Sunday, December 24, 2006
Here's to the Diehards....
As I was going to post before the bad news came up, while I have tomorrow off, and hopefully you do, too, I'd like to commend the folks who have to go in to work tomorrow. Even if you don't actually observe Christmas, it's pretty depressing having to work on a day when you know most of the rest of the country is relaxing.
There are the police officers, fire and rescue folks, medical people (even though the doctor's offices are closed, many are on call, and someone has to man the emergency rooms), airline workers, and of course all the military people both at home and overseas doing their duty. But let's also not forget the people we don't normally think about: people working at gas stations so the rest of us can visit family and friends, people in radio and television, the people running the presses at your local newspaper, tech support people, and repair people who get called upon if your telephone or power goes out. Oh, yeah, and all the webmasters who are on call in case their websites go down! I'm sure there are plenty more, and I'm sorry if I missed you, but to all of you people...THANKS!
There are the police officers, fire and rescue folks, medical people (even though the doctor's offices are closed, many are on call, and someone has to man the emergency rooms), airline workers, and of course all the military people both at home and overseas doing their duty. But let's also not forget the people we don't normally think about: people working at gas stations so the rest of us can visit family and friends, people in radio and television, the people running the presses at your local newspaper, tech support people, and repair people who get called upon if your telephone or power goes out. Oh, yeah, and all the webmasters who are on call in case their websites go down! I'm sure there are plenty more, and I'm sorry if I missed you, but to all of you people...THANKS!
Mall Shooting
I'm interrupting my originally planned posting because of an incident that made news here, and probably around the country.
If you heard about the shooting at the Boynton Beach Mall today, yes that's not far from where I live, and actually very near the store where I work -- probably 15-20 minutes away. In fact, at one time I did work at a store in the Boynton Beach Mall, and when I worked for the inventory company, I did a LOT of jobs there. But I was at work all day today in Delray Beach, which is the next town south of Boynton Beach. And I have a much greater appreciation for the police officer who dropped in to ask if everything was okay at our store.
If you heard about the shooting at the Boynton Beach Mall today, yes that's not far from where I live, and actually very near the store where I work -- probably 15-20 minutes away. In fact, at one time I did work at a store in the Boynton Beach Mall, and when I worked for the inventory company, I did a LOT of jobs there. But I was at work all day today in Delray Beach, which is the next town south of Boynton Beach. And I have a much greater appreciation for the police officer who dropped in to ask if everything was okay at our store.
Home Stretch!
I haven't posted a lot lately because -- no surprise here -- I've been pretty busy with work at the bookstore. Just one more day of Christmas shopping madness to go! Tonight (Saturday) was the last night of closing at midnight at Books-A-Million, and we close early tomorrow.
Of course, there is still plenty of work ahead. Those of us in management will be there an extra hour and a half tomorrow to get ready for the after-Christmas markdowns, and the opening crew (not me, fortunately) has to be in at 6 am to finish setting up for the 8 am opening.
Monday I will be heading to Mom's. Yeah, so what if I'm Jewish? I still get the day off, and Mom's cooking is still the best!
I hope anyone reading this has a great Christmas Day (hopefully without work), and the best New Year ever....
Of course, there is still plenty of work ahead. Those of us in management will be there an extra hour and a half tomorrow to get ready for the after-Christmas markdowns, and the opening crew (not me, fortunately) has to be in at 6 am to finish setting up for the 8 am opening.
Monday I will be heading to Mom's. Yeah, so what if I'm Jewish? I still get the day off, and Mom's cooking is still the best!
I hope anyone reading this has a great Christmas Day (hopefully without work), and the best New Year ever....
Friday, December 15, 2006
The Time Has Come.... ;-(
Well, I held out for a while, but after being hit with comment spam every night this week, I've had to turn on word verification for comments. I had hoped that the spam might indicate that more people were reading, but no evidence of that to date.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Holy Crap :-(
There a couple of actors I can think of who I didn't see in a lot of different roles, but whenever I did see them, I knew I was in for a treat. One of these guys is Peter Boyle, who passed away Tuesday at the age of 71.
