welcome!

to those of you dropping by after seeing the shameless plug in the annual finkmas letter, welcome aboard. take a bit to troll thru the archives- amongst the aimless opining on politics, music and baseball, you might actually find some updates from finkdom. hopefully you'll bookmark the site and drop by from time to time to check in on us.

open posting here, so feel free to drop a comment or two and make your presence known. we promise not to put you on our spam list.

(by the way- the background music is just a temporary holiday theme. if "rudolph" has left you with a lifelong fear of burl ives, please don't let that keep you from visiting here after the holidays.)

please enjoy the music while your party is reached

in the beginning there was muxtape, and it was good. then the gods of the internet said "let there be a way for individuals to search for songs already on the internet, then map them to a playlist that they would create. let the html code for this playlist be made available to them, so the user may post this playlist on their own website." so the gods of the internet created playlist.com, and it was good.

you'll see the new feature on the right- the new home for the soundtrack of finkipedia. hope you're enjoying the holiday tunes- i was able to find only 3 of my top 5 christmas songs, as posted last year, so i filled in two other worthy stand-ins. this station will be all christmas music all the time until after new year's day, when we'll switch over to a whole new format.

blue (and orange) ribbon day

nothing better to brighten a miserably rainy winter day than a dose or two of baseball sunshine. got a call from erin this AM while i was at work that "the seats" had finally arrived. they were packaged with wooden planks to be mounted on for stability, which need a coat of stain and varnish before i attach them. and while there's some appeal to the character that 40 years of back sweat, stale bud light and gulden's mustard give the seats, a good scrubbing with a magic eraser is in order before they're ready for public viewing and seating.

a few hours after getting the call about the seats, i read this about a huge deal omar had just worked out adding even more reinforcements to the bullpen. it means we give up endy, which just kills me, but overall i think this deal and the signing of k-rod put the mets in striking distance of a pennant.

until i can move my seats in front of the TV to watch the now-anticipated new season, i'll just leave them where they are here in front of the computer, so i can watch this over and over, toasting endy and wishing him well.

still here

thanks for checking back. having a hard time finding even a few minutes to spend jotting down my thoughts of the day here, much less a few hours penning the ol' christmas missive. not looking much better for the rest of the week either- christmas shopping tonight, then school christmas concert tomorrow, then on call for the weekend.

gets much easier after that- no big plans for the weekend before christmas, talking about possible trips to NYC or DC to catch some big city christmas cheer. updates and reports here, i promise.

'tis the season

transitioning from one holiday to another this week. had a fantastic thanksgiving at the kentagon in DC, complete with a short swing by the lincoln memorial just for fun. brought grandma D and big buddy home with us to DE and enjoyed a few days just hanging around with them.

picked up our tree on saturday and decorated it with the kids sunday. have most of the household tchotchkes appropriately scattered and the christmas tunes on constant shuffle. next project? christmas letter. anxiously awaiting the arrival of my muse so i can bang out another summary of a year in 500 words or less. maybe this weekend- the egg nog is chilled and waiting.

what i'm thankful for, 2008

time to update the thankful list for this year- just a few of the things that come to mind for this year...

• wood burning fireplaces
• my new laptop
• the running bug
• edamame (get it in big packs from costco- totally addictive)
• guitar hero for wii
• blue moon belgian wheat ale
• snow (thankful for it, just haven't seen too much of it around here in a few years)
• the onion (check out the recent articles about the blue angels tryouts and GM- hilarious)

take a minute to think of yours.

are you ready for some 3D football?

saw this article yesterday, which immediately conjured images of the last 3D experience the NFL offered us- the craptacular halftime extravaganza "bebop bamboozled". amazingly, i couldn't find video of this masterpiece online, so the only reference i can direct you to is a snippet in the wikipedia article about super bowl XXIII.

remember it well, because superbowl XXIII was the first time anything like a finkbowl occurred- had a bunch of high school friends over to the old fink estate on LI for the game, and we all shared in the pageantry of "bebop bamboozled" together. for some strange reason, i kept the official coca-cola 3D glasses from the event until just a year or two and as recently as last year saw them lying around somewhere. maybe the NFL will give me some kind of credit on new glasses if i can produce the old ones.

is that a buckle on your hat, or are you just happy to find religious freedom?

stumbled across a random trivia question on another website last week. the question was, "in what year did the pilgrims sign the mayflower compact?". 4 choices: 1590, 1600, 1610, and 1620. made my choice, then upon redirect to the answer page, discovered that only 27% of respondents (about 750 to that point) answered correctly- no statistically significant difference from random chance.

the question i pose to you is not whether or not you know the answer, but whether you think you, me and everyone else should know the answer. does this date belong in the group of important dates that all americans should know?

the "longfellow" jokes must be just around the corner

hilarious discussion at dinner tonight. just me and the 3 finklings, rehashing our day over a fine repast of leftover enchiladas.

from nowhere, brendan asks, "hey dad, what's that long word that starts with 'A' and means 'waves' or 'bubbles' or something?" complete blank.

"and it has a 'Z' in it". even more confused. a few blind stabs with "accessorize", "analyze", even "azimuth", all incorrect.

"it's a really long word, and it means, like, doing something or making something". still not entirely sure where he's going with this, but somehow i come up with "you mean onomatopoeia?"

"YEAH! onomatopoeia!" apparently, the word came up in his language arts class today. the lack of an accurate definition or even approximate spelling wasn't surprising, because those meant nothing to him. at the recitation of the word alone, he burst into laughter, repeated it a few times, and then he and owen moved swiftly into a chorus of "i-don't-wanna-pee-ya".

i tried settling them by getting all didactic, and giving them good examples of onomatopoeia, like "buzz" and "cluck" and "bang", and it worked for a second, until brendan came up with "toot", and the poetry lesson was flushed away again by toilet humor.

my 3 songs, veterans' day edition

yes, i realize vets day here in the US was initially called armistice day and celebrated the end of WW1, and this post may have been more appropriate on V-E day, but vets means all conflicts now, right?

• van halen, "everbody wants some"
• split enz, "i got you"
• oasis, "wonderwall"

ooh, that smell

rediscovered one of my favorite smells of childhood- the smell of the halloween candy bag. not the halloween night, fresh-from-the-hunt smell, but rather the week-after, three-pounds-of-candy-sitting-in-the-plastic-bag smell. it's totally different than the smell that you'd get when you opened a bag of snack-size kit kats, or sniffed your own yet-doled-out halloween candy bowl. the week-old candy bag smell has the perfect dilutions of peanut butter and chocolate and twizzler and plastic wrap all mixed together, giving it its own aromatic uniqueness. it is a scent that is so tantalizingly pleasing, one could argue that the scent itself is what drives confusion into the minds of the candy chooser.

like any good thing, however, it can be overdone. after about 3 reese's cups and a mini 100 grand bar, the tantalization begins to morph into nausea. but as long as you keep the temptation of the milky way midnights from pushing you over the edge, the smell of that bag is pure olfactory bliss.

moving on

now that the election is behind us, let's get back to the important stuff, like linguistics!

saw this great article today, and while it's not exactly grammar-related, it touches on more of my language pet peeves. i think this list is great- i'd of course add "literally" to their list, likely near the top, but can't argue with any of their choices.

anything you'd like to add to the list?

election night live

finally have a laptop with functional wireless, so i figured i'd give some live blogging a try. just about everyone reading this will be catching it later, but this is my test run for a finkipedia live event for my absolute favorite TV day just 5 months from now, the opening day of the NCAA hoops tourney.

9:30pm- NBC just called ohio for obama, which probably seals the deal for him, but i like most am waiting to see what happens in florida and NC.

10:20pm- still no word on VA, NC, FL. i do like that map on the 30 rock skating rink. nice touch.

