Saturday, November 12, 2005
Saturday Sports on TLB
Today is Sports History... from the interesting to inept, you'll see!
1892 - William "Pudge" Heffelfinger became the first professional football player when he was paid a $500 bonus for helping the Allegheny Athletic Association beat the Pittsburgh Athletic Club. (Pros had to start somewhere... right?).
From the "Pudge" (cause "the Babe" was already taken as a nickname, I figure...) to the Judge... On November 12th, 1920, Judge Keneshaw Mountain Landis was elected the first commissioner of the American and National Leagues. (Baseball should get one of those TV Judges - any one of them would do a better job than the actual commissioner they have! My vote goes to either Judge Judy or that other lady Judge... whatshername? Any ballplayer I can think of would like to be sentenced by her! *LOL* Ok now - let's... move on!). 1931 - Maple Leaf Gardens opened in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was to be the new home of the Toronto Maple Leafs in the National Hockey League. (What is mind-boggling is the fact that it STILL WAS THE HOME OF THE LEAFS up until 1999 - when the execrable Montreal Forum was, alas not torn down but "repossessed" -with its ghosts and all- a long time ago and the beloved Boston Garden was in fact torn down an eternity ago it seems, to make way for a brand new facility -now christened a Garden as well- the Leafs' old building remained... and it looked like an old abandoned factory from the outside! Sheesh! Who in blue blazes was responsible for urbanism and architectural homogeneity in Toronto...?!? Surely that person lost his/her job by now... Because, quite frankly, the new Air Canada Centre is nothing to write home about either! But that is another story...). Nov. 12th 1933 - In Philadelphia, the first Sunday football game was played. (As funny as it sounds to remember that on a Nov. 12th that falls on a Saturday! Close enough... next!). 1953 - The NFL policy of blacking out home games was upheld by Judge Allan K. Grim of the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia. (Makes more sense to me than the Montreal Morons who still will pay top dollar to see the Canadiens play LIVE at the new building they have - the Molson... no, the Bell... no, the Blair Witch Center?!? I forget what they call the freaking place anymore!!! *lol* The point is that the fans are moronic to the max in paying exhorbitant ticket prices - when they could see the damn boring game for free on TV! Only in Montreal...). 1967 - The Detroit Lions set a National Football League (NFL) record when they fumbled the ball 11 times. They only lost possession five of the eleven times. (That woul not be the only time the Lions were to be found just... lying around! *LOL*). 1972 - Don Shula, coach of the Miami Dolphins, became the first NFL head coach to win 100 regular season games in 10 seasons. (A perfect 10 - or a perfect average of 10 per season at least! Too bad the Aquamen are not the way they were anymore... seems to be a trend with all maritime-based teams... the NY Islanders... the Pittsburgh Pirates... the Hartford Whalers... oh yeah, the Whalers took it to another level by morphing into - the Carolina Hurricanes! Part of a new reality in sports - when a team sux, it high-tails it out of town to some new premises where mediocrity will be tolerated a little bit longer... Some teams though are making it too much of a habit now - the NBA's sorry bunch of Bobcats comes to mind here... But I digress...). And, finally and indeed least memorable as historical of all, on Nov. 12th 1996 - "Dennis Rodman's World Tour '96" debuted on MTV. Must have been the beginning of the worst trend of all in TV history - REALITY TV! Don't these people realize that TV is ESCAPISM - and that REALITY BITES? TV execs never learn...
The hunt is on for a new Red Sox General Manager - since the last day of October! All the Hallows came - and took Theo with them (Theo Epstein, the previous GM...) and now, at least, there shall be no more of that sacrilegious "In Theo We Trust" crap! What was there to trust? He built a team capable of hanging in there with the Damn Yankees - but it was destiny more than anything else that intervened and made that team's reversal of fortune in 2004, winning a World Championship for the first time since 1918. If Theo had been so trustworthy as that, he would have built not just a good team - but a dynasty! I hope to see the no-nonsensical Jim Beattie as Red Sox GM before long - and if "MVP Manny" has to be traded, Beattie will know what to trade him for...
