For this story to make sense you need to know three things up front:
I’m under a religious vow to La Madonna Della Cava not to eat meat on Wednesdays
The Diner less than a five minute walk from my door makes the best fried Haddock I’ve ever tasted but my wife doesn’t like it.
Yesterday was my birthday
Me: Hmm shall I have a Frozen Celeste Pizza or the Red Baron French Bread Pizza for lunch?
DaWife: Aren’t you going down the street for your fish?
Me: I thought I’d just have a frozen pizza
DaWife: But you love that fish, it’s your favorite!
Me: I thought I’d save a few bucks and have a frozen Pizza
DaWife: It’s your birthday. Go down the street and have the fish you enjoy.
Me: Hmmm, it’s like you’re trying to get me out of the house. Does that mean that you’re planning to surprise me when I come back by greeting me in a sexy nightgown and then take me upstairs for an afternoon of passion for my birthday?
On the way to work last week I saw a hawk circling over Water Street in Fitchburg. Last week there was a Coyote in the parking lot of the warehouse I work at in Devens.
As little as two decades ago that would have been unthinkable, but then again as little as three to five years ago I never saw a rabbit in town. Now their not only all over my back yard but every day on the way home from work I see at least 3-5 darting around all over town.
Given that I grew up with a back yard abutting woods and a stream this change is even more dramatic.
I started attending adoration of the Blessed Sacrament ten years ago taking over the hour that my mother had done at the Chapel after she died and I’ve noticed a significant change in the decade this has been going on.
When I first started the adorers where I’d say 80-90% women. A man, particularly one in his late 40’s was an oddity. Not completely unique but an oddity.
Now when I go to adoration more than half of the people are men.
I can’t place when this started happening but it has happened.
One fact of life that is often ignored is that even on bad decisions there are some winners.
Remy is exactly right in his parody of Old Town Road that new Stadiums rarely workout for cities in terms of economic growth.
However when Worcester took the RedSox AAA franchise from Pawtucket there were two groups of winners.
The first was those was anyone who drove in Kelly Square before the change because that seven way intersection was one of the most dangerous bits of road I ever drove on. To me it’s amazing that there wasn’t an accident there every single day.
The second group of winners were baseball fans like me who now have a AAA stadium under 30 minutes away. The truth that it is likely a bad deal for Worcester will not take away my enjoyment of the ability to see baseball at practically a major league level affordable both in terms of price and time to get there.
It may be that sooner or later another city might decide to outbid Worcester and the team will move but until such a day comes, if ever, I’m going to enjoy every season of it.
I do most of the grocery shopping in the house and it’s become over the last year one of the most depressing tasks there is.
I find myself happy to pay “sale” prices that are at or above what was the standard or the high price on items just two years ago.
I can see my shopping habits chance as prices do and while I always had an eye for a bargain but with the knowledge that it will cost double to heat my house this winter I find myself scrimping now so I won’t have to suffer in the cold.
Being the son of depression era parents it’s not that hard to get in that habit but it feels like failure on my part as a provider. I know that’s not a popular idea these days but I wasn’t raised in these days.
Finally as I get older I find myself reflecting on my life more. I done a lot of different things from owning a business, to writing a book to occasional public speaking. I’ve had two radio shows, one still in progress interviewed mayors, governors, Cardinals, congressmen, senators and questioned one future President on the campaign trail. I even won a civil case before a jury acting as my own lawyer once against the real thing.
I’ve failed a lot too, I failed in business, My radio show while syndicated locally never broke through, I didn’t make it nationally and instead of a comfortable living in my major I find myself working full time at a warehouse while drawing only a quarter at best of the blog traffic I once did never managing to break though to the point where I could make a living at it as others have. And there are times when my failures, particularly my financial ones, press against me rather heavily.
But in the end I have a good wife and a marriage in its 34th year and two good honorable God Fearing Catholic mass attending sons both making a better living than I am.
If that’s not a successful life I’d like to know what is.
Friar Tuck You two are accomplices! That means that lottery was a cold blooded swindle!
Will Sharpe: Now is that any way to talk about honest people?
Friar Tuck: I have no licking for any of these lotteries sweeping the country, but some of them are honest. Yours is a downright fraud.
Will Sharpe: Fraud? We gave value for money. A moment’s excitement in their drab lives.
The Adventures of Robin Hood: The Lottery 1958
Over at Hotair there is a piece about how the money collected by BLM Black Lives Matter or also known as Build Large Mansions) on how these folks have been spending the millions that have been showered upon them:
The Associated Press has obtained copies of the group’s financial disclosure statements and it turns out that BLM has become a very profitable venture for a supposed non-profit organization. Even after blowing through an eye-popping amount of money over the past couple of years, the group is still sitting on roughly $42 million in assets.
