My Sunday Feeling

What a week. Barry Bonds continues his remorseless march toward # 756. Michael Vick gets indicted for dog fighting. It is disclosed that an NBA official fixed games.
Now this. Aquafina comes from tap water. Hit the link. http://finance.comcast.net/www/news.html?x=http://www.comcast.net/data/news/2007/07/27/725611.xml&cvqh=itn_aquafina
What more shall we as a Nation be forced to endure? Thank God it's Sunday.

A Dispatch From The Field: The following is a IM conversation I had with my brother John
earlier this week.
Junior: I have a great idea to make some extra money.
tmfw: This ought to be good.
Junior: Dogfighting. But with a new angle.
tmfw: Isn't it a little early for you to be shaking hands with Mr. Whiskey?
Junior: You're one to talk.
tmfw: Go on. Much to my surprise I'm still listening.
Junior: Instead of pit bulls we use Shelties.


Insert stunned silence here.

Junior: You still there? Hello?

tmfw: Shelties? If my experience with your goddamn dog is any measure of future performance, about the only thing they could be counted on to do in the ring is to run around nervously and bark at each other.
Junior: That's where you're wrong. They can fetch squeaky toys like you wouldn't believe.
tmfw: You're a business person. What is your target demographic? Off the top of my head I can't think of anyone other than elderly gay men who would be remotely interested in such an exhibition.
Junior: Again, that's where you're wrong. Smokin' hot young women make up a large chunk of the available Sheltie owner population. I know these things.
tmfw: Really?
Junior: Trust me on this one.
tmfw: Smokin' hot women, huh? OK. I'm in. As long as we aren't doing something stupid.
Junior: Trust me. We won't even have to cross any state lines or anything.
tmfw: Good. Although this sounds surprising legal for one of your business plans, no sense in unning any risks. State lines can be troublesome things. Ask Michael Vick.
Junior: Keep your eye on the ball, Elder Brother. Hot chicks and squeaky toys.
tmfw: Hot chicks and squeaky toys.
Junior: There you go. I knew you would come around eventually. I love it when a plan comes together.
tmfw: Woof!

Will keep you posted.

The Right Stuff Is 90 Proof: NASA is investigating reports that at least 2 of its astronauts may have flown while drunk. Who can blame them? Those things DO blow up from time to time. I would have to be drunker than a barrel of Vikings to go up in one of those high tech roman candles. The bigger surprise is that more of them haven't gone kablooey. My excellent friend Jenny came over today to show me her new IPod. When you consider that the little device in her hand has 10 times the computer power that Apollo 13 possessed.....well, it's just a miracle from God that NASA got those boys home.

Speaking of Miracles: A man was basically killed on the job last week while coaching first base for the team playing the Arkansas Travelers, our local AA team. A hot shot off the bat of a left handed hitter struck the man in the carotid artery. According to the news reports he was pretty much dead when he hit the ground. I have watched baseball all of my life. I have seen all kinds of hard hit foul balls go into bleachers and dugouts. I have never heard of anybody getting killed. The poor man was felled by a million-to-one possibility.

However, it is only a matter of time before somebody gets killed playing college or American Legion ball where they use aluminum bats. Indeed, every year some little kid gets killed playing Little League or tee ball. One little girl was killed last week. It is a miracle from God nobody in the college game has gotten his head knocked off. You mark my words. It will happen.

Found money: I got a letter the other day from Bank of America's "Unclaimed Property Department." The letter said that BOA had remitted a check to me for @ 2 grand back in 2000 that I had never negotiated. I have to sign the form enclosed in the envelope and send it in or the money will escheat to the State of Arkansas.
I have no earthly idea what this money represents. I seem to recall that they held the paper on my house at one time until they pissed me off and I refinanced with somebody else. But I certainly don't remember getting a check from BOA in that amount back then. I have to think it is a mistake. I'm going to buy a Certificate of Deposit with it and wait and see if they ever ask for the money back. Strange.
Blogs from NOLA: With all of the shit hitting the fan over L'Affaire Vitter down there, I have been catching up with the bloggers down in the Big Easy. First of all, here's a link to The Gambit, which is the New Orleans equivalent of the Arkansas Times. It was there when I was at Tulane eons ago although I preferred The Figaro which was the other "free paper" published in New Orleans at the time. Go to: http://www.thebestofneworleans.com/ to read this week's issue in which they posit 5 good questions for Senator Vitter to answer.

Go to http://www.dailykingfish.com/ for a political weekly. As for the bloggers, here are some others I like: http://pistolette.blogspot.com/ contains the musings of a pregnant goth writer of horror stories. http://righthandthief.blogspot.com/ and http://www.suspect-device.com/ are political bomb throwers, while http://dangerblond.org/ is mostly a hoot.

Reading these blogs and talking to my buddy Chris Riviere last week, who talks just like you would believe somebody named Chris Riviere would talk, has got me missing South Louisiana. I haven't been back since Katrina, mainly because I think it would make me sad. But you read these blogs, especially pistolette and dangerblond and you come away impressed with how determined those folks are to save their marvelously fucked up city. A city that was waaaaay fucked up long before Katrina hit.
I miss New Orleans. I wish I were at the Napoleon House with someone special right now, drinking Dixie and watching it rain while listening to Beethoven. I need to go back. Check it out at http://www.napoleonhouse.com/ . One of the truly great watering holes in a town full of 'em.
That's all for now, cats and kittens. As you can see, I don't have much to allow today. I have some Dixie in the fridge but it's not the same. Guess I will just go to the kitchen and get me a glass of Aquafina from the tap.

Addendum: Please note the changed e-mail address. I've heard a lot of good things about gmail so I decided to give it a try. Write me!