Thursday 9/10/20
Put up a trivia question last night on my virtually unfollowed Twitter account. Always put up interesting things pertaining to film, music, literature, art, sports. Language. Social mores. There is zero interest, of course, given that it is me. Cool trivia, though: Who scored the most runs in MLB history without having a 100-run season? Hint: Played for the Red Sox at one point. Exactly two people guessed. One said Babe Ruth, who scored over 2000 runs in his career, and had twelve 100-run seasons. People will say anything, because they know nothing about anything. I'm not being cruel. This person seemed like a nice fellow. But that doesn't change the truth that very few people have any knowledge about anything in human life. We're all just ass talkers now--talk from the ass. Unless you're not, like me. In which case, you will be shunned. This can take many forms--people will often just be scared of you. I figured Kimball would know the answer, and sure enough he got it after guessing Willie McGee and Harry Hooper, which were both strong guesses. Anyway, it's Luis Aparicio. Other bit of Aparicio trivia: In his entire Major League career, he never played any position but shortstop. Almost everyone who has ever played has played at least a portion of an inning at a position other than their primary position. To give you more of an idea, Mickey Mantle played more shortstop than Aparicio did anything other than shortstop.
The woman I have liked the most of late--not romantically--was a fifty-eight-year-old woman who wrote me to say that I had so much to offer the right person, who is out there for me. I contrast this with the person I mentioned the other day, who did the run and hide thing, and then, after I had moved on, popped up elsewhere--because she could no longer reach me where she first reached me--to say the standard "oh, you're so smart, I was intimidated" nonsense, asking if we could still talk, and I said, yeah, sure (against my better judgment), and when I attempted to, she pulled the same routine she had in the first place. Childish, passive aggressive, cowardly. And weak. You can tell when someone is weak. I'm with William Sloane--true weakness is the one unforgivable fault. Weakness doesn't mean fear, it doesn't mean being incapacitated sometimes even. Weakness is rooted in character. Anyway, this other person just wanted to share that with me she said, and that she met her husband when the two of them were the age I am now. She added that he was dead, but they had been very happy together. I thought, naturally, Jesus, that's awful, so young. I thanked her and told her I was very sorry to learn about that loss.
