Yeesh, this heat is getting on my last nerve. The last few days have been less hot than it’s been in the worst weeks of summer, but so muggy my glasses steamed when I got out of the car last night. My scalp never feels entirely dry, and that spot at the base of the skull? Swampy. Ick.
So when Alan accepted a night at Comerica Park as part of an automotive media event Friday night, I was highly dubious. “Field box or suite?” I asked. Suite. He thought so, anyway. I enjoy a night at the ball park as much as the next girl, but it was 91 degrees at 6 p.m. Even the most casual business casual is miserable in weather like that.
I settled on khakis and linen, but needn’t have fretted. Because it was, indeed, a suite. And General Motors’ might be the second-best in the whole joint:
Let me put it this way: One of the GM people brought her son and another boy. After a couple innings, they went next door to get an autograph, having spotted Willie Horton sitting a few feet away, in the owner’s suite.
Add the air conditioning and the food, and all I can say is, this is civilization. Of course, now I’m spoiled for the field seats more or less forever.
Tigers won, 10-2. But you Clevelanders already knew that.
The rest of the weekend went swimmingly. Eastern Market (sweaty scalp) followed by errands (sweatier) followed by gym (total schvitz-a-thon) followed by cooking and shower and cocktails with friends. I indulged in a little Laphroaig, not my usual summer drink, but oh well. I thought it tasted oaky and peaty. Alan took a sip and said, “lavender and manure.” For this you pay $9.75 for 1.5 fingers, but it lasted a good long while.
And now to the bloggage. Because it seems we’ll never see the end of our peculiar American insanity, I offer the following as a cautionary tale:
Ugh.
After last week’s bite-the-medal photo array, I offer…kiss the medal. I guess it beats “swing it around your head and smack someone on the head with it,” but it does make for some repetitive photography.
This picture, however, of the first woman from Saudi Arabia to ever compete in an Olympic Games, sort of touched my heart. The look on her face. She didn’t last two minutes, but I have to think she did some good for somebody in that time.
Onward to the new week. Still enjoying summer, despite its best efforts to kill me.
Dexter said on August 6, 2012 at 2:38 am
I’ve been to hundreds of MLB games in the past forty-nine years and have sat and stood in all areas of seating and SRO areas, but never a suite. Like Caliban / Prospero, in Detroit I preferred the bleachers at old Tiger Stadium, my perch being at the very top of the left-center field seats where between innings I could turn around and have a splendid view of the environs around the ballpark. The new park, 12 years old now, is great for field box holders, but damn, the grandstand level, the 200s and 300s, way too far away from home plate. Bill Veeck always said the knowledge of the game by the fans is in direct contrast to the price of a ticket, with bleacher fans being the most knowledgeable.
Well…maybe some of that’s still true, but it’s surely not a hard-fast rule.
I always keep a scorecard at games. I used to see lots of people doing that, too, especially at White Sox games. Now? It’s rare to see any fan keeping score. Keeping score is fun, but as Sweet Brown says, “ain’t nobody got time for that!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udS-OcNtSWo
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Connie said on August 6, 2012 at 7:20 am
As a kid I went to Tiger games regularly on the GM tickets, courtesy of VP Uncle John. There were no boxes but third base line was a mighty fine view.
I am back from a fine and quiet week up north.
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alex said on August 6, 2012 at 8:00 am
I once got to see a Sox game from a suite in the new Comiskey Park, courtesy of an ad agency where I had connections. It was like sitting on the rim of a teacup and watching microorganisms play ball.
What a couple of sweltering days we had here too. It’s so nice to have the AC off again.
This weekend I became the proud new co-owner of the property next door. Some of you may recall that I was aghast when my late neighbor’s son was chucking all of her belongings into dumpsters with no regard for any of it. My opinion of him changed quite favorably when he offered me the house and its wooded lakefront acre property for a price considerably below market value. My parents and I snapped it up and we’re going to make an investment property out of it. It’s in move-in condition although we plan to replace its rather ungainly concrete back patio with a wooden deck. If anyone knows some renters around here with good credit and a love of nature who would like to wake up to a spectacular view and send their kids to the highly desirable Leo public schools, send ’em my way please.
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coozledad said on August 6, 2012 at 8:08 am
Cool, Alex. Can you use the patio as the foundation for the deck, or does it have to be ripped up?