And, finally, tonight's and truly this week-end's match-ups, again - luminous style! The Islanders will proclaim to the Bruins Battalion - "you sank our battleship!". The Sharks will feast on Texan steaks as they munch on the Dallas Stars... The Mighty Ducks will invoke the Power of Mickey (as unholy a thing as that is) to overwhelm the Wisdom of Gretzky - and defeat his hapless Phoenix Coyotes (minus Wile E.). And, in the NFL, as painful as it may be to admit, the Minutemen of Massachusetts (aka the New England Patriots) will simply stomp mudholes all over the Aquamen of Florida (aka the Miami Dolphins - Don Shula is not there anymore, remember? Dan Marino either! While the Pats have their Bruschi back...). Enough luminous final outcomes predictions for this time out I guess... Blessings! ;)
1892 - William "Pudge" Heffelfinger became the first professional football player when he was paid a $500 bonus for helping the Allegheny Athletic Association beat the Pittsburgh Athletic Club. (Pros had to start somewhere... right?).
From the "Pudge" (cause "the Babe" was already taken as a nickname, I figure...) to the Judge... On November 12th, 1920, Judge Keneshaw Mountain Landis was elected the first commissioner of the American and National Leagues. (Baseball should get one of those TV Judges - any one of them would do a better job than the actual commissioner they have! My vote goes to either Judge Judy or that other lady Judge... whatshername? Any ballplayer I can think of would like to be sentenced by her! *LOL* Ok now - let's... move on!). 1931 - Maple Leaf Gardens opened in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was to be the new home of the Toronto Maple Leafs in the National Hockey League. (What is mind-boggling is the fact that it STILL WAS THE HOME OF THE LEAFS up until 1999 - when the execrable Montreal Forum was, alas not torn down but "repossessed" -with its ghosts and all- a long time ago and the beloved Boston Garden was in fact torn down an eternity ago it seems, to make way for a brand new facility -now christened a Garden as well- the Leafs' old building remained... and it looked like an old abandoned factory from the outside! Sheesh! Who in blue blazes was responsible for urbanism and architectural homogeneity in Toronto...?!? Surely that person lost his/her job by now... Because, quite frankly, the new Air Canada Centre is nothing to write home about either! But that is another story...). Nov. 12th 1933 - In Philadelphia, the first Sunday football game was played. (As funny as it sounds to remember that on a Nov. 12th that falls on a Saturday! Close enough... next!). 1953 - The NFL policy of blacking out home games was upheld by Judge Allan K. Grim of the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia. (Makes more sense to me than the Montreal Morons who still will pay top dollar to see the Canadiens play LIVE at the new building they have - the Molson... no, the Bell... no, the Blair Witch Center?!? I forget what they call the freaking place anymore!!! *lol* The point is that the fans are moronic to the max in paying exhorbitant ticket prices - when they could see the damn boring game for free on TV! Only in Montreal...). 1967 - The Detroit Lions set a National Football League (NFL) record when they fumbled the ball 11 times. They only lost possession five of the eleven times. (That woul not be the only time the Lions were to be found just... lying around! *LOL*). 1972 - Don Shula, coach of the Miami Dolphins, became the first NFL head coach to win 100 regular season games in 10 seasons. (A perfect 10 - or a perfect average of 10 per season at least! Too bad the Aquamen are not the way they were anymore... seems to be a trend with all maritime-based teams... the NY Islanders... the Pittsburgh Pirates... the Hartford Whalers... oh yeah, the Whalers took it to another level by morphing into - the Carolina Hurricanes! Part of a new reality in sports - when a team sux, it high-tails it out of town to some new premises where mediocrity will be tolerated a little bit longer... Some teams though are making it too much of a habit now - the NBA's sorry bunch of Bobcats comes to mind here... But I digress...). And, finally and indeed least memorable as historical of all, on Nov. 12th 1996 - "Dennis Rodman's World Tour '96" debuted on MTV. Must have been the beginning of the worst trend of all in TV history - REALITY TV! Don't these people realize that TV is ESCAPISM - and that REALITY BITES? TV execs never learn...
