Apr 9, 2012

... off-handedness ... (UPDATED! 4/10/12)

So, after Josh Hamilton put on a baseball clinic last night, Yu Darvish faces real-life Major Leaguers in a game that counts for the first time ever.  The fantastic Ranger blog, BBTiA is holding a contest to pick Darvish's "line" for tonight.  Here was my entry:  6 2/3 IP -- 3 H -- 0 ER -- 5 BB -- 9 K -- 0 HR -- 70 Game Score.  (Game Score is a fun integer stat invented by the stat geek master, Bill James.  Below 50 is below average.  Above 90 is crazy good.  Below 30 is very bad indeed.)

And, also, in baseball related news, Les Bonnes Femmes, my fantasy baseball team is off to a very good start and currently holds down first place.  It is still v early, though, and anything could happen.  Matt Harrison, the Ranger pitcher who I yelled at last year at a Rangers/A's game, was Les Bonnes Femmes' big star last night w/ six shut-out innings (and a game score of seventy-five!)

It is Springtime -- I am feeling very twee and Postcard Pop today.


But, I will have to follow Darvish's debut tonight on my new toy (if the Hyatt will give me the password for their wi-fi) because I am going to a trade tasting tonight with my rock star buddy, Justin G.  Justin will get to see what a trade tasting is like:  spit buckets, rinses, crappy cheap wine, stunning good wine, wine that is being poured even though it should still be resting comfortably in its bottle, obnoxious tasters getting wasted, obnoxious tasters pushing and shoving, exasperated and tired vendors, schmoozy annoying suit-wearing Southern Wine and Spirits Reps, decent snacks, and oh so much more! Listen, working in the Wine Industry is an absolute joy, with tons of fantastic perks, but trade tastings are not one of them.

I also just received my latest edition of OOTP, OOTP 13.  It looks better than ever even though I have not been able to really devour it yet.  I just started a fictional league that will start play in 1968 (the year I was born.)  I will be managing the Memphis Soul.

Things are looking up!

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Just read that facebook bought Instagram for one billion dollars.  Zuckerburg maintains that Instagram will run independent of facebook and that users will be able to post their photos to Twitter, still, and keep their Instagram friends completely separate from their facebook friends.  I love Instagram.  So does my Wife and many of our friends.  I really hope Zuckerburg is being honest and does not fuck this up.  But it would not surprise me, either.  That is life in the big-time Capitalistic future-shocked world we live in.

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I just started folding laundry, and suddenly two very sleepy kitties, who had been passed out, comatose on the bed, are most interested in hanging out with me in the "fun" room, helping me "fold" laundry.

Mavis, "folding" clothes.

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Looks like Mittens has this thing all wrapped up now, hunh? And the rumors are flying about when Santorum and Newt will drop out.  Soon, Mittens will get a chance to shake that Etch-a-Sketch and veer back to the center.

My fave strategy of the Mittens Campaign, though, is sending out his wife to appeal to women voters.  This is after over two straight years of the GOP's official War on American Women™.

Ever since the Teabaggers took over the House, our fine Public Servants of the GOP have been hell-bent on doing the following things:  Defund Planned Parenthood, investigate any frickin' thing they can to tar Obama, and bring up idiotic budget votes that have absolutely no chance of even getting cloture in the Dem controlled Senate.

Meanwhile, in states where the GOP controls the legislature, they are hacking furiously at a woman's (still) Legal Right to Choose as quickly and invasively as they can.

This has got to be about the stupidest, most inane general election strategy I have seen in all my years.  They can trot out all the wives they want, all repeating the same Fox News Talking Points, that Women care not about birth control or their legal right to choose, and are really worried about gas prices, but women ain't gonna fall for that crap.  And they will lose a lot of GOP women, to boot, with this ridiculous rationale.

Good luck in November, guys.

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I will end with two more Women Michael Loves:  Fay Weldon and Caryl Churchill.  Ms Weldon gets her spot here for her delicious, tart, spare, anti-style novel, The Life and Loves of a She-Devil.  (Skip the film, just read the book.) (Plus, I am convinced Weldon's novel was the inspiration for PJ Harvey's monster classic song, Man-Size.)

And Ms Churchill gains her spot for all her work, but in particular her sexual-role busting play, Cloud 9; and her feminist masterpiece play, Top Girls.

Both these women tackle feminist issues head-on every day of their lives and are supreme stylists that have created each their own distinctive voice that can not be confused with any other.

Ms Weldon's book is very easy to find, and very cheap.  And Ms Churchill's plays, naturally, are best enjoyed in a theatre but also read a treat, and are very easy to find, as well, and cheap, too.




This is from a Broadway production of Top Girls, and that is Marisa Tomei on the right.


All my love,
mds




UPDATED! 4/10/12:  Darvish struggled mightily last night, gave up five runs, walked five batters, but he hung in there, calmed down, and did not look too bad before leaving the game.  The Rangers won and Darvish did last long enogh to get the Win, his first Major League Win.

And re The GOP's intriguing General Election strategy:  Here are some polls that kos shared on his blog today.  Yeh, that strategy's going to work a treat come November, hunh?

mds



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