The Frinklin and Fred Show

Rosenthal's latest

Ken Rosenthal has some interesting M's and Padres bits in his latest inside dish. The highlights:

The Mariners have informed clubs that they are" open to anything," according to two major league executives. That means the M's would field offers not only for RHP Freddy Garcia, but also 2B Bret Boone, RHP Gil Meche and possibly RHP Joel Piniero. Trading a young starting pitcher might be the only way for the Mariners to obtain young position talent, and the team is deep in possible pitching replacements at Class AAA. Boone, 35, could appeal to the Dodgers, Giants and Yankees, but he would represent the Mariners' only power threat next season if Edgar Martinez retires. Some teams also would balk at his contract; Boone's $9.25 million option for 2005 will vest if he makes 500 plate appearances, or the team can exercise his option for $8.25 million. The Padres, trying to obtain a young starting pitcher, are targeting Meche; Rockies RHP Jason Jennings could be another possibility.

Not much we didn't know in this, the "open to anything" is a good start. As much as I like Boone, if we can get something useful, I'd certainly deal him. He's 35, and not going to be around the next time this team is any good. I still don't like the idea of trading Meche, unless someone knocks our socks off I'd keep him. I've come to accept the idea that Freddy is gone. From the Padres standpoint, either Jennings or Meche would be a nice pickup, though I think Meche has more "upside". That is the best word in sports: upside. Love it. Anyway, Rosenthal has more on the M's and White Sox.

The White Sox represent another possible trade partner for the Mariners. G.M. Ken Williams badly wants to add a starting pitcher, but he likely would want Seattle to assume at least part of Garcia's $6.875 million salary and include a young player if the Sox were to part with a major league-ready outfield prospect like Joe Borchard or Jeremy Reed. Borchard, a former No. 1 pick, was named the Class AAA International League Player of the Week for May 17-23 after he hit .452 with five homers and 18 RBIs. The White Sox have two other top outfield prospects, Ryan Sweeney and Brian Anderson, in Class A

It always seems to me that Ken Williams expects a lot more than he should on trades. I think it's reasonable that he expects Seattle to pick up some of Garcia's salary for this season, but an additional player? It would have to be a purely borderline prospect, like a Michael Garciaparra. Never to quick to end that particular failed experiment. I'd rather take Jeremy Reed, just because Borchard hasn't done much the last couple years, and may very well be the dreaded Quadruple-A player.

Beltran in blue and umm...sand?

According to this morning's San Diego Union-Tribune, the Well-Liked Padres are considering dealing for Carlos Beltran. The cornerstone of any Beltran deal would likely be Xavier Nady, who is killing the ball down in Triple-A Portland (.343/.422/.495), but has no long-term position with the club. If I'm Kevin Towers, I do this move in a heartbeat. Beltran would automatically transform the Pads from a sleeper team to a clear favorite in the NL West. As for long term? Who knows? San Diego is an easy city to fall in love with, and owner John Moores has been saying for years that he's willing to increase payroll once that PETCO Park was open. I still think that Beltran is destined to be a Yankee, like Jason Giambi a few years ago, but it's worth the risk.

The Mighty Kangs

Congratulations to Frinklin's alma-mater for finishing 3rd in the Washington State baseball champoinship.

Super Grover would have been better

Found at BigStupidTommy . I steal a lot of things from him. I wonder if this means I owe him royalties.

The Day After Tomorrow... this movie will still suck.

Somehow I managed to convince the Mrs. Frinklin and her sister to come see The Day After Tomorrow this afternoon. How was it you ask? Well, I owe them at least one, maybe two. This is a Roland Emmerich movie, which should have scared me off, but I'm a sucker for stuff getting blown up. Unfortunately for me, the movie is done with that after the first hour, and instead concentrates on the plight of Jake Gyllenhaal and his friends trying to stay alive in the shattered remains of New York while his paleo-climatologist (yes, that's exactly how he's described) attempts to walk from Washington DC to rescue him. This is one of the many pitfalls of a disaster movie: what to do other than showing the actual destruction. This movie should have just forgotten completely about script and characters and just stuck with destruction. Instead, the movie dispenses with the good stuff, and trudges along with comically bad dialogue, wooden performances, and bizarro-world plot twists.

The dialogue is to be expected, there isn't much you can do with the subject matter, but this movie really sticks out. The Day After Tomorrow runs for 124 minutes, and I'll be damned if I can remember more than 1 or 2 lines. Everything else is a tired B-movie cliché.

The performances are universally lousy, but that’s more a failing of the script than anything else. Dennis Quaid poses a lot, and flashes 3 distinct expressions. Gyllenhaal plays the son, a shy brainy kid who has a couple issues with his dad, but nothing to difficult to be glossed over. One slight problem: Jake is a 24-year old playing a 17-year old. The girl of his dreams, played by Emmy Rossum is a 17-year old playing a 17-year old. The difference is noticeable, and besides, he's far too talented to have such an Ian Ziering moment.

This movie does a couple things right. For the most part the effects are good, starting out with hail in Tokyo, snow in New Delhi, and tornadoes in Los Angeles, and peaking with the sea covering Manhattan, is pretty nice. The mad-dash of Americans over the Mexican border is a nice touch, and Ian Holm does a touch of actual acting, playing a doomed English weather researcher. The problem is that these moments are too few and far between. The movie ends up a mess of lame characters and giant plot gaps.

The Beloved M's and Signs of Life

Well look what happened? You stop paying attention for a few days, and the beloved M's break off a 3-game win streak. A couple more wins and the Optimist will come back. I was thinking that wouldn't happen until Spring Training next year. Yes, this team is playing better, but I'm worried they might play too well. I would hate to think this team gets hot, finishes around .500 and the Powers That Be decide they just need to tinker instead of blowing it up. That would just put off the implosion another year. I've written off this season. I've accepted that this team needs to change radically and will most likely suck while doing it. Many rumors have surfaced the last few days; I'd thought I would take a look.

-A Chicago columnist suggests the Cubs send Corey Patterson and some pitching prospects to Seattle for Ichiro. Umm, no. As I mentioned before, you don't trade the face of the franchise. If you do consider trading Ichiro, it had better be for more than a injury plagued kid with 1/2 a good season under his belt.

-John McGrath suggests dangling Freddy Garcia in front of the Mets, on the hope that they give up David Wright. Well, sure John, but good luck convincing the Mets. Wright sure seems to be a stud, but the Mets aren't that desperate for a pitcher to give up Wright. This might have worked under Steve Phillips, but Duquette seems to be more patient.

-USS Mariner, the undisputed King of M's Blogs, suggests Meche or Garcia or a combination thereof to the Reds for Austin Kearns. I'm down with this, though I'm a little wary of trading both for Kearns. He is young and experienced, and even a touch athletic. This means the M's might want him. He can hit too, and take walks. To the Mariners this is just an added bonus. David does raise the specter of the Reds more "athletic" young outfielders, and this worries me. I can see Bavasi being sucked in to the chimera that is Wily Mo Pena. Yeah, there is about a 10% chance he morphs into Sammy Sosa. There is a far likelier chance of Ruben Riveradom.

-Clint Nagoette moves to the Raniers bullpen to get ready for his role after being called up. I have no problem with this, assuming he moves to the rotation eventually. I'm a believer in Earl Weaver here; he always stated that pitchers do a lot better if they spend most of their first big-league season in the pen. This makes sense. It gets the youngster acclimated to the pressures of the Show, and keeps the mileage off their arms to boot. It does worry me that Rafael Soriano has now been pigeonholed as a reliever, and it further worries me that it could happen to Nagoette as well. Make them prove they can't start in the majors, then switch them to the bullpen. Relievers are always available, starters aren't.

