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8/29/08

Now it's really getting exciting

First off, lots to say about the last night of the convention but the bottom line for me is that I feel better about Obama than I did before the convention started: better about voting for him, better about his chances of winning... the whole shebang.

And how about Don getting his pick w/ Sarah Palin? The only possible explanation is that McCain is a regular reader of PhillyWill, in which case I have to say -- "John, I tried the best pickle last week!" (he loves pickles)

In any case, Palin balances out the 'Bold and the Beautiful' and 'Young and Restless' quotient on the ticket, just as Biden did in reverse for Obama. Another oldish white male would've sunk the GOP unless he had been a cant-miss pick, and none of those existed. She's also got a muckraker reputation and can definitely play up the Washington-outsider card. However, the flip side of that is that if something happens to McCain, she'll take over with Geena Davis-level of national experience. I'm going to give McCain the benefit of the doubt and NOT assume he thinks Palin will win over former Hillary supporters. Palin's pro-life-ness would clearly negate her gender-ness on that front. But what about the 'independents'? The jury's out on that one.

I guess when it's all said and done, I feel better about all four of these folks than Bush/Cheney, so there's progress.

8/28/08

Rocky Mountain High ...

...was probably Tuesday night, but since I haven't caught up yet, I'll have to go with last night. Bill kicked ass as expected. I was impressed with Kerry, too, who was clearly getting out some pent-up frustration.

Biden was fine; my only complaint was the obviously-intentional Bush/McCain 'Freudian slip.' Kerry did the same thing earlier and it sounded stupid the first time. Anyway, Biden was energized but sane and shared the spotlight well. The intergenerational family theme was genuine; when 'We Are Family' came on, I believed it.

I am starting to get a little queasy about the roiling storm of the Repub convention. The 'he's not ready' and 'wrong ticket' themes are going to bludgeon us and will probably score some points; going second is a huge advantage here for the GOP. (I guess waiting til after Obama's acceptance speech before getting my panties in a wad makes sense too). One hope is that McCain picks someone goofy and he/they has to spend much of the convention explaining the choice. I guess I'm having trouble imagining a non-goofy choice, come to think of it. McCain is so clearly a superior candidate to his party-mates it seems hard to imagine how far from the nomination he was at one point.

8/27/08

Priorities

I haven't seen Hillary's speech yet. The plan was for the Phillies to make quick work of the Mets at the Bank and get back in time for the actual or recently TiVo'd start of the speech. Well, wouldn't you know it, the Phils spotted the Mets 7 runs through three, then held them scoreless for the ensuing TEN innings to finally win it in the 13th on a bases-loaded Chris Coste single.

It was a weird one: 7-0 Mets innings 1-3. 8-0 Phils innings 4-13. I got home just in time to watch the re-cap as the lead story on 1 a.m. Sports Center. Another shout out to Harsha who not only stayed for the full 13 but also biked home with me, protecting me from some thugs who started shouting 'tightie whities' at us. (Harsha's Indian and I was wearing boxers so I'm not sure what that was all about).

After last season's epic collapse and then this game, you gotta wonder where the Mets' heads are right now. The literalists might say "at the tops of their necks."

Did Hillary really make a 'Sisterhood of the traveling pantssuit' joke?

8/25/08

Biden time

By now I'm sure you've all heard that Obama picked Joe Biden to fill out the ticket. Great move, I think. He reminds me of Lloyd Bentsen: conviction, pragmatism, experience. Of course, there are some negatives -- saying Obama wasn't ready to be president jumps to mind -- but, hey, if there were a perfect choice it probably wouldn't have taken til the weekend before the convention to name him/her.

Speaking of which, I was pleased to get an email from Sen Clinton Saturday saying she thought Biden was a great choice and she'll support the ticket fully at the convention. No doubt there will be some dissent amongst her die-hards but I just don't see them getting much traction with the leaders presenting a united front.

The Repubs were up early Sun morning getting the spin out -- if Obama got 50% of the vote and Clinton got 50%, not picking her as a running mate was bad/weak/whatever. This sound-byte didn't have much oomph to it, especially from Giuliani -- c'mon, dude, your election strategy opinions are suspect at best. You could almost feel that their better ammo would've come if he had picked her (It's 3 a.m., we don't want either one of them answering the phone...)

8/21/08

Bass-ackwards

Wait...we won women's soccer gold and lost softball? to Japan? Didn't we invent softball?

8/19/08

Update

The streets of Brooklyn were hopping last weekend prompting Owen to observe wide-eyed: "Now I know what it's like to be out in New York on a Saturday night."

O started a week of soccer camp on Monday. UK elite's "Coach Matt", actually of the UK, was running the 6-and-olders through some drills, shouting out instructions, not particularly concerned if they were following along or not. I guess that's the only way to do it without going nuts. I'm going to stop back by on Friday for the scrimmage, hopefully getting some pictures.

In other news, Jack and Sam are out on assignment, attempting to rid Julie's house of mice.

Reports are that they are doing a lot of lounging around

but the hope is that their pheromones alone will do the trick, though recent reports suggest that it may only make the mice 'macho.' I'm sure Julie would appreciate if at this point I mentioned that her house is not overrun with mice; in fact, there's only marginal evidence of their/its presence.

