Several things have been happening in the absence, which I assure you was related to various things that were beyond my control yet which required my oversight and participation.
1. Much in the manner of a small Latin American country declaring war on National Socialist Germany in late March of 1945, I actually got around to buying a Boston Red Sox hat. I had to search all over the local mall and its three sporting goods stores to find one; the options usually ranged between gas station-quality hats---no thanks---to fitted players' hats with the usual problems that entails, i.e. cutting the backing out of the front, bending the bill, having a hat that looks brand new and the like. I settled for a 100% cotton one-size-fits-all model with a pre-bent bill and pre-washed appearance, sporting a red 'B' and a small pair of red socks on a tag in the back. Come to think of it, it looks more or less like a hat that I wore throughout law school, but which is now too damaged to wear.
2. This blog is number one on Google for the search terms of "Doris Kearns Goodwin Curt Schilling". I am, of course, happy. I don't know why anyone would pair those two, but it has been done and people are searching for the phrase. On a side note, I went and got the relevant book by Hunter S. Thompson which had her picture in it. If you're following along at home. the book is Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist - The Gonzo Letters, Volume II, 1968-1976. If you're in the trade paperback version, go to ~p. 568 and look at the photos. They're from Thompson's Elko, Nevada, conference in February 1974 of "the best liberal thinkers from the staffs of the 1968 and 1972 presidential campaigns of Robert F. Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, and George McGovern". HST managed to put Jann Wenner, the head honcho at Rolling Stone, up to the task of funding the thing, with the aim of "[hashing] (no pun intended?) out an issues agenda for America's future, which Straight Arrow would publish in book form and distribute to the nation's decision-makers."
I've forgotten how it went, but it's really irrelevant other than to note that Doris Kearns---no Goodwin yet, apparently---and Samuel L. Berger were in attendance. Anyways, yes, Ms. Kearns wasn't exactly a shining light of beautiful American womanhood then, and certainly isn't now.
3. It is fun to watch baseball, for once. I'll be doing so tonight; that could either go well or not. Too bad I haven't arranged a gig with some friends to watch this. Apparently, no one in the area cares. Might have to wander down to the local sports bar or something. ("We don't serve your kind here!" "Huh?" "Your hat. It'll have to wait outside!")
At any rate, I'm still hoping for a) a World Series victory for the Boston Red Sox and b) a victory in November by President George W. Bush in the manner of a brutal FSU-over-ACC teams in the early 1990s, so that the Democratic strategy of 'proclaim victory and litigate until it is so' won't even have a chance at viability.
Posted by Country Pundit at October 26, 2004 11:51 AM