Tuesday, April 28, 2015


A couple days ago, a few buddies and I did our second annual Cincinnati Sprint, wherein we leave Athens, head to Cincinnati for a day game, and come home that night.  All told, it's not a ridiculous trip, but it's about 620 miles round trip.

My buddy Jeff's a Reds fan.  We did this last year because he hadn't been to a Reds game since they'd moved into Great American Ballpark.  Life being what it is, he usually caught them in Atlanta when they came by.  We decided to go last year, and saw them play the Blue Jays.

Well, I got a wild hair up my ass to see the Cubs, since I wouldn't be able to see them in Atlanta (my boss is on vacation the weekend that they're down there), I'd try to see them in Cincinnati.

Just so happened that the Cubs were in town a weekend I already had marked to be off.

We went.

Good game.  Cubs won.

Killer seats.  Found on Stubhub.

Todd Frazier hit a solo shot for the Reds that wanders right over our heads.  We made the highlight reel.

I'm in my Ryne Sandberg t-shirt and cap.  My buddy Jeff is right next to me.  Frazier's home run goes about 3 feet over our heads, and lands in the lap of a guy sitting around the fifth or sixth row...

Monday, April 27, 2015

The problem with America

How completely fucking odd.  I had a post here.  Bloggermathing ate it.  This post?  Is not the original post.

It wasn't long, but it had a couple points.  Basically, it came down the fact that we have too many assholes in this country.

So.  Stop being assholes.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Family Histories and Ben Affleck

I haven't read anything on Ben Affleck's embarrassment about an ancestory being a slaveholder.  I did catch a bit on the evening news last night, and I think I have the gist:  He found out an ancestor was a slaveholder, and he's embarrassed about it.  Correct me if I'm wrong.

Well, Ben, Congratulations!  Welcome to the melting pot that is the gene pool that led up to you.

Look, you go five generations back, you're looking at 32 different people, who coupled and ended up producing you.  You go back six, and you've got 64 people.

Here's the the thing.  Look at your family now.  Can you do anything about what Cousin Butch does?  Maybe, if you're name is Cousin Luke, and you're a WWE Hall of Famer, but I'm guessing not.

Now, what about those people who are dead?  Can you go back in time and talk to them?  Maybe teach them the folly of their ways?  I'd like to ask that of Ben Affleck specifically, because I still feel like there's some weird shit going on with his being cast as Batman, and I think traveling through time, altering events so that happenstance lines up according his design might be an answer to many of my questions.

Anyway, here's my point.  If you go back 6 generations in my own family tree?  You have slaveholders.  We've found the proof.  One ancestor in Georgia owned about 30, at one count.

Also in my family tree?  A preacher who fought for abolition, who served in the Union Army.

There's everything in your family tree, Ben.  You can't help what's there.  I know.  I've got a butt-ton of cousins procreating in Grainger County, Tennessee, between the years 1800 and 1900.  And that number of 64 people when you go back 6 generations?  I've only got 62 individuals, owing to the same person occupying two different spots in the tree.  So if anybody should be embarrassed, it's me, for my love of applesauce.

None of this even mentions the 19 cousins on both sides of my family that are still alive today that I couldn't force to go an any direction but the one they decide is right.

We're an obstinate bunch, that way.

My point is this:  you can't pick your family.  Even less can you pick your ancestors.  And if you're embarrassed by what's there, then you're not the guy who should be playing Batman....

Monday, April 20, 2015

Tweets and Twisters

This morning's read from NPR, about Social Media and Weather and News Reporting....

Makes me think of the tornado outbreak that blew through this neck of the woods about four years ago.  I worked a longass day that day.  Followed news on TV and Twitter that night.  One particular set of tweets, about the storm that ran through Ringgold, with tweets about one of the sister stores of the company I work for being completely destroyed.  That set of tweets, retweeted by news twitter feeds as well as individuals, was incorrect.

Food for thought, for yours truly, especially since the bulk of my news comes from social media, anymore....