On day one of the Metro North commuter catastrophe,  I'm driving home, at an average speed of 8 mph (the a.m. drive took nearly 3 hours)  and listening, for the first time in an eon, to the Yankees game. (Mets played in the afternoon)
I'm stunned.  Play by play man John Sterling and color woman Suzyn Waldman may be no match for broadcast's best in Flushing, but what's most egregious is the  shameless "homer" POV and the obvious disdain they have for the opposition.  A Yankee pitcher gives up a hit and they start speculating about how the pitcher is getting tired or missing the signs--and not a word about the nice piece of hitting from the guy at the plate.  It's almost uncanny how their approach reflects everything I find intolerable about the team in general and the way it promotes itself as...ah, never mind, no reason to go on about this silliness, and sorry I even got started.

Did a quick search and found these sports related utterances ...that serve to remind how a talent  or expertise in feats of physical coordination does not necessarily extend above the neck...

"Are you any relation to your brother Marv?" -Basketball player Leon Wood to announcer Steve Albert

'This is really a lovely horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother.' -Dressage commentator

'I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father. ' - Greg Norman, Pro Golfer 

'Sure there have been injuries, and even some deaths in boxing, but none of them really that serious.' -Boxing Analyst

'If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again.' -Softball announcer

'He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces.' -Basketball analyst'

“One of the reasons Arnie Palmer is playing so well is that, before each final round, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them. … Oh, my God, what have I just said? -US Open Golf commentator

"That ball is hit deep to centerfield. Dave Winfield going back, all the way back to the wall... He hits his head on the wall and it rolls off!! It's rolling all the way back to second base!! Oh, this is a terrible thing for the Padres!" -Jerry Coleman, baseball announcer“

The lead car is absolutely, truly unique, except for the one behind it which is exactly identical to the one front of the similar one in back.” -Grand Prix Race announcer"

From the waist down, Earl Campbell has the biggest legs I have ever seen on a running back." -John Madden, Former NFL Coach and NFL Analyst"

There's a base hit to the centerfield side of second base". -Jon Miller, baseball announcer

"If you get outscored all four quarters, it is almost impossible to win". -Bill Walton, former NBA great and NBA analyst

"It's a partial sellout." -Atlanta Braves broadcaster Skip Caray, trying not to say the game has only drawn 6,000 fans.

"All of his saves have come during relief appearances." -Ralph Kiner, baseball announcer

"A lot of good ballgames on tomorrow, but we're going to be right here with the Cubs and the Mets." -Thom Brennaman, Chicago Cubs broadcaster.

"I'm really happy for Coach Cooper and the guys who've been around here for six or seven years, especially our seniors." -Ohio State quarterback Bob Hoying, after winning a Big Ten title.

"Any time Detroit scores more than 100 points and holds the other team below 100 points, they almost always win." -Doug Collins, former NBA coach and NBA analyst

They shouldn't throw at me. I'm the father of five or six kids.

 Former MLB Second Baseman Tito Fuentes

I'm glad I don't play anymore. I could never learn all of those handshakes.

Phil Rizzuto

And don't forget, The Metropolitan Transit Authority  (the "authority"mind you)   "strongly encourages"  you to stay home until full service is restored on the New Haven Line.  So have a happy weekend and an enjoyable three week long vacation. 

As Karen A. would say..."Oh Boy."

In a written statement, a spokesman for the utility said it could take two to three weeks to repair the 138 kilovolt feeder cable that failed just after 5:20 a.m. The cable brings high voltage power from the Con Ed grid to the railroad’s overhead catenary wires, which power both Metro-North and Amtrak trains through the New Haven line corridor.

The MTA website announcement included this gem:

"Customers are strongly encouraged to stay home or should seek alternate service"

 Why strongly encouraged to stay home?  Why even encouraged at all?  And for whose sake would we stay home? Do they know something I don't about the liberties I can take regarding my work obligations?  And if it was possible for someone to actually just stay home for the next three weeks without any difficulty, I doubt they would need any encouragement.  

Didn't get in this morning till the morning was turning into afternoon.  And gonna spend the rest of my posting time today trying to figure out when and how I'm gonna get home.

"How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?"
--Satchel Paige

 On this day 48 years ago Satchel Paige pitched his last game in the Major Leagues. He went 3 innings, gave up one hit and struck out one.  He was 59 years old. 