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alex said on August 6, 2012 at 8:31 am
Cooz, that’s still being investigated. I want the deck to be flush with the sliding glass doors that lead out to it so if we built on top of the concrete we’d have to shave off a couple of inches. We might do better to remove it and put in piers. We’re thinking of using my partner’s brother’s walk-behind concrete saw, then take the slabs to another part of the property with a Bobcat and built some raised garden beds with them and use the dirt inside the patio as fill. The concrete patio is about three feet or more high on the distal side as the yard slopes considerably.
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Dorothy said on August 6, 2012 at 8:54 am
Alex please take pictures as you progress through that project. That sounds really cool. When we had our house built almost 4 years ago, we knew we wanted to put in a patio in the back eventually. The builder had a concrete pad put in off of our sliding glass doors on the lower level, but Mike made sure the pad was low enough that we could put brick on top of it. I do have a set of pictures of the work we did on Flickr if anyone wants to see them. Not as an instructional thing – just in case anyone is curious. Mike did a walkway from the front yard, jumped over the concrete driveway, and picked up with the brick walkway again from beside the garage to the back patio. I was a cranky & reluctant helper when he needed to “strike” the sand to make it level for the brick laying. I was impressed that Mike did such a nice job considering he’d never done it before.
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uncle rameau said on August 6, 2012 at 9:08 am
Makes me feel so old to realize that Busch stadium has been replaced, when I have the framed certificate from attending opening night in 1966. We had stadium club seats through Dad’s job selling helicopter engines to the Army Aviation Materiel Command, which required wining and dining Colonels and Generals and other GS-15 types. No boxes, but pretty sweet for the day. Vividly remember the All-Star game of ’66 for the brownouts in the suburbs as power was diverted to downtown to keep the air conditioning load from completely blacking out the area – Wikipedia says it was “a humid 105 degrees.”
Wasn’t quite that hot at Comerica yesterday in the cheap seats, but it felt close.
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Bitter Scribe said on August 6, 2012 at 10:11 am
Of course this is when my gym decided to close the men’s showers for renovation, meaning when it’s too hot to run outside (as has been the norm all summer), I get all the inconvenience of commuting to the gym plus the added inconvenience of trundling home bathed in sweat.
(Although to be fair, it would have been worse during winter.)
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Judybusy said on August 6, 2012 at 10:15 am
We finally got a cool-down on Saturday–lows in the 60s and highs in low eighties and upper 70s over the weekend. Heaven! It meant we could finally go out into the yard and weed and dead-head.(Part of the neglect has been due to a really busy social calendar, too.)
That video of how to increase your chances of surviving a shooting was chilling, but had good information. I did notice that the men were almost all the active players, leading the women out of the building, and certainly the ones that took on the shooter in an attack. The women continued to whimper and cower while they did this. It sends a poor message to women!
The story of the Saudi woman was touching. In another big first, Pistorious from South Africa got to run on his cheetah feet. I thought it was really touching how the winner of that race exchanged bibs with him. Much more heartfelt than the fake hugs you see in women’s gymnastics.
And now for the first palate-cleanser of the day, for all the dog-lovers in the house.
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coozledad said on August 6, 2012 at 10:19 am
Here’s the nasty little shit that shot those people.
http://gawker.com/5932096/is-this-white+power-hardcore-guitarist-the-milwaukee-sikh-temple-shooter
The Republicans have basically shut down federal intelligence gathering on white supremacists by DHS. Good thing the SPLC was on it, or we wouldn’t know anything about this piece of garbage.
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brian stouder said on August 6, 2012 at 10:32 am
Cooz – that was an enlightening, unpleasant link; and Judybusy – that was the palate cleanser to beat all palate cleansers;Superb!
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Julie Robinson said on August 6, 2012 at 10:44 am
Thank you, Judybusy. That was the perfect antidote for me after yesterday’s shooting and a couple of bad pain days. There are so many good and caring people in the world and it’s wonderful that they are given recognition.
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Joe K said on August 6, 2012 at 10:57 am
Good Dog!
Pilot Joe
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alex said on August 6, 2012 at 11:53 am
I saw the dog picture sometime last week and was amazed to learn he was 19 years old. A Belgian Malinois police dog made the front page of yesterday’s local paper–he’s retiring at 14 but still has what it takes. Wow, it was almost a year ago that I lost my old Doberman, age unknown but probably around 14.
Dorothy, I’m going to set up a new Flickr account. I had one before but forgot my password and it would never let me back in. I can still google it up though. Amazing–it has been seven years already.
