Back In Orbit (for now)

As NASA's foam problems continue (meaning that future shuttle launches are scratched after Discovery gets back), you may want to check out video of Tuesday's shuttle launch courtesey of AOL (click on the "watch the launch" tab) because it took 2.5 years to get a shuttle back into space after the Columbia disaster and who knows how long we'll have to wait again. First Live 8, now the shuttle launch; they really are on a roll over at Columbus Circle. I hope this trend continues as AOL transforms itself into more of a media delivery company. The cool part is that you can choose from multiple camera angles: I'm a fan of the launch pad and beach tracker ones myself.

Happy Sesqui-Bicentennial To Me

You are reading the 250th post on "We're Going To Cover That In Phase 2." In honor of this momentous occasion, which I believe would be technically its "sesqui-bicentennial" post (I'm not sure this is an actual word but centennial = 100, sesquicentennail = 150, and bicentennial = 200 so I think it is), I want to share some stats and reflect on the past 2.5 years with my dear readers:

Posts: In my blog's first year, I only posted 26 times, a paltry amount by any standards. During '04, I started to get serious about this whole blogging thing and posted 114 times. I think the watershed moment was when I was almost killed in a gang shoot-out in Chinatown. and really saw my blog as a great way of communicating with the world. This year so far has seen 110 posts and I can promise there are plenty more to come.

Site Traffic: In '03, basically I was the only one who ever stopped by. Period. For three fourths of '04, only around 115 unique visitors a month would visit which meant that a bunch of spiders and bots, a few friends, some family and maybe some random people were the ones who stopped by. However, starting in 10/04, things started to move. That month the site hit 200 unique visitors and the proverbial snowball started to roll down the mountain. November saw 500 stop by and the numbers kept on creeping up; in 5/05, 888 people visited. Last month blew me away though: 2432 unique visitors stopped by. I tripled my previous amount and so far its holding steady as over 2200 visitors have stopped by so far this month with less than a week to go.

Comments: While I know through site traffic reports people are stopping by, this site suffers from a definite lack of comments. If you read something that moves to have an opinion, share it. When I went to a sleepaway camp reunion, I was floored to hear that every girl there from bunks 33 and 34 had read my first post about camp. I had no clue any of them had read it, let alone all of them. That was the first time I realized that more people are reading this blog than I thought. I know you are out there. I want to hear from you.

After the jump, feel free to read my reflections on this milestone:

I had been in a bad car accident and while out of work, I re-evaluated everything that was important to me. Writing was at the top of the list. I have always written in some shape or form and in toying with the idea of changing gears and getting an MFA in Creative Writing, while recovering I took a short story workshop to do 2 things:

1) get a portfolio together for my admissions package
2) see if really wanted to do this in the first place

Well, I didn't like the workshop at all. Instead of it solidifying my true latent desire to write and teach writing, I became discouraged from writing in general and found it hard to finish a few stories, let alone an entire collection. I shortly thereafter returned to work yet I desperately wanted to keep writing in some fashion in order not to get rusty and to keep my renewed enthusiam towards writing alive. Just because I'm in the IT realm does not mean that I don't want to write and publish a series of childrens books, or that I won't write and publish my Seven Squared graphics novel series, or that I will never write the Great American Novel. It just means that they'll have kickass web sites supporting them. As I was working through these thoughts, my Cognitive Remediation Therapist of all people suggested that I start a blog. Well, as they say, the rest is history (that is if you believe in history - some people don't.)

I chose Tolkien's poem "The Road" as my first post because the words are as true now as they were when they were written:

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

So far, this road has been an interesting and rewarding one for me. Without this blog, how would I have ever touched base (no pun intended) with my favorite baseball player Lipso Nava? How else could I have shared all my thoughts about literature, politics, technology and a whole host of other things with friends and strangers alike? I love how 8 people so far have asked me for the New Yorker article on the NYPD's response to terrorism, and that 2 of them are professors. It's about the connection and the interaction. It's about randomly matching someone's DNA and helping to save a life. It's about how ka is a wheel, its one purpose to turn and in the end it always arrives at the place where it has started.