12:30am- been official for 90 minutes. speeches are done, talking heads are not. off to bed.

election 2008: final synopsis

i won't drag this on, as saturday's post pretty much sums up most of how i feel.

this country needs a better sense of direction. while the obama plan might not be the thing to bring the dow back to 14K by march, i do think in most facets his overall plan has the right direction. on a personal level, i still worry about his health care policy, but i cannot overlook his desire to provide health care to almost every american. see my previous post for comments on his economic policy. never got a chance to post on the candidates' positions on the war, but in short, i think an exit strategy is better than an open-ended attitude. finally, i think obama's personality seems to lend itself better to the diplomacy skills a president needs both here and abroad. for those reasons and others, i'll be casting my vote tomorrow for barack obama for president of the united states.

one final note about tomorrow's election. i'm a little late in starting this, but i'd like to propose a movement to "keep home the vote". this doesn't mean that you shouldn't vote- what it means is that if you don't know whom you're voting for, then don't press a button, pull a lever, or punch a chad just because you think it's your civic duty. you should not be choosing candidates like my mom picks NCAA tournament teams- by their names, mascots, or colors. whether it's the presidency or your local sherriff's race, if you don't know a single thing about the candidates other than their names, don't vote. it's unfair to them, to the others who vote, and to the district you're voting in. take a second tonight to go online and read the synopsis of the candidates' positions for the races in your area. even if it's one little item that sways you, use that as a reason to cast your vote.

that being said, enjoy tomorrow. it's the greatest day of the year to be an american.

election 2008: taxes

like with many things in life, this issue-by-issue breakdown of the campaign hasn't gone as i had planned. here it is just 3 days from election day and i've only posted a few reviews of issues. at this point, i should hope you all know who you're voting for, but i'll leave one last issue post because i'd like to discuss (rather one-sided, i might add) something i've become a litte fired up about lately.

i will direct you to the candidates' official websites here and here to review their tax plans if you haven't already. briefly, mccain suggests across-the-board cuts, while obama suggests cuts for most except the weathly. obama also supports increasing taxes on such things as capital-gains, large corporations, oil company windfalls, and estates over $7M. it is hard to find some of the specifics to the obama tax plan with regards to tax increases on his website- some are insinuated, others not mentioned directly at all.

was on an e-mail thread earlier in the week with wiley and a few others regarding the candidates and their economic policies. the debate mostly centered around obama's plans and whether his plans for tax increases on the wealthy and on businesses would do anything to help the beleaguered economy. many argued that his tax plan will hurt businesses to the point of forcing jobs overseas, forcing job cuts and forcing price increases. they argued that there was no proof that tax hikes would help the economy; rather, that history and economic research showed tax cuts across the board were better for stimulating investment and business. the claims of "redistrubution of wealth" were made, and it was suggested that the obama plan just moves money around, rather than helping everyone get more money on their own.

it is hard to dispute some of those claims. i would tend to agree that the mccain plan is more favorable for business, which suggests that it should thus be better for the economy as a whole. (there are however some prominent economists who argue that under democratic presidents and their tax policies (higher taxes for the wealthy and business), the GNP historically increases more than it does under republicans.) but while mccain's plan will put more money in everyone's pocket, it will do so in a way that will significantly widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

here's a graph the washington post drew up showing how different income brackets would be affected by each candidate's tax plans. now here's another interpretation of those same data, illustrated so that each group is displayed proportionate to its size. notice in those graphs how the mccain tax cuts get larger for each increase in income, thus bringing more money to those already more fortunate. notice also how almost 2/3 of americans, the 2/3 that need it most, fare significantly better under the obama plan, and 99% will be the same or better off. the increase in take-home revenue for those people should increase demand for goods and services. this demand should force businesses to keep prices stable, force supplies and thus production up, and create jobs, thereby offsetting the potential negative effects of corporate tax increases.

with regards to government revenue from taxes, when 1% of americans are essentially paying for programs and policies that the other 99% are more likely to use, it is hard to deny that there is a redistribution of wealth. this is where the debate leaves economics somewhat and turns to social justice. i would argue that "redistribution of wealth" is not a pejorative term, but a necessary process in a healthy society. to help the least of our society should allow them to be better suited to help society as a whole, thus contributing more and ultimately reversing their position from that of a financial drain to one of financial support. it's also the moral and ethical thing to do.

this process of rehabilitating the lower class takes efficient, well-designed social plans that require significant sums of money, money which must ultimately come from those who are more fortunate. it would also take way more time (and space) to discuss, so for now, i will leave you with my final assessment on the issue of taxes: for the reasoning i outlined above, i've gotta side with the obama plan.

tomorrow, my final assessment.

physician, heal thyself

getting my late winter cold a few months early this year. started with just a scratchy throat last thursday, and has progressed to general misery, mostly in the head and neck. sound worse than i feel, but i have no voice. (good thing this isn't an audio blog).

thanks to the hoarseness i got a remark from just about every patient today, more than half quipping unoriginally "you need to see a doctor!" the other half thought i had been rooting too hard for the phillies. i of course told them i'd rather have tuberculosis than root for the phillies, and if they insinuated similarly again, i'd cough in their general direction.

6 quirks

got tagged a while back by n., she of lovemomworklife, to post about 6 unspectacular quirks about me. "tagging" amongst bloggers is equivalent to chain letters, and i'm really supposed to "tag" 6 others now. don't have enough people to keep the chain going, but i will go ahead and post my quirks, because i think it's a fun idea.

1) i love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but they should be made with skippy peanut butter and welch's jelly (NEVER jam), and always accompanied by a glass of milk
2) i can sleep on either my right or left side, but i must face the outside of the bed
3) i eat ice cream with a teaspoon and cereal with a soup spoon, no exceptions
4) i can't watch half a movie. i've never left a movie in the theater, and won't start a movie on DVD unless i can finish the whole thing
5) i always keep the money in my wallet in denominational order, from lowest to highest, all facing the same direction
6) while i may forget the names of people or places, i almost always know how many letters are in the name of the thing i'm trying to remember

you can see n.'s 6 here and googs' 6 here. show us yours- leave your 6 in the comments section.

can it really be "classic" if one team has only been around for 10 years?

as you know, i love baseball. and despite the b-list headliners of this year's fall classic, i'll be watching every game. plenty of reasons to watch, not the least of which to root, root, root against the hated phillies and their fairweather, bandwagon fans.

granted, the rays were a team that could barely attract 10K people even earlier this season and now fill their awful domed stadium with bandwagon hangers-on. but philadelphia fans are different. they come out of the woodwork every time a team of theirs gets into the playoffs and cry about how long it's been since their town has had a champion. happened all those years that the eagles were making it to championship games, and now that the phillies have a chance, it's resurgent again.

i say, if the phillie phaithful want to see a local champion, they can suck down a cheesesteak while watching the DVD of the philadelphia soul's arena football championship season from last year. let the rays join the '69 mets in the lovable-former-loser's hall of champions.

falling into the season

finally had some fall-like weather around here, with temps barely cracking 60 this weekend. celebrated it appropriately enough by hitting the pumpkin patch today. googs and rachel were up from DC for a visit, so the 7 of us went across town to visit the local agri-tainment farm. a short hay ride, some apple cider, pick-your-own indian corn, and plenty of pumpkins of all varieties.

mentioned the other day that i've got the running bug after watching erin in chicago. to help keep myself honest, i decided to keep a running diary, and what better way to do that than with a blog. i can't promise any scintillating, insightful posts, but if you're interested in following my progress towards chicago 2009, check out the newest flog*, finkathon.

*fink blog, of course.

election 2008: debate #3

a two-for-one post day, so i can hold up my pledge to respond to each debate.

enjoyed last night's debate a little more than the previous one. for starters, i thought the format was great, and i thought bob schieffer did a great job. i thought he missed a few opportunities to chase them down a little more, but overall i thought he was unbiased and fair with his questioning.

from the candidates, the rhetoric was all the same, most of it right down to the sound bites that are all too familiar now- "the same kind of insurance senator mccain and i enjoy", "clean coal, solar, biodiesel, wind...", etc. even the newest proposals, those regarding the recovery plans for the falling economy didn't seem to offer much of anything new. like with the last debate, i think i was too familiar with each candidate's policies and plans to get anything out of their context.

i did, however, gain a lot by watching these men in their attitudes towards each other. the longer this campaign goes on, the more mccain comes across as a grumpy old man. his tone of voice, his snide comments, and his annoying smirks give the impression that he's completely fed up with obama. on the times when obama gave his negative opinions of mccain's plans, he gave straightforward opinions of why he felt those choices would not work. when mccain brought up perceived flaws in the obama plan, he did so with a sense of incredulity and arrogance that those suggestions would even be made. this kind of attitude does not exactly match up with the open-minded, reach-across-the-aisle persona that he is trying to portray. worse, it insinuates an inability to negotiate with adversaries, a quality that a presidant can ill afford.

time is winding down, and as you can see from my lack of recent posts, i've not found my own time to comment more on this election. i'd like to put up another comparitive post or two on policies, but as much as i wanted my vote decided only on issues, i'm having a difficult time separating the subjective from the objective. this ship is listing to port, and it will take a strong wind in the next 3 weeks to change the course to starboard.

runner's high

still trying to catch up after spending the past weekend in chicago watching my beloved run her 5th marathon. an awesome, inspiring event. erin and our friend bryan (fellow hoya M'97) ran on sunday, while their respective spouses (myself and bryan's wife cindy) and a gaggle of other hoyas were in attendance to cheer them on. one of them went so far as to run the last 6.2 with erin- thanks, maguire.

the chicago marathon is truly a spectacle. 33,000 people running a viewer-friendly course through a great city. so inspiring, in fact, that i've pledged to run it next year. a while back i ran the san diego marathon and while it was certainly an achievement, the entirety of the event itself coupled with my less-than-kenyan performance made me immediately want to have another crack at a marathon someday. so here i am, 8 years later, finally with enough inspiration to make it happen.

thanks, erin.