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Catherine said on August 6, 2012 at 1:08 pm
I spent last night at a group-viewing of the Curiosity Mars rover landing. It was extraordinarily moving to be with a group of people for such an amazing event. Seeing middle-aged, bearded, ordinarily jaded & skeptical engineers cry tears of joy and relief is not something I expect to see many more times in my life. I totally teared up myself when my 11 YO daughter said, “I hope someday I do something like that, it’s so cool.”
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LAMary said on August 6, 2012 at 1:35 pm
Catherine, I’ve got a few JPL neighbors and they were the same way. Just amazing. Have you even gone to the JPL open house? It’s fascinating and the folks there are beyond enthusiastic about showing kids around.
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Prospero said on August 6, 2012 at 1:37 pm
I once saw Willie Horton break his bat on a swing and miss. That is awe-inspiring strength. Saw Earl Wilson pitch a one-hitter in Tiger Stadiu, That place rocked.It was basically a wooden structure and fans would stamp theeir feet during late innings rallies. Sounded like it was coming down. Saw a brawl in Tiger Stadium once. Willie and Gates stood back to back and laid the Yankees out in order. Laughed my ass off.
This is seriously revolting:
http://gawker.com/5932160/fox-news-viewers-think-sikh-temple-shooting-story-is-inspiring
If I were a gun-toting sort, these mofos would be target practice:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/05/westboro-responds-to-wisc_n_1745173.html?1344206543
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Prospero said on August 6, 2012 at 1:38 pm
uncle rameau: You reminded me of one of my favorite songs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCW6Kte2o1A
It’s a great disappointment in my life neveer to have seen XTC. Apparently, Andy Partridge suffers stage fright, so they don’t tour.
You knnow, if RMoney did avoid paying taxes, and if he does publich his returns, there’s gopn be lot of ‘splainin’ to do. Reince Priebus witll have to pull his head out of his ass. And Willard will owe the President an apology.
Regarding the heat, you could be in Stillwater:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/its-so-hot-in-oklahoma-that-street-lights-are-mel?fb_ref=recbar
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Jolene said on August 6, 2012 at 2:00 pm
Something I’ve been enjoying about the Olympics is seeing all the great photos. So fascinating to see the extremes of conditioning come into play in these extreme activities. Also fascinating to see the fit between body type and sport–for example, the nearly triangular torso of Michael Phelps, the contrast between the height and power of the women’s rowing team and their sylph-like coxswain. There are photo galleries on all the major news sites, of course. The Atlantic has just posted a collection that contains some pics that are already iconic and some that I hadn’t seen before. Also some that give you a sense of what it’s like to be one of the photographers and one of the photographed.
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LAMary said on August 6, 2012 at 2:12 pm
Thanks for that link, Jolene. Great photos.
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Prospero said on August 6, 2012 at 2:18 pm
Great stuff on that Flick’r Alex. Are those line drawings your work. Thurberian. Why was the train station built underground?
Fox Sports, not so good at geography:
http://gawker.com/5932167/fox-sports-cant-tell-the-difference-between-iraq-and-iran?comment=51599832
Jolene, the cox is always little. Saves weight. A friend of my brother’s at Princeton was the men’s eight cox. He had polio as a child and his legs were withered. He was in a wheelchair, but that didn’t come close to making him act normal. Guy was a lunatic. Hell on wheels.
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Judybusy said on August 6, 2012 at 2:55 pm
Thanks, Jolene. Makes me wish I could take two weeks off and watch more than just swimming and gymnastics. At least there is track now, too.
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Catherine said on August 6, 2012 at 3:34 pm
LAMary @16, yes, the JPL open house is extremely cool and open to almost everybody.
Getting on my soap box, open houses and achievements like last night’s are how we’re going to get kids interested in STEM.
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Prospero said on August 6, 2012 at 3:48 pm
Holy shit. What a miraculous world we live in that has a walk-behind concrete saw in it I’m an accomplished writer of Construction Contracts and know a shitload about construction materials. But my favorite job in my life was hanging a jack hammer from a ceiling and forcing it through a three-wythe brick wall. A walk-behind concrete saw is just one awesome tool. Please take pictures, Alex. Does that sucker use water? I’ve built quite a few decks. Got a 22 oz. Estwing for that purpose. Serious hommer. Makes me think of:
O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in’t!
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Sherri said on August 6, 2012 at 3:52 pm
The JPL open house reminds me of the USGS open houses I used to go to when I lived in Silcon Valley. Those were great – cool stuff for kids, but cool stuff for grown-up geeks, too. The 10th Triennial open house was earlier this year: http://openhouse.wr.usgs.gov/2012/index.html.
