From Peter King:



This is as perfect a quote summing up the Bill Belichick approach to a season as you can read -- no matter how maddeningly boring it is. After the first practice of camp the other day, Belichick was asked about his expectations of the team this year.
"I think right now what we're trying to do," he said, "is correct the mistakes from this morning and go in and have a meeting and put in the stuff that we have scheduled to go in this afternoon and try to go out and have a good practice this afternoon and that's really where we are. It's one practice after another. It's putting one foot in front of the other. We're just day-to-day right now. There's no light at the end of the tunnel. We have a long way to go and a lot of work to do and I'm not really worried about anything down the road or a month from now or two months from now or any other team in the league right now. I think we just have to work and get better each day and there are so many things that we have to work on that that is where our concentration is.''

Tom Snyder died. I wanted to write a little bit of a personal rememberence of him. Snyder had the show after Letterman for most of the time I was in college. My friend, number 13 and I would joke that we were the only people in that part of Rhode Island watching. But here are three memories of Tom, that proved even then what a Genius he was.

1. Charlie Sheen had just finished his rehab stint, this was probably 95, 96. Snyder has him on to promote his comeback movie. But Snyder doesn't softball him questions about how good he feels now that he is Sober, or what it was like to go back to work. My memory is hazy but three of the questions I remember him asking that made for phenomenal TV were:

1. So what is different about having sex on Coke?
2. Does sex feel different when it's with a prostitute?
3. What do you do after you are finished with a prostitute do you have a
conversation?

And since it was live, there was nothing for Sheen to do but take it and answer.
2. Tom would always start his show with a story. One of my favorites was he once did five minutes on buying gas in Beverly Hills. Moreso than Garrison Keillior or Spalding Gray, or even one of my Hero's Eric Bogosian, if someone wanted to be a storyteller I would have them watch a few hours of those opening stories. He had no studio audience, he would laugh with the stage managers, he would read email forwards. It was compelling televison in a way that we may never see again.
3. Tom would refer to things as short-hand, and in a way when I refer to the field as the field, it is an honor to him, who refered to his lady friend as the companion.

So when I heard the news this morning I was sad, but I know somewhere Tom is having a Colortini with his Dogs and his mother.

I am blatantly stealing from Slinger. The Friday Five. (Although with the understanding that I just know that he uses the title, and I am not sure if the Friday Five refers only to Music, but it will in this case).
5 Songs that have been ruminating in my mind for the last few days.

1. Radio Cure - Wilco. When it comes to forming opinions I usually stick to my guns. If I like something I will always like it, and if I don't like it, I won't. When Yankee Hotel Foxtrot came out, all my musically in friends were talking about it like it was Pet Sounds. I listened and was unimpressed. When I got my I-pod I put the album on anyway, over time it has won me over.
2. Follow You Follow Me - Genesis. Written in the period in between Peter Gabriel leaving and them becoming the quintessential big 80's band. It was in Chuck and Larry and is really a great song, and reminds you of what talents they could be when they wanted to be.
3. Lovers in a Dangerous Time - Bruce Cockburn. I only came to this song because I heard the Barenaked Ladies version. Great song and really a great artist. Pacing the Cage is another great song.
4. Addicted to Love - Robert Palmer. "You'd like to think that you're immune to the stuff oh yeah, closer to the truth is, you can't get enough, you know you're gonna have to face it you're addicted to love."
5. Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead. The only time I was ever in a float plane and flying over the forests of Northern Ontario, about to begin a nine day canoe adventure, this was the song that was playing on the Boombox that say in between me and the pilot. "It wears you out"...

And those are my Friday Five.

I have never understood the fascination with Scrubs. I think primarily because Zach Braff grates me like a whining cat scratching its claws on a blackboard. But Gutfeld has a good take here.

I honestly feel bad for Lindsay. Somewhere in there a lot of people, including her parents, her friends, and I would say the latest rehab facility, have failed her. She should have the book thrown at her legally, but after that some people who really know what they are doing should help her out.

