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Thursday, July 09, 2009
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I Took Me Out To The Ball GameMOOD:  Peanuts and Cracker Jack Mom is resting comfortably and there's talk of her coming home as soon as tomorrow! They got her up and walking last night, after a rather rough day. But she's doing much better now, and the pain is manageable. Soon, the pain will be gone! Yesterday, your Colonel treated himself to a game at Wrigley Field.  Here I am outside the gates of this most storied cathedral of baseball ... the oldest National League ballpark (and the second-oldest in the majors, behind only Boston's Fenway Park). While it's a pretty modern place inside, it's also the same field on which Babe Ruth hit his famed "called shot" home run in the 1932 World Series ... the place where the 1969 Cubs fell out of first place in the historic September collapse ... the place where my beloved team blew the 2003 National League Championship Playoffs ... and so on and so on. It's also the place my Dad took me to many times during my childhood, and the place I last visited on a July day in 1970, mere weeks before we moved to Georgia.
 Call this number and buy your Cubs tickets. Tell them I sent you.
 No baseball game is complete without souvenirs! I picked up a cap, two t-shirts, and a replica of the big red sign for my office, as well as a program and scorecard.
 There are two statues of Cub icons outside Wrigley. One, which I didn't get around to see, is of legendary broadcaster Harry Caray. The other, which is on the side of the park I entered, is this one, of "Mr. Cub," the great Ernie Banks. Mr. Banks was the first Cub player to reach 500 home runs ... and the first Cub to have his uniform number retired. His #14 has since been joined by #26, Billy Williams ... #23, Ryne Sandberg ... #10, Ron Santo (who should REALLY be in the Hall of Fame!) ... and #31, worn by both Ferguson Jenkins and Greg Maddux, and retired in both of their names. Their numbers fly from flags mounted on the left- and right-field foul poles, and when I get a chance to process the video I took at the game, I'll post a still of each one.
 The greatest hand-operated scoreboard in baseball. It tells you everything you need to know -- the score of the game, who's at bat, the ball-and-strike count, the number of outs, the time, the umpires, and what else is happening all around the Major Leagues. It doesn't have big showy video graphics, exploding nonsense, fireworks, or anything like that. The scoreboard harkens back to a time when the game on the field was the most important thing, not how much advertising the team could get up there. (The electronic board under the scoreboard is a recent introduction and does as much of the other silly stuff as the team can fit in there. Call it the "best of both worlds.")
 When in your seats, you are a target for hard-hit foul balls. I almost caught one here once, and the scenario repeated itself 35 years later at Turner Field in Atlanta. Sigh.
 I am enjoying a Frosty Malt as the field is being prepared for the game. (There was a 30-minute rain delay at the start.) Why is this picture even here? Well ... the last time I tasted a Frosty Malt was in July of 1970. That's right ... I was at Wrigley Field. And if you look to the right of my left eye in the picture, you see the seating area I was in when last I enjoyed a Frosty Malt. (Dietary note: There are 350 calories in a Frosty Malt. That's the calorie limit I have on my entire lunch. And I'd already eaten bratwurst and had a Diet Coke. So I fell off the wagon for a few minutes. I'm still shrinking.)
 Eventually, they did start the game. Here is a first-inning action picture ... Cubs pitcher Kevin Hart, making his first big-league start, throws a fastball to his first batter, Braves lead-off man Nate McLouth. The Braves won the game, 4 to 1, but that didn't matter.
I got to see a game at Wrigley Field again. For the first time in almost four decades, I relived yet another joy of my childhood. It was WORTH IT. Be seeing you ... The Baseball-Lovin' Colonel
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Tuesday, July 07, 2009
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Could Someone Please Tell Me Why...?MOOD:  Enough already! Why? Why is it that you cannot look anywhere -- anywhere -- on television right now and not see the "memorial" to Michael Jackson? For Heaven's sake ... he was just a pop singer. He wasn't a president, he wasn't a pope, he wasn't a king or emperor, he wasn't even that fantastic of a singer (in my opinion). So why are we being subjected to all this folderol of a memorial? WHY???? I have agree with Mark Evanier (www.newsfromme.com). Bury him. NOW. Let the man go. Please. And let us return to our regularly scheduled programming. Be seeing you ... The Colonel
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Lookin' Out The Back DoorMOOD:  Afloat No, not really. I'm more a creature of the air than of the sea. But looking out the back door at Mom's house here in Lodi, Wisconsin, I really envy these people. Mom and my sister live on the shore (bank?) of Lake Wisconsin, and this is the view they get every day:
 Right out the back door, this is the view. A gentle sloping lawn down to the lakeside. 
