Mike O'Connell

The first of the month, the first day of a quarter, the first day of the second half of the year… and it’s a Monday. Shouldn’t all things start on Mondays? Someone alert the solar system.

Actually, come to think of it we could have saved ourselves a lot of trouble if we didn’t try to arbitrarily split up the year into sevens and twelves and thirties.

Shoot.

Happy Day 183, everybody!

One of my favorite performers of all time is Trey Anastasio. I’ve seen him play dozens of times before, mostly with Phish, sometimes with other jam bands he’s led as a soloist.

I’ve seen various symphony orchestras through the years as well, from high school groups up to philharmonics from major cities.

I have a split personality when it comes to music.

(Actually it’s more like 17 different personalities, but two big ones.)

Both sides of said personality were able to hang out at Wolf Trap last night and be entertained by Trey Anastasio and the National Symphony Orchestra.

Thanks for playing a gig a few miles up the road from my house, guys.

It was either the most staid Trey show I’d ever seen, or the most raucous orchestral performance I’d ever seen, or perhaps some happy Goldilocks medium that brought a few worlds together. Yeah, there were some drunken (among other things) hippies there and some very confused opera-goer types, but for the most part everyone was embracing the alliance. Tuxedo t-shirt was sort of the standard uniform.

Trey doesn’t sit in with the symphony too often (and vice versa), so this really was the first time I was hearing most if not all of these arrangements. Yeah, I’ve heard the tunes before but not like this. I liked being surprised and I liked seeing something different.

Both of me did.

Today on Math and Musings Franklin and I talk about our recent trip (referenced Monday) to Hagerstown, Maryland, to see the Hagerstown Flying Box Cars.

No, not a vaudeville act. A baseball club, playing at one of the game’s newest venues, Meritus Park.

Ironically (or not), last night we were at a different game, at one of baseball’s oldest parks, Dunn Field in Elmira, New York. This one goes back to 1939 and no, I was not there for the first game.

I saw the most recent one, though, an enjoyable experience to be shared on next week’s episode of MAM.

Enjoy and enjoy.

Yesterday I enjoyed a pleasant Father’s Day evening at Meritus Park, home of the Hagerstown Flying Box Cars.

I know, it sounds a little like a vaudeville act, but this was Atlantic League Professional Baseball in Hagerstown, Maryland, back after a three-year respite during which time, among other things, Meritus Park was built. (Global pandemic happened too but that’s neither here nor there.)

In a word, Meritus Park is cool. It’s replaced Municipal Stadium, one-time home of the Hagerstown Hubs, Owls, Braves, Packets, and Suns, where Willie Mays played his first professional game in 1950 and Franklin and I took in a game in 2019.

I liked Municipal Stadium. But yeah, it’s hard to compare a ballpark built in 1930 with one built last year. This was game #24 at the new stadium and it’s still got that new park smell.

Actually it smells like cinnamon-flavored almonds, an olfactory sensation more intoxicating that Auntie Anne’s, Cinnabon, or Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.

I think the City of Hagerstown still thinks they’ll someday get a tenant a little higher up than Atlantic League, but for me this works for now.

Yeah, Ty Cobb would’ve balked at the almonds. And the home team lost 8-1.

Still a great Father’s Day though.

“Oreoification” may soon be referred to as Frostyification of America.

After decades of having exactly one flavor of Frosty to offer its customers, Wendy’s now has seven. (See my notes on its progression here.)

We truly are living in a Brave New World.

The seventh jewel in the crown is “Triple Berry,” out this week at Wendy’s locations across America.

And much as I laugh at this whole enterprise…

yeah, I’ll be having one this afternoon.