Windstorm Doggie

During the "Hurricane Ike" windstorm from a couple weeks ago, a friend shot this photo:



If you can't laugh at that, you must have carpet on your heart.

So long, Fast Eddie

Film will never be the same without you...

Who Dey?

This time of year, the sheeple following the Cincinnati Bengalberries can often be heard asking the question, "Who Dey?"

It seems the answer- "just about every football team past, present, and future" is not adequate, the question persists. Therefore, a more specific, and graphical representation (some of our Bengalberry friends have difficulty reading) will be employed here.

"Dey" currently are:





C'mon Brownies! Give number 4 will ya? Theres a lot of losing left for this season.

Perfection

An article referencing Tom Browning's perfect game can be found here. Near the end of the article, Tom Browning addresses the subject of how many people were in the stands after the 2hour 27minute rain delay.

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Tom, there weren't many, but I can name four:

Akbar Hasan, Blaine Ott, Dan Hall, and one of their 18yr old buddies who had driven them from Lexington to Cincinnati that night and from time to time makes blog entrys here.

So, thanks, cause that was a really cool thing to see.

1984

Recently completed reading George Orwell's classic, "1984". This book is prophetic, scary, and provocative wrapped up in a big ball. Some favorite passages:

"No emotion was pure, because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred. [Winston and Julia's] embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a blow struck against the Party. It was a political act."

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"[People incapable of understanding] could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything, and what they swallowed did them no harm, because it left no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird."

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"One did not know what happened inside the Ministry of Love, but it was possible to guess: tortures, drugs, delicate instruments that registered your nervous reactions, gradual wearing down by sleeplessness and solitude and persistent questioning. Facts, at any rate, could not be kept hidden. They could be tracked down by inquiry, they could be squeezed out of you by torture. But if the object was not to stay alive but to stay human, what difference did it ultimately make? They could not alter your feelings; for that matter you could not alter them yourself, even if you wanted to. They could lay bare in the utmost detail everything that you had done or said or thought; but the inner heart, whose workings were mysterious even to yourself, remained impregnable."

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"The fallacy was obvious. It presupposed that somewhere or other, outside oneself, there was a 'real' world where 'real' things happened. But how could there be such a world? What knowledge have we of anything, save through our own minds? All happenings are in the mind. Whatever happens in all minds, truly happens."

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"They would have blown his brain to pieces before they could reclaim it. The heretical thought would be unpunished, unrepented, out of their reach forever. They would have blown a hole in their own perfection. To die hating them, that was freedom."

The beginning of sport's most pristine GOOSE EGG

Yesterday, the Cincinnati Bengalberries took the field. To Cliff Blog's great delight, the Bengalberries posted another of their infamous "L"s. This puts the current season record at 0 Wins and 1 Loss.

To make that point crystal clear, here's how many wins the Bengalberries have:

Fifteen more losses, and this team will have reached a MAJOR milestone. A goal never attained in an NFL season- the 0-16 record! After this achievement, they will take their place as the worst professional sports franchise EVER.

C'mon Bengalberries! That first loss was critical, but you've got a lot more losing to do! The tone is set, so don't go screwing this up too!

Wrigley Field Grounds Crew: Hello!

A classic Wrigley Field moment occurred yesterday:



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This was an embedded video of a Major League Baseball play. Why MLB would issue a take down notice to a video on Youtube is a subject of great mystery.

Couldn't it be possible that someone browsing the Internet, or subscribed to a blog, would come across an entry such as this, and think, "Gee that looks fun. I think I'll go to the game in my town tonight."

But no: the insular attitudes at baseball's highest levels have prevailed again. No more MLB on Youtube, and before that, no more free streaming audio of MLB broadcasts, and before that, the ridiculous "home market" blackouts, and on and on.

The clowns in charge of MLB are extremely fortunate that they have the greatest game. No matter how hard they try to screw it up with steroids or the designated hitter, we're allured by the baseball game because of it's intricacies, it's time of year, and it's settings.