Phillies

Phillies win the World Series. Brad Lidge appropriately closed it out. 48/48 in save opportunities in 2008. And Philadelphia wins it's first sports championship since the 76ers won in 1983. Way to go Phillies. The second installment of Game 5 was much better than the first, and had as much excitement as some complete postseason games.

Xbox runaway

http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/microsoft-offers-reward-for-missing-xbox-gamer/1260470
Just read this article about a 15 year old who ran away from home because his dad took his Xbox away. He left his house, on his bicycle, on October 13th, which is the day Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving (for some reason).
"I just took away his identity, so I can understand why he got so mad and took off. Before, I couldn't understand why he was taking off for taking his game away."
This is an excerpt from the article, quoting the boy's father. What the hell is going on here? If I read this story without knowing the boy's age I would guess that he was 7. And he's either hiding at his grandmother's house or his best friend Jeff's.
I'm not entirely sure if the father is claiming to be in the wrong or not. At one point he compares taking the Xbox away to "cutting his legs off." WHAT? If taking your son's video games away is tantamount to cutting off his legs, your son has a problem.
When Parra took away my Crash Bandicoot in college I didn't ride off on my bicycle and hide in a shed somewhere. I took it like a man and allocated that block of time for napping and interacting with people.

Theme Time Radio 10/29/08

Another wonderful broadcast of Theme Time Radio Hour by Bob Dylan. This week was an unannounced, "super-sized," President's show. The theme was loosely Presidential. In honor of President's day, Dylan made something of a President's Day sale out of the show. Many of the songs he played were leftovers (from other shows), like the knick knacks you see in store windows on the aforementioned holiday. Dylan called it "cleaning the shelves," but most of the songs were hardly back-of-the-closet material.

Dylan talked about almost all the Presidents. I wouldn't be surprised if he mentioned all of them over the course of the 2 hour special. Lincoln's name popped up often. The most interesting factoid concerned Honest Abe's son, Robert Todd Lincoln. He was present, or nearly present, for three presidential assassinations. The first, naturally, was his father's. He was supposed to be at Ford's theatre watching Our American Cousin with his father, but was tired from a long wagon ride the previous day. In 1881 he was to meet James A. Garfield, our twentieth president, at a train station in D.C. He was late, but not too late to witness Garfield's assassination. Then in 1901, he was to meet William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. Though he was not late for this meeting, by the time he arrived McKinley had been shot through the stomach, kidney, and colon. Ouch. Mr. Robert Lincoln was around for 75% of the presidential assassinations.

Jack White, of the White Stripes, spoke for a moment, from a local video store, about George Washington and his refusal to shake hands while in office. White mentioned that Washington was the only President to not belong to a political party. Interesting. Ruth Brown sang an enthusiastic version of Hello Little Boy that sounded as if her larynx might explode. Dylan then surprised me by playing a They Might be Giants song. It amuses me to imagine him listening to songs like Shoehorn with Teeth or Birdhouse in Your Soul. Naturally the song he played on Theme Time was James K. Polk, an informative summary of the effective single term of our 11th president.

We listened to an audio clip of Jackie Kennedy giving the first television tour of the White House. She sounded more like British royalty than American royalty, which she was, in a way. She spoke about a painting of George Washington that hung in the WH, the only remnant existing from before the fire of 1814, when British troops set it ablaze in retaliation for the Battle of York.

At about the halfway point of the show, Dylan accepted a call from a "listener." The call was clearly bogus- the "caller" was clearly reading off a card- probably someone who works on the show. He asked a question about Presidents with beards, which Dylan instantly spun and announced that only Republican presidents had grown them. The caller then asked for a song that Dylan presciently played, seemingly before the caller had even finished his request. It was much smoother and more amusing than having some real caller fumble through compliments and some silly question about the White House.

