My father used to refer to my younger brother as 'the Kid,' but only after my younger brother was already an adult. It was endearing, I suppose, and I can't help but think of him as 'the Kid' sometimes, even though he's in his 30s and the only one of us who is married. I mention this because another 'Kid,' Ken Griffy, Jr., retired from Major ( Read more... )

Senator Edward M. Kennedy passed away very early this morning, finally succumbing to the brain cancer that he fought for over a year. Ted Kennedy was many things, but most of all he was, as Senator Gracchus said in Gladiator, "a man for the people." His legislative achievements over 45 years in the Senate are remarkable: education, children's ( Read more... )

I remain fascinated (or terrified or something) of the price that creativity extracts from people, a price that's magnified by fame. I just finishing reading a very melancholy article about Greg Allman in the latest Rolling Stone, and logged into the computer to find out that Michael Jackson has died ( Read more... )

From about the time I read the first book of "The Belgariad," Pawn of Prophecy, (when I was, I think, 14) until I got hooked by "The Wheel of Time" in, I think, 1992, David Eddings was my favorite author, bar none. I can still remember the excitement of seeing the first book in "The Malloreon" on the shelves of the long-gone S&S Books in 1987. ( Read more... )

I understand that abortion is a difficult and contentious issue with a lot of angry dogma on both sides, but I think we can all agree that things like this have to stop ( Read more... )

Missed a chance to say goodbye to the Smartest Pitcher Who Ever Lived. Greg Maddux is hanging 'em up after 23 years, 355 wins, over 3,000 Ks, 4 Cy Young Awards, and a long legacy of making hitters look ridiculous. People overlook the fact that Maddux used to throw pretty hard. He wasn't Pedro Martinez in his prime, but neither was he Jamie Moyer ( Read more... )

Today is the ninetieth anniversary of the armistice that ended the Great War, or (as it came to be known later) World War I. It's tempting to indulge in hindsight and talk about all we've learned since then, but it's all horseshit. They built a bigger and better war twenty years later, so all they really learned was strategy and tactics. But ( Read more... )

I've never attended a major league baseball playoff game. I mention this because Yankee Stadium is closing today and because I came oh so close on several occasion, like the time I had a ticket to Game Six of the '98 series (which I didn't know) and there was no Game 6 ( Read more... )

When you're a kid, you always think famous deaths come in threes. As you get older though, I don't think you see it like that any more. You know more famous people, so it's really just an endless stream of "Oh, I've heard of that guy. What a shame." Occasionally, it's something more. I mention this because Bobby Murcer died today from brain ( Read more... )

There was an amusing tag into Today's Metro. It said, "Time Catching Up With Tek." For those not into baseball, Tek is Jason Varitek, the Red Sox' all start catcher who is batting a robust .215 this year, with -3 homers and half an RBI (or something like that). I got news for you, Metro: Time has not only caught up with Tek, it's dragged him to ( Read more... )