I was talking to Number 13 last night. Is there anything worse than someone setting up something for you and it having the opposite effect. And I don't mean when someone intentionly says to you, "I have bad news, we are going to Las Vegas for a week for free".

I mean when someone says to you something like, "Great News, my cousin and three kids are going to be at the family reunion too, and are going to stay with us the week after to visit the area."

That's not the actual incident I am refering to, but you can see where was headed.

I call that the Free Lobster Roll Paradox. Because imagine today at your company cafeteria they were giving out Free Lobster Rolls, to some people that would be the best news in the world, but to me who hates Lobster Rolls and actually likes living Lobsters, that would be really bad news.

One of the best movie speeches ever.

5 Animal Crackers that would be tough to identify

1. Manateee
2. Platypus
3. Honeybee
4. California Condor
5. Racehorse

So through a weird set of circumstances the field and I were able to go to the premiere of I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. I will rattle off my thoughts Powerpoint style.

• So a movie about two firefighters who pretend to be gay to help the one's kids recieve death benefits, seems like a stupid idea. It was actually very funny, and as you know I am a sucker for, it actually had a lot of heart. I wouldn't say rush out to see it, but it would be a very open-minded date choice.
• Jessica Beil is very pretty in person, but huge, not fat, but just a big person. I saw Paris Hilton once in Las Vegas and was surprised at how small she was, this time I had the opposite reaction
• Even a cynical jaded person like me, must admit its pretty cool to be right next to the red carpet
• Chris Rock was there, and looks exactly like you would expect him to.
• Kevin James is big.
• It was held where Robert Evans, held the premiere of the Godfather. That's kind of cool.
• Adam Sandler sat two rows in front of us, and was incredibly gracious, signed and took pictures with everyone.
• Best Wednesday night since the season of Lost ended.

I think I can finally admit that I am kind of a Yankees fan. I mean they will never hold even the smallest iota of portion of my heart that the Patriots do, but sitting at Yankees stadium last night for probably the 50th time in my life, I realized that I do like them and want them to win.

Schilling Sucks!

The thing about the Onion, is that you read it enough, and then you only need to read the headline to pretty much predict the rest of the story. This one, was someone who doesn't own a car and only relies on Public Transportation, I thought was funny.

About the time I really started being interested in girls, I also started to leave my radio on all night. I was living in a suburban South Jersey town. The time was 1988,1989. The major powerhouse in Top 40 radio was a station called Eagle 106. The 10-2 in the evenings DJ was Danny Bonnoduce, who at the time was only known as Danny Partridge and not the almost psychotic reality? star that he is today. He had that gravely smokers voice, and just out of rehab edginess that as a wussy 7th grader who could barely muster the nerve to say hi to a girl in the hallway would be inspired by. He had confidence, and these Phildelphia girls would call up in between songs and he would fearlessly dispense advice to them.
At the same time all music, except for church music, would invoke in me a theme of unrequited love, not that at the time I knew what unrequieted love was. Anyhow Danny Bonnoduce would start his show every night with Wild Wild West by escape club. So sometimes as I am getting ready for work, and the field is long gone I put on the music channels of our Cable system. This morning I put on the 80's channel to hear Wild Wild West. And music does trigger so much and at that time, I was infatuated with one girl. Jen. Anyhow here is a verse by verse as best I can remember it, my interpretation of what Escape Club was singing about circa 7th Grade. And its amazing that I a can't remember that the field told me to pick up the dry cleaning, but I can remember this song's meaning almost 20 years ago.

Wild Wild West
Forty-seven dead beats living in the back street
North east west south all in the same house
Sitting in a back room waiting for the big boom
I'm in a bedroom waiting for my baby
So here the first three lines I didn’t really understand. But the last line made perfect sense, because I was in my bedroom about to go to sleep and I was waiting for my baby, Jen. CHORUS:
She's so mean but I don't care
This girl Jen was in my Kindergarten class and was very mean then went to Catholic School and came to our public middle school and was not mean, but did ignore me.
I love her eyes and her wild wild hair
Jen as I remember it had extremely blue eyes, and unlike most girls in the 7th grade she had already taken a big interest in her appearance, including having manicured fingernails.
Dance to the beat that we love best
I wasn’t a dancer, I hated the thought of dancing, but in my mind the second a cute girl expressed interest I was going to be Travolta or Swayze and I would turn into a hero. I blame Footloose.
Heading for the nineties
This was the late 80’s so that made sense.
Living in the wild wild west
Jen, lived on the west side of town, I lived on the east side of town (might as well have been West Side Story)
The wild wild west