-According to Jayson Stark, Kris Benson is the most attractive starter available on the trade market, more so than Freddy Garcia. This stuns me. Benson has had little (39-44 4.34 ERA) success in the majors, has a reputation as a bit of a head case, and a history of injuries to boot. Garcia, meanwhile has only 74 wins in the majors, and is off to a great start too. Freddy doesn't have a hot wife willing to take some of her clothes off. Maybe that's the problem

More on Enterprise

Now that I've had a good nights sleep, it's easier to focus on what was good from last night's season finale. The interplay between Tripp and T'Pol was as good as its been, focusing on real feelings instead of showing Vulcan ass for shock value. The relationship is still somewhat cringe worthy, but moving in a better direction. The sequence attacking the sphere was classic Trek, especially Tripp's "get the job done" mentality at the end. A special commendation should go to the makeup crew for that scene, the effect of the distortion on skin was pretty damned creepy.The scenes on the weapon were a little less convincing. Anyone who didn't realize the Reptillian captain was on board just wasn't paying attention. The fight between the big lizard and Captain Bland was okay, I did really like the way Archer took him out. There really aren't any bad spots on this episode. Hoshi has been less than convincing the last couple of episodes, but nothing that was really glaring.

Now the ending. It really reminded me of the end of Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes remake, and that isn't good. For those who don't know (and if you don't want to, stop reading): the battered Enterprise is carried by the (very-cool looking) Xindi Aquatic ship to the edge of our solar system, then limps home. All of Phlox's animals were agitated, that was a cool little point. Anyway, the ship enters Earth orbit, and hails Starfleet Command. No answer, so they try the Lunar base. No answer there either. Finally, T'Pol sends Trip and Mayweather down to San Francisco to investigate. They fly over San Fransisco, and mention, "everything looks normal." At that point they are attacked by 3 American Army Air Corp WWII era fighter planes. The scene shifts to a rainy field hospital staffed by Germans. The doctor leads 3 SS men, one of which can't be seen in the light to a recent patient who's been badly burned. This, of course, is Captain Bland. The doctor asks the SS men if they've seen this kind of uniform before. The third SS man steps into the light and, you guessed it, he's a hideous alien. No clue as to what kind, he's not a Xindi or Sphere-Builder, looks vaguely familiar but not really recognizable. TAt first I was really ticked off at this ending,but the more I think about it, it does set up an interesting next season. Still, this is Enterprise, and they are pretty good at screwing things up.

The Enterprise finale

I find myself wishing the show was canceled now. This would have been a nice high to end on. The first 55 minutes of Zero Hour were fantastic, as good as Trek gets. I was beyond the edge of my seat, at times I was pacing the floor. Had Enterprise called it quits tonight, it ends as good as it could be. For the first 55 minutes, everything works on this episode.

And then it happens. The show proves exactly why it's never going to be considered anything but mediocre Trek. If you haven't seen the ending.. well, you need too.

Oh, and its good they used time travel. That hasn't been seen in almost 2 episodes.

Gary Barnett

Colorado is set to announce that Gary Barnett will be reinstated to his position as head football coach.

Now, I don't know how much (if anything) Barnett had to do with the mind-boggling amount of sexual misconduct charges coming from his program, but when a progam melts down like this, the head coach has to pay with his job. Hell, he should have lost his job when he insinuated that nobody cared about Katie Hnida's rape allegations because she was a lousy kicker. Just unforgivable.

What? more politics?

Just to give middle America one more reason to dislike them, the slightly left of lunatic MoveOn.org is planning a particularly tasteless ad showing the Statue of Liberty hooded like an Abu Ghraib prisoner. Yes, the prison abuse scandal is important, but this is far more likely to cause undecided voters to turn the channel than listen.

A rather meaningless political meme

1. Which political party do you typically agree with?
I'm a registered Republican, though not always proud of the party.

2. Which political party do you typically vote for?

Again, I'm a Republican, but I'm not above splitting the ticket.

3. List the last five presidents that you voted for?

If I count primaries I think I can get all 5.

2000-GW Bush
2000 GOP Primary-John McCain
1996-Bob Dole
1992-Bil Clinton
1992 Primary- Paul Tsongas

4. Which party do you think is smarter about the economy?
Traditionally this is the GOP, but not recently.

5. Which party do you think is smarter about domestic affairs?
Ugh.. my party's kowtowing to the religous right shows here. I'd have to say neither.

6. Do you think we should keep our troops in Iraq or pull them out?
Keep them in, and increase their number if you can. I supported the way, though I'm increasingly disgusted with the way its been run. I'm also a firm supporter of "You Broke It, You Bought It"

7. Who, or what country, do you think is most responsible for 9/11?
Osama of course.

8. Do you think we will find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?
Sure doesn't look like it now. That doesn't mean Saddam didn't want them, or that they didn't exist. They still could have been smuggled to Syria before the war.

9. Yes or no, should the U.S. legalize marijuana?
Yes, in fact we should legalize most drugs. People don't need the government protecting them from themselves.

10. Do you think the republicans stole the last presidential election?

No.

11. Do you think bill Clinton should have been impeached because of what he did with Monica Lewinski?
No, it was a charade that the right should be ashamed of.

12. Do you think Hillary Clinton would make a good president?
Who the hell knows. the junior senator from New York has been pretty bland so far, beyond her name recognition.

13. Name a current democrat who would make a great president:
This is pretty slim. The Dems bench is really thin right now, which is why we're stuck with John Kerry, and why Hillary is a near-lock for 2008. Of the remaining, I like Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, but she was born in Canada, so she can't run. Maybe Leiberman, though he ran a completely feckless campaign.

14. Name a current republican who would make a great president:
John McCain and Rudy Guliani. Neither may get the chance, as the far-right doesn't like either.

15. Do you think that women should have the right to have an abortion?
Yes, I do.

16. What religion are you?
Non-affiliated Christian.

17. Have you read the Bible all the way through?
No. Am I going to hell now?

18. What’s your favorite book?
Ball Four

19. Who is your favorite band?
Current ones? Counting Crows. All-Time? The Beatles.

20. Who do you think you'll vote for president in the next election?
Ugh. I don't particulary like either, but it may come down to the evil (or incompetent) you know over that you don't.

