3.3.2024 – appreciate both

appreciate both
there’re flowers to go around
just leave it at that

In an article about LeBron James, As LeBron James hits 40,000-point threshold, the age-old GOAT debate has shifted by Sam Amick (The Athletic, Mar 2, 2024), Mr. Amick writes:

What’s more, the GOAT construct is tired and flawed in ways that do a disservice to them both. Contrary to popular belief, it’s OK to appreciate Picasso and Da Vinci at the same time and just leave it at that. There are enough flowers to go around.

GOAT meaning Greatest of All Time.

Which I usually translate to “The Greatest of All Time … This Week.”

It is Joe DiMaggio who is credited with saying he played hard … “Because there’s always some fan who may be seeing me for the first time. I owe him my best.”

That too me sums up the outlook of a GOAT.

I will pass over that Marylin Monroe left Mr. Dimaggio for University of Michigan Alum, Arthur Miller.

What do I think?

I think a lot of things, especially when talking about the greatest of all time.

But off all the things you could ask, think, require or want, I think Mr. Amick sums it up pretty good when he wrote, “… it’s OK to appreciate Picasso and Da Vinci at the same time and just leave it at that.

There are enough flowers to go around.

Just leave it at that.“

And I will say this.

Think of all the discussions of this topic in any given field and the discussions go on to the end of time because you know why?

I’ll tell you why.

Because there is NO SPONSOR or COMPETITION that is recognized as the accepted last word on the subject.

With no one to say this is that and that is so, the discussions can be endless.

And rightfully so.

There was time in College Football were there was no ‘truly’ recognized body to say which team and which team was not the best in any given season.

The result?

The real result?

The discussions were endless.

This past year, Michigan won, end of story, end of discussion, on to next year.

For me, the National Champion construct is tired and flawed in ways that do a disservice to them both.

There were a lot of good teams last.

There were enough flowers to around.

And the story, the discussions, would have gone on forever.

Just leave it at that.

Would this have been a bad thing?

The paths of glory lead but to the grave anyway.

3.2.2024 – further furthermore

further furthermore
moreover meanwhile and
additionally

This morning I read the article, ‘We knew this was coming’: western US hunkers down amid avalanche warnings and gale-force winds” by Nina Lakhani and Dani Anguiano in the Guardian (March 1, 2024) and I got hung up by the quote from the National Weather Warning that stated:

There is a high chance (over 70%) of substantial, long-lasting disruptions to daily life in the higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada Mountains Friday-Saturday, where blizzard conditions and 5+ feet of snow are expected.

I liked the idea of … a high chance of substantial, long-lasting disruptions to daily life … through Saturday.

And I wrote this haiku:

high chance substantial,
long-lasting disruptions to
daily life expected

I guess that it means that the substantial, long-lasting disruptions to daily life could HAPPEN through Saturday but the substantial, long-lasting disruptions to daily life could LAST much longer than just through the weekend.

On the other hand, my wife pointed out that 24 to 48 hour power/cellphone/internet/TV outage WAS a substantial, long-lasting disruption to daily life for a lot of people today.

I went and read the complete Short Range Public Discussion Weather Statement from the NWS.

As this blog and these haiku are meant to be about words, I have to take my hat off and applaud those folks at the National Weather service for the all inclusive text in their Short Range Public Discussion.

The Short Range Public Discussion consists of 4 bullet points and seven paragraphs.

The first paragraph starts out with, “A second winter storm will impact the West Coast …”

The following six paragraphs start as follows:

Furthermore, the storm will …

Moreover, in addition to …

In addition, the …

Further, cold air will …

Meanwhile, upper-level energy …

And finally, Additionally, upper-level energy moving …

With a “Also, on Friday …” tucked into the last paragraph.

I don’t know but there something hypnotic, something Shakespearian, like a bass note in a Bach fugue as each new aspect of this storm is introduced into the Short Range Public Discussion of the weather.

I can easily imagine it as a rant of someone in a movie or tv show spouting off on all the things that went wrong on their weekend off.

