Red Sox Nation

Of course I'm biased, but you can't help noticing that there are an awful lot of Red Sox fans at games the Sox play on the road -- to the point where in some cities it must be embarrassing to the other team when the Sox fans seem to outnumber the home team fans.

"Red Sox Nation" is much more than a marketing concept.

So because we're in that awful dead zone right now between the end of the football season and the first Spring Training game, and because my nephew Paul sent me this excellent video that a friend of his wrote and produced, it's time for baseball!

(You can get more information about the video here.)

Octomom Update

Some followup to a recent post on the Freeway:

"MONTEBELLO, Calif. — Pictures of children, his trophies, decorate Dr. Tien C. Chiu’s office.

"Three smiling siblings, he says, were the first Japanese-American triplets conceived in a laboratory, while the robust-looking quadruplets were born after sperm was injected into their mother’s eggs with a needle.

"To the couples who turned to Dr. Chiu to have families, the babies were special gifts. To the government and fertility industry, though, such large multiple births have begun to look like breakdowns in the system. The issue has taken on renewed scrutiny since a California woman, Nadya Suleman, who already had six children conceived through in vitro procedures, gave birth to octuplets near here last month.

"Nearly a third of in vitro births involve twins or more. The government, along with professional associations, have been pushing fertility doctors to reduce that number, citing the disastrous health consequences that sometimes come with multiple births — infant mortality, low birth weights, long-term disabilities and thousands of dollars’ worth of medical care.

"The American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the association of fertility doctors, even adopted guidelines in 2008 encouraging the transfer of only one embryo for women under 35, and no more than two, except in extraordinary circumstances. The guidelines allow more for older women, up to a maximum of five.

"But unlike some other countries, the United States has no laws to enforce those guidelines. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a surveillance system that collects data on fertility clinics, but reporting is voluntary and there are no government sanctions for not reporting."

Single Mother Of 14

I'll bet at least one of the networks that thrives on "Reality" programming is pursuing this sick and deluded woman to "star" in a new show.

I remember reading about the Dionne quintuplets and all of the publicity they generated at that time, but this story is a freakshow -- an out-of-control train heading for a major wreck, and at a staggering cost in both financial and human terms.

Somehow, it's just not the same as "Jon and Kate Plus Eight."

Linda Ronstadt Live - Tumbling Dice

It's back -- maybe not for long...enjoy!


Linda Ronstadt was a pioneer Rock and Roll woman who paved the way for those who came after.

We saw her at the Orpheum in Boston in 1974, before the era of elaborate stage sets, lighting and costumes. As this clip from that period demonstrates, she and her band absolutely kicked ass.

No frills, no smoke and mirrors -- just straight-ahead Rock and Roll in its purest form from one of the best singers of all time.

John Updike

John Updike is dead at 76. He has always been my favorite American novelist.

Michio Kakutani captures some of the reasons why in her remembrance:

"It is as a novelist who opened a big picture window on the American middle class in the second half of the 20th century, however, that he will be best remembered."

"In his most resonant work, Mr. Updike gave “the mundane its beautiful due,” as he once put it, memorializing the everyday mysteries of love and faith and domesticity with extraordinary nuance and precision."

"In Kodachrome-sharp snapshots, he gave us the 50’s and early 60’s of suburban adultery, big cars and wide lawns, radios and hi-fi sets, and he charted the changing landscape of the 70’s and 80’s, as malls and subdivisions swallowed up small towns and sexual and social mores underwent a bewildering metamorphosis."