21. What website did you see this on first?
Big Stupid Tommy

The Weekend Outing

The Mrs. Frinklin and I caught Shrek 2 over the weekend. It was only playing every half-hour on 4 different screens at our local metroplex, so it wasn't easy to get in. It was actually a reward for the Mrs. Frinklin's younger brother, who has just now crossed over into teenagerhood. He's become very difficult to deal with lately; he fights with every request, suggestion and order. He's a teenage boy in other words. This is the In-Laws first try at a teenage boy; they've only dealt with girls, and fairly well behaved ones at that. My lovely wife, probably because she doesn't live in the same household, is the only one The Teenage Boy listens too. So she made him a deal a couple weeks ago: stop acting like a complete ass and we'd take him to lunch and the movies. He came through well, so off we went.
It was fun. Teenage Boy was quite well behaved. While in his less combative moods, he's quite funny and charming. He's a handsome kid too, far more so than I at that age. Once he gets past his lack of self-confidence and hygiene issues (it's been hell trying to convince him he needs deodorant), he should do quite well with girls. He, of course, pretends not to care. I know I should do more with him too. I'm the only male in his life aside from his often absent and always absentminded Dad. The problem is he's has 2 modes: running, jumping climbing trees kid, or sit in front of big shiny box and wait for the brains to rot away kid. While I'm in no shape for running, jumping or climbing trees, I'm perfectly happy with brain-rotting activities. As you might expect, the family wants to shy away from that. Damnit, I really wish Teenage Boy was into baseball. Unfortunately for me, he's a rather ADD kid, finds baseball hopelessly dull, and probably wonders why there isn't an X-TREME version where the players ride on roller blades and hit each other with spiked bats. I may have convinced him to go to see the well-liked Padres this summer, but this has far more to do with being allowed to eat hotdogs and Krispy Kremes until he pukes than anything baseball-related. He did for a time like basketball, but that was until his coach let him know there is more than just running around throwing up shots. He had to do things like play defense and (ack!) practice.
The movie was entertaining too, far better to the original I think. While Shrek 2 did at time show a shiny soulnessness, it was far less bodily function oriented than the original. And grown-ups had fun playing "Spot the Product Placement", of which there are thousands in this film. As in the original, the bit players run the show; Eddie Murphy is hilarious as Donkey, as is Antonio Banderas as Puss 'n' Boots. It must be mentioned though; Mrs. Frinklin did not like Puss, mostly due to her irrational dislike of Antonio Banderas. Liam Neeson is the same way with her.

One Ring to Rule..er... Two Rings to Rule them All

Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version of Lord of the Rings was on Cartoon Network yesterday. The Mrs. Frinklin and I watched it. We weren't planning on it, but we sort of stumbled upon it. This version is the first LoTR on screen, and its worth seeing. It does, however, definitely qualify as an admirable failure. This version compresses the first one-and-half books, then simply stops. As anyone familiar with the story would know, this compresses the events into a bit of a hyper kinetic mess. The animation itself is dated, a total psychedelic throwback. Scenery changes color when certain different characters enter, and only the main characters are totally animated. The majority of unnamed characters (various orcs, Bree villiagers and riders of rohan) are photographed and colored in to look like animated characters. The effect is jarring, especially during battle scenes. Watching Aragorn kill an orc is like looking at two different movies stapled together.
The characters are odd in places too. John Hurt voices Aragorn, and while his gravely voice lends depth to the character, his patrician accent seems out of place. Oh, and for some reason Aragorn looks disturbingly like Apache Chief. Many of the characters seem to have been victims of some unfortunate design choices. Boromir is basically a Viking. Saruman (whom the movie irritatingly refers to as "Aruman") wears red robes for some inexplicable reason. Gollum looks like the emaciated cousin of the Grinch, and Legolas (who is REALLY goofy looking) and Gimli are the same height. And if anyone can tell Frodo, Merry,and Pippen apart they have better eyes then me. Treebeard, swear to God, looks like a giant tree stump with little tufty ears.
Having said all that, the movie does work at times. While nowhere near as evocative as the current movies, it's still Lord of the Rings. The Shire is still beautifully simple. Mordor is still the creepiest place imaginable. Peter Jackson obviously saw this movie too; there are some images that are nearly identical. For instance, the scene where the Hobbits are hiding under the tree while the Black Rider sniffs for the ring look eerily alike. If you're a fan, check out this version.

Will celebrities ever choose good names for their kid?

Everyone is talking about how Gwyneth and the guy from Coldplay named their daughter Apple, Bill Simmons mentions how he's confused over Fallujah (region of Iraq or one of Bruce and Demi's kids) but I have found the ultimate.

Jermaine Jackson, formerly of The Jackson 5 and currently screaming at anyone who mentions how much of a nutjob his brother is, has children named Jermaine Jr., Autumn, Jaimy, Jeremy, Jourdan, and (wait for it) Jermajesty!

The best name EVER!

Credit must go to the Mrs. Frinklin, who actually found this little bizarro-world factoid. My blogging it is payback for my Caramel Hershy Kisses!

Ichiro gets his 2000th pro hit

Too bad nothing else went right for the beloved M's. After exploding for 11 runs last night, the Mariners thudded back to earth and were shut out by Nate Robertson.

Don't ask, I don't know who he is either.

The M's slapped out 8 hits, but NO extra-base hits. Zero, zilch. nada....
Nobody can win like that, it just isn't possible.

A quick rant

To the old man with giant mustache: In case you were absent when we covered ATM eitiquette, here is a quick hint. You do not, I repeat NOT stand in front of the machine after printing a statement. It's like Kenny Rogers says, "there's time enough for counting when the dealings done." Same difference.

Oh, and it was pretty creepy how much you looked like the Kaiser.

The NBA final four.

In the series I may watch a little of: Hated Evil Lakers in 6

In the series you couldn't get to watch, no matter how much you tortured me: Pistons is 7. Average score of these games:58-52

Something I missed in my Star Wars nerdiness spell

Troy Denning, author of the best Star Wars book ever (Star By Star) has started a post-New Jedi Order 3 book series. Denning isn't quite my favorite SW author, but he's pretty close. Yes, I'm this nerdy.

Anyway, in one of the interviews about the series he mentions "many funerals". Well, it's good that they are getting away from the NJO and it's runaway lightheartedness.

If you're stuck with this post and you don't know what I mean by this, the NJO was unrelentingly grim and featured a death toll in the gazillions.

It was however, pretty damned good .

Damn.. I was hoping for more.

Is it this bad? Why yes!

Mariner Optimist is on strike until the beloved M's win 5 in a row. He may be left waiting.

The Jeffrey

The Mrs. Frinklin has posted a picture of the Jeffrey. Not being destructive actually...

We call it War Stars, or we'd get sued!

I'm feeling extra nerdy right now, so I went to check out Star Wars related junk.

IGN.com posts some early thoughts about KoTOR 2. They were able to play the demo at this weeks E3 show. Nothing earth-shattering, just a fine continuation of the original.

MSNBC has an opinon piece on the prequels. It's pretty harsh, but difficult to disagree with, even the more tongue and cheeck parts. What they say about the actors:

Fire Hayden Christensen, whose single emotive capacity is sullen petulance, and whose attempts to put on the magisterial rage that must become Darth Vader’s hallmark instead sound like a tenth-grader whose dad won’t let him borrow the car.

While you’re at it get rid of Natalie Portman, who as Queen Amidala has all the regal presence of a mallrat shopping at her local Fashion Bug. Keep Samuel Jackson, Frank Oz, Anthony Daniels, and Ian McDiarmid, and thank your lucky stars that you’ve got Christopher Lee, who’s been showcasing his considerable talent in Z-grade horror flicks for decades and knows better than perhaps any living actor how to pull a terrific performance out of truly awful material. Tell Ewan Macgregor, who’s proven elsewhere he’s a fine actor, that it’s safe to come out and emote now. Fire everyone else.

According to Theforce.net, Hayden will appear in the Original Trilogy DVDs coming out late-summer. Oh good, Lucas hasn't changed ENOUGH with these movies.

This link I bit from Tainted Bill, but it's the Sun's article on the name (probably Birth of the Empire) and the highlight lava-surfing lightsaber battle. Now, this doesn't seem to be a joke.

Oh, and the title of this post is from a comic book (I think it was The Outsiders) that featured a space battle around the time RoTJ came out. I've always remembered it for some reason.

Politics? I don't talk about Politics

I couldn't pass this up. Senator John McCain encapsulates why I'm a Republican, and why I'm not nearly as proud of that fact as I should be.