The hunt is on for a new Red Sox General Manager - since the last day of October! All the Hallows came - and took Theo with them (Theo Epstein, the previous GM...) and now, at least, there shall be no more of that sacrilegious "In Theo We Trust" crap! What was there to trust? He built a team capable of hanging in there with the Damn Yankees - but it was destiny more than anything else that intervened and made that team's reversal of fortune in 2004, winning a World Championship for the first time since 1918. If Theo had been so trustworthy as that, he would have built not just a good team - but a dynasty! I hope to see the no-nonsensical Jim Beattie as Red Sox GM before long - and if "MVP Manny" has to be traded, Beattie will know what to trade him for...
And, finally, tonight's and truly this week-end's match-ups, again - luminous style! The Islanders will proclaim to the Bruins Battalion - "you sank our battleship!". The Sharks will feast on Texan steaks as they munch on the Dallas Stars... The Mighty Ducks will invoke the Power of Mickey (as unholy a thing as that is) to overwhelm the Wisdom of Gretzky - and defeat his hapless Phoenix Coyotes (minus Wile E.). And, in the NFL, as painful as it may be to admit, the Minutemen of Massachusetts (aka the New England Patriots) will simply stomp mudholes all over the Aquamen of Florida (aka the Miami Dolphins - Don Shula is not there anymore, remember? Dan Marino either! While the Pats have their Bruschi back...). Enough luminous final outcomes predictions for this time out I guess... Blessings! ;)
Friday, November 11, 2005
Do you NaNoWriMo...?
As if asking if one Yahoos, Googles or is still Analog wasn't enough... *sheesh*! NaNoWriMo is, of course, the famous (on the web anyway) novel-writing marathon held in the month of November... To be followed with a month of editing but not just yet - as December is hectic enough as it is! (March is editing month, if memory serves me right - and it usually does!). So far so good for *this year's* marathon session - in just eleven days, I am officially past the half-way mark, tallying up just over 25,000 words (the minimum required is 50,000 - but I want to go much higher than that, this year! My ideal target mark is somewhere in-between 75,000 and 100,000 words - no less! I like thick books - that give you more bang for your buck - and all your money's worth too! Exploring ever nook and cranny of your story and put it all on display! You owe it to yourself -first- and to the readers also! But I digress...).
It helps to have a plot in mind when one starts this thing on the first of November - let me tell you that much!
As you would have expected, I have set up yet another companion blog to The Luminous Blog - just to keep score of all the progress! I like to call it...
My Own Personal Umpteenth NaNoWriMo Experiment! Although, officiously, this is my second participation only - I feel like I have done this sort of thing all my life! Only difference is... I didn't call it NaNoWriMo, I called it... doodling or something! And I would not do it on a blog or in a MS Word document - I would jot it down on a good old-fashioned notepad (using a ballpoint pen, yes - the notepads we have on the PC make me mad!) and then all of that -or most of it- would be trashed! That was, of course, before I started keeping things, filing "for posterity"... or plain old recycling, ideas as also the paper they were inscribed upon! One of the three Rs - recycling... reusing is another... what's the other one again? *lol*
All of you fellow NaNos who might be reading this - persevere! As I shall, surely... I hope! *gulp* Everybody else - read something else while this masterpiece gets written... willya? ;) Or better yet - Remember! Blessings!
Thursday, November 10, 2005
on this date...
The first long distance telephone call without operator assistance was made on this date, in 1951. Next year, surely, every phone company in the world will advertise this and advise us to celebrate the 55th anniversary of this "historical event" by placing lenghier-than-lengthy long distance calls from coast-to-coast, and continent-to-continent... Sure... that is an anniversary worth celebrating...! The day when what led to unbelievable amounts of money squandering and incessant prattling and rambling was first inaugurated... whoopee-do...