Cy Young is the all time Major League Leader in wins with 511, and Walter Johnson is number two with 417 and no one else on the list breaks 400.  Though the Negro Leagues record books are less than precise, there seems to be general consensus that Paige pitched in  2500 to 3000 games and won between 1500 to 2000 of them.  By his own estimate, he pitched for 42 years.  And in the Negro Leagues, nearly all were complete games.  The more you do the math the more amazing it gets, especially considering that in today's game, starting pitchers generally throw no more than twice a week and rarely go more than 7 innings.  



And then there's all the things he said or is said to have said that are probably as much a part of his legacy and legend as his on the field exploits.  I wrote a song about him years ago using many of his more memorable quips and built the chorus around :

Work like you don't need the money, 

love like you never been hurt 

and dance like nobody's watching

He was a sly wit, whose verbal style was as unpredictable as his "Hesitation" pitch. And many of his advisories were informed by a life spent almost entirely on the road ...

"How to Keep Young" 

Avoid fried meats which angry up the blood.
If your stomach disputes you, lie down and pacify it with cool thoughts.
Keep the juices flowing by jangling around gently as you move.
Go very light on the vices, such as carrying on in society— 

the social ramble ain't restful.  (gotta love that "social ramble")
Avoid running at all times.
And don't look back— something might be gaining on you.

The New York Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle was also a contest in which entrants could submit their answer to the three word phrase encoded within the grid that could be unlocked only after realizing that one would have to first access a Braille dictionary which would only provide the answer once you figured out how to read the letters in the bold boxes  and then match that with the...whew....really?  Ok, it's a change of pace, but it's also asking a lot and even feels a bit like cheating when you have to go elsewhere to find the keys to the solution.  I did the entire solve knowing (once I got the Braille thing)  that I was never going to get the phrase or understand the bold boxes until I did my Braille search and study, and by that time I had run out of patience.   I did not "Feel The Love". 

I feel a lot more like I do now than I did when I came in.  Someone posted that phrase on the Bulletin Board at my College (forty two years ago) and I've been wondering about it ever since. And then I came across an article on Language Log (a fine place to visit for the Linguistically Curious) in a guest post by Keith Chen (Associate Professor EconomicsUCLA Anderson School of Management)

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3792

Gist of it is:  In cultures where the language doesn't make  distinctions between the present and the future---I climb Mountain tomorrow vs.  I will climb the mountain tomorrow--there is a greater incidence of planning and saving for the future as well as the cultivation of better habits in diet and physical fitness.  In other words, when the language treats the future as virtually no different than the present, the culture prepares for the future with greater care and attention.  Interesting premise and interesting reading and if you follow the many discussions, some dissenting voices call the hypothesis into question.

Joe McCarthy and Ted Cruz...

Apparently, I'm not the first to notice the resemblance.

But all joking aside, this guy sounds like McCarthy too.

If you're not familiar with his wit and wisdom check him out 

patronizing and lecturing  Dianne Feinstein during hearings 

on Gun Control legislation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYI3MEhegvQ  

Friend Alex commented on previous post about Ronan the rhythmic Sea Lion with this link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJOZp2ZftCw
  
It's a video of Snowball (The Sulfur Crested Cockatoo and YouTube sensation) doing what appears to be an audition for Dancing with the Stars.

 Duly impressed, I clicked on this equally extraordinary performance by the fine feathered phenom....



  I know nothing about how Snowball and Ronan do what they do but I suspect that there's a form of emotional intelligence at work that cannot be attributed only to a talent for mimicry.  Why do I suspect that?  I'm not sure, but from watching this video and others, you can see that Snowball is listening to the music and frequently pauses to pick up the beat before moving in time to it--and even self corrects when he's out of step.  And, in my experience as a primate of the sub-species Homo Sapiens, the ability to respond to sound with rhythmic synchronicity strikes me as a sympathetic response and not just an instinctive one.  But again, that's just my intuitive sense of it, though I do know that if I saw a chicken boogying down to Papa's Got a Brand New Bag and hitting the accent on the downbeat,  I'd be more likely to desire sparing it the fate of landing on my dinner plate.

