Cooperstown

I took a trip through the countryside of upstate New York and back in time to Cooperstown for a visit to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

It had been almost twenty years since my last visit to the Hall. I was prepared for making the ninety minute drive from Albany almost entirely on local roads, but I wasn’t prepared to find that nothing had changed along State Route 20. And in the case of State Route 20, that’s not a good thing.

Sad little roadside yard sales, boring houses, baled hay everywhere, endless satellite dishes, dozens of McCain signs – it was a lot like traveling the back roads of West Virginia. The only major employer in the area appeared to be a huge Wal-Mart distribution center, set down in the middle of nowhere.

In fact it was like traveling the back roads of most of the United States, and that was not comforting during the run-up to the Presidential election in November.

The Village of Cooperstown, however, is another thing altogether, an oasis in the midst of all this desolation. With a steady flow of tourists from around the world, and its quaint homes and old-fashioned charm, it is a lovely place to visit, even for non-baseball fans.

Unlike State Route 20, The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum has grown and developed quite nicely over the past twenty years.

The “Pride and Passion: The African-American Baseball Experience” and “Diamond Dreams: Women in Baseball” exhibits were new to me, inspirational and humbling at the same time.

But while the new exhibits and audio/video presentations were excellent, I spent most of my time (as I had last time) in the Hall of Fame Plaque Gallery, reading the bronze plaques and immersing myself in the history of the game. Then I spent too much time (and money) in the Museum store, trying to talk myself out of buying almost everything I saw.

I will leave you with two pieces of advice if you’re making your first visit: double the time you think you’ll need to fully enjoy the Museum; and if your companion isn’t a baseball fan be sure to plan an alternate activity outside the Museum for him or her – there’s nothing worse than having travelled all that way and having someone who’s bored asking “Are you done yet?” when you haven’t really begun.




Remember $400 Haircuts?

If you've been worried about a major for your college-age kid, maybe he or she should seriously consider becoming a makeup artist or hair stylist -- so long as after graduation, they can network into the world of Cindy McCain and the senior advisers to her husband's presidential campaign.

Today's New York Times highlights (sorry) the $22,800 paid to Sarah Palin's makeup artist (who was recommended to her by Mrs McCain) for two week's worth of services. There was a separate payment of $10,000 to another person for two weeks of hair styling services.

It seems like it wasn't so long ago that John Edwards was severely criticized for the cost of his haircut.

I guess the cost of everything has just gone way up.

"Such A Shy, Sweet Girl"

“I kind of worried about how she would do up there on stage,” Ms. Osborne said. “You have to have a certain go-get-’em to get up there and stand up for yourself, and she came across as such a shy, sweet girl.”

Even if she and John McCain lose the election on November 4, I don't see Sarah Palin disappearing from the public eye anytime soon unless she chooses to.

I've been in Memphis Tennessee for the past few days, and I have noticed that whenever a McCain ad shows up on television, it's Sarah Palin doing the talking and getting the face time. John McCain has been reduced to a quick-cut in his own campaign ads.

Her performance last week on Saturday Night Live was very impressive, to the point where some television executives must have been thinking that she could have her own show if and when she wanted it. She's one of those people who understands how to use the medium to connect with people, even those who don't like her

I Dig Bill Evans

I have hundreds of songs on my iPod, but I often return to those involving the jazz pianist Bill Evans as composer, soloist or sideman. If you're not familiar with him, click on the title

Bill Evans is one of the most important American artists of the twentieth century. His work with Miles Davis, John Coltrane and others, and especially with his own trios, is as fresh and lyrical today as it was five decades ago.


Listen to the interplay between Bill, bassist Scott LaFaro, and drummer Paul Motian on the Bill Evans Trio's late 1950s and early 1960s recordings like "Moon Beams," and the live 1961 Village Vanguard sessions. Even though I've listened to his music for a long time, I still discover gorgeous facets to his solos that I'd somehow missed.

Francona To Manage McCain Campaign?

A report out of New York claims that the McCain Campaign has hired Boston Red Sox Manager Terry Francona to manage its final push toward the White House.

Based on the Sox Skipper's sterling track record of leading an organization back from the dead in several high-stakes situations (if only for a short time) Francona is an inspired -- if risky -- choice.

But time is running out for the McCain campaign, and drastic measures are in order.

Ghost Whisperer

One of the benefits that accrues to a top-rated network television show is the freedom to stretch out from time to time, and having the budget to do it properly.

For the past few months, "Ghost Whisperer" has been a diverting weekly entertainment that Gail and I enjoy watching together.

"Ghost in the Machine," this week's show, takes on an important subject -- on-line predators -- and puts some serious resources behind the production of a powerful and scary episode that will hit very close to home for a lot of parents.

This behind-the-scenes feature will give you a taste of the exceptional special effects; try to see the full episode if you possibly can:

Edie Adams

I've been posting too many obituaries lately, but the passing of Edie Adams can't go without notice.

She was "an actress, comedian and singer who both embodied and winked at the stereotypes of fetching chanteuse and sexpot blonde, especially in a long-running series of TV commercials for Muriel cigars, in which she poutily encouraged men to 'pick one up and smoke it sometime'...clad in the highest heels and the slinkiest dresses, [she] danced with giant cigars, caressed them and extolled their virtues, often with a come-hither...wink, and the whispered slogan adapted from Mae West’s famous invitation to come up and see her.”