"I am a proud Republican. I'm a Barry Goldwater Republican. I revere Ronald Reagan and his party of limited government. Sadly, that party is no longer. The current version of the Republican party is engaged in an outrageous spending binge and they're being steadied and encouraged by the Democrats... Ten years ago, in 1994, Republicans won control of both Houses of Congress. For one brief shining moment, we employed true fiscal restraint and eventually managed to balance the budget and even attain that which had seemed unattainable - a surplus! Now, at a time of national crisis, we have thrown caution to the wind and continue to spend, and spend, and spend - all the while cutting taxes. The perfect evidence of this is the number of Congressional earmarks found in the 13 annual appropriations bills. In 1994 there were 4,126 earmarks - this year there were 14,040 earmarks. Where are our priorities?" - Senator John McCain.

I don't know the original credit, but I bit this from Andrew Sullivan.

Could this be true?

As one might expect, Larry LaRue's TNT article has caused quite a stir. As with most "Future of the Team" pieces, I'll believe it when I see it.

97 wins, 4 Cy Youngs and now a perfect game

Thats how much Randy Johnson has accomplished since leaving the Mariners. Now it does no good to bitch about the circumstances that lead to him leaving. Lets just congratulate one of the best pitchers of all time.

Oh, and the Mrs. Frinklin chuckles everytime she hears someone call him "The Big Unit". Ever realize how much of an all-porn team the mid-90s Mariners were? Big Unit, Junior, Little Joey, Willie, A-Rod, Bone.. the mind boggles.

Oh, and the Mrs. F says she will now call him the "Perfect Unit", even though she finds him "really, creepily unattractive".

Augh!

Damnit I'm jealous of Bill over this!

You hurt yourself HOW?

I was listening to Colin Cowherd on ESPN radio the other day, and he mentioned that Sammy Sosa had hurt himself sneezing. This of course caused him to go over the myriad and ridiculous ways athletes had hurt themselves. Things like sprained thumbs from playing video games, strained eyeballs from watching TV in the dark, JD Drew’s recent misadventures in his swimming pool and so on. He then threw it open to listeners. This was a great idea, and I was sorry I couldn’t call in.

I was 17, and up in my room watching TV. I was a spoiled child, so I had everything I’d ever need up there. Anyway, I was lying on my bed, and I had this habit of tossing my remote control up in the air and catching it. I’d toss the damned thing pretty high too, there were marks on my ceiling where it’d hit. Well this time I missed. It hit my right in face, stung a bit, but I swore a couple times and didn’t think anything of it.

Until the next morning, when after my shower, I noticed something strange about my face in the bathroom mirror. I had managed to take off a noticeable chunk of my front tooth. As with all teenagers, I immediately thought of how I was going to explain this to my parents. I took the honest way out and told my mother. She took a moment to explain to me just how stupid I was, which I accepted. I mean, I was tossing my remote control up in the air, really isn’t any defense for that. She took me to the dentist; he looked me over, chuckled about how it happened. The good news was the tooth was fine, I’d snapped off an unimportant part. He could pull it out and give me a false one, but there really wasn’t any reason too.

So I still have my stupidly chipped tooth. I still have to find elaborate lies to explain it. I was in a fight, or hit by a baseball, or was in a skiing accident. Luckily, for me, the Mrs. Frinklin waited until we’d been dating for a few months before asking. I went with the stupid truth. She hesitated, clearly debating why she was dating this goober, and then started to laugh. She doesn’t let me lie about it anymore either.

I was thinking, now that I have a good 3, 4 or maybe even 5 regular readers: what the stupidest way you’ve hurt yourself? I’ve already gone, I’m pretty sure the Mrs. Frinklin will use this recent misadventure with oversized sandals.

The Beloved M's

The Beloved M’s managed to take one out the 3 games in the Bronx this weekend. Honestly, I didn’t give them much chance of that. A couple of really, hmm, interesting quotes from BoMel in this morning’s Larry Stone article.

Where we are in the league in home runs is not good," Melvin said. "There are games that have had the effect on us where we get three, four, five hits and score a run, and then they come up and get a walk and a homer. That can wear on you a little bit.

Two things here Mr. Manager: patience and power is the most economical way to score runs, you should know this by now. Second, if it takes you 5 base hits to get a run, something is deeply wrong with your team.

It has an effect on you sometimes," Melvin admitted. "A team can be struggling, not swinging too good. Then someone will make an error, you get a walk, and all of a sudden, a three-run homer. That's something we're really not built to do right now.

Now, if we get an error, the next guy is most likely bunting or hacking away. He’s right though; the M’s are built for that right now. They should have been though, and it may well cost Melvin his job.

The NBA is actually kinda entertaining.

When did the NBA get interesting again? They still can’t score, but damn, it’s hard to beat a triple overtime game and 2 game sevens. I’m also stunned the Lakers got up off the deck and just clocked the Spurs. What the hell happened? Don’t the Spurs know how much fun I have when all the Laker fans in my office are miserable? Now I have to rely on the T-wolves or the Kings. I have confidence in neither. I’m gonna end up having to deal with these purple-and-gold cretins for another 6 weeks, I just know it.
And take the Wolves and Pistons. Hell, I’m probably wrong on both.

If you're interested in the NBA playoffs, check out Bill Simmons and Ralph Wiley's blog on ESPN. It goes off the rails a bit, but it's very entertaining.

Boxing? Is Boxing still around?

I heard how Roy Jones Jr.“The Best Pound-for-Pound fighter in the world” lost over the weekend to Antonio Tarver. Apparently, this was a rematch, and in the previous fight Jones won, but most thought he shouldn’t have. I got to thinking about how I used to like boxing. Now I neither know nor care whom these people are. I wouldn’t know Roy Jones if I ran into him at the supermarket. The best way for boxing, or any individual sport for that matter, to come back is a good rivalry. Maybe this could be a start, but instead of Jones-Tarver 3, Jones is going up a weight class. Is he afraid of this guy or just dumb?

This will make you angry

I was tripping around Munuviana this morning and caught Michael's post on the most evil website I can remember: America's Dumbest Soldiers. Just beyond the pale..

New Look

As you can see the look to FS has changed a bit. Still working the kinks out, but thanks to Madfish for hooking me up.

Troy

I'm just back from seeing Troy with the Mrs. Frinklin. It was a good movie, but not great. Brad Pitt is the centerpiece as the nearly uncontrollable warrior Achilles. He certainly looks he part, having bulked up considerably for the role. He does a commendable job, starting slow, but picking up steam as the movie progresses. Orlando Bloom makes some very nice acting decisions as Paris, the Trojan prince who steals away Helen. He quite rightly plays the part of the spoiled younger son. His terror at being defeated in combat by Helen's jilted husband is his high point. The movie is completely stolen however, by Eric Bana as the Trojan hero Hector. He's the consummate older son, and perhaps the only character in the film worth rooting for. The large fight scenes are predictably kinetic, and overdose on the CGI masses a bit for my taste. The music is a low point as far as I'm concerned, going to a keening, wordless female voice entirely too often. The movie is certainly worth seeing though, and is certainly much smarter than the usual summer movie dreck. Oh, and for those who haven't read The Iliad: remember they aren't called "Greek Tragedies" for nothing.

The Incredibles

The Mrs. Frinklin has been waiting for a long time already for this movie. The trailer has been posted here.

ESPN.com just got 150% better

The Sports Guy, Bill Simmons has left Jimmy Kimmel Live and will be back on a regular schedule at ESPN. Now tell my why this guy doesn't have a book out?

