What's so Classic about it?

A lot is made in educational and literary circles about reading the "classics." We must read the "classics" to be considered intelligent, well-read, enlightened, and (the unspoken implication) NOT red-necked, lowlife trailer trash.

There is a certain snobbishness that goes along with reading the "classics."

I've read enough "classics" to know this: the term "classic" doesn't necessarily equate to "well-written" or "interesting."

As a student, I had no choice but to read the "classics" assigned to us or get a failing grade when I could not pass the quizzes on those "classics." As an adult, I can pick one up and decide in the first page whether or not I want to devote a portion of my life to reading it.

Last night, I decided I would try reading, The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James. I've had it for over 25 years. Two minutes later I put it down. I don't think I'll try to read it again. The reason?

This sentence:

"The case, I may mention, was that of an apparition in just such an old house as had gathered us for the occasion – an appearance, of a dreadful kind, to a little boy sleeping in the room with his mother and waking her up in the terror if it; waking her not to dissipate his dread and soothe him to sleep again, but to encounter also herself, before she had succeeded in doing so, the same sight that had shocked him."

Had we written a sentence like this in school, the teacher would have circled it in red and called it a run-on sentence. This sentence by James has 81 words. 81 words!

It took a couple reads for me to realize that what happened was this.

A little boy saw a ghost that scared him. He woke up his mother so she could see the ghost as well.

I wrote that in two sentences totaling 22 words and said the same thing. They say brevity is the soul of wit. Apparently, Henry James wasn't a particularly witty person.

Yet his work is considered "classic."

I have read others that I found less than impressive as well. I thought Moby Dick was dull, Crime and Punishment tedious, and Great Expectations pretentious. As I read Washington Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow, I kept waiting for one of the characters to speak, but it never happened. The whole story is pure narrative.

There are some "classics" I've enjoyed. I liked Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native, Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, every Mark Twain book I've read, and many others. And there are some contemporary tales that I would place in the category of "classic" though only time will really determine that.

Time and whatever future snobbish intellectuals determine to be called "classic."

Given the trends in the creative world, though, the criteria for establishing such labels will probably be vastly different from that which has been employed to date.

Bah

So the Yankees won #27.

Good for them. Lousy for everyone else.

I don't care for the Yankees. I think it's genetic. I don't hate the players - I don't even know them. You should never hate someone you don't know due to lack of justifiable cause. But I don't like them, will always root against them.

I tend to think their fans are obnoxious. And, yes, they probably say the same thing about Red Sox fans. Their gloating makes me want to block their news feeds on Facebook. I am not a fan of gloating.

So the Yankees won #27.

From what everyone is saying, it sounds like they think that the team as it is currently comprised won all 27 World Series. But that can't be right.

It has been 9 years since their last WS victory. Back then, their starting roster looked like this:

Lineup
Jorge Posada*
Tino Martinez
Chuck Knoblauch
Scott Brosius
Derek Jeter*
Ricky Ledee
Bernie Williams
Paul O'Neill
Shane Spencer

Starting Pitchers
Roger Clemens
David Cone
Orlando Hernandez
Denny Neagle
Andy Pettitte*

Bullpen
Randy Choate
Jason Grimsley
Jeff Nelson
Mike Stanton
Mariano Rivera*

Joe Torre was managing and George Steinbrenner was micromanaging.

So, while the Yankees NAME has won 27 championships, the current Yankees TEAM has only won one. I wouldn't call the current team a dynasty. Nope, not at all.

The General Manager Meetings start Monday in Chicago.

The Playoffs are Over

The Major League Baseball playoffs are over.

Not for some, of course, but for Red Sox Nation, it's time to put away the bats and gloves and think about football.

I predicted the Angels would win their ALDS. I didn't predict the sweep, however. Three sweeps in the Division series of both leagues is amazing. Things like that make one wonder about the abilities of the teams being swept.

