Bookworm

Steiner, Hickman, Waldman

Charley Steiner, John Sterling's radio partner, will be doing Dodger broadcasts next season.  Fred Hickman has left the YES Network studios for a job with ESPN.  Rumor has it that Suzyn Waldman will join John Sterling on the radio end of things.

And if you're hungering for some actual Yankees baseball talk, check out Clifford's Big Red Blog, where he talks about the 2005 team.

Advent Season 1

This Advent season I am reading Syllables of the Perfect Word: Advent Reflections 2004 by Rose Marie Berger sent to me by a dear friend. It arrived in my mailbox on Friday or Saturday, but I just sat down with it for the first time last night.  I'm caught up now through today's readings, so I should be on track now.

I really like the Thomas Merton quote in the introduction: "Advent is the beginning of the end of all in us that is not yet Christ."  There is also an Advent prayer, from the Ethiopian Christian liturgy, that I have made a "task" in Outlook at work each noontime; it will be my "grace" that I say with my lunch:

O Eternal God, the beginning and end, you who sustain all things, understand all things, who existed before all things, and who are without end, be with us, remain among us; strengthen our intentions, sanctify our souls and eradicate from us all that is evil.  Enable us to make a good sacrifice and pour out your abundant blessings, and so enable us to enter into the holy of holies wherein dwells your beloved presence.

The section from Sunday's reading that struck me was, "Though we try to stay spiritually awake, we are human.  We fall asleep.  We are lulled into the addictive habits and patterns of the world.  We begin to act and think and live like unbelievers--like those whose vision is not shaped by God."  I haven't been to church much this year.  I was guilty of this in the months before G. was born and I'm more guilty now.  I need to do better.

. . . they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and thei spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. Isaiah 2:4

Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.  Romans 13:12

Therefore you also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.  Matthew 24:44

Monday's reading instructed us to "pay attention to your response to ambiguity."  The day was over when I read it, but what it made me think of was the conversation I'd had with someone at work, a man of Middle Eastern descent.  We talked of his trip to Acadia National Park in Maine, where I've visited in the past.  He suggested I might like Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island; he did part of his training in Nova Scotia.  I began to inquire if he'd heard of the Anne of Green Gables books and he had; he indicated that people can tour a house that inspired Lucy Maud Montgomery.  I tried to hide my amazement that someone from across the globe, whose first language was not English, someone I thought very different from me in many ways, could converse about these things. 

K., this Isaiah passage for Monday was completely unfamiliar to me!  What are we suppose to glean from it, do you think?  I should probably read more of the surrounding text for clues.

On that day the branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and glory of the survivors of Israel. Whoever is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, once the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgement and by a spirit of burning. Then the LORD will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over its places of assembly a cloud by day and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night. Indeed, over all the glory there will be a canopy. It will serve as a pavilion, a shade by day from the heat, and a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.  Isaiah 4:2-6

As regards today's reading, am I alone in thinking that the author is reading between the lines quite a bit by saying that Jesus woos and seduces Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John to follow him, saying the disciples respond as if they are in love?  Obviously they must be overwhelming affected to leave their lives and families behind, but she seems to be pushing the envelope a bit, to me. 

The same Lord is Lord of all . . . Romans 10:12

Hall of Fame Candidates 2005

Jim Abbott
Bert Blyleven
Wade Boggs
Tom Candiotti
Dave Concepcion
Chili Davis
Andre Dawson
Steve Garvey
Rich (Goose) Gossage
Tommy John
Mark Langston
Don Mattingly
Jack McDowell
Willie McGee
Jeff Montgomery
Jack Morris
Dale Murphy
Otis Nixon
Dave Parker
Tony Phillips
Jim Rice
Ryne Sandberg
Lee Smith
Terry Steinbach
Darryl Strawberry
Bruce Sutter
Alan Trammell
The Hall of Fame's website gives career highlights and stats for each player.  Wade Boggs and his bat will likely be arriving in Cooperstown -- who else do you think merits the honor?

Sheffield Shoulder Surgery

"The New York Yankees announced Monday that Sheffield will undergo arthroscopic surgery on Tuesday. The duration and nature of his rehabilitation regimen is undetermined. The Yankees hope to have Sheffield at or close to full strength by the time he reports to spring training.  Sheffield led the Yankees in 2004 with 36 home runs, 121 RBIs and finished second in the American League MVP voting."   [Yes Network]

Update: "Gary Sheffield is scheduled to fly to Birmingham, Ala., this morning [Tuesday, November 30th] to have his left shoulder operated on by Dr. James Andrews, said Sheffield's publicist, Marvet Britto. Sheffield originally was slated to have the surgery a week ago today, but rainy weather canceled his charter flight. The Yankees believe the surgery is a minor procedure and that Sheffield will complete rehab in 4-5 weeks and be fit for spring training. However, Sheffield's lawyer, Rufus Williams, said he was concerned that Sheffield has a torn labrum, which would require much more rehab."  [NY Daily News]

Electoral College Reform Proposal

Am I crazy, that this proposal really seems to have some merit to it?

Do You Use Birth Control?

Do you like having the ability to choose when or if to have children?  Do you like choosing when to have intercourse?  How would you feel if you no longer had the ability to fill your birth control prescription, or if you were delayed in filling the prescription because your pharmacist refused to fill it and wouldn't even give you your prescription slip back?  How you would feel if you had been raped and the pharmacist refused to fill your doctor's prescription for the morning after pill?  Nope, this scenario isn't from a dystopian science fiction novel; it's occurring in this country right now.

