Hardball tactics triumph again
New York City's MTA union president Roger Toussaint is being declared
the victor after the transit workers secured a new 37-month contract late Tuesday night. The tentative deal secures the workers' pension program in its entirety, and boasts benefits ranging from above-inflation wage increases to the establishment of paid maternity leave and the recognition of the Martin Luther King paid holiday. The thousands of dollars reimbursed through previously-paid pension contributions (up to $14,000 individually) will easily offset the $1,000 fine each worker will have to pay for going out on strike.
Last week, Toussaint was abandoned by the parent Transport Workers Union for initiating the strike. He was branded "thuggish" by the city's mayor, and viciously attacked by the city's tabloid newspapers, the Post and the Daily News. But the move drew public attention to the union's cause, to intimidation and malicious treatment on the job; and it encouraged state mediators to suggest that the Transit Authority take pension changes off the negotiation table.
Hardball tactics will have to be the order of the day as long as Corporate America continues such a focused attack upon employee pension programs and the like. Was it only last year that every politician in the country was promising to get tough on Enron-type corporate crooks? In the time since, no legal reforms of any kind have been enacted, and the 401(k) system prevalent in the private sector remains much less a retirement savings account than an advertising campaign for the mutual fund business, with little or no regulation to protect against widespread fraud. Employers are contributing less and less to 401(k)s with each passing year, and today, roughly 40 percent of private sector employees have no pension program at all (Source: Center for American Progress.) Most public employees still work under the fixed pension, so the stakes in New York City were high for all in this negotiation.
The members of TWU Local 100 say they were more interested in gaining respect than monetary gains during the bargaining process-- from the governor, the mayor, the Transit head, and especially from supervisors. The Village Voice reports this week that there were 16,000 disciplinary action notices issued to workers in 2005, one for every two members. MTA employees work under harsh time regulations by nature, but that makes them especially susceptible to abuse from superiors, and formal reports of worker violations this year included wearing ties crooked, leaving a newspaper in a bus window, and taking bathroom breaks at unauthorized times. The media largely cast the transit workers throughout this month as prosperous and privileged, by contrast to today's overall workforce, but one worker described a "punitive mentality" on the job, adding that "the atmosphere (there) is like poison."
Petty supervisor grievances and unmeasured discipline are par for the course in many of today's work environments. Superiors find directions around work contracts with such tactics as calling out "incomplete" doctor's notes or claiming multiple violations on a single offense.
An all-out battle is being waged to destroy the middle-class in America, but victories such as those claimed by Toussaint and the NYC transit workers can help stem the destructive tide.
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It's only a matter of time until the lid of George Bush's "War for Oil" is blown off for good. Maureen Dowd's column on Wednesday noted that it's now been two years since Times reporter Jeff Gerth filed a Freedom of Information Act with the Pentagon to view the 500-page document prepared by Halliburton about what to do with Iraq's oil industry. Rumsfeld and Cheney can probably continue to stonewall for a considerable length of time, but eventually this report is going to come out into the light, and then we'll find out why the war profiteers didn't want us to see it.
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Happy New Year to the fearless gang over at "The Nation." In 2004, the left-wing magazine
begged Ralph Nader not to run for President, claiming that he was putting his own career legacy of public advocacy in jeopardy. Then, in 2005-- just last month actually-- they formally
announced that they would no longer "support any candidate for national office who does not make a speedy end to the war in Iraq a major issue of his or her campaign."
What exciting policy change will 2006 bring for "The Nation?" Keep an eye on your local newsstand and find out.
Moeller TV Listings
Time's a-wasting. Read this as fast as you can: Tony Bennett is honored tonight at the Kennedy Center. The show begins at 8 central on CBS.
Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Spielberg
When it comes to obsessing about one's legacy, Bill Clinton and Bud Selig ain't got nothin' on Steven Spielberg. Each one of the film director's historical "re-creations" is amped with enough cinematic thrills to excite commercial audiences, enough self-importance and phony esteem to warrant them as museum pieces, and, therefore, just a little something to offend no one. Lest we have forgotten, by film's end, that the entire narrative of "Munich" has been driven by the innocent massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, Spielberg crudely intercuts the sequence of his lead character's final fucking of his wife with an operatic re-accounting of the bloodletting at the Munich airfield. The Accidental Assassin is tortured by his career choice. Get it?