Now this is what we call chutzpah.

Today at work, the head of our division came around to say hello. Mr. Director (4 full levels above us) is a good enough guy, really the "nice-guy" type of boss, but not overly so. Anyway, one of my coworkers asked him if he'd been to lunch yet. He said no, he was leaving in a few minutes. Said coworker then asked him if he'd pick her up a slurpee on his way back.

He did.

More Quick Baseball notes...

Jayson Stark mentions the Tigers pickup of Carlos Guillen as one of the 5 best "under the radar" signings so far. You certainly can't dispute that, as Guillen is only hitting .320/.404/.488. In contrast, Aurillia's line with the M's: .224/.278/.276. Good Lord, how does a major leaguer hit this bad? A .276 SLG?

FS preseason NL Rookie of the Year Aaron Miles isn't lighting them up either: .258/.277/.361.

Steve Finley hit his 12 HR tonight. This man is still considered Gold Glove caliber defensively and has an OPS of .910. That's incredible.

Of course, both the Beloved Mariners and Well-Liked Padres lost tonight. The M's in New York against the Yankers, and the Pads were smacked around by Greg Maddux and the Cubs. Funny, if you'd asked me which series would be more important going into the year....

Huh.. a lefty singles hitter? I'm all over that.

Well the meaningless Internet rumors are starting to fly. Everybody has this Hickey piece, but I'll go ahead and add my two cents. So we trade Freddy, who's been our best starter so far for Johnny Damon and BK Kim. The Red Sox then go ahead and sent Freddy to Kansas City for the best player (Non A-Rod division) in the AL. What would this leave us with?

Well, Johnny Damon is a very nice player, and would certainly upgrade the CF defense over Winn, though his arm is nothing special either. Unfortunately, Damon is exactly the kind of player the M's have to many of already: a singles hitter. This team doesn't need yet another top-of-the order guy. We need power damnit! Oh, and Kim is $5 million a year reliever with a rapidly expanding rep as a head case. Just what we need.

What to do with the M's?

The Beloved Mariners are 12-22 right now, 10.5 games out of first place, and now sporting their 3rd(?!?) 5-game losing streak. How much longer does this keep going? In the next couple of weeks, the M’s brass will have to make the decision: do we keep going or do we make radical changes. Even people who thought this team would contend knew that it was just about the last hurrah for this rather aged team. So what do we do?

Blow it up.

Check that: Blow it up real good. This team has been good but not great for too long now, and the slide is upon us. We need to be (to use a term I hate) pro-active about it.

The Keepers
Ichiro
He is the face of the franchise, and its most popular player. I can’t imagine the M’s ever trading him.

Edgar
This comes with a caveat though. Edgar should be able to do what he wants. If a contender wants him come this June, the M’s should ask him if he wants the trade. He’s been the good soldier long enough, if he decides he wants to end his career somewhere else, so be it.

Joel Piniero
He’s a good, young and relatively cheap arm. Joel is struggling right now, but he’ll snap out of it. He’d bring a good return, but its not worth it.

Rafael Soriano
Much like Piniero, Soriano has struggled all season, but he’s young, cheap and talented. I would love to see him in the rotation, but it looks like he’ll end up a closer.

Gil Meche
Again, the team should keep a young and relatively cheap pitcher. I’m a huge Gil Meche fan, and I keep him just to see how he turns out. If he stays healthy, you have a gem.

The Kid Pitchers
JJ Putz, Travis Blackely, George Sherrill, Bobby Madritsch, Clint Nagoette…. All these guys should make the debuts this summer. Let us see what we’ve got. So far, Putz looks like he’s worth keeping.

Valuable Chits:
Eddie Guaradado
Maybe the best trade bait on the team. As a free agent signing, he can’t be traded until June 1st, but they should be lining up to get him. Eddie is a very nice player, but a left-handed closer really isn’t a priority any longer. USS Mariner had the right idea: send him back to Minnesota and get Michael Cuddyer as a very nice return. Switch him back to third and Viola! The Mariners actually have a young and talented bat in the lineup.

Freddy Garcia
I have never understood the desire to run Freddy out of town. Has he struggled? Yes, of course he has. His price tag has gone up too. I just find it difficult to justify getting rid of a 28-year old pitcher who entered the season with 72 wins and lifetime ERA under 4.00. I am a realist though, and it’s obvious the team isn’t planning on keeping him. He should bring some value.

Brett Boone
Boonie might edge out Ichiro as the teams most popular player, but a 35-year old 2B who makes $11 million is a luxury a rebuilding team does not need. I remember laughing at someone’s season preview (I think it was Hardball Times, but I can’t find it) stating that Boone could end up a Yankee. Well, the Yankees best prospect is Dioner Navarro, and catcher is a huge weakness in the system. Maybe it’s a start.

Randy Winn
Winn is off to a terrible start, and his defense in center has been atrocious, but he is a player who does a lot well. He would be a nice fit (hopefully in left, for his sake) for a team looking to add speed.

Everyone else falls into the same category: Very available but not very valuable. I believe Moyer and Dan Wilson qualify as 5 and 10 players, and therefore can deny any trade. The various other bullpen parts like Hasagawa, Villone, and Myers may have takers, especially after the All-Star break, but those deals would be minor. Ibanez, Speizio and Olerud are overpriced for their output and any deals involving them would probably mean the Mariners eating some contract. As with Everyday Eddie, Ibanez and Speizio cannot be traded until after June 1st. Rich Aurillia has been so terrible, both at bat and in the field; it would be very difficult to trade him for anything beyond additional bad contracts. Spare parts like Cabrera and Wee Willie are always available on the waiver wire.

The Mariners are terrible so far this year. Worse, they’re old too. Stripping the team down might get some valuable parts. Honestly, why wouldn’t they do this? To keep an aging team together longer? What is the point? What really worries me is the guy who assembled this team would be in charge of reassembling it.

The Future of Enterprise (Spoiler)

I feel like such a dork putting SPOILER in my heading. The Mrs. F will not let me live this down.

Scott Bakula, the current Star Trek captain for those not paying attention, has a bit to learn about keeping a secret. In a recent interview, he seems to have spilled the beans:

"Well, there are all these wonderful rumors out there. I think we shot three endings," Bakula said, according to a transcript available at VRRRM.com. "One of them, we get back to Earth. One of them, we don't get back to Earth. And one of them, the ship gets back to Earth and I'm not alive"

Just in case you were wondering.

A mindless rant thought up duing my commute

A couple years ago, Gregg Easterbrook proposed changing the name of larger SUVs. Instead of Sport-Utility Vehicles, things like the H2 would be known as Fuck You Vehicles or FUV, due to the total lack of concern the drivers of such monsters obviously feel for both the planet and the people on it. I would add an additional piece to that; if you’re a male, and own a giant truck or SUV, and you don’t have 12 kids or haul around giant work-related equipment, you’re really compensating for something.

Yes, you read that right. To all you giant SUV driving men, we know you have small penises. We know that your aggressive and thoughtless driving stems from the anger you have internalized over your lack of sexual prowess. It’s okay, you can let that go. Moreover, every time you open your email you hear of miracle creams, pills and pumps that can solve your little problem. Perhaps you should look into this. Remember, relaxed and endowed men always get more action than the angry and small.

Women who drive such vehicles are a different story. It depends on if said female driver is hot, frankly. Hot women get away with a lot. If the woman is not hot, perhaps this is why she would drive so angrily. If that isn’t the case, there must be more deep-seated anger. Anything deeper than that, and I’m a little bit afraid of it.