The first half of the show wasn't as mellifluous as last weeks', but it improved in the second half. A much sampled song by Roy C. and the Honeydrippers, and then Dylan was talking about FDR and his black cabinet. Now this is something I'd never heard of. Apparently, Roosevelt had a collection of African American advisers, officially known as the Federal Council of Negro Affairs. The council kept Roosevelt aware of increasing needs and opinions of black Americans. They spearheaded the civil rights movement of the '30s and several members of the council held prominent roles in the administration. FDR did it all.

Dylan talked about Nixon "losing" the 1960 Presidential debate to JFK. It was the first televised debate, and many viewers at the time said that's what lost it for Tricky Dick. His 5 o'clock shadow, lack of makeup and bulging sweaty forehead was a grotesque site in comparison to Kennedy's natural and composed good looks and thick shock of hair. Radio listeners almost universally agreed that Nixon won the debate with his superior knowledge of the economy and foreign affairs.

While Dylan promoted the show as an "emptying out (the) closets in honor of presidents day," most of the music was superb. He played a song by Clover, called Mister Moon, which had a swing bite to it that was reminiscent of Elvis Costello's first release, My Aim is True. I say this because Costello fans will recall that Clover was the backing band on My Aim, and the band eventually evolved to become the News of Huey Lewis fame.

The next piece was entitled Gloomy Sunday. A song penned by two Hungarians, it's often referred to as "the suicide song," and it was banned in Hungary because according to legend multitudes of fans killed themselves while listening to the song. Countless reports of people found dead, with this song click click clicking in the groove at the middle of the record. Dylan played Billie Holiday's version. It was a sad song but it didn't make me wanna kill myself. It made me wanna eat toast but I was out of bread. One of the songwriters, Laszlo Javor, took his life by jumping from a building in 1968. Here's a terrific lyric from the song:

Angels have no thought of ever returning you,

would they be angry if I thought of joining you?

This was followed by an excellent track by Ella Johnson about getting rough with her man. It was called "Go Upside your Head." What a sweet honey voice she had. One can be introduced to so many great artists with just one episode of Theme Time Radio Hour. The presidents everyone loves, Dylan said, are the dead presidents. The ones that "jingle in your pocket." No jingle better than the paper rustle of a Salmon P. Chase at your hip. He was a senator, than a Treasury Secretary and finally a Chief justice. But more importantly, he was on the $10,000 bill. Not sure wy they don't have those anymore. Little Walter, blues, "Dead Presidents."

We heard Randy Newman's Have Pity on the Workin' Man, one of many Newman songs about the President and American politics. When complimenting Randy's sardonic lyrical cries and insults, Dylan got on the subject of song poems. Song poems are poems put to music, done professionally, and often through magazine ads. You still see them in the back of magazines. Send in your poem and 50-500 dollars and someone will make a song out of it. Dylan called it a racket and a scam, songwriters busting out as many as 12 songs an hour. He played snippets from a few and they were hilarious. My favorite was about Jimmy Carter, and it could be roughly described as Disco marching band style. Here's a line from it:

can our government be competent,

jimmy carter says yes, jimmy carter says yes.

The show ended with Elvis Presley singing If I Can Dream, an apropos tune, possibly about Elvis' presidential aspirations, which showed off Elvis' gnarling bobcat voice, that was common in his later albums. Another good tune I failed to mention was It's All in the Game, sung by Tommy Edwards. Apparently this song was written by Charles Dawes, who was later vice president under Calvin Coolidge.

***More Wetness

Just found this tasty morsel. Game 4 of the 1911 World Series between the New York Giants and Philadelphia Athletics was postponed six days due to rain. IN PHILADELPHIA. So, this whole business isn't unprecedented after all.
Of course, this isn't the first time a World Series has been postponed. In 1989, in this here city of San Francisco, the WS was held off for 10 days in the wake of a quake.
So it's raining in Philadelphia, and they've got some shit-hole Orange Juice shack of a stadium in Tampa Bay, with catwalks and on field bullpens. Hopefully the rest of the series is exciting or this is going to go down as one of the lousiest WS ever.

