My Top 5 Shipwreck Songs!

5. "Isle of France"

Nic Jones, 1977

 

 

4.  "Billy Bones and the White Bird"

Elton John, 1975

 

 

3.  "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"

Gordon Lightfoot, 1975

 

2.  "Odessa (City on the Black Sea)"

Bee Gees, 1969

 

 

 

1. "The Theme from Gilligan's Island"

The Wellingtons, 1964

 

 



Economically and metaphorically speaking, I'm torn between...

...the "debt ceiling" and the "fiscal cliff." 

While neither is a particularly happy place, the former suggests shelter, but the latter offers great vistas, right?

A financial Scylla and Charybdis...now we're talking!

A Brian Wilson Showdown: Rhymin' Simon or Sir Elton

 

 

Is it wrong of me to prefer having, in the Baseball Hall of Fame...

...some of the players on the 2013 ballot, like Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire, who (admittedly or not) lengthened their careers and padded their stats through steroid use, than 2004 inductee Paul Molitor, who, as a designated hitter, got the hitting numbers he did by sitting on the bench for most of his career?  (And, no, the DH isn't the same as a relief pitcher because, when a reliever is pitching well and then due up to bat, the manager has to decide, "Is his (probably) making an out at this point in the game worth my still having him pitch in the next inning?"  That's called "strategy."
    I truly believe if players are THAT good at some aspect of the game, then their teams should have to gamble that their strengths outweigh their weaknesses.  In the final years, Bonds was nothing close to the defensive player that he was earlier in his career, but his hitting made him worth the risk.  Ditto with McGwire, and Sosa.
     Please, Commissioner Selig, get rid of the DH!

I thought we were beyond this sort of...

 

...over-reaction to rather trite artistic statements...

 

 

...because, if we're not, I'll never be able to get a gallery to display my:

"Nixon in Gethsemane"

 

"Harding  Parts the Red Sea"

 

"FDR Feeds the 5000"

 

or

 

"W. Walks on Water"

 

 

Ars longa, vita brevis

The next Rock Great Face-Off!

Steely Dan

or

The Grateful Dead

Our (at times) oxymoronic culture

1)  More students than ever require remedial math classes when they enter college, while the popularity of "rotisserie leagues" in football, baseball, etc., which require nothing but the pursuit and comprehension of statistical data, have made sports of all kinds more popular than ever.  Don't these fantasy league players realize it's math that they're doing before/during/after every game?

2)  We have the highest percentage of obese people in our country's history at the same time that, I'm betting, we have the highest percentage of people training for and participating in marathons, half-marathons, 5-Ks, etc..., not to mention more of these kinds of races than ever in our history. 

And while, I think, our split-personality in #2 can be explained by class and/or socio-economics (if those are different), the first one remains utterly inexplicable to me.