In 1793, France did one better on this date when it "ended forced worship of God" - and this is a victory for "Liberté, Égalité et *cough* Justice"?!? Hardly... As if worshipping Love Personified was... wrong? Freedom of speech is one thing - freedom of religion another - and misinterpreting the meaning of both the word "liberty" as the word "forced" is yet another! Worshipping a Greater Power -no matter what name we feel inclined towards attributing to That Power- should never be likened to forced labor or something - sheesh!
Finally, of note to TLB's author, on this date in 1908, the first Gideon Bible was placed in a hotel room... the Gideon Bible aka The Traveler's Bible. Seemed like a good idea at the time... People probably stopped noticing it was there within a couple of decades - for sure during the swinging sixties, so-so seventies and egotistical eighties... but I digress...
In 1793, France did one better on this date when it "ended forced worship of God" - and this is a victory for "Liberté, Égalité et *cough* Justice"?!? Hardly... As if worshipping Love Personified was... wrong? Freedom of speech is one thing - freedom of religion another - and misinterpreting the meaning of both the word "liberty" as the word "forced" is yet another! Worshipping a Greater Power -no matter what name we feel inclined towards attributing to That Power- should never be likened to forced labor or something - sheesh!
Finally, of note to TLB's author, on this date in 1908, the first Gideon Bible was placed in a hotel room... the Gideon Bible aka The Traveler's Bible. Seemed like a good idea at the time... People probably stopped noticing it was there within a couple of decades - for sure during the swinging sixties, so-so seventies and egotistical eighties... but I digress...
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
+++
Visualizations of The Father... And The Son... perfect compliments to the Tuesday post, verily... better late than never!
Visualizations of The Father... And The Son... perfect compliments to the Tuesday post, verily... better late than never!
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
From neocentric ramblings... to spiritual truths. One chancing by this blog cannot come out of the experience saying that there isn't variety on TLB!
As I talk about myself though, I always think of my father - he needs me for daily survival, verily... I am his caretaker, spokesperson, procurator and more. We have become indissociable - not quite exactly as but as close as it can get to be like Jesus Our Saviour and our Heavenly Father.
We all need an earthly father - not all of us have one though.
We all need our Heavenly Father - and He Is there for all of us.
We have but to accept Him - and the Way to Him.
And that Way... is Jesus-Christ.
I am so distraught at times... but whenever I get that way, I find my strength in my Heavenly Father... who helps me, guides and gives me the strength I need to be of any help to my earthly father... and to deal with everything else that plagues me.
We want to talk to Our Father - we want to hear from Him.
Some have said that He Is Ever Silent. That is just not true.
Here is The Truth - He Has Never Been Silent! He Has Always Spoken To Us - it is we who have not paid any attention oftentimes.
He Has Written To Us - and here is His Letter...
A Father's Love Letter
Blessings!
Monday, November 07, 2005
And for this, my 400th TLB post, Luminous Luciano tackles Lunatic Lucian - in a dream match-up of literatis!
No disrespect intended - Lucian wrote his "TRUE STORY" about going to the MOON, so... Luna-cy seems to fit! This is not going to be all about him, however...! It always struck me as synchronicity to the Nth degree that I was so very prone to write and verse poetic as sarcastic, as if by right - in the 20th Century - from the first day in little school, very nearly; when a certain Syrian by the name of Lucian had done the exact same thing in the 2nd Century of our era! We both have had the additional trait in common that we are not "widespread/mainstream" flavors of the moment... Both of us writing the way we wanted to write, independently of what is deemed "saleable" or "popular" in our respective times. Both of us... challenged the "status quo" quite a lot!
Apparently, my namesake Lucian made fun of near-namesake
Lucius - with this title right here! More on the latter (?) below!
