RoostersWhen two consecutive hitters in a lineup hit homeruns, it is often referred to as “back to back.” When the third consecutive hitter hits a homerun an announcer might describe it as, “back to back to back.” John Sterling, NY Yankee announcer, seems to get the anatomical juxtaposition correct.
“It’s a back to back and a belly to belly.”
"A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"
- Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass … Ch. 2, 46
I came across this photo via a recent commenter. Looks like there are some interesting photos up at the photo contest site, but not interesting enough for me to complete yet another online registration. My user name and password file hasn't graduated to the database level yet. Though it is a fairly extensive spreadsheet file.
I really have nothing. Should stop now.
I always thought myself more as a spiced and dried meat. You know, like turkey jerky. Ah well, who am I to argue with science. Click on the image to determine what kind of junk food you are.
The hands you lose are certainly more memorable than the ones you win. I recently played in a family Texas Hold ‘em game. The ten of us started with 2200 in chips apiece with blinds starting at ten and twenty. Blinds raised every ten minutes. I won hands starting with the best hold cards, on suck-outs and by stealing blinds. Mostly, I don’t remember the details of these hands.
On the third hand, I was dealt pocket sixes in the Big Blind. Two players limped in, so I raised four bets on the option. One called, the other folded. The Flop was rainbow-suited 2c, Jh, 4s. First to act with a Jack sitting out there, I checked. Player checked behind me. The Turn was 3d. No flush possibility, but a small straight was out there. I checked. Player checked as well. The River was 6d. A SET! A set. I bet half the pot trying to induce a call. Player raised, doubling my bet. Too eager to pull the pot, I called. Player turned over a 5 revealing a straight drawn on two runners. The check after the Flop was not a terrible move. Player called my pre-Flop raise indicating a probable high pair, suited conectors or face cards. My mistake was not betting after the Turn. By checking, I allowed Player to draw to the straight without risk. I should have put him on a draw. Anyway, from that hand on until the final three, I was short-stacked. I down shifted considerably. I mucked pocket Kings after a Flop and pocket Jacks after a Turn to hands that eventually won with a straight or a flush. I did manage to win two all-ins with pocket Queens to stave off elimination.
The final win with pocket Queens put me in second place with three players remaining. With blinds now capped at 500 and 1000, I shifted gears again, this time going up. Every hand I played was either on a five-bet raise or all-in pre-Flop. After a series of lucky draws for me and cautious folds by the others, I found myself among the final two. Finalist had about a one to three chip advantage going into the heads-up. My continued aggressive betting and one lucky hand put Finalist on-tilt. Maybe ten to fifteen hands later, and we were done.
Though the win was a rush, I remember neither the hand that put me into my first chip lead nor the hand that ended the game. Vivid, however, were the hands where I got beat holding Trips or folding big pocket pairs. Perhaps the reason losing hands are more memorable than winning hands is because they provide greater learning opportunities. Or, I'm just a really sore loser.
My cable company called last week and said they needed to switch out my old box for a new one. They said it wouldn’t cost anything and I wouldn’t be billed for a service call. Okay. I made an appointment for yesterday.
The guy comes by, installs a new box and says that he doesn’t need the old one. Picture’s great, but now I’m getting movie channels that aren’t part of my service package. They’re pushers aren’t they? They think I’m going to upgrade once I see how great digital is. Well, I think not. Now the digital phone service, that may require some figuring.
| TITLE | DATE POSTED |
| The West Wing, The Wake Up Call | - Thursday, February 10, 2005 |
| The West Wing, 100,000 Airplanes | - Saturday, January 22, 2005 |
- last updated 03/04/05, 5:50 pm -
This was mostly an unremarkable episode. The political issues concerned constitutional theory and foreign affairs. Toby debates and discusses the merits of parliamentary democracy over a strong executive democracy with a constitutional scholar, aka Jim Ignatowski, and the presumptive founding fathers of the Republic of Belarus. Iran mistakes a British passenger plane for a US spy plan and shoots it down.
CJ comes to the realization that her job is to manage the President not his disease. The President and the First Lady realize that he is not managing his disease. We saw the return of British Ambassador, Lord John Marbury, whose government in this fictional universe is the hawkish counterpart to the more diplomatic American President.
The episode's saving grace, however, was in its references to molecular biology. Seems Ellie, medical student, middle First Daughter and self-confessed lab rat, has a new beau. The President queried, “What's not to like about a guy who has spent the past fifteen years studying the mating habits of Drosophila melanogaster?” I know mating habits don’t seem like the province of molecular biologists, but tell me, how many anthropologists or sociologists out there use this fruit fly as a model? And to top it off, what better universe could exist where Miss World 2004 lobbies the Whitehouse regarding “micro-array based gene expression studies”? Outstanding!!!
This episode examined the process of creating an inaugural address. The following is an exchange between Toby, the Communications Director, and Donna, the Executive Assistant of the Deputy Chief of Staff:
Donna: How many words in the Gettysburg Address?
Toby: 266.
Donna: And the Ten Commandments?
Toby: 173.
Donna: So you really wouldn't think you'd need 6,000 to discover how a plane ticket gets reimbursed.
Was the episode’s writer ascribing to Toby a “Rainman” type ability to count the words of a given text, or was this an example of insider trade secrets?
In Ted Sorensen’s Kennedy, Sorensen recounts his first planning session for JFK’s inaugural address. Pres. Kennedy, as was his custom, wanted to make a short speech. In addition to mapping broad themes and instructing Sorensen to get opinion pieces from JFK’s “brain trust” of friends, academics and politicians, Pres. Kennedy instructed Sorensen to read all previous inaugural addresses and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Sorensen’s notes from that day include:
