Meanwhile, 5:00 7/26/07.
Rats, no letters today. I have spent the last 90 minutes or so reading Wednesday's NY Times.
An update on the fan issue. I gave my fan to my neighbor to stop the bullshit about how I broke his fan. On the positive side he did pay me back the two jars of peanut butter he owed, one of which was supposed to be returned two weeks ago.
This whole episode is exactly why I should not bother with another inmate's property. I can not tell if he is really holding me responsible for the fan no longer working or not. In either case, this is another example of how you can live without something. Yes it is warm, and the fan does add some relief, but in the bigger picture I no longer have to listen to the ranting about how his fan is broken.
My next decision is whether I will bother trying to fix his fan tomorrow, or just switch the motors and wait for my new fan. Life is full of options. Decisions, decisions, decisions.
As I type this draft, my fingers are not cooperating at all. Bummer. I would still like to type some more posts but at this point I think I will take my shower, make some dinner and then start the proof and print process. At this point I have completed nine double-spaced pages of typing.
I do note that our much glorified professional sports teams seem to be having a string of negative publicity of late.
The National Basketball Association has a referee that is being implicated by federal authorities for betting on basketball games that he officiated.
In the National Football League, the quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons is facing federal charges for running an illegal dog fighting operation. I find it ironic that he is in a sport where doing bodily harm to your opponents is a goal of many players and applauded by fans, and where we are finding out that yes, having your head smashed on a regular basis may indeed lead to lifetime illness and disability. That is okay, but to have some dogs fight one another, that is really a bad thing.
Do not get me wrong, I am not supporting or in any way encouraging dog fighting. I am a pacifist for all living creatures, okay but yes I do eat meat. In any case, Mr. Vick appears to have broken the law. The only thing I take exception to is the outrage over him using dogs to fight one another. However, two grown men, (or women) in a ring beating each others brains out is okay.
This is just more fodder for the ongoing posts I hope will generate a broader discussion and perhaps educate others of the state and operation of our American legal system.
Next we have the great American pastime, Major League Baseball. There appears little doubt that Barry Bonds has used "performance enhancing" drugs, but Bud Selig (also the answer to 51 across in Wednesday's crossword puzzle) will attend as many games as he is able until Mr. Bonds ties Hank Aaron’s record. Mr. Selig said he was doing this out of respect for the tradition of the game (whatever that means) and the magnitude of the record.
I guess it does not matter how you break a sports record, just as long as you break it. And if you do happen to bend (or break) a few rules along the way, please do not get caught and embarrass the rest of us. Did I not just read somewhere that Mr. Bonds is facing federal charges for lying to a federal grand jury? Same as Mr. Libby. Wonder if the president will reach out and cancel any prison sentence he ends up with.
And last but not least, do I dare mention that a member of the Astana cycling team has failed a drug test and the entire team has withdrawn from the Tour de France.
Maybe that was not last; I note on the last page of Wednesday's NY Times Sport Section that there is some type of legal action taking place between two billionaires, Larry Ellison and Ernesto Bertarelli, over the America's Cup, "...the oldest major trophy in international sports.”
Yes, folks that is Yacht racing.
In one day's sports news, six pages long we have major scandals in five sports.But there is some good news. The New York Mets are in first place, and the Yankees (and their excessive payroll) are not.
Life goes on.