Lucian is even deemed to be the FIRST SCIENCE FICTION WRITER - EVER! ""Lucian, Syrian by birth but Greek by culture, wrote his "True Story" parodying the weird tales told by Greeks from the Odyssey onwards. He was born about 120 AD, trained as a lawyer, but spent most of his life as a travelling lecturer, before he settled down in Athens to some more serious philosophy. Many of his books (he wrote over 80) weren't at all serious (being sarcastic in tone, they were not DEEMED SERIOUS... no.). "A True Story" anticipates Jules Verne, George Lucas and, especially, Douglas Adams."" I knew the similarities had to end at some point... First major divergent point is the abominable fact that he trained himself to be a lawyer... Yikes! I abhor pettifoggers! He did mock the beliefs of the Greeks, true, but he was also sarcastic about the beliefs of that budding new "cult" called... the Christians! Especially about the latter religion's lack of fear in the face of DEATH... Thus, quite evidently, even an intelligent man such as Lucian of Samasota could not fathom nor comprehend everything... heck, no one can!
The last drop is most probably the sad fact that he was more a harbinger of one profoundly atheistic (as well as irreverent, sure; no one is aaaaall bad, see?) and celebrated whimsical author - namely Douglas Adams - than he is a forerunner of... well... me, his namesake! Similarities with Jules Verne and even George Lucas I relish - but with Adams? Ugh! Wrong one to "connect" with if you ask me - I wish it had been, instead, Charles Addams! And, in some way, Lucian does have a little bit of Addams prefiguration too, somewhere in his massive body of work there... No time to look for it now - but you may find it yet... here. Or here. Or even here. Or, most especially here! (OK - make it here!)
This last link gives a good round-up of the titles that Lucian proudly produced over his lifespan - titles such as The Disinherited, Phalaris I & II, Demosthenes, Patriotism (!), The Fly (!), Swans and Amber, Dipsas, The Hall, Nigrinus, The Portrait-study, Defence of The Portrait-study, A Trial in the Court of Vowels, Hesiod, The Vision (!), Pantomime, Anacharsis, Toxaris, Slander, The Way To Write History (!) (Πως δεί ιστορίαν συγγράφειν), Hermotimus, The Parasite, A Feast of Lapithae, Dialogues of the Hetaerae, Dialogues of the Dead (!), Dialogues of the Gods (Θεών Διάλογοι ), Dialogues of the Sea-Gods (!), Menippus, Icaromenippus, Zeus cross-examined, The Cynic, Of Sacrifice, Saturnalia, A True History ( Ἀληθῆ διηγήματα ), A Voyage to the Lower World (!), Charon, Timon, Prometheus on Caucasus, Zeus Tragoedus, The Gods in Council, The Ship, The Life of Peregrine (!),The Runaways (!!), The double Indictment, The Sale of Creeds, The Fisher, Herodotus, Zeuxis, Harmonides, The Scythian , A literary Prometheus, The Book-fancier, The Purist purized, Lexiphanes, The Rhetorician's Vade-mecum, Demonax, a biography (?!?), Alexander The Oracle-Monger (Ἀλέξανδρος ἢ Ψευδομάντις), Mourning, Dionysus, Heracles, Apology for 'The dependent Scholar, A Slip of the Tongue, Peri Tes Syries Theoy, (De Dea Syria / Concerning the Syrian Goddess)., Dream ( Somnium Περὶ τοῦ ἐνυπνίου ), On Dancing (Περί Ορχήσεως )
The Face of Despair: Lucius had seen better days when they made his face mold there... (left pic - duh! And more about him in three... two... one!)I knew not about Lucian (and much less about other "namesakes" of mine such as Lucian Freud or Lucius Annaeus Seneca) - when I first began to have the same interests in literature, satire and these subjects Lucian (of the 2nd Century A.D.) tackled so well and so often...