Don Draper and the boys from "Mad Men" would have loved her, and they might have made a commercial just like this one:

Too Pretty To Do Math?


“The United States is failing to develop the math skills of both girls and boys, especially among those who could excel at the highest levels, a new study asserts, and girls who do succeed in the field are almost all immigrants or the daughters of immigrants from countries where mathematics is more highly valued.”

"The idea that the U.S. won’t even properly develop the skills of young people who could perform at the highest intellectual levels is breathtaking — breathtakingly stupid, that is.

The authors of the study, published in Notices of the American Mathematical Society, concluded that American culture does not value talent in math very highly. I suppose we’re busy with other things, like text-messaging while jay-walking. The math thing is seen as something for Asians and nerds."

As Bob Herbert, Bill Gates, and others have been saying for some time now, we had damn well better reverse this trend of ignoring practical education in math and the sciences, because while Americans have been focused on being pretty, the rest of the world has been eating our lunch (and dinner).

Not From Around Here - 2

“He’s neither-nor,” said Ricky Thompson, a pipe fitter who works at a factory north of Mobile, [about Barack Obama] while standing in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart store just north of here. “He’s other. It’s in the Bible. Come as one. Don’t create other breeds.”

Separate New York Times articles today look at attitudes about race on campus and in the South, and recall for me some observations by David Brooks, posted on the Freeway earlier in the campaign.

I think that in order to affirm how far we may have come in our attitudes about race in America, we have to be totally honest about the distance yet to go.

The Duchess

There's a lot we liked about "The Duchess" and some things -- well, not so much.

It's a gorgeous film to watch on the big screen, with a compelling story about a fascinating woman very engaged in the extraordinary times just before the American and French Revolutions. It's full of fine actors, beautifully costumed, who are so good that they couldn't screw it up if they tried. And they have a great story to work with.

The soundtrack by Rachel Portman is so haunting and right that as soon as I got home, I downloaded it to my iPod.

Unfortunately, the correspondences between Georgiana Spencer, Duchess of Devonshire, and Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales, while accurate, are laid on so thick and so often that they distract from the narrative flow.

Still, it's well worth seeing at the cinemaplex; but do it soon, beacause there weren't many people there when we went, and the average age looked to be well-north of fifty.

For now, have a look at this marvelous extended wide-screen preview from the film's UK website.

Teens Adjust To New Economic Realities


“Kaitlyn Postle is having a bumpy adjustment (to the financial crisis). She has a weekend baby-sitting job and can’t wait to turn 16, so she can find work at a mall.

“I used to ask for things and my parents would say, ‘We can’t do that,’ ” she said in a phone interview. “So I would throw a tantrum and get an attitude. They used to give in a lot. But that doesn’t work now.”

The good news, she said, is that when she shops at thrift stores, she can buy more for her money. But now that she has a temporary license — freedom! — how will she pay for gas?

She assumes she will have to attend a local college and live at home. “I don’t have a problem with that,” she said. “Whatever. That way, I won’t have to pay for everything.”

In the background, a half-shout of protest could be heard. “Of course,” Kaitlyn added, “my parents aren’t too happy about that.”

Examining the financial crisis as it ripples out into the real world.

As if it wasn’t already a challenge to teach kids how to manage (and earn) their own money…

Alternative Investments


If you're on the sidelines financially, uncertain which way to turn, there's a new way to keep yourself warmed-up while you wait to get back into the game.

"Today OneSeason.com is introducing a day-trading site for sports fans – a Web stock market which allows people to invest real money to own “shares” of their favorite sports players, teams and leagues. The word “shares” is in quotes because the shares on OneSeason are, ultimately, meaningless— only illusory slices of players like Eli Manning or Lebron James, which either rise or fall depending on the demand for those shares among other traders. People can transfer up to $2500 a year to their OneSeason accounts."

Fantasy Sports on steroids.

More Paglia on Palin

"The next phase of feminism must circle back and reappropriate the ancient persona of the mother — without losing career ambition or power of assertion. Betty Friedan, who had first attacked the cult of postwar domesticity, had long warned second-wave feminists such as Gloria Steinem about the damaging exclusion of homemakers from their value system. The animus of liberal feminists toward religion must also end (I am speaking as an atheist). Feminism must reexamine all of its assumptions, including its death grip on abortion, if it wishes to survive.

The hysterical emotionalism and eruptions of amoral malice at the arrival of Sarah Palin exposed the weaknesses and limitations of current feminism. But I am convinced that Palin’s bracing mix of male and female voices, as well as her grounding in frontier grit and audacity, will prove to be a galvanizing influence on aspiring Democratic women politicians too, from the municipal level on up. Palin has shown a brand-new way of defining female ambition — without losing femininity, spontaneity or humor. She’s no pre-programmed wonk of the backstage Hillary Clinton school; she’s pugnacious and self-created, the product of no educational or political elite — which is why her outsider style has been so hard for media lemmings to comprehend. And by the way, I think Tina Fey’s witty impersonations of Palin have been fabulous. But while Fey has nailed Palin’s cadences and charm, she can’t capture the energy, which is a force of nature."

Some more reflections on Sarah Palin from Camille Paglia