good talk

I voted for John Edwards unfortunately he proved to be a faceman. I don't know why Elizabeth Edwards would be giving birth at an old age, they weren't even related to her. I'm pleased as punch about Michael Vick's success, he paid in triplicate. In SI they say that Andy Reid was the ideal coach for Vick to play for considering that both of Reid's sons are currently in prison. Sharron Angle raised 26.9 million for her campaign and Harry Reid raised 22.5 for his, a total of almost 50 million, as many as disliked Reid one would have thought that Angle would have finished him off but the dingbat ran an inept campaign with an incompetent campaign manager who spent most of his time in Missouri where he lived. I didn't watch Sarah Palin shoot that poor caribou, that caribou meant something to somebody, it's like Bambi's Mother. Palin shot and missed the first 4 times and any animal is going to take off running at the report of the first loud gunshot, that this caribou didn't would indicate that it had been drugged. I watched Akron U beat Louisville 1-0 for the Men's NCAA Soccer Championship, the first NCAA title that Akron U has won in anything. I never went there but my father was Akron U's leading scorer and MVP in Basketball in 1934 on a team that only lost one game, Congratulations to Akron U. Last month I went again to the Getty, the Norton Simon in Pasadena and the LA County Art Museum, nobody likes art more than me. Just down Wilshire Blvd. and easy walking distance from the LA County Art Museum are the La Brea Tarpits in Hancock Park and the accompanying George C. Page Museum. Beginning 38,000 years ago the La Brea Tarpits began to trap animals deceived by the water on top of the tarpits not knowing that they'd be caught in the tar beneath. I was there once before long ago and am sorry that I hadn't returned until recently. Tarpit #91 is the only one still being excavated, you can look at that and all the others and then go inside the Page Museum established in 1977. Inside you can see the remains of animals, mostly predators, lured to their doom so long ago, the California Sabre-Tooth (not called the Sabred-Toothed Tiger), Harlan's Ground Sloth, the American Mostodon, Imperial and Columbian Mammoths, Bison, Horses (nobody knows why they died out 10 thousand years ago, seemed like conditions were optimum), the American Camel, the Giant Short-Faced Bear, the American Lion (30% larger than the African Lion, dying out also 10 thousand years ago, I didn't know there was an American Lion), and others. All of this is beyond fascinating and yours to see for a few dollars. A year ago last spring I walked across Pitch Lake in Trinidad where all of the World's asphalt comes from, such things are Very Exciting to me. I urge you to develop healthy interests.

good talk

Since I graduated from high school in 1965 this country has been involved in frivolous warfare half the time, there's very seldom a good reason to be at war and it should be a very rare occurrence. Why are you so self-destructive? Las Vegas has a discount moviehouse that I often go to and it does tremedous business. It's the closest to me and lots of others and it only costs 1.50 at any time to see a movie on one of its six screens. I like to go out and do things instead of sitting around hunched over in my domicile and many others also feel this way, you could take your family of 5 there for 7.50. It only costs maybe 20% to show a movie that's been out for 3 or 3 months and they make their money on concessions, even with a regular moviehouse they make half their money on concessions. "Tropicana Cinemas" at Trop and Pecos has become the place to be seen. I was at Petco a few years ago and in the restroom when they announced that somebody had died, I turned to the kid next to me and said who died? Rod Beck (1968 to 2007) was a major league pitcher from 1991 to 2004 and for a few years in the early and mid 90's was considered to be the best relief pitcher in baseball as a closer for the San Francisco Giants, I saw him pitch then. An old school mindset, Rod Beck was always popular with his teammates and enjoyed talking the game for hours while indulging in his appetite for beer, food and cigarettes. Always with a big gut other pitchers copied his mannerism of glaring at the batter with his right arm dangling. Rod pitched also for the Cubs, Red Sox and was out for the 2002 season due to Tommy John surgery. When the Padres' Trevor Hoffman was injured in 2003 the Padres were desperate for a closer and signed Rod Beck even though as Jake Peavy put it "He was running on the fumes." It's with good reason that the Padres had fond memories of Rod Beck as he went out and got them 20 saves in 20 chances that year pitching only with the confidence that he could get the batter out. Beset by increasing drug use the Padres let Rod Beck go in August, 2004. With his physical skills leaving him and baseball no longer in his life Rod Beck was found on June 23, 2007 dead in his house in Phoenix from a cocaine overdose, he was "38." As a former teammate put it "He couldn't shake the demons," with a career of 286 saves Rod Beck will eventually be considered for the Baseball Hall of Fame.