election 2008: debate #2

i think the banner headline on drudgereport.com last night summed it up best: "BORING!" if the VP debate frustrated me, this debate annoyed me. fortunately, i missed the first 40 minutes and was subjected to only the second half. don't think i missed very much from what i've read.

the only thing i learned last night was that mccain's disdain for obama seems to be growing by the day. maybe the third and final debate will provide more insight into the candidates, but i'm not hopeful after watching their behavior yesterday.

there's always next year (though that's what we said last year)

"could've been so beautiful, could've been so right" - tiffany, "could've been"

you know it's bad when you start your post quoting tiffany. but that's how messed up my mind is tonight. see, here's what came in the mail the other day...




it's where i should be tonight- at game #3 of the NLDS against the cubs. never been to a playoff game before, and finally got my chance. i won the online lottery to purchase tickets for the NLDS (this was of course before the flushing in flushing), and bought 4 tickets to the first home game. figuring the mets would take the wild card, by choosing home game 1 i'd get to see game #3, which would have been tonight at shea. best case scenario, mets take 2 in chicago and have a chance to win the series. next best case, they split in chicago and come home for a meaningful game. worst case, they lose 2 in chicago and i get to see possibly the last game ever at shea. instead, i am at home tonight, rooting hard for the brewers, downhearted like all other met faithful.

well, perhaps some are a little more than just downhearted.

election 2008: vice-presidential debate

at some point during last night's debate, i realized that the experience was not unlike watching a NASCAR race: i was watching the competitors going round and round in circles, waiting for one of them to crash. made it a little less exciting since neither of them truly crashed, but i think something may have been gained in the exercise.

first off, some comments on the moderator, gwen ifill. a wonderful woman, i'm sure, but if i were in the mccain camp, i'd be furious. i didn't keep track, but if i had to guess, ifill offered the last word to joe biden on at least 80% of the questions she asked, regardless of who was asked the question first. maybe some of that blame can be shifted to palin, who seemed to not use all of her allotted time on more than one occasion, but i think the disproportionate opportunities for rebuttal by biden were glaring. i think ifill also could have pressed each candidate further during the free time after the 90-second answers were given.

regarding the debaters, it was interesting to watch the differences in style. from the outset, biden looked directly at ifill when answering questions and rarely at the camera, while palin looked directly at the camera almost immediately after she began speaking each time. biden used the camera more so as the debate went on, but only when he had aggressive points to make, which came off as harsh and negative. palin came across as speaking directly to the public, which was clearly intentional. because her style was smooth and pleasant, her points seemed more substantive than they truly were.

this debate frustrated me. i think biden had more substance, but it was hard to tell because he blew much of his credibility with his style. he kept tripping over words, needlessly repeated phrases, and ranted about "fundamental" differences so much that the term got watered down. he refused to acknowledge any potential differences between himself and obama. biden insisted he and obama have always been of the same opinions on iraq, although their voting records demonstrate otherwise. palin hit him hard on that, calling out his kerry-esque reversal given his aye vote on the war resolution. biden could have defended himself better but chose to lose face to defend the ticket. it painted a wishy-washy picture which i think weakened biden a good bit.

palin, to me, had nothing to say. she brought up the points she was coached to bring up, and made them well. it infuriated me when she said something like "i may not answer the questions directly as you or the moderator would like me to", and she kept her promise. she repeatedly brought up unrelated topics and harped on "energy independence" as if it were the answer to all the world's problems. often, her answers started well but turned to canned fluff (shout-outs to all her buddies in alaska), and on one occasion (don't remember the question) she just rambled for all her alloted time with a bunch of patriotic cheez-whiz and not a single salient point. she came off as as a promoter for the ticket, someone like giuliani or romney, rather than someone on the ticket herself.

and then, she said it. the one thing about this current president that drives me crazier than anything, and palin said it. during an answer to a question about the dangers of pakistan and iran, palin dropped the N-bomb: "nucular". i didn't want to believe it at first, but she said it again. "nucular". and again. "nucular". and again. "nucular". there is one and only one way to pronounce the word "nuclear"- just as it's written, with the "l" right after the "c". our current president doesn't seem to understand that, and unfortunately, it seems mrs. palin doesn't either. it is extremely hard for me have faith that someone can comprehend the intricacies and ramifications of nuclear proliferation if they cannot even pronounce the damn word.

here's my bottom-line interpretation: biden is a good guy with a strong background of service who is afraid to say where he differs with obama for fear of presenting a divided ticket. palin is a wonderful public speaker, and i'm sure the best gosh-darn cookie-makin', baby-totin', moose-killin' hockey mom up there in juneau, but someone who has no right being a proverbial heartbeat away from running the free world.

almost every pundit i watched last night before and after the debate made the point that while VP debates may be interesting, they don't affect the election at all; people vote on the presidential candidates, not the VP's. unless i am given reason to be swayed differently between now and nov. 4, i may be the exception to that rule.

a tale of two cities

somewhere in lower manhattan today, david wright woke up around two p.m. still reeking of piss and wild turkey from the atrabilious night before. streaks of eye black still ran down his cheeks, courtesy of the river of tears that turned him from a pretty boy third baseman to an alice cooper look-alike. he clapped twice to turn on the projection screen TV just past the foot of the bed, quickly navigated past the channels of the ESPN family to avoid any sight of the previous afternoon's events, and stopped on CNBC to check how his abercrombie and fitch stock was performing. he rubbed his eyes, not sure if the smeared eye black was somehow distorting his view of the ticker, then stared agape when he realized the carnage befalling wall street. taking a swill from the warm half-empty bottle of miller chill on the nightstand, he muttered to himself, "thank god i'm not a stockbroker", then pulled the sheets over his head and went back to sleep, content with the knowledge that someone not in orange and blue would be on the cover of the post tomorrow.

election 2008: debate #1

i'm not avoiding the obvious post on the collapse of the mets, i'm just fulfilling my promise to promptly report on the debates as they happen. honest.

watched the whole of friday's debate live. i took no notes, because no average american does, and haven't and won't read any transcripts, because i want to remember the debate as an average american would.

from the outset, it was clear that moderator jim lehrer was intent on having a debate filled with banter and interaction between the candidates. the candidates, especially mccain, were not interested in that. (i know the candidates were not privy to the questions in advance, but if it was expressed to them in advance that this was the kind of debate lehrer was looking for, they intentionally made it difficult for him by opting for a standing-at-podium-style debate rather than a seated one.)

it was meant to be a foreign policy debate but because of the recent financial crisis and the bailout plan in congress at the time, the first 40 minutes of the 90 minute debate focused on the bailout plan and the struggling economy in general. with regards to the bailout plan, neither candidate cared to elaborate on details they preferred, but expressed faith that a good plan would come out of negotiations. when asked what they'd cut from their presidential wish lists to pay for the bailout, obama couldn't list a single thing. mccain talked about spending freezes and getting rid of pork barrel spending. the cuts he mentioned were cuts he planned on anyway, so didn't really answer the question he was asked.

each candidate tried to sneak in bits and pieces of their domestic policy into their answers on the financial crisis. energy independence seemed to be a hot topic, and a few mentions of reforming health care as a means to save money were made by obama. overall, i don't think i heard enough from either candidate that would sway me towards one or away from the other on the domestic side.

foreign policy was where the fireworks came out. the basics of the candidates' foreign policies are: obama- focus on afghanistan, let the iraqis run iraq, begin diplomatic proceedings with rogue states; mccain- focus on iraq, increase presence in afghanistan but not at the expense of the iraq theatre, no diplomacy with rogue states. mccain repeatedly name-dropped and place-dropped, playing his experience card while exploiting obama's lack thereof. i'm not sure just knowing the names of foreign leaders or saying you've been somewhere makes you more qualified, but it's hard to discredit 25 years of experience on the world stage.

as a debate, i thought obama's presence helped him early, but mccain fought back hard throughout the foreign policy section. since this post is more an evaluation of the debate itself than the content, my final evaluation is what i think the perception of the average american would be. scoring it like a boxing round, i've got mccain winning 10-9 on my card on the strength of his attacks towards the end.

flashback

it's after midnight- can't sleep, all fired up after another devastating loss by the mets. got up to re-read one of my favorite posts, coincidentally from a year ago today.

a favorite because i like the way it's written, but also because it's a good one for me to go back and read every so often.