Oh, and if you drive a truck with giant off-road tires, flames, fake bullet holes and/or skull decals, you are a loser and everyone knows it.

NHL Hockey! Its FAN-TASTIC! is anybody paying attention?

How excited is Gary Bettman over the prospect of a Calgary-Tampa Bay Stanley Cup final? Why, so excited he’s probably trying to hang himself in the executive washroom.

Look, I love the NHL. As I’ve said before, it’s the most exciting live sport on Earth. In addition, it has a diehard following who, on average, are the most knowledgeable fans of any sport. However, the NHL got greedy about a decade ago, and it hasn’t yet recovered. It had a slight up tick in ratings, mostly due to Gretzky’s Kings, Lemeuix’s Penguins, and the Rangers first championship in decades. The owners decided that they weren’t a boutique sport, that they could become a legitimate contender, maybe not to the NFL, but certainly the NBA and MLB. In hindsight, they were mistaken. Unfortunately the damage has been done: skyrocketing salaries (without the television revenue to make up for it), overzealous expansion, one work stoppage past, and one looming in the future.

Its nearly guaranteed their will be a work stoppage after these playoffs are over, and the real question is what will the league look like if it comes back. Ownership seems determined to stuff the genie back in the bottle, and go back to the cult spot they never should have stopped being. The players union will fight this, but might give more ground than expected. I heard an ESPN Radio interview a couple weeks ago with Jeremy Roenick who actually admitted the union is expecting a couple teams to fold.

The real shame in this is how ignored the playoffs have been. The fight for the Cup has been as brilliant as ever. The Flames, who have been terrible for years, have the look of a young team coming into their own, building around a superstar goalie in Mikka Kiprusoff. They squeaked past the faltering Canucks, killed the Red Wings (one of the NHL’s few glamour teams) and have taken a commanding 2-0 lead over the Sharks without playing at home. In the East, the Flyers, who feature an actual “Name Player” in the aforementioned Roenick, take on Martin St. Louis and the speedy, exciting Lightning. To bad hardly anyone seems to care.

What? Something other than aged sitcoms is in the news?

Last week, during the breaking of the Abu Ghraib story, Dateline NBC gave us 2 self-congratulatory hours concerning Friends. This week, on the day the murder of Nick Berg breaks, Dateline presented an in-depth look at Frasier.

Way to keep your priorities in line guys.

12-20

Eleven innings, 18 hits, 17 of them singles, and another loss. Anyone have any questions?

Kenya-My Turn

Yesterday the Mrs. Frinklin showed you the live version. I present the original animation in all its glory.

Who comes up with this kind of stuff anyway?

Really, Really Horribly Old. Me, not the baseball team

It seems to have happened very suddenly. Yes, we’ve gone over this once before, when the Mrs. Frinklin had her Humpy incident. And just so you know, she’s feeling much better now; exercises and a few lifestyle changes are killing the prospect of hump.

No, this is about me. See, I went to the Dentist today. I don’t usually go to the dentist. I really dislike the dentist in fact. I haven’t really been to one since becoming an official grown-up. The Mrs. didn’t particularly like being married to a non-dentist goer. She didn’t look forward to introducing people to her toothless husband. So I went. And it turns out I’m falling apart.

Now, I’ll be honest, for my time between dentist visits, I did quite well. Both the hygienist (blonde, cute, overly perky, named Shawna, she’s like the dental hygienist template) and the doctor bent over backwards to let me know how good my teeth were compared to others who don’t frequent the dentist. I have excellent saliva it seems. What got me were my gums. My complete lack of gums actually. I’ve been brushing at least twice a day since oh.. 2 years old I guess. And when I brush, it’s a manly brushing, fast and powerful, just like my parents told me too.

Well this is another thing to blame the parents on. It turns out you’re supposed to brush very gently, in wimpy little circles. When you manly brush like me it kills off your gums. You get “retraction” . This means the gums crawl further and further up your teeth. If it goes too far.. I dunno, maybe the teeth fall out, or maybe it just hurts. Honestly, I was too freaked about my missing gums to ask. This is why I’m old so sudden. Old people lose teeth right? C’mon, we all remember the first time grandpa took his dentures out and scarred us for life, don’t we? Old.

Anyway, I now have to teach myself to wimpy brush. And eventually I’ll get a transplant. Yep, they can transplant gum tissue from the roof of your mouth to your teeth.

Sounds pleasant, doesn’t it?

A Slate look at Jock Blogs

Bryan Curtis has a nice piece on Slate concerning "Jock Blogs". It's well written and hits some obvious sites (Bonds and Cuban mostly), but misses Jody Gerut. While Gerut is on a newspaper site, and he doesn't post all that often, it's still a far more enjoyable read than most dull jockspeak. I can't think of a single reason to miss Athletes Direct.

The article also covers CJ Nitkowski, who for a long time was on my must read list, but he's a lot less fun now that he's really, really Pro-Jesus.

And the less said about Kris and Anna Benson the better. I do have to wonder how much crap Benson has to take from his teammates over his wife.

The Sky has come crashing down on the M's

Steve Kelly has seen the M-pocalypse, and tells everyone about it in today’s Times. It’s what I love about Kelly; he always keeps an even keel. The article is worth reading anyway.

Paul from Nice Guys wraps up the views of the blogosphere pretty succintly: Thanks for coming to town. Here, take our will to live.

How exactly does a team that fancies itself any sort of contender get the Yankees for 3 at home, missing Brown and Vasquez, and end up losing twice?
Once with a 6 run lead, no less? I'm at the point where I can no longer fathom why I thought this team could win. This team has gotten away with some thing that just aren't working anymore. I can't stand it. Everytime I sit down to write a reasonable, measured look at the Beloved M's I just start hating.

And boy does the Mrs. Frinklin enjoy that.

The Mrs. and I

How many other couples do this?

The Mrs. and I seem to have this amazing ability to bore our friends and family to tears by getting on movie-quoting jags. Someone will mention one of our favorites, usually Chasing Amy, Dazed and Confused, Office Space or what have you. Usually we start the whole conversation come to think of it. Anyway, it's off to the races..

"I said no thalt, no thalt."

"What's a Nubian?"

"It'd be a lot cooler if you did..."

The wife and I will then spend several minutes acting out entire scenes, not even noticing that whomever is present that isn't us is quickly going to bemusement to boredom to being really concerned about our sanity. And we will laugh hysterically like it's the first time we've ever heard this stuff, let alone said it.

Is this normal? Do other couple have moments like this? Or are we completely crazy?

Yes we have more than one dog

The Mrs. Frinklin has a very nice post this morning about the Other Dog. His name is Matchbox and he's totally insane, much like The Jeffrey, but in his own, very different way. Oh, and she does neglect to mention one thing: Our ancient cockatiel Gilbert is obsessed with him. He will run back and forth on the bottom of his cage whenever Matches is in the same room. When we let him out of the cage, his favorite thing is to stand on Matchbox's back. The dog tolerates it, but nothing more.

The Great Griffey Debate

Top's Seattle Mariners Forum has launched Bring Back Griffey and a petition as well. I'm really conflicted on this issue. If I think with my head I say no. Junior is aging, injury-prone, makes too much money and has a seemingly deserved reputation as headcase.