But in fairness part of the 37 Millions has been spent, on friends and family that is:
This of course comes right out of the Three Stooges Tax Guide that note charity begins at home.
And some of the local chapters are wondering why they are not seeing the tens of millions raised. Jazz Shaw asks the question:
Did all of the wealthy liberal donors and Hollywood elites who flushed cash into BLM to “help the movement” ever think to ask where the money was going?
The outrage of the local chapters and the questions by Jazz and the snark from Ed would all seem valid but they ignore a rather critical fact about the money donated by the rich and the powerful and by the various corporation that shoveled millions to this organization.
I submit and suggest that practically none of this money was donated for the purpose of protecting or improving actual black lives hurt by discrimination or racism or even by unfair police practices.
If they were, then all of the outrage and the shock and surprise at the wonton use of these funds for personal and family profit would be valid.
But as the purpose of these funds, both corporate and individual were
To publicly demonstrate individual and/or corporates “virtue”
To publicly be included as “part of the club” of right thinking people
To make sure they were not on the list of people to be targeted by social justice rent a mobs
And all of these donor goals were achieved!
Once you realize that people were spending monies on personal and public reputations rather than some altruistic vision it’s had to get outraged by it.
Jazz closes saying:
potential donors should be made fully aware of this situation before they open up their wallets again.
He should have no fear. The donors know that every cent will still be used to enhance and/or protect the reputation of those who give them and as long as that remains true, they will be satisfied.
The NBA has been very fortunate in their playoffs this year in a couple of respects.
Very exciting games (well except for the closeout game of Dallas vs Phoenix) , Very exciting storylines (The rise of the Celtics, the fall of Kyrie and Harden, the return of Golden State), and the two players most likely remind folks of the league’s dirty dealings with China (Lebron & Freedom) not in the picture, one because his team didn’t make the playoffs (itself an interesting story) and the other because he was immediately released after being traded and blacklisted.
All of this has been fortunate for them to keep the narrative on track but the thing that has really worked out the best for them has been DaTechGuy’s 3rd Law of Media Outrage which states:
The MSM’s elevation and continued classification of any story as Nationally Newsworthy rather than only of local interest is in direct correlation to said story’s current ability to affirm any current Democrat/Liberal/Media meme/talking point, particularly on the subject of race or sexuality.
Now unless you live under a rock you know that there was a mass shooting in Buffalo last week that the left has done it’s best to exploit politically to the point where Joe Biden (well whoever is running Joe Biden) has decided it’s worthwhile for the President to visit the city this week.
Now ask yourself this question.
Let’s say you have a national event , Say an NBA playoff closeout game, and lets say this event is of particular interest even beyond the fanbase of the two teams involved because:
It involves the defending champions (Milwaukee)
It involves one of the most storied franchises in the history of the game (Boston Celtics)
It’s a close out game, where Milwaukee can advance to the Conference Finals with a win & the Celtics need a win to force a game seven
It follows one of the most memorable last minute comebacks (Milwaukee’s game five win in Boston) in NBA playoff history
Now lets say just after the game ends with Boston winning on the road and forcing game seven there is a mass shooting at the arena where 17 people are wounded and fans leaving the stadium are literally running for their lives
You just might think that 17 people shot exiting an NBA stadium just might make the national news, that is if you were unaware of DaTechGuy’s 3rd law of media outrage. Because if you were then you would know that Fox would cover it:
“Everybody started running,” witness Brittany Bergstrom, who was at a nearby restaurant, told FOX 6 in Milwaukee. “There was a stampede, people running over the shrubs, hats shoes on the ground, drinks spilled everywhere.”
She said her boyfriend pulled her behind a brick wall, “and if he wouldn’t have this outcome would be a lot different. And that’s all I know and everybody took off running and I just kept running.”
What I was really interested in wasn’t the lack of National News coverage which I expected to be non-existent, but the degree that NBA fans, who followed the series, were aware of it. Surely such fans would have heard about this on social media or on sports media coverage.
So when I went to work on Sunday I asked people who were following game seven about the shooting.
Not a single person I talked to had even heard of it!
Like I said the NBA has been very fortunate this year when it comes to their playoffs. They were most fortunate that the Celtics won game seven because with a curfew in effect it would have been impossible to hide the reason why in the coverage of a game 3 in Milwaukee vs the Heat
Closing thought: I wonder how much the idea of having to play the next series in a free fire zone affected the defending Champion Bucks, who had already won two games at the Garden in Boston in this series when they were playing game seven? It’s one thing for betting on sports to affect a series but having to bet your life, I suspect that’s bigger.
