Last game at Yankee Stadium

I'm watching the last game at Yankee Stadium tonight (Damn, Damon just hit a homerun) because:

1. It's a sad thing for Yankees fans and I like to see Yankees fans sad.

2. If they lose, they will not make the playoffs, and it would be great to see the Yankees clinch their "tragic number" on their home field, playing for the last time there. (Red Sox already won today.)

3. I'm a little intrigued about all the attention that is made of Yankee Stadium, given that it is the pit that it is.

I have been to Yankee Stadium twice this year, and the visits have confirmed for me that the place lacks charm, character, a general feeling of safety, a location in an actual neighborhood, and the excellent close-to-the-field seats and sightlines that Fenway has.

The monstrous, concrete structure that is being built beside Yankee Stadium looks just like the current facility. Looks like not much will change next year for the Yankees when they play home games - they'll be in another uninspiring, soulless excuse for a ballpark.

I'm sorry, was that mean?

St. Eligius

It may sound a little odd, but for a while now, I've occasionally watched reruns of "St. Elsewhere", the 80s hospital drama set in Boston, online when there is nothing else to watch on TV, which is pretty common, or when I don't feel like reading at night. I got into this show when I was home on winter break during college, and I rediscovered it online earlier this year. Bravo at one time ran the reruns, but doesn't currently.

St. Elsewhere - even in its drab 80s technicolor - blows the doors off most TV dramas nowadays. It was very intelligently written, it casted its actors incredibly well, and apparently it was among the first programs to offer multiple story lines at a brisk pace. It gave Howie Mandel and Denzel Washington their start on prime time television, and other actors won Emmys for their work on the show, including Ed Flanders, who played the chief of staff. Of course, it never was ranked highly in Neilsen ratings like a lot of smart, well-written shows, because it wasn't stupid and catered to an educated demographic, but NBC still kept it on the air for six years, anyway.

The final episode goes down in TV fame as one of the best series finales ever.

Seriously, if you watch one show, I bet you'll get hooked.

www.fancast.com/tv/St.-Elsewhere/91984/watch-videos

Our Staycation - my Courant article

I know I just blasted the Hartford Courant on this blog not too long ago, but, still, it's the highest circulating, and, sadly, the best newspaper around here.

Anyway, editors there published a piece of mine this morning. It's about a recent daytrip we took - designed to not spend money by staying in the state.

But, in the end, we could have gone to the beach in Rhode Island for less!

Enjoy,

http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/hc-plcpolochanin0810.artaug10,0,2617088.story

Best Movies

I am not a movie buff. I tend to watch the same ones over and over again. So this list may be a little askew, but that's okay.

Here is my top 10 list of all-time best movies. Don't laugh. I'm not even sure I know 10 movies.


10. Stand By Me

9. My Life

8. The American President

7. Leaving Las Vegas

6. Ferris Bueller's Day Off

5. National Lampoon's Vacation (the first one)

4. Stripes

3. Back to School

2. The Fugitive

1. What About Bob?


Almost made the list: Revenge of the Nerds, WarGames, Fatal Attraction. Halloween (the first one), Grease, First Blood, Rocky IV, Mr. Mom)

Suburbia

Many moons ago, and by this I mean 11 or 12 years ago (I'm pretty sure 11), as a reporter I covered an author at Roger Williams University who spoke about the death of suburbia. The title of James Howard Kunstler's speech was something like, "Will Suburbia Survive?" and it was an enjoyable hour listening to this guy go off against strip malls, poor land use, and typical suburban development.

I recently read a piece by Kunstler (tough name to keep writing) that ran in the Washington Post and noticed that he was also on the Colbert Report on Comedy Central. The interview wasn't too exciting, but the Post piece was really good.

If you're interested about how the oil industry and numerous errors in suburban development will affect the future - or what Kunstler believes, anyway - check out this link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/23/AR2008052302456.html

Old Scout

I'm usually very predictable when I go onto my computer, and so the list of websites under my address bar often stays the same week to week, even year to year. There's the New York Times website, my fantasy baseball site, my work email, NPR, this blog, my credit card, bank, and others.

One site that went to the wayside recently was Garrison Keillor's "Old Scout" site, which is compilation of his personal essays. Keillor, the host of "A Prairie Home Companion" on NPR, writes about one a week. His prose is smooth; he can turn a phrase, as they say. He writes a lot about being a Democrat, his daughter, the simple pleasures of life, like, for instance, watching a Little League game and talking to a dad in the stands. Keillor has that gift of knowing how to grab at a reader, or, in the case of his radio show, the listener.

Check out his site, and tell me what you think. The archives are down and to the right.

http://origin-prairiehome.publicradio.org/features/deskofgk/2005/old_scout/

So long, G20

Tonight, some guy and his wife took off down the driveway with the G20. After 10 years, the G20 is gone.

The car, which was 13 years old, had its share of issues during the time I had owned it. Even though it rode well and still looked good, you couldn't turn on the air conditioning and try accelerating up hills. The car - a 4-cylinder - just couldn't get out of its own way. The muffler has been presenting problems for at least a year - it falls off its supports and bounces around on the chassis when you hit a bad bump.

I remember a ride home from Tanglewood after it had rained. This was the first I knew of an electrical problem with the car. Somehow wires got wet, or moist, under the hood and the car drove erratically from the grassy, muddy parking lot, down the Mass Pike, 91 and finally, home. It buckled, and dashboard lights flashed, threatening to stall during the 90 minute trek home.

But despite these problems, the car was a joy to drive. It had a good stock sound system. The driving position was excellent. And it handled well.

I fell into a deal for another car, a 2000 Acura TL, that I could not pass up. Thus, the Infiniti needed to be sold. We listed the car on Craigslist for 4 days, and the first person who came to look at the car bought it.

I tend to get all nostalgic about things like this. When we sold our Wethersfield home, I was briefly kind of sad. We only owned it for a year and a half. But we lived there. In a sense, I lived in the G20. Cups, tennis rackets, balls, food wrappers, loose change, caseless CDs, gum - it was all in there. I think cars are an extension of one's personality, and the G20 was for me.

It took me a day and a half to clean the car. The trunk needed to be vacummed three times because the bucket of sand the I spread on the driveway in the winter tipped over and dumped its contents into the spare tire wheel well. But I cleaned up the leather seats, Armor-alled the dashboard and the doors and center console, vacummed the interior, and it looked pretty good. Except for a few tears in the leather seats, the car was cleaned up nice.

It was bittersweet washing the G20 for the last time yesterday, starting it for the last time tonight, taking it for its final ride on Route 2 yesterday, but it's time had come. When it rolled down the driveway tonight, with its familiar hum and assortment of rattles, I watched the new owner apply the brake lights as she turned past the hemlocks and pull up the hill toward Route 2.

I hope she didn't use the air conditioner.