Marxism

From A Day at the Races (1937)


TS

RBP World Cup Occasional Blog #8

"Does he get touched?  Barely."

I call bullshit.

This thing is rigged.

I kid, of course.  I have no idea.  The subjective nature always rules. Speaking of which, I guess I don't know futbol's rules.

My viewing trend continues however, and it's wonderful.  I tuned in at 75' and saw two goals by the Orange. It's like they used to say about watching the NBA, which I seldom watch any more.

If you can tune in at the last minute you won't have missed much.


TS

Restaurant Blues

For anyone who has ever worked in the restaurant business this is not "shocking."

I can't think of a tougher way to make a living.  I ought to know.

It also explains why restaurateurs can be some of the most miserable sons-of-bitches on the planet and such deeply committed assholes.

I worked in a lot of joints over the years.

With a couple of exceptions, the owners were dickheads.  That goes for the women, too.

Of course, I'm proud to admit I was no patsy, either.  Made for a volatile cocktail at times.

Fortunately, I never bought a place and lost my shirt.  I never had a shirt to begin with.

All I ever lost in the business was my soul.


TS

Summer with the Beavers

Okay, there are no excuses now.

Here is your link to a good summer read.  Take it to the beach with you.



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On the Rebound

Good old Tosh is up again.  Maybe it needed a cool down period.

I don't like what happened yesterday, though.  Could be a sign of impending doom.

My last laptop started acting sketchily before finally turning senile (a broken motherboard) with the inevitability of obsolescence.

Hang in there, Tosh.  The road's been good to us.  We need each other.

TS

Tome

I may have bitten off more than I can chew--again.

I've taken the Autobiography of Mark Twain Vol. 1 out of the library.

That's over 700 pages of fine print.

Can I handle it?




TS

RP Thomas/Two

Near Williams, CA

"...an industrial contraption that seems very aggressive..."

Near Williams, CA


TS

RBP World Cup Occasional Blog #7

I must say Sonali has a few good reasons to ignore the World Cup.

Beyond the incessant chanting of nationalistic idiots, of course.






TS

Salmon

Thanks to CD for this, from the Portland Skanner.








TS

Eli/The Years

How in the hell anyone lives to 98 is beyond my ability to comprehend reality.

Eli Wallach was always an under-appreciated actor.  He must have led an extremely clean life on top if it.

That's hard to do.

My paternal grandmother lived to 105, but she was a saint. I don't think she ever "worked out," because people except for some--but not all-- athletes didn't do much of that years ago. I know she didn't sin in any form or fashion, however, which goes a long way.

It's odd though, judging by her cooking late in her life, she couldn't possibly have eaten well.  She could cook a veggie until it was flat dead and devoid of any purpose other than filler.

I doubt if Babe Ruth ever worked out like Derek Jeter, for example.

My own Ma was pretty sedentary and she lived to 90, so there's the genetic/reasoned thing in a nutshell.  She too was a teetotaler and god-fearing angel, however.

I'm not on their path.

Not even close.


TS

Us/Them

Cookin' up another book project.

The fun just doesn't stop here in the neighborhood as the big old crazy world spins out of control.

I can hear the little pocket-sized dogs yapping across the courtyard, the sound mingling with the random, desperate shouts of the mad confronting their demons face-to-face.

I, too, am mad and desperate, barking at my pages, keeping the demons at bay. If I am succeeding it is only because I believe in redemption.


TS

Article of the Day

Reading up on my boss Jeff Bezos today, I came across this:

"A difference between A&P’s position then and Amazon’s now involves politics. At the cusp of the Great Depression, corner grocers and independent food wholesalers still had considerable political power in both of the major parties. In President Franklin Roosevelt, they also had a powerful defender. Roosevelt understood how A&P’s efficiencies and low prices made food accessible to impoverished Americans. Yet he was also concerned that A&P’s ravenous growth might cause hundreds or thousands of small merchants to fail, exacerbating the nation’s jobs crisis. Roosevelt therefore oversaw a divided approach that used regulation to assure small grocers of some price stability while also enabling A&P to sell low-cost food, although not as freely as it would have without regulation."

And...

"From the Reagan presidency onward, the right succeeded remarkably. Large corporations perfected their lobbying power in Washington while small businesses like bookstores and corner grocers watched their political influence and their hold on the American imagination fade. The United States today presents a more bifurcated economic landscape of empowered, atomized, fickle, screen-tapping consumers and the globalized, often highly profitable corporations that aspire to serve them."

Read the rest of it here.


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RBP World Cup Occasional Blog #6

So, I'm sitting around today doing absolutely as little as possible and I hear a story about a futbol player in the World Cup who bites one of his opponents!

Man, am I glad I didn't see that.

I've been through the biting thing, having seen Tyson chew through the ear of Holyfield.


TS

Published/The Children of Vaughn

If you'd like to order a copy of The Children of Vaughn: The Story of Professional Baseball in Portland, Oregon (1901-2010) you can go here.

Or, if you prefer, you may go here.

Or you can choose to wait 3-5 days for the book to appear at Amazon.com.

See how much freedom you have?  It's all about your shopping choices.

Ain't it great being an American? (Forgive me if you are not an American and would rather not have anything to do with us.  I don't blame you.)

TS

Guitar Man

Merle from long ago.

Last night at the Portland Zoo he didn't play all the riffs in this song, but he played enough.


TS