Mandy's in the backroom handing out Valium
I misheard this lyric up until googling it this morning. I always thought Mandy was handing out Valleys which never made sense to me.
Sheriff's on the airwaves talking to the D.J.'s
Sherrif was another artist of that era that sang, When I’m with you, at the time which for another time had other great unrequited love lyrics
Forty-seven heartbeats beating like a drum
I still don’t understand the 47 reference again.
Got to live it up live it up
Have fun as two 13 year olds in love.
Ronnie's got a new gun
I thought this was an offhand reference to President Reagan, but didn’t understand why.
CHORUS

Now put your flags in the air and march them up and down
Jen was a cheerleader, of course.
You can live it up live it up all over the town
She was on the west, I was on the east. Our relationship would cover all of the municipality
And turn to the left, turn to the right
Jen sat directly in front of me in Reading (we had both English and Reading in 7th Grade) so if she turned either direction she would see me.
I don't care as long as she comes tonight
I always thought of this referring to her coming to a dance.

CHORUS
Heading for the nineties living in the eighties
Screaming in a back room waiting for the big boom
Give me give me wild west
Give me Jen’s interest
Give me give me safe sex
Safe Sex was kissing, and I would have loved to have kissed her
Give me love give me love
Give me Jen’s interest, Give me Jen’s interest
Give me time to live it up
And let it happen soon so the rest of the dances in the school year I am not sitting around with the guys pretending to be cooler than I am.

Fill in the Blank ___________.

Some Monday afternoon's last forever.

Also on Wednesday Evening the Field and I, through a friend, got invited to go to the Premiere of the new Adam Sandler/Kevin James movie "Chuck and Larry". Look for my thoughts on Thursday. (and yes I am really, really, really hoping that Jessica Beil is there, if for no other reason than to ask her what it was like to work with Jamie Foxx in Stealth, and if the father on 7th Heaven really is the father of the year week in and week out.

This weekend I went golfing, my score was so high, they had to use Scientific Notation.

Slinger has a well thought out plot-hole busting post about Star Wars over here. Great reading if you are a fan of the movies.

Today something was bothering me the entire walk into work. I couldn't figure out what it was. I thought there was something wrong with my pants. Maybe a hole in them. Or I missed beltloop. I just couldn't nail it down. Then I got to work, and I started to work, but then I remembered that something was bothering. So I went to the bathroom to check my situation out. I had put my boxershorts on backwards. All I could think of is the old Farside cartoon, where the boy is pushing on a pull door and there is a sign "Midvale School for the Gifted".

You know what song would never be popular today, Wake up Little Susie.

A) Nobody goes by Susie
B) No teen has a curfew of 10.
C) There really are no Drive-ins
D) The singer is concered about his reputation being shot over falling asleep at a Drive in?

One of life's moments, that feels so good, is when you are over your head, but somehow manage to pull through with flying colors.

With the sad truth of the London Bombings, the Hippocrattic oath has come to the nations forefront again. This is combined with a mere three days ago it was 7/7/07. This leads me to ask the following questions. If you are an Obstetrician (If that is indeed a baby Doctor) when it comes to stating the time of birth and weight of the baby how much leeway do you play with? Especially on special calendar days like 7/7/07.

Example one: If a baby, lets call him Ralph, was born at 7:06:54 you might state that his time of birth is 7:07 and nobody would scream.
Example two: If a baby lets call her Rita, was born at 7:09:01 would it be ethical to name the birth time as 7:07?
Example three: If a baby and I have decided to stop naming them, was born and weighed 7 Pounds 6.5 ounces, I would think it would be acceptable to say his birth weight was 7lbs 7oz.
Example four: If another baby, again unnamed but different from the one in example three and cuter, is born and weighs 7lbs 10oz would it be okay to put on the charts that it weighs 7lbs 7oz.

