I'm officially sick of 1908

And tomorrow is only Opening Day.

Do these editors think they're the only ones to realize it's been 100 years or something? Originality? Hello?

In other news, thanks the Good Lord, they are finally tearing down the gigantic ash tray that is Shea Stadium.

Top Five Fridays

This is a really good idea, which I will probably steal.

OK, My five favorite things about baseball:

5. The strikeout

4. The double play

3. Tight uniform pants

2. Red Sox fans

1. "Dad, do you wanna have a catch?"

Opening Day is a week away

How much snow do you think there will be on the infield?

While we're at it, any bets on how many times broadcasters will mention 1908 this year?

Why, TV, why?!?

The most ridiculous show on TV gets more ridiculous. The most satisfying show with the most dreamy guy is screwed by the writers strike until next year. And the best comedy currently in production has no second season in sight. Why do we bother even having a satellite dish? Oh wait, I remember: so I can watch the Cubs not get into the World Series for the hundredth year in a row.

Lust

looks like this.


If I had a whole extra $1000 laying around, I could also go for a pair of these and a couple pairs of these.

Pink Ladies

Pink Lady apples are by far the most superior kind of apple there is. I just ate a Granny Smith, which used to be my favorite, and it was like drinking a can of Bud after spending a week in Europe drinking fresh Czech beer on tap in squares in fabulous cities.

Trader Joe's still sucks

Here's another reason to hate TJ's: too much packaging. Why the hell do they need all this styrofoam and plastic to sell squash?? Stupid, stupid Trader Joe's.

"Just when you thought the Cubs were done being so Cub."

Gotta love this from Steve Rosenbloom:

On second thoughts: Soriano should heed the fifth

Cubs manager Lou Piniella says Alfonso Soriano will bat second, the
one spot that he seems least equipped to handle, what with the need
for plate discipline and sacrifice. In fact, Aramis Ramirez is better
equipped to hit second than Soriano is, if only because Ramirez
doesn't strike out nearly as much.

If Soriano's constant leg problems mean he isn't a threat to steal
bases, as the Cubs believe, then he is simply a power hitter who
strikes out a lot, which sounds like he should be hitting fifth. The
rumored No. 5 hitter Kosuke Fukudome, meanwhile, comes with the
scouting report of being a hybrid of Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui
-- you know, all the skills you'd want for a guy in the 2-hole.

But no.

Right now, manager Lou Piniella has it the other way around. Just when
you thought the Cubs were done being so Cub.

I'm concerned

I'm concerned. I'm concerned because George Lucas is a freakin whack job. He bought a bunch of land that's pretty much in a national park, and he might be part hyena. Most concerning is what I read in a recent issue of Vanity Fair, which I don't normally read, but was given to me by my friend who subscribes and noted the article about the new Indiana Jones movie, which she knows I would be VERY interested in. The article says that Lucas came up with some nutty idea for the plot to the new movie, which no one else (Harrison Ford, Spielberg, etc) liked. But Lucas insisted that it was this plot or nothing. And they were like, well, ok. So that concerns me. I'm also worried that he's going to CGI the shit out of it and ruin it that way. Now there's a new trailer out. Which I had to read about in the freaking CHRONICLE, for pete's sake. I have kids; I go to two movies a year! Throw me a bone!

Also, this kid who plays his son looks like kind of a dork.

But on the bright side, Karen Allen is going to be in the movie, which can only be a good thing. It's my belief that the strong female lead is key to the quality Indy movie, along with worthy adversaries, i.e., Nazis. In this case, Commies. Which might be sufficient.

There are a lot of countries

45

This is interesting, especially because it requires that you be able to SPELL all of them!!

Road Rage cards

This is a great idea. Of course, I came up with it years ago! It's a bit of overkill, though. You really only need three:

GET OFF YOUR PHONE
USE YOUR TURN SIGNAL
LEARN HOW TO DRIVE

Buh-bye, Merc

Well, we finally did it. After almost nine years of continuous subscription -- and about two of me agitating to dump it -- we finally canceled the Mercury News. I convinced Nathan to let me do it a couple weeks ago, and I finally got around to calling yesterday. Finally, we're free from the tyranny of all those ad inserts and crappy Dennis Rockstrah columns!

Seriously, with the MediaNews buy-out and preceeding and resulting cuts, it was becoming a lousy newspaper. Yesterday's new version of the real estate section just reaffirmed our decision. Now, the only thing we'll really miss is the Fry's section.

TGIED

Now that the day has finally arrived, my phone will stop ringing! My husband's "independent" status has elicited at least a dozen phone calls over the last two weeks from everyone from Barrack Obama to Bradley Whitford (couldn't they get Martin Sheen?), but mostly Obama volunteers, telling him he can request a Democratic (their word, Pete) ballot and vote in the primary. (Yesterday's two calls from Hillary Clinton are what I believe woke my son up from his nap.)

I think I'm going to turn my phone off in mid-October and tell our friends and family to call our cell phones or send us an email instead.

It's back

And what happened? Very little. Let's see... Locke is nuts, Hurley's in a mental institution, Kate ping-pongs between Jack and Sawyer, Claire's annoying. New season, same ole shite. Why are the critics raving?

Plastic bag makers sue Oakland

For the sake of our oceans, please, judge, do the right thing....

Sublime. Or subliminal

On Sunday afternoon, my last on a Hawaiian cruise ship, I got on an exercise bike, flipped through the channels, and the movie I found on TNT at that moment was Titanic.

Probably not the year

"A fairly large body of evidence exists that suggests this isn't going to be the year. In fact, the body of evidence overwhelmingly suggests that something bad will happen, with the very distinct possibility that it will be spectacularly bad."

There is, indeed, no reason to believe the Cubs will do anything of note this year. Morissey knows what he's talking about.

Larry Ellison

Around noon we were driving down Woodside Road and saw a convertible Bentley (Nathan noticed it because it had a soft top and not a folding hardtop, which apparently is the new way to go in luxury convertibles). The guy driving it looked a lot like Larry Ellison. Was it him? Well, I thought, surely not. Why would the richest guy in the US be driving himself around? But Nathan said he heard that Larry does, in fact, drive himself. So since he was on his way from Woodside, where he lives, toward 101 North (Oracle is about 10 minutes north), it seems like it very well could be Larry.

So I would put the odds that it was Larry at slightly less than half.

But on the issue of Larry driving to work in his Bentley: why? If I had even a fraction of his money, I would have a driver. Driving around is such a waste of time! I could see if he was driving his fancy car up on Skyline or over to the coast, but on Woodside (traffic light hell) to 101
(ugly billboard hell)?!?

7-year-old defied redneck dad, sources say

Just your run-of-the-mill dumb Cheesehead story. Then, I saw the headline on the video.

"Child tied up for allegedly not wearing Packers jersey"

Donut experiment, part I

Monday I pulled a donut at random out of the freezer. Yesterday (Wednesday) I let it get to room temperature before eating it. Turns out it was the chocolate frosted cake. It tasted like a good donut, but not the "unmmyow!" of the fresh Dunkin.