The radio was buzzing with folks whistling in the dark as we approached the end of the regular season. The litany of common statements included:

• This team was built for the post-season
• They own the Angels in the playoffs
• The way they play in September is no indicator of how well they will do in the playoffs
• Beckett is a big game pitcher
• The Red Sox have one of the top offenses in the league
• Best bullpen in the league
• Their dominance of the Angels in the post-season has to be in the Angels' heads
• It doesn't matter how you get into the post-season just as long as you get in

In the end, however, they all turned out to be hollow wishes more than anything else.

The Red Sox were dominated. Pure and simple.

I'm not disappointed. Really, I'm not.

As soon as the Sox were down by two games, I looked forward to a sweep. I didn't want to have to pull off the band-aid little by little, gritting my teeth the whole way. A quick rip is always better.

I got my wish.

Given the way the Red Sox were playing, there was no way I wanted to see them go against the Yankees. Now I'm free to watch the Angels do that, and let the chips fall where they may.

There's a certain freedom that comes with being out of contention.

It's time to move on.

Predictions

Angels over Red Sox in 4.
Yankees over Twins in 4.
Cardinals over Dodgers in 5.
Phillies over Rockies in 3.

Yankees/Cardinals World Series.

Cardinals win WS.

Red Sox see post-season in rear view mirror

There are six games remaining in regular season play. The Red Sox magic number for clinching a post-season berth is one. That "one" means any combination of Red Sox win or Ranger loss will guarantee the Red Sox a place in the playoffs as the wild card team. It all sounds so terrific, doesn't it?

Well consider this. In their last 8 games, the Red Sox have only won 2. They have a winning record for September, but it's hardly awe-inspiring at 15-11 which is only .576 pct. Consider that their season record pct is .583, and I guess you could say that they are playing within a ten percentage point range of norm for them this year.

But in the last 8 games they are playing only .250 baseball, and the only reason they are heading into the post-season is that the Rangers keep losing, too. Talk about backing your way into the playoffs.

Should we be concerned?

A lot of people would scoff and say, "Don't worry. In the post-season, everything starts from zero, and look at the Sox' history in the playoffs over the last five years."

In their last eight games, the Yankees are 6-2.

In their last eight games, the Angels are 4-4.

In their last eight games, the Tigers are 5-3, and they haven't clinched their division yet.

Baseball is a game of streaks. A team gets hot, a team gets cold. The Red Sox have cooled down lately. They aren't exactly instilling confidence by their play.

Yet, if the Rangers should lose their next game, the Red Sox will celebrate with champagne and cigars and a lot of ballyhoo, even if they lose as well.

Doesn't seem right.

Say What?

During one of the morning sports flashes on our local sports news/talk radio stations, the announcer for national news said that Tom & Gisele Brady (Bundchen) have been served a lawsuit for $1 million for "negligently hiring" a security team for their wedding. Apparently, and allegedly, one or more of the security team fired at paparazzi during a post-wedding party in Costa Rica.

None of the soul-stealing sleeze weasels were hit, but it was, of course, a very traumatic experience for them which caused "mental harm."

Now, please look at the basis of the lawsuit in the first paragraph.

Negligently hiring.

Think about that for a minute.

Negligently hiring.

So, according to the lawsuit, Tom & Gisele Brady (Bundchen) were negligent when they hired a security team to make their nuptials and post-nuptial celebration as private as possible.

In a perfect world, a judge would look at this for one second and toss it out with some sort of reprimand for the "injurees" seeking a nice pay day.

But given some of the decisions handed down by those who wear the robe over the last fifty or so years, it wouldn't surprise me at all to see this go through.

What a country!

Beware Clampi.. the new Trojan

Cyber criminals have created a highly sophisticated Trojan virus that steals online banking log-in details from infected computers.

The Clampi virus, which is spreading rapidly across hundreds of thousands of computers in Britain and the United States, infects computers when users visit websites that host a malicious code.

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