It was Oscar Wilde who said, “Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”

Well!

Mr. Wilde never met the United States National Weather Service.

PS – OH AND, here is the complete Short Range Public Discussion as it appeared on Thursday, February 29, 2024 at 2:58AM (EST).

Short Range Forecast Discussion
NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD
258 AM EST Thu Feb 29 2024

Valid 12Z Thu Feb 29 2024 – 12Z Sat Mar 02 2024

…Heavy snow over parts of the Cascades, the Northern Intermountain

Region, Northern Rockies, Northern California, and Sierra Nevada
Mountains…

…Heavy lake-effect snow southeast of Lake Ontario and over the Upper
Great Lakes…

…Rain from the Gulf Coast to parts of northern Mid-Atlantic and shower
and thunderstorms along the Central Gulf Coast and Southeast…

A second winter storm will impact the West Coast on Thursday and Friday. The storm will create heavy mountain snow that will affect many passes. Multiple feet of snow are likely (over 80% chance) for higher elevations, especially above 5000 feet, including many Cascade and Sierra Nevada Mountain passes. Extremely heavy snow rates surpassing 3 inches per hour are likely.

Furthermore, the storm will produce blizzard conditions in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In detail, strong winds will cause significant blowing/drifting snow and whiteout conditions, making travel impossible in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. There is a high chance (over 70%) of substantial, long-lasting disruptions to daily life in the higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada Mountains Friday-Saturday, where blizzard conditions and 5+ feet of snow are expected.

Moreover, in addition to the snow, coastal rain will develop over parts of the Pacific Northwest Thursday into Saturday. Coastal rain will develop over parts of California Thursday morning, continuing into Saturday.

In addition, the widespread damaging wind will develop over the Western U.S. Wind gusts of 55+ mph are forecasted across much of the West, particularly across higher elevations and the Intermountain West, where 75+ mph gusts are possible. These winds would likely down trees and power lines, resulting in power outages across affected areas.

Further, cold air will lower snow levels Friday into Saturday. As the storm moves south, snow levels will lower into some Northern California and Sierra Nevada Mountain foothill communities. Much colder air is forecast for Saturday, with temperatures 10-20 degrees below normal.

Meanwhile, upper-level energy moving across the Great Lakes into the Northeast will create lake-effect snow over the northeast portion of the U.P. of Michigan, with the heaviest lake-effect snow southeast of Lake Ontario on Thursday.

Additionally, upper-level energy moving over the Southern Rockies will move eastward to the Mid-Atlantic by Saturday, producing rain and higher-elevation snow over the Southern Rockies Thursday. Overnight Thursday, showers and thunderstorms will develop over parts of the Southern Plains, moving into the Lower Mississippi, Tennessee, and Southern Ohio Valleys and parts of the Southeast by Friday. The showers and thunderstorms will continue over parts of the Southeast through Saturday. On Friday, rain will move into parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Ohio Valley, moving into parts of the Northeast by Saturday. Also, on Friday, scattered pockets of rain/freezing rain will develop over the highest elevations of parts of the Central/Southern Appalachians.

3.1.2024 – sea is never still

sea is never still
pounds on the shore restless as
a young heart, hunting

THE sea is never still.
It pounds on the shore
Restless as a young heart,
Hunting.

The sea speaks
And only the stormy hearts
Know what it says:
It is the face
of a rough mother speaking.

The sea is young.
One storm cleans all the hoar
And loosens the age of it.
I hear it laughing, reckless.

They love the sea,
Men who ride on it
And know they will die
Under the salt of it

Let only the young come,
Says the sea.

Let them kiss my face
And hear me.
I am the last word
And I tell
Where storms and stars come from.

From The Young Sea in Chicago Poems by Carl Sandburg (Henry Holt and Company, 1916).

2.29.2024 – a true leap of faith

a true leap of faith
into unknown what may be
see you in four years

Four years ago today I wrote this haiku:

Reading Anxiety
excessive interest
Bound box of Moonlight

And I wrote an essay about the worries I created for myself by my need to always have something to read and always seeming to worry that there was some new fact I might be missing by not reading.