4 more games left in the regular season- i may be re-reading this post daily if this keeps up.

technical difficulties, please stand by

been having some access problems at work these past few weeks- can't seem to get my laptop to connect to our wireless network. quite frustrating. hope to fix the problem soon, and get to posting more in the near future. lots of topics to cover before the election.

keep checking in- i'll be back on track soon.

for dessert, astronaut ice cream

i thought about posting today about the candidate's positions on the economy, but i couldn't bring myself to do it. too depressing. so, i present you with some lighter fare.

in no particular order, the top 5 foods that sound to me like they could be on a martian middle school lunch menu:

5) gravlax
4) dolmas
3) pad thai
2) chicken tikka (even martians would have chicken as a lunchroom staple)
1) scrapple


and for my first ever embedded video, the coolest physics teacher ever:

election 2008: immigration

obama calls the issue "immigration" on his website, mccain calls it "border security and immigration". that's about where the candidates differ the most, because as far as i can see it, their plans for reform aren't that dissimilar.

both candidates support reinforcing border security with manpower, financial aid, and technology. obama says nothing more than just that; mccain suggests he'll spend money on unmanned patrols of the border and subsidies to US attorneys in border states. both candidates support an employment eligibility system for businesses to verify the immigration status of employees. obama just says he'll "crack down" on employers who hire illegals, mccain supports their aggressive prosecution.

with regards to the immigration system, both support streamlining the process, with mccain giving some detail and breaking down immigrant workers into several groups- highly skilled, low-skilled non-agricultural, and low-skilled agricultural. his suggestion for the last group, however, is the quite vague promise of providing "a non-bureaucratic, adaptable, useable program that is reflective of market needs and protects both the immigrant and US workers". translation- "we'll conveniently ignore this group, since we know our food supply system would collapse if we cut off the supply of illegal workers in agriculture". at least mccain gives it a shot though- obama doesn't address the topic at all.

neither candidate supports a mass deportation of illegals. rather, they both would ask that all illegals be accounted for, be asked to learn english, pay a fine, and be offered a chance at citizenship after all others who are currently in the system. mccain gives a little more language about weeding out those with criminal records or who have used ill-gotten social security numbers.

obama gives additional points about working with mexico to promote their economic development as a way of decreasing illegal immigration and to expedite the citizenship process for immigrants who serve in the military.

in summary, i'm struggling to find much difference between the candidates on this point. i'll have to call it a push for now, and see how it plays out during the debates.

pass the can

another fleeting memory of days gone by popped into my head the other day. not sure why i was thinking of it, but i had this great memory of the summer theater fundraising campaign for the will rogers institute.

there was a time, probably when i was about 13 or 14, that i would ride my bike to the mall with a friend or two and see a movie almost weekly during the summer. the multiplex at the mall participated in the fundraising campaign, which involved a trailer starring usually one or two a-list celebs of the day telling the story of will rogers and his eponymous institute. the trailer would end with the celeb shaking a coffee can emblazoned with the will rogers logo and announcing that ushers would now be passing the cans. house lights would come up again for a few minutes while people dug for change and passed the cans, then dimmed again once the collection was over so the movie could start.

apparently this is still done, as the website attests. while i don't go to the movies nearly as much anymore, it's been quite a while since i've seen the will rogers promo. anybody else remember these, or seen one in the past 10 years?

only half the story

there's no denying that the met bullpen is terrible and has been so most of the season. night after night, they collapse almost on cue. even last night, after a huge 9th inning grand slam to take a comfortable 3-run lead, they tried their best to blow it but barely missed out. tonight, 4 walks in the bottom of the ninth in a tie game (ok, two were intentional, but still...) were painful to witness.

not receiving enough of the blame however is the offense- almost automatic in the first 3 innings but non-existent in the last 3. last night's 9th inning 4-spot was an anomaly. tonight, runners left on base in each of the last 4 innings, including one in scoring position in the 7th and 9th. most of the times the bullpen has blown leads, they've been able to because the offense has not been able to pick up their share of the slack towards the end. earlier this week, when the mets blew a 7-run lead to lose to the phils 8-7 in 13, it was partly because after jumping to a 7-0 lead after 4 innings, the offense put nothing across over the next 9.

1 game up with 26 left to play. not much breathing room. at least there's no chance of a blowout like last season, because with this bullpen, there's no chance we'll be up more than a few games at any point for the rest of this year (if we're lucky). here's hoping we can hold on.

best seats in the house

you might have heard that this is the last year for shea stadium (and that other stadium up in the bronx). new stadium called citi field is being built in what was once one of the shea parking lots, and will open for the 2009 season. shea will go away to make more parking room, but because of building codes in NYC, the old stadium cannot be imploded and must be disassembled.

ostensibly to raise money for the "mets foundation" (whatever that is) and to offer a once-in-a-lifetime memorabilia opportunity to fans, the seats from shea are being sold in pairs to any and all comers.

took the leap and ordered mine yesterday as soon as they went on sale to the general public at 9am. purchased a pair of orange field level seats. thought about getting the red upper-deck seats to remind me of the times we'd go when i was a kid and pay $3 for day-of-game tickets. but, red's not really the color associated with los mets, so i opted for the more traditional orange. i was sure the seats would sell out quickly (hence my 9am purchase yesterday), but it appears only the orange ones have sold out so far. a disappointing commentary on met fans in general, i think.

seats will reportedly be shipped 8-12 weeks after the final game at shea. hoping for a january delivery, which would mean that last game was played in late october.

the prodigal family returneth

the weary travelers rolled in on thurs night, and it's like they never left. back to the usual routine of pokemon and legos, with a little wiffle ball mixed in. one more week until school starts for the boys, then molly starts preschool the week after that.

still getting bits and pieces of information from them at various times about their journey- fun to see what triggers those memories. best line had to be from molly, though, who upon getting ready for bed on thurs night when they returned, looked for a place in her room to put her dirty laundry and asked "how long are we going to be here?"

too good to be true

looks like muxtape is down for a bit. seems the RIAA has a problem with the way the site is set up- even though clicking on each track would give you the option of buying it on amazon, there was no limit to how much you could listen to anything. hopefully they'll work things out, because i just was informed of a way (thanks teej) of converting all my music files to shareable mp3's. dj phyngck was about to start mad spinning.

bachelor summer ends tomorrow! the fam is en route to ohio, last stop before they make the final leg of the journey tomorrow. ETA is sometime in the late evening. got about 30 hours to fill the fridge, clean the kitchen, and get things tidied up. can't wait for the stories.

just because we didn't think of it doesn't mean it's not a great idea

baseball has often been identified as the sport most tied to its traditions and history. it's come up a lot recently with the arguments over instant replay in baseball, and tradition (or unnecessary adherence to it) has been for years a central point in the argument for or against the DH.

just this morning, i read about the US baseball team's loss to cuba in the olympics and learned of a new rule instituted to avoid limitless extra inning games. per the article:

"International baseball's new extra-innings rule was used for the first time Friday. Beginning in the 11th inning, runners go to first and second and teams can start at any point in their batting order." (this rule is quite similar to the overtime format in college football, where each team starts with the ball on the 25 yard line until the tie is broken.)

i love this rule. i love free baseball as much as the next guy, but long extra-inning games are more of a war of attrition than any kind of skilled victory. sure, managing a bullpen takes some savvy, but most games that go past 14-15 innings are beyond managerial skill and are left to chance.

having this overtime system in play would save wear and tear on bullpens and would likely see the end of position players having to pitch. it would still require plenty of managerial acumen, as saving the right guys for the overtime would come in to play. the international rule allows for only one true extra inning, which i think is a little stingy. in finkworld, the overtime would go into effect after 3 extra innings (i.e. the 13th inning). or, maybe we'd start in the 11th as they do, but do it progressively- for the 11th, you could start your lineup anywhere but have no one on base, for the 12th you'd get a guy on first and start the lineup anywhere, and the 13th 2 guys on.

"tradition" will keep this from ever happening, and the pitchers' lobby will be sure of that. (this system would not go over well with pitchers, but would be great for middle-of-the-order guys looking to increase their numbers since they'd likely get an AB in each extra inning.)

but who knows- if baseball does implement replay this year, as is widely expected, it shows that as long as fans and players put up enough of a stink, even tradition can be put aside for the good of the game.

olympic fever

i've loved the olympics since the first ones i remember- the 1980 winter games in lake placid. being a new yorker, and one who vacationed in the adirondacks, there was a great connection to those games. certainly the hockey team and the eric heiden 5-medal haul were big factors in the allure of those games for americans, but i was drawn to the pageantry, the national pride, the international flair, and the olympic spirit that make the games more than just a world championship of sport.

the boycott of the moscow games deprived me of experiencing the summer olympics until '84, but being in LA there was again that sense of nationalism that made the games even bigger. and being 4 years older, i was able to appreciate it even more. i remember loving the sheer diversity of events in the summer games. for someone who was the furthest thing from a swimmer, runner, or gymnast, events like archery, rowing and javelin were appealing because they seemed reachable.

since then, i've watched each olympics with enthusiasm and interest. still prefer the winter games to the summer, but i find myself attached to the TV this week, watching plenty of swimming and gymnastics- two things that as exciting and artistic as they may be, i'll likely never watch at any other time during the next 4 years.