I know you think I probably don't have an opinion on such things, but I do. I really don't care about Ralph and Rita's birth time (ironic in that I named them and not the others). I would think though, that in the case of birth weight that is an important medical yardstick. Later when talking about growth percentages, a few ounces might be statistically significant, especially in cases where people were rounding up.

Similarly odd: On fourth of July one of the stations predicted that the daytime high was 76. It only got up to 72. Were they trying to be cutsie with the historical temp reference or was it a bad prediction?

Is there anything better than the feeling of once in your life, saying the right thing. The thing that Dirty Harry or Sonny Crockett would say and not just thinking of something clever to say, days, weeks, years later.

The Lost Theory.

Lost as a TV show I think is a metaphor for life. Not in the way the characters, plot and mystery unfold. That is all interesting and entertaining. I am thinking more in terms of the Tom Petty gem The Waiting. The story I have always heard is that Petty wrote the song after reading a People Magazine article on Bettle Midler. In the article she is asked what is the hardest part of performing, and she says, "Waiting to get to perform for that one hour the next day" and Petty sings "The waiting is the hardest Part." It's such a simple thought that even though the song is musically nothing really special, but the meaning, pun intended, always struck such a chord.

Lost to those people that view it regularly is a frustrating show. There are 3, 4, maybe even 5 episodes where things are hinted at, there are small moments of joy but also an awful lot of frustration. The frustration is focused on the unknown, of hints but no answers, of wanting more action, more satisfaction, and just more. It gets to the point where you get so frustrated (and no this is not a call for help at all, I am not on the ledge) but where you think about stopping watching Lost altogether. Your love of life/Lost keeps you going though, because you hope and eventually there comes an episode where all that frustration is eased, where the struggle of the last 3, 4, or 5 episodes is erased by how meaningful and satisfying the episode is. And here is where I bring it full circle because even though so far the summer has been pretty good, this weekend was one of those episodes that makes you realize why you love the show so much to begin with.

All that being said, I still don't understand the Polar Bears.

Have you ever seen the Tao of Steve? If not you should.

I never got Transformers... I was a GI Joe Guy. Sure I had a few... but to me robots are much better for building cars or acting as cleaning women for the Jetsons, than doing battle.

My favorite book about America: Travels with Charley. Steinbeck's later in life journey with his poodle in a camper van. I think it captures the essence of America that is just under the surface of today's slickly marketed perception of America. Plus it has always made me want to get a black standard poodle, which happens to be the one dog the Field hates.

Fourth of July 2002. It was the first time the Field and I went away. We were going to a wedding in Andover, Massachusetts. The Field was in the wedding party and that meant while they got final dress alternations, nails done, hair done and had a brunch I was left to my own devices. It was also about 106 that day and the hotel we were staying in was miles from anywhere. To keep me amused, that morning the Field gave me the attached photo to keep myself busy. I wish I could say it didn't work.

Fourth of July is my favorite holiday. In the last 11 years, as I would define it great times have happend in like 10/11. That is a much better average than any other holiday. Plus its the one day a year I get to wear my Uncle Sam costume without looks. (Okay I sometimes can pull it off for Halloween and Election Day).

The only good thing about Wednesday Fourth of July's when you have to work... Two Fridays in the same week.

I thought that the 40 Year Old Virgin was a step in the right direction in terms of summer comedies. The movie plays true throughout, and then has one of the greatest non-sequitor endings of movies ever. The greatest part of the movie is that it never sells out in the name of laugh versus the long-term arch of the story. So this weekend the Field and I saw Knocked up. Very funny movie. And really tries to do the same thing. Tries to never sell it out, and probably never does, instead what this one never completely caught was the versimilutude of the truth. I just never bought into the story. Not because a schlub can't get a pretty girl, but because there was never a true relationship between them, They never sold me that they got there. And to me that is the shame of the movie. It took a very funny, and very possible topic and left it just short. And yet I would still recommend it. Because it is that funny, and it is so much better than so much out there.