I hope you've enjoyed the first 250 posts. Hopefully you'll enjoy the next 2,500.

Cheers,
Jeff

Coq Roq

Now this is getting just plain silly: First the Subservient Chicken, then the Sith Sense and now Coq Roq - damn I wish I worked on the Burger King interactive account! Coq Roq is the web site for a made-up band called "Fowl Mouth" - its a great flash site that advertises BK's new Chicken Fries (I can feel my arteries clogging just having typed that). Check out the gallery area; I think it's neat how it switches from picture to picture.

Thanks Todd for sending this to me - and to think I thought Coq Roq was a gay band...

UPDATE: “What kind of messages does this site send out, especially when it’s backed by a huge corporation? Ultimately, what it’s doing is sexualizing fast food" is just one opinion out of many about this campaign. After the jump, read about all the controversy Coq Roq has kicked up

From AdAge:

BURGER KING'S COQROQ.COM TRIGGERS CONTROVERSY
Some Sexual Double Entendres Removed From Site Overnight
July 26, 2005 by Kate MacArthur

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- Even though it has suddenly removed sexual double entendres from its new Web site, CoqRoq.com, Burger King today denied it had received any complaints from consumers or other outside groups.
This screen grab was taken in the 'Gallery' section of Burger King's CoqRoq.com site yesterday. Today, the 'Groupies Love the Coq' caption was removed. The company denies it made the changes because of outside complaints. The CoqRoq.com site is linked to Burger King's main Web site and is promoted in a new Burger King TV commercial.

Crispin Porter
CoqRoq.com, created by Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Miami, the agency that created Burger King's Subservient Chicken site, is designed to look like the kind of crudely outrageous Web site created by a rock band.

The Web site's double entendre name, along with the lyrics, demeanor and the sophomoric presentation of the fictitious heavy metal group, projects the illusion of something designed to offend the sensibilities of mainstream adult America.

Among other things, CoqRoq.com, which is linked directly to the main Burger King Web site, includes photo galleries with Polaroid-style shots of young girls with the handwritten captions "Groupies love the Coq" and “groupies love Coq." Since the site went live yesterday, those captions and others have been erased from the online materials. AdAge.com took screen shots of those removed materials yesterday afternoon.

“Nothing on the site has changed because of any reaction to the site,” said Edna Johnson, senior vice president for global communications for Burger King Corp., which is owned by private equity firm Texas Pacific Group. Mrs. Johnson said photo cutlines were written and then assigned randomly by computer software that as since been disabled. She said malfunctions in the Flash and XML programming were responsible for putting the "Groupies love the Coq" on the photos of the young women.

No complaints
Ms. Johnson said neither the marketer nor its agency, Crispin Porter, had been contacted by any groups. “We haven’t had any complaints. The site launched slightly more than 24 hours ago and the changes are typical of a new Web site that is being tweaked.” She added that a misspelling of Burger King had also been fixed.

But even industry insiders were surprised by the gaffe of the CoqRoq site, with some noting that the bar, first raised first by Burger King’s subservient chicken and later upped by the Paris Hilton erotic carwashing spot for CKE Restaurants’ Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., has pushed the limits of what fast-food marketers will do for attention.

“There’s a fine line between getting the attention of the core target and risking offending the masses,” said Chris Carroll, senior vice president and director of marketing for Subway’s Franchisee Advertising Fund Trust.
The lead singer of Burger King's ficticious rock band CoqRoq is named Fowl Mouth.

Ralph Norman Haber, partner, Human Factors Consultants, an expert on subliminal perception and subliminal advertising, said there’s nothing subliminal in the site or its advertising and that both males and females appear to be targeted equally.

"As far as I could see both sides of each one of these comes in for being the target,” he said. “Everybody is picked on and it’s kind of fair game. I think it’s probably an effective ad. From my point of view I thought it was very creative.”

However, outsiders are asking how a corporation of Burger King's stature could have approved the use of such a concept.