the downside to NBC's "more hours that in real life" coverage is that because they want you to tune in to their prime time broadcast, none of their affiliates are showing any events during the evening hours. i'd love to watch some fencing, or weightlifting, or table tennis, even if it were taped. maybe i'll have to start setting the tivo. then i may not leave the couch until labor day.

the best kind of music

...is free music. (similar, of course, to the best kind of beer) happened to be at my local public library a few months ago and was trolling through the cd case while the kids were book hunting. pleasantly surprised to find a few discs that i've always wanted but never actually purchased- some u2, white stripes. also found a few soundtracks with individual songs that caught my eye.

since then, i've made a few trips back and picked up different CDs, mostly soundtracks, and have been importing tracks to my itunes catalog. i'm a big fan of cover songs (a top 5 post someday on that one), and soundtracks are a gold mine for completely random cover songs. the great thing about the library gig is that these CDs usually only have one or two worthwile songs, so it saves buying the whole disc.

i'm also a big fan of christmas music, and i've also been scooping up the library's collection of christmas discs and ripping them too. figure i'll beat the december rush this way.

election 2008: health care, part 2

never listen to me when i promise to post "tomorrow"...

here in the second half of health care discussion, i'll present the position of barack obama. obama goes into good detail on his site about his health care plan, and outlines it even more in this position paper. his plan was presented initially during a speech in iowa last year, a speech which is the usual cut-and-paste politician speech: start with the depressing story of a local couple, outline in detail and with lots of statistics the issue at hand, give your background and previous accomplishments with regards to the issue, outline your new plan, resurrect the ghosts of political heroes gone by, then bring back the local couple and inspire hope that your plan will save them.

obama plans to insure all americans by enrolling all those without insurance in the same insurance plan open to all federal employees. eligible citizens will receive a federal stipend to join the program. he plans to finance the plan by doing away with the bush tax cut for the wealthy, and by having businesses who don't offer a "meaningful contribution" to employee health care contribute "a percentage of payroll" (i.e. taxing business). i presume this new payroll tax is meant to stimulate businesses to participate in private insurance. he also pledges to support businesses with federal money for catastrophic coverage.

obama also feels there's money to be made by optimizing health care- he (like mccain) supports a movement toward electronic medical records, and focusing on preventative medicine. obama's plan calls for what he calls "incentives for excellence". in his speech and position paper, he speaks of how much money is wasted on suboptimal care and preventable complications. in his plan, providers will be "rewarded for achieving performance thresholds on outcome measures". this is what is usually referred to as "pay for performance" and it is a noble but miserable idea.

[a sidebar on P4P, as it is called in the industry. no payer, whether private or government, has the resources to pay extra. so while it seems nice that providers who perform well will be "rewarded", it means that there will need to be providers who will be "punished"- read: reimbursed less- for not meeting metrics. in a perfect world, we'd make everybody better, and maybe we could all achieve the benchmarks set. but because many patients are either too sick or too non-compliant to ever meet a benchmark, there will be a population of people who will never be "at goal". having too many of these folks in a practice will hurt the bottom line of the doctors who care for them. those doctors don't want to wind up in that bottom group who will be "punished", so they will weed out the "bad patients". the logical path of P4P is a selection by providers of healthy, compliant patients and a spurning of complicated, non-compliant patients who bring down performance numbers. this leaves a pool of people who need doctors the most but will not be able to find anyone to care for them. that's an improvement?]

back to the plan- lots of fluff about protecting kids from lead and pregnant women from mercury (the metal, not the planet), fighting aids, helping disabled americans, and a little blurb about "prevent(ing) insurers from overcharging physicians for their malpractice insurance". not a word about tort reform and reducing frivolous lawsuits though.

there's lots of stuff he wants to do, and even if all he puts through is his national health plan, the costs will be astronomical. i realize that before medicare was rolled out, it was probably met with much the same skepticism, but i just think that if there's a proposal for such a big policy, it should be offered with a realistic "we've all got to pitch in" financial plan rather than "we'll tax businesses and the rich, and it'll be OK" plan.

so when i try to pick a side here, while mccain's plan amounts to really nothing, at least it doesn't set us back. i think obama's plan is a bit overzealous, and the whole P4P thing really frightens me (in case you hadn't guessed). after one round then, the voting so far in the fink electoral poll is mccain 1, obama 0.

please, please follow the links to the candidate's pages and read the policies yourselves. it takes a bit to get through, and a keen eye to read between the lines, but it is well worth it.

this was fun- next topic soon- got a lot to get through before november.

election 2008: health care

i chose an issue near and dear to my heart to be the first in my election 2008 series. despite being in the trenches of the health care battlefield, i'm by no means an expert in health care policy. my attitudes towards socialized medicine sometimes change by the day, depending on the kind of day that i'm having. when i see a system struggling to keep afloat, and grow more skeptical by the day that anything can save it, it's hard for me to align with any philosophy on reform.

bookkeeping item: all information in this series about the candidates' plans and positions will come from their websites or links that they themselves provide. a few additional links may be placed just for fun or clarification. additionally, since i'm now finding these will be long posts, i'll going to do one candidate's position at a time, alternating who goes first. today, it's mccain.

mccain gives a somewhat brief outline on his health care policy, expanded upon in this speech from april. his plan to help uninsured americans involves a direct tax credit for those who either opt out of their employer's health plan or who are self-employed. he claims there will be no repercussions for those with pre-existing conditions, yet his policy abides by the HIPAA rule stating, as mccain puts it, that "if you remain employed and insured you will build protection against the cost of treating any pre-existing condition." many americans who will be using his plan will have a period where they will be either unemployed or uninsured, thus exposing them to cost liability.

he also proposes a "guaranteed access plan" for those who are the worst of the worst- people with illness who can't get coverage. it establishes a guideline system for states to provide the services with some federal support- basically, a "best of" medicaid system, taking advice and policies from states where things are working well.

to cut health care costs, he and obama both propose supporting disease management programs, with mccain pledging research dollars towards primary care, and they both pledge support of electronic medical record systems. sounds nice. mccain also plans to support "walk-in clinics in retail outlets". (ouch- that's hitting below the belt for a primary care guy like me.) lastly, he supports tort reform for medical malpractice, specifically pledging to eliminate suits against doctors who follow guidelines and "best practice" plans. how he'll do that, he doesn't say.

overall, nothing truly groundbreaking. mostly status quo, with the republican carrot of tax credits dangled as the bait for his plan. the plan moves almost all responsibility away from the federal government (a point mccain seems to celebrate in the speech above), either delegating to the states, the individuals, or the private sector. good? i'm not sure. but leaves him as president with little to blame if things don't go well.

tomorrow, obama, and my overall assessment of the issue.

21st century digital boy

everyone's favorite futurist, uncle googs, has decided to go back to the future and take blogging to another level. his eponymously titled endeavor can be found at googs.tumblr.com (and of course now on the finkipedia faves list to the right).

tumblogs are the next generation of blogs, evolving from traditional blogs and sites like twitter. consider it a place for quick anecdotes, links to the news of the day and to sites that all the cool kids are checking out. sorry, despite his title- no lottery numbers.

back in the saddle again

just returned from my quick trip out to seattle. met up with the rest of the clan for a short but fun-filled trip. kids were waiting for me at the airport, which was exciting for them and me both.

did the usual seattle fun things like walking around the market, riding ferries, going to REI. mostly enjoyed just reuniting with the kids and erin again.

miserable travel experience coming home- flew from seattle to philly via chicago, but storms in the east wed night caused my chicago-philly flight to be cancelled (along with many other east-bound flights). wound up spending the night with friends (which worked out great- watched fireworks from the top of the hancock!), then battled with united reps on the phone to try and get out of chicago at a reasonable hour on thurs. wound up getting back to philly via richmond, and finally home late yesterday.

pics and more stories soon.

my 3 songs, this day in history edition

some day i'll get the muxtape version up, but for now, it's the old fashioned way. this one requires a little lyrical knowledge, or just take the wikipedia shortcut...

