My Sick Mind

One of my favorite movie lines comes from the 1979 film "The Jerk." When Navin R. Johnson finds his name in the new phone book, he runs around screaming, "The new phone book's here!" His boss, Harry Hartounian looks puzzled and exclaims, "I wish I could get that excited about nothing." That's the way I'm starting to feel about the outrage directed at the Eagles over the Michael Vick signing. We're in day 4 of the non-stop call-in talk show banter and it's enough already. Although, when Brian Dawkins left the team for Denver, the banter went on for over a week, so I guess I'll have to pull out the CD collection for my rides to and from work. If he were the captain of a dog sled team, I suppose the outrage would be justified. But it's a football team, which almost qualifies as nothing . It isn't necessary to watch, participate or pay attention. Callers are saying, "I'm never rooting for the Eagles again." I...

I had a ticket to the Orioles game on Saturday. The weather forecasters made it sound like the rain would stop mid-morning, allowing me to drive there in time for a rain-free day in Baltimore. In reality (something the forecasters are oblivious to) it rained until 3 in the afternoon, so I stayed home and watched the game on my $40 MLB cable package. In between, I switched over to the Masters tournament coverage on CBS. I've never seen network broadcasters openly rooting for someone like I saw them rooting for Tiger Woods at this week's Masters golf tournament. Every shot he makes or misses is a major event with these guys. I'm guessing (correctly) that Kenny Perry and Chad Johnson don't make for big viewer ratings on Sunday, so Tiger being part of the event is a big deal to them. But, don't make it so obvious, OK guys? We know the TV ratings are nice, but you don't have to be cheerleaders. If they rooted for Jim Fuyrk so intensely, I'd have to think about ...

Today was one of those wasted days - I have a lot of those - the kind where it's so rainy and cold that all I can think to do is bunker-up at home and watch the television. It makes me glad that I spent some money on a nice TV but sad that I wasted an entire day at home staring at the TV and my cat, who doesn't seem to know the difference. I'm also glad that I don't keep snacks in the house, because I would have sat here all day munching potato chips, and that wouldn't be good. I watched a football game, because that's what Americans do on Sunday. Later, I watched a documentary on the History Channel about Albert Einstein and his struggle to develop and prove his theory of relativity. We were told that, at the time, the theory and it's proof were viewed as historic by people in general, and after it was proved, Albert Einstein became a celebrity and a household name. I wondered when we started talking about smart people as being " Einstein's"...

I'm on this movie jag lately. Tonight, I caught up with one I wanted to see in the theater but missed called " The Astronaut Farmer ." It stars Billy Bob Thornton as a farmer (named Farmer) who, through a series of complicated life events, builds a rocket in his barn with the intent to launch himself into Earth orbit. Does it sound far fetched? Sure it does, but it's more of an allegory about living ones dreams rather than a scientific account of a guy building an Atlas launch vehicle from scrap parts and bootlegged rocket fuel. As a film it is average, but for me being a bit of a NASA geek, having grown up during the space race and all, it's an interesting story. It's preposterous and inaccurate scientifically, but it's still a worthwhile film about family, dreams and belief in yourself that could have been built around a lot of things. This one is about a rocket. If you see it and judge it based on the idea that a guy could build a rocket in his barn, y...

Chances are you don't watch it, but there is a TV program on Sunday called CBS Sunday Morning , that for my money is better than 60 Minutes . The biggest difference is that the morning program is buried in Sunday morning TV wasteland, while the big-time news show is on at the perfect time for a big-time news show. This morning, there was a story about the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love , of which I have vague memories, mostly because I was 9 years old and not yet into psychedelic drugs, and partly because my father had died in May of that year, and for me it was summer, but there was precious little love. The focus of the Sunday Morning piece was the nostalgia that is brought about by the so-called Summer of Love. I say so-called because for most of those involved it it, the Summer of Love was 1966. The following year was the summer that the media latched onto it and made it the cultural event that it has become. That's where I come in. Most of us in the Blogosphere be...