Of course we all know Boyle as Frank Barone from Everybody Loves Raymond, through which he'll probably live forever in syndication. Much was made of the fact that he was the only regular not to win an Emmy Award on that show, but in fact he was (I think) the only cast member to have won an Emmy before Raymond. It was in large part his portrayal of Clyde Bruckman on The X-Files that made "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" the best episode in the entire run of the series. (Don't take my word for it -- TV Guide named it one of the best episodes in the history of television.)
Maybe the best tribute to Boyle's talent is that he managed to win praise for performances in poorly received productions. His role in the movie Joe helped make his career, even though the movie itself was panned by almost everyone.
In reading about Boyle today, I found that he was a real survivor -- he had a nervous breakdown while serving in the Navy, suffered a stroke in 1990, and had a heart attack on the set of Raymond. Also, he was a friend of John Lennon, who was the best man at his wedding.
We'll miss ya, Peter.
Of course we all know Boyle as Frank Barone from Everybody Loves Raymond, through which he'll probably live forever in syndication. Much was made of the fact that he was the only regular not to win an Emmy Award on that show, but in fact he was (I think) the only cast member to have won an Emmy before Raymond. It was in large part his portrayal of Clyde Bruckman on The X-Files that made "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" the best episode in the entire run of the series. (Don't take my word for it -- TV Guide named it one of the best episodes in the history of television.)
Maybe the best tribute to Boyle's talent is that he managed to win praise for performances in poorly received productions. His role in the movie Joe helped make his career, even though the movie itself was panned by almost everyone.
In reading about Boyle today, I found that he was a real survivor -- he had a nervous breakdown while serving in the Navy, suffered a stroke in 1990, and had a heart attack on the set of Raymond. Also, he was a friend of John Lennon, who was the best man at his wedding.
We'll miss ya, Peter.
Monday, December 11, 2006
Journalistic Integrity. Yeah, Right.
A lot of television stations have a Sunday Sports Final, or some sort of extended sports report on Sunday night where they cover the entire weekend sports activities, as well as a review of the previous week. Channel 7 in Miami is no exception. The Fox affiliate is gets pretty in-depth with its Sunday Sports Xtra, hosted by Mike DiPasquale, but I can't stand to watch it. Why? Because one of the regulars on this show is Drew Rosenhaus. Yes, THAT Drew Rosenhaus, the big-time sports agent.
Does anyone at Channel 7 understand the term "conflict of interest"? This would be like Fox News keeping Tony Snow on as a White House correspondent after he become the White House Press Secretary. What's worse, Rosenhaus is pretty shameless about it. A few weeks ago, when Jason Taylor of the Miami Dolphins had an especially good game, DiPasquale asked Rosenhaus if he thought Taylor might be the Dolphins' best defensive player ever. Rosenhaus said that while Taylor is pretty good, he thought that Zack Thomas probably deserved the honor, adding that Thomas is one of his clients.
What I really wish I had seen is Rosenhaus being questioned by DiPasquale last year when Terrell Owens, also a client, was being indefinitely suspended by the Eagles.
Next question!
Does anyone at Channel 7 understand the term "conflict of interest"? This would be like Fox News keeping Tony Snow on as a White House correspondent after he become the White House Press Secretary. What's worse, Rosenhaus is pretty shameless about it. A few weeks ago, when Jason Taylor of the Miami Dolphins had an especially good game, DiPasquale asked Rosenhaus if he thought Taylor might be the Dolphins' best defensive player ever. Rosenhaus said that while Taylor is pretty good, he thought that Zack Thomas probably deserved the honor, adding that Thomas is one of his clients.
What I really wish I had seen is Rosenhaus being questioned by DiPasquale last year when Terrell Owens, also a client, was being indefinitely suspended by the Eagles.
Next question!
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Back at the Bookstore....
I haven't posted anything about what's going on at Books-A-Million in a while, so I thought I'd see if anyone has read some of the more popular titles.
At our location in Delray Beach, this is what has been moving:
At our location in Delray Beach, this is what has been moving:
- You On a Diet is the follow-up to the bestselling You: The Owner's Manual. This is so popular that on Friday we were instructed by home office to replace all the books on a feature cart with just this one book.