'Offensive in general to families'
“Just the name Coq Roq in general is offensive to families,” said Aliza Pilar Sherman, an authority and author on women and the Internet and founder of cybergrrl. “I can’t imagine if parents of a smaller child saw this. They’d say they don’t want their child exposed to this. Where do we as responsible individuals draw the line? Of course there’s freedom of speech but does that mean Burger King should be perpetuating stereotypes, negative attitudes and demeaning behavior to the market.”

“Burger King is perpetuating a crude type of stereotype,” agreed Dr. Martha Allen, director of the Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press. “They’re serving junk stereotypes degrading and harmful to women.”

The fact they adjusted the site indicates "they’re crossing the line and they know it in some sense,” said Pat McGann, director of outreach for Men Can Stop Rape, a group that works with young men to foster healthy relationships with women. He called the entire site an example of material that confuses men about what it means to be a man.

Sexualizing fast food
“What kind of messages does this site send out, especially when it’s backed by a huge corporation?” he asked. “Ultimately, what it’s doing is sexualizing fast food."

Greek Tragedy In The Times

If you haven't gone to my friend and co-worker Stephanie Klein's blog (see the left nav as well) yet, you might be one of the few people left that hasn't. She has gotten so popular that the NY Times wrote a feature article about Stephanie, her blog and her life, that can be found on the cover of today's NY Times Sunday Styles section. I was happy to see that there was even a picture of Chris together with Stephanie that snuck into the paper somehow (its nice to know that he can get some press for something other an Altoids iPod battery charger). Nothing that she does surprises me anymore, though it always makes me smile. All I can say is "keep it up!" and that I can't wait for the book, actual both books, to be published.

New York Protects Its Own

The New Yorker this week has a fantastic article by William Finnegan titled "The Terrorism Beat" about how the NYPD is defending our fair city, with or without the help of the Federal government. Believe it or not, it makes you feel a lot better about our city's security (all things considered). I'm 100% voting for Bloomberg, if only to ensure that Ray Kelly stays commissioner. Here is just one snipit from the article, in reference to the way the NYPD has transformed post 9/11:

Some of Kelly's initatives were incursions into territory normally occupied by the FBI and the CIA. And yet few objections were raised. It was as if the Feds, reeling from September 11th, silently acknowledged New York's right to take extraordinary defensive measures. Or, as one senior police official said to me, "Do you think anybody in Washington has the balls to tell Ray Kelly he can't do something he decides to do?"

I created a PDF of the aritcle but its over 15 MB so if you want to read it (its not available online) leave a comment or send me an email and I'll mail you a copy. Hell, I'll even pay the postage, that's how good the article is - if you live in NY you should read it. 'Nuff said.

How Little Attention We Are Paying To Dafur

One year ago today, Congress unanimously declared that the horrors unfolding in the Darfur region of Sudan -- the mass slaughters, forced displacement, and coordinated rape campaigns -- amounted to genocide. It seems as if almost everyone has either forgotten about it or thinks that the problem has been solved. For instance:

• During the entire month of June 2005, the major network and cable news stations—broadcasting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week— aired only 126 segments on Sudan.
• In contrast, these same stations aired a combined 8303 segments on the “runaway bride”, the Michael Jackson trial, and Tom Cruise.
• Major news media aired 65 times as many segments on these trivial matters as it did on the fighting and genocide in Sudan.

The Center for American Progress has launched a campaign called Be A Witness to try and pressure various news outlets to stop ignoring this story. Starving children are not pleasing to the eye during dinner. Increased television coverage of the genocide in Darfur does have the power to spur the action required to stop a devastating crime against humanity. I for one am being a witness.

Special Delivery

In honor of its 10th anniversary, Amazon has had celebrities deliver packages that involve them in some way to randomly selected lucky customers. For instance, Jason Alexander delivered Seinfeld season 1 through 4 to someone in Brentwood, California (where my brother-in-law and future sister-in-law live - maybe it was their building, it sort of looks like it...). Amazon and UPS then are donating money to a charity of the celebrity's choice. Everyone wins and most of the videos are really fun (Harrison Ford was boring) to watch. Enjoy.