The concept of vigilante justice in "Munich" is ripe for exploration in the current political climate, and Spielberg knows it. He's the A-lister of all A-listers in Tinsel Town, and he's taken his pick of the litter in movie projects for the better part of three decades. (I wept when I found out that our greatest director, and the consummate cynic, Billy Wilder, had wanted to make "Schindler's List" his last picture, but couldn't get the rights.) "Munich" could have delivered as either an indictment or endorsement of the current U.S. policy in Iraq and Afghanistan, or even as simply a morality tale about conflicted motives, which is what it attempted to be. What it is, though, is another tutorial from Spielberg on how to be all things to all people. An affirmation of his belief that thrilling an audience is the most sacred motive of all, and an overkill reinforcement of the notion that the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians is really fucked up.
For the life of me, I can't figure out how the movie could be interpreted as either anti-Israel or anti-Palestinian, though similar thematic shortcomings in film have never been a hindrance before for special interest groups that want to raise their public profile. Both peoples are humanized and portrayed as victims, and Israel's military policy of vindication is alternately praised and ridiculed. Like I said earlier, the film's only real allegiance is to Hollywood blockbuster traditions. It's basically just a re-telling of other "revenge with a conscience" films, such as "The Untouchables," or 1998's "Ronin" as my theater companion pointed out. Or "Unforgiven." Or, come to think of it, "Batman."
If Spielberg's social ideas always surface as if from the lesson plans of that 40-year-old high school history teacher who wears a denim jacket to class, the personal themes of his films always come straight from the heart of that 14-year-old boy still inside Steven that lives to be exorcised every six to 12 months in your local cineplex. His father issues play out in a couple ways this time, first, between the lead executioner, Avner, and his superior, and then, in a laughable triangle between Avner, his treacherous French source, and the source's pragmatic but noble father. (The patriarch murder profiteer lives out his days, cooking in an elaborate rural chateau surrounded by adoring grandchildren. Think Vito Corleone at his daughter's wedding, but without the U.S. Federal Government taking down license plate numbers.)
Spielberg continues to be the clumsiest major movie director of sexual themes since the lifting of the Hays Code, and maybe even before that. (Recall Jennifer Garner's awkward role in "Catch Me If You Can.") Here, I thought I was experiencing the first truly sexy scene of his lexicon, involving an is-she-or-isn't-she Mata Hari. The problem was it didn't fit the narrative, and then, soon enough, the plot degenerated into a familiar Spielberg arc about how good little boys shouldn't trust their dicks, and then
completely collapses with perhaps the most degrading and masochistic film sequence since "Blue Velvet."
The prize for the scene that requires the most suspended audience disbelief goes to the one in which the French source sets the assassins up in an Athens "safe house" with PLO operatives. The Palestinians believe the Jews are just European Socialists, and the two groups bond over Al Green on a vintage radio. Maybe that's the moral of Spielberg's film. "Whether times are good or bad, happy or sad," can't we all just put down our machine guns and groove?
Back to the table
New York City transit workers are back on the job tonight, without a contract and without a resolution to the underlying issue behind their walkout-- pension contributions. Commuters in the Big Apple that use public transportation were inconvenienced by the shutdown of services this week, but on the bright side, commuters that
don't use public transportation were inconvenienced by the shutdown this week. We were told that the principal dispute in contract talks was the fact that the city wanted to buck the age of retirement with full pension up to 62, while the union wanted to hold the current age requirement at 55. That detail alone was enough to convince most NYC residents that the transit workers were being unreasonable, yet few were privy to the specifics of the negotiations, and fewer still knew the bargaining history or the other concessions that may have been made over time to protect that benefit.
We now know three things for sure: 1) Current law allowing for massive financial penalties on the union effectively cripples government workers' ability to leverage a fair deal, and to maintain solidarity in its ranks during a strike. 2) Liberal New Yorkers' compassion for the plight of their local public servants ends with the sacrifice of their own convenience. And 3) New York City plunges into chaos when it has to cope without the daily efforts of the hardworking men and women of their mass transit system.