• dada, "dizz knee land"
• billy joel, "we didn't start the fire"
• sly fox, "let's go all the way"
  

new look

finally got around to making some changes. layout and background color were the things most suggested for change. had a hard time trying to change the layout, so to make the posts stand out more from each other, i tried to darken the headers a little bit. i think the gray scale is easier on the eye, don't you? added the picture at the top to provide a little color- it's from our trip to yosemite in the spring of 2000. someday, i may try to learn some html code and customize the site even more.

you also notice a new link on the right under the heading "dj phyngck" (get it?). muxtape.com is a site to which mp3's can be uploaded to create your own mix tape to share, just like back in high school. most of my digital music is mp4 and m4p, which are currently not supported by muxtape. so, finkipedia.muxtape.com is the best i could do with the limited selection i had in mp3 format. i think it turned out pretty good. (hopefully, if muxtape is able to support other formats in the future, i'll be able to use it to set up muxtapes to provide audio support to my "my 3 songs" posts. that'll make things a lot more fun for you and me both.)

hey chicago, what do you say?

finally recovered from a weekend jaunt to chicago, highlighted by a trip to one of baseball's most hallowed grounds, wrigley field. as a baseball fan, it was a pilgrimage that needed to be made, and no better time than this year when the cubs are hot. what an event. sat in the bleachers, which was practically like going to a frat party with a baseball game in the background. cubs scored early and often, gave up the lead, then won in extra innings. electric atmosphere. after the game, we drifted on over to one of the many local establishments right outside of the stadium, then made our way around the city on what turned out to be a beautiful night weatherwise.
(photo above is from my cell- if you've got good eyes and a good monitor, you may be able to make out the name on the readerboard at the bottom, one of chicago's favorite sons who threw out the first pitch and was the official leader of "take me out to the ballgame")

took forever to get home on sunday thanks to weather delays in the philly region (actually had to land in pittsburgh to refuel because we were circling philly for so long). dragged thru most of yesterday, but am finally back up to full steam. good thing, because only a few more days until i'm off again, this time to seattle to reconnect with my long lost family!

alone again, naturally

i'm now 2 weeks into the bachelor summer, and i'm getting nowhere near the productivity i thought i would out of the alone time. part of that is because my holiday weekend was much busier than i thought (i was on call and spent long days at the hospital each day). but it's also because a quiet house just breeds laziness.

i've never lived alone for this long- with the exception of a few month-long stints in a hotel room while doing military stuff, i've lived either with family or roommates my entire life. i can see now how most bachelors keep simple (and frequently messy) living spaces. there's just no motivation to do anything when you're by yourself.

i'm going to have to some how find my way out of the black hole that my couch has become and get on with the list of things i'd like to get done. the noisy house will return before i know it, and while it may not breed laziness, it breeds disinterest in tasks so as to enjoy the noise.

election 2008

my presidential voting record is not very good- i've voted in every national election i've been eligible for, but have never voted for the eventual winning candidate. that doesn't really bother me as much as the fact that my previous presidential votes have been cast on an opinion mostly formed from what i saw and read in the media. i, like most americans, made my choice based too much on sound bites and images- both things selectively presented to me by someone else and occasionally taken out of context.

this year, whether i vote for the eventual president or not, i'm determined to vote for the candidate who most closely represents my values across the entire spectrum, and to educate myself by thoroughly researching the issues without the help of the media. when i make my decision, i will do so by using only the candidates' own words, whether they be in print or live. no sound bites or video clips, but rather entire outlines, essays or speeches to give context to every comment.

i'm going to take you on my electoral journey. every so often between now and november 4, i will post about one of the major issues being discussed in this campaign. i'll link to the candidates' websites and give a brief interpretation about what their own words mean to me. i will watch every debate in its entirety (either live or recorded) and post about it a day or two later.

with each post, i'll let you know how i feel about the particular issue at hand and which candidate i feel more aligned to. my posts will not be meant to influence your decision in any way other than to encourage you to read more on each topic with an open mind.

this blog has always had an open comment section, and these posts will be no exception. feel free to comment however you want, including lobbying for one candidate or another. i only ask that you respect the opinions of others and cite anything you quote with a link to wherever you found it. after all, there's no better way to make your point than to educate others further on it.

my 3 songs, casey stengel edition

here you are- consider it my gift to you today...

• 50 cent, "in da club"
• duran duran, "rio"
• the beatles, "when i'm sixty-four"

speeding at the DMV

twitted about this yesterday... had to renew both my license and registration this month, and i must say, i had the most pleasant DMV experience ever. waited only about 20 minutes yesterday to get my license done, renewed for 5 years for the low, low price of $25. today, went back to do the inspection and registration. got through the inspection station in about 7 minutes- no joke. went inside to do the registration, got a number from the info desk, had my number called before i could even sit down, renewed for 2 years for $40, and walked out. total time inside no more than 3 minutes.

that's a little over a half hour to renew a license, get a vehicle inspected, and renew a registration. small wonder, indeed.

the married bachelor

as many of you know, erin decided a while back that she and the kids would spend the summer in seattle with her folks. since she knew she'd want her car out there, she decided early on that she'd drive there and make a journey out of it. they left this morning for a 10-day trip across the continent, with extra time scheduled with friends in st. louis, omaha, and colorado springs.

this all means that i'm left here, tending to the homestead and living the bachelor life for the first time in 12 years. there are certainly benefits to being alone- just finished up 2 hours of "guitar hero 3"and am currently watching baseball while i type this- but it's been a little tougher than i anticipated. i mean, my 4 best friends just rolled out of town this morning and won't be back for months.

between work, some scheduled side trips, and a wish list of home improvement projects, i'll have more than enough to occupy my time. but to combat the silence, i'll have to do more than yard work. maybe i'll leave the toilet seat up, just because i can.

please, please don't say "forking"

so, i rolled over sometime early this AM and was knocking knees with my beloved (get your minds out of the gutter- that's not a euphemism for anything- our knees truly were hitting), and i started wondering, what's the opposite of "spooning"?

traditional spooning involves both parties facing the same direction, so there are actually two alternatives- both parties facing each other, or facing away from each other. do either of those positions have a colloquialism?

(this post didn't start out to be a reminiscing, but thinking about neologisms has triggered memories of sniglets and rich hall and hbo's NNTN- a far cry from the colbert report, to be sure.)

a deafening silence

well, it was about 9 months in the making, but we all knew it would happen sooner or later. willie's gone as of early this AM, along with two of his coaches.

it's easy to look at him as a scapegoat for the team's failure, but i have to believe at some level he truly wasn't getting the job done. i've always been a huge willie fan, way back to the time he was a yankee second baseman. on the surface, his demeanor suggested he was a good man for the job. but in recent weeks, amid all the turmoil in flushing, i was struck by the audible silence of the players. when asked about willie, most just didn't want to get involved, and some even went so far as to suggest that the mets should just do whatever they were going to do and get it over with. i didn't hear or read a single comment from a player either in support of willie or accepting any blame for the team's collapse.

you have to believe that their silence is an endorsement of this decision. we'll see if by getting their wish this team can salvage this season before it's too late.

happy fathers' day

what better way to celebrate the day than with a finkipedia grammar post, right?

today's question- what's the right title for the day? is it "father's day" or "fathers' day"? i don't think there's a right or wrong answer to this- like the posts on "myriad" here and here, i believe the ultimate answer is that they're both technically correct.

most of what i see used in print is the singular possessive ("father's"). the official holiday, first proclaimed by lyndon johnson and officially reproclaimed this year by president bush, assigns the title of "father's day". i would argue however that since we're celebrating all dads and not just one that the day should be more appropriately addressed in the plural possessive. someone out there must agree with me, because the wikipedia entry on father's day (titled using the singular) starts off with this comment:

• Although normal practice for English punctuation indicates that the holiday should be called "Fathers' Day" (as it is a plural possessive), common usage dictates that the ostensibly singular possessive "Father's Day" is the preferred spelling.

common usage be damned. band with me, my fellow grammarians. buck the trend and start recognizing all mothers and fathers by using the plural possessive when you send your best wishes. pledge your allegiance and make my fathers' day with a comment below.

tree huggin'

had a rare weekday off yesterday to spend with the kids. went up to longwood gardens (which you may remember from a previous holiday posting) to see how things look in full bloom. kids liked checking out some large treehouses that have been built since our last visit there.

boys have their last day of school today; i'm here in the office for a full day then on call this weekend. looking forward to doing a bunch of cool things together next week before they all leave me for their summer trip. (more about that sometime this weekend).

poll comes down today...10 votes- wow! (thanks for voting 3 times googs). general consensus was that things were good, but i like a few others think the background could use some adjusting. look for some changes this summer.

too hot to post

...or do much of anything else. not supposed to be 95 degrees here in june, much less 95 degrees for 4 days in a row.

tried to escape the heat this weekend by going to the pool on saturday and the movies yesterday. took the kids for ice cream after the movie yesterday afternoon, which seemed like a good idea at the time. unfortunately, the heat must have warmed the store enough to make the ice cream a little soft; the situation declined rapidly once the goods were in the hands of the intended. molly and brendan fortunately chose to get their ice cream in dishes, convenient receptacles for the soup they inherited after about ten minutes. owen ordered a small cone of chocolate marshmallow ice cream that was actively melting when it got into his hands. poor kid didn't stand a chance. within minutes, he had more ice cream on his hand and on the ground around him than he had actually consumed.

next time i think we'll just get milk shakes.

new poll

a while back i put a poll or two at the bottom of the blog, but it was so far down no one ever saw it. trying to resurrect the idea a bit, and will occasionally put something immediately to the right of the newest entry to increase visibility.

first poll is more self-serving. looking to change the site up a bit over the summer, and am curious to know what i should work on first (maybe everything?). please make with the clicky and vote on the poll to the right. (should you be more of the essay type than the multiple choice type, feel free to comment away on this post with any recs for updating the site).

none of the hits however mentioned "lionel hutz"

read a random snippet on the onion the other day regarding the FDA disallowing the stop-smoking drug Chantix for pilots because of reports that it may increase the risk of auto accidents. (turns out it was the FAA, not FDA, which makes more sense, but that's beside the point.) as i had heard nothing about this, i was curious and googled "chantix auto accident".

the 34th result was a link to the usa today article mentioning the recent ban. the first 33 results were all links to attorneys' websites, looking for individuals interested in filing a claim against the drug company.

next google search was for "tort reform".

