Allow me to take advantage of several things that rarely occur:
1.) Me sleeping in (to 7:15) and not being organized enough to get this post together in the morning.
2.) Me going to the doctor (regular checkup… nothing serious) instead of going to work.
3.) The Nationals playing a day game on a Monday.
4.) Me not being able to think of anything to write about.
5.) The Nationals score five runs in the first inning… blogpost idea fulfilled!
Good things come to those who procrastinate.
Amelia Earhart is missing again.
Turns out the smoking gun evidence from Sunday night’s program on the History Channel (the photograph with two figures said to be Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan), was more smoke than gun. Not exactly a hoax per se, as it seems those presenting the photo really didn’t know its origins, but not at all as it was described. Apparently the photo was published in 1935. Regardless of what you believe to be Amelia Earhart’s ultimate fate, there is no doubt she was very much alive and living in the U.S. until 1937.
Whoops.
Still good television though. And let’s face it, this doesn’t disprove anything about being held by the Japanese or that she snuck back in the country as Big Foot or Elvis or whatever other theories are out there.
To other matters… yes, CNN’s special on the 1990s (cleverly called The Nineties) is must-see viewing every Sunday from here on out. So the first episode was basically clips from a series of ’90s television shows… that’s good enough for me! It’s how I spent the entire decade; I’d love to relive it for an hour each Sunday in 2017.
Episode Two is about Bill Clinton.
Sign me up for that for sure.
If there was any question that this is the era of the pitcher, last night’s MLB All-Star game gave us no fewer than 28 indications why. (That would be 14 strikeouts a piece among those hitting “stars.”) The smart guys tell us that a strikeout is just another out, and culturalists note that the K is no longer taboo. Well, it was in great display last night. It’s amusing to see titans go down, I suppose, especially after the offensive show put on the previous night by Judge, Sanchez, Stanton, and company in the Home Run Derby. Baseball really brought it these past two nights, as it often does every time it seems the NFL and NBA are about to put the thing to rest forever.
Baseball made only one mistake last night, the same one they made last year. Let me offer a solution right now:
For the love of hockey and bacon let me do the Canadian National Anthem next year.
Last night one had the option of watching either of two no doubt interesting programs on TV: CNN’s The Nineties and the History Channel’s new special on Amelia Earhart. I watched the Earhart program if for no other reason that CNN is more likely to put its show on demand. (Yup, that’s 21st century living.)
I found Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence to be worth two hours of my time. Spoiler alert… she’s still missing, but after watching the show I’m at least 10-15 percent less certain that her plane went down somewhere in the Pacific never to be seen again, as the government-sponsored tale has gone the past 80 years. New evidence (if we want to call it that) places Earhart in Japanese hands after July 1937, perhaps the first American casualty of what would later be called World War II.
Conclusive evidence? Hardly. Entertaining TV? For sure.
Now fast-forward a few decades and be ready to get your ’90s on!
Starter jacket optional.
If you’re looking for something good to watch on TV this weekend you have, I believe, two excellent choices. Unfortunately they are on at the same time, for the same amount of time, on the same night, with no guarantee they’ll be available on demand. Yeah, so much for living in the future. I do have high hopes, however, for CNN’s The Nineties, made by the same folks who brought you The Sixties, The Seventies, and… you guessed it… The Eighties. I did enjoy those previous three series and anxiously await this newest installment (the first I actually lived through in its entirety).
Then there is the History Channel’s Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence. I’ve heard it called everything from brilliant to bogus. Well, it’s going to get two hours of my time. Once I stop time and can watch both of these shows from 9-11 on Sunday evening. I have two days to figure out time travel. Hope I don’t have to concentrate too hard at work this weekend.
In the 19th century and into the early part of the 20th century it was customary that on the Fourth of July a public official–a mayor, a judge, a justice of the peace–would recite the text of the Declaration of Independence in a public place for residents to come together as a community and celebrate our independence.
Like many traditions, this one faded, and now it is difficult to find such an event anywhere in the nation, let alone one’s hometown. I’m aiming to amend that today in Loudoun County, Virginia.
The text of the Declaration is mostly the work of our third president, Thomas Jefferson. At the time Jefferson was a delegate to the Second Continental Congress from Virginia, and three years later he would be elected governor of this state. Jefferson was the main author among a committee of five men tasked with composing a formal document proclaiming our independence from the kingdom of Great Britain. The committee presented its work to the entire congress at the end of June 1776.
The final, edited version of what they delivered was accepted by a larger committee, then was printed in colonial newspapers on July 4, 1776. Today it can be found in less than a second via any Internet search. Or, to hear it read, come to the Sterling Community Center playground today at 11 a.m. The center is located at 120 Enterprise Street in Sterling, Virginia. The speaker will be the author of this blog.
Super-secret formula to Nationals bullpen success: Begin game with arguably the greatest pitcher in baseball today, one Maxwell M. Scherzer, preferably on a night with his best stuff. Step two, have arguably the best hitter in the game today hit two home runs and lead the offense in scoring seven runs to establish 7-0 lead before surrendering to ‘pen.
Step three, hang on… tell Marlins Man to put down the cellphone and watch with us the curly W drawn up just as we planned it.
Nothin’ to it.
KILLEBREW, Patrick, “Pat,” age 68, passed away peacefully at home, June 20, 2017, after watching the Washington Nationals relief pitchers blow yet another lead.
So began Mr. Killebrew’s obituary listed this week in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Sometimes we alert one another to obituaries because we know the people involved… other times because they’re clever. (Sometimes because they’re just really well written.)
His obit ends with a plea to, in lieu of flowers, send donations to the Nationals Bullpen Fund.
You see yesterday’s game?
Guess they’re still in the raising money phase.
Every Sunday I read “Date Lab” in the Washington Post magazine insert, the story of a blind date arranged by the Post’s editors and reflected upon by its participants. (It’s usually good for a laugh or two.) This week’s edition is pretty light on substance but offers one delicious quote from “the girl.” Political affiliations invariably arise in these synopses, and this week’s bachelor says that though he is a Republican he voted for Hillary Clinton.
The girl: “I don’t think I’ve been on a date where someone hasn’t made a point to tell me they voted for Hillary.”
Hilarious.
Hillary-ous.
Mark your calendars: the second annual Public Reading of the Declaration of Independence comes to the Sterling Community Center playground next Tuesday, July 4, 2017, at 11 a.m.
Details to follow.