Random Thoughts

From a recent cleaning of the mental attic:

This may sound infantile or embarrassingly idealistic but there are few things in life more rewarding than repaying a kindness, especially if one pays it forward. This year my family and I have been the beneficiaries of a thousand small kindnesses associated with my father's passing. Sadly, one of my dearest friends - dearer than most of my family - went through the same thing recently. I ran a few errands for them and brought over some cold cuts so that they'd have something to eat. No big deal. A simple, small kindness. But I know firsthand the value of a gesture like that and it was my high honor to be able to help when help was needed. I only wish I didn't know what to do, but to go through something like I went through and not learn from it would have been an even greater tragedy. DB, as you embark on your road, always remember that I stand with you, shoulder to shoulder, here for whatever you need.

On to happier topics...

Good on the Red Sox - they didn't make it to the big dance but they came damn close. Now rumors are swirling about Derek Lowe wanting to come back. You know what? I like the idea. The Sox don't need a #1, #2, or #3 starter - they have Beckett, Lester, and Matsuzaka filling those roles. They don't need a #5 - Tim Wakefield and his maddening, fluttering knuckleball fill that bill perfectly and inexpensively. What we need is a #4 guy who is consistently healthy and who will eat up innings. D-Lowe and his sinker would be perfect for Fenway's much-improved infield and would fit the profile of a #4 guy to a tee.

Manny Ramirez went on record as saying he's glad the Sox got eliminated in the playoffs. Hey, Manny (and the media): We get it. You don't like the Sox. This is no longer news. This has all the salaciousness of the Rosie O'Donnell - Donald Trump feud, which is to say, none at all. Drop it already.

Here's a joke you can tell an 8-year-old (which is why I like it so): What did the zero say to the eight? Nice belt.

Did you know that most of the principal actors in Hogan's Heroes were Jewish? The men that played Klink, Schultz, LeBeau, Burkhalter, and Hochstetter were all Jewish. And John Banner (Schultz) and Robert Clary (LeBeau) actually spent time in concentration camps! Werner Klemperer, who played the beaurocratic, bumbling, Prussian old-liner Colonel Kink, justified his playing of a German soldier by saying, "I am an actor. I can play Richard III; I can play a Nazi." He had a clause in his contract that stipulated that the Germans would NEVER triumph over Hogan and his men.

Anyone out there have a holistic remedy for insomnia?

I have a low-grade desire to drive the cars of my youth - a '77 Maverick, a '78 Mustang II, and my '89 Mustang, the first new car I ever bought. None of these vehicles distinguished themselves by being good automobiles; but I joyrode in them a fair amount and got laid in them a time or two as well. Good times, good times.

Where and when I grew up, we had two UHF channels: WSBK channel 38 and WLVI channel 56. Saturday mornings after the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show on CBS at 9:30 one channel showed an hour of Three Stooges; the other channel showed Little Rascals. This is why I never watched Little Rascals way back then. I was too busy watching Moe poke Larry.

On the subject of black and white media, the Sherlock Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson are genius - even the cheesy ones set in the 1940's where Holmes helps fend of the Nazis are pretty hip in their own way.

How on earth could anyone like mushrooms? You know they're nothing but big mold, right? And that they grow in SHIT? Frickin gross.

I suppose that's it for now. Stay cool everybody and remember: do something nice for someone.