(googling "finkipedia", btw, gives you 8 hits- several to this site, two to official finkipedia-endorsed blogs, two more to a site that somehow found my tag of "FoF" noteworthy, and two dead-end links to some site that has something to do with cough syrup with codeine. huh?)

my 3 songs, sittin' on the dock of the bay edition

time for more tunes. to get you ready for summer, here's 3 songs that might come in handy on a lazy summer's day...

• guns n' roses, "patience"
• peter bjorn and john, "young folks"
• billy joel, "the stranger"

easy one, right?

how did this happen?

for those of you with both inquisitive minds and ipods (i presume that to be many of you reading this blog) i encourage you to download this recent podcast of the public radio show "this american life". it is a one hour program outlining in very basic terms just how the whole mortgage crisis thing came to be.

warning- you may come out of it feeling a little more pessimistic about the economy as a whole. but if its comparisons are valid, and our current situation really is just like the 1970's, then we've all only got to wait another 30 or so years until another boom comes along, right?

could this be the turning point?

exciting win last night for the flushing nine... was it a sign of the phoenix rising from the ashes, or just an aberrancy thrown in to frustrate the faithful? fun to watch either way.

hard to believe it's taken this long...

office got a call this AM from a panicked mom of a 3 1/2 year old, asking for me and reporting that her daughter had put a lego up her nose and it was stuck. i called the mom back as soon as i could, but as it turns out, she managed to get the lego out before i could call her.

molly has promised never to do this again.

a day to come out of your shell

not only are we on the doorstep of a 3 day weekend (and a "chamber of commerce weather" one here in the mid-atlantic), it's also a big day for shelled reptiles everywhere. it's world turtle day today. celebrate however you see fit- maybe kiss a turtle, eat a chocolate/caramel nut cluster, or just listen to "happy together" over and over again.

remember, whatever you do, do it for the turtles.

here, there, and everywhere

if it seems like finkipedia is taking an extra few seconds to load up now, it's probably because of a new widget i set up. over on the right side just under the blog listing is my new link to twitter. for the unaware, twitter is a new message board-style website that encourages users to post short bits about what they're doing at that very moment. can be used by sending e-mails or instant messages to twitter, but at its best when used via text messaging.

at twitter.com, you can select a member and "follow" them by receiving e-mail, instant message, or text message updates when that member posts something new. i thought it would be fun to link my new twitter account to this page, so i can occasionally send text messages and essentially update the blog from afar.

i just discovered this whole thing yesterday and have no idea where i'll go with it, but even if i do nothing more than the occasional text posting, i think it's pretty cool.

back in metropolis

was back on LI this past weekend for the annual '89 friars golf weekend. used to be 2 rounds of golf per weekend, now down to one round of golf and one wild card day. golf this year was an adventure- played in 50 degree weather and a steady driving rain, lasted only 12 holes before we realized that the 80 bucks we paid to play wasn't worth getting pneumonia over.

second day turned out much better- hoops, stickball, mets/yankees game, poker, and plenty of old stories. hard to believe these stories are 20 years old now. yikes.

as if the weekend alone wasn't enough for a post, got a little gift as i was headed off the island. big flashing construction sign on the belt parkway with a message about nypd's attitude towards fireworks: "ZERO TOLARANCE". apparently they won't allow sparklers in NY but have no problems with public displays of spelling ignorance.

once upon a time...

some of the many things that pass through my head on a daily basis are memories of some pretty random items, events and encounters that may or may not have any relation to my current situation. i don't want this to become a pretentious trip down memory lane, but i thought it would be fun to share some of these things and maybe generate a little discussion.

today's reminiscence came up when noticing that for the first time in dover, gas is $4.00/gallon. i of course wasn't driving during the gas crisis of the 70's, but i do distinctly remember the odd days/even days gas thing, and the long lines at the gas stations. i realize that setup was due to shortage and not pricing, but could you just imagine what a supply problem would do to the current situation? chaos.

my favorite memory of the gas crisis though was a line from "good times", courtesy of jj "dyn-o-mite" walker. either florida or james were threatening to kick jj's deadbeat butt out of the apartment, and when jj realized he'd have to use the gas station bathroom if he lived on the street, he announced in horror that would mean he'd only be able to pee on odd numbered days. now THAT's comedy!

first quarter report

hard to believe, but this weekend will be the1/4 way point of the baseball season. mets are 2 games back of the first place marlins and not showing any signs of being a team that can truly contend. here are some of the ups and downs of the young season so far...

first, the ups:

• ryan church and brian schneider - trading milledge for both of them is looking like a huge coup- they're each hitting over .320 and church is leading the team in HR. (as a side note, i think every met fan is breathing a huge sigh of relief that we didn't trade milledge a few years ago for barry zito.)
• john maine - is he the ace of the staff? pitching better almost every time he's out there.
• david wright - late april slump is hurting the average, but he's been solid as far as run production (3rd in NL in RBI) and clutch in the field (8 errors, but gets to more balls down the line than most).
• luis castillo - showing signs of his former hitting prowess and playing above expectations at 2B.
  

and the downs:

• pedro- getting hurt 3 innings into the new year was not a good sign. due back in a few weeks, but how long will he last?
  
• jose reyes - flashes of brilliance in a sea of mediocrity- can't have a leadoff guy with an on-base percentage of .335 and expect to contend.
  
• carlos beltran - sorry, but i don't think we're getting our 18M/year worth. only 3 HR so far- less than guys like paul bako and rickie weeks. ("who?" exactly.)
• the bullpen - some guys have been ok (schoenweis) or even pretty good (smith, wagner), but the disappointing showings from heilman and sanchez, who were supposed to be our solid setup tandem, and the horrendous blowouts by jorge sosa (mercifully cut today, praise zeus) have made every game an adventure after the 6th inning.
  

the rest of the team seems average at best. santana has been fine but not scintillating, delgado seems to be giving us what we should expect (.250 and on pace for about 25 HR), and the bench has been fair but not fear-instilling to opponents.

maybe starting off like they have is their way of avoiding another late-season collapse; if they're mired in 3rd place, there's nothing to collapse from. next update at the all-star break, hopefully with a brighter outlook.

he may get stupid, i mean outrageous

hope you're checking in at least occasionally on the official finkipedia-endorsed blogs. we know you have many choices in blogs, and appreciate your business.

here's one more for you, just kicked off yesterday. i've got an idea that i want to share is a project of official finkipedia cardshark and rap impresario 2white. if the inaugural post is any indicator, his rants will not exactly be the quick 2-minute read that this blog tends to be, but should be interesting and engaging enough to draw you in. if you're a sports fan or just love a good debate, i think you'll find 2white's blog VERY enjoyable.

in the future, TV's will watch us instead

more FoF's in print- this time, official finkipedia futurist and brother-in-law (national division) googs is featured in a TV week interview about the future of television.

no mention anywhere in the interview about whether the success of the recent "knight rider" movie will finally get that rumored "momma's family" miniseries off the storyboards and into our living rooms.

best mother's day gift ever

never having been a mother, i don't have the credentials to determine what the best gift would be. but i'd think some kind of confirmation that you're doing a great job has got to rank way up there.

erin's gift today came from brendan, who was playing outside with owen this afternoon while we were getting some yard work done. he approached her, unsolicited, and proclaimed matter-of-factly, "mom, i'm having a great lifetime so far."

if that's not confirmation of good mothering, i don't know what is.

support our troops

in case anyone's up tomorrow AM, check out the CBS early morning show about 7:15AM- a good friend of mine from the air force currently overseas will be featured on the show. can't tell you much more because there's some kind of surprise involved with family, but it will be neat to say that there's only one degree of separation between you and someone on national TV!

finkipedia turns 100

well, believe it or not, this is the 100th post on finkipedia! (if you're adding up the monthly numbers right now and scratching your head, those tally the days only and don't take into account the occasional two-a-day postings.)

it's been a ton of fun so far. i think i'm achieving my goal that i set out in the first post- to have a place to update friends and family on our family happenings, and also to have a place to let others listen to the voices in my head.

hopefully you are enjoying reading along. for those lurkers who are reading but never drop by the comments page, feel free to chime in here and there and join the fun. for my regular commenters- thanks for keeping this interactive. it certainly makes it more enjoyable for me.