Help Keep Partisan Spin Off NPR and PBS stations

I received a MoveOn.org email spurring me to call a local PBS station and tell them that "I'm a big supporter of PBS and this station. CPB chairman Kenneth Tomlinson is demanding more right-wing programming on public broadcasting. Please keep his partisan spin off the air" or something like that. Since I agree and the phone number was there, I thought, "What the hell, I'll call."

So I did. I spoke with a nice man in the viewer relations department at Thirteen/WNET New York. He told me how viewer and/or member comments really do make a difference and he urged more phone calls (um, he's on our side). My phone call and viewpoint has not gone into a blackhole, rather it was recorded, it will be passed on to those that matter and it will hopefully help push back on the recent government interference. He talked about how 7 lines received 500 phone calls yesterday - an unbelievable number - and how he hoped to receive even more phone calls today. What is with those people at PBS and answering phones? Whether its a telethon or in customer service, they just love it!

If you care at all about those phone whores remaining non-partisan, please call or write and let them know that you want the government to stay away from slanting PBS one way or the other. You don't have to be a member to voice an opinion. You don't have to give your name, though there is no reason not to. Here's the info:

WLIW-TV: 516-367-210; viewers_voice@wliw.pbs.org

WNYE-TV: 718-250-5800; wnyemail@wnye.org

Thirteen/WNET New York: 212-560-1313; web@thirteen.org

Mythic Rome

I am currently making my way through Edith Hamilton's seminal collection of Greek, Roman and Norse myths titled simply Mythology. I started re-reading it last year on my honeymoon which coincided with the Athens Olympics (a perfect time to be reading Greek mythos) and am still at it after many stops and starts. In finishing the section on Virgil's Aeneid I came across this quote about "the Roman race" by Virgil (whose Wikipedia entry calls him "Vergil"):

"They were destined to bring under their empire the peoples of earth, to impose the rule of submissive nonresistance, to spare the humbled and to crush the proud."

Interesting to think about, especially as a citizen of the world's only "empire" today.

More Than Meets The Eye

Mark your calendar now: July 4th, 2007 will the day that a new live-action "Transformers" movie hits the big screens, though right now I'm very wary of it.

First, the classic animated movie, though panned by many critics, is a cult classic and will be hard to improve upon. Orson Welles as the voice of Unicron? An inspired choice! Bah weep grah nah weep ninny bom!

Second, any live-action version of an animated anything is a troubling proposition. See Masters of the Universe (the He-man movie) and Super Mario Brothers as examples.

Third, this new movie is being directed by Michael Bay! In case you never saw "Team America: World Police," here are all the lyrics to the song "The End of an Act" which was featured in the movie:

I mean, the entire song is about how shitty he is! The following are Michael Bay movies: Pearl Harbor, Armageddon, The Rock and Bad Boys. Great. Then again, Steven Spielberg is an executive producer so hopefully that will count for something and negate Mr. Bay bringing the balance back to zero and with not one single actor casted as of yet, who knows, maybe another Orson Welles is out there...

In more Transformers related news, a new web site went up Tuesday and Transformers: Cybertron, the latest animated series, launched this month on Cartoon Network. Burger King cooks up a monthlong action-figure promotion beginning in August. And this weekend in San Diego Comic-Con International, an 18-wheel truck touting the franchise's considerable wares will be beached in the convention hall.

After the jump, read what E Online has to say about these developments.

From E Online:

By Joal Ryan Wed Jul 13, 8:35 PM ET

Optimus Prime has a prime release date: The Fourth of July.

Transformers, the long-planned, live-action movie based on the robot-morphing cartoon, comic and toy franchise, will roll into theaters July 4, 2007, DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures announced Wednesday. Michael Bay (The Island, The Rock) will direct; Steven Spielberg will executive produce.

Children of the 1980s likely will be champing at the tie-in lunchbox.

"The diehard fans will like it as long as it stays true to Transformers roots and doesn't stray too far from the ideals that we grew up with," Brendan Reilly, co-Webmaster of The Transformers Archive (www.tfarchive.com), said in an email interview about the movie announcement. "The casual or un-familar fan will need to see something awesome to win them over, although a 40-foot robot is usually pretty cool."