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Prospero said on August 6, 2012 at 3:54 pm
He passed the same law in Massachusetts. What sort of bullshit is this. He didn’t mean it? It wasn’t formed in the Heritage Foundation? Those GOPer think tank guys put the camel’s nose in the tent. How fracking hilarious is that?
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Joe K said on August 6, 2012 at 5:22 pm
Pro @18, The street lamps were melted because of a dumpster fire. Someone tried to use the picture to prove global warming. FAKE.
Pilot Joe
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beb said on August 6, 2012 at 6:15 pm
The melting street lights picture may be fake but evidence mounts that Global warming is real. I was down in Indiana Saturday night when a cold front went through. Lots of violent weather. Hope you went flying through it.
It’s a weird world where woman in Saudi Arabia can’t drive cars but they can compete in Judo in the Olympics. It would be wonderful if in 2016 SA could field a whole team of women Judo students.
My wife and I went to a number of Tigers game back when they were at Tigers Stadium. We’ve boycotted Comerica Park. Tiger Stadium was awesome because the upper deck seats were so close to the field of play, you could actually see what was going on. For some reason one year when we were down in Cincinnati for some reason we decided to go to a game there. It was terrible. The seats were so far back that it was like watching the game on a 10 inch TV from the other end of the room.
Another mass murder? They’re like measles, one case leads to another.
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beb said on August 6, 2012 at 8:04 pm
For the anti-foodie in all of us…
http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/adventures-in-indiana-state-fair-food-2012/
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Deborah said on August 6, 2012 at 8:35 pm
This whole Nazi skinhead music genre is really disturbing. And it sounds like North Carolina is a hotbed for this kind of thing. My condolences Coozeldad. My mother in law lives in Charlotte, I’ve made a few trips there since she’s moved there from Sarasota to be near her youngest daughter, and the Democratic Convention will be held there this summer. I hope it will be without incident.
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Prospero said on August 6, 2012 at 8:46 pm
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2012/08/05/hispanics-stand-out-their-support-obama-health-law-which-could-affect-voting-decisions/mIj2VwmA5bwUEYXwskbcFJ/story.html?camp=newsletter
How can anybody support personal ownership of assault weapons? No way that’s in the 2nd Amendment. Should I be able to buy an RPG? A bazooka? What the hell is wrong with people? Assault weapons? With 100 round magazines? There is absolutely no use for this shit but shooting lots of people in a very short time.
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Prospero said on August 6, 2012 at 8:47 pm
I want a tank.
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basset said on August 6, 2012 at 9:11 pm
Concrete… down at Middle Tennessee State you can major in concrete:
http://www.mtsucim.com/
you come out of it knowing about concrete and in great demand in the construction industry.
History majors, not so much. Basset Jr. is still looking for real work.
My FIL introduced me to Laphroaig, he drank mid to low level scotch for years and when he hit 80 said the hell with it, he was gonna drink what he wanted to drink. good stuff though I may not be qualified to say so… our local liquor store does informal wine tastings sometimes, I wandered by and they offered me some, ended up with me standing there feeling ignorant and the rest of them repeatedly expressing their amazement that I didn’t taste black pepper “in the finish” and giving me shit because I had not “developed a palate.”
On top of that, three of the four bottles they had out were named after songs from some rock band I’d never heard of, “Train”… got some attitude for that too, what do you mean you have never heard of Train? Guess I’m just old and in the way.
And how can someone claim to write about Indiana State Fair food without getting a tenderloin and a shook-up lemonade?
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Joe K said on August 6, 2012 at 9:12 pm
Beb,
If global warming is real, why do they have to FAKE pictures? Yes I did fly thru the storms, I left Auburn to go to Dayton around 11:45pm so I was behind the first wave, but on the way to Omaha I dodged around the 2nd wave in Illinois.Go to flightaware.com and put in 87403 you can see my track from day to oma. I hope you meant I got thru them ok and not I HAD to fly thru heavy weather because of my global warming or political beliefs.
Pilot Joe
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coozledad said on August 6, 2012 at 9:16 pm
Deborah:It’s not totally bad down here if you avoid the gas stations, malls, towns, churches and the rural areas,or anywhere the locals might prey on interstate commerce.
It got really bad after Homeland Security decided to stop exploring the link between the Republicans’ desire to own automatic weapons and early onset sex apnea.
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basset said on August 6, 2012 at 9:28 pm
Now how that happened I do not know… reply below is supposed to be @33, can’t seem to change it… meanwhile, I replied to a comment Joe hadn’t even made yet. Must be the difference in time zones.