"The American Pharmacists Association, with 50,000 members, has a policy that says druggists can refuse to fill prescriptions if they object on moral grounds, but they must make arrangements so a patient can still get the pills. Yet some pharmacists have refused to hand the prescription to another druggist to fill. . . . "We have always understood that the battles about abortion were just the tip of a larger ideological iceberg, and that it's really birth control that they're after also," says Gloria Feldt, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. . . Pharmacists have moved to the front of the debate because of such drugs as the "morning-after" pill, which is emergency contraception that can prevent fertilization if taken within 120 hours of unprotected intercourse. . . While some pharmacists cite religious reasons for opposing birth control, others believe life begins with fertilization and see hormonal contraceptives, and the morning-after pill in particular, as capable of causing an abortion. . . [A woman in] North Richland Hills, Texas, filed a complaint with the Texas Board of Pharmacy after her prescription was refused in March. In February, another Texas pharmacist at an Eckerd drug store in Denton wouldn't give contraceptives to a woman who was said to be a rape victim. . . In [a] Madison [Wisconsin] case, pharmacist Neil Noesen, 30, after refusing to refill a birth-control prescription, did not transfer it to another pharmacist or return it to the woman. She was able to get her prescription refilled two days later at the same pharmacy, but she missed a pill because of the delay."  [USAToday]

Commentary of the OffSeason Yankees Variety

"Here are the two types of players who should fill out the Yankees' roster:
1. Accomplished veterans with experience in extremely pressurized environments.
2. Homegrown Yankees.
It's natural to want to make the Yankees' pitching staff younger, especially when you recently witnessed Kevin Brown's breakdown. But in recent years, that desire has imported such busts as Jose Contreras, Javier Vazquez and Jeff Weaver. The Yankees poured money and years into essentially unproven commodities, and they all flopped.. .  .[A]s they go forward, the Yankees absolutely, positively have to develop their farm system - not just for trading chips, but for the nucleus of the future. Look at how Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Bernie Williams conducted themselves this past month, and how Andy Pettitte used to pitch in October. They sometimes fail in big spots, but you never sense any anxiety.  "We come up, we understand what it's like to be a Yankee," Jeter said last month. "How important it is. That's pretty much drilled into your head when you sign here. I'm sure that does do something."  [Newsday]

More Post-Election Agita

" I don't know what to do. People are organizing, they sure are, they are making plans and registering domains, and I just feel like we are rushing forward into the dark. We are one angry mob, rushing into the dark with torches and Tom Bihn bags stuffed full of liberal agita, crying "Onward to 2006!"  I'm not sure we know yet what we did wrong in 2004. And repeating the same behavior but expecting different results is called "insanity."   We can't fix it yet if we don't know exactly what's broken. And we don't know exactly what's broken because it's still too soon. We're still too angry. We're still too sad. We won't be able to look back critically and create The Perfect Plan for going forward until we've finished pointing our fingers and rending our clothing and stomping our feet."  [Pineapple Girl]

Political cartoons at Cagle.com

And not a link, but a question to any Democratic or Progressive-minded folks visiting this site:  Do you think Hillary would win if she ran in '08? 

More Election Reaction

"I know that fifty-one percent of this country isn't made up of rich white guys, their Stepford Wives, gun nuts and homophobic Jesus freaks, so I'm a little puzzled at who these Bush voters actually were. Consider for just a moment the number of women, minorities, gays and lesbians and middle class or poor people who must have voted for a petty and simple-minded man who doesn't care even a tiny bit about them or their lives."  [Darn Tootin]

"Exit polls showed John Kerry the winner. In polling places where traditional paper ballots were used, the exit polls were a very close match to the actual electoral results. In places where the new electronic, paper-trailless voting machines were used, the exit polls were extremely inaccurate compared to the actual elecoral results which showed Bush the winner." [Newsdredge]

""My first thoughts after the election... Cpl. Roberto Abad, Sgt. Michael D. Acklin II, Spc. Genaro Acosta, Pfc. Steven Acosta, Capt. James F. Adamouski, Pvt. Algernon Adams, Sgt. Brandon E. Adams, Spc. Clarence Adams III, 1st Lt. Michael R. Adams, Pfc. Michael S. Adams, Lt. Thomas Mullen Adams, Spc. Jamaal R. Addison, Lance Cpl. Patrick R. Adle, Capt. Tristan N. Aitken, Spc. Segun Frederick Akintade, Lance Cpl. Nickalous N. Aldrich, Spc. Ronald D. Allen Jr., Sgt. Glenn R. Allison, Lance Cpl. Michael J. Allred. . ." [Read the rest; scroll to the 11/4/04 entry. MichaelMoore.com]

From the Blogosphere

"Setting aside my general political leanings, my personal views and feelings of partisanship, I think the result portends very bad things for America's role in the world and the well-being on all levels of this country. Changes in domestic politics, in theory at least, can be shifted back at a following election. The world, though, is different. There we are just a ship -- though the largest one -- on waters we can never truly control. And I fear that this result will set in motion dangerous dynamics that even the relatively young among us will be wrestling with and contending with for the rest of our lives." [Talking Points Memo]

"Our safety valve must be federalism. We have to live and let live. As blue states become more secular, and red states become less so, the only alternative to a national religious war is to allow different states to pursue different options. That goes for things like decriminalization of marijuana, abortion rights, stem cell research and marriage rights. Forcing California and Mississippi into one model is a recipe for disaster. Federalism is now more important than ever. I just hope that Republican federalists understand this. I fear they don't." [Andrew Sullivan]