by John Walters
A Medium Happy 158th to Teddy Roosevelt, a well-to-do native New Yorker who fought in a war and cherished the environment
Starting Five
Zobrist already has 5 hits in the Fall Classic, two for extra bases
Ben There, Done That
Theo Epstein and his staff rightly deserves credit for making terrific draft picks since arriving in 2011 (e.g., Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber), but the Cubs’ best player through two games of the World Series has been an easy and obvious choice: free agent pick-up Ben Zobrist. The 6’3″ left fielder, who hit .303 last postseason while helping the K.C. Royals to the championship, has five hits through two games, including a double and a triple, for the Cubs.
Kyle Schwarber is the more intriguing story, and Jake Arrieta threw five innings of no-hit ball last night, but Zobrist, batting clean-up, has been a very tough out.
2. Educational Ladder
In China, students in a cliffside village had to descend a series of vines to get to school each day, but now locals have constructed a ladder made of steel (“steel from CHINA!”) for them. So no more bitching about how you had to walk two miles uphill through the snow…
Taking “No Child Left Behind” to absurd lengths…
And yet, can you not see how students who grow up in an environment like this are most likely going to be tougher, more resilient adults than the juice-box, participation-trophy pansies we’re raising? Yeah, I said it. But it’s true.
3. Put The Biscuit In the Basket
Davis became the first player to score 50 points in a season opener since a more celebrated “23” once did
Notable scorers from the NBA’s first true coast-to-coast night of the season…
Joel Embiid, Philly, 20 points in his debut. Loss.
Jordan Clarkson, Lakers, 25 points in 25 minutes. Win.
Russell Westbrook, OKC, 32 points. Win.
Ejected
James Harden, Houston, 34 points. Loss.
DeMar DeRozan, Toronto. 40 points. Win.
Anthony Davis. NOLA. 50 points. Loss.
4. Coach of Top Running Team Walking Away
Heins is in his 10th season at NAU
Eric Heins is just 39 and the men’s cross-country coach at Northern Arizona University, which is ranked No. 1 nationally (shhhh, Flagstaff, Arizona, a great place to live, but SHHH, tell no one) and unanimously .
Kaci is a total space camp nerd….
But, after the season, win or lose, Heins is stepping down from the job. Why? His wife got a great job offer in another city. Kaci Heins, a middle school science teacher, has been offered the job of education supervisor at the Space Center Houston. Kaci is a former Arizona Middle School Science Teacher of the Year. Pretty impressive all around.
5. O What An Error
Not completely free of blame, but not as horrific as you thought
French-Canadian flight attendant Gaetan Dugas has long been known as “Patient Zero” in the AIDS epidemic, and was basically blamed for copulating and populating the disease all over the United States. Dugas, who was quite the swordsman, was blamed for infecting hundreds of men who infected others and so and so on until half a million Americans died.
Now comes research that the disease had arrived on U.S. soil at least 10 years before Dugas, who died in 1984, did. Further study shows that Dugas was originally classified as “Patient O” for “Outside the U.S.” as opposed to “Patient 0”, which is different.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if Dugas’ blood type had been “Type-O Negative?” ( <–See what I did there?)
Music 101
Le Freak
Exactly how disco was this No. hit by Chic? It was inspired by bassist Bernard Edwards being refused entrance into Studio 54 on New Year’s Even 1977. He had been invited to the NYC club by Grace Jones, who forgot to tell the doormen that she wanted him on the VIP list. “Freak Out” was a euphemism for another two-word epithet. The song went to No. 1 in five different countries in 1979, including the USA.
Remote Patrol
Meet The Hitlers
TMC 10:05 p.m.
This is a real thing: a 90-minute doc examining people whose last name is Hitler. From 2014.
Speaking of Hitler…
I’m about three-quarters of the way through Erik Larson’s “In the Garden of Beasts.” Erik does a tremendous job piecing together the correspondence of the Dodd family (William Dodd was the U.S. ambassador to Germany during the onset of Hitler’s reign in Germany) and various consulate officials.
JW, and others, have pointed out the similarities between Hitler and Trump. Most glaring of which, I believe, is their ability to exhibit a toughness that shadows their true identities: weak emotional stability. It is quite astonishing how fragile Hitler was while serving as Chancellor under Germany’s president until 1934, Paul von Hindenburg. And to think of the damage that ensued thereafter.
All in all, I like what I read from Larson. He has a bundle of other writings I look forward to exploring in the future, too.
If China had blogs, no doubt someone of middle age or older would be logging on today to mock the new-fangled steel ladders, lament the passing of the older, tougher vine-ladder days of his youth, and call the Chinese children of today “juice-box, participation-trophy pansies.”
It makes me wonder how you say “Medium Happy” in Szechuan….
3. This is my second serving of biscuits today! I learned this morning that Coach Bruce Arians of the AZ Cardinals coined the phrase “No risk it, no biscuit” which has morphed onto T-shirts and beyond. I would take it one step farther and assume there’s no brisket, either.
A euphemism for another two word epithet? That’s exactly why I keep reading. 🙂