I love Twitter. Been on it for more than two years. Met nice people in real life because of it. But last Saturday I may have just peaked. Star Wars retweeted me.
Yes. The officially “Verified Account” @starwars acknowledged my existence in this galaxy by sharing my less than 140 character message. Click on the image to see the post and follow the link to the image of my boy. He loves Clone Wars, Santa Claus, and has a great imagination.
News reports are just breaking that Bob Feller died tonight at age 92. Cleveland baseball fans may have grown accustomed to Mr. Feller always being around, sort of a reminder of when the Indians were an elite team. But I wonder if Clevelanders under a certain age really understood how legendary Feller might have been if he hadn’t given four years of service to the U.S. Navy in World War II. From Wikipedia:
On December 8, 1941, Feller enlisted in the Navy, volunteering immediately for combat service, becoming the first Major League Baseball player to do so following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7. Feller served as Gun Captain aboard the USS Alabama, and missed four seasons during his service in World War II, being decorated with five campaign ribbons and eight battle stars. His bunk is marked on the Alabama at Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile, Alabama. Feller is the only Chief Petty Officer in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Just imagine what kind of records he could have held if he had not missed four seasons in the prime of his playing days. He set an example of selfless sacrifice that I can’t imagine being duplicated from any top players in professional baseball today.
Mr. Feller had a reputation as being gruff and grumpy, but he earned the right to be his own man. Anthony Castrovince, an excellent writer who had a chance to return to Iowa with Mr. Feller, shared his thoughts recently.
I’m glad my oldest son, a baseball fan of the highest degree, had the opportunity to meet him and shake his hand. It was obvious that Mr. Feller loved the game of baseball and was eager to share a moment with the boy. And, of course, we got an autograph. He was famous for signing autographs, so a Bob Feller autograph is not rare or particularly valuable. Men like Bob Feller are.
All true friendliness begins with fire and food and drink and the recognition of rain or frost.
G. K. Chesterton What’s Wrong With the World
As it turns out, Chesterton couldn’t have been more correct, and the reverse proves his observation. Kate Gosselin appeared with her kids on Sarah Palin’s Alaska and showed that if you can’t get past the rain and frost and just enjoy a moose hot dog you can’t start a true friendship.
On last week’s show TLC pulled off pairing two of their more popular reality mommies and I dare say the more vilified of the two came off as the winner. You could argue that many people have said mean things about Kate Gosselin. Nobody in their right mind would say she’s been on the receiving end of more slurs and insults than Sarah Palin.
Perhaps it was creative editing to punch up the drama, but my word! I’d rather spend time with Sarah than Kate. To make my point, I’ve created this handy side-by-side comparison.
I’m very lucky to work a growing company in Cleveland that throws fabulous parties to celebrate our milestones. Our holiday party this year was at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. A cool place for a company party was made cooler by the fact that we had the run of the entire joint while we were there.
You might know that I love music and that I can sing a little, what you might not know is that I’m a guitar guy. It think it was Guitar Player magazine that once ranked the levels of guitarists. The top level is Guitarist. Just below that is Guitar Player. In the basement we have Guitar Owners.
I’m a guitar owner, and oddly enough the guitars I own are in the basement. I’ve got a Fender La Brea acoustic/electric and a Mexican Fender Telecaster. I know about five chords and have small calluses on my left hand. This still puts me in the Guitar Owner category, I reckon.
After visiting the Rock Hall, however, I’ve go the bug to get a 12 string, It is not all the R&RHoF&M fault, though. Before my recent visit I read a blog post that traced the Rickenbacker 12 string sound from the Beatles to the Byrds to the Gin Blossoms. It simply rocks. Add in the 6 string Rickenbacker that Peter Buck plays in R.E.M. and I really have a crush on that sound.
So if any of you out there have a Ricky collecting dust and you are in the bargaining mood let me know.
I don’t think I can calculate how many waffles are consumed in our home. Even the youngest has received some pretty intense training and devours them with great gusto. I’m not sure his mother would appreciate my Cookie Monster sound effects. It might be seen as encouraging the flinging of crumbs.