Cool-looking robots who convert themselves into battle tanks and other vehicles in order blow up things real good are at the mechanical heart of the Transformers, the classic tale of good automaton (the Autobots) versus evil automaton (the Decepticons) in a battle for control of Earth. Optimus Prime is the leader of the Autobots; Megatron, the dark lord of the Decepticons. Both Autobots and Decepticons hail from the planet Cybertron. All this backstory and more was revealed in Transformers, the syndicated cartoon series launched in 1984 with the help of toy-maker Hasbro, which simultaneously--and savvily--launched a still-thriving merchandise line.

No less savvy today, the makers of the new Transformers movie have already begun a full-scale offensive. The new official Website (www.transformers.com) went up Tuesday. Transformers: Cybertron, the latest animated series, launched this month on Cartoon Network. Burger King cooks up a monthlong action-figure promotion beginning in August. And this weekend in San Diego, on the occasion of Comic-Con International, the geek world's largest annual gawkfest, an 18-wheel truck touting the franchise's considerable wares will be beached in the convention hall.

In theory then, this thing ain't going to be Transformers: The Movie.

Transformers: The Movie was the little-loved 1986 animated feature that gave Optimus Prime, Megatron, et al., their first crack at the silver screen. Much as Fox is planning to right past cinematic wrongs with an all-new, A-list take on He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, another 1980s cartoon/toy phenomenon that spawned a cheeseball 1980s film, the new Transformers crew is looking to take its property upscale.

In a message board Monday post on his personal Website (www.donmurphy.net), Don Murphy, a Transformers co-executive producer, said Spielberg, DreamWorks and Hasbro are committed to making a film that is no less than "GREAT" (the capital letters are all his).

"It will be GREAT," Murphy continued, "and then we will make sequel after sequel. There is no doubt that this is true."

With excellence promised, the powers that be now need only to lock in actors and writers--none were announced Wednesday--and start cameras rolling. Time, after all, is of the essence. In publicly staking claim to July 4, 2007, DreamWorks and Paramount become the first studios to reserve that holiday date for their own. Currently, the only other release on the 2007 calendar is Spider-Man 3, set for May 4 of that year.

Until Transformers debuts in theaters, and after Comic-Con wraps, its considerable fandom can busy itself with BotCon (www.transformersclub.com/conventions/frisco/), described by organizer Brian Savage as being "like a giant group hug for everyone who enjoys Transformers."

Scheduled for Sept. 22-25 in Frisco, Texas, the latest edition of BotCon--the event is more than 10 years old--is expected to draw as many as 5,000 devotees of the shape-changing robots. "The whole movie announcement just adds more fire and fuel," said Savage, director of Hasbro's official Transformers Collectors Club.

The way Savage sees it, the unlikely secret to the Transformers' success is: Personality. Anyone, he said, can make a transforming robot.

"But guess what? It's not Optimus Prime."

Quotes Meant To Inspire

I received an email at work yesterday stating that "the tragic events in London late last week require a disruption of the ordinary" which included the 3 quotes below. If you can, take 5 minutes to read and reflect on what those men are really saying:

This is the duty of our generation as we enter the twenty-first century -- solidarity with the weak, the persecuted, the lonely, the sick, and those in despair. It is expressed by the desire to give a noble and humanizing meaning to a community in which all members will define themselves not by their own identity but by that of others.
– Elie Weisel

Responsibility does not only lie with the leaders of our countries or with those who have been appointed or elected to do a particular job. It lies with each of us individually. Peace, for example, starts within each one of us. When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us.
– HH The Dali Lama

God grant, that not only the Love of Liberty, but a thorough Knowledge of the Rights of Man, may pervade all the Nations of the Earth, so that a Philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its Surface, and say, "This is my Country."
– Ben Franklin

"You Spin Me Right Round Baby Right Round...

...like a record baby right round right round" by Dead or Alive should be the Bush White House's anthem. Here's a bit of history (courtesy of the NY Times) which says why:

• In September 2003, White House Spokesman Scott McClellan said flatly that Karl Rove had not been involved in disclosing [at the time covert CIA agent and diplomat's wife] Valerie Plame's name [which is a federal offense].


