June 14th, 2019

I'm coming your way.  The hair thing is gonna be in your face and am happy to discuss it, will accept without reprisal any gag you may have though you only get chuckle points for originality. I could care less if you like it or not cause the chicks dig it and that is all that matters.  

It is nasty and will cut it eventually, but am committed to it through at least October as there is a Halloween party and look to incorporate it into my costume.  Haven't landed on one yet and welcome your input on that.  Some weird clown is obvious and appropriate but the thought of slapping on a bunch of make-up sounds gross and too much of a hassle.  Am not opposed to dying it some funky color and perhaps color it all white and go as a Q-tip.  Art Garfunkel or Phil Spector are the current leaders in the clubhouse and do have an orange jumpsuit  so could go as jailhouse Phil, although his locks have left him

One more thing...when I wash and comb it out, can get it into what one person described as 'Italian mobster' hair.  May look for some product to keep it relaxed and am close to the point where I can tie it in the back.  Will let Babydoll work on that at some stage.

It is still stinky hot this week, but am not complaining.  You'd think it was due to the fact I know we'll be hitting the road on Saturday, but that wasn't making me feel better.  Since last time I posted, learned about a music festival in September and have arranged to attend.  Called Huichica it is two days in Walla Walla and is supposed to be a melding of good food, fine wine and indie rock-and roll.  They even issue you a wine glass upon entry.  The line-up is full of bands I like and a bunch that I am curious about, with the headliner being my beloved Yo La Tengo.  Knowing I have a Yo La Tengo ticket for an upcoming show soothes my soul like nothing else and I go to that happy place when I think about complaining about anything.  I know that is weird or selfish, but it just is and isn't that enough.

Just read a story about the pearl clutching by some about the US Women's soccer team beating Thailand 13-0 and made me think of a game the Seattle soccer team that Paul and I were on.  I know I've talked about that great group before but not for a long time.  For three years, we pounded the entire city and only got beat by teams that brought in illegal players when they played us (which were officially discovered and our losses were turned into wins).  Our players were not soccer players but a bunch of good athletes with a nasty streak.  We played rough (but mostly legal) and pushed every boundary.  And the entire city hated us for it.  Our third season together we are in the year end city tournament and were playing in the third round.  We show up and get ready as always and I hear the opposing coach running his drills like the dude from Full Metal Jacket.  We were no strangers to them but I never cared about our opponents cause only we could beat ourselves.  I didn't like this guy's tone towards his kids so decided to mess with him if given the opportunity.  There was a rule that in the playoffs, the team's parents and fans had to be on the sideline opposite the team (as opposed to the rest of the year).  Our parents were going to the correct side cause we know the rules but watched pre-game as their sides parents got all comfortable Seattle style on the wrong sideline.  Seattle style means that there were chairs and blankets and little huts to protect from the rain...a big production.  I wait till a minute before kickoff and point out the parent thing to the officials who make them trapse all the way around the ground to the other side.  Classic.  We proceed to score 5 or 6 goals before halftime.  This has to be 2010 cause one of the kids brought a vuvuzela, which were popular during the World Cup in South Africa that year.  I hated that thing and the kids blew it  after every goal.  After 6 goals, I'd had enough and told them to put it away.  We score some more in t he second half and we take our foot off the gas.  Not our first blow-out so the way we  did that was to select one of our weaker players and make the other boys pass it around so only this kid had a shot on goal.  By this point of the year, only one of our 15 kids hadn't scored on the season so he was it.  We didn't score any more, although we should have as this kid got at least three good cracks at it, but he had this weird tick where he'd leap in the air like a Mexican Jumping Bean whenever he got the ball.