I find it interesting that I use the phrase, ‘Bound Box of Moonlight” but I don’t credit the source of the thought.

My wife and I had just watched the odd movie Box of Moonlight where the hero or anti-hero if you will, brings home a bound box of moonlight.

Not sure what I was thinking that morning back four years ago.

It was a Saturday and I would have just finished a week of commuting back and forth into the city of Atlanta.

An election was coming up in 9 months.

We were looking at the 1st Spring of Covid but the March 13 lockdowns were unimaginable.

The affects of Covid overall could not have been taken seriously.

My daughter was expecting a baby at any moment.

But what was I thinking?

I can tell what I wasn’t thinking.

I wasn’t thinking that in October my job would be made redundant.

I wasn’t thinking that I would be living in South Carolina.

I would never have ever ever thought that on a regular basis I would be walking on the beach along the Atlantic Ocean.

And once again, a daughter is expecting a baby at any moment.

Here is the point.

This day, leap day, won’t come again for another 4 years.

What will change in those 4 years.

What will I be thinking in 4 years from today.

I might be retired and not going into work every day.

I might be a lot of things.

But this I do know.

There will be 1,461 days until February 29, 2028.

The sun will rise, Lord willing of course, 1,461 times and set 1,460 times.

Here on the island, the tide will come in 2,932 times and sweep everything away and go out 2,931 times, leaving a clean tides wept beachscape behind.

See you in four years.

As Bette Davis said in All About Eve, “fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.”

PS: Those stories about the millennial who showed up for meeting at 10:25 because they were told the meeting was a quarter past 10 must be true. I explained leap year to a coworker who fits that demographic. She asked what happened to the extra day everyone was talking about and when I said there wasn’t a February 29th last year or next year, she didn’t believe me and had to look it up but then looked very satisfied that she now knew what leap year and leap day meant.

2.28.2024 – party championed

party championed
free people, speech, trade, markets …
once de-zombified

Discussing what Former South Carolina Governor, Nikki Haley should do next, after losing the Republican Primary election, columnist Bret Stephens wrote:

The honorable advice is for her to come to terms with the fact that she may never be president,

but she can become a leader of a principled conservative movement that rejects demagoguery, supports the rule of law,

champions free people,

free speech,

free trade

and free markets —

and bides its time until the Republican Party is de-zombified and wants to return to its former self.

That means campaigning for a while longer, maybe even to the convention.

This was in the opinion piece, The Conversation: Trump Is in His Element , a weekly column in the New York Times by Gail Collins and Bret Stephens where these two writers exchange views on the world scene.

I am, truly, really, trying to stay out of political commentary but the use of language, specifically de-zombified was too much fun to pass up.

The discussion made me think for two reasons, well more than two but these two stand out for the purpose of this essay.

The first reason was the end of that sentence, return to its former self.

It seems to me that this was the first time I had read that someone felt the Republican Party might return one day.

A party of that would once again be a principled conservative movement that rejects demagoguery, supports the rule of law, champions free people, free speech, free trade and free markets.

Maybe.

I think that Pandora’s Box has been opened and all the King’s Horses and all the King’s Men aren’t going to get that Box closed but, well, maybe.

The second reason was that word, de-zombified .

Trying to come up with a word that explains what has happened to the Republican Party, you would hard put to come up with a better word than Zombified along with The Walking Dead.

Kind of sad really.

I remember back in the day listening to a radio broadcast of the Chicago White Sox with Harry Carey and Jimmy Piersall.

The White Sox were down late in the game but the bases were loaded with two outs.

Harry called out his famous, “OH OH OH for a LONG ONE.”

Jimmy responded with, “I’d settle for triple.”

“I’d settle for double.”

“I’d settle for a single.”

“I’d … settle for a hit batsman.”

OH OH OH for an Abraham Lincoln right now.

I’d settle for Jerry Ford.