The Joys of Summer Time

Last night was almost a perfect summer's night, that was until a nasty chill wind blew up for no good reason. Still it was a perfect night to sit outside and enjoy some tasty burgers and dogs from the grill and enjoy what little precious summer we have here in Boston. I was able to take Max the Wonder Dog for a walk and as usual he managed to freak out yet another dog. This thing of his where he has to be the A-Number-One dog on the block is amazing. Imagine meeting someone for the first time and as you go to shake their hand they say, "I make more money than you, drive a better car and my wife is prettier than yours." That is basically how Max behaves in social settings.

I have to tip my cap to Jon Lester who pitched an awesome game last night. I think Lester is one of the most amazing sports stories to come along in many a year. Not only is he a decent left handed pitcher, and really the first one to come up via the Red Sox farm system that I can think of since the good ole days of Bruce Hurst. His battle with cancer is inspirational so if he goes out and does what most of us can only dream about doing then you have to be in a state of awe! Notice that the Red Sox won and you know who was parking his over priced kiester on the bench.

Well I hope it does clear up more for later on. I think taking MTWD for a walk will be on the agenda. Have you ever met a dog who nags? Seriously, I am not allowed to sit down and take a breath before I hear low level growls and whines which basically means get off your rear and take me for a walk. Oh on the plus side I see on the news that Midway Auto in Framingham is going out of business today. They were the biggest crooks and gave dishonest auto dealers everywhere a bad name. I would say this is addition by subtraction and no great loss.

Speaking the name whose name I shall not mention

When I am thinking of the current starter at short stop for the Red Sox I am reminding of the hysterical scene from Scary Movie 4 where in the spoof of the Village they ask, if we speak of those to whom we do not mention then aren't we discussing those to whom we do not speak about? I feel that way about a certain shortstop that the Red Sox were stupid enough to offer a big fat contract too prior to 2007. Needless to say, he is terrible beyond words and yet again his poor baseball playing cost the Red Sox another game last night. Why do the Red Sox think that any player who plays well AGAINST them will play well FOR them? This is a tired old routine which has been proven oh so wrong over the years.

I am glad to see that the crooks on Beacon Hill are trying to get rid of two of the hack holiday's, Bunker Hill Day and Evacuation Day. Now I am a history lover and have no doubt of the importance of these days but understand that fat cat politicians want to make sure that their idiot cousins, who could not work as greeters at Wal-Mart get more for less than those of us idiots who support their quasi-welfare lifestyle. If anyone wants to see what a Socialist state looks like, check out Beacon Hill. Except in Europe, I think they might want you to actually put in some work? But I do have an idea. Any state work who wants the day off must be able to answer two questions 1) Where was the Battle of Bunker Hill Fought on? 2) Why did the British evacuation Boston on March 17?

Today looks like laundry and maybe a Sox game. I am keeping my fingers crossed. Of course if he whose name we can not mention is playing I may end up incarcerated after the game!

The Weekend Is Starting Well

Well today's job report was quite the stunner. It came in well below expectations which makes me wonder if the numbers aren't wrong. Much as one can not look at who the Patriots take in the first round, you have to look beyond the first number to see what's going on. And also keep in mind that this means companies are firing less and not hiring new employees. But still I am optimistic that we are beyond the worst. I think we went down too fast and that when we come back it may not be as fast but pent up demand will have to be unleashed at some point.

In other news I am pumped that the Sox swept by the Tiggers :) Tim Wakefield is having a heck of a season and Jason Bay, or the Anti Manny, is proving that the trade for Manny may be the Sox's best move since they traded for Tek about ten years ago. I am also rooting for the Magic in this year's finals. Basically anyone vs. the Lakers gets my vote and the fact that the rapist Kobe Bryant should be in jail and not playing basketball should also be enough reason to go against the Lakers.

I did get a laughable treatment from a guy looking for a PR person. He wanted someone to write press releases because he knew that's how you get coverage. Of course this is wrong and I tried to tell him this but he knew. I asked him how he knew and he told me that you see all these press releases out there and all those articles get written so they must be getting written from the press releases. I thought wow this guy must also think that since he only sees the sun during the day it must dissapear at night. Amazing the thoughts and the certainty that goes through some people's minds.

Well a quite day. Once the rain is gone it looks like a nice weekend so I will take Max the Wonder Dog out for a walk and try to work off some of his fat!