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Thought of the day: from
"Big Bill" Haywood,
"Nothing is too good for the working class."---
My interest in this spring's "World Baseball Classic" plummeted last week after I heard that the Treasury Department denied MLB's permit request for Cuba's entrance into the competition. Chickens! I thought to myself. Now comes word that Puerto Rico, who was scheduled to host Cuba in the round-robin tourney, may withdraw San Juan as a host city if the Cubans are not permitted to play. Meanwhile, an anti-Castro Congressman in Florida is attempting to form a team of Cuban defectors to represent the island nation in the 16-team tournament. When will our country ever learn? If they had ended the trade embargo in or around 1964, capitalism would have flooded into Cuba by now, and Fidel Castro would be a footnote in history.
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Baseball's Hot Stove is heating up. Johnny Damon is a Yankee, the Cubs are shopping Mark Prior to Baltimore for Miguel Tejada, and the Cards have signed "bad boy" pitcher Sidney Ponson. The 29-year-old Ponson has the distinction of being the only pitcher I've ever seen pitch in a St. Louis Browns uniform. In his one and only start in St. Louis in June 2003, as a member of the Orioles, he threw a complete game shutout on Turn-Back-the-Clock Day. His career highlights also include three convictions for alcohol-related traffic violations, and an 11-day stint behind bars in his native Aruba for punching a local judge last Christmas. Good thing that baseball players have a good union-- we're told that Ponson will enroll in the Cardinals' Employee Assistance Program to help reinforce his three-month sobriety.
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Quote of the day: David Letterman, last night, "
Bad news for the Boston Red Sox- Johnny Damon has signed with the New York Yankees. Yeah, Damon will be required to get a shave and a haircut. It's the same deal with Elton John's new bride."
All aboard
Times are tough for the labor movement. The Collective Bargaining process, responsible for health and safety employment standards, unemployment insurance, fair wages, what remains of the American middle class, and what you recognize as "the weekend" has been progressively crippled by corporate robber barons and greedy politicians since 1947. Transit workers in New York City courageously walked out on strike today (without the support of its parent union, I might add,) and it's costing them $1 million a day. I'm linking to an even-handed
explanation as to how that disgraceful legal situation came about.
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Our business partners in China are
cracking down on dissidents just before the close of the Fiscal Year. That means bulls in '06, investors!
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George Bush needs to stop claiming that he sought and received Congressional approval for his illegal wiretaps.
This is the reason I always file my pay stubs and bank statements.
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Film critic Roger Ebert posted his year-end
Top 10 List Sunday. You know what that means? Only seven to eight more months before the CM Top 5 is revealed. Here's a hint about the 2005 CM Film Awards in progress, check out #6 on Roger's list. It's available already on DVD.
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There have been many terrible reasons for my short posts or my not blogging over the last year, but the latest excuse is the worst. I came in possession of a new easy chair this weekend, and I love to relax in it. I know what you're thinking-- buy a laptop, you stooge. No dice! When I blog, I blog. When I lounge, I lounge.
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Funny story about my new chair... I was headed towards the laundry room on Sunday in the basement of my building when I walked past this only slightly-used, and quite lovely futon-style recliner and matching ottoman-- in my favorite color, by the way-- cardinal red. (You can lie completely flat on it-- like that lounger that Fredo Corleone is collapsed upon in "The Godfather, Part II" when Michael tells him he's cutting him out of the family.) It was in the basement hallway, up against the wall, next to the two garbage bins. It seemed too nice to be on its way to the dumpster, but there was no name or note attached. I set my laundry basket down. I looked over my left shoulder, then over my right...... I pinched the chair. No one's come knocking on my door as of yet, and hopefully, Santa was looking the other way.
Moeller TV Listings 12/20/05
Episode #2 of the new TV Land series
"Sit Down Comedy with David Steinberg" airs Wednesday night at 9pm central. Larry David is this week's guest for the hour. Steinberg is a veteran stand-up comic and director of such classic shows as "Newhart," "Mad About You," "Seinfeld," and "Curb Your Enthusiasm." In fact, if you enjoy Wednesday's interview, check out "Curb's" Season 3 DVD in stores now. It contains an interview by Steinberg of the show's cast and crew at the Aspen Comedy Festival.
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Enjoy
this well-deserved press for late night talk show host Craig Ferguson.
Why even bother with a Patriot Act?
This is indefensible. Start the impeachment proceedings.
Live Free or Die
Hip hip hooray!
The Patriot Act is dead!
How still we see thee lie
The so-called "War on Christmas" controversy is just the latest example of how modern religion is more about commerce than about spirituality. There
is no war, of course, only a new public recognition of cultural inclusion, sometimes clumsily applied.