A Wet One

Major League Baseball is finally suffering from their avarice. After striking a multi-billion dollar deal with FOX, covering the next few World Series's, it all came crashing down last night, much like the torrential rain that turned Citizen's Bank park into a wading pool.
FOX made a deal with MLB to start the games at 8:30pm, EST, instead of 7 o'clock. Idiotic. Playoff games, like any fan knows, take at least 2 hours. The Sox have had multiple postseason games that have gone longer than 5 hours in the last four years. You can't start a game at 8:30 and expect it to end at a reasonable time. This, of course, is complicated by inclement weather. Now, after rain made play impossible in the 4th, 5th and half of the 6th inning on Monday night, they were forced to postpone the game till tonight. Well the weather in Philadelphia is even less lovely or brotherly tonight. It's just as windy and rainy. So they're pushing it to tomorrow. Or later.
Bud Selig, baseball's unpopular commissioner, is out of excuses. Naturally you can't end a World Series with a shortened game, but you also shouldn't start a game an hour and a half late, because of weather, when the game is already starting at 8:30 pm! It blows my mind that he thinks this makes any type of sense. It's bad enough nobody is watching because it's Rays (who have a handful of out-of-the-woodwork bandwagon fans) vs. the Phillies. I just hope Selig doesn't do to MLB what Bettman has done to the NHL. Maybe it's an unfair comparison but it makes me worry when Selig would sign a deal with FOX that alienates tv fans and ballpark fans alike. FOX, what a joke.

Olympic Ballots

It's October 25th, and you (nobody) know(s) what that means: ballots are due.

I sent out the ballots on September 10th, giving people 6 weeks to fill them out and return them. They could be mailed to MOC (Maine Olympic Committee) headquarters (my parents house) or simply returned in an email reply. Most people have told me it took about 3 minutes to fill out. Well, I've received exactly half of the 22 ballots that went out in September. And that's counting two that were sent home that I've yet to tally. My sister seems to think that's a fair response, and I suppose it would be if I was sending out some boring chain letter but this is a 2009 Maine Summer Olympics ballot. Come on! It took me 10 minutes, tops, to fill it out, and I feel like I put a lot of thought into it.
Either way, it looks like we'll have an alright turnout. At the moment, I've received more ballots from females than males. Usually, the problem with any sporting event or team is acquiring female interest. Breanne says it's just because females are better at returning ballots and that sort of thing. She's probably right (KEITH!).

I'm not at liberty to say much about the totals, but I can reveal that Eating Contest is not going to be one of the events. Probably for the best.

Run 10/25

Went for a run today with Breanne riding beside me. I wanted to try and run around the Presidio and try to avoid some of the big hills that climb up to Broadway street.
We entered the Presidio on Lyon street and ran by the cemetery and up Kobbe street, which is always empty and shoulders lots of tall old brick mansions. Doesn't look like anyone lives in them. After climbing Kobbe, which is just a long gradual uphill until the last 500 ft, we were at the ocean and we took a left and ran along the water. There was a sweaty bald man, running with his shirt in one hand, that I kept passing. I would look at things or take side streets and have to pass him all over again. He wasn't going terribly slow but I was feeling good and trying to keep up with Breanne and her bicycle.
Once we finally escaped the Presidio, we took another left on Lake street and started the long straight away back to the apartment. I crossed about 25 streets before getting to Clay and Washington, where I climbed an unbelievably steep hill that I'd overlooked when planning the route. Breanne had to get off her bike and I ran it up the hill for her and waited at the top.
By the time I got back I was sweaty and sore but I felt I could have gone further. It's so much easier to increase your speed when you have someone biking casually along next to you. It makes you feel like you're not working hard enough. It was around 9 miles all together, but it took me well over an hour. Not a tremendously good pace, but I started really slow and sped up over the last 3 miles. I determined that there is no way to run in my neighborhood without going up a giant hill, but it's good for my training.

