6 Thoughts
1) Miami got blown out for the second day in a row. I mean blown out - it was never really a game. Could have been worse - DWade went down with a first quarter wrist injury that had him walking to the bench holding his wrist gingerly. "At least he isn't going to the locker room, Eric, because you do that with serious injuries," Tony Fiorentino, doing his best to jinx the remainder of the season, told Eric Reid. Moments later, Wade got off the bench and went to the locker room with the trainer. Fortunately, he was back and in the game 6 or 7 minutes later - he misses any significant stretch of games, and you are going to see a nuclear winter in Miami. Even Wade couldn't help tonight, though. We could complain about individual performances...or, we could go to: Blowout Material! Let's do it!
2) New dessert: One part double chocolate pudding; one part creamy peanut butter; several crushed almonds; a sliced banana. Mix together, heat in microwave for about 35-45 seconds. I call it "Bananas Dos," and it is delightful. By the way, do what you like, but I am using sugar-free pudding - I have to be the sex symbol for all the very white, suburban moms at my kids' elementary school, so I need to stay in shape...
3) Food, pt. II. The Palm Beach County Fair, or whatever it is called, begins this Friday and runs for two weeks in western Palm Beach County. It is the one of the rare times I ever go west of Military Trail, and it is always my favorite day of the year. Close your eyes and imagine the best Christmas you ever had - now multiply it by 30. That's the Palm Beach County Fair. Come to think of it, it might be called the South Florida Fair? Whatever...The Captain and I plan for weeks what we are going to eat. Last year I had fried oreos, funnel cake, fried pickles, a giant turkey leg, and, of course, a piece of frozen chocolate covered cheesecake. The chocolate covered cheesecake runs about $6 a slice - one of the best bargains in the Western Hemisphere. Cap and I spent about 14 hours last year debating how much we would pay for a slice of this cheesecake. We decided that anything under $10, we're not even thinking about it, we pay it, we eat it, we couldn't be happier. When the price hits 10 bucks, maybe we think about it for a moment, but we definitely pay it. We figure about $15 is the tipping point. The Captain earned my ever-lasting respect last fair season when he got his wife to go to the fair on a day when he wasn't attending and bring him back a slice of the frozen cheesecake using a special cooler and an intricate parking/getaway plan. Yes, The Captain's got it like that...Anyways, he's going this Saturday, and I'll be going Monday, so we'll have a full report on what we eat in this space in a game next week. By the way, I've never been on a ride at the fair, or done anything at all, really, except eat...
4) Beginning of the end of Idol, just because Abdul is no longer there, and Simon is leaving? Balderdash! It's all about Randy Jackson, dawg!
5) The Captain and I made a list of the gayest Beatles songs today. And we mean "gay" in a completely non-homosexual way, not that there would be anything wrong with using it in the homosexual way, since we don't believe that there is anything at all wrong with being gay - I am huge in the LGBT community. To be fair, one of us was a more willing participant than the other one. First on the list: "Eleanor Rigby." Number two: "Taxman." By the way, those are different songs, right? That's as far as we got before The Captain pulled the plug: "You are daft," he complained. By the way, did you ever notice that "Beatles" is spelled with an "a" instead of another "e," like the beat of a song> Super-dope yo, those kids were geniae.
6) Album review: Murdering Oscar (and Other Love Songs) by Patterson Hood. He's from Drive-By Truckers, an alt-country band I've never listened to, and this solo album came out this past summer. Definitely: Listened to every Uncle Tupelo song ever made, and sided with Jay Farrar when he and Tweedy broke up the band. Murdering Oscar is like a Son Volt album with a different singer. Sounds like: The smartest kid in a rural high school figured out that if he tuned his guitar to a fuzzy twang and sang in a nasally rasp, he could get mad girls no matter what he looked like or did. For sure he unconvincingly screamed at his father at least once that "you don't understand me, man!" even though his dad was a liberal high school English teacher who was totally supportive of his music. Loves to: Start songs with just a distorted rhythm guitar and a mumbled verse, before stirring in the bass and drums, and gradually adding instruments as the song progresses. Songs don't surprise you, but he is definitely a skilled craftsman. Best songs: "I Understand Now," a pleasingly simple mid-tempo rocker about small town woman-troubles that will have you singing along by the second chorus, and "Walking Around Sense," a slower burner about a drunken, problematic mother-in-law which ends in the best instrumental jam on the album. Bonus: At the end of the first verse of "She's a Little Randy," the wife with the restless libido arguably fixes herself a John Daly. Overall: I just spent an hour working out to it, and it was pleasing. Definitely a keeper, though not a classic, nor even a heavy rotation candidate. Makes me want to check out Drive-By Truckers...
I think we are off until Wednesday, late game in Golden State. PS - Captain, put Deron Williams on The List of My Guys...
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