It's big business, as always, if you can manage to convince the ruling majority that their rights and liberties are under attack by a smaller population of shiftless conspirators, but a little history lesson, in this case, goes a long way. First, Jesus was not born on December 25th, as best the world can tell. That date was picked by early church leaders to coincide with pagan recognitions of the Winter Solstice in an attempt to marginalize them. The decoration of fir trees and the hanging of wreathes are co-opted pagan rituals, so by that standard, it's not even debatable that we might call decorated secular trees, such as those found in offices or department stores,
Christmas trees. They are Christian symbols in neither origin nor current state of being.
The Puritans fought to keep Christmas off the new continent, having been unable to find mention of December 25th in their Bibles, and New York newspapers reported churches being closed on that date, under protest, up until the 1850s. It wasn't until the 20th Century that the retail industry hopped on board, and began to turn the holiday into the economic and cultural bonanza that it is today.
What drives some Christians to seek secular vindication for their beliefs, anyway? It's the commerce, and if you doubt that, turn on the TV, drive to the mall, or just look out your window. The preachers, who once fought to keep materialism out of the church, now perpetuate the bogus battle between good and evil so that the offering plate might get a little "Christmas goose" before the end of their tax-exempt fiscal year.
Don't buy into the madness. If there
is a War on Christmas, it's being waged by Corporate America against the Tiny Tims dotted across their payroll sheets. Point your finger at the Grinches who slice their health and pension benefits at year's end to boost annual earnings statements. Have pity for the heartless beasts who kick their elves to the snow to open real-life sweatshops under the authority of repressive governments.
Follow
my belief system instead-- keep as far away from the stores as your obligations allow, watch Charles Schultz's annual, year-end "Peanuts" parable, and tell your family and friends what they mean to you.
Precarious Development
Info from today's
Variety, courtesy of friend, Kem Saichaie:
What's up with Arrested Development? While it seems to be on the cancelled list at Fox (tho not officially), there is word other networks may be interested in picking it up. Among the rumored interested parties are ABC and Showtime. It should be noted, however, contractually nothing official can happen until the show is truly cancelled by Fox. Also there are significant financial considerations at hand-- including the show's $1.6 million per episode price tag, and let's not forget about the millions in deficit financing 20th has already put into the show. One way to offset the financial losses to date is syndication, tho when production this season concludes the show will be 36 episodes shy of a syndication deal which needs a minimum of 88 eps in the can to launch. If either ABC or Showtime are real contenders for this show, this may have to make a very serious commitment for the jump to make sense for 20th, who would continue to produce (and continue with deficit financing.)You can be sure the last thing Fox wants is for another network to make a hit of this program. Stay tuned. Literally.
Eugene McCarthy
The most heroic aspect of Sen. Eugene McCarthy's life (1916-2005), and his most poignant lesson for today's leaders, is that he always put the American people and his principles ahead of the well-being of his party.
To remember him this week as 'the Howard Dean of 1968' seems to me to be a pretty fair oversimplification. Just as in 2004, the Democrats of 1968 stood paralyzed with fear against a growing majority of its constituents that opposed a disastrous, unwinnable war.
Unlike 2004, though, the incumbent President facing the voters in '68 was also a Democrat, and when McCarthy, the upstart, populist from Minnesota, scored 42 percent of the votes in the New Hampshire primary, the unthinkable happened-- a sitting president announced that he would not seek re-election to the office.
The rest is ancient history, though you'll recognize the plot outline from more recent elections. LBJ threw his support behind the bid of his pro-war Veep, Hubert Humphrey. Another opportunistic hatchet man, and the brother of the man who launched the war, Robert Kennedy, joined the race, and before the California vote could be recorded, McCarthy had been re-cast by party leaders a radical and a demagogue. He was
accused of wanting to negotiate with the Vietcong, and of wanting to relocate black residents of Los Angeles to the white suburbs of Orange County. McCarthy would run for the Presidency four more times in his life, but never again with such influence, judged, by the hacks, to have threatened the party machinery. The candidate was terminally damaged, but his movement would be won. Opposition to the war was galvanized, and eventually, it stopped.
