Rat in the Kitchen

Not too late

2010-05-30T17:49:00.004-07:00

Things look pretty bleak for the Arizona Diamondbacks. A talented team on paper, they are 20-31 so far in the season. Pitching is particularly poor. You can't call the bullpen erratic, they are consistently bad. They have an ERA of over 7. The worst complete season bullpen ERA ever was the 1953 Detroit Tigers who finished with 6 something. Looks like the DBacks will soon consider the season over with and start trading off good players to save money.

Is this their destiny? Maybe not, consider this:

On May 5, 2009, the Diamondbacks fired manager Bob Melvin, who had a 12-17 .414 record. They replaced him with front office man A.J. Hinch, who had no managerial or coaching experiencing at any level, and was one of the youngest managers in history. His 2010 record thus far is 20-31 .392, worse than Melvin's was. Hinch's hand picked coaching staff, particularly pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre, Jr. and hitting coach Jack Howell, cannot seem to coax any success out the players.

On May 29, 2009, the Colorado Rockies fired manager Clint Hurdle, whose 18-28 record was almost identical to Hinch's record today and replaced him, not with a no-name like Hinch, but with an experienced baseball man, Jim Tracy, who had previously managed the Dodgers and Pirates. At that time, the Rockies were in last place, worse off than the Diamondbacks.

The Diamondbacks finished the 2009 season where they are today, in last place. The Rockies won the National League Wild Card and nearly surpassed the Dodgers in the NL West.

It is not too late to do something similar. The Hinch experiment has been a huge disaster. There are plenty of options in the organization. Either bench coach Kirk Gibson or AAA Reno Aces manager Brett Butler comes to mind, as does, to a lesser extent because of his first year status in coaching, 1st base coach Matt Williams.

The real problem extends beyond the coaching staff, however. It was general manager Josh Byrnes who hired Hinch and it was on his watch that this horrendous crop of losers that they call a bullpen was assembled.

But let's clean house now and get rid of Hinch, Howell and Stottlemyre. An experienced baseball man like Butler or Gibson could demonstrate how the talented position players could be turned into a winning outfit with some leadership. The bullpen could be improved with a little luck and some investment. If that demonstrates what it should, and the Rockies' experience of last season suggests that it could, then the dumping of Byrnes can happen in the offseason.

2009 MLB Division Series

2009-10-13T10:58:00.003-07:00

The NLDS/ALDS are now done. There were 13 games played and the teams that I favored won 12 of them. Not too bad.

Dodgers/Cardinals - this one was hard for me. In the other three there were teams I do not like, but I would normally root for both of these. I was a Dodgers fan for a long time, listening to Vin Scully and Ross Porter on the radio long before Arizona had a team. Unlike a lot of people I have no problem with Manny Ramirez, finding him more or less entertaining. On the other hand, we have been Oakland A's fans for as long as we have followed the Dodgers. That allegiance went with Tony Larussa to St. Louis. I didn't know who I would root for until a couple of innings in when I realized I was cheering for the Dodgers. The way that they handled the excellent St. Louis starters was impressive. Meanwhile, I have never much liked Matt Holliday and very much enjoyed his Bill Buckner imitation in Game 2.

Angels/Red Sox - the national press forces you to take sides in the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry and I have always sided with the Yankees. Fond memories of Ted Williams and Carl Yastremski notwithstanding, the Sox in recent years have been populated with character I do not care for (Youkilis, Pedroia, Papelbon, Schilling). I think it all has its roots in my business trips to Boston in the 80s when I was exposed to local sports radios and got a very unflattering opinion of the fans. The Orange County Angels have long been a semi-favorite. We would go to games in Anaheim when we did summer trips to the beach, and their spring training facility became a favorite after Oakland made tickets harder to get in the early 90s. I like Mike Scioscia and have long rooted for Vladimir Guerrero. I really liked the way this series ended, with the Angels coming from behind in Game 3, getting the go-ahead runs off Papelbon and with Pedroia getting the final out.

Yankees/Twins - I hate the Twins. Let me repeat that. I hate the Twins. I hate their hankie-waving fans. I hate it that they abandoned DC after the 1960 season. I hate them for their 1987 championship year when they beat the Tigers 3-2 in the ALCS, winning all of their dome-games and none else. I hated the repeat performance in 1991 with Jack Morris. (Note that due to the rules of the day they had home-dome advantage in all series). I hate it that they won game 163 over the Tigers last week. The Yankees? Sure they spend too much money and have some obnoxious fans (not nearly as bad as the Mets tho). But they have some good players and a nifty logo. Our 2008 trip to Yankee Stadium didn't hurt. I would have rooted for anybody, even the Cubs or Giants, against the Twins, but I kind of like the Yankees.

Phillies/Rockies - I found myself rooting for the Phillies in last year's World Series, my son John lives in NJ and roots for them, and they have some awfully good players. The Rockies are division rivals of the Diamondbacks. I know, the Dodgers are too but they at least have some traditions. I dislike some of the Rockies players (Helton, Tulowitzki, Giambi, Torrealba) nearly as much as I do the Red Sox. End of discussion. Really cool that both games 3 and 4 were 9th inning comebacks for the Phillies. Cooler yet that Tulo got the final out in both games.

As to the Championship Series, hard to pick between 4 teams I like. I suspect I will find myself rooting for the Dodgers and Yankees, which would set up a classic World Series. Dodger/Angels would be cool too, although Fox probably wouldn't like it. Phillies/Yankees would have a certain backyard appeal as well. Phillies/Angles would not appeal to anybody but their own fans I would think.

War As They Knew It

2009-07-23T16:22:00.005-07:00

I just finished reading War As They Knew It: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, and America in a Time of Unrest by Michael Rosenberg. It was an interesting approach, taking the well-known 10 year war between the two great coaches and putting into the context of the politics of the time, what was going on on campus, etc. I am not sure that it really worked, it was sort of like over here we see Dan Dierdorf doing such and so while over here we see Bill Ayers doing this other thing. It never really tied it together very well. But for somebody who actually met these people, who had to decide whether to go to class during the Black Action Movement strike, etc., it was all very cool. Too bad that the author was not able to portray Dierdorf and his roommate Paul Staroba as the vicious bullies that they were, but that is to be expected I guess. Anyway, the main topic was Bo and Woody. Bo was exactly who I thought he was. Woody was more complex, more sympathetic and even more of a jerk than I had imagined. The relationship with Nixon (who spoke at the Old Man's funeral) was amazing. Anyway, if you are follower of Michigan football or one of that bloated agricultural institution to the south, you might find it interesting.

White Sox/DBacks

2009-04-03T19:01:00.001-07:00

Facebook killed the blogger?

2009-03-15T10:40:00.003-07:00

So a couple of weeks ago I started using facebook and haven't written anything in the blog since. Maybe this is just where things are going. For the meantime, I found a practical way to insure that blog posts get stuck on the wall on my facebook page.

I went to Tucson yesterday for a book festival where Elmore Leonard appeared.

I am taking tomorrow off and going to a Cactus League game, Dodgers/A's at Phoenix Muni, going to take the train. I see by today's paper that it is a split squad game for the Dodgers so it's not clear whether Manny et al will be there. Going walk over to the Metro and ride to the game.

Loose Ends

2009-02-06T10:39:00.007-07:00

None of these things are worth a separate post but I don't want to lose track of them.

John sent a great article about how the web has changed how we read and think. Worth looking at if you haven't seen it. Is Google Making Us Stupid?

I spent about a week trying to figure out why the power management features on the new computer would not kick in. The PC is configured to, after 10 minute intervals of inactivity, first go to screensaver, then turn off the monitor, then put the computer to sleep. It would do that occasionally but usually it would not. I observed it going into the screensaver and then returning to the desktop on numerous occasions. I made 4 changes, one of which resolved the issue:

in MSCONFIG, turned off the startup for itunes

in MSCONFIG, turned off the startup for quicktime

in MSCONFIG, turned off the startup for adobe

removed the link for Logitech desktop messenger from the startup folder

I don't know which one did it but it is not worth debugging since I don't think any of them do anything useful, they just make the computer take longer to start up. The Logitech thingie is there because I have a Logitech webcam and because of the Harmony remote software. I think all that it did was check for new versions and try to sell me things. All of this crap was presumably on on the previous computer, but I guess it interacts differently with Vista.

I got really disgusted with my phone the other day. I realized that I was stuck with it for a while, since it had a two year contract and was purchased in July of last year. So... after making sure that I had copies of everything that was useful on it, I installed Windows Mobile 6.1 (which does a master reset of the phone, i.e. wipes out everything except what is on the storage card.) I also did NOT reinstall Good Messaging, decided to go back to ActiveSync for email/calendar/etc. So for I like it much better.

Among other things, I installed an application that interfaces with Netflix. You can view and update your queue, and also play trailers. I really like the ability to play the trailers.

Two nights ago, we were watching TV when we suddenly heard this voice in the next room, calmly announcing something or other. I got up, hit pause on the remote for the DVR and went in the room. By that time it (she it turned out) was done with the announcement. There were several suspect devices in the room.: two computers, two landline phones with speakers, and the recently upgraded cellphone. The likely culprits were the phone and the new computer, but the computer alleged to be sleeping (see above) and the phone was not lit up. No clue.

So last night it happened again. This time I did not stop to pause the TV. Both of us ran into the study and heard a British woman jabbering about Phoenix weather. The clock in the living room was chiming 9:00. Still nothing lit up but Susan thought it was coming from the cellphone. I unlocked it (stupid Motorola security) and noticed that the icon list at the top of the display was claiming that the most recent application to be used was WorldMate Live. That is a nifty application that does time, weather, currency conversion, flight status, you can access stored itineraries, etc. I have a "gold" subscription because of some arrangement that they have with Motorola. I had installed a newer version of it when I redid the phone stuff. The new one apparently has feature that causes this nice lady to read a weather forecast at a scheduled time. The default for this curious feature is ON and for it to occur at 9 pm. Needless to say she will no longer intrude. I can't imagine what the developers were thinking.

I have finished 3 books in the last couple of weeks. I mentioned When I Was Five I Killed Myself in the previous post. The other two books were Boom! by Tom Brokaw and Big Russ and Me by Tim Russert. Both of these books were written by people from NBC News and both were more or less historical pieces that covered years in my memory. The two books could not have been different. The Brokaw book was a treasure trove of historical information, a lot of it quite fascinating, some of it worth skipping. My favorite parts were personal notes concerning people I was familiar with. The two references to Hunter S. Thompson were great. The first concerned Brokaw's wife.

My wife, Meredith, once shared a cross-country flight with him during the closing days of the Nixon administration. They had a very pleasant visit, and as the plane began its descent into Los Angeles, Thompson leaned accross the seat almost apologetically and said to Meredith, "Look, I've only got one tab of acid, but I'd be willing to share it with you." She politely declined.

The other reference comes up in a discussion about über-Conservative Pat Buchanan:

One of his unlikely occasional companions, when I knew him in Washington, was Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, the pill-popping, invective-spewing, hilarious godfather of gonzo journalism. Thompson would blow into Washington on an assignment for Rolling Stone magazine, call up Buchanan, and off they'd go on a beer-drinking all-nighter, arguing their respective views of the world in long verbal jousts that seldom were resolved.

Buchanan recounts these occasions happily, saying "I don't know how he did it. He must have had a case of beer, and yet he was swimming laps in the pool at my house." Thompson liked to call Buchanan, the "best right-wing propagandist since Goebbels," a description Buchanan often repeats with a big guffaw.

It was great book, but still, it was clear that Brokaw, who is 10 years older than me (and Russert) did not exerience the 60's in so much as he reported on them. You get this impression of him as a stuffy guy who wanted to seem cool but never quite got it. Of Woodstock, which he did not attend, he said

It was a mass of hippie humanity, glorying in the sky above and the mud below, cold and wet, with good grass and bad acid.

I have heard a lot about Woodstock but never that the acid was bad.

Russert, on the other hand, arrived at Woodstock on the first night. He and his buddies had 8 cases of beer stacked on their car and a banner for their favorite Buffalo radio station. They "paid eight bucks a piece for our tickets and got up close to the stage." They were wearing Buffalo Bills jerseys. Decidely un-cool or at least atypical but they were there and had a great time. He seems like the kind of person that you wish you knew. I wouldn't have much to say to Brokaw.

Russert's book, purportedly about his father and their relationship, is really an autobiography. There is a lot about the man that I do not relate to. He came from an ethnic, religious, blue collar family, none of which resonates much with me. It seems though, that his growing up in the same era, with many of the same experiences, makes him seem extremely relevant. His humanity, his humor, his feelings for his family all make a lot of sense. His death was very sad, this last year was a hugely enjoyable time from a political standpoint, the primary season was like nothing this country had seen before, and in the process we really got to know the man, and how much he loved politics, the process, the people. Just when it was getting good he was gone.

When I Was Five I Killed Myself

2009-01-29T16:29:00.003-07:00

When I was in college I knew a guy from Detroit. I had met him in freshman orientation and we kept in touch for a few years. At one point he dropped out of school and went to Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey clown school in Florida. (I suspect that this was AFTER the draft lottery that was held 12/1/69 during the first semester of our sophomore year.) He subsequently came back to school in Ann Arbor. We were not real close but I have several recollections of him. Other than occasionally using the "I knew a guy who dropped out and went to clown school" bit in conversation, I hadn't thought about him again until a few weeks ago when I got the idea to google his name.

Howard Buten lives in France, is a clinical pyschologist and is a recognized authority on autism. He is a performing artist known as Buffo the Clown and is well known in France. He has written several novels and received the Chevalier des Artes et Lettres in 1991. A novel that he wrote in English in 1981 was translated to French and has allegedly been read by 1 in 10 people in France, sort of a French Catcher in the Rye, according to the preface. It was re-released in the US in 2000 as "When I Was Five I Killed Myself" -- it was originally titled "Burt". It's about a 3rd grade boy who has emotional issues and is institutionalized. It is written convincingly in first person. I just finished reading it and recommend it highly.

New stuff

2009-01-25T12:38:00.002-07:00

Last weekend I brought home a Samsung CLP-315 Color Laser Printer. It was $149 at Office Max and seems to make high quality color prints. I also ordered a Dell Inspiron 518 which was delivered on Thursday. The last few PCs had been HPs. Probably anecdotal, but I had a LOT of problems with them. Our current desktop has a bad hard drive. So it made sense to go with Dell. Somebody at work gave me a code that got me a discount, saved about $50. I was able to custom order it, which makes it a lot better than buying from a retailer. I got 4GB RAM, a media card reader, Vista Home Premium, and NO productivity software. I like Vista so far. The only casualty would appear to be my scanner, which I can't get to work even though the vendor has drivers for Vista.

Marathon

2009-01-19T08:37:00.003-07:00

I was awakened at 7 AM yesterday to the sound of rock and roll music outside. WTF? Oh, the marathon. Indeed the band that would play at 7th Ave/Thomas was doing a sound check, warming up. I knew it was coming but had forgotten about it when I went to bed. Had enough time to get up, get breakfast, grab cameras and walk to the end of the street. The race starts at 7:40 and they take something like 12 minutes to get here. Pictures here.

Chris Bliss at Dodge Theatre

2009-01-10T13:11:00.003-07:00

We went to see the Smothers Brothers at the Dodge last night. rode the Metro down, had dinner at Thai Elephant (which was packed!). The brothers were good, still had the ability to entertain, Tom is in his 70's but still acts like an impish little kid. We had great seats (third row, a little to the right of center). They were less topical than I expected them to be. Tom did make a comment about how the morons would not be running the country any more, but most of it was the usual shtick where he irritates his brother. One of the most amazing aspects was the opening act, Chris Bliss. I am sure that I have seen him somewhere before, maybe one of the Alice Cooper Christmas Pudding shows, but I am not sure when. Anyway, he was a very funny comic, better than most opening acts. He was done, it seemed, and we were satisfied, but he wanted to do one more thing. Maybe you have seen this before, but here is a video of him doing this bit somewhere else. You have to see this...

More Metro

2008-12-29T16:53:00.002-07:00

Today we decided to go to the Eye Masters at Christown to order some new glasses for Susan. It took 14 minutes to get to the station and about a 3 minute wait for a train. This was the first day of regular hours for the trains, which started at 4 something in the morning. There were no more volunteers to help people but the trains are still free through Wednesday night. The train was a bit crowded but we were able to get a seat by lowering a 3 seat panel that was folded against the wall. The seats would have been filled if people had known what to do... We got a the end of the line at 19th Ave/Montebello around 11:20. There was a small line of people waiting to get on the trains. We saw several TSA and Department of Homeland Security people on the platform. Although the station faces the mall, it is not completely an enclosed mall anymore. The stores that face 19th Avenue (Target, Ross, some others and some new still empty stores) do not connect to the mall. You have to go all the way around to JC Penney (in what I think was the Monkey Wards when we shopped there 20-25 years ago) to get into the mall. The stores that are in the mall include Penney's, Costco, Walmart, Bath and Body works and a few smaller stores. I bought some olive oil and a blu-ray disk in Costco while Susan ordered her glasses. Then we headed back to the station, this time going behind Target which I think was shorter. There was a huge line but the nice Homeland Security man advised us as to how to avoid the crowd and we got on a train relatively quickly. It was full leaving the station and got fuller at 7th Avenue and Central/Camelback. We got out at Campbell to have lunch at Pane Bianco. Unfortunately it is closed on Mondays. It is open until 3 Tuesday-Saturday. So we walked to the Indian School stop. There were a bunch of people waiting and when the train came it was so full that few go on. We then waited another 20 minute or so for a train and when its doors opened it was no better. We got anyway, to the protest of some of the people inside. Welcome to mass transit, folks, get used to it! The problem was that over the weekend the volunteers were making sure that the trains left the endpoints only partially full so that people could get on elsewhere. There was no one to do that today, so getting on it was very difficult. But get on we did. We got off at Encanto and ended up getting lunch at Schlotzky's, where it was nearly two and there were a bunch of non-business-types eating. I attributed it to the metro but the proprietor grumbled that it wasn't helping him one bit and would not. Anyway, we walked home from there, 3.5 hours all told but an interesting experience. We had planned on riding to Tempe for dinner tonight but decided to wait for Friday when they started charging people and the crowds would thin out. Still I might try my trip to Mesa tomorrow morning if I get up early enough.

Metro!

2008-12-27T16:00:00.006-07:00

I was at the opening of the Metro (light rail) this morning as an "ambassador". My assignment was to answer questions, give directions, etc. My shift started at 8 although the trains did not start taking on passengers until 10. I arrived at the Encanto station about 7:55. I had not slept very well, didn't feel good and it was really cold out, the exact circumstance under which to stay in bed but I had been waiting for this for years, literally, and was not going to miss it. We got our instructions and orange vests and then stood around for a couple of hours. I really needed coffee but had been afraid to consume liquids if I was going to stand out there for 4 hours. There was not much of a crowd waiting. By the time that 10:00 rolled around, there were maybe 20 or so people waiting on the platform. At 10:09, the first train (shown here), a northbound train heading to 19th/Montebello (Christown) rolled in, and a southbound train arrived before the northbound one left. The trains ran were supposed to run every 10 minutes in each direction but were pretty erratic. The station became fairly crowded as my shift progressed and there decidedly more passengers wanting to go south than north. On a few occasions the trains were so crowded that people refused to get on. Susan arrived a little after 11:30 and on my advice got on a northbound train (see picture). She went one stop up to Thomas and then walked back. By that time I was done so we squeezed on a southbound and got off at 1st Ave/Jefferson. We walked around a bit, found the booth where I picked up a t-shirt and key ring as reward for the volunteer work. We then got on at 3rd St/Washington and rode back to Encanto. As the day has progressed the crowds at the stations and at the parties has seemed to grow considerably. It was a good thing to get in early. It was all very cool. Trains are free through the end of the year. I think I might wait until about Tuesday and ride the full length of the lines. You can see more pictures here.