Next day, I get an email from the League Administrators who forwarded an email from the other coach complaining about our sportsmanship, particularly the vuvuzela thing and how we "ran up the score".  I replied to the league, and copied in that coach and all of our parents, about how I thought his screaming at the kids was bad form and how I decided to enforce the parent sideline rule as a result of that.  I agreed that the vuvuzela thing was awful and that we put it away once we had stomped them so badly in the first half.  As for running up the score, explained how we shifted our attack so as to not totally humiliate them, which we obviously could have done with ease.  I asked what we could have done differently that wouldn't have humiliated them even more.  Play with fewer players?  I really didn't know.  We beat them 8-0 that night and the kicker was that I looked at the scores from the previous round and his team beat another side 7-0.  Man I wish I still had that email cause I tore him apart with that fact.  That guy never replied but I bet he still seethes when he thinks about it.  A great night that was and there were so many funny stories from that team...need to dig those out and may make it a theme in the Fall.

Anyhoo, am not a fan of teams letting up during a blowout but having been on the receiving end of more than the delivering side, am sympathetic to it.  My opinion is that a good coach would take the opportunity to work on weaker aspects of their team while still trying hard, cause laying down shows more disrespect to the other team in my opinion

   


Here is my early take on the 2020 election.  While I'll be voting with both hands for the person that gets the Dem nod, I am all in on Elizabeth Warren.  There is a song by a band called Thelonious Monster called "Lena Horne Still Sings Stormy Weather", and it is about how old Los Angeles is changing.  A song from the 80's, there is a line that goes "They say Jesse Jackson will never be President, but yet, he's still the man I vote for."  Change Warren for Jackson, and Woman for man, and that is the tune I'm singing.

I really like Kamala, probably better than Warren on a personal level, but think that Warren is ready now while Kamala can simmer and build her resume, which is impressive already.  Am also a big fan of what Mayor Pete is doing too.  He hits all the right notes when he speaks and was just listening to his foreign policy speech and he nailed it for me.  A Warren/Mayor Pete ticket would be sensational.  What I do not need is to hear one more of my old (re:my age) white guy friends say they are supporting Biden.  None of them love his past positions on things (most of which seemed fine at the time but feel antiquated now), nor do they have an idea what his current positions are (seems Biden is watching the wind blow before he lands on stuff and has the impression that the GOP is gonna work with him). When I plead to them that he is 78 damn years old, they kinda wince.  The  sole reason they are supporting him  is that since he is BFF's with Obama that he is the most electable. C'mon old white guys...Obama and Trump were considered electable at this same juncture of the campaign?   Support the person that has the best ideas, or guts or is most charismatic...anything but some vague notion about electability that you heard some pundit blurt.  You should know better and more importantly, want better.  That's where I'm comin' from.

Was gonna write up something this week about the difference between whining and complaining, but not only ran out of time, what I found from psychology sources matches my feelings.  Complaining about something shows a desire to right something wrong, whereas whining has no point other than trying to make someone feel sorry for you.  They studied babies reactions to people that complained or whined and the babies felt no sympathy to the whiners.  Long story short, no whining will be tolerated at any time.

Alrighty then.  It's time to hit the road so may not post here until August.  A buddy of mine is planning a trip to upstate New York and I immediately wanted to give him my #1 recommendation, which is to get to Buffalo and eat some Duff's wings.  We went to Buffalo a few/10ish years back and visited an old friend who we challenged to show us the best wings in town.  We were there three nights and had three varieties.  The first night was not memorable and forget where it was.  Night two we went to the Anchor Bar, which is the undisputed place of origin for Buffalo wings.  An iconic location and the wings were fine, but we left not feeling that it was the pinnacle.

I do not claim to be an authority on the matter but have had many a wing.  Night three was Duff's and I am here to say that it was the best wing session I have ever had and every wing that I have eaten since is compared to that night.  Have had some very good ones, but no others compare to that night and think about them often to the point that I look to include Buffalo in any trip just to get my lips on some.  I am looking up Duff's so I can send my traveling buddy info about how to get it inside of him and notice that they have "locations".  There was only one Duff's  years ago so I click on the link and in addition to a few in the Buffalo area, they have two outside NY, with one near Atlanta.  As I will be there this weekend, sent an emergency note to my friend there changing our free day plans to a drive to Duff's.  There is obviously several things that could go wrong but the two most likely are that they don't do them as well as at ground zero, or they are not as good as my memory recalls.

Regardless, the next time I post, Duff's  will be the lede.