Return to the Beach

my artlessness got the best of me again. Today, after Breanne was cancelled at UCSF, we returned to the beach on the other side of the bridge. We discovered that not only is it an unadvertised nude beach, but it's a gay nude beach. We were the only ones there clothed and Breanne was the only one there without a dong, and I can say that indisputably because I saw everyone's white, brown, or black member dangling between their legs. Most of the nudists hung out around the corner, out of site of the main beach, which we discovered when returning to the main road. There was a single spot on the walking path that if you leaned over a bit and peered down, revealed a sandy carpet of flat rocks spotted with naked tanning men.
We probably won't return to the beach. Not because we're homophobic, but because I don't feel comfortable around naked people. I also felt that I was intruding on the nudist area. I actually like the idea of people being comfortable enough to swagger around, sans clothes, in the presence of strangers. It's just not for me.
Oddly, on the walking path on the way down to the beach, Breanne and I were 20 feet or so behind a man with an Ipod. Another man came up the path toward him and goosed him, in the crotch. The Ipod man flipped out, yelled something, but the gooser just walked on casually. I protected myself a bit with the beach bag, not really wanted my crotch grabbed. He ignored me. It occurred to me later that the gooser probably assumed the man with the Ipod was on his way to the nude spot. Still no reason to grab a stranger's knob. We saw another guy with the smallest pair of underwear I've ever seen, a child's speedo or something. Not fun to look at.
I probably should have realized that the nude man I saw yesterday wasn't an anomaly. You'd think I'd have lost a bit of my naivety having lived in Los Angeles in San Francisco for over a year. Not the case.

Nudes

Ran through the Presidio with Breanne leading and sometimes following on a bike. She took a picture of me next to a street sign that bore my last name. It was named in honor of a former Captain of the fort. His first and middle names were Erasmus Darwin. Clearly ambitious parents. Confusing too, for Erasmus was a famous Theologian while Darwin, well, he was Darwin. Erasy did believe in free will in an age of predestination, so we'll give him that.

We rode/ran to the edge of the Presidio, to the bosom of the Pacific Ocean, as Walter Sobchak would say. We walked a winding path to the water, and were provided with a magnificent view of the Golden Gate Bridge, from "behind"- an uncommon angle for most visitors. The waves were tall and the undertow was strong, but not as strong as the inexplicable pull of seeing a nude person on the beach. It was a man, maybe 65, flipping like a fish from one side to the other. I tried not to stare and took a snapshot so I wouldn't have to. It came out well. I particularly like the other man in the forefront, passing with his head trained on his shoe tops.

We made our way over to Chestnut street and as usual had burritos at Los Hermanos. They were more delicious than usual, having just finished a 7 or 8 mile run (with a break to see the ocean up close). We plan to go back next week, maybe to take in some sun, but not naked.

1st show of Theme Time

Just listened to the first BDTTRH episode of season 3. BDTTRH, if it's not obvious, stands for Bob Dylan Theme Time Radio Hour. It was a tremendous episode. The theme was "night." Dylan was clever and funny and rolled out several good anecdotes. He played a dry cleaning jingle. He recited a few poems, the last and best, Goodnight by Carl Sandburg. He talked about Fred Astaire, lullabies, Film Noir, exotic plants, juju, Batman, the Great Blackout, Van Gogh- other bits that slip my mind.

He played two terrific songs before ending with Help me Make it through the Night by Kris Kristofferson. The two songs were by the Latin Playboys and Charles Brown, respectively. Forever Night Shade Mary was the first. It was the type of song that makes your skin crawl with it's simple perfection. I didn't catch the title of the second one but I hope to figure it out. Another great tune was Nightlife, by Willie Nelson.