- I'm not sure why so many people are coming in to ask for Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, which is now in paperback. I haven't heard much "buzz" on it, and I hadn't even heard about it when it was in hardcover. But we ran out of it during the past week (partly because the computer thought we had more copies on hand than we did), and when it arrived today there was a list of people waiting to be called.
- No such mystery about State of Denial -- this is as topical as it gets, and Bob Woodward may be the best-known journalist in the world. The Iraq Study Group Report arrived this past week, and it will probably be in high demand, too.
Also, there are novels by the usual suspects: James Patterson, Stephen King, Stuart Woods, Nicholas Sparks, Dean Koontz, and Nelson DeMille. And John Grisham has his first non-fiction book out, The Innocent Man, a true-life story told in the style of Grisham's legal thrillers.
Anybody read any of these?
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
A Couple More Bowl Thoughts
I don't remember ever seeing a guy catch so much grief for doing the right thing as Jim Tressel..
Say what you want about loyalty to conference, dislike for a bitter rival, or creating bulletin board material for an opponent -- the bottom line is that Tressel absolutely faced a conflict of interest with his ballot, and could easily have voted for whichever school he felt his Buckeyes would match up with better. And as close as the voting was expected to be, he could have expected his vote to make a difference.
Jim Mandich, the former tight end for the Dolphins who is now a sportscaster, called Tressel a "weenie." Of course, it should be noted that Mandich played his college ball at Michigan, so Mad Dog is hardly impartial, even if Michigan hadn't been one of the teams involved. He's about as likely to praise an OSU coach as Woody Hayes would be to put on a maize and blue cheerleader outfit and start singing "Hail to the Victors."
There is now a possibility that Tressel will be dropped from the poll. If so, he'll be on the voting sidelines with Florida coach Urban Meyer, who has consistently opted not to be part of the voting throughout his career.
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On a more positive note, one of the best stories of the bowl season isn't about a team, but about a city. Last year's Sugar Bowl was moved to Atlanta because of the damage Katrina caused to the Superdome, which at the time was believed to be beyond repair. Not only is the game back in the Superdome, but New Orleans got what might be the best possible matchup in terms of bringing people back to the Big Easy. LSU will be making a relatively short trip from Baton Rouge, and as the de facto home team will surely bring a lot of fans. I have been in New Orleans at Sugar Bowl time, and it's a huge party for several days, from New Year's Eve until the morning after the game, so even people without tickets will come for the atmosphere.
LSU's opponent will be Notre Dame, which, as they say, "travels well." The Irish would probably bring a large contingent of fans if they played a bowl game on Saturn. Any Sugar Bowl would give New Orleans a huge boost in its rebuilding efforts, but the city couldn't have asked for a better draw than this.
Say what you want about loyalty to conference, dislike for a bitter rival, or creating bulletin board material for an opponent -- the bottom line is that Tressel absolutely faced a conflict of interest with his ballot, and could easily have voted for whichever school he felt his Buckeyes would match up with better. And as close as the voting was expected to be, he could have expected his vote to make a difference.
Jim Mandich, the former tight end for the Dolphins who is now a sportscaster, called Tressel a "weenie." Of course, it should be noted that Mandich played his college ball at Michigan, so Mad Dog is hardly impartial, even if Michigan hadn't been one of the teams involved. He's about as likely to praise an OSU coach as Woody Hayes would be to put on a maize and blue cheerleader outfit and start singing "Hail to the Victors."
There is now a possibility that Tressel will be dropped from the poll. If so, he'll be on the voting sidelines with Florida coach Urban Meyer, who has consistently opted not to be part of the voting throughout his career.
======================
On a more positive note, one of the best stories of the bowl season isn't about a team, but about a city. Last year's Sugar Bowl was moved to Atlanta because of the damage Katrina caused to the Superdome, which at the time was believed to be beyond repair. Not only is the game back in the Superdome, but New Orleans got what might be the best possible matchup in terms of bringing people back to the Big Easy. LSU will be making a relatively short trip from Baton Rouge, and as the de facto home team will surely bring a lot of fans. I have been in New Orleans at Sugar Bowl time, and it's a huge party for several days, from New Year's Eve until the morning after the game, so even people without tickets will come for the atmosphere.
