Can you believe it? Back to school today? August 24? Well, I did get 10 days off in a row last January for a snowstorm.
Anyway, I’m happy that for the first time in 17 years I know where I’m going on the first day of school, and hopefully it’ll be the same place until the last day of school.
Which I’m already looking forward to.
It’s always a bit of a letdown when the Olympics are over, no? What to do each night now that I no longer have the go-to thing to watch?
Baseball? Beltway series this week? I think this’ll do.
Sunday is my sixth wedding anniversary. Six isn’t exactly a milestone but a day to celebrate nonetheless. Heck, when you’re as lucky as I am, you celebrate every day. Here’s to Mrs. O’Connell and the boy (our boy) who makes me so happy… every day.
It’s in the news every so often: the possibility of the Washington Redskins football club moving to a new home when its lease expires at FedEx Field. It interests me because one of the locations discussed is my home county of Loudoun, Virginia. Governor Terry McAuliffe last week joined the band of drummers banging out that beat.
Already home to the Redskins’ training facility and corporate headquarters, Loudoun County offers an interesting option for the Burgundy and Gold. It’s Redskins territory, no question, and nobody out here cares about the offensiveness of the name, but I wonder whether this move to Northern Virginia would make the ‘skins undoubtedly a Virginia team, alienating fans in nearby Maryland (where the team’s current stadium lives). Marylanders have this other team up the road in Baltimore, one who’s actually had some success this century. I worry that moving to the wilds of Virginia would make this division complete.
Personally I’d love to have an NFL stadium up the road from me. Same reason I love that new Metro line they are (read: you are) building out here. I’m never going to use it, but it’s still going to increase my property value. I know, I know, I’ll have to pay for it; no stadium gets built without public money these days. But you’ll have to pay for it too! Ha-ha!
When sports and politics collide there’s always a few pennies here and there to ick up among the rubble.
There is a new road open to the public as of August 4 just a stone’s throw from where I live in Sterling, Virginia. The road leads to nearby Ashburn, home of “Redskin Park” (pardon the language), the Washington Redskins’ training facility and corporate headquarters.
Actually the road leads right to the door of that place.
Thanks, taxpayers!
Never more will those you-know-whos have to traverse the wilds of suburbia to get to work. The generous taxpayers of Loudoun County have provided a driveway for Ashburn types to slip off the highway to their giant bubble (I mean that literally) a few hundred yards inland.
Price tag? Thirty million dollars.
Must be nice.
The final member of our nonagenarian quartet joins the ranks tomorrow, assuming… you know.
For the past six decades our government has been assuming and anticipating this person’s demise, though no one has ever clung to life as the man from Havana: Fidel Castro. You’ve got to hand it to the guy.
Of course I am no fan of Fidel’s politics. Few people in America are, though an annoying number of them seem to be. But the tenacity with which this man has hung on to power is impressive if nothing else. Yes, I know, he technically stepped down some number of years ago, handing off the reins of power to his brother—classic dictator move—but he’s got the kind of job that as long as you’re alive, you’re still doing it.
This is why Fidel Castro is perhaps the most appropriate of our 90th birthday watch. (See “Royal Birthday,” April 20, 2016.) These are prominent citizens, all born in 1926, who have been at their jobs waaaayyy longer than anyone ever thought they would. They include a queen, a libertine, a singer, and a dictator. Can you name them all?
Castro’s invitation to our club (and my favorite trivia question) comes as our relations with Cuba are thawing after decades of antagonism. Do I think this is a good thing? I suppose. Then again, I would have been comfortable with this occurring about 50 years ago. Eventually it became sort of silly, didn’t it? As American President after American President just assumed Castro would go away it became more and more difficult to be the guy who backed down. Well, Castro is now laughing at his 11th president, and a part of me hopes he hangs on to see his 12th. Actually, at this point who cares if Castro lives forever, right?
And for the guy who’s made it this far, it just might be possible.
I’ll call it surprising and somewhat bizarre, but Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez is playing his final game in pinstripes this Friday night. Apparently it was not his decision. It’ll be to little fanfare (compared to that bestowed upon Derek Jeter or Mariano Rivera) and met with many more questions than answers. Why now? is the most obvious, followed perhaps by Huh? and What the hell is a “special advisor”?
Yup, that’s A-Rod’s new role as of Friday night: ambassador, instructor, and special advisor. Whatever’s left of his twenty-seven million this year, and then twenty-seven million next year. Pretty good gig.