BUY the Big 3

2008-12-04T13:31:00.003-07:00

GM, Ford and Chrysler are once again testifying in Washington, this time with a plan. They want $34 billion in loans. Michael Moore has what sounds like a better idea. In his Daily Beast article he suggests that the government just buy them. Pointing out that all of the outstanding common stock of GM could be purchased for about $3 billion, he makes a pretty good case. Detroit would have to put up the companies' assets as collateral, and when they inevitably defaulted on the loans, we'd own 'em anyway. By buying them now we could save some money, dismiss the bozoes who run the 3 outfits, and retool them to make green vehicles, light rail cars, etc., the very things we need going forward. Moore is not exactly one of America's leading economists, and there is probably something wrong with the proposal, but it is entertaining and makes sense to me...

Happy Birthday to me

2008-11-25T17:02:00.010-07:00

I got a Blu-Ray player for my birthday yesterday. I did a lot of research and picked the Panasonic DMP-BD35K. It is a platform 2.0 player, which means it has BD-Live, picture in picture and a few other things. It got a good review on CNET, which convinced me to pick it over the equivalent Sony. Among other things, the Sony needed a firmware upgrade for platform 2.0, and this one was already there. So far I am very impressed with it.

I had some issues in setting it up, but that is half the fun. Things have progressed a lot since the days when you would hook your antenna or cable up to your VCR, run another cable to your TV, tune your TV to channel 3 or 4 and there was your system.

After hooking it to the TV with an HDMI cable, it worked right out of the box. The audio at this point was coming through the TV. I had also attached a network cable, and when I did the connection test it passed, and showed my the IP address that it had obtained. When I hooked up the optical digital audio cable connected to the receiver I got no sound. I screwed around with this for a half hour or so, trying different settings, etc. The issue with audio is that it can output the latest audio formats (Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD) to receivers that can decode them if you are sending data to your receiver with HDMI. My receiver is a couple of years old and lacks both HDMI input and the ability to decode those formats. The manual implied that it would send old style Dolby Digital and DTS along in that situation but I was getting nothing. Finally I checked out the cable and saw no red light emitting from the end that would connect to the receiver. That meant it wasn't passing data. I found another cable and tried it and it worked! I have no idea why the cable went bad, as it had been working in another hookup last week. Ironically the bad cable was a Monster and the replacement was a cheaper Radio Shack cable. The lesson here was that the default setting worked.

On to video. My TV is a two year old 720p Pioneer plasma. It came out just when 1080p started making its appearance. It had the unique offering of accepting both 1080p input and 24p input. Film cameras work at 24 frames per second but most video is 60 images per second. Blu-Ray videos can be 24p which makes for smoother more realistic images. My TV can handle and properly process both 1080p input and 24p input, which is not the norm for a 720p monitor. Anyway I wanted to get the setting such that would allow these things. I was looking at something and pushed the button that made the monitor tell me what it was displaying and it said 1080i. The setting for resolution was set to Auto which means let the player figure out what the monitor can handle. Figuring that this was wrong, I switched it to 1080p. It warned me that that might not be a good idea and that I would have to hold down a couple of buttons for 5 seconds if things did not work out. The screen went black. Holding down those buttons yielded an error message that suggested I had a bad HDMI cable. I had to hook up a composite video cable to again see the screen to get out of the mess. Once again able to see the screen I set it back to Auto. I then messed with settings for a while. At one point it was only outputting 480p. Eventually I set things back to the default. Then I tried to play a movie and checked the monitor and it was in fact 1080p. I turned on 24p on the Blu-Ray player and that worked too. The lesson here is that the player, at least with the Auto setting, puts out either 1080i or 1080p depending upon the content, and that the default settings worked for me.

The remote also provides some issues. I have a Panasonic DVD Recorder/VCR. It has a nearly identical remote. So the remote turns on both players, etc. The solution is to change the "control code" on one of the units, which defaults to "1", to "2" or "3". That works just fine but the Harmony software only seems to understand code 1.

Finally, I am underwhelmed with BD-Live, at least with the one disk that I have looked at, Wall-E. I should start by saying that the internet connectivity works fine and I was able to update the firmware from version 1.1 to version 1.5 fairly effortlessly. It is set to automatically watch for updates. When loading the disk you get a message that says something like Network Connection Started. The first time I started Wall-E, I got another message saying that it needed to update my system (!?) in order to do BD-Live on the disk. I answered OK and it displayed a progress bar for about 10 minutes. The next time I started the disk the same thing happened, but the firmware update was in between and it has not done it again. Still it was painful. Whatever updates it is making must be things stored on the SD card, which is required for BD Live. I got a 4GB card for $9.99 at Fry's. So then after some time spent loading it asks you to log in, directing you to a Disney website to get one. After doing that you learn that there is a verification process via return email AND that your screenname will be approved at a later date. (They rejected "pbenjamin" for some reason, by the way.) Finally armed with an account I logged in. The interface to type in userid and password is cumbersome AND it fails to remember you the next time. After about 30 minutes of work I finally gained entrance. This disk provided 4 options. Two were mail and chat with other people who have managed to register, sounds about as promising as Twitter turned out to be. A third was games, which seemed like a good thing except that the private games had yet to be implemented and the public game that was offered would start in 15 minutes. The final option involved redeeming points (obtained by registering Disney Blu-Rays) for valuable gifts. Wall-E (the movie itself) is highly recommended.

The player itself is wonderful. The picture quality is on par with the best HD that I've gotten from cable, better than most of it given the trend towards broadcast subchannels and compression by the cable companies. So far I own 4 disks: Goodfellas and American Gangster, which I got as birthday presents, and From Russia With Love and Thunderball, which I bought for myself. Wall-E came from Netflix, as will Hancock (which is a BD-Live disk -- second try) tomorrow.

Whither Twitter

2008-11-18T16:09:00.005-07:00

Feeling hopelessly out of it, and never having ventured into myspace or facebook, I set up a Twitter account to find out what it was all about. I think I understand now but it is next to useless as I don't know anybody who uses it. Does anybody who reads this do Twitter? For that matter does anybody read this? Anyway, there is a link down a ways on the right hand side of the blog page that point to my (at least for now) Twitter presence.

Motown Mess

2008-11-14T14:47:00.002-07:00

The Detroit automakers need help. As anyone who reads, watches or hears the news is aware, they are on the verge of bankrupcy and asking for help. A poll released today alleges that 55% of Americans support the idea, but to hear some of the media you would get the opposite impression. Not helping them has some appeal. They don't seem to learn, these guys. They lost a ton of customers to Japanese automakers in the 1970s when gas got scarce. They continued to lose customers due to the perception that quality was subpar. They made progress on quality but they never quite got religion about fuel efficiency. In the 90s When Americans went nuts over SUVs and gas was cheap they did everything they could to build bigger and bigger bloated behemoths. Why should we give them more money when they can't seem to figure out what Toyota and Honda did when they concentrated on hybrids?

I look at it a little differently. I grew up in Detroit, my brother worked for Ford all of his life and my cousin Bob did the same trick at Cadillac. Half of the people I knew there either worked for one of the Big Three or worked in a company that was dependent on them. A couple of my friends from high school met me in Fort Lauderdale a couple of years ago for a road trip to Key West. Chris was retired from a GM plant and Itura worked for a company that did drafting for Chrysler. Itura lost his job in May. They say if one of the Big Three goes under the job loss would be between 2 and 3 million.

People are going to buy and drive cars. If they stop making them in the US, we will just buy them from other countries. Automobile manufacturing is one of the few manufacturing industries that remains in this country. We have to produce something, we can't all make a living selling services to each other. We have to figure out how to keep the industry alive.

Are they guilty of making gas guzzlers while they should have been planning for a day when gas stopped being cheap? Absolutely. But who helped them get there? Take a look on the road at your fellow citizens with their big ass pickups, their Hummers, Navigators and Suburbans. Think about the government that stopped increasing CAFE standards in 1990 and kept the standards for light trucks (which includes SUVs) much lower. Detroit might have screwed up be we helped them royally.

Give them money to stay alive but make sure that they retool to make more fuel efficient vehicles and invest in the techology for electric, natural gas and fuel cell. Use the economic mess as an occasion to shake things up and improve the industry. Things will get better, even the Depression ended eventually, and when they do, do we want to be buying our cars made by people in Japan and Korea, or people in Michigan and Ohio? Most Americans would buy the better car and not care so much. Let's insure that the better cars are made here.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

2008-11-07T23:23:00.004-07:00

I found this on YouTube. We were watching MSNBC when the announcement came in. I think I switched to NBC for HD coverage after a minute or two but this was how it started.

Yes We Did

2008-11-05T17:33:00.002-07:00

Jon Talton on the election

2008-11-03T19:15:00.002-07:00

From Rogue Columnist:

This moment

And so it comes down to this. A day that will mark the most important election in my lifetime and certainly the most consequential since 1932. The polls show Obama leading and yet... One wonders how wealthy Republican John Sidney McCain III, standard bearer for the Party that Wrecked America, could have even 41 percent support, much less higher, much less be, perhaps, competitive in Pennsylvania, Florida and Virginia.

This support for a candidate who wholly represents the ruinous governing philosophy of conservatism -- a set of ideas so discredited, exhausted and out of step with the values of most Americans that McCain's only strategy was a dishonorable campaign of despicable attacks on his opponent and riling up a hateful "base." The man who claims "Country First" picked -- or was forced to pick -- the most unqualified and dangerous vice presidential candidate in American history. Who are these supporters and what are they thinking? Has ignorance, television-induced brain damage and Republican hate finally pushed us past the tipping point? And election fraud, that determinative agent of the 2000 and 2004 elections, is an ever present danger. And the confluence of moneyed interests that fears Obama.

And yet, we have this moment, this last chance. John Adams reflected the realism of the Founders when he said democracies always eventually commit suicide. Decades later Lincoln rightly called this an experiment, not a fixed or secure order in human events. Now the American generations living will be tested at history's fulcrum.

Americans never have the "perfect candidate." I can imagine what today's Republicans would do to Lincoln; his adversaries at the time likened him to an ape or worse. Franklin Roosevelt was seen as a lightweight, a dilettante, despite his testing and suffering in the aftermath of polio. Eisenhower was slimed by the conservative attack machine, just gaining its training wheels in the form of Joe McCarthy. Behind the winning smile, Ike did McCarthy in -- and Tailgunner Joe never saw the lethal round coming. Each of these imperfect men and many more like them led America to a sunlit future that we baby boomers witnessed -- and have seen slipping away, especially through the past eight years.

George W. Bush rightly hides now. He presided over the debasement of the Constitution, the enshrinement of torture as American policy, an unnecessary and dangerously costly war waged on cooked intelligence, the failure to capture or kill bin Laden, the lethal federal incompetence in New Orleans and the worst financial collapse since the Depression -- caused by the deregulation and oligarchy he championed. As bad are the opportunities deliberately lost, especially on global warming and the limited world oil resources that even Bush admits. America has lost its moral compass, squandered precious moral capital in the world, wasted precious time. The Justice Department and federal judiciary have been poisoned, not only for the theocrats, but to give big business and monopoly an unbreakable hold on power. And John McCain would depart from these policies not one bit, except perhaps to open a new war in Iran.

All of this can be reversed. It will take sacrifice and hard work that Obama rightly said little of during the campaign. A nation living off the sacrifices of previous generations has been living in a haze. President Obama will give clarity and vision, courage and strength, the ability to articulate (!) our vast challenges and opportunities. The president can't and shouldn't do it all. But the past eight years have taught us just how much a president can do, and the danger of another George W. Bush.

For now, we have this moment. God help us that it will be enough.

Dick Cavett on John McCain

2008-11-01T09:12:00.002-07:00

I heard him say that when the White House phone rings at the dread 3 o'clock in the morning, you don't want someone picking it up who has to take time to "think and analyze the situation, but someone who will act." This, coming from a man with the "thinking and analyzing" traits of a snapping turtle cannot help but bring the Cuban missile crisis to mind — and what the world might be today had the Arizona senior been in charge. If it (the world) would even be at all.

Good ad

2008-10-29T15:44:00.001-07:00

Construction Update

2008-10-26T11:10:00.003-07:00

Trees are planted, wall is rebuilt and painted, patio cover is rebuilt and we got tile put on the barbecue counter.

Willo Solidarity

2008-10-26T10:48:00.007-07:00

Somewhere in the early primary season, before Arizona voted on Super Tuesday, we got an Obama yard sign. It was the only one on our street for several months, was ravaged by the weather in August and eventually replaced with a new Obama/Biden sign in September. Now there are four on our street (three pictured here, ours is the white one). There are no McCain signs on our street and very few in Willo.

Interesting Endorsements

2008-10-24T07:44:00.001-07:00

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it

2008-10-22T22:17:00.003-07:00

I sure hope we don't get too overconfident here.

Must See TV

2008-10-16T09:23:00.012-07:00

So the debates are over. I am hoping that years from now people will talk about the debates being a critical part of the election of President Obama, that the comparison of the cool, even tempered Obama with the testy, twitchy McCain will be considered similar to the juxtaposition of John Kennedy with Richard Nixon. There is a long list of debate narratives that includes George H. W. Bush looking at his watch, Al Gore yakking about a "lockbox" and Ronald Reagan's "there you go again" that many people believe are critical parts of elections. The opinion that Nixon's 5:00 shadow next to Kennedy's youthful vibrancy cost the GOP the 1960 election is widely held.

Television is clearly an integral part of the current political scene. Many believe that Lincoln's homeliness and FDR's wheelchair would prevent either of them from succeeding in the TV age. But the debates and the endless advertising are only part of the deal. Regular programming on TV, far beyond the news shows, has also been a part of the process. In 1968, Richard Nixon did a cameo on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. Laugh-In was a variety show that spent a great deal of time with endless cuts to clips of people telling jokes, doing mini-skits, reciting catch phrases, etc. "Sock it to me" was one of those catch phrases. The cut to Nixon saying "sock it to ME?" was hilarious and helped soften the humorless bastard's image. Bill Clinton went on the Arsenio Hall Show, donned shades and played sax.

Today they all want part of the action. Fred Thompson declared his candidacy on Leno. Hillary Clinton was on Letterman multiple times. They all seem to make it to Oprah, Ellen, etc. Additionally, Saturday Night Live has experienced an unprecedented revival, not only having guest spots but doing some spot-on impressions (Tina Fey's Sarah Palin and Amy Poehler's Hillary Clinton).

One of the biggest impacts, though, has been a cancellation. John McCain's non-appearance on Letterman has been the topic of Dave's monologue pretty much daily since it happened. It has gone beyond the running joke phase into clear criticism of McCain. McCain is scheduled to appear tonight. I am hoping that it will result in some probing questions. "Just what were you thinking when you suspended your campaign?" and so forth. Don't miss it.

Voted

2008-10-14T12:24:00.003-07:00

I voted over the weekend, haven't mailed it yet, but it is sealed up. I stopped and looked at every contest but ended up voting for every Democrat on the ballot and left the contests where there was no Democrat blank. I voted for Jonathan Weisbuch for District 5 Maricopa County Special Health Care District (the post is non-partisan, I googled the names and liked what I read about him.) I voted for Lela Alston for Phoenix Union High School District governing board at large -- I met her when I ran for office, she was a State Senator then. I skipped over the Phoenix Elementary District race, didn't know enough about them. I also skipped the judge retention part, which I usually do unless I know something specific. Here is what I did on the propositions. The reader is free to print this out and take it to the polls as a guide. I get more votes that way. I will admit that I am often swayed by who is for and who is against a proposition.

Proposition 100 - bans any new sale or transfer tax on real property transactions.

I had a hard time with this one. On one hand the last thing that needs to happen today would be to do something that would further depress the housing market. On the other hand, this is an amendment to the state constitution that would last forever, it may be appropriate in the future to slow down growth or otherwise finance needed infrastructure items, education, etc. The pro arguments came from a list of people which included not only the usual suspects, Farm Bureau, Contractors, Cattlemen, Chamber of Commerce, Arizona Tax Revolt, etc., but also a few people I respected such as our state Senator Ken Cheuvront, Rose Mofford and Eddie Basha. The only con arguement from a source that I had heard of came from the Arizona Education Association. Ultimately I voted NO, worried about future handicaps to raising funds.

Proposition 101 - "freedom of choice" in healthcare.

This sounds like something that would ultimately be used as a roadblock for universal healthcare. The supporters included a bunch of people in the healthcare field, the Arizona Restaurant Association and State Treasurer Dean Martin. The opponents included more healthcare folk plus the Green Party, WESTMARC (a west valley coalition), National Organization for Women, and the Republican Party. I voted NO, it was Dean Martin that convinced me.

Proposition 102 - defines marriage as being between a man and a woman.

This is hateful and unnecessary. NO

Proposition 105 - "let the people decide act"

This is ridiculous. It requires that a majority of REGISTERED voters vote yes on any initiative that would raise taxes or cause an increase in spending. Looking at the turnout in previous elections, that means that you would need at least 75% of the vote. In the 1998 general election the turnout was 45.8% which would mean that nothing could pass. With this nonsense in place no initiative that would raise taxes or spending could possibly ever pass. NO

Proposition 200 = Payday loan reform

This came from the payday loan industry. These people are blood suckers. It is not reform, it is license. NO

Proposition 201 - Homeowners Bill of Rights

Supported by unions and consumer groups, opposed by the usual suspects including the Home Builders. YES

Proposition 202 - Stop Illegal Hiring

This is opposed by Russell Pearce, the state legislator who succeeded with all of the anti-immigrant stuff 2 years ago. YES

Proposition 300 - Raise legislators' salaries from $24K to $30K

It should be $100K. This is a full time job if done right. You get what you pay for. YES

School District Consolidation

If you live in an elementary district that is proposed to merge with a high school district, you get the opportunity to vote yes or no. In our case, Phoenix Elementary, along with something like 16 other districts, would join Phoenix Union High School District. There is all sort of boo-hooing about loss of local control and having to raise teacher salaries in below average districts but that has to dwarf the benefit of getting rid of all the unnecessary administrative costs. YES

Wall Up, Patio Cover Started

2008-10-03T16:31:00.002-07:00

Progress

2008-09-27T14:19:00.001-07:00

Unbelievable

2008-09-26T23:44:00.006-07:00

You've probably seen this but just in case...

Rebuilding Begins

2008-09-21T16:17:00.003-07:00

We will sign a contract tomorrow to have the patio, etc. rebuilt. The insurance appears to be taking care of everything except the lost trees. We went to Baker Nursery today and bought 5 trees. The spot near the house where the big pine tree was will have a Sissoo tree, which Mike recommended. The back of the yard will have two She Oaks, an Australian tree that looks sort of like a drooping pine tree. A Japanese Privet will be on the side of the house by the neighbors' driveway. A Mastic tree will go by the pool where the Cork Oak was.

Catastrophe!