Unlike Dean, who fell in line behind the hawks to court Washington favor, McCarthy defiantly refused to ever 'take his medicine.' He became a passionate advocate for third parties. He treated both parties in power with equal disdain over the years, going so far as endorsing Ronald Reagan in 1980 in righteous anger over Jimmy Carter's disastrous tenure. During McCarthy's final campaign in 1992, with the media ignoring his efforts and his party reduced to the loose amalgamation of special interest groups it remains today, he quoted Plutarch, the ancient Greek historian, "They are wrong who think politics is like an ocean voyage or military campaign, something to be done with some particular end in view."
This is fundamentally the difference in political strategy between the two parties. Barry Goldwater was steamrolled in the Electoral College by Lyndon Johnson in '64. He was labeled a dangerous right-wing extremist during the campaign, and claimed just 52 electoral votes to Johnson's 486 in November. But did Republicans then demonize Goldwater's failure at the ballot, running from his principles in each subsequent election? No. They
adopted his principles at both the grassroots and electoral level, and today, they have a monopoly of power over nearly all layers of American government.
Contrast this behavior with that of our Democratic operatives and leaders, who continue to turn their backs to the core party values of McCarthy, and even more specifically, George McGovern. The '72 party torch-bearer, McGovern, may have been forever labeled a loser after his landslide defeat (sometimes a candidate must give up his political life for the cause,) but he turned out to be damned right about the war. It is
his voters who carry the privilege today of telling the world, "I told you so." Of course, they don't, by and large, and the South Dakota Liberal is routinely pilloried by both parties.
America owes a great debt of thanks to Eugene McCarthy upon his passing, not only for having turned "a movement of concerned citizens (in 1968) into a
national political movement," as McGovern said on Saturday, but for a lifetime of thoughtful and responsible politics. His is a dying breed.
Life imitating art
Attention, "Sopranos" fans. Remember
this actor ? (WARNING: This is an ugly story.) He played Matt Bevilacqua, who got caught up, along with Jackie Jr., in the Richie Aprile saga of Season 2. They held up the executive card game, and he wound up getting shot by Tony and Big Pussy after being tied up in a warehouse and peeing his pants. It was a rough story arc for his character, but it seems his reality is equally as bad.
Death in the desert
Tonight's "60 Minutes" piece,
Dying To Get In, ably demonstrated why the current immigration policy on the U.S./Mexico border is failing us, and why "get tough" crackdowns and wall constructions along the border would only serve to further damage the situation.
Our economy, as well as Mexico's, would be strengthened, and needless deaths would be avoided, if we, once and for all, get serious about cracking down on unethical businesses that hire undocumented workers, such as the Iowa and Nebraska meat packing plants discussed on the show. All employees should have to present documentation for being in the country upon their hiring-- period. When illegal hirings were targeted by law enforcement at these plants seven years ago, 3,500 people fled the meatpacking industry in Nebraska within just 30 days.
I support the liberal issuance of such documentation, work visas or the like, to Mexican immigrants or visitors. The work ethic and initiative demonstrated by recent immigrants are-- and have always been-- the lifeblood of this country's economic and cultural growth. It is racism and xenophobia, only, fueling the argument that the immigrants' presence drains our economy.
Corporate cheats doling out slave wages and benefits, here and abroad, drain our economy.
An open border between the U.S. and Mexico would raise the standard of living in both countries, but only if the policy is coupled with employment guidelines that protect workers on both sides of the line. That means-- a
minimum wage in this country that is also a
livable wage for U.S. citizens. No more five or six dollar-an-hour bullshit. That shameful minimum standard has wreaked havoc for two decades. Americans can't live on that salary, let alone raise a family on it. They're working longer hours and for less each year. Mexicans can profit from that wage, but only if they take their payment back across the border. The mixed signal we're sending to them, as the show's immigration expert explained, is that they shouldn't legally cross the borders, but if they successfully circumvent the bracing heat and potentially-poisonous terrain of the southwestern desert, they're home free.
Building security walls has only exacerbated the problem. As Border Patrol agent Mark Reed told Ed Bradley, fortification encourages more people to enter (now an estimated 500,000 a year.) They bring their entire families with them because they can't pass back across legally or safely. They estimate that twice as many Mexicans are now crossing the border, even as it has been tightened since 9-11. This seems counter-intuitive, perhaps, but the facts seem to be universally acknowledged.
