Hating the Past: Fads

Magic the Gathering- Never bought or really played.  Game was confusing and generally played by what I would have considered weirdos at the time.  No offense to anyone who played it though.  Looking back it had alot more to offer than most of the things on this list and was probably played by semi intelligent kids.

Pokemon- I can't believe I chose these over buying more baseball cards on a couple of occasions. Granted I was looking to sell them because you always got to be hustling but I owned this garbage and got sucked in.  These cards were really expensive and were a total waste of money and you do not need to catch em all.

Pogs- They were retarded.  They made no sense and yet I found myself buying them eventually. They were cheap so their wasn't much push back from the parents. Never really did anything with them including playing that dumb little game. I once attended a pog and baseball card birthday as a little guy and traded my pogs for 1990-91 proset hockey packs. 

Those Robot Pets (I think Taguchis or something like that)- Never had one but played with other kids during a school day.  Kinda fun for a day but little playback value even for $15 bucks or so.

Beanie Babies- Got in real late and had a few of the so called valuable ones.  We even had some book predicting their value in 10 years and boy was that wrong.  Had the tag protectors and cases for a few of them as well.  So lame to spend my little money or my parents money on anything but baseball cards at that age.  The expenses on these added up as you collected them.

Devil Sticks- Never bought because I'm not that skillful but I know someone in my family had a pair. They were stupid but relatively cheap.

Girls- Cats Cradle thing.  I don't know what this was but the girls seemed to play it alot.  I'd like to here some comments if you played with it.  It seemed rather harmless.

Yo-Yos- They made a comeback with our generation in late elementary school. I can remember the Fireball and I believe Duncan Yo-yos were among the best to have.  My parents bought a couple for me as gifts but my lack of skill and practice with them made them relatively useless.  A legitimate little toy that's cheap and has more staying power than most of this list.  Will probably be a fad again at some point if you can avoid giving cell phones to pre teens.

Paper football- Played quite a bit. Easy to make and I even attempted to sell well made ones for nickels and dimes in 3rd grade.  Obviously that didn't go to well but revenues did clear $1. The game itself was not so enjoyable and it was always more fun to flick them across the room.

Please add more because I'm sure I'm forgetting some.

Most fads I held out until they were near the end of their run and gave in.  Some I was able to wait out entirely and successfully avoid getting sucked in. 

Looking back it was easy to predict that I would be an individual rather than a clone.  I was still wearing hand me downs and sweatshirt and sweatpants in 5th grade because I was comfortable in them at recess. The rest of the day didn't matter too much to me.  In reality nothing has really changed.  I never created a myspace or a facebook just because everyone else was doing it. However I scooped up my name on twitter hoping it would kill facebook in the workplace. So while I take pride in not going with the crowd, I am prone at times to giving in. Don't follow the leader all the time and do what you want to do.

911 Calls Shouldn't Be Public

This call may be recorded for quality and training purposes.  You have certainly heard a version of that phrase before. It typically applies to customer service departments but also to 911 calls.  And it should.  What shouldn't be legal is the public release of these 911 calls. These calls need to kept private in almost all circumstances.  Exceptions for releasing 911 calls would be in the courtroom or identifying a unknown voice (Ala Zodiac). 

Normally I wouldn't even know about this call but its been all over the radio.  Gary Coleman's ex wife, Shannon Price can be heard on this call seemingly showing little effort to help Coleman. Now she has a media firestorm on her hands and a rush to judge before police have fully investigated the matter.



Somethings should remain private and you can argue that I shouldn't have posted this if its indeed the way I feel.  However, the large issue is that 911 calls and autopsy photos shouldn't get leaked to the public out of respect for the deceased and the surving members.  Can we at least have some privacy in this age of technology?

Puff, Puff, I'll Pass

4:20 has to be one of the dumbest traditions I've heard. Some kids in California supposedly met at 4:20 everyday after school to smoke starting in 1971. I don't buy this story for a second but whatever. Some people like to smoke weed on April 20th to celebrate. Fine, go ahead, I'm not going to stop you. If cigarettes are going to legal I see no reason pot shouldn't be.

