100 Traditional Words

The Velvet Verbosity 100 Word Challenge (Now With 100 Words!) is still here, but is due back where it once belonged soon. However, the challenge (write a story in 100 words, centered on or reflecting about a single word, preselected for you) lives on, and this week's word is "Traditional". My entry begins........now:










"The bass thudded and my head started to pound. I watched the children mingle, gathering in groups, then splitting off to form other groups as new children arrived. “Chaperone the dance”, they asked me, and I couldn't say no-I had shirked too many activities already. I had to watch them for-I don't know what, exactly. Anything inappropriate. Everything they did seemed inappropriate-they were too tall, too mature looking, too casual about matters sexual and romantic, too immature to manage the adult bodies nature had given them. They chattered ,the music boomed, and I mourned the loss of traditional dating."

Oh, Boy

I caught this on one of my movie channels today. Gary Busey (!) playing Buddy Holly in "The Buddy Holly Story". Remarkable performance.

Games Forty Nine and Fifty: And Then This Happened.

Just when all seemed rosy and bright, the Royals come along and spoiled the party. Boston has dropped 2 straight to the men from Missouri, a 4-3 nailbiter on Thursday followed by a 12-5 loss that tasted like chewing a rusty nail on Friday. They go tonight against the Lawnmower Man, Zack Grienke, so it could be three in a row by the end of the evening. Meanwhile, in the division race they are allegedly participating in, they remain, remarkably, 6 1/2 games off the pace and in fourth place.

Joe West is a Joke

Joe West is a joke.

Umpire Joe West made news last month when he criticized both the Yankees and Red Sox for their slow play-and yesterday, he ejected both White Sox pitcher Mark Buerhle and manager Ozzie Guillen for questioning his balk call.

The Guillen call is somewhat acceptable- you're not supposed to question a balk call, which depends on the umpire's judgement. But first of all-both balk calls, based on the rules, seem fishy. And to eject Buerhle for dropping his glove-that's really unacceptable. Someone has got to make it clear to West that he is not bigger than the game, and he should start calling the game according to the rules in the book.

Game 48: It's a Killer Sweep...

Tonight in Tampa, the Red Sox busted out the proverbial whupping stick, blowing Tampa halfway to Key West with an 11-3 win behind a pair of homers from Yo Adrian Beltre and a single homer from I Like It When You Call Me Big Papi. The Red Sox go home to face Kansas City tomorrow.

Game Forty Seven: Another Clean Sheet, as the Futbol Folks Say

Jon Lester and the Three Amigos (Delcarmen, Bard, and Papelbon) held the mighty Rays to one lonely hit over nine innings, while David Ortiz' double brought in the only runs Boston would need in a 2-0 whitewashing of Tampa last night. The team is now 26-21, 6 1/2 games out of first, and is hotter than a Phoenix sidewalk in August. They play the Rays one more time today, and then go home for four games against the Royales with Cheese.

Game Forty Six: Don't Tell Mom, The Red Sox Are Hot!

The Red Sox, now winners of 6 out of 7, beat Tampa Bay 6-1 last night behind stout hearted pitching from Cowboy Clay and homers from Youk and David Ortiz.

Well whaddaya know? We've got a hot baseball team on our hands!

It's Brand New! That Means It's Better! Right?

This is a remarkable project. On May 2, the New York Times invited people all over the world to take photos of...well, all sorts of things. Dogs, and birds, and people, and bridges, and all sorts of things. It's remarkable to look at, and a great time suck, as if we needed more of those.

***

On Wednesday, I leave on a 48 hour journey to Williamsburg, Virginia, to chaperone my son's school trip. If you had any lingering doubts about my sanity, that should resolve them.

***

I've been commenting over here, Steven Goldman's non-baseball blogplace, but I feel the same way I tend to feel when I blog on things political here-just a kind of nauseous aggravation. If I want that, I'll go to work.

***

Speaking of work, our Brand New Program is rolling out steadily, which means lots and lots of more work, with no extra pay. Not to mention that wages are frozen until 2011 at the earliest, with future increases to come based on the success of the Brand New Program. Now, naturally, you would assume with a Brand New Program that dramatically increases my workload, I'd be getting a machine, or a new process, or some new people, right? In order to ensure that the Brand New Program is a success?

You'd think that. But you'd be wrong.

Look, I have a job. I get it. Lots and lots of people don't. I try to remind myself that I'm not deathly ill (yet), and that 99.999% of the people who live or have ever lived would dance with glee if given the prospect of living my life. I haven't had to go to war, or expel a baby through an orifice that doesn't seem big enough, or bury anyone (lately), or be assaulted, or get in a car accident, or be committed to a mental institution. Yet.

I get it, I'm blessed.

But the same way I can see that my immediate coworkers appreciate me, or the same way I see my family accepts me, warts and all, or the same way I can know my wife loves me and not comprehend any of it, I know I am blessed-intellectually-I can do the math. As humans go, generally speaking, I have it pretty close to perfect.

I just don't feel it. I don't grok it. I'm not getting it on the level where it sinks in.

You dig?

Game Forty Five: To My Everlasting Shock, We Win Again

Today at Citizens Bank Park, the Red Sox beat Roy Halladay and the Phils pretty heavily, pulling off an 8-3 win to send them into Tampa Bay at 24-21 on the year, 8 1/2 games out of first place.

Games 41-44: I Failed To Get The Role of Mustard, So Therefore

I'm Playing Ketchup.

(Badoomp-boomp-crash!)

Through a combination of despair, fatigue, and apathy, I haven't blogged in several days.

So, out of a sense of completeness more than anything, the Red Sox pulled off a couple of Twin wins over Minnesota, 3-2 on Wednesday and 6-2 on Thursday. John Lackey was found lacking on Friday in Philadelphia, losing 5-1, but Dice K was beyond brilliant on Saturday, throwing 8 innings of one hit ball at the mighty Phils in a 5-0 win. Tim "Good Luck With That" Wakefield takes the hill for Boston today against mighty Doc Halladay of the Phils.