Doomed to Repeat

"Most mistakes made by rulers came from not knowing history;
they acted in ignorance of the mistakes others had made
before them." - Robert Jordan, A New Spring

Bite me!

SOME FAVOURITE GUYS #14

Hearing Bennett with Wonder

Sloppy Second Base

A very minor photo tribute to the beginning of spring training. These guys are welcome to get to third base with me whenever they want.

Many years ago, ABC Sports ran a show called Superstars. It pitted a group of pro baseball players from some team against a groups of pro football players in a series of athletic competitions: running, tug-o-war, obstacle course, etc.
Practically every week, the baseball players won. In fact, they tended to win every event except tug-o-war. While the football players were always bigger and stronger, they were mostly specialists, while baseball required everyone to be good at the same big group of skills.

Get Me to the Churchill on Time

Another Mike for Monday, Michael Churchill.
Not resemblance to Winston.

Jail Bait and Switch

C'mon! Where are the pics of the cavity searches?

Bed Pan Humour

I know these little jaunts into jocularity of mine are much shorter and more irregular than they used to be. Just like Mickey Rooney. But I'm not online much, with the result that I don't spend much time perusing YouTube for the random funny stuff I used to have for you. I hope that changes soon, but for now just deal.

Missing Inaction

“Those who are not invited to the party should keep silent
and take their music elsewhere.” - Felipe Perez Roque

Today was the first chance I've had in weeks to just sit in privacy and peruse the many, many Websites I've bookmarked over the past year.

Imagine my disappointment to find out that while I was away, the Internet went on without me!

Until when? and What colour?

Chris Isaak
Forever Blue

A Gould Man is Hard to Find

I'm declaring Kevin Gould my Man of the Month for February. Anybody got a problem with that?

LATER UPDATE: In May, Kevin Gould contacted me, asking that I remove certain photographs and pointing me to others that could replace them. I did most of what he asked and here's the updated version.

I wanna hear more about the kitchen chair...

kd lang - Hallelujah
Rarely do I come across a perfect match of a singer and song. But this is one.
6 mins. 15 - SFW

_______________

Speaking of "Hallelujah,"
today was my first day at a new job.

And it's just that: a "job." Not the start of a new career or anything. A job. A survival job. But it's money coming in for a few months while I continue to look for something better. After a couple of years of hiding from the world, I'm out there again, earning a paycheck and acting like a grown-up.

I don't completely understand the emotional or psychological demons that sent me into hiding, but I'm fighting against them and today was my first real win in a while. Yea for me!

Beauty and the Beast

I don't care who won, okay?

Yeah, I was marginally more behind New England than New York, but that was mostly because I wanted to see a team -- any team -- have a complete season without a loss. But the fact that the Patriots and their prettyboy quarterback lost to New York matters as little to me as struggles of the working poor matter to the President.

I'm told that the mouth-breather Eli Manning pulled off some amazing plays, especially in the final quarter, but aside for some respect for his ability to play a difficult game under tremendous pressure, I just don't care.

I say I was "told" about it because I didn't watch the whole game. I watched the first half, and that was enough to remind me why I don't really like American football. Namely, because it so often becomes a monstrous demonstration of just how inhuman some humans can be. I'm all in favour of hard-fought competitions, but it's very easy to cross the line between competitive sportsmanship and something cruel and sadistic. Tom Armstrong, the All-American Boy, has been replaced by Grendl.

During a play, to knock a guy from the other team down to keep him from scoring is part of the game. After the play, to continue trying to crush the guy into the ground or to push him down again when he starts to get up just seems to be beyond the line.

To me, the best sports are those where the players are disciplined enough to work like Hell to win but never lose control of themselves during or after the game. Where they hate to lose but still have enough class to congratulate the winner on having played well.

Christian? Right.

Christian de la Fuente. CSI Miami may have tried to nerd this guy up with glasses and a labcoat, but there is no hiding how hot he is.

The Shadow Knows

In a country full of bizarre superstitions, Groundhog Day is — to me, at least — one of the most bizarre, if harmless, rites. On February 2, people gather in various towns in the Northeast to see the groundhog come out to look for its shadow. A shadow means a sunny day and is supposed to indicated that winter will continue for six weeks more. No shadow means that spring will come early.

Yeah, despite the millions spent on training and equipping meteorologist, some insist on looking to rodents for weather advice.

The origin of this ritual is disputed. Some claim that it has been celebrated in Middlesbrough, England for roughly 1000 years, but this seems unlikely: groundhogs live on in North America. The earliest reference in USAmerican history dates from 1841: A storekeeper in Berks County, Pennsylvania traces the practice to German settlers, but there is no corresponding observance in Germany.

The best thing, though, is that practically no one takes the groundhog’s prediction seriously. It’s mostly just an excuse to have a good time, something else that USAmericans have a lot of.

Calendar for February

A new month, so here's a new calendar for your computer screen. Feel free to save it off and use it, thought if you're anything like me getting a look at Kevin Gould crashed out on a bed will make it hard to get out of bed yourself some days.