Folks, I’m one of those pathetic creatures known as a Red Sox fan.  To my fellow fans out there, as the title of this post suggests, as bad as things are right now, they could be worse.  Take the Kansas City Royals for instance, who just snapped a 14 games losing streak…that’s right…14.   While intense disgruntlement and booing permeate Fenway Park these days, the scene at Kauffman Stadium is much more…relaxed.  Like this guy, apparently not even wanting to put the effort into being dissatisfied, he just found something better to do.  Must be a pretty damn good book.

 

 

 

 

 

And then there’s this kid, who when presented with a foul ball, that most kids would give their best Hot Wheels for, promptly throws the ball back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of this apparently leads to Alex Gordon face down in left field.  It’s okay, Alex, you can only go up from here.

 

I thought I didn’t want to be like every other blogger, facebook-er, and tweet-er out there and post some sort of insightful commentary on 9/11, so here I am on 9/12.  The truth is, this whole 10-year anniversary thing that started back in August has had me on edge.  The media’s constant barrage of images, they say are to serve as a reminder so none of us forget (as if any of us could).  In reality it is a play-by-play of every horrible nuance of that day, they don’t want us to just remember, they want us to relive it, and for what…ratings.

Even in school, my 7-year-old son, who was barely a twinkle on me and my husbands horizon when this all happened, learned a bit about it in school, second grade.  He came home and told me his teacher read the class a book called “Sepetember 12th”, now this didn’t bother me as we had discussed the events of 9/11 with our son previously.   Not knowing what this was book was I looked it up, it turns out it is a book of comments and pictures created by a first grade class in Missouri I believe.  Sort of a “hey kids, these bad things happened but the day after the sun still came up, etc”  I thought it was cute and helpful for frightened children.  Here is the straw that broke the camel’s back…I read the ratings.  Most were 5 star, except one moron, who gave the book 1 star, saying that it teaches that “everything’s okay as long as it didn’t happen to us.”  I wanted badly to reply to this numbskull, but I couldn’t put together the right words.  Now hours later as I write this post I offer you my rebuttal.

First of all this was a book written by children for children, what was this guy looking for, and more on that, didn’t all of us think “oh god that’s horrible, but thank god we’re okay?”  Did he want a play by play of how children on the planes and in the building died a horribly frightening death?  Or how people above the “impact zone” were trapped with no way out and opted to jump to their death,  rather than stay and burn.  How about that?  How do we explain to 6-7 year-olds an event that even 10 years later we can barely wrap our own minds around?  The answer is we can’t,  I think the best we can offer is that it is okay to be afraid,  but the sun will still come up tomorrow,  hours,  days,  weeks go by,  unstoppable,  no matter what happens.
The way I see it, all we can do for our children,  for ourselves, for each other,  for those we lost, whether we knew them or not, is to live the best we can, every day.

Folks, there’s a lot of bad shit out there.  Case in point:  Today I read a news piece on a 15-year-old young man dirt bag and his 16-year-old accomplice who, armed with bb gun pistols mugged a 73-year-old man for 7 cents.  Thankfully the judge in the case had some sense, the 16-year-old plead guilty and was given 1-6 years in prison, which will no doubt end up as probation.  The 15-year-old, however, plead not guilty and was found guilty, the judge sentenced him to 2-6 years in juvenile detention, and both morons will have a felony conviction following them around for the rest of their lives.

Now I like to read the comments on these stories just to see what others think about it.  Most of them agreed the judge did the right thing, and they deserve what they get.  But there are a few idiots out there that post things like, this will follow them forever because they made a mistake?  or This should be used as an opportunity to teach.  Seriously?  First of all, mugging someone is not a mistake,  they didn’t shoplifting a candy bar, they violently attacked someone.  Second, teach, really? If these idiots don’t know that mugging someone is wrong, well then they should be locked up for just that.

And of course I’m sure we’ll hear the inevitable “they’re such good boys, I don’t understand”  I’ve got news, “good boys” don’t mug the elderly.

So like, I assume, a lot of you I read the mainstream media, mostly online.  I’m fascinated by the fact that at the very top of the page, with the “Top Stories”, there together is Washington’s debate over the budget (which could potentially destroy the economy), and….the death of Amy Winehouse.  We as a society love to watch someone destroy themselves on an international stage.

That, however is not what this post is about, it’s actually about what was NOT on the front page that should have been.  There was an obituary in the LA Times,  Read It.  It was for Army Sfc. Jameson Lindskog.  While serving as a medic in Afghanistan, Sfc. Lindskog was helping a wounded fellow soldier when he himself was fatally wounded.  He was 23 yrs old.  If you read the story, you’ll learn Sfc. Lindskog was meticulous about his job, preparing for the next day’s patrol knowing that there would be casualties, he even cut bandages to fit individuals in his unit.  All these things, and the thing some of us seem to forget, like the rest of the men and women serving right now, he volunteered.   While the death of a troubled, addicted musician makes front page news and the TV media produces special reports about it,  the sacrifice of an American soldier, who as a medic, runs into the line of fire to save others is buried on the obituary page of a single newspaper. 

While any loss of human life is tragic,  and I am sorry for Miss Winehouse’s family, stories of those of give up so much to serve our country should be front page news and everyone should know about it.  

BL contributed to this post.

So I’m not one to comment on the people I see out and about, me judgmental? Never.  Oh alright, that’s a bold faced lie…  Most of the time I comment on the idiots in my general vicinity, of which there are always plenty…let’s face it idiots are everywhere.  Today I had an interesting encounter with a nerd, or is it geek?

So I made my usual Sunday trip to the Hell*Mart this morning.  The usual aggravation ensued.  I got to the check out, and the fella ringing me up was clearly super-nerd-rific.  I’m talking, lives in his mom’s basement, no girl type.  He asked me about being a Sox fan, as I was wearing a Red Sox shirt.  His next statement earned him the nerd/geek trifecta, he said….wait for it….“I was at the STAR TREK Convention”  WOW.  An honest to goodness, convention going, costume wearing Trekkie.

So he asked me if I was into Star Trek…um, no, sorry.  He told me a whole convoluted story about some Yankee fans at the convention and they were booed out of he place…really pal, can you just ring up my potatoes so I can get the hell out of here.

Now don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with Star Trek fans, I’ve seen the program…but I draw the line on dressing up in a costume and going to hang out with other costume clad nutbars.

 

So any of you that know me know, as a rule, I don’t like people.  I like other people’s children even less.

LB and I ventured to the park today, and as always it was filled with horribly mis-behaved children, and teenagers with nothing better to do than commandeer part of the play-scape so the little ones can’t play on it.

The ice-cream truck shows up which inevitably results in the children arguing with their parent as to whether or not they can have ice cream.  Today there was a brother and sister fighting over a slim jim.  The boy had to be about 12, behaving like a 2 year old.

Then there were the young mothers smoking with infants in their arms…sigh…

If this is the future of America, we are all seriously fucked…

So LB lost a tooth, this tooth has been loose and hanging on for the better part of 2 months now and finally I couldn’t take it anymore so I had the dentist just pull it out.  Now he looks like a hockey player…

When I was a kid, I lost a tooth and got 50 cents…and to me that was something…wow, 50 cents.  Fast forward 30 years…LB loses a tooth and gets…wait for it…5 bucks!   Talk about inflation. Now he only got $5 because he held on to the tooth so long, it’s not going to be 5 bucks a tooth from here on out.  Hell, he’d be in his room with the pliers yankin’ them all out…

Me:  You have no idea kid.  It is freakin crazy town.

Folks, there are idiots everywhere, and somehow, I find myself surrounded by ‘em.

Here are some idiot related incidents that happened to me yesterday.

1.  I couldn’t use the Dunkin Donuts drive through because some yahoos tipped their boat trailer and said boat. fell. off…really.

2.  At the next Dunkin Donuts (seriously I’m not getting out of the car) the woman driving in front of me goes THE WRONG WAY in the rotary, despite arrows, signs, and honking….THEN…she pulls the wrong way into the drive through…

So far today has been idiot-free, but it’s still early…

So I’m sure many of you have heard about the movement for McDonald’s and other fast food chains, to get rid of the toys in their “Happy Meals”  and to get rid of Ronald McDonald all together, because they entice children to want to eat the food, AND it leads to childhood obesity…alright,  seems somewhat ridiculous, since their target demographic is young children and 7-year-old doesn’t have a license so the only way he’d get there is if I take him…i.e. appropriate parenting would solve the issue.

Now, they, whoever “they” are, want cereal companies to remove the cartoon characters from their boxes.  So that means, goodbye Tony the Tiger,  Cap’n Crunch, Lucky the Leprechaun,  Snap, Crackle, and Pop…you get the idea.

Really!?  So basically because parents can’t say no to their children, and set healthy guidelines for their eating habits, someone somewhere has to change the entire operation.  Here’s an idea folks, just say no…Mom, can I have a Happy Meal??…NO…Mom, can I have some Cookie Crisp??…NO…Mom, can I parachute off the roof…NO!…see, it’s that simple.

My first blog post in nearly 2 years…and I come back to the blogosphere with a BANG!!! Watch out!

So my 7-yr-old son had “Fun Day” last week at school.  For those of you not familiar with this phenomenon it’s basically the school kids participating in a variety of outdoor events.  Here’s the thing, my son attends the same elementary school that I did.  Back then we called it “Field Day”, and these events were serious competition, and there were ribbons awarded…well I guess the competition is no more.  To quote George’s friend Roxanne above, apparently they’re all winners. 

Here’s my issue, while I can see the angle of not wanting any fighting and/or hurt feelings, competition is a part of life.  Charlie Sheen notwithstanding someone somewhere sometime is in fact winning, and if I understand Newton correctly someone else is losing. 

I’m thinking this whole “you’re all winners” philosophy is how we end up with a bunch of hormone crazed, prepubescent, tweeny-boppers with an over inflated sense of entitlement.  “I should have it because I’m me”  And everyone else is standing around scratching their heads saying why are our kids jerks.  Maybe it’s because instead of teaching them to follow through and do their best on everything all the time, we patted them on the back for doing things half-assed because we didn’t want to hurt their feelings back in the 2nd grade.

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