Twain at the dish

Tuesday 4/2/24

Mark Twain was alive for every Opening Day of Cy Young's career but one. He lived to the start of Ty Cobb's sixth season.

A woman wrote me saying she had tried to find F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Our April Letter" but had been unable to locate it online and could I direct her to the text. If you type in "F. Scott Fitzgerald 'Our April Letter'" on Google there it is, no problem. I looked her up. She went to Cornell. Honestly, what is that? I know this makes me a monster to people that I ask such questions, but is a person like this honestly this stupid or are they up to something? How can I not ask that? How could you fail to find this on your own if you did any search at all? What other search would have been a more likely one to try first than the author and the name of the work? How could these questions not occur to me? And you pay for all of that "education" and you can't successfully execute the simplest Google search?

Ran 3000 stairs yesterday, did 100 push-ups.

Spent almost an hour on the phone with Eversource. After showing up to shut the power off on 3/14 (which they also did with two other tenants, as I later learned), they sent me a bill for my shut-down account on Friday, and then another bill for the new account on Saturday for $1400. The Wall Street Journal, the IRS, the DOR, the electric company. Incompetence upon incompetence, adding stress to my life, and sucking away time and energy. More on Eversource later. Now they're telling me I owe them several hundred dollars because of an error that is not mine, and there isn't much I can do. I can't take hits like this, certainly not right now.

The quality never dips in Tales of the Texas Rangers. Perhaps the most consistent of the classic radio programs.

Couple quick hockey notes: After the second period of that BC v. Quinnipiac tournament game, Eagles freshman Ryan Leonard was interviewed. I thought, "What a snotty kid." He was talking like the game was in the bag, wasn't any way his team wouldn't win. Well, they did, and he's been playing great. That kind of attitude can catch up with you, though.

Second hockey thought: I've said a number of times how bad most in broadcasting are at their job, and practically everyone in media. ESPN's analyst (and ex-BU Terrier), Colby Cohen, is very good on these games, though. Speaks clearly, has a good feel for the game, tells viewers what's happening. I think he's solid.

The Red Sox beat up on the hapless Athletics, 9-0. A win against the A's means nothing; a loss against them does. The Red Sox are 3-2, which is whatever, but so far their pitching has been good. I don't believe that starters going--at best, for the most part--five or six innings is a recipe for pitching success. I actually think you spread yourself too thin and create more things to go wrong. You need a guy or two who can take the ball and go deep consistently for pitching to be a real strength for you over the season. Pitching is not a commodity that is a strength. I don't look at any team and think, "Pitching is a strength." That's an obsolete concept, amazingly.

All of these brilliant women writing, "I'm high vibrational."