• Asked about the issue on Sept. 29, 2003, Mr. McClellan said he had "spoken with Karl Rove," and that it was "simply not true" that Mr. Rove had a role in the disclosure of her identity. Two weeks earlier, he had called suggestions that Mr. Rove had been involved "totally ridiculous."


• On Oct. 10, 2003, after the Justice Department opened its formal investigation, Mr. McClellan told reporters that Mr. Rove, Mr. Abrams and Mr. Libby had nothing to do with the leak.


• Mr. McClellan and Mr. Bush have both made clear that leaking Ms. Plame's identity would be considered a firing offense by the White House. Mr. Bush was asked about that position most recently a little over a year ago, when he was asked whether he stood by his pledge to fire anyone found to have leaked the officer's name. "Yes," he replied, on June 10, 2004.


• Yesterday, July 11, 2005, the White House refused to answer any questions about new evidence of Mr. Rove's role in the matter. Terry Moran of ABC News prefaced his question by saying White House Spokesman Scott McClellan was "in a bad spot here" because he had spoken from the same podium in the White House briefing room on Oct. 10, 2003, after the Justice Department began its formal investigation into the leak, and specifically said that neither Mr. Rove nor two other officials - Elliot Abrams, a national security aide, and I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff - were involved. Mr. McClellan disputed the characterization of the question but did not directly address why the White House had appeared now to have adopted a new policy of not commenting on the matter.

I would believe this administration as far as I could throw a piano left handed.

Lipso Snubbed

It seems that while the Camden Riversharks will be sending five players to the Atlantic League's All-Star game next week, Lipso Nava will not be one of them. To all those who snubbed my namesake, I say a pox on all your houses.

The Dave Matthews Band Is Lame

In keeping with today's music vibe, Jessie sent me a link about how the Dave Matthews Band is totally lame and said, "it's funny and sort of true (even though I love Dave - or should I call him Mr. Matthews)." As her favorite band is the Dave Matthews Band, I just had to post it.

Via Jessie

Mindless Self Indulgence

My friend and sometimes co-worker Gil knows the drummer in Mindless Self Indulgence and got me on the guest list for last night's show at Webster Hall which was awesome considering one of my favorite things in the world to say is, "I'm on the list." The show itself fucking rocked - I really liked their sound, the crowd was crazed (full of amped up angry punk-goth kids thrashing about) and the band played with so much energy they must have lost a few pounds during the performance. I especially liked it how at the end of the show, the guitarist played his axe w/ a slegehammer and then destroyed it with said sledgehammer. I hope to see them again in the future, even if I'm not on the list. Here is what the Village Voice has to say about them:

"MSI, the greatest punk-goth-industrial-rap-glam-electro-metal band of all time, recently released You'll Rebel to Anything, 26 minutes of spazzy misanthropic anti-corporate / conservative / misogynist anthems and a Rush cover [Tom Sawyer, which they played]. Buy it for the bitter, confused teenager in your life, especially if that teenager happens to live in your body. Go to the show for the the thrill, the danger, and the gravity-defying hair."

Watch Every Live 8 Performance, Whenever You Want

For the next few weeks, AOL Music has every Live 8 performance available for you to stream to your very own computer. Watch the biggest concert event in history, on-demand, as many times as you want. Some performances are obviously better than others. You decide which is which. Enjoy.

London

I for one am deeply saddened by the London bombings, especially since I not only used to live in London and am familiar with the areas affected but because I used to take the Edgeware Road stop very frequently (it was right by one building I took classes in). The tube is scarier than the NYC transit system - it is in many places hundreds of feet underground (much farther than NYC) and the tracks and stations themselves are very narrow. If there is a problem, there aren't many options so I can only guess what the fear must have been like for those trapped below.

In the aftermath, a new form of online news outlet seems to have emerged as well — photo sharing sites such as Flickr, which encourage users to share photos and comments in a communal setting. I suggest you go, look at the pics, read the stories and read the comments. It definitely makes you appreciate how fragile life really is...

