Friday, May 4, 2012

Rant #730: An Anniversary, and Some Tidbits









Today is the third anniversary of this blog. I can't believe that I have been doing this so long, but yes, it's true.

What I set out to do with Ranting and Raving was to create an outlet for me to write about what I wanted. As a professional writer, I am paid to write about topics that others want me to write about.

That's fine and good, but you can get into a rut doing this.

So here, at this blog, I am allowed to write about anything, whether it be about the Yankees, Lindsay Lohan, some news items of the day ... anything!

And I am enjoying myself immensely--and I hope you are too.

So here's another column, and I have decided that it’s time to take short peaks at various items that might be of interest to you.

These don’t warrant an entire column of Ranting and Raving, but a little looking into here and there can’t hurt

• Woman Arrested For Bringing Young Daughter Into Tanning Booth: I have never understood the need that some of us have for tanning ourselves. I’m not arguing that black isn’t beautiful, but let’s be honest about it, it’s not safe to fry yourself either.

This case really hit the nail on the head because a mother who supposedly brought her young child into the tanning booth with her herself looks like a red lobster. The women is in her 40s, but I swear she looks like she is in her 70s, or she is some type of red aberration.

She is completely disgusting, and if the charges are true, she should fry, baby, fry.

• New Single From the Reformed Beach Boys Is Out: “That’s Why God Made the Radio” is the first single from the album, and it was released on April 25 to iTunes as a download only.

I don’t accept this at all.

In order to push the forthcoming LP, which arrives in June, their record label should put this out as an honest-to-goodness 45 RPM single, or at least as a CD single. That would whet the appetite for the album.

Remember, this is a band that most people under the age of 40 have no clue about. This is an album that is not going to get played at all on radio, or at least sparingly. The single itself hasn’t received the greatest reviews, but for Baby Boomers, “owning” a digital file isn’t the same as owning something that you can hold in your hand.

Put it out as a 45 RPM single, and make it a “gift” from the band to the fans who have supported them, through many ups and downs, during the past 50 years.

• Andy Pettitte Testifes At Roger Clemens Trial: Okay, answer this one honestly:

Do you have the slightest care about this trial at all?

True baseball fans like myself don’t really care, at this point, about the nuances of this trial. It’s all water under the bridge.

These guys cheated by using performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), and more importantly, they may have hurt themselves physically by doing so.

Enough is enough. Did Clemens lie in his previous testimony? Does Pettitte remember, for sure, what Clemens told him about his supposed use of PEDs?

Again, who cares? Play ball!

• Brooklyn Welcomes the Nets: This is another one of these bizarre stories which kind of make me scratch my head. The Nets announced their new logo the other day, and one single, solitary player showed up at the event, the oft-injured Brooke Lopez.

The Knicks are the team of choice for professional basketball in New York, always have been, always will be. The Nets have always played in their shadow, no matter if they played in New Jersey or on Long Island.

Why will playing in Brooklyn change anything?

The Nets should have tried to carve out their own niches somewhere far, far away. If the Seattle Supersonics can move to Oklahoma City and become the only game in town there, why couldn’t the Nets do the same thing, maybe in Montana, or Wyoming, or some other place where major league teams don’t have a foothold. Why Brooklyn?

And the new Barclay’s Arena isn’t in the greatest part of Brooklyn either. Families should watch out; the panhandlers there don’t make it exactly family friendly territory.

• Newt Gingrich Announces End of His Presidential Campaign: This is another one you have to scratch your head about.

What took him so long to do this? Was he thinking that maybe, just maybe, he could stage a miracle and upend Mitt Romney?

Or did he stay on to make some sort of statement, one that only he seems to know, or care about.

I have no idea who I am voting for come November, but I can tell you that I am certainly not voting for anyone named Newt …

Mitt and Barack don’t seem like good names to vote for either.

Whatever happened to Tom, Dick, Harry—or even Larry?

• Mariano Rivera Likely Done For the Season and Career In Doubt: Well, the Red Sox Nation is now rejoicing--the great Mariano has struck out!

Well, he tore his ACL during batting practice when he was shagging a fly ball in the outfield. His cleat got stuck in the turf, and he fell to the ground ...

Along with whatever hopes the Yankees had to win the World Series this year.

Honestly, while this might be the straw that broke the closer's back, so to speak, there is so much more that can be said about this year's Yankees team, and it isn't good.

They have a roster that was severely micro-managed by the suits (re: the Michael Pineda deal, which has a chance to go down as the worst deal the Bronx Bombers have ever made), have aging stars who are on the verge of breakdowns at any time, and they just really aren't that good, period.

But the simple presence of Rivera made them a nick above any other team. 

Without him, they might be dead this year, certainly deader than they would have been with him always ready in the bullpen.

I need to attend to some personal business on Monday, so I most likely will speak to you again on Tuesday. Have a good weekend.

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