Matthew

Thanks for the good wishes!

Can't tell you how many times I've seen the last out be some fool trying to steal third base, trying to stretch a double into a triple, or some equally dumb play. So many occasions in the past couple of years I've wondered: "what was he thinking????"

Feakin' Joe West! It's always Freakin' Joe West!

I actually liked the last volume Hearing Secret Harmonies very much, thought it ended the series on a somber, but real note. To my reading, Temporary Kings (volume 11) is a total shambles, advanced nothing in the various story-lines. I'll be interested to see if I'm of the same opinion this time through.

Joe West? Amazing, you know an umpire is bad when players call out West, by name -- no anonymous player quotes, players willing to be named. It's a short list of umpires who are that bad, the only others I can think of are Hernandez, Eric Gregg and Dave Palone.

Joe McPhee: As Serious As Your Life

A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell. Heaven help me, but I've started my fourth go-round on Powell's A Dance To The Music Of Time. It takes a long while to read everything, but at the end, it's always worth it. This is volume one, where a number of important players are introduced, sort of the beginning of a spiders web, where the interlocking of lives develop. Also making my way, intermittently, through Ian Ker's biography of John Henry Cardinal Newman (my second time), who still strikes me as an unsympathetic character for some reason.

I assumed David was joking... the only umpire I could think of that could be worse that even Leslie Nelson was Cowboy Joe West, truly the equal of Hernandez in all ways..

No way! Hernandez's replacement is even worse... Joe West!

I try to make life easy on myself, my internet law is: If I don't like it, I move on. I mean, one click, and I can see something else.

William Parker: Painter's Spring.

Herbie Hancock: Crossings

Herbie Hancock: Thrust

Herbie Hancock: Man-Child

Herbie Hancock: Sextant

Les McCann: Invitation To Openness

Eddie Fisher & The Next One Hundred Years

Sicario. Usually do not like films of this genre, but this is so well done, and intense.

Sands of the Well by Denise Levertov. Bought this solely because I happened to read the opening poem to this collection: What Harbinger? Glitter of grey oarstrokes over the waveless, dark, secretive water. A boat is moving towards me slowly, but who is rowing and what it brings I can't yet see. I think it's a tremendously beautiful poem. Book is highly recommended.

How Fibber McGee and Molly Won World War II by Mickey Smith. Well, of course they didn't win the war themselves, but the radio show helped the morale of a heck of a lot of people durning the war years. It's an enjoyable bedtime read about my favorite Old Time Radio show.

The Year of Our Lord 1943: Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis by Alan Jacobs. Very interesting book, with applications to the modern world and politics. From the Amazon description: By early 1943, it had become increasingly clear that the Allies would win the Second World War. Around the same time, it also became increasingly clear to many Christian intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic that the soon-to-be-victorious nations were not culturally or morally prepared for their success. A war won by technological superiority merely laid the groundwork for a post-war society governed by technocrats. These Christian intellectuals-Jacques Maritain, T. S. Eliot, C. S. Lewis, W. H. Auden, and Simone Weil, among others-sought both to articulate a sober and reflective critique of their own culture and to outline a plan for the moral and spiritual regeneration of their countries in the post-war world.

Cedar Walton Quartet: First Set.

Cedar Walton: Eastern Rebellion

Red Harvest: Dashiell Hammett