I looked online to see if the first two seasons has been released on CD. Not yet. There was, however, a scathing review of the show on Amazon, posted amid angry reviews of a few Theme Time CD knock-offs from Britain. It was by a music fan who claimed to have over 200,000 CDs! How is it that this person even has time to listen to Theme Time Radio hour with all those CDs on the shelf? He claimed to know for certain that Dylan did not write what he reads on the radio, and even suggested he was embarrassed by the show. Why would Dylan continue the broadcast if it was a subject of humiliation? Hard to believe.

I'm excited to listen to Dylan every Wednesday. Something to chalk up on the calender and get me through the long months between October and spring training.

XM Radio

Breanne and I got free XM radio for 12 months when we purchased our car a year and a half ago. We liked it so much that we resubscribed after a year. I've been obsessed with Time out of Mind, Dylan's 1997 album for the last two weeks, and in my hazy obsession I recalled that Dylan hosted a radio show every week on XM called Bob Dylan Theme Time Radio Hour. I'd heard it a few times in Lebanon, on the car radio, and loved it. Each show has a theme, and he displays his extensive knowledge of music with every show, playing everything- country, soul, rap, bebop, gospel, jazz- whatever. And it's not only reading. Dylan will take phone calls, play old jingles, recite poetry or dreams, give recipes, and discuss musicians and listen to musicians discussing themselves, among other things.

So, for the first time, Breanne and I looked into the online side of XM. We'd only ever used our subscription in the car. It's supposed to be an easy process- setting it up online- but we had some trouble. First of all, our address had changed and for some reason we weren't able to amend this ourselves. Someone on the hot line did it for us. Then our login info wasn't working. We had to call a few times to get this worked out. The last call, Breanne had them change the password to make sure it worked. She told them to change it to "redsox" and they said it was all set. After hanging up, I tried the password. Didn't work. I did a password recovery and it sent the new password to her email. It was "redfox". Fox. Not sure why the person on the other end of the line didn't say, "so fox, the animal right?" or "fox, f as in farmer?" or something.

Either way, we got it hooked up and it works great. We listened to all sorts of shit last night. We went to sleep listening to some Brahms guy. Tomorrow I'll listen to Theme Time Radio hour.

Castro Theatre

Went to the Castro theatre a few nights ago with Breb and her brother Ryan to see "Cool Hand Luke." Breanne had seen it recently for the first time and loved it. Ryan hadn't heard of it. We took the bus down to the Castro district and got off at the corner by the theatre. It was the Gay/Lesbian district so there were rainbow flags everywhere. We stopped in a tiny bakery and bought some rainbow M&M cookies. Three for 7.50 because the M&M's weighed so much. The walls of the bakery were covered with pictures of naked people.

We bought are tickets and went inside to sit down. It was an attractive ancient looking theatre with a high arched ceiling and fancy box seats. On the small stage in front of the screen was an organ player with his back to the old chairs half filled with an audience. He played a three tiered organ, a small light illuminating his fast moving hands, while his feet rolled across the bass pedals. It made an incredible sound- like a giant band.

As he was finishing the final tune, the stage started dropping slowly until his head was as low as the front seats and his organ light went off. People clapped and he bowed and left through an invisible door.

The movie began. When Paul Newman's face filled up the screen every applauded. It was sad- he just died a few weeks ago. He starred in some of my favorite films.

It was easily the coolest movie theatre I've ever been in. It's one of the oldest in the country and last of it's kind. They show mostly older movies and appropriately are showing the world premier of "Milk," the Harvey Milk story. http://www.castrotheatre.com/

Greatest Comeback Ever

The Sox pulled off the "2nd greatest" comeback in the history of the postseason last night. I put that in quotations because I looked at that game, from 79 years ago, and the two can't be compared. The game in question is a Phillies comeback against the hapless Cubs in 1929. The Phillies were down 8 runs going into the bottom of the 7th and scored 10. They ended up winning 10-8. No doubt this is an incredible comeback. But let's talk about context.
The Phillies already owned a 2-1 lead in the series. They weren't facing elimination in the bottom of the 7th, only a tied up series. Neither team had made it to the World Series in over a decade so it wasn't an underdog deal.
Now in the Rays/Sox series, we're looking at an entirely different beast. The Rays are indisputably the hottest team in baseball right now. 38 runs through 5 games including Thursday's game at Fenway, and for the third consecutive game they jumped out to an early 5-0 lead. The Sox have been in a stupor since dropping a slugfest in game 2, having only scored 5 runs in 25 innings up to the 7th last night. And they were facing elimination against one of baseball's best bullpens. Also, scoring 8 runs over three separate innings is often harder than scoring 10 in one. They scored 4 in the 7th, 3 in the 8th, and the final run a walk-off in the bottom of the 9th. Ortiz finally did something, pumping a low fastball deep into the grandstand for a three run homer. Drew hit a 2-run dinger the next inning on a fast ball out over the plate. Coco had the best at bat of the game and poked a run scoring single in the 8th. And of course, Drew delivered again in the 9th with a rocket over Gabe Gross's head in right.
So I consider it the greatest single game comeback in postseason history. Maybe I'd feel different if I'd seen the game in 1929. In fact, I probably would because it would have had time to expand and morph in my mind until it was a 23 run deficit with 2 outs in the 9th and all Phillies had broken legs.
Last night was amazing. A miracle. Inexplicable. Really. When they won I leaped off the carpet and screamed a piercing scream. It made me feel like I did in 2004 against the Yankees. I only hope they can carry this momentum into Tropicana field.

Elvis in the Park

Elvis Costello performed in the park on Sunday in San Francisco as part of a free concert called "Hardly Strictly Bluegrass." MC Hammer was one of the opening acts on Friday. Allison Krauss and Robert Plant headlined friday night but I opted to watch the Sox game in Oakland. There were about 50 bands in all but I'd only heard of a few of them.
I heard that they had valet bike parking over the weekend in the Golden Gate park so I rode my bicycle over on Sunday. It was a short ride, mostly down hill, and I found the bike lot without any problems. They gave me a ticket and "parked" my bike for me. It took me a little while to find the Star stage but I got there early enough to get a patch of grass under a tree about 75 to 100 feet from the stage. I was fortunate that an annoying country and western cover band was playing, which probably deterred a lot of early arriving Costello fans from sticking around till the show. I read and ate some cranberries and pumpkins seeds I'd brought along.
Ben Kweller was the act before Elvis. I'd heard some of his much before. It was OK, generic but he had a good voice. He sounded like he was trying to be Ryan Adams. The fans started to roll in and soon I was surrounded by a lot of hippies and dogs and families with folding chairs and blankets. It was sort of annoying that I'd been there for about two hours and then some dumb couple shows up 10 minutes before the show and basically sits on my lap but I didn't say anything. I guess that's standard at outdoor shows.
Elvis came on at 2:30, as planned, and kicked it off with Angels wanna wear my Red Shoes. His back up band, roses and whine or something, wasn't spectacular but Elvis sounded great. He seemed into it too, bouncing around in front of the mic stand. He did a couple more standard Elvis concert tracks and then Wild Night
by Van Morrison. A lot of the songs were countrified, fittingly. A few more songs, then back to back great performances with Friend of the Devil and a track off his new album, My Three Sons. The latter wasn't received all that well but I thought it sounded perfect.
After a duet with some guy who's name I missed, Emmylou Harris joined him for Love Hurts and Scarlet Tide. The Tide was his last song, and it was a good choice. Emmylou can really wail. She was almost overpowering Elvis.

I picked up my bike, tipped the valet, and made it home to watch the Red Sox.
They lost, in 12 innings, but they won the series tonight in dramatic fashion with a Jed Lowrie walk-off single that scored Jason Bay from second. Now for the Rays.