My favorite part of the video is when he sees the camera and reflexively says “Cheeeese”. Do you think he has had his picture taken a few times?
Sometimes the boys need coaxing to get in front of the camera. Sometimes they don’t. Believe it or not, they all get along as well as expected for being so close in age.
The strangest epiphanies strike me when I’m shaving. This morning I realized, looking in the mirror with soap on my face, that over the years I’ve changed. We all change, I know that. But I’ve changed in a very specific manner. I’ve changed which Muppet I feel represents me best.
Let us start this journey in high school. Yes, I realize that many youth would have forsaken any thoughts of the Muppets by high school. But not all. Particularly those in show choir. My show choir experience was nothing like Glee. We did not sing Aerosmith, or Van Halen. We sang Neil Diamond, Chicago, Beach Boys, show tunes. And – wait for it – a Muppets medley.
I sang the Kermit part in Rainbow Connection. Which was kind of fitting. At that age, I was innocent and naive and was a bit of a dreamer. One who might sit on lilly pad with a banjo, metaphorically.
I actually sang this song in a Kermit voice. In public. I thought it was a success because some of the cute girls raved how charming my performance was. Thrilled, I thought this might be the springboard to getting a date. Turns out the only reason a cute girl would kiss a frog is because she was looking for a prince. Princes rarely hang around show choir swamps with banjos.
Fast forward a few years. I decided that if nobody will take you seriously, you might as well be funny on purpose. I always liked hats, puns, and some have compared my hair to fur. Fozzie is my best match. Fozzie is affable enough and tries hard. However, he isn’t particularly successful as a comedian. But he always bears with it. Waka Woka Wocka! Side note, I’ve seen no standardized spelling for this phrase.
Little known fact; during this period I wrote spec scripts for sitcoms and quit my job to drive to California in an attempt to land an agent. Somewhere in Oklahoma, my writing partner told me there was a misunderstanding. He only took a vacation. We had to get back to Ohio in three weeks. As Fozzie would say, “AaaahHHHHhhh!”
Which brings us to the present day. Which Muppet can I say I relate to best? One who I suspect in the Muppet pantheon is not even a protagonist. My eyebrows have thickened, but I’m not old enough to be one of the old fellas in the balcony.
Sam the Eagle is my guy. I dig culture, morality and patriotism in a non-ironic way. And that puts me at odds with large segments of the popular culture. I’m also nearly convinced I may be surrounded by weirdos. But I like the weirdos that surround me!!!
As much as his younger brother loves Star Wars, the eldest son love sports. In summer it is baseball. This winter he likes basketball, but he is football-crazy right now. He prodded me to find the Pro Bowl voting mobile website so he could vote when we were away from the computer. I suppose it is no surprise that he asked Santa for the things he did.
By the way – I misspoke when I guessed the century that the real Saint Nicholas lived.
My kids are more entertaining than I will ever be, so I’ve decided to grab a video camera and let them share their thoughts. Being so close to Christmas, sugar plumb droids dance in their heads.
My friend Jen is a smart cookie, a writer and a reader. But as much as I respect her opinion I also choose to ignore it from time to time. Because I fancy myself as wise and I feel nobody knows my preferences like I know my preferences.
Recently she told me how she loves her Kindle for Android application. I remarked that it sounded fine, but I could not imagine trying to read a book in that 3.5″ screen. (May I make a detour in this story to mention my wife also downloaded the application? But she isn’t really into books, and didn’t rave about it so I didn’t really think about it much.)
Time passes by and I forget the Kindle for Android app. After all, I have Air Horn and Whoopie cushion apps. How many apps do I really need?
But then - a stunning revelation. Some of these books you can get are – wait for it – in the public domain. “In the public domain” is fancy lawyer talk for FREE!
I now own two new books on my Kindle for Android. Both by G.K. Chesterton. “Orthodoxy” and “What’s Wrong With The World“.
The links above may be affiliate links for some website I recently visited. I don’t care - there isn’t much commission on FREE BOOKS. You hear me? Free Books on Amazon!!!
