What to do?

I went to a concert tonight. Good concert. Liked the band. They played well, they always do. In a small, old, elegant hall holding maybe a couple hundred, they performed a two part show with typical style.

While waiting out front to meet some people that I didn't know, I saw a 30ish guy, black hair, big big bushy beard, walking to the concert from his car, with a black backpack.

My friend's 15 year old described the would-be crowd this way, when he declined to come, "menopausal lesbians". By my way of thinking this guy stood out. He was tall, not that that is a crime, there was one guy taller. He had a serenity about him. Seemed to be alone. I'd say he was 30 or less. Which made him 15-20 years younger than the rest of us. Definitely not a menopausal lesbian.

To me, he didn't fit. And why did he need to take a backpack into a concert hall.

My friend's friends found me, and my friends found me and we went in to see the show. I forgot about the backpack guy till I see him sitting in the row in front of us.

Does he have the backpack? I can't see.

Should I say something? I know in my own mind I'm profiling. I have no authority anyway. I wasn't there when he went through the line. Did they check him? Could they have missed the backpack?

Should I say something?

The Pants Rotation

While Billy Martin was in charge, in one of his many stints as Yankee manager. A pitcher by the name of Ken Holtzman got on Billy's bad side. And Billy was an emotional guy, with a significantly large bad side. Billy sat Ken Holtzman.

Each major league team carries 25 players. Managers need pinch hitters. Starting pitchers pitch only every five days. Bullpen's hold the warhorses of the pitching staff, each team with a closer and one or two setup guys and some middle inning guys. In 1977 most teams had 10 pitchers and 15 position players.

You needed everyone.

But Billy sat Ken Holtzman out.

Now even in a big loss, sometimes especially in a big loss, a team needs extra pitchers. "He took one for the team" is a common expression for a pitcher who gets left in a badly losing game, just to eat up innings.

Billy wouldn't use Holtzman in even a mop up roll. He wouldn't use him in close games, or middle innings. He just sat. When the team was desperate for pitching, I remember one game where the Yanks were losing badly and I was sure he would use Holtzman just to save the pitchers Billy liked. But no. Holtzman sat.
***
I think of my jeans like pitchers on a staff. I have my ace pair, usually new, most often washed. Then my #2 guy. The former ace. A pair I like but has been surpassed by a younger, healthier pair. Then the middle guys, old, small or torn. Many of my #5 jeans have had paint on them. They took it for the team!

Today, I broke out my Ken Holtzman jeans!

Kingfisher

All at the Montezuma Wildlife Refuge. My new favorite place.


There's a trace of purple here under his neck. I don't know if that is an artifact from Photoshop or some kind of light shift. I suppose he could have a little purple there but I don't think so.

I just like this one. Its not quite as good enlarged.



Check out this one. I think I caught him in mid blink!

Differences

The single biggest reason why things are getting so bad with our young people these days, is that they've taken God out of our schools. That's not a quote, but its pretty close.

I had reason to sit through this little speech the other day, in a semi private function, and listen to reasoning such as this time and time again. This was after a little religious invocation that I wasn't consulted on but respectfully sat through.

It made me think about the circumstances of the religious vs the secular in our country. It seems to me two comments need to be made.

1. A sea change has happened.
2. Who is more obnoxious?

First in my memory, and perhaps this is just a fanciful rosey scenario, people used to respect a person's private religious belief without throwing their own belief's out in the public spectrum as right and righteous.

Second, isn't it noteworthy that Atheists and Agnostics DON'T try to jam their point of view down everyone's throat?

There are things that I, as a reasoning human being, don't believe, that I'm constantly hearing by this shrill set of reglious people. Things that I'm sure aren't true. Certain. Such as the earth is only 5000 years old. There are other things, that again as a reasoning and educated person I know fit better in a historical context of mythology, than in reality. Robin Williams aside. (Reality. What a concept!)

Out of respect for the individual, for my elders, or just for another human being, I usually manage to keep from telling people like the aforementioned speaker, what I really think.

But what I'm wondering is why is it ok for him to espouse in public, his rehortic which I, which I what? Am repelled by? Reject intellectually? Am unconfortable hearing? Am just plain sick of? And yet I sense it would be not only offensive, but an outrage, if I told him what I believe? I think he's wrong. Completely. Just as I think the people who believe this other religion are wrong and that other religion are wrong and that other other religion are wrong.

If they believe differently from each other, they can't both be right. Since none of the religions of the world have a majority, the majority of the worlds people, think your religion is wrong!

So do me a favor, keep it to yourself.

The world would be a better place if religious people stopped trying to force their beleifs on everyone else.

There. I said it.

More picts - Click on (at least the top one) to enlarge for full effect.

Its not ...

Its not for all intensive purposes, its for all intents and purposes.

Its not mute court, its moot court.

Its not ... (Like many things, I can think of this when I'm driving, but not when I blog. I'll think of the other one that always bugs me and put it in here later.)

Meantime, if you have more, send 'em in!

Ya know what I hate?

I hate when people who are standing in line behind me. Stand next to me. Didn't we learn how to line up in kindergarden? Get back there.

Its HOT!

There's really not a lot to add to this, and everybody knows it anyway, but its hot. Its so hot you could fry an egg - on my head. Its so hot LL Cool J is warm. Its so hot you could fry an egg on LL Cool J!

Its really very hot. Tomorrow its supposed to be hotter.

Its so hot Fred Flintstone can't drive.

Its so hot Glacier National Park is melting.