I am certainly not a medical expert but I do not believe that weed is a life threatening drug. It may even be less dangerous than alcohol depending on consumption levels and amount of use (way to be non-committal). As far as being a "gateway drug" I say bollocks. If you are willing to try marijuana then your probably more willing to try other drugs. Its not the marijuana that makes you want to try other drugs its that if your willing to try one drug you are probably more willing to try another. Marijuana is probably the easiest drug to obtain so you try it first. The gateway theory is propaganda.

Anti-Drug Ads make me want to do drugs. They are beyond ridiculous and one sided. I bought into the drugs are bad mkay speeches growing up but the only time I'm tempted to try drugs is when watching these commercials.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTWDIUonqIw

Seriously, I love TMNT as much as the next guy but that is so lame. People who make these commercials hearts are generally in the right place but they are nuts if they think this works. The idea that pot makes you lazy is bullshit too. I know people that will spend hours a day working out and smoke pot. Its a personal choice, sit there and chill out man or get off you ass and do something. Don't blame the weed.

Drugs are sold be gangs, illegals, and regular joes. People have already made up their minds whether they will use drugs or not based on the information known. I'd love to see all drugs go away but I'm a realest. Your not going to change their minds. They are going to get these drugs legal or not. Let's make it legal and tax the shit out of it. Keep it out of public places so no innocent people are effected. Make weed just like cigarettes. If you want to high that's your decision. You don't need the government telling you what to do with your own body.

I don't smoke because its not my thing and it doesn't interest me. Maybe I take some sick pleasure in being able to stubbornly say no all these years. That doesn't make me right, so light up if thats your choice.

Stop Fixing What Isn't Broken

Wow, one hell of a national championship game we had last night, yes? The only way it could have been better would be if that half-court shot at the buzzer had fallen for Butler, but all in all you could hardly have scripted a tougher-fought or more entertaining conclusion to the college basketball season. And so what if we had to stomach Duke winning the title, because the consolation prize of "One Shining Moment" was awaiting us just a few moments afterward.

Possibly the most anticipated 3-and-a-half minute montage of the year, "One Shining Moment" is a lock to put a nice cherry on top of the tournament, regardless of how well that night's title game turned out. So you can imagine the disappointment shared by millions of Americans on the edge of their seats as they were subjected to this shit. I refuse to even embed it because I don't want to deface our blog, so you're going to have to click on the link to see what I mean. It starts innocently enough, but at the :53 mark, instead of a nice "opening tipoff" shot to go along with the opening line "The ball is tipped," we get a shot of Jennifer Hudson's fat face wailing at us. And then it didn't stop. Intermittently, it kept cutting to pre-set studio shots of Jennifer Hudson doing her best to put the song through a blender. What, 64 basketball games didn't provide CBS with enough footage to fill 210 seconds? "One Shining Moment" has never (not to my memory, at least) cut to shots of the person singing it; it just stuck to what people actually want to see - the defining images of that year's tournament. Why change that now? Is CBS trying that hard to manufacture Hudson as the next great big star?

It baffles me that CBS found it necessary to do away with the Luther Vandross version of the song that, despite not being the earlier version that really made a name for the song, did it total justice. Both versions evoked a soothing yet masculine inspirational feeling, thanks in large part to the vocal work of the men singing them. The Jennifer Hudson version? Her voice is too high and she takes every chance to inject her own style into it and try to turn it into soul music. It sounded like such canned ham that I honestly sat there hoping it was going to turn into a Rick Roll.

I don't want to rip on Jennifer Hudson too much because I remember the personal tragedy she has recently overcome. But part of me can't forget how her Super Bowl XLIII rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" went from a B+ to a D in the final 45 seconds because she tried to elongate it and soul it up. I understand she's a hell of a singer and an Academy Award winner, so questioning her talent would be stupid on my part. My real problem lies with the style, and furthermore my problem lies with those at CBS who saw it fit to hire her to apply that style to "One Shining Moment."

Certain things in civic culture and popular culture reach such high levels that there becomes only one right way to do them. There is one right way and about 4 dozen wrong ways to sing our national anthem. Similarly, you don't say the Pledge of Allegiance in a Cartman voice; you say it seriously and straightforward. Maybe we didn't realize it until CBS screwed with it this year, but "One Shining Moment" was at such a point. We like it the way it was. It is best the way it was. It is not to be modernized, enhanced, or left up to an individual performer's interpretation.

Oh well. It's just an ending montage that we'll all forget about within a week or two. I mean, at least there's not something galactically stupid going on like the NCAA expanding the tournament to 96 teams or anything. Oh wait, never mind....