But he was one of my heroes. When The Kid came to Seattle, the Mariners were the most useless team in baseball. The wasn't a single reason for the team to exist, the Expos without snooty French-Canadians. Junior gave the entire Pacific Northwest a reason to pay attention to the team. I'm sure I'm paraphrasing here, but Art Theil put it best, "It took the hard work of many and then incandecence of one to rescue this team."

So, make up your own mind.

To any MuNus that check this out...

Susie has been nice enough to nominate Mrs Frinklin for our super-groovy club. As they say in Chicago: Vote early and often!

I'm actually wondering about the Brewers, and I don't know why.

I was strolling around the Transaction Guy and came across this. The Brewers re-upped Scott Podsednik, and wondered: What does this mean for Dave Krynzel? He's out for 8-12 weeks with a foot fracture, but that shouldn't push his ETA past mid-2005. He's projected as a leadoff hitting CF. Do the Brewers think he isn't gonna make it?

Please John... just stop

I really liked John Levesque as a TV Critic, in fact I really miss his TV stuff. Sports, though, really not John's forte. Take this morning's column on how Bob Melvin should look to Willie Bloomquist to save the day.

No, this isn't a joke. I'm not kidding, that's the real story. Look, I think its been pretty well proven around the blogosphere that one of BoMel's problems has been his obsession with Wee Willie. Every team does need a gym-rat, good teammate guy like Bloomquist. If they can't hit worth a damn, like Willie, they're needed down on the end of the bench, playing about once a week, not starting at 3B or anywhere else on the field. Levesque is right about one thing, this team does need to look to its bench. Just get better bench players first please.

As to Melvins option being picked up, well, like David over at USS Mariner said: worse things could have happened to this team. Yes, Melvin seems overmatched at times, but he hasn't lost the team. And really, is it his fault this team has no bench and no power? That the starting pitching has been erratic at best? No, thats Bavasi's fault.

And hopefully, the organization will figure that out before it's late.

If only there was something to watch on TV tonight.

Oh yeah, a long-running sitcom is coming to a close soon. Yep, The Drew Carey Show taped its final episode this week.

You didn't know it was still on either, did you?

Of course, Friends final episode is tonight, a bittersweet occasion for the Frinklin household. Yeah, it will diminish whatever indie cred the Mrs. and I may have possesed, but we are fans of the show. I think it could have come to an end a couple years ago, but thats not important. No, it wasn't the best comedy ever, and yes, it's rather foolish watching NBC fall all over itself "celebrating" the show, but still, it was an easy show to watch and enjoy. Lost in all the hoopla is that the show isn't the cultural touchstone NBC says it is. According to this over-intellectual article on Slate, 1/3 more people watched the show its first couple seasons than do now, and more people watch last weeks CSI than Friends.

A show, along with all its spinoffs and Law and Orders, I never, ever watch.

Speaking of NBC, this morning I caught the beginning of The Today Show, where the top stories were
1-Bombing in Baghdad
2-Friends!
3-Tortured Iraqi prisoners.
Katie Couric had to switch between Cheery-Face Katie and Frowny-Face Katie so much she nearly stripped a gear.

KOTOR 2-10 months (or so) and counting

Lucasarts made it official yesterday, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords will be on next years schedule,with more details to follow at next weeks E3 show. Check out the GameSpot preview. Everything looks cool so far: beefed up graphics, nice concept art and an intriguing storyline. What bothers me is the switch in developers. I don't get it.

I love baseball, and I like Spider-Man

This is just ridiculous. The really sad thing is it doesn’t shock me in the least. Baseball, like other sports is desperate for all forms of income possible. The only thing that shocks me is that MLB hasn’t taken the step of adding adds to uniforms. Yet..

Oh, and professional know-it-all and media whore Ralph Nader is already jumping all over it.

Is it that time of the year already?

Today, obviously, is Cinco de Mayo. Raul, who is of Mexican decent and very proud of that fact, works our evening shift. He also has amazing calligraphy-like handwriting and he gets drafted whenever we need a sign made. He and worked together on a project not too long ago. I'd come up with what needed to be said and he'd come up with this brilliant looking signs with my words on them. I made a joke comparing us to Marx and Engels. He didn't get it at first, and was less than thrilled when I explained whom Marx and Engels were. Did I forget to mention he's a devout Roman Catholic, a strict Republican and lifetime Navy man? You can imagine how excited he was to be compared to the Godfathers of Communism. Anyway, sometime last night he made these really neat looking signs explaining exactly what Cinco de Mayo is and why it is so important to Mexico. They're simple but very attractive: everything is red and green. Anyway, the first thing that Sally (African-American, sexually ambiguous, politically militant, slightly scary at first but basically nice) says when she sees them is, "How come I didn't see this for Black History Month?"

How come I didn't see this for Black History Month? Not, "Those look nice and very informative." or “Raul must have worked hard on those". No, we see the dreaded culture of entitlement. Its not because she's black or (possibly) a lesbian or a woman or anything; We ALL do it. Why don't I get that? Well, the reason there is a Cinco de Mayo poster up is that Raul thought of it, and worked hard, and made it himself. Which, to her everlasting credit, is what our supervisor (also African-American) told Sally when she complained about it. If you want something done, do it yourself, don't wait for someone else. Simply because someone else gets something, doesn't mean you do too. The same goes with groups. Personally, I'm all for the posters, just because it explains a holiday I never understood. Being the unreconstructed whitey I am, I always thought Cinco de Mayo was simply for celebrating the Republic of Cerveza. I spoke to Raul, and we're going to talk to the Bosses about expanding this, making posters for many minor holidays. It makes our offices look better, and makes us better people to know what Cinco de Mayo, Memorial Day and the 4th of July really mean.

And yes, Black History Month too.

What good is having a blog...

...if I can't bitch about minor things that irritate the hell out of me?

I have a prescription for Retin-A, and for some reason my doctor ordered the stuff in liquid form, which is damned difficult to find at pharmacies. I put my refill request last Thursday, thinking it would be ready by Monday. I stopped in on Saturday, and I was right, not ready yet. Well, I didn't get there yesterday, so I stopped in today to pick up my perscription.

Only to be told, not only was it not ready, the damned thing hadn't even been ordered. The pharmacy tech told me not to even bother to use the automated system, it doesn't work.

Thanks fellas.

Oh, and the Jeffery showed his displeasure with us with non-Mariner or Padre junk, and utterly destroyed the Angel hat the Mrs. won last week. Smart dog..

Evil too.

Tomorrow

I will be leaving work early tomorrow to spend the afternoon with the Mrs. Frinklin at a vendors meeting at a well-known Southern California landmark. The best part of it? I get to meet this woman.

Yes, Baseball too

Aaron Miles has seen his production drop a bit. Currently the FS preseason NL ROY is at .284/.304/.433. Hanging around Royce Clayton too much I guess.

Both the Beloved Mariners and Well-Liked Padres get the day off today. Tomorrow the M's start three with the Twinkies. Kyle Loshe vs. Jamie Moyer. Then the big kids, the Yankees come to town for the weekend. Huh, I wonder how A-Rod will be greeted? The Pads head east this week;three in ATL and a weekend series with the defending champ Marlins. Lets see how good this team is, shall we? Speaking of the WLP, Khalil Greene was named NL Rookie of the Month for April today. He earned it too. I watch the Padres almost every game, Greene seems special.

Why I hate the NBA parts 2-4

Thirteen points in the fourth quarter.

Fewest points ever scored in the first half of an NBA playoff game.

In that same game, 27% shooting.

How can anyone even pretend to enjoy this?

Sign O' the Times, Mess With Your Mind,Hurry Before its too Late...