Nice pier. I wonder if the sign means the lake is for sale? 
Looking toward the left, along the shoreline. 
Sunset over Lake Wisconsin. I love how the cloud just above the sun is backlit. 
I can just see myself (and someone else!) having a great pot of tea and maybe some scones, simply watching the water and the sun going down, sitting on this beautiful green grass. 
A crane flying above the lake. 
And the sun disappears behind the distant shore. Beautiful, huh? Mom goes in for her surgery today. We're leaving for the hospital in less than an hour. Thoughts and prayers are welcome, friends. Be seeing you ... The Colonel
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Monday, July 06, 2009
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Good To Be Back "Home" AgainMOOD:  Resting Well, your Colonel is in Lodi, Wisconsin. I've mentioned before (I think) that I would be coming up here because my mother is facing some pretty serious surgery and I wanted to make sure that I was here ... just in case. (Not that anything other than total success and full recovery are going to happen, of course!) The flight up from Atlanta was nice. I had a two-hour layover in St. Louis, and then flew into Milwaukee. There, I had a minor hassle with getting my rental car -- but I got it -- and made the hour's drive from Milwaukee to Madison, then another 20 minutes north to the little lakeside resort town of Lodi. My mom and sister live here. It's a nice little town! And the lake is right out the back door ... wow! I will be taking pictures, you can bet on that, and you'll get to see them, too. Tomorrow is Mom's surgery, but we don't yet know what time. The way things work here ... the hospital calls the day before and lets her know when to arrive. (In Georgia, they let you know days or even weeks in advance!) As I've mentioned, I am here for Mom ... but I have such tremendous confidence in both her surgeons and her that I have a ticket to the Cubs-Braves game at Wrigley Field on Wednesday, and fully expect to go. If anything unexpected happens, of course, the game goes by the wayside, but I will have both still and video cameras with me for the game! Another triumverate of celebrities have left us ... Gale Storm 1922 - 2009 
I have to admit that, apart from knowing about (and never seeing) her two 1950s-early 1960s television shows, I know very little about Gale Storm. But she was a pretty good actress from all I've read, and one thing did stand out -- even though she'd long retired, she kept in touch with her fans, always ready to sign an autograph if asked. And people kept asking, too, right up to the end. I'll have to check out some of her work. She sure did seem like a classy lady. Karl Malden 1912 - 2009  I remember watching The Streets of San Francisco during the 70s and enjoying Mr. Malden's work. And when he did those commercials for American Express, he seemed to still be in the same detective character. "Don't leave home without it/them," he would say, meaning the American Express card and/or traveler's checks. I don't use either, but the warning still resonates. Mr. Malden's nose was the source of much entertainment humor, I have learned, and it looked as it did because he had broken it twice as a teenager. Hey, if it gave him the edge he needed in recognition, I say more power to it (and to him)! Mr. Malden was 97 when he died, and his last acting credit in television was just nine years ago. Not bad; not bad at all. In fact, his mother passed away in 1996 at the age of 104, when Mr. Malden was 84 years old. Longevity seems to run in the family.