Concrete… down at Middle Tennessee State you can major in concrete:
http://www.mtsucim.com/
you come out of it knowing about concrete and in great demand in the construction industry.
History majors, not so much. Basset Jr. is still looking for real work.
My FIL introduced me to Laphroaig, he drank mid to low level scotch for years and when he hit 80 said the hell with it, he was gonna drink what he wanted to drink. good stuff though I may not be qualified to say so… our local liquor store does informal wine tastings sometimes, I wandered by and they offered me some, ended up with me standing there feeling ignorant and the rest of them repeatedly expressing their amazement that I didn’t taste black pepper “in the finish” and giving me shit because I had not “developed a palate.”
On top of that, three of the four bottles they had out were named after songs from some rock band I’d never heard of, “Train”… got some attitude for that too, what do you mean you have never heard of Train? Guess I’m just old and in the way.
And how can someone claim to write about Indiana State Fair food without getting a tenderloin and a shook-up lemonade?
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 6, 2012 at 11:36 pm
This place does exist; I’ve visited it. The Drainage Hall of Fame.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g50226-d209200-Reviews-Drainage_Hall_of_Fame-Columbus_Ohio.html
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brian stouder said on August 6, 2012 at 11:47 pm
basset – I have absolutely no understanding of alcohol/wine/”developed palate”.
The real truth is? Beer tastes terrible, wine tastes terrible, and the hard stuff is genuinely awful! I recall, back when I was a young buck and people offered me a beer (or whatever) people saying “you have to develop a taste for it”.
Gimme an icy cold Diet Pepsi (or Diet Coke) – which you don’t have to “develop a taste” for.
And – a pork sandwich on pork producer’s day at Purdue University is about the best thing a person can possibly eat in Indiana, I think.
Joe K – global warming/climate change is yet another issue that, over the years, I have had different opinions on. I remember when Newsweek magazine ran cover stories about the coming ice-age – especially around the huge blizzards we had back in the late ’70’s.
And indeed, the number one driver of climate change on Earth is – the sun. It is a mistake to think that that star is a steady, constant radiator of energy; the heat we get from the radiation of the sun varies over time.
But – that said, there’s no good reason to foul our air and otherwise polute our environment; and indeed, so-called “greenhouse gases” should be limited. And indeed, far from being a “job killer”, EPA regulations on emissions reduction is a huge job driver.
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brian stouder said on August 6, 2012 at 11:51 pm
Jeff, I like how the drainage hall of fame is the 55th most popular thing, on a list of 62 things to see in Columbus! And – “free parking” and “no lines”!
Next month I’m going to do the Lincoln Colloquium in Indianapolis, and I almost think I’ll be able to dragoon at least one of the kids into coming with me….although maybe not (what with school back upon them, and all).
We shall see
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brian stouder said on August 7, 2012 at 12:00 am
I forgot to mention one last thing. Way back in the day, ol’ Nance was a commentator on WANE Channel 15 for awhile, and as it happens, our house is directly (directly!) beside their facility; our backyard faces onto their side and back parking lot, and their back doors and machinery and so on.
In recent days, Channel 15 has redone their entire news set, and gone for a whole new look…and this evening Pam and I were gabbing on the swing in the backyard, when she noticed that they have a large dumpster which is heaped full and overflowing with…. the remnants of their old set!
This immediately got us laughing, and reminded us of the Seinfeld wherein Kramer gets hold of Dick Cavett’s (or whoever) old set, and assembles it in his apartment; and then when he has Jerry and the others over, he has them sit on the couch and he conducts a talk show!
Pammy snapped a photo of the heaped-full Channel 15 dumpster and facebooked it, which has sparked a few funny comments; can’t tell you how to get there, but it’s there
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 7, 2012 at 12:18 am
Nancy, make sure to read Orwell’s “Down and Out in London & Paris” (I think B&N has a low cost pb version on their “Classics” rack, or it’s online in a number of formats). Later comments and biographers have called into question the strict accuracy of the narrative as he tells it, but I think Barbara Ehrenreich would vouch for the essential accuracy of what he’s talking about.
Those two books had a profound influence on me. I grew up in an upper-middle-class exurb county seat, feeling ill-used as a kid because I was less well endowed with pocket cash than most of my peers. Had to cross the river from the Purdue campus to realize what I’d spend over and past and thru in south Chicago, and in Lafayette and those Orwell books I started to come to grips with what it meant to be born on second base, or to be born with two outs in the eighth inning and you have to step up to the plate and swing before you’re taller than your own strike zone.
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