I have an album that changed my life. Everyone does I think. You know that album that you buy and you just can’t stop playing. The album that makes you rethink just what music means to you. It’s the album that you always come back to eventually. For me it was Prince’s Sign O’ the Times. It was 1987, and I had turned 13 the December before. I was just learning that the world existed beyond my Nintendo games. I wasn’t really a music person either. I owned exactly two albums that I can remember: Thriller (which everybody owned) and Journey. Where I went to school, everyone had Journey too. I really liked the song “U Got the Look”, so I scraped together my allowance and bought the album it came on. I got it home, plunked the tape into my giant yellow Sports Walkman, and it hit me like the not-so-proverbial thunderbolt. The first line of the title track: In France a skinny man died of a big disease with the little name, by chance his girlfriend came across a needle and soon she did the same. It blew me away. I know now how much these lines mirror the opening of great literature. Then it was a song that made me think.

It seemed every song on the album opened a new door for me. The gospel of “The Cross”, the throbbing funk of “Hot Thing”, the driving “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man”, and the prototype slow jam “Adore”. I loved every song on the album, for a while I even memorized all the lyrics. Excuse me, not every song on the album. There was “If I Was Your Girlfriend” a very odd song sung almost exclusively in an eerie falsetto. I didn’t like the song then, and haven’t heard it in ages. Then yesterday I listened to it, probably for the first time. I nearly cried. The lyrics tell the story of a man who really wants to as much a friend to his woman as he is a lover. It seems he’s failing. One lyric that wraps it up: Would you run to me if somebody hurt you even if that somebody was me? I didn’t understand it at 13, but I do at 30. I’m married now, and sometimes I do hurt the Mrs. And yes, sometimes she runs to me anyway.

Seventeen years later, Sign O’ the Times is still speaking to me.

The odd thing about all this? I never bothered to buy the album on CD. I probably should.

The Beloved Mariners DO Still Exist!

So when is the last time you were this excited about a blowout of the Tigers?

I had forgotten how difficult this could be. Rooting for a bad team I mean. And let us be honest: this is a bad team. Or at least a suddenly very old team, todays win notwithstanding. Two-thirds of our starting outfield have OPS in the .600's. Our best power hitter has an OBP barely over .300. Rich Aurillia is STILL looking for his first Mariner homer. Piniero's ERA is still over 8, Moyer and Franklin still over 5, and Hasagawa seems to be so far removed from the pitcher he was last year it isn't even funny. Meche had a nice start today, but still looks like his arm could fall off at any moment.

The only good news? None of the other AL West teams look all that great right now. Texas is off to a very nice start, and its due to the fact Hank Blalock stays at the park late, not because he's hitting .324/.371/.562. The Angels haven't hit on all cylanders yet, and Oakland like every April, is hovering around .500. Due to age and office incompetence, it sure looks to me like the Beloved M's would be the least likely to get up off the deck. How sad...

Angry Alien is so damned funny

Last month is was the Exorcist, now it's The Shining. Classic horror movies now staring bunnies.

My Cultural Illiteracy

All you have to do is copy the list, and bold what you've read. Stolen from Big Stupid Tommy
Beowulf
Achebe, Chinua - Things Fall Apart
Agee, James - A Death in the Family
Austen, Jane - Pride and Prejudice
Baldwin, James - Go Tell It on the Mountain
Beckett, Samuel - Waiting for Godot
Bellow, Saul - The Adventures of Augie March
Brontë, Charlotte - Jane Eyre
Brontë, Emily - Wuthering Heights
Camus, Albert - The Stranger
Cather, Willa - Death Comes for the Archbishop
Chaucer, Geoffrey - The Canterbury Tales
Chekhov, Anton - The Cherry Orchard
Chopin, Kate - The Awakening
Conrad, Joseph - Heart of Darkness
Cooper, James Fenimore - The Last of the Mohicans
Crane, Stephen - The Red Badge of Courage
Dante - Inferno
de Cervantes, Miguel - Don Quixote
Defoe, Daniel - Robinson Crusoe
Dickens, Charles - A Tale of Two Cities
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor - Crime and Punishment
Douglass, Frederick - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Dreiser, Theodore - An American Tragedy
Dumas, Alexandre - The Three Musketeers
Eliot, George - The Mill on the Floss
Ellison, Ralph - Invisible Man
Emerson, Ralph Waldo - Selected Essays
Faulkner, William - As I Lay Dying
Faulkner, William - The Sound and the Fury
Fielding, Henry - Tom Jones
Fitzgerald, F. Scott - The Great Gatsby
Flaubert, Gustave - Madame Bovary
Ford, Ford Madox - The Good Soldier
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von - Faust
Golding, William - Lord of the Flies
Hardy, Thomas - Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Hawthorne, Nathaniel - The Scarlet Letter
Heller, Joseph - Catch 22
Hemingway, Ernest - A Farewell to Arms
Homer - The Iliad
Homer - The Odyssey
Hugo, Victor - The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Hurston, Zora Neale - Their Eyes Were Watching God
Huxley, Aldous - Brave New World
Ibsen, Henrik - A Doll's House
James, Henry - The Portrait of a Lady
James, Henry - The Turn of the Screw
Joyce, James - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Kafka, Franz - The Metamorphosis
Kingston, Maxine Hong - The Woman Warrior
Lee, Harper - To Kill a Mockingbird
Lewis, Sinclair - Babbitt
London, Jack - The Call of the Wild
Mann, Thomas - The Magic Mountain
Marquez, Gabriel García - One Hundred Years of Solitude
Melville, Herman - Bartleby the Scrivener
Melville, Herman - Moby Dick
Miller, Arthur - The Crucible
Morrison, Toni - Beloved
O'Connor, Flannery - A Good Man is Hard to Find
O'Neill, Eugene - Long Day's Journey into Night
Orwell, George - Animal Farm
Pasternak, Boris - Doctor Zhivago
Plath, Sylvia - The Bell Jar
Poe, Edgar Allan - Selected Tales
Proust, Marcel - Swann's Way
Pynchon, Thomas - The Crying of Lot 49
Remarque, Erich Maria - All Quiet on the Western Front
Rostand, Edmond - Cyrano de Bergerac
Roth, Henry - Call It Sleep
Salinger, J.D. - The Catcher in the Rye
Shakespeare, William - Hamlet
Shakespeare, William - Macbeth
Shakespeare, William - A Midsummer Night's Dream
Shakespeare, William - Romeo and Juliet
Shaw, George Bernard - Pygmalion
Shelley, Mary - Frankenstein
Silko, Leslie Marmon - Ceremony
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Sophocles - Antigone
Sophocles - Oedipus Rex
Steinbeck, John - The Grapes of Wrath
Stevenson, Robert Louis - Treasure Island
Stowe, Harriet Beecher - Uncle Tom's Cabin
Swift, Jonathan - Gulliver's Travels
Thackeray, William - Vanity Fair
Thoreau, Henry David - Walden
Tolstoy, Leo - War and Peace
Turgenev, Ivan - Fathers and Sons
Twain, Mark - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Voltaire - Candide
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. - Slaughterhouse-Five
Walker, Alice - The Color Purple
Wharton, Edith - The House of Mirth
Welty, Eudora - Collected Stories
Whitman, Walt - Leaves of Grass
Wilde, Oscar - The Picture of Dorian Gray
Williams, Tennessee - The Glass Menagerie
Woolf, Virginia - To the Lighthouse
Wright, Richard - Native Son

My personal favorite is The Great Gatsby.