1. Louisiana just can't catch a break. New Orleans fresh off a super bowl win, and the city in the middle of a revitalization push, got jobbed again. 5,000 feet down, and blowing oil, BP's titanic blunder has sunk the gulf coast shrimp, and oyster industry. Even though, oysters and shrimps have not yet shown any residual effects, who is going to harvest the marine beds when all the boats in the gulf are being used for the clean-up of the disaster, and who exactly in omnivore nation is going to be ordering Gulf coast anything after this debacle? Floridians are growing nervous as blobs of oil begin to wash up on their shoreline. The latest poll shows that 68% of the public are pointing the finger at BP and the Obama administration. The spewing oil poisoning the ecosystem should be a a fucking wake up for proponents of off shore oil drilling. Where are the federal regulations? This is a man-made catastrophe and stands alone in it's disturbing uncontainment.
2. Bud Selig. He ruled today that umpire, Jim Joyce's 'safe' call would remain on record in Armando Galarraga's quest for baseball's 21st perfect game. This was a golden opportunity for Selig to step up to the plate and set the record straight. But, Selig could not pull the trigger and reverse the call. Baseball purists like to think that their game is the perfect sport. And geometrically it is. There is beauty in the dimensions; 90 feet between bases, and 60 feet from mound to home plate. It's a sport controlled by a very subjective high or low strike zone. In Wednesday's game, perfection was denied by human error and ultimately the next day by a poor judgment call.
3. Andre Voznesensky. A popular poet and a sometime pain in the ass to the Soviet Union circa 1960-70's, post Stalin era died this past week. He was 77. Voznesensky and Yevgeny Yevtushenko were 2 of the most charismatic Russians poets of their day; both could fill stadiums when they read. In 1972, Voznesensky toured the USA and gave a reading sponsored by Ferlinghetti's, City Lights, at the Project Artuad in San Francisco. My sister and I on a run of City Lights readings (the photo was taken by Beth Bagby who was at the reading and worked as a photojournalist for the City Lights poetry series) which included Ginsburg, McClure, and others, sat slack jawed as Voznesensky regaled the jammed Artaud in blustering Slavic lyrics. There wasn't a translator. We were mesmerized by his recitations.
4. Tipper and Al. Splitting up? Really? Notification officially sent out as an email. Really, Al? An email?
W - very nice post! however I disagree about Selig, don't think he should have reversed the call. If he overruled that call, why not overrule other calls? I agree with the sprotswriter (don't recall which) that pointed out several other blown calls in the same week as the no-perfecto, calls which changed the outcome of those games... Unless MLB decides to go with instant replay, they have to stick with the umpire deciding the call on the field and that's the end of it.
ReplyDeleteHey, you should've posted the photo of us at Voznesensky's poetry reading in SF in '72 - do you still have the copy of the book I gave you? Also, my thoughts on Bud Selig is that he made the wrong decision even though Galarraga was a true gentleman in accepting the decision without any whining.
ReplyDeleteJane, always an astute comment. But, I still think Bud was wrong. He should have 'manned' up. But, this is the same guy who had a bag over his head during the 'roid era.
ReplyDeleteHmmm. maybe I will post that picture, Carmel!