2008-08-29T13:10:00.003-07:00

Maybe I shouldn't go out in public

2008-07-31T22:12:00.003-07:00

I am not a smiley person, as is often pointed out to me. I get things like "are you having a bad day?" from perfect strangers when I feel just fine. Usually it comes from the lady at the cash register in the Safeway. This time it came from a Beatle. We went to see Ringo Starr at the Dodge Theatre tonight. We had really good seats, in the front row of the fixed seats (there were 4 rows of folding chairs in front of us). After the first or second song he started talking with the crowd. "Is everybody having a good time?" and the like. I am sitting there leaning my head on my hand listening to him when looks straight at me and says "how about you, are YOU having a good time?" Then he points at me and says, "yes, I mean you, sir" and then imitates my head resting on my hand. I did my best to smile and he moved on. Unbelievable.

Music ID from Shazam

2008-07-25T10:18:00.004-07:00

Music ID is one of the most amazing little applications that I have seen in a while. It came installed on my new phone. You hold up your phone when music is playing, it samples about 15 seconds, goes into an analyis, then tells you what the song is, even offers a download purchase in some cases. I tried not only some obvious songs but some more obscure items (Fred Astaire, Magic Sam's Blues Band) and the only thing it missed on was from a live album by Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers. Unfortunately what I have is a trial, and they want $3.98 a month for the service. Very cool, but not worth spending money on.

New Phone

2008-07-23T23:21:00.003-07:00

I got a new Motorola Q 9H Global. It is a GSM phone, which will work in other countries (as opposed to the CDMA Verizon version I had before). It comes with two batteries, a standard one along with a larger one. I think it will be more stable than the old one. It has Windows Mobile 6 and Good Messaging. The camera is 2 megapixels.

Home Again

2008-07-12T16:56:00.017-07:00

We got home about 5:30 on Thursday from a trip that spanned 13 states over the course of 2 weeks.

Thursday, June 26. Susan flew to San Francisco. The plane was late. She and John had dinner reservations at Foreign Cinema. She ended up having to take an expensive cab from the airport to make it in time for dinner. Apparently the meal was very good.

Friday, June 27. Susan and John pack up his stuff, pick up a rental van at SFO, and with help from a friend of John's (Nightcarl?) they load up and leave. Traffic is bad getting out of the Bay area and I-5 is full of smoke from forest fires. They spend the night in a Best Western in Pasadena, where Susan and I have stayed before.

Saturday, June 28. They arrive here about 3:30. Mike, Lori and Kaelyn come at 6:00. We have dinner on the back patio, Kaelyn uses the inflatable pool. After Mike and his family leave we swim in the big pool for a while.

Sunday, June 29. I help John repack the van, adding some things from here along with my suitcase, camera bag, etc. We leave about 8:30. I-17 to Flagstaff, then east on I-40. Lunch at Subway in Gallup, NM. It was raining heavily when we went through Albuquerque, although the view of it was impressive. Stopped for the night at an Econolodge in Tucumcari, NM. Dinner at Denny's.

Monday, June 30. We continue on I-40 thru Amarillo, TX. Lunch at a McDonalds somewhere.

Just west of Oklahoma City, we nearly had a bad accident. There were signs indicating that the left lane was going away so I got in the right lane and slowed down to 55 as the signs indicated. We were following a medium sized truck at a safe distance. We could not see around or over the truck. Suddenly he jumps onto the shoulder, revealing a line of cars at a dead stop straight ahead of us. I hopped into the left lane, which had not gone away yet, but fortunately had no cars right there. If I had reacted 2 seconds later we would have smashed into the line of cars at 55 MPH.

An exit or two later we got on a bypass toll road that took us around to I-44. From there though Tulsa (more impressive skyline than Phoenix, or so it seemed) and finally into Missouri, where we stayed in an Econolodge in Springfield. We settled our still-shaken nerves in a country and western type bar and then grabbed dinner at a Subway.

Tuesday, July 1. On through St. Louis, lunch at a Quizno's in Illinois, to Indianapolis where we got on I-70. Continuing the spirit of the Simpsons tour we stayed at a Super 8 in Springfield, OH. We ordered pizza from Domino's and watched I'm Not There on John's laptop. This was the dumpiest of the road motels.

Wednesday, July 2. Through Columbus, then Wheeling, WV, then south of Pittsburgh picking up the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Lunch at a turnpike service plaza. These places used to have Howard Johnsons restaurants but now they have food courts. We ate at Roy Rogers. Continued on the turnpike into the Philadelphia area, where we got off on US-1. That took us into Trenton, NJ and on into Princeton. John had a CD of music from the Sopranos that we played a lot while driving in NJ.

Route 1 is an odd beast in that part of New Jersey. Some of it looks like a freeway with exit ramps, etc. Then some of it is a regular old road with driveways and stop lights and the oddest part is there is no turning left and no u-turns and major intersections have elaborate ramps or even traffic circles. This combined with Google Maps' total lack of understanding of the area separated our arrival in Princeton from our arrival in the hotel by about an hour. The hotel was a Homewood Suites on Route 1, somewhat isolated from the town. The room had a separate bedroom with a convertible couch in the living room, where John stayed. By the time we got situated we decided to eat at the Ruby Tuesday's next to the hotel. We went to the indoor pool for a bit, and you could see fireworks from the town while we soaked.

Thursday, July 3. First task was to take the van to Tom's apartment to unload. Tom will be John's faculty advisor and had kindly volunteered space in his garage for John's stuff. He was very helpful, took charge of the task and we were soon sitting in his kitchen drinking espresso. Then we spent a few hours checking out the town and the campus. We saw John's apartment complex as well. The campus is beautiful and the town is quite nice too. Had lunch in an interesting design-your-own-burrito place. We got a call from Susan. She was on the plane at DFW. Her flight to Newark was delayed because of congestion at Newark. But we had run out of things to do and went back to the hotel and watched some TV and eventually a Simpsons episode.

Then we were off to the Newark airport. Conceptually it was simple, take Route 1 north to the NJ Turnpike and the turnpike to the airport. This was a situation where a map would have helped though. We were not sure just where we would get on the turnpike. Eventually we saw a sign that said that the turnpike was the next right. But the exit sign just referenced NJ-18. John said "I'm not buying it" and I agreed. Sadly we soon figured out that it must have been right because there were no more references to the turnpike. We stopped at two gas stations and gained little knowledge of what to do, the proprietors not being well versed in either directions nor English. Finally we saw another road leading to the turnpike and grabbed it. The van, while costly, did not exceed the original estimate. We took the skytrain to the terminal from Budget and then sat for about an hour watching the Yankees losing to the Red Sox on the TV in TGIFridays. Susan finally arrived, and then after a fashion her luggage as well. Skytrain back to Hertz where we piled into the rented Prius. The only hitch on the way back was that John managed to lose the toll ticket that I handed him. I had to pull over in the area just prior to the toll gate and turn on the lights in the car. Fortunately he found it. It was so late that Ruby Tuesday's had our business for a second night.

Friday, July 4. We went into town, essentially repeating yesterday's campus and town tour. We found the house that Albert Einstein had lived in as well as the Institute for Advanced Study, where he had worked. We drove to the battlefield park where the Meg Ryan/Tim Robbins film I.Q. had its climax. When we got there we found 4th of July festivities with people firing cannons, dressed up in revolutionary costumes, etc. After walking around there for a while we got back in the car and drove to the Washington Crossing State Park, where George Washington crossed the Delaware, about a half hour away. Then back to the hotel, and out to dinner at Blue Point Grill, a trendy fish and vegetables restaurant on Nassau Street (Princeton's main drag) where you bring your own wine. Then we walked around in the rain and looked at shops, restaurants etc.

Saturday, July 5. Drove around Princeton a little more, particularly interested in finding a grocery store. John will live a distance from the nearest stores, and lacking a car, things like bus schedules, whether a store delivers, etc. are important. Back to the airport to drop off the car and then a taxi into Manhattan. The taxi was a hoot. We had 3 large and one small suitcases plus a guitar and a camera bag. As it did not all fit in the trunk, John had to sit in the front seat. The driver handed John some things from the front seat to hold which included his odiferous lunch. The windshield wiper blades were falling apart and it was raining heavily. He had a bunch of random stuff stored above the visor that kept falling down. When he uncovered his EZ Pass gizmo for the toll booth the bracket that held it to the dashboard fell apart. We got to the hotel just about the time the rain subsided.

We stayed at the Hotel Giraffe, on Park Avenue South at 26th St. In the maps in the taxis, we were in an unnamed district south of Murray Hill and north of Grammercy Park. In at least one book this was called the Flatiron District but the NY Cabs considered it nameless, the only region south of Harlem without a name. The hotel was very nice, a "boutique" hotel, 73 rooms, in a quiet (for Manhattan) area. We had a small balcony facing 26th St. John stayed in a friend's apartment in Harlem, 20-30 minutes away by subway.

We got sandwiches at a coffee shop nearby. Then we set out with John to take his luggage and guitar to Scott's apartment. We were a little more nicely/heavily dressed than normal as we planned to end up at Patsy's, a restaurant that Susan had heard many things about, for dinner. Our first introduction to the subway was not good. It was hot and muggy on the platform and seemed to take forever for the train to come. Then we had to change trains and go through it again. At least the subway cars themselves were well air conditioned. Then we got out and were on the main drag in Harlem. We only had to walk one long block but passed many colorful scenes, people selling various things, music playing on boom boxes, a rasta-looking guy selling CDs, a produce market, etc. Then we got to Scott's door and John couldn't open it. Another tenant was leaving and she showed him how to do it. Scott was back in California and had given John the keys. After dropping off the stuff, we figured out how to lock it back up and were on the street again. Past the subway station we could see the Apollo Theatre, but I was not wanting to walk that far.

We wanted to stop short of Time Square and walk to Rockefeller Center, but John misjudged the stops and we were south of Time Square with little choice but to pass through. Susan did not like the crowds and did not want to come back. We went over to 5th Avenue and saw St. Patrick's Cathedral and then Rockefeller Center. Susan was getting tired of walking so we found an (amazingly quiet) bar and sat for a while. I wasn't sure of the precise location of Patsy's, I had been there once before, so John got the address and phone number. I suggested he call to see if we needed a reservation. He got a recording that said that they were closed, for precisely the days that we were in Manhattan, and would reopen the night we would arrive back in Phoenix. We were devastated. So we walked over there anyway, just to look at it. We passed the Ed Sullivan Theatre along the way. Then we took a cab to a restaurant that we had heard of near Greenwich Village that was coincidentally also called Patsy's, although very different, where we had dinner. It was very loud, mostly an NYU crowd in there with thumpathumpathumpa music. We walked back to our hotel from there, one of the longer walks of the trip.

Sunday, July 6. Susan had enjoyed Little Italy in Boston and had similar hopes for New York's. We took the subway there and at first glance it was very cool but on further analysis it was just a tourist trap. We did not see a grocery and there were tons of souvenir shops. We stopped for coffee and a cannoli. The filling got an A but the shell a C. I had an Italian rum cake that was very good. The waitress was Puerto Rican or Dominican we thought. Then we headed for the subway which was on the line between Little Italy and Chinatown. We had little interest in Chinatown as we were vary familiar with San Francisco's, but if the crowds near the subway were any indication, we do not want to go there. This was the most intense crowding we had seen other than Time Square.

We went to Ground Zero. Today it is just a big construction fence around the spot where the towers were. We walked from there to Wall Street. There is intense security around the New York Stock Exchange. We saw the spot where George Washington was first inaugurated. Then cab to subway, subway all the way uptown to Central Park West and a look at the Dakota, the site of John Lennon's murder, where Yoko Ono still lives. Then over to the park and then a cab back to near our hotel and pizza for lunch. We then found a place called Organique that had design-your-own-salad and -sandwich items. We had them put together some salads to have for dinner later (dressing on the side). Bought wine, pops, chips, etc. at a couple more nearby shops and walked back to the hotel.

We had tickets to The Lion King, which was celebrating its 10th anniversary on Broadway. Everyone had told me how wonderful it was but I was not particularly excited. I am not a big fan of musicals and on my first trip to Broadway I was passing up some big names in some more serious endeavors. I was somewhat familiar with the story, having watched the videotape of the movie with the kids years ago. The taxi could not get all the way to the theatre, so we got to once again fight through the crowd at Time Square. Once inside, it was relatively calm. When the doors opened we found out that we had great seats, 13th row center. I have to tell you that I was amazed at just how good this show was. The costumes and the production were unbelievable. You would have to see it to appreciate it.

After the show, Susan was the hero, managing to flag us a cab in the midst of the mob that emitted from the theatre. Before we knew it we were back at the hotel.

Monday, July 7. One goal of the trip was to avoid long lines. The Statue of Liberty is a problem in that regard, from what I have heard. An alternative is the Staten Island Ferry, which is free. It takes you past the statue and there are no lines involved. So we got a cab to the ferry terminal. Along the way we saw the waterfalls. They are a temporary public art installation in the East River this summer. Water is pumped from the river and then cascaded down, resembling waterfalls. There are four of them. The ferry was loading as we arrived, so there was no wait. We sat on the side of the boat that faced away from New Jersey and the statue, looking instead at Brooklyn. The ferry terminals were clean and modern. On the Staten Island end we looked outside for a minute, there is a minor league baseball stadium (Staten Island Yankees) and just waited or the next ferry back. This time we sat on the side facing the statue. This was not as good a view as you would have if you paid for the the tour, waited in line, etc., but it was quite pleasant.

Then a cab to a subway station in Brooklyn. The area that we got left in was quite UNpleasant, looked downright dangerous. The subway took us to Greenpoint, a Polish neighborhood in Brooklyn where John wanted to go. We found a Polish restaurant. The food was pretty good, I liked the kielbasa.

Then subway to the Brooklyn end of the Brooklyn Bridge. We walked across the bridge back to Manhattan, which was way cool. There is a pedestrian walkway that is above the traffic. Subway back from the Manhattan side of the bridge to the hotel. Wine and cheese reception in the lobby of the hotel. John left to go back to Brooklyn to see Caitlin and Daniel. We walked around our nameless district, primarily on Lexington Avenue, then had dinner at a Ray's Pizza outlet and went back to our room.

Tuesday, July 8. I got tickets online for the Empire State Building tour. This enables you to skip the first line, which is the ticket line. There is still a bunch of waiting in line, which apparently can be bypassed if you buy a more expensive package. We spent most of the morning standing in line for the tour and ultimately taking it. Then we walked over to Macy's. After Macy's, John and Susan bought some souvenirs at some shops on 34th Street. From there we took a cab up to north of the Theatre district and had lunch at the Carnegie Deli, a famous place with celebrity pictures on the wall. A sandwich could feed three people easily. Then walked north past Carnegie Hall and into Central Park. Walked around, exited at southeast end and walked past some of the high end shops in that area. Then we found a Yankees team shop, where John bought a hat (and one for his future father-in-law) and I bought a shirt. Then subway back to the hotel.

John had warned against how awful the subway would be getting back from the Yankees game -- add rowdy drunks to an already hot crowded place -- so I bought us tickets on the Yankee Clipper, a boat that would take us from fairly close to our hotel to right next to Yankee Stadium. We took a short cab ride to the 34th Street pier and waited for the ship. It was a 20-30 minute ride up the river, passing the UN building and Harlem on the left and Brooklyn, Queens and eventually the Bronx on the right. The entrance to the Stadium was about a 10 minute walk. We went up several escalators and found our seats. We were in the upper deck and the angle was so steep that the backs of the seats in the row in front was level with the floor in our row. The floor in front of the seats was so narrow that I was almost afraid to go -- stepping in front of already seated people -- to our seats. Susan was more scared even than I was. We sat through the first inning or so afraid that we would never have nerve to move to get food or use the bathroom. Then in the second inning somebody came and told us that we were in their seats. We had been confused about location. Our seats were actually much lower down. The people next to us had made the same mistake. We all got up and went down. Not only were our seats much closer to the field, there was a railing in front of our row. It was smooth sailing from there. The game was great. The Yankees were (are) in third place and they were playing Tampa Bay who were (are) in first. The Yankees played like the Yankees of old, Derek Jeter got key hits and they won impressively. The Stadium was nearly full, the crowd was into it, it was a great experience. You could see the new stadium over the left field wall. The ride back was fun. The boat was a good plan.

Wednesday, July 9. Last full day in Manhattan. Walked to the Farmers' Market at Union Square. It was great. With the possible exception of Paris this was the best one we have seen. You would not want for fresh produce if you lived near there. Walked on to Greenwich Village, had bruschetta and coffee/tea in a coffee shop at the corner of Bleecker and MacDougal. Walked on to Soho, saw a bunch of trendy shops, etc. Decided we had had enough and took cab back to near hotel. Got sandwiches and went back to hotel. Maid was cleaning room so ate in the lobby. I really liked the lobby of the hotel. Windows to the street on two sides. Espresso/Capuccino machine available at all hours as were cookies and coffee. Wine/cheese 5-7. Jazz piano in the early evening. This is also where the continental breakfast was served. After eating, John and I went to the NBC Studio tour and Susan hung out in the room and then walked out and scouted a restaurant for us. The tour was OK, not outstanding. It was not as good as its counterpart in Burbank. We did get to see the Saturday Night Live studio. Back to the hotel for wine/cheese. Susan had found us a great Italian restaurant on Lexington Ave. where we had a wonderful last dinner. Back to the hotel and then said our goodbyes to John.

Thursay, July 10. Cab to Newark airport, plane left on time, plenty of time for connection in Dallas. Plane left Dallas about 10 minutes late but got into Phoenix about when planned. House was still standing. The neighbors' cat who has adopted us was at the door within minutes of our arrival. John sent text message that night after boarding his flight for Warsaw.

Overall, this was a great trip/adventure/vacation. We took tons of pictures, some of which can be seen on here.

Good Seats

2008-06-05T21:29:00.008-07:00

We had a bad experience at a game a few weeks ago and complained to the management about it. They called us several times to apologize and finally told me they had some upgraded seats for us to the Nationals game on June 1st. They sounded like they were in the section right behind the plate where you often see people waving from. I didn't get my hopes up though because I thought I would jinx it. So I didn't take a camera, didn't, set up the DVR, and didn't tell anybody about it in advance. Sure enough, right in the section you see on TV. I tried calling Mike and Lori but no luck. I used my Q to set up a recording of the game via the Slingbox but for reasons too lengthy to explain here, I had to set it to the SD broadcast on Cox 34 rather than the HD one on 734. There were monitors in our section so I could see that we were on TV with every pitch. Imagine my disappointment when I got home and turned on the recording only to find out that we were in the part that gets cropped out of the picture if you watch in SD. I got first picture above by taking a picture of our TV screen playing the mlb.tv feed. Took me a while to figure that out. We are on the right hand side of the picture. The tickets were $400 a piece! I doubt we'll ever get anything like that again... The second two were taken with my phone.

Send this to people who will watch

2008-05-30T10:00:00.002-07:00

More good stuff here.

Friedman is Right Again

2008-05-28T11:49:00.004-07:00

Truth or Consequences

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Imagine for a minute, just a minute, that someone running for president was able to actually tell the truth, the real truth, to the American people about what would be the best — I mean really the best — energy policy for the long-term economic health and security of our country. I realize this is a fantasy, but play along with me for a minute. What would this mythical, totally imaginary, truth-telling candidate say?

For starters, he or she would explain that there is no short-term fix for gasoline prices. Prices are what they are as a result of rising global oil demand from India, China and a rapidly growing Middle East on top of our own increasing consumption, a shortage of “sweet” crude that is used for the diesel fuel that Europe is highly dependent upon and our own neglect of effective energy policy for 30 years.