As you know I became somewhat of an A-Rod fan the past two seasons. Somehow he had become an underdog following his one-year suspension in 2014 for violating baseball’s PED restrictions. Then being a real punk about its cover-up. Why is it that I hate Barry Bonds but came to terms with A-Rod? Maybe Alex just hung around long enough. Maybe he didn’t break any cherished records. Maybe he played in pinstripes. Regardless, it’s how I came to feel, though no one’s confusing his respect for that of Jeter, Mo, Andy, Jorge, or any other Yankee stars of recent vintage. Truth is I never really thought of A-Rod as a Yankee. Just an overpaid rent-a-player who hung around for 13 years. (Thirteen years… good Lord!)
Perhaps he can rent himself out yet again. Any teams out there want to take a flier on an over-the-hill righty DH? Somehow I’d like to see A-Rod get 700 home runs. He’s not allowed to go past 714, of course, but he deserves 700. Being stuck on 696 would be cruel and unusual punishment, even for him. Miami Marlins, I am looking at you.
One hates to see a career end this way, but I suppose careers have ended worse (injury, death, etc.). Regardless of whether I ever see him play again after this Friday I’ll know that I did see one of the all-time greats, cheater or no cheater. Alex Rodriguez’s story is woven into the checkered tapestry of baseball lore like so many before, and hopefully many more to come. The game needs cliches and characters, of course, and this story is full of both.
Well, the Olympics have sucked me in again.
For all the Rio-bashing horror stories that existed pre-Games I’d say this Olympics has been pretty damn great thus far. I could do without all the environmentalist propaganda, but I’ll live. Of course I don’t care about any of the events; that’s not the point. I just want to see pageantry, athleticism, and Bob Costas. Check, check, and check.
With four channels (at least) and Internet streaming I’m pretty much fully engrossed in all things Olympics. This is the beauty of watching the Games from the comfort of your living room. And it’s a lot cheaper.
This is my son’s first Olympics and he’s on the bandwagon as well. I’m happy to say he stands at the sounds of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” “Bugler’s Dream,” and my favorite…
“U-S-A! U-S-A!”
Go, team!
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump made a campaign stop a few miles from my home the other day in Ashburn, Virginia. Perhaps you heard about it.
No?
Does this headline ring a bell?
TRUMP EJECTS BABY FROM CAMPAIGN RALLY!!!
Yeah, that was here.
Our local media has played the entire tape and yes, of course, the baby interruption and Trump’s jesting is all in fun. It gets a good laugh from the crowd and that’s about it. And that’s what I like about Donald Trump. He’s a real person. You’re not getting the calculated script of a politician. This is a guy who’s actually talking to regular people.
I think it’s cute that the media went out of its way to find one of about the six Muslim people who live in Ashburn to interview and quote about how she was so terrified and felt so in danger being in the presence of the monster Donald Trump. She wasn’t at the rally, of course, because she and her protester friends didn’t get there on time (I swear to Jeebus), but she was, you know, both fearful and outraged.
The media always tell us who they fear by who they try to take down. It’s obvious who they want to win this election.
Luckily for us, there are a lot more “regular” people than there are media types.
Another legend and world icon turns 90 today. Frank Sinatra once called him “the best in the business” (that was 50 years ago), and he’s still performing today. He’s Tony Bennett, the man who has now spanned several generations, dominates the Grammys, personifies “living legend,” and totally owns the Great American Songbook.
He’s also one of my favorite performers.
For years I called Tony Bennett a “ballpark singer.” That is, he’s in the same ballpark as Frank Sinatra. Crosby, Como, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole: these are ballpark singers. Not Tony Bennett. He’s in a park all his own.
From the big-voiced balladeer of the 1950s to the old master of today, Tony Bennett’s style and voice are unmistakable in any era. Like many people my age, I first became aware of Tony Bennett from the “unplugged” show and accompanying album he did for MTV in 1994. That was about the 17th time Mr. Bennett had reinvented himself, and for the most part this one stuck. He finally found it at age 68. Hard to believe that was almost 25 years ago. For all the great records he made with Count Basie or with philharmonic orchestras in the ’60s and ’70s, there is no Tony Bennett better than Tony Bennett with piano, bass, and drums. Maybe guitar too. This is why, to me, Tony Bennett has simply gotten better and better through the years. I prefer his voice at 90 to his voice at 25, and I I mean that in every sense of the word.
It goes beyond saying that Mr. Bennett is a legendary singer. He is also an accomplished painter, and sells artwork on more than just his name alone. He’s a humanitarian, and has championed civil rights causes since the ’50s, before every pop artist tried to do so. The money he’s raised for charity is probably into the tens of millions. After all, they don’t call him Tony Benefit for nothing.
I’ve had the Benefit of seeing the man in concert twice, once in 2000 and once in 2007. Both times I’ve thought walking in that yup, this is it, this is Tony’s last tour.
Nope. The man is unstoppable. Both times I walked out of the theatre thinking: this man will go on forever.
And at 90, he’s in a ballpark all his own.