Say It Is So, Joe

I'm a proponent of free agency in all sports. Curt Flood didn't do it all for nothing. It gets dangerous in baseball due to the absence of a salary cap, where the rich teams wrestle away the lesser-heeled teams' homegrown stars, needing to use little more than the almighty extra zeroes on the contract. I root for a team that is hated for doing just that, over and over again. However, the Yankees and all of the other big-market teams are merely playing the game by the rules that are written. And in my mind, a team like the Pittsburgh Pirates, who consistently produce talent only to consistently trade it away for dimes on the dollar, have much more to answer for than a does a team that exhausts every resource it has in the name of winning.

Despite all that, I come to you this evening with this declaration: Minnesota needs to keep Joe Mauer. Baseball needs the Twins to keep Joe Mauer. I do not want to see him go to another team after his contract is up at the end of 2010. Yes, you are hearing this from a guy who roots for a team with the biggest checkbook in the game and happens to have an aging catcher that will be knocking at the door of "Full Time DH" come the end of the 2010 season. The bloodlust of a Yankee fan in me wants Joe Mauer in 2011 just like he wanted Mike Mussina, Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon, CC Sabathia, and Mark Teixeira in years prior. He wants to see him in pinstripes as much as he doesn't want to see him wearing a horrendous red or green Red Sox alternate uniform. But the rational baseball fan in me says he'll be happy to pass on the reigning AL MVP. In fact, he'll be happiest if he never even gets a shot at having him on his team.

Baseball has become top-heavy, and even worse, top-heavy in the markets that ESPN and mostly all other national media like to jump through hoops for. If I were a baseball fan in Texas or Florida or Michigan and had to listen to as much Yankees/Red Sox/Cubs/Mets/Phillies (albeit only more recently for the Phils) fodder as they produce over the course of 162 games, I'd develop a pretty strong disdain for those teams too. The game thrives on the everyman's hero who plays to an All-Star level, keeps his mouth shut, gets his uniform dirty, cares about his teammates, shakes hands, kisses babies, the whole bit. It makes you stop caring about how much money he's making or how much you paid for your ticket. It already has a few of them (Derek Jeter, Albert Pujols, and Chase Utley pop into mind immediately), but it needs a few more who play for the lower profile teams. The Kansas City feel good story of Zack Greinke can fit that mold with another solid year. Adrian Gonzalez would already fit that role if San Diego hadn't fallen so far off the baseball map that you'd think the Flat Earth Society were on to something after all.

Joe Mauer and Minnesota are just right together. He is a Minnesota native, the face of a franchise that has been to the postseason 5 times since it was under serious consideration for contraction in 2001. He is a 26-year-old, .327 career hitter at a position where 75% of teams would happily sign for .260, and has now developed his power stroke. The Twinkies are moving into a new ballpark this season (translation: REVENUE) and would surprise no one if they win the AL Central again. They consistently make the most of their talent despite looking like a 75-win team on paper most of the time. They could be on the tier of the Yankees and Phillies if they had been able to sign Johan Santana to a long term deal a few years back.

I hope that does not happen this time. Baseball can really use another consistently good team with a likable superstar. It helps people associate the game with bats and gloves and dirt again, rather than associate it with Scott Boras, salary arbitration, and the Mitchell Report. You get a generation that grows up being taught the many things there are to love about our national pastime and fewer of the things that are wrong with it. You get TV networks having no choice but to divide up the coverage more equally. To the Twins and to Joe Mauer: if you sign it, they will come.

Passport to the American Dream

We met some foreign exchange students in Old City who went to Penn. They were from all over Europe and came to study law on scholarship. 90 people are in the program and are getting hooked up with a top notch education from Penn. I didn't study this students to see what exactly their credentials were but I am bothered in general by the influx of foreigners that attend our countries top universities. It's getting harder and harder for the American born students to attend the best schools. This is a crime and is at the very core of what is wrong in our country. Little Billy lives 10 minutes from the school and grew up dreaming of going to Penn but fuck him we'll take the foreigner. You wonder why other countries are catching up to us....it's because your letting them. Fuck the idea of the bread basket to the world. If two applicants are equal you take the homegrown. But NO.... we want to improve are global image. Fuck Penn for doing this but they are not alone. The American Dream can only be obtained by passport nowadays.