Cynical ideas, like the McCain-Clinton summertime gas-tax holiday, would only make the problem worse, and reckless initiatives like the Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep offer to subsidize gasoline for three years for people who buy its gas guzzlers are the moral equivalent of tobacco companies offering discounted cigarettes to teenagers.

I can’t say it better than my friend Tim Shriver, the chairman of Special Olympics, did in a Memorial Day essay in The Washington Post: “So Dodge wants to sell you a car you don’t really want to buy, that is not fuel-efficient, will further damage our environment, and will further subsidize oil states, some of which are on the other side of the wars we’re currently fighting. ... The planet be damned, the troops be forgotten, the economy be ignored: buy a Dodge.”

No, our mythical candidate would say the long-term answer is to go exactly the other way: guarantee people a high price of gasoline — forever.

This candidate would note that $4-a-gallon gasoline is really starting to impact driving behavior and buying behavior in way that $3-a-gallon gas did not. The first time we got such a strong price signal, after the 1973 oil shock, we responded as a country by demanding and producing more fuel-efficient cars. But as soon as oil prices started falling in the late 1980s and early 1990s, we let Detroit get us readdicted to gas guzzlers, and the price steadily crept back up to where it is today.

We must not make that mistake again. Therefore, what our mythical candidate would be proposing, argues the energy economist Philip Verleger Jr., is a “price floor” for gasoline: $4 a gallon for regular unleaded, which is still half the going rate in Europe today. Washington would declare that it would never let the price fall below that level. If it does, it would increase the federal gasoline tax on a monthly basis to make up the difference between the pump price and the market price.

To ease the burden on the less well-off, “anyone earning under $80,000 a year would be compensated with a reduction in the payroll taxes,” said Verleger. Or, he suggested, the government could use the gasoline tax to buy back gas guzzlers from the public and “crush them.”

But the message going forward to every car buyer and carmaker would be this: The price of gasoline is never going back down. Therefore, if you buy a big gas guzzler today, you are locking yourself into perpetually high gasoline bills. You are buying a pig that will eat you out of house and home. At the same time, if you, a manufacturer, continue building fleets of nonhybrid gas guzzlers, you are condemning yourself, your employees and shareholders to oblivion.

What a cruel thing for a candidate to say? I disagree. Every decade we look back and say: “If only we had done the right thing then, we would be in a different position today.”

But no politician dared to do so. When gasoline was $2 a gallon, the government never would have imposed a $2 tax. Now that it is $4 a gallon, the government should at least keep it there, since it is really having the right effect.

I was visiting my local Toyota dealer in Bethesda, Md., last week to trade in one hybrid car for another. There is now a two-month wait to buy a Prius, which gets close to 50 miles per gallon. The dealer told me I was lucky. My hybrid was going up in value every day, so I didn’t have to worry about waiting a while for my new car. But if it were not a hybrid, he said, he would deduct each day $200 from the trade-in price for every $1-a-barrel increase in the OPEC price of crude oil. When I saw the rows and rows of unsold S.U.V.’s parked in his lot, I understood why.

We need to make a structural shift in our energy economy. Ultimately, we need to move our entire fleet to plug-in electric cars. The only way to get from here to there is to start now with a price signal that will force the change.

Barack Obama had the courage to tell voters that the McCain-Clinton summer gas-giveaway plan was a fraud. Wouldn’t it be amazing if he took the next step and put the right plan before the American people? Wouldn’t that just be amazing?

That Was Me...

2008-05-04T21:50:00.004-07:00

McCain wraps up weekend with baseball game

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona Sen. John McCain completed a weekend break from campaigning by attending Sunday's baseball game between the New York Mets and Arizona Diamondbacks.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee watched from the owners' seats near the Diamondbacks' dugout, sitting between team owners Jeff Moorad and Ken Kendrick. McCain's wife, Cindy, also attended.

McCain waved when he was shown on the giant Chase Field video screen. He was greeted with subdued cheers, and a smattering of boos, from the crowd.

McCain sat for a while in the announcers' booth and spoke on the radio about baseball and campaigning.

"We've been traveling, giving speeches, raising money, doing the campaign — it's a great time," he told KTAR. "We've got a tough campaign, but you've got to love it and like it, otherwise it's too hard."

McCain spent Friday and Saturday at his home in Sedona. He heads to North Carolina on Monday.

With apologies to Dr. Seuss

2008-04-23T15:56:00.002-07:00

And help from Maureen Dowd and Art Buchwald

Hillary Clinton will you please go now!
The time has come.
The time has come.
The time is now.
Just go.
Go.
Go!
I don't care how.
You can go by foot.
You can go by cow.
Hillary Clinton will you please go now!
You can go on skates.
You can go on skis.
You can go in a hat.
But
Please go.
Please!
I don't care.
You can go
By bike.
You can go
On a Zike-Bike
If you like.
If you like
You can go
In an old blue shoe.
Just go, go, GO!
Please do, do, do, DO!
Hillary Clinton
I don't care how.
Hillary Clinton
Will you please
GO NOW!
You can go on stilts.
You can go by fish.
You can go in a Crunk-Car
If you wish.
If you wish
You may go
By lion's tale.
Or stamp yourself
And go by mail.
Hillary Clinton
Don't you know
The time has come
To go, go, GO!
Get on your way!
Please Hillary!
You might like going in a Zumble-Zay.
You can go by balloon . . .
Or broomstick.
Or
You can go by camel
In a bureau drawer.
You can go by bumble-boat
. . . or jet.
I don't care how you go.
Just get!
Hillary Clinton!
I don't care how.
Hillary Clinton
Will you please
GO NOW!
I said
GO
And
GO
I meant . . .
The time had come
So . . .
Hillary WENT.

Speaking of Tom Hayden...

2008-04-23T14:56:00.005-07:00

Why Hillary Makes My Wife Scream

by Tom Hayden, The Nation

April 22, 2008

My wife Barbara has begun yelling at the television set every time she hears Hillary Clinton. This is abnormal behavior, since Barbara is a meditative practitioner of everything peaceful and organic, and is inspired by Barack Obama's transformational appeal.

For Barbara, Hillary has become the screech on the blackboard. From First Lady to Lady Macbeth.

It's getting to me as well. Last year, I was somewhat reconciled to the prospect of supporting and pressuring Hillary as the nominee amidst the rising tide of my friends who already hated her, irrationally I thought. I was one of those people Barack accuses of being willing to settle. I even had framed a flattering autographed message from Hillary. But as the campaign has gone on and on, her signed portrait still leans against the wall in my study. I don't know where she belongs anymore.

At least Hillary was a known quantity in my life. I knew of the danger of her becoming more and more hawkish as she tried to break the ultimate glass ceiling. I also knew that she could be forced to change course if public opinion was fiercely opposed to the war. And I knew she was familiar with radical social causes from her own life experience in the sixties. So my progressive task seemed clear: help build an antiwar force powerful enough to make it politically necessary to end the war. Been there, done that. And in the process, finally put a woman in the White House. A soothing bonus.

But as the Obama campaign gained momentum, Hillary began morphing into the persona that has my pacifist wife screaming at the television set.

Going negative doesn't begin to describe what has happened. Hillary is going over the edge. Even worse are the flacks she sends before the cameras on her behalf, like that Kiki person, who smirks and shakes her head at the camera every time she fields a question. Or the real carnivores, like Howard Wolfson, Lanny Davis and James Carville, whose sneering smugness prevents countless women like my wife from considering Hillary at all.

To use the current terminology, Hillary people are bitter people, even more bitter than the white working-class voters Barack has talked about. Because they circle the wagons so tightly, they don't recognize how identical, self-reinforcing and out-of-touch they are.

To take just one example, the imagined association between Barack Obama and Bill Ayers will suffice. Hillary is blind to her own roots in the sixties. In one college speech she spoke of ecstatic transcendence; in another, she said, "Our social indictment has broadened. Where once we exposed the quality of life in the world of the South and the ghettos, now we condemn the quality of work in factories and corporations. Where once we assaulted the exploitation of man, now we decry the destruction of nature as well. How much long can we let corporations run us?"

She was in Chicago for three nights during the 1968 street confrontations. She chaired the 1970 Yale law school meeting where students voted to join a national student strike again an "unconscionable expansion of a war that should never have been waged." She was involved in the New Haven defense of Bobby Seale during his murder trial in 1970, as the lead scheduler of student monitors. She surely agreed with Yale president Kingman Brewster that a black revolutionary couldn't get a fair trial in America. She wrote that abused children were citizens with the same rights as their parents.

Most significantly in terms of her recent attacks on Barack, after Yale law school, Hillary went to work for the left-wing Bay Area law firm of Treuhaft, Walker and Burnstein, which specialized in Black Panthers and West Coast labor leaders prosecuted for being communists. Two of the firm's partners, according to Treuhaft, were communists and the two others "tolerated communists". Then she went on to Washington to help impeach Richard Nixon, whose career was built on smearing and destroying the careers of people through vague insinuations about their backgrounds and associates. (All these citations can be found in Carl Bernstein's sympathetic 2007 Clinton biography, A Woman in Charge.)

All these were honorable words and associations in my mind, but doesn't she see how the Hillary of today would accuse the Hillary of the sixties of associating with black revolutionaries who fought gun battles with police officers, and defending pro-communist lawyers who backed communists? Doesn't the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whom Hillary attacks today, represent the very essence of the black radicals Hillary was associating with in those days? And isn't the Hillary of today becoming the same kind of guilt-by-association insinuator as the Richard Nixon she worked to impeach?

It is as if Hillary Clinton is engaged in a toxic transmission onto Barack Obama of every outrageous insult and accusation ever inflicted on her by the American right over the decades. She is running against what she might have become. Too much politics dries the soul of the idealist.

It is abundantly clear that the Clintons, working with FOX News and manipulating old Clinton staffers like George Stephanopoulos, are trying, at least unconsciously, to so damage Barack Obama that he will be perceived as "unelectable" to Democratic superdelegates. It is also clear that the campaign of defamation against Obama has resulted in higher negative ratings for Hillary Clinton. She therefore is threatening the Democratic Party's chances for the White House, whether or not she is the nominee.

Since no one in the party leadership seems able or willing to intervene against this self-destructive downward spiral, perhaps progressives need to consider responding in the only way politicians sometimes understand. If they can't hear us screaming at the television sets, we can send a message that the Clintons are acting as if they prefer John McCain to Barack Obama. And follow it up with another message: if Clinton doesn't immediately cease her path of destruction, millions of young voters and black voters may not send checks, may not knock on doors, and may not even vote for her if she becomes the nominee. That's not a threat, that's the reality she is creating.

Obama's Neighbor

2008-04-17T19:35:00.008-07:00

I am not a Bill Ayers fan. My opinion is not based on his politics, heck we were on the same side until he decided that violence was OK. Nor is it based on his alleged illegal activities. I am not happy about the bad press that this University of Illinois-Chicago professor is bringing to Barack Obama at the moment, but that is not really the reason either. Bill Ayers, at least when I knew him in Ann Arbor in 1969, was an arrogant jerk. I was part of a group of people that went from Ann Arbor to DC in January of '69 to attend the "counter-inauguration" protest during the first inauguration of Richard M. Nixon. I am not sure how I got hooked up with it, I really didn't have any friends that were all that political, but somehow I found myself in a car heading to DC. I don't think Ayers was in our car but he was the leader, more of less, of the Ann Arbor contingent. He tended to boss people around and there was a clear split between Ayers and the rest of us lowly nobodies. I saw some interesting things on that trip. I saw The Fugs playing in a tent. I saw some folks identified as Yippies who seemed to be specializing in making woo-woo-woo Indian style noises to unnerve the horses that the (huge number of) mounted police were on. I attended a "teach-in" where the point being made was that Sirhan Sirhan (who had killed Bobby Kennedy less than a year earlier) was some sort of hero. I saw folks who would throw rocks at the cops from behind the lines and then run away while the police attacked the nonviolent kids up front.

And I mostly remember a night when I couldn't sleep. The Ann Arbor group was sleeping in a hall that belonged to a church. I vaguely remember eating uncooked Spam that night. Anyway, as I tried to sleep I found that a heated argument, one that went on for what seemed like hours, prevented me from resting. It seems that a commitment had been made that the church would be cleaned up in the morning and that somehow the task had fallen to our future Weatherman. He was not about to help clean the f-ing church. And so he stated far into the night.

Fun fact: neither Ayers nor The Dude (Jeffrey Lebowski) actually contributed to the Port Huron Statement, but Tom Hayden did.

In Pa. Debate, The Clear Loser Is ABC

2008-04-17T12:28:00.005-07:00

ABC News moderators Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos seemed to be playing a game of gotcha at last night's candidates' debate.

By Tom Shales, Washington Post

Thursday, April 17, 2008

When Barack Obama met Hillary Clinton for another televised Democratic candidates' debate last night, it was more than a step forward in the 2008 presidential election. It was another step downward for network news -- in particular ABC News, which hosted the debate from Philadelphia and whose usually dependable anchors, Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, turned in shoddy, despicable performances.

For the first 52 minutes of the two-hour, commercial-crammed show, Gibson and Stephanopoulos dwelled entirely on specious and gossipy trivia that already has been hashed and rehashed, in the hope of getting the candidates to claw at one another over disputes that are no longer news. Some were barely news to begin with.

The fact is, cable networks CNN and MSNBC both did better jobs with earlier candidate debates. Also, neither of those cable networks, if memory serves, rushed to a commercial break just five minutes into the proceedings, after giving each candidate a tiny, token moment to make an opening statement. Cable news is indeed taking over from network news, and merely by being competent.

Gibson sat there peering down at the candidates over glasses perched on the end of his nose, looking prosecutorial and at times portraying himself as a spokesman for the working class. Blunderingly he addressed an early question, about whether each would be willing to serve as the other's running mate, "to both of you," which is simple ineptitude or bad manners. It was his job to indicate which candidate should answer first. When, understandably, both waited politely for the other to talk, Gibson said snidely, "Don't all speak at once."

For that matter, the running-mate question that Gibson made such a big deal over was decidedly not a big deal -- especially since Wolf Blitzer asked it during a previous debate televised and produced by CNN.

The boyish Stephanopoulos, who has done wonders with the network's Sunday morning hour, "This Week" (as, indeed, has Gibson with the nightly "World News"), looked like an overly ambitious intern helping out at a subcommittee hearing, digging through notes for something smart-alecky and slimy. He came up with such tired tripe as a charge that Obama once associated with a nutty bomb-throwing anarchist. That was "40 years ago, when I was 8 years old," Obama said with exasperation.

Obama was right on the money when he complained about the campaign being bogged down in media-driven inanities and obsessiveness over any misstatement a candidate might make along the way, whether in a speech or while being eavesdropped upon by the opposition. The tactic has been to "take one statement and beat it to death," he said.

No sooner was that said than Gibson brought up, yet again, the controversial ravings of the pastor at a church attended by Obama. "Charlie, I've discussed this," he said, and indeed he has, ad infinitum. If he tried to avoid repeating himself when clarifying his position, the networks would accuse him of changing his story, or changing his tune, or some other baloney.

This is precisely what has happened with widely reported comments that Obama made about working-class people "clinging" to religion and guns during these times of cynicism about their federal government.

"It's not the first time I made a misstatement that was mangled up, and it won't be the last," said Obama, with refreshing candor. But candor is dangerous in a national campaign, what with network newsniks waiting for mistakes or foul-ups like dogs panting for treats after performing a trick. The networks' trick is covering an election with as little emphasis on issues as possible, then blaming everyone else for failing to focus on "the issues."

Some news may have come out of the debate (ABC News will pretend it did a great job on today's edition of its soppy, soap-operatic "Good Morning America"). Asked point-blank if she thought Obama could defeat presumptive Republican contender John McCain in the general election, Clinton said, "Yes, yes, yes," in apparent contrast to previous remarks in which she reportedly told other Democrats that Obama could never win. And in turn, Obama said that Clinton could "absolutely" win against McCain.

To this observer, ABC's coverage seemed slanted against Obama. The director cut several times to reaction shots of such Clinton supporters as her daughter, Chelsea, who sat in the audience at the Kimmel Theater in Philly's National Constitution Center. Obama supporters did not get equal screen time, giving the impression that there weren't any in the hall. The director also clumsily chose to pan the audience at the very start of the debate, when the candidates made their opening statements, so Obama and Clinton were barely seen before the first commercial break.

At the end, Gibson pompously thanked the candidates -- or was he really patting himself on the back? -- for "what I think has been a fascinating debate." He's entitled to his opinion, but the most fascinating aspect was waiting to see how low he and Stephanopoulos would go, and then being appalled at the answer.

Shales joined The Washington Post as a writer in the Style section in 1972, was named chief television critic in July 1977, and was appointed TV Editor in June 1979. The Washington Post Writers Group has syndicated his column since 1979.

Amazon price protection

2008-04-16T08:41:00.004-07:00

When I was adding the link for the new mower in the previous post I saw that the manufacturer's website had the same mower for $50 less. To verify what I had paid for it on Amazon, I checked there, and yes I had paid $50 more, but now Amazon had it for the same lower price. I could not find anything by navigating the Amazon web site but I googled "Amazon price protection" and found that indeed Amazon will refund the difference if the price goes down within 30 days. A simple phone call got me a $50 refund.

Mowers and craigslist

2008-04-15T22:18:00.008-07:00

I got tired of struggling with my old mower, which is not really designed for the grass I have, and decided to buy an electric, finally picked a cordless. I ordered it from Amazon last Friday, opting for free shipping. Supposedly it would ship on 4/16 and take 5-6 business days to arrive. Then I saw that it had shipped yesterday and would arrive tomorrow. Where would it go? Had to unload the old one in a hurry.

9:45 am Post ad for mower on craigslist
10:00 am Notice that it is there
10:21 am Receive call from prospective buyer
1:30 pm Receive call from a second prospective buyer who says he will be here in early evening
5:42 pm Second caller says he is on his way (coming from Maricopa)
6:20 pm Buyer arrives from Maricopa, inspects, buys (full price less $5)
7:00 pm Cancel craigslist ad
10:15 pm While googling for a picture of the old mower for this post, find link to my (now-cancelled) craigslist ad

This is not an April Fool's joke

2008-04-03T11:24:00.002-07:00

According to today's Arizona Republic, McDonald's has lost their franchise at Chase Field and will be replaced by Fatburger. While I rarely bought McDonald's food at the ballpark and would not mind trying Fatburger, which I never been to, I did enjoy the occasional McFlurry, a sundae of soft serve ice cream and M&Ms. Fatburger shows no equivalent item on the menu on their website, although they do have what look like pretty good milk shakes.

Not Wanted

2008-03-25T16:06:00.004-07:00

What do Royce Clayton, Mike Myers, Reggie Sanders, Jeff Cirillo, Bob Wickman, Damian Miller, Shawn Green, Kelly Stinnett and Russ Ortiz all have in common?

They are all former Diamondbacks who are "unsigned" free agents. Nobody wants Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mike Piazza, Kenny Lofton and a host of others either, although some of these folks will end up somewhere eventually.

What can go wrong in the 're-do'? Only everything

2008-03-16T13:07:00.006-07:00

By CARL HIAASEN (Miami Herald)

Ten most-asked questions about a possible re-do of the Florida Democratic Primary.

1. This whole thing is just a gag, right? Somebody's lame idea of a joke?

If only it were.

Acting with unfathomable haste and stupidity, the National Democratic Party stripped Florida of its convention delegates when the state decided to move up the date of its presidential primary.