As a NYC resident, and as someone who values his apartment for, among other reasons, its close proximity to the subway, I am definitely unnerved. If something were to happen to the 4-5-6, I can only imagine what it would do to my property value, my commute but most importantly my way of life. To me, the subway is one of the greatest things in the world and it's the heart of my urban experience. If something were to happen to it, my internal compass would be totally thrown off. I thought I was hardened to this kind of stuff by now but I'm not - the panic that shot through me at 9:00 AM yesterday -- when first my house phone rang (which I didn't answer), then my cell phone rang (not a good sign) which I answered to hear Jessie say, "The underground has been bombed" to which I replied "Where?! NY or London?!" -- is not something I like to feel.

As a brother, I am saddened that my parents may not let my sister study abroad in London now. She has been looking forward to this experience ever since I was there in 98, hoping to follow in my footsteps in a way and now who knows if she will go, if she'll be allowed to go or if she even wants to go. She should go. I didn't move out of Manhattan after 9/11. In fact, I did the opposite - I moved downtown in February, 2002. Jessie and I moved into our first apartment together 2 blocks north of Ground Zero and were part of the rebirth of downtown NYC.

The worst part about this attack is that the sound of sirens again to me is troubling. After 9-11, whenever I heard a siren, I thought "what disaster has just happened?" but that faded over time till it was a normal sound again - "Oh, that siren must be for a robbery, not a disaster; that ambulance probably is rushing a heart attack to the hospital, not a victim of a bombing, etc." I've heard sirens a few times today and always waited to hear more. While I hate this feeling, I will not be cowed, I only hope it fades again, sooner rather than later.

Catch The Damn Ball!

You know you are pretty bad when, as a fan, your ineptitude is so great that even the AP mentions it in their game recap: "Rob Marchese, a 41-year-old businessman from Queens sitting in a folding chair in the first row in the right-field stands, fumbled away both Rodriguez's and Giambi's homers."

I was watching the Yankee game last night on the tele with my friend Dave. In the first inning, A-Rod hit one that just cleared the right field fence, the kind of homer Donnie Baseball made famous. The ball went right through the hands of a middle aged guy wearing a gray tee shirt, hit him in his shoulder, then hit his chest, then went through his hands again and bounced onto the field. The second he dropped it he made the biggest commotion, slapping the wall and flailing about because he knew he blew it - he had an A-Rod homer in his hands and lost it. I have never been close enough to even try and catch a ball but I'm always aware of the ball when its hit. Catching a major league baseball is just one of many little things on my life's to-do list that I hope to accomplish. You just don't get a second chance on something like that.

Or maybe you do. Like the very next inning. Sure enough, in the bottom of the second Giambi hit one in the exact same place. Sure enough, the same gray tee-shirted guy was there, in the exact same spot. And yes, sure enough, it went through his hands, hit him in his chest, then his arm, and then bounced back onto the field. Again, he made a commotion except this time it was more rueful, as if he knew the Fates were conspiring against him so what are you gonna do, right?

If you'd like to see photo evidence, click here.

Rob: you have the privilage of being awarded 15 minutes of fame due to incredibly poor fielding skills. To that I say, "mazel tov."

After the jump, you can read what the NY Times had to say about it. It seems that everyone is talking about Rob...

From the July 8th Edition of the NY Times:

It was Rodriguez's 22nd of the season, and it seemed to delight all but one fan, who might have had the most exciting night of anyone at the game.

The ball hit the 41-year-old Robby Marchese in the chest and the hands, but it fell back to the field. Marchese was crestfallen, slumping his body on top of the wall, his head down, for several seconds.

"I didn't get all of it, but I got enough," Rodriguez said. "I think I hit it to the fan in the gray shirt who almost got two balls."

Marchese's next chance was just an inning away. Jason Giambi led off the second inning with a liner to right. Casey Blake chased after it, and the ball deflected off his glove - and onto Marchese's chest. Again, he dropped the ball.

"It didn't hit me where it was supposed to," said Marchese, who had never sat in that seat before. "I'm going to be on SportsCenter for the rest of the week."