Cubs Lose

The Cubs were just swept by the Dodgers. What is wrong with that team? Alfonso Soriano just struck out on a check swing to finish 1-14 in the series (3-28 over the last two seasons with three singles). But it's not just Soriano and his Mendozaic playoff numbers that are at fault, it's the Cubs. I listened to all three games and they were never really close in any of them. They're so frightened of not breaking the century slump that they can't concentrate on playing good baseball.

I was reading Three Nights in August while listening to the games tonight. Though the book chronicles a three game series between the Cubs and Cardinals during the 2003 season, several of the players mentioned in the book are still with the former club. Jim Edmonds was on the Cardinals at the time and now he plays with Chicago. I love playoff baseball. I like the teams that are involved this year too, specifically the Rays and Dodgers. Hard to believe they could end up facing each other in the World Series.

Last night I watched the Sox beat the Angels, in Anahiem, on a large Plexiglas protected television in a bar in Oakland. J.D. Drew, partial villain of Three Nights in August, hit a tie-breaking home run off K-Rod in the 9th. It was a thrilling victory and puts the Red Sox in firm position to win the series with Josh Beckett squaring up against Joe Saunders at home in Boston tomorrow. Beckett, arguably the most effective postseason pitcher ever, isn't 100% but hopefully he can get through 6 or 7 strong innings.

Clearly I was wrong about the Cubs winning the World series, and it looks like I'll be wrong about the White Sox getting to the ALCS as well, but I'd rather be wrong anyway.

God's Obituary

"ATLANTA, Ga., Nov. 9—God, creator of the universe, principal deity of the world's Jews, ultimate reality of Christians, and most eminent of all divinities, died late yesterday during major surgery undertaken to correct a massive diminishing influence. "Reaction from the world's great and from the man in the street was uniformly incredulous . . . From Independence, Mo., former President Harry S. Truman, who received the news in his Kansas City barbershop, said 'I'm always sorry to hear somebody is dead. It's a damn shame." -Methodist Student Magazine, Atlanta, 1965

I didn't write this. I lifted it off the internet.

Crichton

THIS IS NOT A NEW BLOG.

I am simply recycling some older blogs in hopes of expanding my readership (is that a word?). Some of the newer blogs will be previous posts from Myspace, Facebook, and Manspot (which doesn't exist yet but will probably be the next big thing).

Damn that Michael Crichton. He's sort of like Dan Brown except intelligent. Dan Brown only had one good idea, and it wasn't even his. Crichton has more ideas than a day has jiffies. I love the Jurassic Park movies, I don't care how bad the acting is: Dinosaurs. 'Jurassic Park' was the first Crichton novel I picked up. Even though I knew the story, and the characters were described like it was a pulp novel, the story was just so God damn gripping, and again, I knew the ending! So then I had to read 'Lost World'. Then I read 'Terminal Man'. Then 'Congo'. Keep in mind that there are so many other things I want to read. But Michael Crichton makes it so simple. One can almost doze off while reading one of his books, its that light and fluid. And they read like screenplays. Things develop at that pace. I think nowadays he probably writes the book with a screenplay in mind. And his books are riddled with identical characters. There is always an athletic man, who was very precocious as a kid, could fix anything by taking it apart, graduated college when he was 19, etc. And his love interest, same story intelligence wise, but she's a bossy know-it-all with no desire in a relationship, her only goal is to find the antidote/ancient city/portal/sunken treasure, etc. All disparaging comments on his writing ability aside, Crichton has to be a moderately smart guy. He graduated from Harvard Medical School, was a visiting lecturer for two years on Anthropology at Cambridge, worked at MIT. He also created the show 'E.R.'. But mainly the guy shits best-selling books. And it's obvious why they're bestsellers. They talk about aliens, time warps, dinosaurs, apocalyptic shit, robots. Ask your everyday guy on the street and those are probably his 5 most favorite things.I'm reading 'Timeline' right now. This is it, really, my last one. I just need to find out how that modern bifocal was buried in that catacomb that hadn't been entered in 650 years. How did it get there?