Meet Ronan.  A California female Sea Lion trained by researchers at UC Santa Cruz to bob her head in time to a variety of musical tempos and songs (including Down on the Corner/ Creedence Clearwater Revival and Boogie Wonderland/ Earth Wind and Fire) making her the first mammal (other than most non-caucasion humans) to respond to rhythm. 

Not sure why, but this strikes me as momentous news and confirms my long held belief that Sea Lions got soul.  Now if they could only learn to pick locks so they can escape the confines and clutches of all these people looking to prove what most of us already knew.

For those curious or requiring data and details...follow the link to full study. 

http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/features/com-128-2-1.pdf

HAPPY WEEKEND

Yma Sumac.
Nee:  Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chávarri del Castillo

What's a three letter word for Singer Sumac?  

Down in Nashville, sis Deb and I shared the childhood memory of having an Yma Sumac album in our family record collection --and if memory serves, it was this one >>

 It came up in reference to how frequently her one of a kind name pops up in crossword puzzles. Curious about the most oft used clues/words in crosswords I went searching and sure enough…there’s the Peruvian diva with the four and a half octave range making her mark at #17 on the top twenty list.  To toot my own horn, I had guessed that “Jai ____” would be among top 5.

The First published Crossword Puzzle.
December 21, 1913

Here's the top twenty:

1. Jai ___

2. “Dies ___”

3. Architect Saarinen

4. ___ Lingus

5. ___-Magnon

6. Mauna ___

7.___ Lanka

8. Alley ___

9. From ___ Z

10 ___ avis

11. Inter ___

12. Pro ___

13. Coach Parseghian

14. ___ Na Na

15. Otherwise

16."... ___ saw Elba"

17. Singer Sumac

18. Part of Q.E.D.

19. Actress Thurman

20. Rap's Dr. ___

And what's the word for 

"...Uh, um, damn, it's on the tip of my tongue" ? 

Aphasia you say?  Apparently no.  Aphasia is an impairment of the language function caused by brain damage, and what we're talking about here is the more common and universal experience of a momentary  word retrieval malfunction. 

Anomia you say?  Well, maybe, but strictly speaking Anomia is "a deficit in finding words and is the most conspicuous feature of aphasia" --so actually, no.

Dysnomia you say?  Nope. That's just another term for anomic aphasia which is also a sub-set type of aphasia related to word recollection.

Lethologica you say?  According to what I've found, this is a psychological disorder far more serious and debilitating than the occasional lapse that " on the tip of my tongue" is intended to indicate. 

Presque vu you say?  Close, but no cigar despite what Wikipedia says.  This term refers to being (or the feeling of being) on the brink of an epiphany or revelation...which seems a somewhat different matter than the simple inability to recall a single word. 

So what is it?  The envelope please...
and the winner is: 

Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon.  Or TOT for short.

As Casey Stengel said..." you can look it up."  Which raises yet another issue--that of the misattributed quote.  Or as Yogi Berra said, " I really didn't say everything I said."
 But I'll save that for another day. 

A Grand Central Stationary Update

I'm so excited cause things are looking up...or down, as the case often is with escalators.  There are men at work, or so it appears if you happen to walk by during the two or three hours a day you might be lucky enough to see them.  And there's lots of shiny new pieces of steel lying about in various states of disconnectedness. But hope springs eternal and there's even a brand new sign announcing the new completion date rounded off to the nearest month (October).  Who knows?  Come the first big blizzard, we may be ascending from our morning commute in all the comfort and ease made possible by  industrial age technology circa 1920 at its best-- thus leaving behind memories of nearly a year of enforced morning stair master classes beneath Madison Ave.   I'll keep you posted as the thrilling saga approaches its compelling conclusion.  

“You've really got to wear a chastity belt

in Washington to preserve your journalistic virginity. Once the secretary of state invites you to lunch and asks your opinion, you're sunk."

I.F. Stone.  Part  II. 

Checking back in with the first and best political Blogger of them all.  

My parents subscribed to his self-published (four pages, no advertising) newsletter I.F Stone's Weekly and it was often cited during conversations about world events (which was all that mattered since only the bourgeoisie gave voice to personal concerns)  

I vaguely recall picking it up a few times and even more vaguely remember what I read.  And since Stone gave it up in 1971 for health reasons, the Weekly wasn't around during most of the years my political consciousness had come of age.

