"I Think It's Going to Rain Today"

By Randy Newman. One of the best songs ever written and the best use of satire ever recorded.

Broken windows and empty hallways
A pale dead moon in the sky streaked with gray
Human kindness is overflowing
And I think it's going to rain today

Scarecrows dressed in the latest styles
With frozen smiles to chase love away
Human kindness is overflowing
And I think it's going to rain today

Lonely, lonely
Tin can at my feet
Think I'll kick it down the street
That's the way to treat a friend

Bright before me the signs implore me
To help the needy and show them the way
Human kindness is overflowing
And I think it's going to rain today

Using Rubber to Extract Stripped Screws

This is an excellent idea. The video is aimed at removing small screws with the help of a rubber band, but I can imagine using thicker pieces of rubber on larger screws just as easily.

Was Allen Craig Trying to Get Traded

I've been saying all year that Allen Craig was playing poorly on purpose in an attempt to get traded. He's way too good to perform that badly at the plate. I know he was ticked off that his friend David Freeze got traded (so were a lot of us!), and I don't think he was at all happy about PED-HEAD Peralta joining the team in place of Pete Kozma. And as it turns out, when he's not on steroids Peralta can't hit any better than Kozma. He's hitting just over .250 and only about .180 with runners in scoring position. Kozma always had about a .300 or better RISP and he was a better fielder than Peralta. David Freeze had a slow start and a broken thumb, but he's been really heating up the last six weeks in LA.

The Cardinals as a team have been hitting poorly ever since the departure of Mark McGwire as their hitting coach. For the three years he was in charge, the Cards had the best OBP, the most runs scored, and the second most hits in the National League. His last year in St. Louis, Mac had six Cardinal players hitting right at or over .300 and five of them had twenty or more home runs. Mac had the sweetest swing I ever saw, and there was a period of time where the young guys on the team were looking just like him at the plate, but no more. They look lost up there. Is it Mabry's fault? It may well be. But Allen Craig is so good a hitter that he could be the hitting coach on any team. For him to be looking so bad at the plate, I can only believe that he was simply not trying. Mark my words, he wanted to get traded. So now he's got his wish and will be playing with the Bo-Sox next week. How much you wanna bet he suddenly starts knocking the cover off the ball?

John Mozeliak has been the force behind this mess, trading off one great player after another while bringing cheating scum into the clubhouse. He deserved to get fired for that Peralta move. Trading Freeze was a mistake as well. Trading Joe Kelly will come back to haunt him too. We might as well give up watching the Cards for a few years. There aren't a team anymore. The chemistry is gone. At least we've got Rizzo and Abreu slugging it out in not too far away Chicago, which is right now the best home run rivalry baseball has seen in quite a while.

So long Allen Craig. You were the best thing about this team after Albert left.

Yahoobuckaroo (a discouraged fan)

Come Wander With Me

I heard this song on an old episode of The Twilight Zone the other night and was so taken with it that I googled it and found it on YouTube. From all the hits and thumbs up it got, apparently it's one of those strange eerie songs that affects a lot of people for a reason they don't quite understand. I'll post the original version below that Bonnie Beecher sang on the show and then a more modern soft rock version by Emilie Satt below it that's pretty neat.

Is Jose Abreu the Next Babe Ruth?

The White Sox completely overhauled their team during the last offseason and got rid of a bunch of dead weight while bringing a lot of new talent. The club has done a full about-face now and could even win their division before it's over. Center stage of all this is Cuban defector Jose Abreu.

Abreu is a rookie, but he's no kid at 27. He spent several years playing in the Cuban Serie Nacional league where he regularly hit near .400 and was known for his ability to hit home runs and get RBIs. He hit .453/.597/.986 with 79 runs, 93 RBI and 33 home runs in only 66 games in 2010-2011.