About 1.7 million loyal Democrats showed up on Jan. 29 and voted anyway, though they were basically tinkling into the wind.

As fate would have it, the race between Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama is now so tight that Florida's delegates could be crucial in deciding the nominee. That's why some party leaders wanted to ''re-do'' the primary by mail, a long-shot idea that terrifies supporters of both candidates.

2. Does anyone in their right mind believe that Florida could conduct postal balloting without a major screw-up or scandal?

Heavens, no! The whole country is keenly aware that our state is a sump hole of incompetence and corruption.

Submitting fraudulent hand-written ballots has always been a favored method of rigging elections here, and there's no reason to think the tradition wouldn't continue.

3. Why not just seat Florida's 211 delegates based on the results of the Jan. 29 vote?

That would be a windfall for Clinton, who easily won the balloting here that day. However, Democratic voters had been told far in advance that the primary wouldn't mean anything, and there's no telling how many didn't bother to go to the polls.

Lots of Obama supporters would be seriously ticked off to hear that January's so-called straw vote was now going to stand as the real deal. It's like Major League Baseball waiting until midseason and then declaring that spring training games will count in the final standings.

4. So why doesn't the party schedule a second presidential primary in which Florida Democrats go back to their polling places and re-vote?

Holding a full, nonpretend primary would be expensive and, inevitably, chaotic.

In almost every election since the 2000 fiasco that sank Al Gore, one or more Florida counties have experienced serious problems with new voting machines. Due to the high risk of either equipment malfunction or citizen malfunction, these tricky devices should be avoided whenever possible.

Hence, the controversial push for a secret vote-by-mail.

5. Exactly how would that work?

Ballots would be sent to all registered Democrats about three weeks before the June 3 deadline.

(If you've moved since registering to vote, a note would be mailed to the forwarding address asking you to go update your information so that you may obtain a new primary ballot. This wouldn't be the least bit inconvenient or time-consuming, unless you happened to have a day job).

Under one proposal, the state Democratic Party would pay elections officials 10 cents per name to validate the signatures on completed ballots. Presumably the price would be higher if the signature belonged to a dead person or a fugitive.

6. Isn't there any sort of plan to protect against fraud and ballot-stuffing?

One suggestion was to appoint a supervisory panel of ''respected and knowledgeable leaders.'' In Florida such a committee would fit easily inside a phone booth.

7. If a new primary is held, how can I be sure my primary vote would count?

Pack up and move to Pennsylvania, fast.

Just kidding! By now, most Floridians know the election-day drill: For every ballot that doesn't get counted, another ballot will accidentally be counted twice.

So it pretty much evens out.

8. After what happened here in 2000, why would the Democratic leadership jeopardize its chances to win back the White House by putting Florida in such a pivotal position?

That would be a good question for Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic Party. Another good question for Dean is: When are you going to stop acting like an addled hamster and do something smart?

9. If another primary were approved, is it true that the Democratic candidates would be allowed to campaign and advertise throughout Florida?

Tragically, yes. After months of peace and quiet, the Sunshine State finally would be invaded full-bore by the Obama and Clinton forces.

Remember back when Rudy Giuliani was the only one hanging around? Heck, we hardly knew he was here.

Those were the days . . .

10. What's the worst that can happen if Florida insists on holding a new Democratic primary?

You mean, besides paralyzing the nomination process, turning the presidential campaign into a legal mud bath and embarrassing ourselves again before the whole nation?

Not a thing!
=============================

Hiaasen discusses Florida politics on the Colbert Report

He didn't talk like this on Sports Center

2008-03-14T08:36:00.001-07:00

Keith Olbermann has something to say to Hillary Clinton.

Mad Men, iTunes and Californication

2008-03-13T15:48:00.007-07:00

I guess that the main point of this is to plug the series Mad Men. One of the few good things about watching awards shows is that occasionally you hear about something obscure that you hadn't come across before. On this year's Golden Globes, yeah the one without anything but reading the names of the nominees and winners due the writers' strike, there was a show that was nominated and maybe won something that just sounded different. First it was on AMC. AMC used to be cool but now it just blows, more or less. A long time ago it occupied the niche that TCM -- Turner Classic Movies -- does today. Good old movies without commercials. Somewhere along the line AMC got off the tracks. They introduced commercials and they started really abusing the notion of what a "classic" was. I had not watched anything there in a long time. So when I heard that they had an original series I first wondered why "American Movie Classics" has its own TV series, much like I wonder why TV Land has started showing movies. But when it got the mention on the Golden Globes we decided to try it. What a great show! It is set in 1960 in a Manhattan ad agency. Handsomely photographed, full of scotch and cigarettes and bad hairdos. It is the kind of series that you would expect to see on HBO or Showtime. Highly recommended.

But the second point is how technology can save you. Mad Men is actually doing a rerun through its more or less serialized episodes. They are on during the wee hours of Sunday night-Monday morning. Having found them at that time -- and not knowing whether they were on three other times during the week -- I set up an all-episodes-this-channel-this-timeslot recording, which snagged the first 7 episodes but then fell flat when those morons back east changed their clocks around. I missed this Monday's episode. In the old world we would have just resolved to see it some day and skipped on to the next episode after adjusting the recording time, but iTunes came to the rescue. Two bucks and a quick download and I had it, letterboxed and all. I think the picture quality was actually better than the analog cable it normally comes in on.

This emboldened me to resolve another issue that had been bugging me. We managed to miss the season ending episode of Californication. This is another relatively obscure yet highly entertaining show, this one more or less of a sitcom starring David Duchovny as a once promising writer whose career has stalled. He lives in Venice Beach and splits his time between drinking, womanizing and trying to get his family back together. Another two bucks and we had it. The final episode was a shocker and great television. The show has been renewed for a second season starting this summer. If you don't get Showtime the whole season can be had on iTunes for about $22.

Elmore at the Movies

2008-03-13T15:40:00.001-07:00

I like this one

2008-03-01T11:34:00.001-07:00

From Russian TV (in English)

2008-02-27T16:11:00.004-07:00

Six for Six

2008-02-20T15:25:00.003-07:00

Congratulations, John.

Rogue Columnist

2008-02-15T07:38:00.003-07:00

Jon Talton was until about a year ago a columnist for the Arizona Republic. He lived in Willo and also writes mystery novels, one of which I reviewed here. He has moved to Seattle and writes occasional columns for the Seattle Times. He has a blog called Rogue Columnist which is often worth reading, as he writes about urban issues, Phoenix and Seattle in particular, and also has insights into the national political scene. I have added a link section in the margin to the right.

Seeing a President

2008-02-14T16:17:00.002-07:00

Unlike my sons, who saw Bill Clinton in Tempe in 1996, I have never looked at a U.S. President. I have seen a few people who ran (or are currently running) for President but never one who served as president -- yet.

In high school I was a member (one of two in my home town) of the TeenAge Republicans. I helped set up for rally in downtown Imlay City for George Romney, who was running for re-election as Michigan's Governor. This was probably 1964. He stood on a stage -- I think it was actually a haywagon -- at the corner of Third and Almont and addressed the curious crowd that had gathered. Romney was later the frontrunner for the 1968 Republican Presidential nomination until he told a talk show host he had been "brainwashed" by the government on the subject of the Viet Nam war. Apparently folks in those days didn't care that he was a Mormon but weren't too enthusiastic about someone susceptible to brainwashing.

Bruce Babbitt was Arizona Governor in the 80's and ran for President in 1988. I saw him several times in Phoenix, including once at the office of our pediatrician, where he was bringing one of his children. I had a brief volunteer stint working for him in the Iowa Caucuses and on my last full day there drove his van.

On that same trip to Iowa I saw Michael Dukakis, who would ultimately be the Democratic nominee, in the lobby of a Des Moines hotel. Boy is he short.

Somewhere in the early 90's I was in the snack bar of the Petrified Forest National Park with the boys. I think that this was in conjunction with one of our camping trips to Sunset Crater. In walked John McCain with a few other people, no ceremony, just people getting sandwiches and Cokes. I have no idea what he was doing there. When I ran for the legislature in 1986 I had been on the same ballot as McCain, who was running for the Senate for the first time. We were scheduled to both be at a debate at Shadow Mountain H.S. but he didn't show up.

And of course I saw Barack Obama at the rally at the Colisseum a couple of weeks ago.

This means that unless Hillary Clinton manages to come from behind and get the nomination, I have seen the next President.

The Man has a Way with Words

2008-02-14T13:26:00.005-07:00

I disagree with him more often than I agree with him -- the man does have interesting things to say about baseball by the way -- but you gotta love George Will's command of the language. In a recent column, Will says:

Last week, in his ten-thumbed attempt to prevent his wife's Louisiana loss, Bill Clinton said that Obama has made "an explicit argument that the '90s weren't much better than this decade." The phrase "explicit argument" was an exquisitely Clintonian touch, signaling to seasoned decoders of Clintonisms that, no matter how diligent the search, no such thought could be found, even implicitly, in anything Obama has ever said. In his preternatural neediness, Clinton, an overflowing caldron of narcissism and solipsism, is still smarting from Obama's banal observation, four weeks ago, that Ronald Reagan was a more transformative president than Clinton.

John McCain is a Dangerous Warmonger

2008-02-05T12:04:00.000-07:00

(Keep in mind that I have no use for any of these people...)

So Bob Dole sends a letter to Rush Limbaugh asking him to calm down with his bashing of John McCain. Mitt Romney is asked by Fox News what he thought of that and he responded that Dole is “probably the last person I would have wanted to have write a letter for me.” Nowhere in this discussion was there any mention of Dole having been in the army in WWII and having been wounded.

McCain said this: "He’s a great American, and for Governor Romney, who has never had any military experience, to disparage the service and courage of an American hero, I think is disgraceful.”

So, if you have not been in the military, you have no right to ever criticize someone who has been in the military, even if the subject has nothing to do with the military. What an idiot.

John McCain has never stopped fighting the VietNam War. According to Pat Buchanan:

We are forewarned. John McCain intends to be a war president.
Where Bush has lately cleansed his administration of neocons, McCain offers the last best hope for a neocon return and restoration and more wars in the Middle East. And if, as seems probable, Bibi Netanyahu again becomes prime minister of Israel, he and a President McCain will find a pretext for war on Iran.

Boomers and Kennedys

2008-02-01T07:45:00.000-07:00

John told me that he thought Caroline Kennedy was a lousy speaker and that she was costing Obama votes every time she opened her mouth. I told him that her appearance was significant to people my age (although I agree that she appears uncomfortable and doesn't really have much to say -- she spoke for about 2 minutes at the rally on Wednesday).

I got to thinking about that and what has been written about the Kennedys and the baby boomers. It is interesting how history gets skewed. You would think that boomers swept John Kennedy into office, celebrated Camelot, were the first to join the Peace Corps and so on. Wrong. Do the math. Wikipedia tells me that the generally accepted definition of the postwar baby boom is people born between 1946 and 1964. The oldest boomers were 14 years when JFK beat Nixon in November of 1960 and some had not yet been born. It wasn't us that lived Camelot, it was our parents (not mine, they voted for Nixon), or at least our older siblings. My two sisters were born in 1935 and 1937. The Kennedy/Nixon election was their first opportunity to vote for President. I was 9 at the time of the election.

How about Bobby? When he ran in the primaries in 1968, the boomers who had been born in 1946 and part of 1947 could vote for him, the rest of us could not. Some were as young as 3. I was 17 and quite politically aware, but I did not support Bobby Kennedy. Chris Matthews has a "Coke or Pepsi?" "Letterman or Leno" type question for people who were young and liberal in those days: Bobby Kennedy or Gene McCarthy. I thought of RFK as an opportunist. Gene McCarthy was the true antiwar candidate. Bobby came late to the cause and was trading on his name recognition and relationship to a previous popular president, much like Hillary Clinton today, or so I thought at the time. There were a lot of enthusiastic young people supporting both Gene and Bobby. Remember though, that the voting age was 21 in most states in those days, including California. The 26th amendment was ratified in 1971, which changed that. The first election in which a large chunk of the boomers could vote was 1972, which ironically was a landslide for Richard Nixon.

Still, the Kennedys do mean a lot to a lot of people my age. I confess that I was almost as excited to see Caroline as I was to see Obama. I'm not sure why. One odd thing was the realization that she is 50 years old. She is supposed to be young. Older than she was in the 60's but certainly not 50. In some ways I think that I understand what Caroline talked about in her op-ed piece, although she was talking about younger people. I didn't experience Camelot or the excitement around Bobby's campaign. I saw glimpses but I was not really there. Obama maybe gives us the chance to be there.

Rally Videos

2008-01-31T08:44:00.000-07:00

Today

2008-01-30T23:09:00.000-07:00

I took the first picture, I found this one on the Obama website and had to add it.

Tomorrow

2008-01-29T08:55:00.001-07:00

Finally

2008-01-26T14:29:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, when I was sure that I was going to get to keep my job, I bought the camera that I had been looking at for a few years, a Canon Digital Rebel XTi.

Never Mind

2008-01-21T11:13:00.000-07:00

This is not news to anybody who reads this, probably, but in early November I was informed by my employer that my position was being eliminated and that my last day would be 11/23. Since that day was the day after Thanksgiving the real last day would be 11/21. On 11/20 (!) I was offered an extension for two months, making the new last day 01/25. Today, with 4 days to spare, I got an offer to stay. I had a couple of other offers but this makes the most sense since I can retire from Motorola on 06/01/2010 if I can hang on that long. Three months of hell, but it ended the way I had hoped.

Great Minds Think Alike

2008-01-18T22:18:00.000-07:00

Mike's blog has some great links to questionnaires that attempt to tell you what presidential candidate you most agree with. Susan and I both did them (separately) and came up with the following results.

My choices, from top to bottom, were:

Kucinich
Obama
Clinton
Edwards
Paul
Giuliani
McCain
Romney
Huckabee
Thompson

Susan's were:

Kucinich
Obama
Clinton
Edwards
Giuliani
Paul
McCain
Romney
Huckabee
Thompson

Note that while Giuliani and Paul were reversed, the rest were in the same positions. If you follow the link to Mike's blog you will see that his, while a little different, follow a similar theme.

I mailed in our ballots yesterday. Despite the poll, I voted for the guy in the picture above.

Marathon Temperatures

2008-01-14T19:18:00.000-07:00

There is a report in the press that it was 20 degrees colder last year than this year. This is somewhat unscientific, but here is what appears to be evidence of a 14 degree difference.

Last year:

This year:

Both pictures were between 8 and 8:10 (marathon starts at 7:40).

More Marathon

2008-01-13T09:19:00.001-07:00

Here are the leaders, passing Virginia Avenue. The leader at this point was Dejene Yirdawe from Ethiopia, who finished second. The second guy would appear to be Chokri Dhaouadi of Tunisia, who finished 9th, but I am not sure of that because the bib number is hard to make out. He could just as easily be somebody else... The third fellow is Evegeni Bozhko of Ukraine, who finished 7th.

Rock and Roll Marathon 2008

2008-01-13T09:01:00.000-07:00

I took these 3 videos in the first few minutes of runners passing by our neighborhood.

Obama Rally

2008-01-10T11:29:00.000-07:00

This is probably longer than you want to deal with, but check out the guy in the forefront on the left.

Downtown Phoenix Videos

2007-12-20T10:25:00.000-07:00

Phoenix is planning a new park called Civic Space. It will be between Central Avenue and 1st Avenue, between Central Station and the old Post Office. ASU Downtown is across Central from it. The City Council has tentatively approved a controversial piece of art by Boston artist Janet Echelman. Here is a video on a similar piece in Portugal.

A couple of blocks south, 44 Monroe, a new high rise condo development at First Avenue and Monroe, is about to open. Here is a video promoting 44 Monroe.

Willo article

2007-10-26T11:44:00.000-07:00

The following article appeared on a travel website called Great Escapes.

Phoenix's Willo District is a cottage industry

By Eric Noland, Travel Editor Article Launched: 10/13/2007 09:23:48 PM PDT

PHOENIX -- The ceiling beams were hewn by hand in 1922, and Jeff Cirulla points to the chisel marks as he stands in the living room of this Spanish colonial treasure. He appreciates the workmanship all the more, he says, now that the painstaking task of removing layers of purple latex paint has been completed.

Elsewhere in the neighborhood, residents proudly show off leaded-glass windows, murals on backyard walls and scored concrete floors. In a cozy California bungalow, Jeremy and Denise Staley indicate the newly installed hexagonal tile in the kitchen; a classic touch.

"We took out the granite countertops," Denise says.

These are the people of Phoenix's Willo Historic District, and this is their annual home tour. Held during the winter (the next one is Feb. 10), about 15 homeowners open up their storybook cottages, most built in the 1920s and '30s in such styles as English Cotswold, Spanish mission and French provincial.

The homes were designed long before the imperative for entertainment centers, walk-in closets and a separate bedroom for each and every child. But, for the sake of abundant charm, the residents make adjustments.

"A substantial majority have a storage facility somewhere, for the winter clothes," Bob Cannon, president of the neighborhood association, said with a chuckle. "The lack of storage and a garage is a challenge for some of the (newly arrived) suburbans to handle."

A historic district in Phoenix? Well, you have to stretch the concept a bit -- and New Englanders would split their sides with laughter -- but it is, after all, a young city. The Willo gained protection as a special conservation district in the 1980s, which spared it the distressing trend of so many of Southern California's quaint postwar neighborhoods; no mansionization is allowed here.

(Willo, by the way, is not a careless misspelling of the tree. It's a merger of two original voting precincts here, Wilshire and Los Olivos.)

The cultural sophistication of the neighborhood's residents has also spawned a number of similarly minded businesses. An embryonic antiques row has formed along the neighborhood's southern edge, on McDowell Road. Nearby, a tiny bakery is turning out marvelous breads and rolls, and is also affiliated with (and is supplying the baked goods for) a respectable adjacent cafe, housed in a former flower shop.

A funky women's-wear shop and a garden store are making a go of it in the northwest corner of the neighborhood. And a playful boutique hotel has opened nearby.

The Phoenix tourist is the beneficiary of all this. The neighborhood, directly west of Central Avenue in the midtown area, is also convenient to both the incomparable Heard Museum, home to an astonishing collection of historic Southwest Indian art and crafts, and the Phoenix Art Museum.

Visitors intrigued by the cottages may simply drive into the neighborhood, park, and stroll along the sidewalks. They'll likely find plenty of company. Unlike most of urban Arizona, where people huddle in walled housing developments and dash to air-conditioned vehicles, the Willo district has more the feel of "Father Knows Best."

The homes have benches, porch swings, Adirondack chairs and fire rings out front. Residents walk their dogs on sidewalks shaded by parkway trees. Kids ride their bikes in the streets. And Phoenix's notoriously manic surface-street traffic is cooled off by traffic circles, speed bumps and artificially created dead-end streets (steel gates installed on east-west streets prevent through traffic to Central).

Antique merchants who appreciate the sensibilities of the neighborhood are beginning to sprout along West McDowell Road at the neighborhood's southern extremity. The rents are cheap, because this business district is still a bit rough around the edges.

"It's not like Melrose Avenue or Santa Monica Boulevard yet," said Cannon, "but it's going to get there. We have a Jack-in-the-Box, which is an eyesore."

Indeed. Also, directly across from a funky little coffee place called Willow House (they didn't get the memo about the spelling), there is a huge pawn shop with a sign that advertises "jewelry, guns, music, tools, coins."

Sage is one of the better antique shops here. It specializes in European salvage -- iron gates that can be mounted on walls as decor, chandeliers and other weathered Old World finds. A clerk noted that owner Kendra Vermeer has a buyer based in Europe, and makes regular treks to the Port of Long Beach to meet the container ships.

Blue Crate Findings has some beautiful glassware, as well as distressed-wood furniture, and, from China, wooden gates, screens and painted boxes.

For furnishings of a much more recent vintage, there is D.A.'s Modern, carrying such midcentury indulgences as pole lamps, spindly dinette chairs and bright-colored dishware.

But it's evident that antique commerce is a chancy proposition along here. In February, Kismet was one of the more intriguing shops on McDowell, but when I swung by on a return visit in September, it was gone, replaced by Willo Antiques. Another big antique store up the street had gone out of business, its windows defenseless against graffiti vandals.

In another corner of the neighborhood, on North 15th Avenue, the Purple Lizard carries funky and flamboyant women's clothing, including what it describes as "wearable tie dye treasures." Also for sale are local art and body products -- perhaps a bottle of lemon thyme oatmeal and rice bath salts?

Sharing the same building is Southwest Gardener, with its metal garden sculptures, inlaid-tile tables and chairs, and large, ceramic-pot fountains that are positively musical when they're all running at once.

When it's time to restore your strength with a bite to eat, head no farther than the Willo Grocery, a neighborhood bakery and deli that is worth a visit if only to savor the rich scents emanating from the ovens. The fresh loaves of bread laid out on a display table might include -- as they did on my visit -- currant walnut, cranberry hazelnut, onion rye, raisin challah and apricot almond.

The grocery is affiliated with a restaurant next door, one that adheres to the neighborhood's spirit of preservation. The building was a flower shop back in the 1940s, and a classic neon sign on the roof reads "My Florist." Rather than tearing that down and making the place over, the owners kept it and simply called the place My Florist Cafe.

Inside, there are exposed steel beams and a concrete floor on which thousands of vases undoubtedly dripped over the years. The decor is otherwise stylish, with bands of purple lighting, green walls and potted palms. The picture windows, which once showcased the flower arrangements, now contribute to the sunny, airy interior.

My Florist Cafe is a very popular lunch spot. So popular that, well, they serve the same menu of salads and sandwiches at dinnertime. Fortunately, it's possible to make a substantial nighttime meal of the big salads and perhaps the daily soup. The effort is earnest, though the service and the kitchen seem to suffer occasional lapses.

On the plus side, all the baked goods are from the bakery next door, and the wine selection is respectable. If the heat of Phoenix provokes a thirst for beer, order up the Four Peaks Kilt Lifter, a Scottish-style ale from a microbrewery in nearby Tempe.

A neighborhood with an emerging sense of style can use a boutique hotel to match, and the Willo has one nearby in the Clarendon, which lies just off its northern edge.

The boxy building has been spiced up with white paint and bold, vertical blue stripes. The pool deck is also a shocking blue color. At night, a courtyard wall becomes an ever-changing light show of pink, blue and green floodlights.

The rooms have high-end beds, linens and toiletries, and also some clever design touches. There is a sun shade over each window, but on the wall next to it is a sheet of plywood painted with a watercolor image and mounted on rails. This can be slid across the window for greater privacy and total darkness -- yet with artsy flair rather than the sterility of a drapery.

The staff is very friendly, and the inclusive perks are free phone calls (local and long distance) and chauffeur service. Providing the latter might be something of a public service, given the Clarendon's popularity with young business travelers fond of the clubs.

Directly west of the Willo neighborhood is a real municipal treasure, 80-acre Encanto Park. Among its offerings are a golf course, a kids' amusement park with a 1948 carousel, and a lagoon where paddleboats can be rented for a gentle float among the ducks and geese. Fishing is even permitted, for trout, channel catfish, sunfish and grass carp.

It's a relaxing retreat in a city that seems to be in a perpetual rush. Don't be surprised if you encounter a few Willo residents here, too. After a few days in a cozy cottage, Encanto Park's wide-open spaces can be therapeutic for them, too.

IF YOU GO

WHERE: The Willo neighborhood is in Phoenix's midtown area, directly west of Central Avenue (which, be warned, has been a nightmare of construction for months). It is bordered on the south by McDowell Road, on the west by 15th Avenue, on the north by Thomas Road.

HOME TOUR: Next year's Historic Willo Home Tour will be held Feb. 10. Tickets cost $12.75 if purchased online in advance, $15 on the day of the event. Generally, about 15 homes are open on the tour. Information: www. willohistoricdistrict.com.

RETAIL: Blue Crate Findings, 137 W. McDowell Road, (602) 548-8280; D.A.'s Modern, 527-B W. McDowell Road, (602) 252-0001; Purple Lizard Boutique, 2827 N. 15th Ave., (602) 728-0980; Sage, 335 W. McDowell Road, (602) 258-3033; Southwest Gardener, 2809 N. 15th Ave., (602) 279-9510, www.swgardener.com; Willo Antiques, 133 W. McDowell Road, (602) 266-0939.

MUSEUMS: Heard Museum, 2301 N. Central Ave., www.heard.org, (602) 252-8848; Phoenix Art Museum, 1625 N. Central Ave., www.phxart.org, (602) 257-1222.

DINING: My Florist Cafe, 534 W. McDowell Road, (602) 254-0333, www.myfloristcafe.com; Willo Grocery, 530 W. McDowell Road, (602) 441-5450; Willow House, 149 W. McDowell Road, (602) 252-0272.

LODGING: Clarendon Hotel and Suites, 401 W. Clarendon Ave. Room rates from $99. www.theclarendon.net, (602) 252-7363.

INFORMATION: www.willohistoricdistrict.com. Greater Phoenix Convention & Visitors Bureau: www.phoenixcvb.com, (877) 225-5749.

Patsy's!

2007-10-16T17:42:00.000-07:00

I got done with class early today, and after going back to the hotel to do email, etc., headed north up 7th Ave. I went past Penn Station/Madison Square Garden, then headed east on 34th St. (as in Miracle on...) and walked past Macy's, turned north on Broadway at Herald Square, walked through Times Square, up to the Ed Sullivan Theatre. I found Rupert Jee's Hello Deli but it was closed. Letterman is on tape this week so maybe Rupert took the week off... Continued up to 56th Street where Patsy's is halfway between Broadway and 8th Ave. Took the picture but it was only 4:30 and since I wanted to eat there, I headed on to kill some time. I turned north on 8th Ave. and went on to Columbus Circle. I walked around the outside of the circle, saw the entrance to Central Park, and then went to the middle of the circle and sat on a bench for a while and watched some skateboard kids. Finally headed back to Patsy's. I was concerned that they would not be serving dinner that early (a little after 5) but they were and there were several people eating. Patsy's is on two levels, there are about 18 tables on the main floor and another 25 or so upstairs. I got a table downstairs. There are pictures of the wall of famous people who have eaten there and signed their pictures (Danny Thomas, Mickey Mantle, Lyndon Johnson, etc.) I think I saw Larry David's picture. The waiters and maitre'd were mostly older (apparently) Italian men. I had a bottle of San Pelegrino, the spaghetti and meatballs and an espresso afterwards. The sauce was great, as was the bread on the table. The meatballs were large (I think there were 3 or 4). They were tasty and a little more bready than I expected. An elderly couple from Huntington Beach who really wanted to chat were at the table next to me. The man cooked a lot an he had discovered Patsy's in a gourmet magazine and this was there first time there too. After they left, a new couple was seated. It took me a minute to figure it out, but the man was Willard Scott (Today Show guy). It was confirmed when the waiter greeted with "Good to see you again, Mr. Scott." Patsy's was a lot of fun and has great food. I look forward to going back there next year with Susan. After dinner I went back to Broadway and retrace my steps back to the hotel. Times Square was really jumping by then. The city is much more walkable than you would think. One of the weirdest experiences is crossing the street in a crowd. You will be standing with about 100 people waiting to cross. About 50 locals will all start up before the light changes, then the light will change, then 50 tourists will start. If you start to get he hang of it, there is both the danger of getting rear-ended by the locals AND the danger of running into a tourist.

NLCS plans

2007-10-10T09:39:00.000-07:00

This ended up being more complicated than you would think. Skipping how it got there, I am going to Game 1 (Thursday, 10/11, 5:37) with Ron. Then on Friday night, Susan and I will go to Game 2 at 7:18. For Game 6, if it is necessary, I will be coming back from New York and will miss it, but I traded away the tickets that I had for it (that is how I got the Game 2 tickets). I then have tickets for Game 7, if necessary, on Saturday 10/20 (time TBD).

NLCS in HD

2007-10-08T19:00:00.001-07:00

First:

From: Hall, Derrick [DHall@dbacks.com]
Sent: Monday, October 08, 2007 12:45 PM
To: paul@howmanyroads.net
Subject: RE: TBS-HD and Cox

I'll try. Thanks for the update. I have DirecTV and was unaware of Cox.

Derrick M. Hall
President
Arizona Diamondbacks

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Benjamin [mailto:ratinthekitchen@cox.net]
Sent: Monday, October 08, 2007 12:43 PM US Mountain Standard Time
To: Hall, Derrick
Subject: TBS-HD and Cox

Derrick,

Congratulations on the latest success. This is a wonderful time to be a Diamondbacks fan.

Do you have any insight into what is keeping Cox from making the TBS-HD games available to its subscribers? They appear to have a national agreement in place as many other Cox markets have added it. They should not have any sort of bandwidth constraint as they recently added and then later removed the NFL Network HD when there were preseason games in HD.

With the Dbacks in the playoffs, Cox certainly has antagonized a lot of people (and DirecTV has added it). If you have any leverage with these folks....

Keep on winning,

Paul
--
Paul Benjamin
paul@howmanyroads.net
http://ratinthekitchen.blogspot.com

Then:

From: Hall, Derrick [DHall@dbacks.com]
Sent: Monday, October 08, 2007 5:35 PM
To: Paul Benjamin
Subject: RE: TBS-HD and Cox

You and I get things done Paul!!!

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Benjamin [mailto:paul@howmanyroads.net]
Sent: Monday, October 08, 2007 5:26 PM
To: Hall, Derrick
Subject: RE: TBS-HD and Cox

Wow, that's great, thanks.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hall, Derrick [mailto:DHall@dbacks.com]
> Sent: Monday, October 08, 2007 4:33 PM
> To: paul@howmanyroads.net
> Subject: RE: TBS-HD and Cox
>
>
> They will now convert the Mojo Channel for these games. Just go to
> Channel 721. Way to go!
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Benjamin [mailto:ratinthekitchen@cox.net]
> Sent: Monday, October 08, 2007 12:43 PM
> To: Hall, Derrick
> Subject: TBS-HD and Cox
>
> Derrick,
>
> Congratulations on the latest success. This is a wonderful time to be

> a Diamondbacks fan.
>
> Do you have any insight into what is keeping Cox from making the
> TBS-HD games available to its subscribers? They appear to have a
> national agreement in place as many other Cox markets have added it.
> They should
> not have any sort of bandwidth constraint as they recently added and
> then later removed the NFL Network HD when there were preseason games
> in HD.
>
> With the Dbacks in the playoffs, Cox certainly has antagonized a lot
> of people (and DirecTV has added it). If you have any leverage with
> these folks....
>
> Keep on winning,
>
> Paul
> --
> Paul Benjamin
> paul@howmanyroads.net
> http://ratinthekitchen.blogspot.com
>

Sweep!

2007-10-06T23:16:00.000-07:00

Diamondbacks sweep the Cubs, taking game 3, 5-1. Liván Hernández is shown here doing his best José Valverde imitation after one of 4 Diamondbacks double plays. The National League Championship starts Thursday at Chase Field against Colorado, Francis against Webb. Looks like a 5:00 game. We have tickets to Games 1, 6 and 7. I will be on a plane coming back from New York during Game 6 so I have to figure out what to do with the tickets. If they advance to the World Series I have to hope that the NLCS does not end in 6 games. We only have WS tickets if the NLCS goes 4, 5 or 7 games.

View from section 203

2007-10-04T21:22:00.000-07:00

I think it might have been us that won this game

2007-10-03T22:33:00.001-07:00

The Diamondbacks won Game 1 of the National League Division Series tonight, beating the Chicago Cubs 3-1. This was typical 2007 Dbacks. They looked awful at times. I was yelling at Mark Reynolds (who eventually got the go-ahead home run) on multiple occasions. Eric Byrnes accomplished nothing at the plate. Brandon Webb gave up a key hit to the Cubs starting pitcher and later loaded the bases primarily on walks. Chris Snyder hit into a double play when we really needed some offense. But somehow, inexplicably, they won.

This was going to be Wrigley West, we were told. The Cubs fans would dominate and take over our house. Frankly I have seen both Dodgers and Red Sox fans be more vocal this year than the blue-clad morons in attendance at tonight's game. Every time they tried to start a "Let's go Cubbies" chant they were quickly drowned out. Usually I wish that this bunch would simply pack up and move back to Chicago if they liked it so well there. Tonight, though, it was kind of fun to have them around, to see them shouted down by the sea of Sedona Red fans and disappointed by the play on the field. I think that the big difference in tonight's game was the crowd. I have never seen, except in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, more cheering, more standing in key situations, more acting like actual baseball fans, than I saw from tonight's sellout crowd. When they do the Cheers and Jeers in tomorrow's paper, I think that we were the "player of the game".

Playoffs in SD

2007-09-20T16:08:00.000-07:00

The Baseball playoffs start in 13 days. All but two of the games of the National League Division Series and the American League Division Series will be on TBS (the other two will be on sister station TNT). All of the National League Championship Series will be on TBS. TBS has rolled out a new High Definition channel (TBS-HD) just in time for the playoffs. All games will be in HD on TBS-HD. As of this writing, DirecTV would appear to be the only place to get this channel. Comcast cable has announced that it will start carrying TBS-HD October 1. People are assuming that Time Warner Cable, whose parent company owns TBS, will also have it. There has been no word on any plan from Cox Cable. The deal between MLB and TBS was announced a year ago. There was plenty of time to work out agreements, but as it stands today, absent some sort of surprise, the Diamondbacks might have to make it to Fox's coverage of the World Series before we seem them in HD in the post-season. There would actually be an outside chance of a TNT-HD game in game 4 of the NLDS on Sunday 10/7. Cox goes out of their way to make sure that exhibition games on the NFL Network are carried in HD but they can't seem to work this one out. The galling thing is that they just announced that they will soon add HD versions of Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet and The Science Channel. (They already carry Discovery HD Theatre, a separate channel.) And they will of course have TBS-HD eventually, just probably not in time for the playoffs.

KTAR R.I.P.

2007-09-18T21:29:00.000-07:00

Thanks, Paul, for the feedback. There continue to be major differences
between us and any other talk stations. I appreciate the email.

Respectfully,
Russ

----
Russ Hill
Director of News & Sports Programming
FM News/Talk 92.3 KTAR, Sports 620 KTAR
Bonneville International, Phoenix
rhill@ktar.com 602.200.2660

> From: Paul Benjamin
> Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2007 15:30:57 -0700
> To: ,
> Subject: New format
>
> I tuned in to listen to the news yesterday during afternoon drive time and
> instead of Ted Simons I got right wing drivel. I had to check to make sure
> I had the right button. If I wanted KFYI I would listen to it. I have
> listened to your station since the 1970s. I will continue to listen in the
> morning but you have lost a long time listener in the afternoon. I want
> unbiased news, not far right "opinion".
>
> --
> Paul Benjamin
> http://ratinthekitchen.blogspot.com
>
>

Desk Arrived

2007-09-16T11:46:00.001-07:00

When we went to the beach in July, we drove up to Valencia to visit a store that we had found online. We ordered a desk and chair. Solid oak, the desk is 82" wide. It is exactly what we wanted and is beautiful. I bought a new 19" HP wide screen LCD monitor, which doesn't end up taking up any more space that the old 15" because it has builtin speakers. The chair should arrive in a couple of weeks.

Katie

2007-09-14T08:32:00.000-07:00

Katie is leaving us today, I have to take her to the vet one last time at 5:15. She is 13 years old. She was acquired as a kitten from the humane society, our second choice but vaulted into first place when the guy ahead of her turned out to be, well, a guy. I have had 5 cats in my lifetime and she has lived much longer than any of them. She has been a good friend to us for a long time. She always favored Susan and Mike over me but there were enough times when she would sit in my lap or purr when I petted her that I know she liked me too. A relatively small cat, declawed when she was very young, she still was a fierce defender of her turf. We are going to miss her a lot. We have known that this would happen for a couple of weeks now. She has a heart condition that cannot be treated. The last several days have been hard, but she has gotten to go outside a few more times, to sit with Susan, to be brushed, to eat some tuna, and we have had a chance to appreciate her and to say goodbye.

She is a great cat and despite the pain I am glad that we brought her home and that she spent all of this time with us.

Current status of my 7:30 San Francisco flight.

2007-09-08T10:07:00.000-07:00

This was supposed to show the flight time, which was about 2.5 hours late. You CAN see that it is going to Oakland instead of SFO.

Talk to a Human Being

2007-08-31T17:53:00.000-07:00

I recently ordered a book from Amazon, one that was technical in nature. I had a book on the subject but I ordered this one specifically because it was current, a November 2006 edition. Imagine my unhappiness when I received a UPS package containing a 2003 printing of the book, about the same vintage as the book that I already had. This is a subject that is fairly dynamic and a 2003 edition is about as useful as last month's newspapers. So I went to their website and looked all over the place for a phone number but ended up begrudgingly doing the return via the website. The closest reason-for-returning in the dropdown list was that the product was defective. There was, however, a second box that popped up allowing me to explain what was wrong. I packed the thing up and finally had a chance to visit a post office this morning. (I didn't know if the book and package was over 13 oz. If it was you could not drop it in a mailbox.) About two hours ago UPS showed up with another copy of the 2003 edition of the book.

Aaaarghh

Then I found this website, a great list of how to talk to a human being at a huge list of companies. Bookmark this thing, it is invaluable.

I think I got Amazon straight. The nice lady in India that I spoke to said that they were going to stop selling this book until they got it straight, that I should check back in 10 days and if it was back on the website it would be safe to order. Meanwhile, I will get a refund but will have to visit the post office once again.

From New York: the greatest city in the world!

2007-08-27T08:34:00.001-07:00

John MMSed me this picture this morning.

Two Great Pictures

2007-08-26T21:46:00.000-07:00

These two guys were the story as the D-backs won today's game against the Cubs 5-4, taking the series 2-1 and the season series 4-2. Chris Young (I just think this picture of Young patrolling Centerfield looks sort of artsy) got two home runs that accounted for 4 of the 5 runs. José Valverde got the save, one scary affair that was resolve by a strike-em-out-throw-em-out (at third!) double play and then a 3-1 force out at first after a difficult grab by Tony Clark. The picture shows Valverde's reaction. I wish I had a picture of the coaches going nuts in the bullpen. Lead in the NL West returns to 3 games as the Padres get clobbered by Philadelphia.

Currently Reading (Freaky Deaky)

2007-08-25T09:57:00.001-07:00

This is one of his best. It is the late 80s and the characters were all in Ann Arbor in the late 60s and early 70s.

Kaelyn's birthday

2007-08-19T16:02:00.000-07:00

I posted some pictures from Kaelyn's first birthday party on Mike's website.