Beefing our own labor laws to protect
both American and visiting workers is the simple and ethical solution. Documented aliens would still have a right to work, but under a fair competition for jobs. Let's begin with a full repeal of the 1947
Taft-Hartley Labor Act that obstructs the formation of new unions and restricts the efforts of existing ones. Ending tax breaks that allow companies to export jobs overseas, loot the Treasury, and employ foreign manufacturing workers at slave wages would do as much as anything to create more well-paying jobs for the pool of workers in the U.S., and it would drive up the standard of living for the bottom 99 percent of all wage-earners in the northern part of the hemisphere.
The loudest argument for a border barricade is also the biggest red herring. Terrorists are simply
not crossing the Mexican border. The Border Patrol has tallied 1.1 million arrests this year, and none of the arrests have been of suspected terrorists-- "Islamo-fascist" or otherwise. We flatter ourselves to think that they have to come in through Mexico, anyway. If we're worried that the mountain regions of our southern border are too porous, than why not the same region of our northern border? I contend the only reason is racism. It's not the arrival of Muslim fundamentalists many of us fear, but the arrival of dark-skinned peoples from Latin America. Mexico has been a good fucking neighbor to the United States, to say the least-- peaceful and fair, and the prevalent mindset that their people dilute our standard of living or our safety, when the statistics prove otherwise, is shameful.
Furthermore, if we're zero for 1.1 million in our pursuit of terrorists along the Mexican border, then a security wall stretching from Baja to Padre Island, solely for the purpose of their capture, seems like a colossal waste of money. It would consume billions upon billions of dollars that don't exist.
The Rat and Me
I shared some cherished moments this morning with former Cardinals' skipper, Whitey Herzog. "The White Rat," as he's known-- Casey Stengel protege, and architect of the Cards' last World Championship in 1982-- appeared at the nearby Bob Feller Museum. I'll re-create the scene:
ACT I (of I)-- The curtain rises to reveal a small, modern looking, brick building in picturesque Van Meter, IA, nestled between the sturdy, but dormant trees of the Raccoon River Valley. It's mid-December, and wintry conditions can be witnessed through the windows of the museum's front entrance. Moeller carries a large printed image depicting Herzog in the Cardinals' dugout of the mid-1980s, surrounded by some of the manager's prominent players of that time. A closer examination of the print will reveal that it has already been signed by the other baseballers whose likenesses appear. They are Ozzie Smith, Willie McGee, Jack Clark, Tommy Herr, and Vince Coleman. With Moeller is his friend Semelroth, who carries Moeller's copy of "White Rat," Herzog's autobiography, and who will assist with the unwrapping, and consequent re-wrapping, of the print. The two men pay their museum admission, collect their autograph tickets, and proceed to the signing table. There is a line of just three people. A pair of museum officials bookend the 74-year-old Herzog as he sits amidst the Feller memorabilia, signing baseballs and glossy photos. An assortment of colored pens are sprayed out in front of Herzog.MOELLER: Mr. Herzog, it's a very real honor to meet you.
HERZOG: Thank you. Oh, look at that. (
Inspects the print.) Yeah. Everybody's signed it but me.
MUSEUM OFFICIAL: That's great.
MOELLER: It was a great
team.MUSEUM OFFICIAL:
(To Moeller) What would you have done if Mr. Herzog wasn't here?
MOELLER: I got excited when I heard he was coming out here. I've been waiting about 14 years to get this finished. I would have
walked out here from Des Moines if I had to.
(The men laugh.)HERZOG: (
Gesturing to the print.) A fella in Cincinnati did this.
(To Moeller.) Now you can put it in the frame.
Semelroth is seen snapping pictures of the exchange with his camera phone, positioned to Moeller's left. Herzog finishes signing, left-handed. Moeller extends his hand, and Herzog shakes it. Moeller leaves the table, but returns shortly with the copy of "White Rat."MOELLER: Could you sign
this, Mr. Herzog?
HERZOG: Yeah, you bet.
(Takes the book.) Should I inscribe it to someone?
MOELLER: Please. To Chris. With a C.
HERZOG: C-H-R-I-S ?
MOELLER: That's right.
Herzog inscribes the book on the title page, again left-handed. Later, it will be revealed that he has written, "To Chris, My Very Best, Hope You Enjoy, Whitey Herzog." Moeller continues chatting as one of his heroes-- and a German-American 'bruder'-- writes.MOELLER: Everything I've learned about baseball, I learned from this book. Strategies, line-ups, the double-switch....