the next 100 posts will likely come more rapidly as i'm settling into a writing groove lately. i've also developed a few recurring features that i'll probably bring out more often- top 5 lists, my 3 songs, and of course, grammar lessons. also look for a new recurring feature, a trip in the way back machine to reminisce about things and events that you may not think of daily but will certainly remember. all this scattered amongst updates and quotes from the finkipedia clan.

thanks for reading, and happy 100 to me!

a day in the life

i would never say that my job is hard. people who lay brick for a living have a hard job. marine infantry have a hard job. i would describe my job as challenging, on some days very demanding, and often puts me into situations that are emotionally taxing. today seemed be all of the above.

one of my first patients arrived at the office in full septic shock- no blood pressure, faint pulse, very weak. got her stabilized and sent off to the hospital by ambulance. interrupted two patients later by a phone call from the pathologist at the hospital with the report on the autopsy from the patient who died last week a few hours after i admitted him. two more patients later, i'm in with a guy telling him he needs a biopsy and likely has cancer.

the afternoon wasn't much better- a patient with trouble breathing (spared a trip to the hospital for now), 4 stitches into the eyebrow of an 8 year old, and a call from the daughter of another patient reporting that her mom's blood pressure was very low (advised her to head to the ER).

down to the hospital after work to check on the lady from the morning (doing better) and admit the lady sent to the ER from the afternoon (doing fine also). then, got a call on my way home that another patient of mine from the nursing home arrived DOA at the emergency room.

hard day? you be the judge.

most publicity since the "washington slept here" stone was placed

picked up this link yesterday off of drudgereport.com. nice to see the ol' hometown finally getting some attention in the national media for things we do well. it's just too bad they failed to mention anything in the article about the mensa convention that was in town that week.

(apparently this fine gentleman is still taking applications for counsel- any takers?)

first communion

big day in finkdom yesterday- owen celebrated his first communion. he was excited, and admitted to being a little nervous just beforehand, but did great. he and about 15 other kids received their first communion as part of the regular sunday mass. near the end of the service, the priest acknowledged all the kids, congratulated them and led the congregation in a round of applause. owen, obviously moved by the spirit within him, felt inspired to do this great little dance of celebration. so funny.

had a small gathering of family back to the finkstead afterwards for mimosas, bloodies, and too much food. weather turned out perfect, which kept the kids outside for most of the afternoon. only the allure of the new mariokart game owen got for wii (thanks gramma and big buddy!) was enough to keep them inside for any stretch of time.

favorite quotes of the weekend-

• owen, at communion practice thursday night: "will i be able to go up for seconds?"
• ciaran, responding to rachel's "disappointment" that she didn't know mimosas were available when opting for a bloody mary: "you never take the first food item offered you at the finks until you've seen the whole menu."
• trooper kev, upon listening to my mom's description of the new time share my folks just bought into: "wait- lemme get this straight- you mean the indoor pool is indoors? that place must be amazing!"
  

FoF's in the news

here's a short piece from the washington post featuring official finkipedia economist and sister-in-law (national division) RK-K.

supports both the arguments of teachers that they work hard outside the classroom, and the arguments of others that teachers overall work less than other professions.

i'd like to see a financial analysis based on the hours worked of the true hourly rate of a teacher's salary vs. other professions. that would be interesting, and most likely very disappointing.

true heroes walking among us

tried to fit this in a comment on the last post, but the link was too long. for my fellow grammarians, i think you'll find this article enjoyable (and reassuring that there are some out there carrying out our mission). courtesy of big buddy, official finkipedia editor emeritus:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/dannywestneat/2004367117_danny23.html

look! another grammar rant!

i've hit you with most of my grammar pet peeves, but there are plenty more things that i come across that are worthy of a rant. here's one from today, the greeting of a letter from another physician: "to all perspective members,"

maybe there are some members of his organization that have a good outlook on things and get the big picture, but i believe he is addressing those of us who are not yet members. of course "prospective" is the term he was looking for (pun intended).

it's not easy being green

after pledging on tuesday to be greener, i cut my lawn on thursday and bagged some of the clippings into 3 large trash bags. my green conscience kicked in that night (fueled no doubt by the renewable energy source that is catholic guilt), and i spent an hour searching online about how best to deal with grass clippings.

the consensus across multiple websites was, of course, to leave them on the lawn. most sites agreed that long clippings (like the ones that were in my bags) didn't sit too well on lawns, but this could be avoided by just cutting more frequently. no one seemed to have very good advice for those of us who had already let the lawn get too tall. so i looked for other alternatives to leaving them on the lawn.

apparently grass clippings make great mulch, if you want green mulch that turns a yellow brown when dry and smells like a sewer when wet. they can also be composted by digging a "shallow hole" and covering them with dirt. i have an acre of grass to cut- a shallow hole to fit my clippings would have to be about 40 feet in diameter. one site did recommend using the clippings as a blanket to kill weeds along fence lines, which seemed like the most reasonable resting place for my clippings at this point.

so, after another cutting today and a collection of clippings from most of the lawn, i now have a 60 ft long, 18 inch high "blanket" of grass clippings all along the back of our property. after the rain coming our way tonight, it should take care of the weeds quickly while providing the lovely aroma of spring in the country.

yay! new e-friends!

the online finkiverse is expanding again. you'll notice a new official finkipedia-endorsed blog, lovemomworklife. authored by one half of one of my favorite duos in the world, n. is a great friend and the wife of my college roommate, bucket. (maybe she'll let him guest-post as to the origin of that nickname).

definitely plenty of blog material for her- a beautiful family, a career in advertising, and an ongoing renovation of her 100+ year old hudson river valley home. and she uses capital letters, so if you're into that kind of stuff, check it out.

earth day

i think i've always been a little "greener" than the average person- years as a boy scout provided me with a healthy respect for the outdoors. but there are two particular experiences i've had that have pushed me more down the tree-hugging path.

the first of which was an ecology class i took in college, a requirement for all bio majors. the prof i had was an amazing guy- absolutely loved his job and was so passionate about ecology and the environment. we went on field trips weekly, from the woods of connecticut where we counted trees, to his own backyard where we saw his compost pile. i've always thought that his passion for the earth tied in so well the jesuit beliefs of faith, peace and justice.

the second experience was a mission trip to jamaica, also in college, during which i lived for a week and a half in the slums of kingston. our section of the city had indoor plumbing, but the water was only a slow trickle and didn't run at all after late morning. the abject poverty helped give me a greater appreciation for the resources we all have and take for granted.

i'm still far from being as green as i'd like to be - i own a gas guzzling monster SUV, have dual-zone AC, and have incandescent bulbs in every fixture of my home. but i'm trying- i recycle about everything i can, i use as little water and energy at home as possible, and am certainly considering composting my trash and purchasing a hybrid vehicle.

whatever your views on global warming, i don't think you can argue that renewable energy sources and more common sense resource management are good ideas. maybe someday in the not-too-distant future, the opinions of those in power will be the same, and we'll have some progress towards environmental justice.

seg-way cool

one of the things i got to check out while at WDW was a segway exhibit at epcot. they show you a 10+ minute video on the history of the segway, then let you take one for a test roll. just a short down-and-back on a carpeted path, only about 60 feet round trip, but enough of a test to get an idea of how cool these things are.

i must admit, i've been skeptical about them from the get-go, and find it hilarious to see mall security and city police zipping around on these things. but they're incredibly cool, easy to use, and after riding one i can see how they would be helpful for many situations.

disney offers two segway tours- one of the countries around epcot (done before park opening) and one cross-country segway tour at their campground. something i'll definitely look into next trip.

back to the grind

back after a very enjoyable, albeit initially soggy trip to the sunshine state.

spent the week with my folks and my sister and her family doing the disney thing. tough getting 11 people on the same schedule, but we managed pretty well i think. had some good meals, a few great meals, and saw some cool things (make sure you catch "soarin'" at epcot if you're headed to disney anytime).

drove straight thru from orlando to middletown on the way back- about 16 1/2 hours, most of it overnight. comment of the week came from owen, who woke up when stopping for breakfast at 7AM (after sleeping in the car for 9 hours straight) and asked , "did we stop at a hotel last night?"

runners-up for the comments of the week:
owen, upon seeing all our bags packed and sitting on the bed of the hotel room friday morning, "are we leaving today?"
brendan, waking up next to me after the first night of the trip, "dad, i think your toothpaste wore off during the night"

por favor, mantengas alejado de las puertas

you're on your own for the next week and a half- headed out tomorrow to the house of mouse for grandpa eddie's retirement celebration. we're driving down, which means 15 hours of radio disney and south of the border billboards. stop tomorrow night in GA, then the rest of the way friday AM.

the boys got new nintendo DS's for easter, which should keep them occupied nicely. brendan surrendered his old leapster to molly, which she's taken to and will hopefully find interesting enough to engage her for at least a few hundred miles.

plenty of blog fodder to come from this trip, to be sure!