Four Enthusiastic Thumbs Up

2007-08-18T22:39:00.001-07:00

As I drove home from work on Thursday, I was stopped at the light at 3rd Ave and McDowell, next to the Willow House. In a car behind me was a young woman, maybe 17 and what I assumed was her younger brother, probably about 14. They looked like they would have been comfortable hanging out at the Willow House. The girl, who was driving, suddenly started smiling and pointing at my right rear bumper. Soon her brother was smiling and laughing as well. I gave a thumbs up gesture and they both returned the signal with both hands, smiling broadly. They had been looking at my bumper sticker that says 01.20.09 - Bush's Last Day.

30 years ago

2007-08-07T16:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our 30th wedding anniversary. Wikipedia says the median length of a marriage in the US today is 11 years. The month we were married, Elvis died, Son of Sam was captured, and Radio Shack introduced the TRS-80 computer. The number one record that year was Tonight's the Night by Rod Stewart. Jimmy Carter was in the first year of his term, but the Soviets had not yet invaded Afghanistan. The Academy Award for Best Picture (along with Best Director and Best Actress) went to Annie Hall. The Yankees beat the LA Dodgers in the World Series. Earlier in the year Marquette beat North Carolina in the NCAA basketball championship but I missed it because I was working nights and the hotel blew my wakeup call. Later in the year, Elvis Costello and the Attractions made their first US TV appearance (on Saturday Night Live). Minimum wage was $2.30. Regular gas cost about 65 cents a gallon.

Getting it right for once

2007-08-07T14:38:00.000-07:00

Nick Piecoro
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 7, 2007 09:00 AM

In a surprising turn of events, the Diamondbacks and outfielder Eric Byrnes have reached agreement on a three-year extension worth in the neighborhood of $30 million, a deal that comes less than three weeks after the sides broke off contract talks.

A press conference will be held at 1:30 p.m. today at Chase Field.

After the Diamondbacks offered a deal in the range of three years and $22.5 million, the sides announced they had broken off talks on July 19 while the club was in Milwaukee.

But the Diamondbacks reengaged talks sometime during last week’s series against Atlanta, and the sides quickly came to an agreement on a contract that will run through 2010.

The outfielder is in the midst of a career year, hitting .303 with 17 home runs and 28 stolen bases.

The extension almost certainly means outfielder Carlos Quentin’s days in Arizona are numbered. The club was shopping Quentin prior to the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline.

Hell (part of United)

2007-08-03T16:47:00.001-07:00

2 hours late and counting...

Currently Reading (Touch)

2007-08-03T07:53:00.000-07:00

When I get to the airport, anyway.

Currently Reading (Bandits)

2007-07-31T10:29:00.000-07:00

Almost done with it actually.

Fascination Review

2007-07-26T17:03:00.000-07:00

In the summer of 1996, Susan, Mike, John and I went on a cruise. I spent a lot of time researching the cruise and exchanging information in online forums. After the cruise I wrote a review for one or more of those forums. Again, so it does not get lost, here it is.

My family and I just returned from the June 22 sailing of Carnival’s M/S Fascination. This is a review of that trip. This was my (our) first cruise. My wife and I are in our 40s and we were traveling with our two sons, aged 16 and 13. We chose a cruise over other vacation options since our boys were not interested in a lot of sightseeing. We figured that they could be busy on the ship while we checked out the ports. We chose Carnival over other cruise lines because of the informality, the emphasis on youth activities, the price and the size of the cabins. We chose the Fascination because of the itinerary. We had investigated a European cruise and ruled it out due to cost. At least with the Fascination stopping in Venezuela, we could set foot on another continent.

We wanted two cabins, this we knew. We looked at various combinations and settled on a category 11 and a category 7, together on the Verandah deck. The Fascination (and all of its Fantasy-class sister ships) has 4 main passenger decks, below the public rooms (from the bottom: Riviera, Upper, Main and Empress). Above them, the Atlantic deck (dining, shops, main show lounge), the Promenade deck (casino, bars) and the Lido deck (pool and the restaurant for breakfast and lunch buffets). The Verandah deck is above that with a small number of cabins, more open decking and a smaller pool. Still higher is the Sports deck (spa, exercise room) and the Sun deck (shuffleboard, track). We reserved cabins V10 and V12. V10 is a demi-suite with a small private verandah, V12 is an inside cabin. We paid brochure price for these in exchange for specifying the cabin. Some of the demi-suites have lifeboats in front of their verandahs.

Since we would be flying from Phoenix, Arizona, we chose to fly a day early and stay one night in a hotel. The choices were the Caribe Hilton, the El San Juan and the Sands. The Hilton is at Condado, fairly close to the pier, while the other two are at Isla Verde which is near the airport. We picked the Sands because it was the least expensive and because a tourbook gave me to believe that all rooms were oceanfront. We booked everything (flight, hotel, transfers) through Carnival. We requested late seating for dinner, reasoning that we would want time after the day’s activities before going down to dinner.

I did a lot of research, became fairly obsessed with the whole thing. I read all of the cruise tourbooks that I could find. I recommend, in particular, Fodor’s (which I bought) and Fielding’s (the 96 edition). I have little use for the Frommer’s book. I checked daily with rec.travel.cruises and America Online’s cruise boards. I would like to thank all of the people who contribute to these groups, in particular to the people who answered my questions.

One issue that I spent time on was the Caracas stop. There are three ship-sponsored excursions in Venezuela, all of which are 8 hour trips. One goes into Caracas, one is a 4 wheeler trip into the interior and yet another visits colonial Tovar, a German village. We wanted to go into Caracas, but the thought of participating in a fleet of buses and being herded about was not appealing. Still, we heard horror stories of people being mugged outside the port, being dumped in the jungle by bandito cab drivers, etc. and did not know what to do. Ultimately we lucked into a unique situation where one of my wife’s employees had a relative in Caracas who was a tour guide. Along the way, though we learned that there are companies with whom you can contract a smaller tour, in a van with a few other people. At least one of them has an 800 number that you can call before you go. I did see a booth in the La Guaira pier/terminal where you could arrange such a tour as well.

Another issue was passports. Carnival said that you did not need them. However, since we were not planning the ship’s excursion in Venezuela, I feared a hassle and had the travel agent query the Venezuelan embassy. They said that we would need one. We got them and didn’t need them, although they were handy forms of identification, particularly for our younger son who had no other picture ID.

When the tickets finally arrived, there was a surprise. The ship was to leave on Saturday 6/22 and we had 2 hotel rooms booked for the night of 6/21. I assumed that we would leave early on 6/21. When the tickets arrived we learned that we would leave at 10:50 p.m. on the night of 6/20, change planes in Atlanta at 6 in the morning and arrive in San Juan at roughly 10:30 am on 6/21. It was all on Delta and of course there were no seat assignments. I called our travel agent and asked her to ask the hotel if we could get in early, whether we could get seat assignments, whether we could upgrade to first class with frequent flyer miles, etc. It took over a week and all we got out of her was seats on the Atlanta-San Juan leg and a maybe on getting in the rooms early. This travel agent was the only real negative of the trip. It seems that the agent that did all the legwork for us up front got promoted and our trip was handed off to this other person. My suspicion is that the first one got the commission and the second one had no motivation to help us.

We got to the airport early so that we could get reasonable seats and we were successful. After they started calling rows for boarding they announced that there was an equipment change and that everyone would have to wait through an interminable line to get new boarding passes. Grumble. I rarely have good luck with Delta. It worked out though and the plane was only half full. No food, movie was ‘Just Like Dad’, just awful from what I could see. Tried to sleep, couldn’t, landed in Atlanta on time. The next flight was full to the brim. Breakfast, ‘Mr. Holland’s Opus’, saw it at the theater. Dosed a little bit, landed in San Juan on schedule. Gray Line was there to grab luggage, take us to hotel. The bus stopped at El San Juan first, looked a bit nicer than the Sands turned out to be.

Got out at the Sands, got our rooms, they faced the street, not the ocean. The desk would fix this problem for $40 a room. Didn’t seem worth it. Disappointing though. The Sands was a nice place with beachfront, pool, swim up bar, fake waterfalls, etc. It was a little past its prime but it added to the charm. One curious item was that one of its restaurants was Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, which is a chain that has two locations in Phoenix. Isla Verde is an area of a few hotels, a lot of high rise apartments. Walking on the street was not real interesting once you go used to the fact that San Juan was full of Wendy’s, Pizza Hut, etc. We did find one interesting (to us) place, an open air streetfront restaurant that was frequented primarily by locals and served pizza. What made it appealing is that it served cubanos, a flat Cuban sandwich which I had only found in South Florida prior to this. We ended up in this place three times and it was quite enjoyable. Back at the hotel, we spent time at the pool, enjoying some tropical drinks. The surf was quite mild here. I am told that there is surfing in Puerto Rico, but not here. So much for the fantasy of renting a boogie board and taking some waves.

There was a supermarket across the street, got some fruit and juice for breakfast. An English language San Juan newspaper was the last I saw of an up to date newspaper for the remainder of the trip. We had to check out at noon, with Gray Line due to pick us up at 2:00. Gave our bags to the bellman, went back to our restaurant for another taste of cubanos. The bus came to take us to the ship. Drove through some very depressing slums, arrived at the ship before 3:00. It was huge, towering over the terminal. Relieved to learn that we did not have to claim our luggage, that it would go straight to the cabins. Pretty hectic in the terminal. Got valid boarding passes, keys and then our picture taken. The entry was up a flight of wooden stairs to the entry on the Riviera deck. From there, forward through the ship to the elevators that would take us to the Verandah deck.

Got to our cabins, some bags already there. The cabins were as expected. The inside cabin (for the boys) was orange in decor. Our cabin was a combination of gray, dark wood/Formica and mirrors. While larger by 25 square feet, it was actually more cramped than the standard cabins. It had a queen-sized bed, a small couch, chair and coffee table, just a little more furniture than it could support. It also had a mini-bar which consisted of an array of glasses of different varieties, and a refrigerator. I was relieved to find the fridge empty, i.e. not full of stuff that they wanted to sell me. The cabinetry also included a TV and VCR. The sign and sail cards were in the cabins. We were met almost immediately by our steward, Jesus, a genial and efficient Dominican who made our stay very enjoyable and was very useful in providing reports of sightings of our kids. I set out to find out what our dinner seating was, to find out about the teen orientation meeting/party and to see if there were videos to check out. This was all disappointing. The seating was noted on the sail and sign card. We had the early seating. I went to the Beverly Hills bar to get it changed, only to find a long line. I went to the Teen Disco to find it closed for renovations. The counselor in the Camp Carnival kids’ room told me that the Diamonds are Forever Disco would be used for most teen activities. She gave me a sheet of teen activities that made me realize that many of the teen activities were during the late dinner seating, so I decided to stay with the early seating. I learned that the VCR was only for playing back your camcorder tapes or in case you had brought any tapes.

The early seating changed the afternoon plans since we had planned on going out to see Old San Juan and to pick up some pops, beer and liquor for the cruise. There was now not enough time. Old San Juan would have to wait for another trip and the supplies could be obtained in St. Thomas. We spent some time exploring the ship, playing Ping-Pong and shuffleboard. My wife and I had a drink at a bar on the Promenade deck. Tonight was informal for dinner. There were three levels of formality for dinner. The first and last nights, given the indeterminate state of one’s baggage, were the most informal. The two formal nights were Monday and Thursday, the other three were in between. Still, there were policies about no shorts, tank tops, etc. Nobody paid any attention to this the first night. This was the first of many hassles with the kids about what we thought that they should wear vs. what everybody else did. When we got to the open seating dinner we were seated at a table for ten with 6 (apparently Puerto Rican) Hispanic teenagers. While they were very polite and did speak some English, we were not who they wanted to talk to. This was the first indication of what became obvious as the cruise progressed. About half of our fellow passengers were Hispanic. I had no problem with this but it did cut down on the number of folks you could talk to. My younger son was not pleased with the menu and worried that he would not find anything that he liked on the dinner menus, but this would change. The meal was fairly good, the service less so. Since it is open seating, the waiter and busboy are not the ones that you would tip…

After dinner, the boys got back in their shorts and headed down to the orientation party in the Diamonds are Forever Disco. About 15 minutes later we strolled by to see the younger one sitting at a table of boys his own age, having a fine time. No sign of the older one. I went back to the cabins to find him there. He had stopped in, found only younger kids and bailed out. He was heading back to see if anything changed. We snooped again about 20 minutes later. The older boy was leaving the Disco in a group of teenagers of mixed gender. The younger one was busily telling the DJ what to play. Success! We would not worry about them having a good time for the rest of the trip. If you are a teenager, or have teenagers, be aware that the orientation party is the key to whole thing. Don’t miss it! It turned out that the Teen Disco being closed was probably a blessing. The facilities that they used were much larger, more accessible to nosy parents and without the video games that would have cost us a small fortune.

This may have been our favorite night on the ship. There was a creditable calypso/reggae band that played primarily in the daytime by the pool. But tonight they were doing a night-time poolside party. Being out in the night air on deck, dancing, drinking, etc. was a lot of fun. Unfortunately there was very little on-deck activity at night during the rest of the cruise. When it came time for the ship to leave San Juan we went out on our private deck. Then we went back to the party. At one point we were dancing and the music changed to something called the Electric Slide, which my wife knew about but I didn’t. I backed off while the revelers did their thing. My wife’s performance was (briefly) captured by the Video Diary folks. Suddenly, in the middle of this song, people started pushing past me. A buffet had opened behind me! I was nearly trampled but gathered my wife and we sampled some food. This was the only easy access to a late night buffet that we were to experience.

Before I go on I should explain that we live in Phoenix where a lot of people come to visit. They typically do day trips to places like Sedona, the Grand Canyon, etc. One of the places that people go is Nogales, a town on the Mexican border. It is a typical border town with tacky gift shops, panhandlers, hustlers, etc. The conventional wisdom here is that you should never go to Nogales. You go through Nogales and drive a 100 miles or so until you reach the real Mexico. What I learned on this cruise is that a cruise is a good way to visit several iterations of Nogales.

I didn’t have real high hopes for St. Thomas. I had visited St. Croix in the mid 70’s and had not been impressed. It was just too American and commercial for my tastes. The people didn’t seem particularly charming or friendly. The plan for St. Thomas was to get off in the morning, do some shopping, and get back on the ship. We had resolved not to try to visit and see everything on this trip, in order to enjoy the ship itself. This seemed like a good place to try that out. The main feature of St. Thomas, one is told, is the shopping. Great bargains, variety, etc. When you leave the ship you enter Havensight Mall, which is a series of buildings housing outlets of the major shops in Charlotte Amalie. The Fascination stops here on Sunday. This means that many stores are not open at all and the ones that are, typically close at 12 or 1. Havensight Mall was pretty dead. My younger son came with us into the mall area, checking a CD store, then went back on the ship. We caught a cab ($2.50 per person) to town. Upon arrival we were immediately accosted by people selling tours and by cab drivers wanting to take us back to the ship. Several of the stores we had hoped to visit, including the Ralph Lauren factory store, were closed on Sunday. We had neglected to measure our dining room table so our idea of buying a tablecloth went away. The prices on jewelry, perfume, Mont Blanc pens, etc., did not excite us. Liquor was cheap. We did find a crystal/china place that had good variety and prices. Throughout our journey we encountered people trying to steer us into shops, pushy tourists, cab drivers trying to take us back to the ship, etc. We bought a china figurine, some souvenir gifts for friends, and a Hard Rock Café St. Thomas tee-shirt. Finding a cab back to the ship was no challenge. After lunch I returned to Havensight Mall, bought some soda pop in a grocery store ($2.99/six pack) and a bottle of Haitian Rum (Barbancourt) in a liquor store. Despite the warnings that all liquor would be confiscated and returned at the end of the cruise, I had no problem getting the rum on the ship.

This was definitely a trip to Nogales. In retrospect, now knowing the disappointing state of shopping opportunities, I would recommend either staying on the ship or doing something that gets you past Charlotte Amalie. I have a basic aversion to ship-sponsored excursions but this might be the place for one. This day was the one instance of one of our kids being bored as well. My younger son found nobody to hang out with this afternoon since so many of his buds were out on excursions with their families. I offered to take him on an excursion in Guadeloupe the next day, however, and he decided to pass. This boredom never returned.

At dinner we were led to a table for 8 by a window. Our table mates were a couple from Atlanta, with their two sons, aged 17 and 9. Carnival had done a good job in matching us up. The four boys became friends throughout the cruise. Our waiter was Valerian, from India, and the busboy was Mauro, from the Philippines. They both did a very good job of taking care of us. Mauro, in particular, was a joy to know. One negative, we immediately inquired about getting a cocktail, asked a couple of times, but had no luck. When 20 minutes had passed I went to the front of the dining room and spoke with the Maitre D. He apologized, and within a minute or so we were met by the guy with the drinks. At each subsequent dinner, he was there immediately. He did not have any sort of sense of humor about this situation, however, and did not crack a smile until the final night, when we insisted on taking his picture. He was Finnish.

Food. The dinners in the dining room were excellent. There were a few things that were not perfect, e.g. the escargot were basic rubber with garlic butter, but most was excellent. The rest of the food on the cruise was not that memorable. The lunch in the Coconut Grove restaurant (or on deck) was the same every day. Burgers, some kind of pasta, mediocre cole slaw and potato salad, a salad bar, soft serve ice cream, iced tea, and that was about it. I would have enjoyed more variety. There was an open seating buffet in the dining rooms for lunch that I did not try, probably should have. Breakfast was the same drill, steam table scrambled eggs, undercooked hash browns, bacon, toast, pastries, juice, coffee. We did do breakfast in the dining room a couple of times and it was much better. The late night buffets were a joke. Interminably long lines for forgettable food. On a couple of occasions my wife sent me out from our cabin for something only to have fallen asleep by the time I got back.

Lines. One must resist the temptation to suggest that the next Fantasy class ship will be called the Regimentation. Most lines could be avoided however. There is absolutely no point in standing in line for dinner when you have an assigned table. Come 10 minutes later and there is no line. I already talked about the late night buffets, not worth the trouble in my estimation. Other lines are encountered in getting into the shows, and getting on and off the ship. The show lines can be dealt with. There are upper and lower entrances and also two instances of the shows. My older son got front row seats at the second seating show by entering (on the upper level) when the first seating was leaving. There always seem to be seats if you are not picky about location. Other than in Puerto Rico, all shore access is from the 3^rd deck, which is below the Riviera deck. There is one little area at the base of the forward elevators where the gangway (or access to the tenders in Grenada) is. I was twice caught in a claustrophobic situation in this area, once while waiting for a tender in Grenada and another while getting off the ship in La Guaira. The line from hell was the one getting off the ship in San Juan at the end of the cruise, but I’ll get to that later.

Shows. I did not have high hopes for the shows. I have never been to a show in Las Vegas, and only planned to attend a show or two because they were free and for the experience. We caught a few minutes of the second night show, which consisted of the Cruise Director (John Heald – very good at what he does) putting a group of passengers through some antics. It was pretty good, but not something that we would stay for. We did go to the third night show, after the first formal dinner, which was a revue of Broadway show tunes. It was very professionally done, lots of high-tech stuff, good dancers, etc. The singing was OK, the male lead in particular had a good voice, although he was a double for Lionel Richie which put me off a bit. All in all, though, I am more comfortable at an R.E.M. concert than this sort of thing. We tried the second major show, which had a Hollywood motif, but left in the middle.