But thanks to the wonders of the web, his entire archive is available and every issue is just a few clicks away.  

http://www.ifstone.org/weekly_searchable.php

Some of his scoops and revelations 
jump off the page.
    
In July 1943 he got his hands on the F.B.I. guidelines for spotting subversive tendencies among government workers. The bureau's official list of questions to ask about a suspect reads in part:   

"Does he mix with Negroes? Does he seem to have too many Jewish friends? Does his face light up when the Red Army is mentioned? Is he always criticizing Vichy France?? Does he buy out-of-town newspapers?? Do you think he is excessive in opposing fascism or Nazism?"  

Who knew that Mel Brooks and Mort Sahl wrote for the FBI?   

Esther and Izzy.  For 19 years they published the
Weekly from their D.C. home. 

And more than sixty years ago, Stone speaks in terms that are no less at issue now than they were then...

     "The Arab has benefited from the Jewish influx, but only indirectly. The Zionist has not hurt him, but the Zionist has made him feel shut out. This exclusiveness is natural and understandable, but it needs to be corrected if the Jews are to build for themselves a secure life in the Middle East.

and...

“If it were possible to insulate the United States from the world, to retire into our shell, to plow our fields and write our books and raise our children untouched by quarrels across the sea.… I would be for isolationist neutrality legislation.… But I do not believe insulation and isolation possible.… Must we play nursemaid to the world? I am afraid so.”

Jules Feiffer in June 1989 when Stone died. 

that last quote above is from a Christopher Hitchens piece about Stone in 2006
 http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2006/09/hitchens200609

It's a beautifully rendered tribute and a touching one.  

Houston,Cyrena,Gabe
Friends of Lola


http://www.friendsoflolamusic.com

Four days in Nashville and still digesting-- Including some manner of swine on your plate a few times a day doesn't come without a price, but the stomach held up and had the finest of times hanging with Deb, Bill, Gabe (see previous post) Gabe's girlfriend Cyrena, (aka: Friends of Lola co-lead singer with brother Houston) and assorted other members of their friendly community. East Nashville (where Gabe lives)  is apparently gentrifying like Brooklyn on Benzadrine and the omnipresent twang of "Tin Pan South" seems to be the main engine fueling  the "Ka-Ching" in a town more prosperous, young, and lively than the one I last visited 18 years ago.  Kinda reassuring to see a US city on the upswing after so many years of Detroit-like disasters.  And you heard it here first (or maybe you didn't), but Friends of Lola is a band you're gonna hear from and of...and it'll come with a buzz a lot louder than anything confined to just the Blogosphere.

Gonna be Tennessee Waltzing  this weekend with Ellen, sister Deb, her hubby Bill and their gainfully employed multi-talented musician son Gabe. Looking forward to four days of countrified carousing and southern comfort before returning to regularly scheduled drifting...

...til then I'll leave you in the good company of...

 Drew and Natalie Dee 

authors of two* 

long running digital diversions :  

http://www.toothpastefordinner.com 

&

http://marriedtothesea.com

And in keeping with my evolving role as digital anthropologist/anthologist,  here's a random sampling from the massive archives on their respective sites. 

* (actually three, cause Natalie has another at  http://nataliedee.com) 

And then we told them...
"The wealth would trickle down!"

Capitalism, socialism, globalization and what is (and isn't)  a marriage  were debated (and debased) ad nauseum.    And between Joe Biden's  dismissal of Paul Ryan's malarkey and Mitt Romney's coining of a new meme with his binders full of women, there was a distinct dearth of professionalism on display in our dilapidated democracy but no fewer shameless shows of Shadenfreude on Wall St. And despite the dumbed down declamations by one Fox-News fed bigot after another, Obama won another four years.  Touche.   

Words in Red above were the top ten most looked up words of 2012--according to the dutiful definers at  Merriam Webster.  Capitalism and Socialism were tied for top honors, making the top ten  total 11. Clearly influenced by a presidential election year--and reflective of how mainstream  media  pounded away with "Obama is a socialist" stories (despite the fact that he spent most of his first term riding to the rescue of Capitalism--thus leading perhaps to the general curiosity and confusion concerning the meaning of those two words).  And with special credit going to Joe Biden, who sparred with Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, for the lighthearted “With all due respect, that’s a bunch of malarkey,” which  sent lookups of the Irish-American word soaring.