HERZOG:
(Interrupts.) Well, then let me tell you something, kid, you don't know a helluva lot about baseball.
(Both men laugh.)MOELLER: That's why I had to buy your
second book.
(More laughs.)Herzog returns the item, and they shake hands a second time.MOELLER: In all seriousness, though, your teams in St. Louis were fantastic. They made it easy to fall in love with the game of baseball. Thank you.
HERZOG: They were some great guys. Nobody ever accused my clubs of using steroids, I'll tell you that. They'd hit a hundred singles in a row, except for Jack Clark. Everybody else would swing, and it would sound like they were hitting the ball underwater. They could run, though, and they could play the game.
Moeller backs out of Herzog's presence, and the manager turns his attention to the next fan in line. Moeller and Semelroth take time to tour the museum. Semelroth has returned from having taken the print back to the car for safety considerations. Moeller continues to eavesdrop on Herzog's various conversations while examining the museum displays. Among other verbal chestnuts, he hears from Herzog: a repeat of the steroid comment; a positive assessment of the role that owner Gussie Busch played in Herzog's success in St. Louis; a listing of Milwaukee Braves pitchers, circa 1957 (at a fan's urging)-- Spahn, Burdette, Sain, Bob Buhl, etc.; and the following quip about the manager's wife, Mary Lou-- "I didn't speak to her the first two years I was married to her... I didn't want to interrupt her."Moeller and Semelroth depart, with Moeller taking one last wistful look across the room. The curtain falls.And 'scene.'
The VERY end
Busch Stadium is gone. The last section toppled down early Thursday. Check out
this link, then click on "Busch Stadium finale photo gallery."
Invisible sources
My new employer has an interesting history. Qwest was formerly US West, formerly Northwestern Bell Telephone Company, the old Ma Bell utility for the 14 western states stretching from Iowa and Minnesota, across to Washington and Oregon, and south, down the Mountain time zone, to include Arizona and New Mexico. It was one of the three Bells divested by AT&T (formerly American Telephone and Telegraph) in 1984. On the first day of work, they showed us an enduring corporate image of some phone technician trudging towards the phone poles during a late 1800's blizzard in the Dakotas. The artist's rendering set my
Deadwood heart a-twitter.
In Episode 1, Season 2 of the HBO series (re-airing Christmas night,) perhaps that very same worker and his colleagues have begun constructing the telegraph poles that will deliver "messages from invisible sources, what some people think of as progress" in the yet-to-be-annexed Hills. Not even a wily cocksucker like
Al Swearingen could have foreseen a future without wires, of digital imaging, fiber-optic transmission, three-way calling, MSN pop-up guards, and Parental Controls. (Oh, how Al would have hated that.)
It's an exciting thing to be a part of-- cutting edge and technology-driven, yet still married to a rich and remarkable past. If it doesn't work out, I'm going to work for
the Pinkertons.
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It's the little things with a new job-- parking, eating, time management, etc. Parking's a no-go in downtown Des Moines so I walk through sub-zero wind chills to reach the office. Lunch is late so I'll be eating breakfast on a consistent basis for the first time in a decade. My favorite lunch spot has become my favorite dinner spot. Union-mandated work breaks are having a difficult time being filled. I can check my e-mail, but there's no net-surfing. I tried to read a book today, and make a couple calls, but neither of those things felt right. Maybe I'll take up smoking.
A simmering stove
I'm still waiting for the Cardinals to make their splash in baseball's Hot Stove League. Some minor adjustments have been made to the roster: Urbana, IA native Cal Eldred is literally putting himself out to pasture; John Mabry heads to the Cubs with this free advice, from me to them-- don't use him as a pinch-runner; Abraham Nunez flees to the Phillies for full-time employment; and the Cardinals nearly overpaid for free agent flamethrower A.J. Burnett, before the Blue Jays mercifully swept in and overpaid by even more.
It's been a mixed bag for the division rival Cubs. The ideal solution for their gaping holes at shortstop and lead-off hitter (Rafael Furcal) spurned them, though I like their new bullpen with Scott Eyre and Bob Howry. The Reds have finally dealt All-Star-- and overall good guy-- Sean Casey (after almost 8 years of trade rumors,) and Roger Clemens has forced the Astros into inactivity by waiting until at least late January to let them know whether he plans to return. The division's relative inactivity should favor the Cardinals, but first they've got to settle their own problems at second base and set-up relief, while making themselves much younger in the outfield.