8/16/08

Instant classic

You have to see "Tropic Thunder" ... funniest movie I've seen in a long time. Robert Downey Jr started the summer w/ "Ironman" and ended with this one -- he's on a serious roll.

8/15/08

Sign from God

I just got a text message from sms_casting that they're holding auditions for 76ers cheerleaders and dancers. Is the NBA ready for 'No Pants Man?' Only one way to find out...

Sexual harassment in the news

It looks like tenured professors aren't above the law after all. Luckily, the Onion was quick to help us put the incident(s) in perspective.

And, no, I don't think sexual harassment is a laughing matter, but this cake is. Not to mention the whole blog.

8/13/08

Cool review article

Check out this one from a couple weeks back in the New England Journal about effects of in utero development on adult disease later in life. The evidence is a lot stronger than I thought.

Speaking of which, Owen has an adult tooth growing behind a baby tooth that hasn't fallen out yet and isn't even loose. Shark-boy, as we now call him, hasn't been to the dentist in a year because Daddy believes that putting fillings in baby teeth (Owen has at least two) makes about as much sense as putting 90-year-olds on mechanical ventilation.

Please share any experience you have about double-teeth and later-in-life dental catastrophes (or lack thereof).

8/11/08

high yield entertainment

I tuned in for about 40 min of Olympics last night and got the whole Olympo-tainment spectrum. There was the tear-jerker about the 33-year-old gymnast who competes for Germany after bringing her young son from Russia to get needed treatment for leukemia. It's her FIFTH Olympics...and the leukemia is in remission. Then there was some ill-defined, pseudo-scandal about a hot French swimmer who was dating a hot Italian swimmer who broke up with the former to date another hot Italian swimmer. The latter two may or may not have posted nude pics of the hot French swimmer on the web. Well, um (as Owen would say), the BEST part was in the showdown between the two hot swimmers, a homely Brit took the gold!

None of that compared to the thrilling underdog U.S. men's 4x100 freestyle relay win over the haughty French ("We will smash them" they said -- sure, there may have been some laxity with the translation; the actual quote in French was probably "I hope we are victorious"). I was actually shouting at the TV, which I can't remember happening with a non-major sport.

8/7/08

This and that ...

Favre is a Jet. I could've imagined it but it seemed like Brett was on the verge of tears during his entire press conference announcing his new Jet-ness. Between the Packers' owner, GM, head coach, Favre himself ...what a fascinating psychodrama played out in restrained emotions in front of microphones. (I'm guessing it was the polar opposite of Mamma Mia, if hell were to freeze over and I were to see that movie.) I felt bad for Favre this go-round; it seemed like the Pack saying 'you can't win another Super Bowl' was like taking Old Yeller out back and ...

But, hey, the Jets did win 4 games last year. And Favre's already been in a movie with Cameron Diaz; could his next one be with Paris Hilton?

On an unrelated note -- listen closely... if you're saying a word with S-T in it these days, do you put an 'H' in between? Steven Colbert just said 'dishtracting' twice, the ad says it's 'Shtrong, Army Shtrong.' and Owen and I both say 'shtreet.' (Any relation to the mostly bygone fad of adding a 'zh' sound to the end of words ending in 's'? if you listen to NPR, you'll still hear Robert Siegel and Ivan Watson say 'NPR Newszh.' I think it makes the speaker feel more intense or learned but sounds awfully pretentious. )

Lastly, lots of people at the VA want me to have a 'blessed' day. People put it on their outgoing voice messages, the cashiers say it at the cafeteria, the nurses in clinic say it. Is this a new thing? Shtrangely, I don't find it intrusive, but it seems too ambitious. Back when you were just supposed to have a nice or a good day, the bar seemed more realistic.

8/5/08

Stop the Presses...

(And yes I do have the day off)

Word from the wire is we may have a rival for Long Wang and Pete LaCock. He plays linebacker for Eastern Illinois.

8/4/08

Favre Mayhem

This is getting nuts. And I would like to ignore it, thereby doing my small part to let it die, but with Owen not getting back til late tomorrow night, there's just not enough going on.

My take is he's being a prima donna. IF from here on out he practices at camp, competes for the job (likely getting it, let's be serious) and shuts up about what happened over the past three months, he'll get some respect back. I don't see that happening though. Did he really expect the Packers to be jumping up and down to bring him back after that display at the end of last season? Sure, he has the right to change his mind but the Pack has the right to make him jump through a bunch of hoops so that he proves his intentions are real. Yeah, Brett, no matter how great you were for how long for that city that doesn't have a heck of of a lot more to root for, management still has to make contingency plans. I heard today that the Pack has the best record in football since 1992 (his rookie year), which is impressive no doubt; but that's beside the point.

Reader poll

Can I buy $138 pants? I already did and I was about to go return them but I thought I'd get some opinions. Banana Republic, slate, wool, flat front, that fit well. As I discussed with Julie and Melissa, it would be hard to bike to work in $138 pants so that should be reason enough not to get them. But it does rain, esp in the fall/winter....

I love a bargain and these were only 25% off. The cashier said "$170 ?! I didn't know we had pants that cost that much." That's probably not a good sign.

As most of you know, I wore the same second hand $12 Armani suit with a ? blood stain on the inside of the crotch for all my med school and residency interviews. That may be more my speed.