 By contrast, in 2010 without as much election news, the list was comprised of: 

austerity,  pragmatic, moratorium, socialism, bigot , 

doppelgänger, shellacking, ebullient, dissident, furtive.

Something about these lists (with bigot and socialism appearing twice) and others from previous years seems to offer clues to something instructive...and soon as I figure out what that is I'll let you know. 

"You can observe a lot just by watching" 
Yogi Berra

While Observing the Obvious...

...came to conclusion that Rafa Nadal's multitude of physical tics and OCD like habits on the court are a critical and deliberately cultivated part of his tennis playing arsenal.  Finely tuned quick twitch reflexes are what it takes to play the modern booming serve and baseline to baseline top-spin heavy swing with all your might on every shot game.

 Even all that jumping, dashing and darting around before the match seems to be  part of a routine that keeps him ready and alert for everything and anything that might (and will) happen in a fraction of a millisecond.  If Federer is deer-like in his grace and economy of movement, then Nadal is cat-like in his perpetual preparedness to pounce. 

 ...All the J.D. Salinger hype surrounding the new documentary and book(s) seems tone-deaf on the part of all those claiming to be his champions.  The guy became famous for his stories and then legendary for his life-long allergic reaction to that fame.  And so, his admirers and fans persist in fanning the flames of the fires that burned him out.  The current hyperbolic hoopla is just the kind of thing that drove the guy out of civil society and possibly out of his mind.  Kudos to Adam Gopnik for making this point better than I can, and making a whole slew of others even more pertinent in this piece in New Yorker..

.http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/09/who-was-jd-salinger.html

MATCH 
POINTS

Have become (Me and Ellen) pathetically hooked on the US Tennis Open fortnight from Flushing. Just a few days left before we can resume our regularly scheduled routine of pre-recorded episodes of DCI Banks and Doc Martin...but til then it's all preternaturally precocious prodigies pummeling the fuzzy yellow ball with far too frequent interruptions with commercials we've seen sixty times and still don't understand. 

 Warwrinka was dazzling in his dismantling of Murray.  Hard to feel sympathy for Murray with his penchant for petulance when his opponent hits outright winners. Yet, I do sorta feel for him the way I feel for a child throwing a temper tantrum in the presence of clueless parents.  The difference between him and Fed, Nadal and Nole seems not to be one of skill and talent but of temperament and perspective.  The other three appear to love what they're doing and  feel honored by the opportunity to compete at the highest level while dealing dispassionately with the fickle farce of celebrity/media madness.

Billie Jean King said 
" Pressure is a privilege". Not sure Murray understands or believes that and that's why he plays like he's suffering, (which he is) and watching him play so unpleasant. 

  

Is it just me?  Or is the "It must be Love"  Ad campaign a stinker?  I (as you know) love a good pun as much as anyone, But  "Love" in tennis means zero, zip, nada, zilch...and there's just no getting round the fact that no matter how much they may want us to think otherwise, the tennis related message of their square peg in a round hole pun is  "IT MUST BE NOTHING"

Arthur Ashe Stadium is Big! 

Ridiculously, Vertiginously, Comically, Bewilderingly Big. 

Got seats a third of the way up?  You may see that one of the players is wearing a hat. 

Got seats half-way up?

You may see that the guy sitting a third of the way up is wearing a hat.

Got seats near the top?

You may see that the pilot of the Blimp overhead is wearing a hat. 

SCREAM QUEENS

Tennis talents aside, #'s 1 and 2 in the ladies draw are waging a fierce battle for title of highest decibel level shrieking.
  

Victoria Azarenka.  83.5 decibels  Short, sharp, penetrating.  Often achieves highest decibel reading  after mis-hitting overheads and easy volleys. 

 Serena Williams.  88.9 decibels.  Deeper in pitch, part grunt, part roar. Defensive shots on the run and serves often accompanied by strongest vocalizing.   

Reigning champ.  Maria Sharapova.  101 decibels.  Very high pitch with two notes, vibrato and long sustain. 

                                       

Predictions


1. Flavia Pennetta defeats Azarenka 

 2. Li Na beats Serena

3. Stanislas Warwrinka defeats Djokovic

4. Richard Gasquet beats Nadal 

5. USTA cancels both men's and women's finals.