10/14/04: Mo Mo Mo

Rivera is very good.

I am now 0 for 3 in debate watching.  I've caught most of each of them during the re-broadcast, but not the whole thing. Won't stop me from spouting off like an idiot when I see fit. Memo to debate scheduling team: next time, try to coordinate your schedule so you don't conflict with any big Yankee games.  I bet you wish you had thought of that on your own.  As to the debate, Kerry did a solid job. And almost all of the polls had him winning this debate. Those polls seem like something you should actually look at, instead of listening to the pundits' take on who won.  The point of the debate is to win people over.  So I think polling actual people is a fair way to measure the winner.  The only thing the Dems are doing that is pissing me off is their continued exploitation of Dick Cheney's gay daughter. They're making her an an involuntary spokesperson for all gays and lesbians.  I understand the point they are trying to make, contrasting the Bush Administration's intolerant attitude towards homosexuals with Cheney's obvious love and compassion for his daughter, but it still seems in bad taste to me. Still, Kerry is closing nicely, and seems to be in a similar position to the Yankees: it's his battle to win or lose..  Props to Pete B., whose confidence has not wavered.

I had to work until 11 tonight, so we were sneaking out when we could to check out a few innings of the game.  Nice job by Deion on the Olerud prediction (#46). Olerud is one of the most placid athletes I've ever seen.  He seems so passive that you almost worry about him, and then you look up and he's made like $70 million dollars in his career.  He's like one of those guys you went to college with who never said much but seemed to have it all figured out at an early age. All of a sudden you hear that he's retiring at age 30. He's also one of the more graceful players I've seen -- a real natural.  I used to work with a guy who faced him in college once.  Olerud took my friend deep.  I bet he did that to a lot of guys. I also think Olerud looks a teeny bit like Ralph Fiennes.  What do you think?

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Yeah, maybe not so much.

One enjoyable thing about the Yankees-Red Sox series is that everybody I know seems to work with at least one Red Sox fan.  It is quite fun to razz Red Sox fans.  I know we'll get it back tenfold if they beat us this year (or any year), but it's still fun.  Here's an email exchange I had on Wednesday with a very nice guy in my office, who happens to be from Boston and is a HUGE Red Sox fan. He had to give me some news about something that he had failed to get done for me.

I bet he liked that.  I don't know for sure, though, because he didn't respond.

***

I was recently thinking that the San Diego Padres have really become a cursed franchise:

1) Steve Garvey: Baby machine
2) Alan Wiggins: Drugs, AIDS, death
3) Eric Show: John Birch Society, drugs, death,
4) Dave Dravecky: John Birch Society, cancer, freakish cancer-related injury, career in public speaking
5) Ken Caminiti: Drugs, death
6) John Kruk: Obesity, nut cancer
7) Tony Gwynn: Obesity, Acute Honkie Syndrome
8) Dick WIlliams*: Public joikin'

I'm sure I've missed a few as well.

***

You remember that email from around five years ago, the one that talked about the work poopers and whatnot? Well, I am one of those people who just doesn't go at work unless a nuclear catastrophe is about to take place in my pants.  I'm real timid about this matter.  And I look on the out-of-the-closet poopers with fascination.  There is one guy in my office who has absolutely no shame whatsoever.  We have two stalls and two urinals in our bathroom.  I think a reasonable person would assume that one of the two stalls is, for the most part, a cosmetic structure-- its only practical function is to provide a small barrier between the stall in use and the other people who may be using the urinals.  In other words, if you see one stall door closed, you should assume it is in use and come back later.  Not our bold pooper (BP).  I have another colleague who, like me, is very hesitant to poop at work. This colleague went in there for an emergency visit one day. BP came in, plopped down in the stall next to my poor colleague, and unleashed a jihad for which by all means he should have felt ashamed.  My poor colleague just sat perfectly still and waited for the assault to stop. Later, we identified the culprit as the BP by matching him to his suede moccasins.  Anyway, the BP has now gotten so self-confident that he is using his BP status to sort of intimidate the rest of us. I was walking down the hall yesterday and I walked past him as he was clearly headed to the can, magazine in hand. I said hello, and he waved hello with the magazine. He basically pointed it at me like a gun. It was like he was saying, "I'm going into MY bathroom, and you know what I'll be doing, so stay the hell out."  The guy's got some nerve.

* Does anyone know why WIlliams left the A's after the '73 season? Did he just get a huge offer from California or something? Has any other manager left a team after winning the WS?