*NEW INFO: following this original blog posting, my opinion of Crichton was boosted greatly. Apparently in his upcoming book he has a character named Mick Crowley, a Yale graduate and a Washington, D.C.-based political columnist. Crowley is also a child molester. Coincidentally, Crichton was publicly derided last year for his stance on global warming by one Michael Crowley, a Yale graduate who happens to be a political columnist in Washington, D.C. Fuck yeah, Crichton!

Baseball Playoffs

It's October, which means it's time for the playoffs. I'm excited that the Red Sox made it in as the wild card. Considering all the injuries, the loss of Ramirez and the fine play of the Rays, a 95-67 season is very good. In the first round, the Rays are up against the White Sox while the Angels square up against the Red Sox.

RED SOX/ANGELS

The Red Sox are 6-0 in the postseason against the Angels since 2004, 9-0 since game 4 of the 1986 ALCS, the last time the Angels beat the Sox in postseason play. However, the Angels won 8 of 9 contests between the two teams this season, sweeping the last two series. Granted the Red Sox weren't playing their best ball of the season when they were swept at home in July, the Angels outscored them 59-33 on the season, with the one Sox win coming in their first meeting of the season with the Sox fighting back after an atrocious start by David Pauly.

And though the Red Sox are limping into October, I wouldn't count them out just yet. Most scouts are giving the Angel's the upper hand in regards to pitching. I would take Lester, Matsuzaka and Beckett (even at 85%) over Lackey, Santana and Saunders any day of the week. No one can dispute that the Angels, thanks to the acquisition of Hunter and Teixeira, have a better offense at the moment. Though Vlad tends to disappear during the postseason, I would still swap him for a Bay or Lowell or Drew. Not to mention Anderson, Figgins, Kendrick, and possibly Gary Matthews.

The Red Sox have to rely on pitching to win this series. The bullpen has to be tighter and the Sox have to use their proven playoff experience as leverage. With a little luck and a good series from the big three of Pedrioa, Ortiz, and Youkilis, the Sox can prevail.

PREDICTION: Red Sox in 5.

WHITE SOX/RAYS

The Rays have definitely impressed me this year. No one predicted their sudden rise to excellence, I don't care what anyone claims. Even so, the Rays slowed down over the last month and a half and have yet prove they can win when everything is on the line. They are an extremely young team, and they're bound to be good for a long time with one of the strongest farm systems thanks to a handful of no.1 picks. The White Sox have numerous players who were on the team in '05 when they won and they have veteran pitchers in Buerhle and Vazquez. The Rays staff had a better regular season but in a short series I have to give the White Sox the advantage. They're hot at the right time and I have to wonder if the Rays can rise to the occasion with only a half-filled Tropicana field. Rays fans should be ashamed at their attendance numbers.

PREDICTION: White Sox in 4.

Let's assume that I'm right about the both of these. I'm usually not, but imagine and all Sox ALCS. If the Red Sox can get here I definitely pick them over the Whiteys. Better staff, comparable offense, better defense, better managing, and more experience. Perhaps even a healthier Lowell, Youk and Coco.

PREDICTION: Red Sox in 5.

I'm not going into detail concerning my National League picks. I'm just going to lay it out. Phillies in 4. Cubs in 4. Cubs defeat Phillies in 7 games.

WORLD SERIES PREDICTION: Cubs over Red Sox in 7 games.

For the record, last season I correctly predicted each stage of the American league playoffs (Sox over Angels, Indians over Yankees, Sox over Indians). I did not foresee the Rockies making the World Series, but I did correctly guess the Red Sox would win. Of course, I always predict the Sox to win. It's not so much foresight as wishful thinking.