Mollie Sugden 1922 - 2009 
Another of the ones that hurt, primarily because of my love of the BritComs. Ms. Sugden was one of the great ensemble cast of Are You Being Served? which airs in perpetual reruns on Georgia Public Television's block of British situation comedies on Saturday nights. And it is, far and away, my favorite of all of the great programs that they run. If you haven't seen it, the show centers on the fictional Grace Brothers department store in London, where the men's and ladies' notions departments are forced to share the same sales floor. Ms. Sugden portrayed Mrs. Betty Slocomb, the senior salesperson in the ladies' department. She was ably assisted by the late Wendy Richard as Miss Brahms, the cute and Cockney junior salesperson. Across the floor in men's wear were the late, wonderful John Inman as Mr. Humphries, the late Arthur Brough as Mr. Grainger, and Trevor Bannister as Mr. Lucas. Overseeing all of them was the floorwalker, Captain Stephen Peacock, played by Frank Thornton. The show centered around the lives and sales of the hapless workers in these two departments, and if you have any appreciation of British humor at all, you would love this program. Ms. Sugden's character is best known for her weird hair coloring (which changed from episode to episode), her strange comments ("...and I am unanimous in that..."), and her double-entendre references to her cat. No, I'm not going to say more about that; kids read this blog too. It's early in the morning here in Wisconsin. And the weather is wonderful. Hope it is where you are too!! Be seeing you ... The Colonel
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Sunday, June 28, 2009
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Good Movie, Bad Weekend (For Celebrities, Anyway)MOOD:  Up - lifted I went to the movies yesterday. Now that, in and of itself, is not news -- not even blogworthy, to tell you the truth. And when I arrived at the theater, I had a real dilemma ... there were only two movies on the bill that I hadn't seen, that I would even have considered seeing. They were Will Ferrell's new film, Land of the Lost and Disney-Pixar's 3-D animated Up. Before leaving home, I read the reviews of both movies. Critics -- who know absolutely nothing about films, if you ask me -- have universally panned Land of the Lost. One went so far as to say that if you remember the 1970s Saturday morning version, keep that one and lose this new one. So, after a mental two-out-of-three coin flip, I paid $7.50 matinee price to see Up. And immediately, I had to pay an extra $2.50. See, this one's in 3-D and you have to buy these funky glasses. They fit nicely over my regular specs, and I peeked during the film to see if I really needed them. I did. As an officer and a gentleman, I strive to tell the truth at all times. In that vein, I want to let you know that I was really prepared not to like this movie. The one trailer I'd seen for it didn't impress me much in the way of story -- but the computer animation more than made up for that. (I am a big fan of computer animation.) So I put on the silly glasses and settled back with my medium Diet Coke (no popcorn, I don't eat that stuff any more), and watched the movie. It blew me away. It was good. The story was fantastic and very, very touching at times.    
I won't give too much away, because I want you to see it. (Many of you have e-mailed me letting me know that my reviews here helped you decide what to see at the cinema. Thank you for that! But remember what I say about critics -- your Colonel included!!) Ed Asner is the voice of the lead character, Carl Fredericksen, the old man. Christopher Plummer plays the explorer, Charles Muntz. Jordan Nagai does the voice of Russell, the Scout-like kid who finds himself taken along for the ride -- literally. And Elie Docter is the voice of Ellie, the kid that young Carl fell in love with and to whom he promised adventure. After growing up together, getting married, growing old, and still not taking that big adventure, Ellie dies -- something that almost never happens in Disney movies and never in an animated feature, with the exception perhaps of Bambi's mother. And Carl, alone now, is just trying to make it through the rest of his life, when Russell comes to the door. He needs to earn one more merit badge ("Assisting the Elderly") to become a Senior Wilderness Explorer, and Carl's going to be his project. Carl sends him on a snipe hunt. Meanwhile, the city has bought up the entire block of homes around Carl's house and they're trying to get him to sell as well, but that house was originally the one he and Ellie played Explorer in when they were kids. (Not that kind of explorer. This is Disney. Get your minds out of the gutter. They were playing as if they were world-renowned explorer Charles Muntz.) After they got married, Carl and Ellie bought and fixed up the old house, painting it multiple colors and making a happy life for each other there. Now the city wants Carl's house. And after he assaults a foreman for knocking over his mailbox, Carl is going to be going to a retirement home. The next morning, the guys from the Home show up to take Carl away, and he says he wants to say goodbye to the old house one more time. He slams the door, and as the two guys from the Home go back to their van ... Carl releases thousands of helium balloons tied to his fireplace grate! The balloons go through the chimney and literally lift the house off the ground! It begins flying away, as Carl is taking the long-awaited trip to South America he and Ellie had planned so long ago! Flying over the city, Carl is startled by a knock on the door. It's Russell, the scout, who said he tracked a snipe under the house and managed to grab on just as the building lifted off. So he comes along for the ride. Want to know more? Go see Up. You will love it! It's 5,000% better than I expected it to be. The characters of the dogs are hilarious -- this is Disney, remember -- and Dug, the Dog, is just wonderful. And the movie ends on a very happy note, both for Carl and for Russell. I really enjoyed this movie. As I was leaving the theater, I saw a big box where they wanted you to "donate" the 3-D glasses after you saw the film. I looked at the box and said to myself, "Sure, I'll 'donate' the glasses. Just give me back the extra $2.50 I paid to see this movie, and we'll consider that I 'rented' the glasses." Needless to say, I kept the glasses. No matter what you've heard, your Colonel ain't stupid. This has been a bad few days for celebrities. Ed McMahon 1923 - 2009  Ed McMahon died Tuesday at the age of 86. There were literally millions of words said about this legendary "second banana" in tributes since that time, so I will only add these: In addition to being Johnny Carson's necessary right-hand man, Mr. McMahon was many other things -- a game show host (Snap Judgment, Concentration), a talent scout (Star Search), a pitchman without compare (Budweiser commercials), co-host of the Jerry Lewis Telethon, and so much more ... but did you know that he was also a Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve? Yep! And a fighter pilot in World War II and Korea, as well. I can just picture the reception he got at the Pearly Gates ... St. Peter saying, "And now ... Heeeeeeeere's ED!"