Abreu currently has 29 home runs and is on a pace to surpass both Babe Ruth and Roger Maris' single season records, and he may even do it in less at-bats than either of them. And in his rookie season no less. Ruth had 25 dingers going into July 1927. He had 30 by July 12th. However, the Yankees opening day wasn't until April 12th back then. Had they started April 1st the way we do now, Ruth would have had between 27 or 28 by July 1st. Abreu had 26 homers on July 1st. The White Sox played 10 more games in April than the 27 Yankees did, but Abreu spent 15 days on the DL at the end of May, and the Sox played a game on every one of those days, so by July 1st Abreu played in 5 games less than Ruth did and only had one less home run. Abreu is not only on the same pace as Ruth in 1927—he's ahead of him! Of course Ruth had one hell of a September back in '27, but Abreu has shown over his years in Cuba that he's just as capable. And did I mention that he's also great in the field?

To surpass Ruth and Maris' single season home run records as a rookie seems unimaginable, but I have a feeling this will just be a drop in the bucket compared to what Jose Abreu will do before his career is through. He's quick, strong, smart, friendly, and downright likeable. His teammates call him "Yogi" because of his imposing stature and amiable demeanor. Jose Abreu is the new face of baseball.

The Guns of Will Sonnett

This is the first episode of the series. The same YouTuber has all of them (I think) here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYT1s8V13YnF3la9TN0AXGg/search?query=Will+Sonnett

I'm not a big fan of westerns anymore like when I was a kid, but there are a couple that were so good that I still enjoy watching them, and The Guns of Will Sonnett was among the top two or three ever made. (No brag--just fact.)

Interestingly, this was the only western series that Aaron Spelling ever made. He had The Mod Squad on the air at the same time. Spelling actually produced and wrote for several good shows in the 60s and early 70s including The Smothers Brothers original show. The Rookies was probably the last really good show he made before he started putting out crap like Dynasty and Charlie's Angels. It was all downhill from there.

Now, if only somebody would upload all the episodes of Have Gun, Will Travel and Hec Ramsey!

Fish Oil & Baby Aspirin for Arthritis Relief

I have osteoarthritis in the padding (or facet joints if you want to get fancy with the terminology) of my lowest two vertebrae—the same place a lot of people my age get it. None of the over the counter pain medications have done any good for me at all. For the past year and a half I’ve had to sit down at work about every twenty minutes. I only need to sit for a minute or two and then I’m good for another twenty minutes. Sound familiar?

 

About a month ago I got the results back of a routine blood test. Everything was great on it with the exception that my triglycerides were a little high. (Yeah, I don’t eat very healthy foods most of the time.) My doctor said that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start taking fish oil because it will bring down those triglyceride levels in bad boys like me.

 

After a month of taking 1200mg of fish oil in a soft release gel every morning, I don’t know how my triglycerides are doing, but my arthritis is suddenly hardly bothering me at all! The doctor said nothing about the possibility of this happening, but I couldn’t think of anything else about my lifestyle that had changed. I figured I’d Google “fish oil” and “arthritis” to see if anybody else had noticed these effects and found that many indeed have noticed the same thing. Some of the articles said that fish oil it works best when taken with a small dose of baby aspirin. The two somehow work together to create a super-anti-inflammatory. I had already been taking a baby aspirin every day for my heart anyway, so there was my answer.

 

I can’t tell you which brands are best because I’m new at this and have only taken one, but the one I’m taking is Nature’s Bounty in a 1200mg (1.2 grams) gel cap. I get it from Walgreens. Most of the information I’ve read says to take between 3 to 4 grams per day for arthritis. Until today I had only been taking one dose in the morning and noticed that my back would start feeling a bit tired and achy in the afternoon. Today I took an extra one at lunch, and my back felt great all day. I’m going to start taking three gel caps every day starting tomorrow.

 

I’ll leave a couple of links below where you can read more about fish oil and what it does for you. You may have noticed this Dr. Oz guy on TV talking fish oil up all the time. He considers it something of a marvel or wonder drug, and I’m inclined to agree with him. It’s good for all kinds of things including diseases of the mind like dementia. Give it a try. Don’t forget the baby aspirin in the morning too though!

 

Doctor Oz on Fish Oil--Omega 3

 

webmd.com on Fish Oil