This is a view on my way home from work tonight. The 180-foot tall Compton Hill Water Tower is decorated, at its base, by traffic lights and the lighted traffic flowing by during this long exposure shot. Located near my home, in St. Louis, Missouri, the Compton Hill Water Tower:…
This is a no-brainer, or so I thought. Before asking my extended family this question at a family gathering this weekend, I assumed that everyone would agree to my hypothetical proposal. As distasteful as it might seem at first, I assumed that everyone in the room would (if given the opportunity) agree that they would eat nothing but dog food for one year in return for $1 million.
I write this post having tasted dog food on two occasions in past years. On those two occasions, I’d chomped on a nugget of dry dog food, the kind that comes in a 40 pound bag. I thought it tasted like cardboard, but it was not disgusting. On the other hand, it was not food I would be inclined to eat again unless given an incentive. Note: I have smelled canned dog food before, and I would not be inclined to eat that stuff. The canned dog food I smelled had a strong disgusting odor to it. It looked and smelled like it was no longer safe to eat.
So there I stood with various members of my family in my mother’s kitchen when I raised the question: who would be willing to eat nothing but dog food for the next year in return for $1 million? To my surprise, the rejections and objections started pouring in, even though I went first and even though I proudly stated that my answer was absolutely “yes.”
Two of my sisters and my mother each …
I sit and watch the fluffy flakes descend this Easter morn. My cat peers in and loudly states his distaste of this dawn. I let him in and brush his fur with bare hand now quite dank. His pleasure shows with a loud purr but, "Phew!"…
Today is Easter. Colorful eggs (pagan tradition), bunnies and chicks (pagan symbols), and consuming dangerous levels of foamy sweetener in scary yellow bites (Peeps™). Let's not forget the "meaning behind it": The anniversary of yet another demi-god risen from the dead. I enjoy this take on that subject. Anyway, why…
After considerable thought, I hereby offer my predictions for the 2008 Major League Baseball season. Unlike other prognosticators, I guarantee my predictions. Therefore, feel free to bet large amounts of money that each of the following will occur, for certain, during the 2008 MBL season:
…Unabashed optimism will surround the ritual of spring training.
Thousands of dignitaries and celebrities will show up at Opening Day baseball games to be seen.
Columnists will crank out thousands of articles on baseball, each of them suggesting that following Major League Baseball is important to the overall scheme of life.
Some young relatively unknown baseball players will impress the fans this year.
Some of the high-priced veterans will not do as well as the fans hoped and the fans will grumble, many of them expressing their displeasure at length on sports radio call-in shows, arguing that those players are washed up, on drugs, too old or slackers.
Millions of fans will go to the baseball stadiums, willingly paying thousands of dollars to attend baseball games and to buy outrageously over-priced beer and nachos (at least $170 for a family of four). Thousands of these fans will be named Daniel, Robert, Michael, James, Mary, Susan, Karen, Linda or Donna.
During each MLB game, the fans will be subjected to an unending stream of advertising in the form of videos, posters and PA announcements.
Each team will play about 162 games, totaling about 2,500 games. [Note: Scientists have calculated that each team should play