LSU's opponent will be Notre Dame, which, as they say, "travels well." The Irish would probably bring a large contingent of fans if they played a bowl game on Saturn. Any Sugar Bowl would give New Orleans a huge boost in its rebuilding efforts, but the city couldn't have asked for a better draw than this.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
2006 vs. 1996
OK, we all know how I feel about the Florida Gators getting to play Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl. And there is enough already written about why the voters jumped the Gators over Michigan in the polls -- no need for me to repeat those arguments.
Instead, I'd like to address the comments criticizing the Gators and/or Urban Meyer for arguing against giving Michigan a rematch against Ohio State when UF won its 1996 national championship by playing a rematch against Florida State. Here are a few things to consider:
Instead, I'd like to address the comments criticizing the Gators and/or Urban Meyer for arguing against giving Michigan a rematch against Ohio State when UF won its 1996 national championship by playing a rematch against Florida State. Here are a few things to consider:
- First off, anyone calling Urban Meyer "hypocritical" for saying that Michigan already had their shot, please leave the room and learn something. Meyer had nothing to do with the University of Florida in 1996. In fact, I don't think he was a head coach anywhere, and for all we know, he may have argued against that rematch.
- In 1996, the BCS didn't exist. What we had at that time was the Bowl Alliance. And the purpose of that was not specifically to determine a national champion, but to improve the old bowl system. Under the old system, the SEC, Big XII, and Southwest Conference and exclusive contracts binding their champions to the Sugar, Orange, and Cotton Bowls respectively. (By 1996, the SWC was defunct, and the Cotton Bowl fell out of the old Bowl Coalition.) This meant that if the two top-ranked teams were the champions of these conferences, you couldn't match them up. Furthermore, the champions of the Big East and ACC were essentially "free agents," so they could choose any of those bowls, or the Fiesta Bowl, if they thought it gave them a better matchup. The Bowl Alliance, for all its flaws, did remedy those situations.
- Even with these situations resolved, the Big Ten and Pac-10 were tied to the Rose Bowl, which wasn't part of the package. That by itself meant that the bowl game hosting the highest ranked teams in the Bowl Alliance wasn't going to be a championship game unless it just happened to work out as #1 vs. #2. So a rematch in that game is not exactly comparable to a rematch in the BCS championship game.
- When the 1996 Sugar Bowl was set as a Florida-FSU rematch, even then it wasn't considered a title game. FSU came in unbeaten and ranked #1 (note that all rankings are AP), but Florida was ranked #3. The #2 team was Arizona State, the only other undefeated team in I-A -- but committed to the Rose Bowl. It was only after Arizona State lost the Rose Bowl (to Ohio State, coincidentally enough) that people viewed the Sugar Bowl as a championship game. If the BCS had existed in any form that included the Big Ten, Pac-10 and Rose Bowl in 1996, FSU and ASU would have met, and there would have been no question about it.
- This year, both Florida and Michigan can make legitimate claims that they deserve to play Ohio State. In other words, Florida is at the very least a valid alternative to Michigan. In 1996, there really wasn't another legitimate claimant. If you want to say the Gators shouldn't have been granted a rematch, then you also have to provide a suitable replacement. Who would FSU have played? Well, #2 Arizona State and #4 Ohio State were obligated to the Rose Bowl. Number 5 was Brigham Young, champions of the WAC -- which wasn't part of the Bowl Alliance. At that point, you now drop to #6, which was Nebraska, which actually was expected to get the bid -- until Texas beat them in the Big XII Championship Game. (Texas at that point was 8-4, ranked #20. So do you allow a team that didn't win its conference? (Does that question sound familiar?). If not, you would have to drop all the way to #10 to get a conference champion in the Alliance -- Virginia Tech. The Hokies were 10-1, their loss being a 52-21 drubbing by Syracuse, although they went on to lose 41-21 to the aforementioned Nebraska team.
So the situations are not really comparable. Having said all that, I don't think there should be a rule against rematches -- my last point above illustrates that, although the inclusion of the Rose Bowl and its affiliated conferences greatly reduces the likelihood of a similar situation. In fact, if Florida had lost to Arkansas this past weekend, I don't see a reasonable alternative to another Ohio State-Michigan matchup.
Next post I'll talk about two other bowl topics: Jim Tressel's abstention and the Sugar Bowl.