Seasickness. This ship moved a LOT. I knew that my wife had a tendency towards seasickness and I had bought her a pair of the wristbands that I had heard about. Unfortunately she couldn’t find them when it came time to pack. On Monday afternoon, after we left Guadeloupe, she started having problems. We were dressing for the first formal dinner and she had to lay down. I got Dramamine from Jesus and by this time the younger son had the problem too. There was the captain’s party in the Palace Lounge with free drinks and hors d’oeuvres prior to dinner. We missed most of it but she felt better towards the end and we went down to it. We had no sooner sat down and got drinks when she observed the curtain on the stage swaying back and forth dramatically. Had to move on. There were several times over the remainder of the cruise when Dramamine was employed. Our cabin location, high in the ship and at the very front, added to the problem. I do not know if this was a typical cruise in terms of the motion.

Port/Starboard. If you have an outside cabin you might be wondering what the optimum side of the ship is in terms of where the ship faces when in port. In San Juan, the starboard side has a slight edge. Neither side is particularly scenic, though. The port side looks at the terminal and beyond it to other ships in port. From our verandah we could see a Cunard ship and one of the Windstar or Star Clipper style ships. The starboard side faced some open water beyond which is the shoreline. The port side wins in St. Thomas, facing the harbor beyond which is Charlotte Amalie, while the starboard side looked at Havensight Mall and some scrub trees. In Guadeloupe the port side faced right into Pointe-a-Pitre. In Grenada we were at anchor and twisted a bit but the starboard side tended to face land. The port side faced the shoreline and green mountains in La Guaira. Again, in Aruba, the port side faced shore. Overall, the port side, which our cabin was on, was the winner. This was biased by the view from the Verandah deck, but the view from the lower decks should be similar.

Pressure to buy: There were a couple of areas where Carnival should lighten up a bit. The single worst thing was the constant pressure to buy drinks while on deck. It was damn near impossible to go for more than a minute or two in a deck chair without being accosted by someone trying to sell you an overpriced cocktail. If you are trying to nap or read a book or do anything else remotely relaxing this is downright irritating. Ironically, there are other times, like in the Cocoanut Grove restaurant for lunch, where you can’t find someone to sell you a drink. If you don’t want iced tea you have to go find someone to sell you a Coke or a beer. Another annoyance is the inevitable guy who DOES approach your lunch table and tries to do an advance sale on wine for your dinner. There was also some heavy-handedness in the sale of excursions. They nearly implied that you would not be allowed to leave the ship in Venezuela if you didn’t purchase an excursion.

On to the remaining ports:

Guadeloupe. This was our favorite port. This was the least like Nogales of the islands anyway (Caracas being in a different category). Guadeloupe relies less on tourism than the other islands, I am told. The people seemed to go on about their business in spite of the large group of passengers ashore. Very little hustling. It was much in the French style, a little like Paris, a little like Marseilles, a little like New Orleans. There was a great open air market about 5 blocks from the pier, with people selling artwork, spices, vegetables, etc. It was the first indication of having entered the third world. And yet, when I was short of cash to buy the painting I liked, I was able to cross the street and use an ATM. As in France, the people seemed pleased at one’s attempt to converse in French. After an initial standoff-ishness, the people were genuinely friendly.

Grenada. This was just plain awful, in my estimation. I had been to Barbados a couple of times and expected a similar experience, given the heritage and location. This was nothing like Barbados. They were surrounding the tenders out in the harbor with rowboats trying to sell conch shells and elicit quarters to dive for. Once ashore there was a barrage of taxi offers. If you got past there you found an uninvited tour guide or six who ultimately wants $40 for his time. A long walk around the bay (the Careenage) and a climb up a hill takes you to a business center with a square containing a market which on the surface looks like the one in Pointe-a-Pitre but sells a lot of tee-shirt junk in addition to spices, etc. Never for more than 60 seconds did I manage not to get approached about something. I did climb a hill to where the police station was and got a nice view of the city. This was an annoying, dirty port. I bought some nice little spice baskets (6 for $10) at a booth near the pier. At a side door of the fire station near the pier there is an immigration office where they were nice enough to stamp my passport on request. This was the shortest stop on the cruise, and it was long enough. Still, if you have never been in such a place, the stop was worth the experience. Just not worth repeating.

Caracas. To me, this was the highlight. This is a major city with over 5 million people. We were a little concerned that our arranged tourguide would not materialize. While the hordes waited in the public rooms of the ship for their prospective excursions to leave, we were down on the third deck waiting for the gangway to open. Most of the people waiting with us were Hispanic and presumably knew more about what they were doing than we did. There were continued warnings over the loudspeakers in the last 24 hours to stick with the ship’s excursions. There was a shuttlebus from the ship to the terminal building. I was apprehensive about this because I did know if we were supposed to wait at the ship for our guide or take the shuttle to the terminal building. As the gangway finally opened, we made our way out and there was somebody with a sign with our names on it. It was indeed the aunt of my wife’s friend. She was immediately apologetic that she did not have the van, that we would hook up with it in Caracas, she had her own car. But because it was a private car she had been able to drive right up to the ship which helped avoid the confusion about where to meet her. We piled into her Toyota and were whisked away. The drive to where the pier building is takes about 10 minutes and then you are out on the streets of La Guaira. La Guaira is a industrial looking port city with a fair amount of evident poverty. There is an historical section but we did not see it. We were soon on the freeway heading over the mountains to Caracas. The drive was quite scenic, green mountains, great views, etc. There were 3 or 4 tunnels along the way. She mentioned that the weekend traffic on this route was intense, with everyone trying to get to the beach. The tunnels were not well ventilated and I got an awful image of what it must be like when traffic backs up in there. Traditionally, gasoline has been ridiculously cheap in Venezuela, and as a result they seem to have a lot of 1960s vintage large American vehicles in service. In the city itself, we headed for the Hilton where she would park her car. From there we got on the Metro, very modern and clean, built by the French. We went then to the Plaza where most tourists are taken. We saw various historic buildings, a Cathedral, the capitol, etc. We could not go in the capitol because they were getting ready for their Independence Day (July 5) celebration. We saw some of fellow cruise passengers being herded about. At this plaza was the one place that we saw vendors selling t-shirts and the like. My wife went into a shoe store and we quickly learned that there were some real bargains to be had in this country. Their devastating inflation worked in our favor. After an hour or so in the Plaza area we were met by the van and went off to a church where the remains of various revolutionary heroes reside. From there we went to a mall, yes we asked to do this, always anxious to see how other people live. The mall had a grocery store where we perused the aisles, bought some Polar beer for the ship and some flour that is used to make arepas, a local delicacy that we would later sample. The flour was a gift for the tourguide’s niece back in Phoenix. Out in the mall, one of my sons bought a CD, a recent Porno for Pyros that worked out to about $8. My wife found a reasonably priced purse (leather goods are an attraction here). I looked at men’s clothing but the prices were pretty normal. Suits looked reasonable but I didn’t have the time or the inclination. By this time it was close to 1 and the stores were closing down. We got back in the van and headed to a restaurant for lunch. The place we went to had various awards on the wall from local publications. It was a tiny bit touristy, we were greeted in English by the proprietor, but most of the folks eating there were local. We had a “typical plate”, that consisted of black beans, shredded beef, rice and fried banana. This was one of the tastiest meals that I have ever had. The folks from the ship were having a banquet lunch at the Hilton about this time. After lunch we drove around for a quite a while, saw the major baseball and soccer stadiums. Baseball is a bigger deal than soccer in Venezuela. In the Copa Mundial they tend to root for Brazil, Italy and whoever is playing Colombia. We went up mountains and looked down on the city, one vantage point was just above the new US Embassy. We drove through a really expensive neighborhood that reminded us of Beverly Hills. We drove into a military compound where we saw teenagers drilling in preparation for the Independence Day activities. While a democracy for some years now, the military and police remain a big presence. Eventually it came time to head back and the drive through the mountains went very quickly. We enjoyed asking 1000 questions about life in Venezuela. Our guide had lived in Mexicali, California for 2 years in the 70s and had many questions about the US. Her daughter had just graduated from high school in Caracas and was leaving in a month or so to spend a year in the Phoenix area, living with relatives, repeating her senior year and honing her English skills. We were very fortunate to have had Maria as our tourguide. Now in a van, we had to be left off at the terminal and take the shuttle back. We said our goodbyes piled into the bus for the trip across the pier area. This was a thoroughly satisfying visit.

Aruba. This place reminds me of Laguna Beach, I’m afraid. One’s reaction to Aruba goes to the heart of what you are looking for. As we looked at it from the ship, my younger son, who had once said that he was most interested in visiting St. Thomas because it was the most American (“I like American, Dad”) had done a 180. Fresh from experiences in Guadeloupe, Grenada and Caracas, he decided that Aruba looked TOO American and he declined to leave the ship. Our tablemates, who had been horrified at Grenada and stayed on the ship in Venezuela, thought that Aruba looked like their kind of place. The next day we saw the ultimate Aruba momento, a T-shirt that said “Dunkin’ Donuts, Aruba, it was worth the trip”. I had signed my older son and I up for a beginners’ SCUBA excursion, our only ship-sponsored venture. The van took us about 5 miles up the coast to the Holiday Inn, that was on a gorgeous stretch of beach lined with glittering hotels. The Hyatt Regency looked like quite a place. We got outfitted with equipment, did a drill in the pool, then boarded a boat which took us maybe ½ mile out, to where there was a the submerged wreckage of a cargo ship. With much trepidation, I went down. Once there, it was wonderful. I hadn’t done this before. The diving was maybe 30 minutes long. The whole excursion was about 3 hours. Once back on shore, you had to find your own way back to the ship. This meant either catching a municipal bus or hanging out for a while and drying off before catching a cab. The cabbies won’t let you in if you are wet. After lunch on the ship my wife and I ventured out into Oranjestaad, the port city. It was clean, ordered, appealing, downright American. I had little use for the place. The prices were outrageous in the shops. We walked around a while and went back to the ship. Bought a Scuba Aruba T-shirt and a local license plate. If what you want out of an island vacation is a place to lie on the beach and drink rum punches this is a good place. If you want history and local culture, though, this is not it. One gets the impression that there was little here before they built all the shops, hotels and casinos. Again, maybe I missed something. Maybe this was a glittering Nogales. I did want to rent a jeep and check the island out on my own, something that got derailed by the SCUBA diving.

Summary of ports: Our favorite places were Guadeloupe and Caracas. If I did this cruise again, I’d probably go to a beach in St. Thomas (or St. John), stay on the ship in Grenada and rent a jeep in Aruba.

Cabin note. We really liked the cabin arrangement. The only thing that we would change is to stay a couple of cabins farther back on the same side. We were directly below the edge of the exercise room which once or twice yielded some excess noise. V16 might just be perfect.

Disembarkation. This is by definition a bad thing. You don’t want it to end, you

have to waste time packing. You have to say goodbye to the people that you met. The first real hassle was a money hassle. I had used the ATM next to the casino with no problem midway through the cruise. When I went to it on Friday to extract my tip money it was not working. I had no money for tips. The purser would be glad to do a cash advance on my credit card for $13 on the first hundred and 10% after that. To get the $210 in tip money that the guidelines suggested, it was going to cost me $24. Fortunately, they would cash a check if you had an AmEx card. I located a check and did so. It cost me two trips through the purser’s line on a day that I would have rather spent by the pool, though. The rest went fairly smoothly, other than the part about getting the kids to pack, etc. You put your bags out in the hallway after 9 PM or so on the night before you get there. Then you and your carry-ons must be out of your cabin by 9 AM. We and our table-mates managed to grab one of the large circular couch thingies in the Palace Lounge and sat there and waited for our deck to be called. As we had hoped, after the folks doing ship-sponsored excursions in Puerto Rico got off, Verandah, along with half of some other deck, was called first. We quickly got down the elevator to the Riviera deck, only to find an awful crush in the elevator area, which led to a hallway that I seriously questioned whether I could go into, that was the length of the ship and solid people and luggage. Somehow, and this was a credit to the intelligence and community spirit of our fellow passengers, we made it up this hallway from hell and got off the ship. What we and others did was consciously create breaks in the line up the passageway so that we didn’t all suffocate. The bad news was that when we finally got to the gangway we realized that other people had been going through the ship on other decks and come down the stairs adjacent to the gangway and were getting off without the long wait. By this time they had started calling other decks so these folks were actually getting off ahead of us. We did get off though, did wave off 1000 porters, did get our bags, did get through customs, did give our bags to Delta and board the bus to the airport. Contrary to the nice speech by John Heald the day before, though, Delta was NOT prepared to do boarding passes there. We had to do that at the airport, and they could only do it for the Atlanta leg, had to do it AGAIN in Atlanta. Still, we made it onto the plane and got home.

Would I do this again? Absolutely. This was probably the only opportunity to cruise with the boys. The next time we go on a cruise it will be by ourselves and I think that I would try one of the more upscale lines. I AM hooked on having a cabin with a verandah. Was I satisfied with Carnival? For the most part, yes. This was pretty much what I signed up for. Without my kids, I might have wanted a quieter, more sophisticated, more genteel crowd, but with them it would have been a disaster.

Beach Pictures

2007-07-18T22:05:00.000-07:00

I posted some pictures from the beach along with a couple of new Kaelyn pictures on Mike's website.

Currently Reading (Nature Girl)

2007-07-15T19:12:00.001-07:00

It took me a long time to get through the Tim Dorsey book. Maybe I am losing interest in either Serge Storms or reading in general at the moment.

Beach

2007-07-14T13:48:00.001-07:00

I don't know who reads this stuff, probably nobody who doesn't know what is going on anyway, but it is not a generally good idea to announce in a publicly accessible place that you will be vacating your house for a week. So I didn't mention that we were going to the beach for a week. We rented a Chevy Trailblazer to carry all of our stuff, which included my bicycle, two boogie boards, sheets, pillows, towels, etc., and headed to Newport Beach on the morning of Saturday the 30th of June. This would be our 10th stay at the beach, starting in 1987 and going every two years, missing only 2005, when we had spent over a week in the Bay Area for John's graduation. This was the first time that Susan and I had gone by ourselves. We had taken both Mike and John with us the first 6 times, and John had come with us for the 99, 01 and 03 trips. The trip there had become pretty formulaic. Get up early, head west, stop for lunch at In-n-Out Burger at the Ramon Road exit off I-10 near Palm Springs, get gas after lunch, then get back on the road to CA-60 near Beaumont, then CA-91 south at Riverside to CA-55 which eventually stops being freeway and takes you up the Balboa peninsula to where we stay. This would be a little less pressure as the rental company would be open until 5. Most close much earlier and threaten to leave the key in a mailbox or something. The only things that were much different this time is that the area west of Phoenix is growing like crazy and much of what used to be desert is now full of tacky little houses, Wal-Mart superstores and suchwhat. I have no earthly idea why anyone would live there. The other weirdness was that there was construction on the interchange of the Moreno Valley and Riverside Freeways and we lost about 30-40 minutes fighting with exceptionally rude drivers, including the pilot of a Winnebago who suddenly decided that he would enter the space occupied by our vehicle and was very reluctant to back off once I called him on it, although he ultimately did. So we arrive at the beach, get the keys and go to the rental. The garage, sadly was about a foot wider than the SUV we had. I managed to shoehorn it in but ended up not using it much as I scraped the fenders on two different occasions getting in and out. Fortunately Avis did not notice. The place was wonderful. Huge private patio on the boardwalk with umbrella table and chairs, natural gas barbecue and some folding chairs. The house itself was rather small, two bedrooms and one bathroom, but a big living room and kitchen, nicely furnished and very clean. The first week of July is typically the first week of weekly rentals and that can sometimes be a good thing.

We were on the corner of 14th Street and Oceanfront. Across 14th Street is the elementary school, and facing it is a playground. This makes it a fairly busy area, but no obnoxiously so. A block west (conceptually north, towards LA) is 15th Street, where there is a public bath house, the Stuffed Surfer Cafe, the 15th Street Surf Shop and a small convenience store called Fry's Market. Another 6 blocks down, at the 21st St. alignment, is the Newport Pier. 5 of our previous 9 stays had been spent in the range of 28th Street to 35th Street. That area is much busier, but one advantage is easy access to what was formerly a Lucky Store, now an Albertson's, is about two blocks off the beach at 31st Street. Going east from our rental, about 16 blocks, is the Balboa Pier.

We were able to see all of the places in which we previously stayed, with one exception. 1614 W. Oceanfront, just up the street a couple of blocks, had been torn down, along with its neighbor to the east, and replaced by a glass and chrome monstrosity that looked like it might be the mothership for an alien invasion. The others, including the apartment from 1989, which was on the corner by the Surf Shop and the site of the Mark McGwire encounter, were intact, although the '89 apartment and the '87 Balboa shack were no both now longer term rentals and the 95-97 place at 3310 W. Oceanfront was no longer a rental at all.

Many things were the same, most of the businesses like Blackie's, Charlie's Chili, the donut shop, the seashell shop, etc. were still in place. The Burger King was now some off brand equivalent. Surfside Sports, where we used to pump our bicycle tires, had lost their lease (it now cost a dollar at on the other bike rentals).

This was the first time since the early apartments that we could cook and eat on the patio, which was very cool. I rode my bike a lot. The surf was disappointing, though. The area by our rental is prone to rip-tides, it turns out, and the only time I attempted boogie boarding (with John on Thursday) was interrupted by the lifeguard on a bullhorn telling us not to. The plan was to go up to the other side of the pier on Friday but I got a sunburn that more or less killed that idea.

John and Agnieszka came in around 11:30 on Wednesday and stayed the rest of the week. Pat and Suzanne came later in the day, as did Jeff. Wednesday was the 4th of July, which turns the boardwalk into a zoo, populated by drunken 20somethings on bicycles that they should not have been operating. Other than the company, this was my least favorite day at the beach.

It was a good stay, too short as usual, and the sunburn at the end was a bummer, but this was probably the nicest place we have rented (and a little cheaper than the last two). If I have it to do over again I will figure out how to take a smaller vehicle and do something about getting a bike, then just plan a couple of walks up the boardwalk for boogieboarding.

Let's Spend the Night Together

2007-06-22T23:16:00.001-07:00

It is December 13, 1981, Sun Devil Stadium. We have some reasonably good seats, have sat through Joe Ely and then George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers. The Rolling Stones are on the stage. The song is "Let Me Go". Mick Jagger climbs down a ladder from the stage and heads into the crowd with a wireless microphone. He is suddenly running down the aisle that we (Bonnie Braun, Susan and myself) are about 6 people over from. In the first shot here you see him standing in the aisle (pink shirt). In the next scene you can see me in the extreme lower left corner (Levi jacket, shades). You can't really see Susan, you can see Bonnie (hooded sweatshirt). Jagger is still visible in the aisle. In the third shot, you can make out the three of us well, but Jagger is no longer visible, although you can tell where he is (as before just behind the guy in the windbreaker and the sunglasses). To find us, start at the upper left hand corner and head diagonally towards the center, we are about halfway to the center, first me, then Susan, then Bonnie. This footage is from the film Let's Spend the Night Together, which I have been trying to get a DVD copy of for years, which Mike bought me for Fathers' Day.

Used Too Often

2007-06-22T13:12:00.000-07:00

The following phrases really get on my nerves and are overused by baseball people in general and Diamondbacks TV announcers in particular:

grinding
the way he goes about his business
a guy like INSERT PLAYER NAME
...if you're INSERT PLAYER NAME...
...if you're a INSERT TEAM NAME fan...
lights out
years young
you gotta tip your cap
at this level
every single day

And weather announcers should never say "gorgeous".