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The 2006 World Cup of Baseball in March is going to be spectacular. I hope they plan to televise it somewhere. Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter declined an invitation to join the U.S. team, but you'll find NL MVP Albert Pujols batting third in the Dominican line-up. Cards' thirdbase coach Jose Oquendo was asked to manage the Puerto Rican entry, and he lassoed Yadier Molina to be his catcher.
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My enthusiasm for St. Louis' new ballpark is tempered by the team ownership's unwillingness to give the payroll a bump. The mind twirls at the amount of money they must have pocketed last year, and twirls some more at their financial prospective for '06.
I wouldn't rule out a sale of the team in the not-too-distant future. The general partners seem to enjoy their involvement with the team, but chairman Bill DeWitt pulled a similar stunt with the Texas Rangers-- buy the team, get taxpayers to foot the bill for a large portion of a new ballpark-- substantially raising the value of the club. Then cash out. I'm just saying-- don't be surprised.
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The wife of Mets pitcher Kris Benson, Anna, is ripping the team for shopping their husband around, (To the Cardinals?) and thinks her on-going negotiations to pose for Playboy is the catalyst.
"We would have never, ever signed with New York if they had said they were going to trade us," she said, "I was Miss (I can't find the actual published word) for the Mets the entire time I was there. I have no deal with Playboy."
She continued, "How are they going to sit there and say it's so controversial, when they sign someone like (Carlos) Delgado, who turns his back on our flag? (See last Monday's post.) Playboy is all-American. Everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Cindy Crawford has posed. They didn't turn their back on our flag."
True enough, but as St. Louis Post columnist Jeff Gordon points out, they did wear their skirts at half mast.
News flashes
A majority of Americans--
and Iraqis want an American withdrawal from Iraq, and still the Democrats can't get it together.
This is absolutely pathetic.
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Before you leave the
Washington Post site, save
this invaluable page with your other web favorites-- it's a database of every Congressional vote since 1991.
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All of you new Qwest employees,
take note.
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I've dug up the transcript of last night's Howard Stern profile on "60 Minutes."
Enjoy.
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Here's an
op-ed piece by one of Howard's biggest defenders. It's from Friday's
New Jersey Star-Ledger.---
Tomorrow, the 6th, marks the one year anniversary of this blog. Here's a summary of the first 365...
Good-- Alexander Payne, Albert Pujols, comparing things you like to jazz music
Bad-- Corporations, Larry King
Happy Anniversary. Thanks for reading.
The spirit of service
I begin a new gig Monday-- having landed steady work with Qwest Communications in Des Moines in a sales position that appealed to me as much for its collective employment agreement with the
Communication Workers of America as it did for its opportunities for advancement within a
quality company. I accepted the position a month ago, but withheld the details from you until now to generate some much-needed drama on this site-- and also to make sure I passed my drug test. My hours will be only slightly different than those of my old job, and I don't anticipate major changes with the blog. Still, you never know.
Stay tuned, and thanks for the cards and letters.
The Queen of the Daytime meets the King of the Night
Oprah and Dave. That's what I call
event television.You may have been put off, somewhat-- as I was, by their syrupy conversation. It was heavily-dosed with mutual expressions of admiration and some ridiculous platitudes, but there was no denying the electricity on the screen when Oprah Winfrey returned to the stage of a Letterman show for the first time since 1989, a period in which he was still broadcasting on NBC. The contrasting personalities were enough to set off sparks for me, and Dave's orchestrated escort of Winfrey down Broadway towards the glittering marquee of her new musical "The Color Purple," amidst an onslaught of flashbulbs, made the presence of "that good ole'-fashioned show business" feel downright palpable.
I detect a bit of sarcasm about Letterman's escorting in Dana Stevens' review of the program, but the Slate TV critic is
pitch-perfect in her assessment of the hosts' long-simmering "feud." Perhaps no two temperments could be more ill-suited.
Dave has "hit the nail on the head" a thousand times-- Oprah hates his guts.
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I flipped past part of Barbara Walters' "10 Most Fascinating People" special earlier this week, and I've determined that Barbara is too easily fascinated.
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Joke of the day: Conan O'Brien, on his show, Tuesday,
Good news this week, Mary-Kate Olsen has put on 20 pounds. (Audience applauds.) The bad news? Ashley is missing.