Heck, I did not even know about Lucien Piccard until recently - and the only famous Luciano I've always known is Pavarotti! Now, of course, I have discovered the Jamaican one - yeah, man!
Hmm... maybe I should have saved all this for the 500th post instead, hmm...? *lol*
Unless I decide to tackle my Brazilian namesake then - there is a model down in Brazil who bears my name... He doesn't stand a chance against me! *lol*
The Lucian/Luciano analogies are far more interesting to me though - far better also than the apparent similarities between myself and author Christian Mistral, whose name is great but whose writing - according to his own "people" - is "phoqué". Okaaaay... with fans like these, you don't need critics! *LOL* (And yes; if you want to know more about Mistral, you are going to have to google him up - AND learn French too! I am NOT linking him up to TLB! *LOL*). Oh, no... Come to think of it now, a druggie recently asked me if I was exactly that... "phoqué". Hmm... To him, non-addicts must seem very strange, I am sure... He also thought me to be a true-blue, full-blooded Italiano - since he is, evidently, his name being Fabrizio... Well, Luciano is a most popular name that is to be found now in Portugal, Spain, Mexico, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and so on! Italy has lost its exclusivity on the name! And the sons of Italia who bear the name have lost their monopoly... And originality in the process, I guess... Too bad, Guido!
They still have their Fabrizios to fall back on...
But enough about ME, the Satirist... And enough about him, the druggie! His wretched kind and I will never get along nor see eye to eye; I am profoundly convinced of so much!
I would have rather rubbed shoulders with the Syrian Satyr there; we had so much more in common, after all! Maybe when time travel becomes possible - *LOL*.
Blessings - to the rest of you - namesakes or not!
Labels: Luciano, Lucius, Luminous, Luminous Connections, music, Namesakes
Link
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Ils sont fous ces Français!
Violence in Mar Del Plata, as the protesters against Dubya got roughed up a tad - now, that was to be expected. But the French populace's reaction to an unfortunate accident - especially one involving two flimsy teeny-weeny brainless kids who should have known better... and the ever perennial police brutality (...) - well now that boggles the mind. The French have always been known as a people of extremes of course - they had their *Révolution*, capped off with chopping off the heads of their King and Queen (hardly royalty they were at all - but then, look at royals today... no, not the Kansas City Royals...). But then, when came time to really show some backbone and fight -when the Nazis marched into Paris- nothing happened!!! It was *Paris, Ville Ouverte* (a fitter name and title for it, one must admit, than "La Ville Lumière"...). And now, without any threat to speak of really -and not much of a cause either- the French are up in arms... and staging a mini-civil war again. "Paris est à feu et à sang"... Truly, they have reinvented how to overreact here... And poor me, when I first heard any rumblings of the ruckus in the land of *les Champs-Élysées*, I was certain it was mild protest and vandalization over the fact that, once again, film producers found that no French comedic actor was good enough to portray *Inspector Clouseau* - and especially that the part had been attributed to one execrable scoundrel; Steve Martin! That seemed impossible to me though - not for the exaggerated form the "protest" took (for the French seem capable of just about anything) but truly because it would have been too tardy a reaction, I think, to a *fait accompli*, since the new Pink Panther movie is in an advanced stage of filming already... (And it will be as memorable as the one time when... -Alan Arkin- played the role... Martin can be a fit successor to Arkin; but never to Peter Sellers. Then again, Martin was not even a fit successor to Phil Silvers as *Sgt. Bilko*... but that is another story.).
Let's hope the French calm down - their excessive violence will not result in anything close to "the change" they want to bring about in their society... Only more unnecessary deaths will come out of it. *Enfer et damnation* - can't they see that? Sacrebleu... qu'ils sont aveugles...
Let's hope the French calm down - their excessive violence will not result in anything close to "the change" they want to bring about in their society... Only more unnecessary deaths will come out of it. *Enfer et damnation* - can't they see that? Sacrebleu... qu'ils sont aveugles...
