On Babies and Manners
I want to jump on the bandwagon in congratulating Princess Kate and Prince William on the birth of Prince George last week. We’ve seen newborn babies before but rarely do we see such manners and etiquette — and eloquence and grace — by two people, be they princess and prince or the rest of us. Granted, Kate and William have many things and experiences we will never have. But certainly all of us, adult and child, can learn manners and etiquette by watching them. We have an acute drought on manners in this city and country. Money is no excuse, you see, because having good manners and being polite is free.
The Dodgers are a Baseball Team
Perhaps I have mentioned it before, but I enjoy watching MLB baseball again. I’ve switched to Channel 9 and watch the Dodgers. If the Angels are to make late or off-season changes they had better start now. Make ex-pitcher, Chuck Finley, the pitching coach and Tim Salmon, ex-outfielder, the manager. Move Mike Scioscia to the front office to replace the probable soon to be departed general manager Jerry Dipoto.
A Heavenly Solution
The Angels front office is very concerned that they have no current players or farm prospects to act as bait or fodder in any future trades or acquisitions. I don’t have confirmation, but there is a buzz that the Angels may go to space to set up a galactic farm system. Initially scouts will be stationed on Venus and Mars. I personally think Krypton would develop the best players and power hitters. Administrative offices would be built on the moon to reduce space travel and to act as a solar stopover to other planets.
Obamacare Rewrite
In my last column there was a comment on how to fix Obamacare. It suggested a committee going through the 2800 pages word by word and making common sense changes. On second thought, how about another idea as well. Since the lawyers in Congress wrote this abominable piece of trash, how about making them rewrite it. After all, since they wrote it, they can fix it — without any extra pay. Remember the last time when the bill was written overnight Nancy Pelosi embarrassed herself and all of Congress by saying something like there being a need to pass this bill so they could learn what was in it. That itself should have been enough to remove all of Congress. So let’s ask the legal midnight writers to clean up their own mess.
That Surprising Magical Moon
As you may know, I often end with something pretty silly. We have been seeing some pretty large moons lately, particularly last June 23. If you are like me, you have trouble remembering all the names given to the moon, in its various stages. For example “Supermoon” happens when the moon, while on its elliptical orbit, is at its closest point to Earth. So, it seems bigger than usual. The moon can appear to be up to 14% larger and 30% brighter than when the moon is at its farthest point, or “apogee.” So I thought a poem might help us remember.
When large and bright and compels you to swoon,
Then we earthlings call it the romantic “supermoon”
When small and dull and increasingly hard to see,
Then the stark moon is in the non-romantic “apogee”
So now when we look up we have a way to remember,
Come night in June and July or November and December
