Multiply 365 Day 44 - TITIT, #7 even

     I didn't think I would be going here this quickly, but alas I am.  I hope that this doesn't become a recurring theme, I hope my creative juices aren't so spent that I am just wallowing in TITIT blogs for the rest of the year, but events since the last blog entry have piqued my curiosity, best I get them on paper now than wait until later on to comment on them, where I would have a better than even chance of forgetting them entirely.


     The first I should make note of is the passing of Chuck Tanner.  Tanner was the Pittsburgh Pirates manager from 1977-1985, winning one World Series as Pittsburgh's manager in 1979.  Tanner wasn't the type to go on a screaming tirade to his players, rather he was the optimistic sort, at times maybe too much so.  For him it was a joy to be at the ballpark every day, an attitude that is becoming less and less prevalent in pro sports across the board, where money and self promotion are king.  Sadly, for all of his positive reinforcement, the players and ownership tended to let him down time and time again, including the scandalous drug trials which ended up taking place in Pittsburgh and management going out and signing such non stalwarts as Amos Otis, who came to Pittsburgh literally with a hole in his glove.  Otis had used the same glove throughout his major league career and by the time he was signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates it had an actual hole in it.  Nonetheless, Tanner retained a positive attitude during his tenure. Other managers might have benched players, or screamed from the roof tops that ownership was keeping him from fielding a competitive team, but that just wasn't Tanner's way.  Pittsburgh was lucky to have Tanner as long as they did.  

     I was watching the news this bright and early Sunday morning when what should my wandering eyes see but a burger contest.  I can't even begin to describe how angry and frustrated I get when such idiocy is passed off as news,  or that the newscast then tells you to check out the station's website, so that they might accumulate more traffic, thereby increasing advertising revenues from those companies that advertise on said site.  What really irks me about the list was that Five Guys Burgers and Fries was one of the ten finalists.  Don't get me wrong, I have been to Five Guys and haven't gotten sick from the experience, but please tell me that the city of Pittsburgh isn't so bland of a market for quality food that a fast food chain restaurant is one of the 10 best anything here.  What, the Bic Mac wasn't available?  At least that was invented here, but damn of all of the places in this city to eat the best you can come up with is fast food.  I think I just died a little inside.

     
     The 2011 CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) finished up in Washington DC and the only thing that came out of it that made sense was what Donald Trump said.  God forbid I should agree with him on anything, Trump is at best a master at self promotion, usually at the ridicule of others.  Don't believe me, look at his most recent cast of characters for his "Celebrity Apprentice" show, a bunch of B-list stars with short fuses that Trump managed to gather together more for his own amusement than anything else.  I know that weekly winners and the eventual apprentice have money donated to their charity, but if Trump was really that geeked up for charitalbe endeavors, he could have done so without the self promotion involved.  And while there is money donated to charity, the show is no doubt making Trump a few coins in his pocket as well. All of that being said, Trump was dead on the money at CPAC, where he was asked to speak, when he said that Ron Paul doesn't stand a chance to win if he is the Republican nominee.  Paul won the straw poll that was conducted by CPAC (he won the 2010 as well), but these type of groups tend to gravitate to the fringe elements of the party, rather than the realists.  If by some unknown set of circumstances Ron Paul were to be the Republican nominee in 2012 (perhaps by being the last man left on earth after the Mayan prediction of the end of the world in 2012) it would make a reelection of Obama all but a sure thing.  We would get to revisit the racist memos that came out of Paul's office 20 years ago, memos that Paul says he never wrote but didn't vet carefully enough.  Whether that is a truthful statement on Ron Paul's part or not is irrelevant, it will become an issue and in instances such as these truth is rarely considered one way or the other.  The only thing that matters is the ability to make it a talking point, and trust me, there will be many who would do just that. 

 
     Tonight is another one of those "let's pat ourselves on the back moments" with the latest rendition of the Grammy awards, where an industry that once again spent the last year marketing shit gets together to say job well done.  I will say that the only plus to this past year in music is that it was a great way to cut down on music piracy on the web, make stuff so bad that nobody will want to download it and you have solved the problem.  To make a marketable record these days you just need to do the following in some type of lyrical form;  use the word bitch or ho (or better, both), yammer about getting drunk and allude to the fact that you like to fuck.  Take these three elements and combine them in some form of a recording with any old background beat for about 3 to 4 minutes and you have yourself a winner.  Being able to carry a tune is no longer a requirement, any vocals will be so over processed that the singer will sound like The Robot from Lost in Space.

     I don't want to call it a guilty pleasure, because it isn't pleasurable so much as a leftover bad habit from my radio days, but watching Meet the Press can be painful on mornings like this.  I am not a fan of the House Majority Leader John Boehner, but David Gregory's insistence on repeating a question that was just answered is quite annoying.  Prime example was when he showed a clip from Fox News about a panel of people who were asked if they believed the President was a Muslim and a significant number raised their hands (because all Muslims are evil, but that is another issue for another time) and then asked Boehner whether he bears some responsibility in correcting the electorate on their misconceptions.  When Boehner said no, that wasn't his job it should have stopped there, instead Gregory asked the question at least three more times in hopes of getting a different answer.  Mr. Gregory, the way to marginalize the moronic portion of the electorate is not to continue to give them airplay and when you don't get the answer you want over a stupid issue opt to repeat the question, but rather to accept the fact there are always going to be stupid people out there, resist the urge to give their insane ideas a platform and move on to actual issues.

     I can tell that I am getting old when I look at Dee Dee Myers and think "you know, she is kinda hot." 

     Rugby is scheduled to be an Olympic sport again in the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.  The last time that rugby was an Olympic sport was in 1924, when the United States won the gold medal.  That being said, it is safe to say since 1924 rugby has been at best an afterthought in the United States, so much so that it would make soccer seem popular by comparison.  So excuse me if I laugh a little when I see that the US 7s team is marketing a video titled "A Giant Awakens", as if simply by rugby once again being an Olympic sport, the United States team is going to defend its 1924 gold medal.  Right now, if I had a shovel and dug all of the members of the 1924 team out of the cold, cold ground, I'd give them even money to beat the current American squad.  Forget about medaling, far better it be that the U.S. 7s squad doesn't go to South America and embarrass itself.  That is about all that can be realistically hoped for. 

     I think I have pontificated enough for one day.  There is iced tea to be drunk and hockey to be watched on my day off, and that is all I realistically need on my day off.