why I care enough to fight to change what I believe is wrong.

Quote of the Day

America will look back with deep shame over the last six years, with a regret as awful as a bad drunk tattoo.
Cintra Wilson for Salon

Leo

Speaking of men who get better with age.

Let's Hear It For the Boys

Live Earth-Jersey (the Meadowlands are NOT in New York, people) featured several fine men who are aging greatly:

Kevin Bacon is 49 and has come a long way since Footloose.

Jon Bon Jovi, 44: Jersey's own is still fabulous, even with the coif.

Sting, 56: All that tantric yoga has paid off, big time.

Can't forget Madonna. She must have some elixir of life in her basement. Or a truly gifted plastic surgeon.

Celeb Sightings II

Christian Slater bolting down the escalator at National airport. He skipped the bottom few steps and leapt down. He was short with a HUGE noggin'.

David and Carol v. Christian and his head. You be the judge.

Live Earth

"Live Earth's success will be measured not by the number of trees the initiative plants or the number of energy-efficient light-bulbs sold as a result, but by whether it motivates concertgoers to make climate-change their generation's political priority, and press their leaders to act on it. Al Gore and company deserve credit for putting forth a 7-point pledge for concertgoers that includes a demand that countries join an international treaty mandating a 90% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. That will only happen if voters reward politicians who fight to cut carbon gas emissions, and punish those who don't." Time

Do something. Change a damn lightbulb. Turn off the water when you brush your teeth. Vote for a Democrat, for god's sake. It ain't that complicated.

Oh, yeah, the music was good too. Sting still sounds great. Jon Bon Jovi can still command a crowd. Alicia Keys is very talented and gorgeous to boot. John Mayer is cute as can be; he really does look 16.

http://www.heatison.org/

Extraneous Statistic of the Day

American Pie has been played on the radio 3 million times; 274 times a day; 11 times an hour for 35 years.

Oh, admit it, you sing along every time you hear it too!

He was smart enough (a finance major in college) to keep the rights to the song.

Did you know he also made Roy Orbison's Cryin" #1? Or that he wrote "I Love You So" for Elvis?

Celebrity Sightings Contest

David Bowie holding the door open for Carol Channing in a hotel in New York.

The gauntlet has been thrown down, people!

Having Your Say....New Feature

The following comment was posted in response to the post "Have We Hit Bottom" by a faithful reader. It is the first of the new series of reader comments, so please have your say.



Followed the link and nearly crapped my pants. Come to think of it, I need one of those now -- all part of their marketing plan, no doubt.

Retraction

I must retract part of my blog about the Diana concert and make a confession. I was writing it as I watched the end of the show. Elton John did NOT sing the remake of Candle in the Wind. I had read the AP story, which said that the Princes asked him to. My bad. AP assumed so too.

As Elton was to take the stage, there was some delay. Ricky Gervais had to stretch for about five minutes. He is hilarious. Why isn't he more famous here? Anyway, I can imagine the scene back stage, with the boys pleading with Elton to do the song. He didn't.

Have We Hit Bottom?

My grandmother lamented that one day we would see tampon commericals on tv. This would have sent her over the edge.

Concert for Diana

Oh, alright. Don't hate me. Duran Duran dedicating Wild Boys to the Princes; Elton John opening the show and closing with that unfortunate version of Candle in the Wind, Tom Jones covering Kiss with horns, backup singers, and Joe Perry on guitar (only he could get away with it.) Joss Stone can sing up a bloody storm. Come on. Fab.

You've got to give HRH's (is that right?) William and Harry credit for the public relations campaign they're waging on behalf of their mother. Focus is all on her philanthropic work, how she famously touched the ill, the disabled, used the media to focus attention on causes. They inherited her skill at using the media.

In the age of Bono and Angelina and celebrities littering the halls of Congress to testify on behalf of one cause or another, Diana has been deemed the template for current "celebrity-humanitarians", as Tina Brown describes her:

The moment that Diana kissed the AIDS baby was the moment I really began to feel she was becoming a woman of importance. She understood the power of gesture and that her royal charisma could shine a light on very dark places and change the world for the better. Her greatest moment really was in the last months of her life when she walked on an uncleared minefield in Angola to publicize the campaign against anti-personnel mines. It was a magnificent act of personal courage and inspired use of media spotlight.

I don't want to fall into the trap of bestowing depth on her posthumously. I never quite fell for the fairytale. It has been pretty obvious for decades that that that family is bats. Still insisting on a virgin bride in 1980? Come on. But, she did focus on landmines, hugged an AIDS patient when that was still considered shocking, laughed easily with people of all backgrounds. In the midst of her frivolous, chaotic life, chaos to which she contributed greatly, she managed to do some good with the celebrity.

N.B.: The Queen and Prince Charles NOT in attendance. The announcers are saying that the Princes "banned the oldies from the concert" to focus on the future generation. "You don't want your grandma to come to a concert with you." Oh, and they hated her guts. Breaking News: Kate Middleton is there, but NOT sitting with William or his friends. I hope she comes to her senses soon and finds some cute, rich investment banker.

Related note: I was searching for an image of her to add to this post. Included in the Google image search is what is billed as the last photo of her, in the car after the accident, with someone attending to her. Terrible but inevitable. She looks asleep so not gruesome. In bad taste, yes. Published in an Italian magazine, purtroppo.

Cable News?

CNN Hot Topics: UK Terror Scare * I Phone * Election Campaigns * Paris Hilton * More Topics

Yes, more topics. Please.