5/9/5: Sunday Night Lights 

Softball was good again Sunday night. Only one member of the thuggy crew showed up, and it was the nice guy who had been trying to calm down the asshole guy. He came to inform us that his crew had been banned from the field by the guys in the rec center. He tried to whine for full-scale reinstatement, based on the fact that the asshole guy hadn't been one of their good friends anyway blah blah blah but D. Lee wasn't having it.  We let him play with us but D. Lee made it clear that he was not to bring any of his buddies back ever. We'll continue to monitor the sitch, but for now it seems like smoove sailing.  Pete B. came and brought the lovely and patient Lara, who watched the whole game and got to see her man go "called yard." Way out there to left center. Almost took out a taxi. Pete also brought Roger from Bayonne, who's lefthanded but can hit to the opposite field if you try to put on the shift. So don't try that shit. Pete has tentatively agreed to do a recap, so look for that in the next coupla days.

Also played some very good hoops on Saturday. Wheezing and coughing but otherwise OK. I got no complaints.

I assume you all heard about the flower box grenade attack outside the building that houses the British consulate here in NYC last week. Somebody blew up a flower box with a grenade in the middle of the night. In one of the early news reports I saw, an Islamic militant group had apparently claimed responsibility. Now I don't want to make light of this, on the chance that it might turn out to be something serious. But how hard are times in your terror cell when you take responsibility for (warning: italics ahead) blowing up a flower box?  I don't know if they really did it and were taking responsibility for it or if they just heard about it and figured it sounded pretty cool, so let's say we did it. I also don't know which is sadder. If it's gotten to the point where terrorists are just gonna claim responsibility for anything that explodes, what's next? I'll tell you what's next.  This list of Things That Islamic Militant Groups May As Well Claim Responsibility For:

1. The leaky fire hydrant on 53rd and 11th
2. The Hootie Burger King Commercial
3. According to Jim
4. Ronan Tynan
5. The fact that the rest of the ice cream in the freezer is gone
6. The car alarm that went off for two hours straight last Tuesday night on 18th between 2nd and 3rd
7. Kevin Brown's miraculous performance Sunday afternoon*
8. The fact that your feet hurt sometimes
9. That ridiculous shirt Ron is wearing today
10. The fact that you failed to make that follow-up call regarding the Patterson account
11. Male Pattern Baldness
12. Kids Today
13. Jiminy Glick: The Movie
14. Patrick Swayze's recent career struggles 
15. Jim Grey's lack of recent career struggles
16. That dude's breath
17. Willie Randolph's rage in the Subway commercial**
18. This stupid list  

My sleeping patterns have been all screwy lately. I get up tired as hell, struggle through the workday, come home, pass out around 9pm, get up at 11, and then I verbungle deep into the night. Then of course I'm bushed again the next day. I have come to the conclusion that maintaining verbungle.com is slowly killing me. I could quit, but then the four of you would each have seven more minutes to fill in your day. So I will soldier on. But with limits. I am going to set a bedtime every night, and no matter what state verbungle is in at that moment, I am going to hit "publish." Just gotta be done. I'll try to find a nice clean stopping point, but I'm making no guarantees.

Came across one interesting tidbit in the Stuytown memoir I'm reading. The woman who wrote it grew up here in the late 40's through the 50's and 60's. Here is the tidbit:

"By the time I got my new English three-speed racing bike, the carriage room, which had been good enough for my Huffy Convertible, had been hit too often by thieves and vandals. I kept my bicycle in my bedroom, arm's reach from my bed, and took it up and down the elevator when I went riding after school."

So fifty years pass and still the bike room is only safe for crappy bikes. That's a continuing problem. I rode my bike this weekend.  Just a little bit. It was great, and I may attempt another ride to work this week.

Here is today's GISG, worth 15 points. Answers at noon HST. And here is a hint for last Friday's GISG, which will lower its value to ten points: two "words," three letters each.

I think I want to live in the country someday.

* Although word on the street is that Brown was extra-motivated by the recent bashings he's received on this site and on www.monkeyweb.com
** As a follow-up on the post where we mentioned that Jose Reyes was leading off for the Mets and hadn't walked in his first 100 AB's, let the record show that he has walked 4 times in his lat 30-odd AB's, which is a good sign. Still no reason to bat a guy with a .288 OBP leadoff, and it surprises me that Randolph would, considering he had such a good eye as a player. Seems that the baseball establishment still hasn't learned the value of the walk, after almost 150 years. Amazing.