Thanks for the fun and laughs, Ed. Farrah Fawcett 1947 - 2009  I had one of these posters when I was ... okay, when I was 20. Farrah Fawcett lost her battle with cancer this week at age 62. She was a very beautiful woman, but not so terrific as an actress -- at least, not at first, not on Charlie's Angels, the show that launched her to stardom. And what a ride ... she became so convinced of her own magnificence that after one season, she left the hit show to set out on the movie career she just knew was out there. How'd that work out? Not too good, I am afraid. She made a string of forgettably bad movies before coming back to television, and even made some pretty awful stuff there ... until she scored an Emmy nomination for The Burning Bed. Her off-screen life was pretty much what kept her before the public, though ... and her battle with cancer turned her into an icon in another way, a much better way. I'm sorry she lost that battle; like a lot of others, I was pulling for her to win.
Michael Jackson 1958 - 2009  This one was stunning ... and yet not entirely unexpected. The self-proclaimed "King of Pop" will always and forever be recognized as one of the most talented musical performers who ever lived. No one takes anything away from him on that. He was on a level all his own when it came to such talent, as well as the ability to put on one hell of a show. But off stage, his life was ... weird. It's like his emotional and mature development just stopped at the age of 12. The older he got, the more child-like he became. (I'm not even going to touch the cosmetic surgery and gradual lightening of his skin.) He kept his own zoo. He owned a big ranch that had its own amusement park. He loved having children stay at his house. And that, of course, is what got him into trouble.
Look ... I am not saying MJ was a pedophile or anything like that. But you have to wonder if the sky was blue in his world when he said, in all seriousness, that there was nothing wrong with young boys sleeping in a grown man's bed -- with the grown man in it as well! The man didn't have issues, he had a subscription. And at the end, he owed more money than some countries do. The concert tour he was planning would've made just about all of that debt go away, I'm sure. People were buying tickets to concerts that weren't even going to happen for a year, just to see him perform again. It would've been one hell of a comeback. But the comeback isn't going to happen. We're left with great music and many memories, and if you're like me, you'll remember the good stuff, and let the weird stuff and bad things go. Billy Mays 1958 - 2009  Finally today, word that pitchman extraordinare Billy Mays was found dead at his Tampa, Florida, home this morning. Like Michael Jackson, Mr. Mays was 50 years old. (Your Colonel is also 50, but has no plans to write his own obituary any time soon.) Billy Mays was a salesman like no other -- you couldn't watch television for two hours without seeing one of his ubiquitous commercials. I especially liked his Oxi-Clean spot, where he proclaimed, "Long live your laundry!" Personally, I prefer that my clothes live long ... the laundry is the stuff waiting to be washed, dried, and folded. I don't want that to live long, prosper, or do anything else. No one's sure why Mr. Mays died -- not yet, anyway -- but I am sure it had nothing to do with the slightly off-brand products he hawked. (At least I hope it didn't.)
One week from today, your Colonel is shipping out to Wisconsin, to be there when Mom has her surgery next Tuesday. I'll let you all know how it goes, and thank you for your prayers and good wishes for her. I'll let her know what you all have said. Be seeing you ... The Colonel
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