A Great Game For Beckett but another win for the faux fans

OK before I lavish praise on Josh Becket I need to comment on how appalling it is to see that the fake Red Sox fan's have made another inroad into their attempt to pass for real Red Sox fans. Sorry but if you wear a pink Red Sox hat your a poser! If you wear a pink hat with scratch and sniff watermelon accents not only are you a poser but you should be taken out and shot. This is the baseball equivalent of sacrilege.

On the real baseball front, Josh Beckett pitched one hell of a game last night. He reminds me of the 2007 Beckett the one who was robbed of the Cy Young Award. And yes I know the vote is taken before the playoff which is really stupid if you ask me. The Tigers were almost clueless against him and were swinging at his pitches way outside of the strike zone or frozen like wax figures at the ones just over the plate. His command was incredible. Nice to see Julio Lugo riding the pine and with Jeb Lowerie coming back from the DL Lugo will join that long list of signing mistakes the Red Sox committed at short.

I do see that the saintly crooks on Beacon Hill are railing against getting rid of their hack holiday's. Of course we need to raise taxes and cut essential services but heaven forbid we not have St. Patrick's Day ( I mean Evacuation Day) or Bunker Hill Day off. Hey if these days are so critical why not take them off with pay? Sorry it took me five minutes of laughing before I realized what I had said. Now granted the dumbest Wal-Mart greeter has more job skills than any state employee ( I can't bring myself to call them workers since no one has ever broken a sweat up there), but given that corporations are cutting back on workers to ease the pain is it too insane to ask the recipients of the Commonwealth's largest welfare pool to take a hit, or at the very least to do some work?

Well the dreary days of June are here. We have had a nice run so I will not spend much time complaining but let's not make a habit of it. In other news, the company keeps moving forward but these things are slow going sometimes and I think the one thing you have to realize is that your clock is not always other people's clock. So last game for the Sox and Tigers today. God I wish they could play them every game. Oh well as long as we don't have to play the Angels in the regular season. They are unbeatable them. A pushover in the playoffs but bears in the regular season. Oh and tell your friends to vote for Jason Bay for the All Star team. It would so rock if he made it and Manny did not!

Oh it is nice to see BC reached the goal for the stupid Neenan thing which I boycotted. If they only put as much effort into promoting a real BC institution like Cleansweep we could feel proud. Sadly those of us who take pride in the institutional goals of one of the premeire Jesuit Universities can't help but notice that fattening up the endowment and fielding a Top 25 football team seem to be all that matter.

The More Things Change,,,,Yada Yada

So was anyone really surprised to see speaker Sal indicted yesterday for corruption? I for one would love to see the job description for Speaker, Massachusetts House of Representatives. Does it say, Ensure House Runs Smoothly, Be House Counter to Governor's Power, Be Hopelessly and Blatantly Corrupt. To call Massachusetts politics a cesspool is to not even come close to the nature of the nature of the corruption at the fetid dump that passes for the Massachusetts State House. While we know there is a dire need for some type of reform we all saw how when this was attempted the legislature thought that the best way to improve ethics was to eliminate the ethics commission. I can't help but think of the child sticking their fingers in their ears saying loudly that they can't hear you and if they can't hear you it's not true!

The trial of Cuckoo Clark Rockefeller goes on and on. He's done a very good act of looking like he is crazy but the guy is just a sleazy operator who found not one, but two gullible women, who did exactly what he wanted. I don't know which one was more naive, the one who married him for his green card and who he left the day after, but then didn't divorce him until 10 years later, or the one who was making a million dollars a year while he wasn't working and let him manage the money. Is she still single???

Oh I heard a good story from a friend interviewing for a PR position. He met with a SVP who told him that their image was bad and they didn't have good relationships with their news media. When asked why he thought this was the SVP said that it probably had something to do with the fact they didn't tell the news media anything and communicated only via news release. But that was OK since that was how the news media want to communicate.

On more friendly front it is a good thing that with Dice K pitching the Sox have a deep bulletin. I mean the guy must have had two men on in each inning and got out of it each and every time. Big Papi is slowly wearing out what ever good will there was for him. I think the Sox need to put him on the DL and figure out what to do with him. Jason Bay continues to show he was more than just a throw in for Manny the Cheat. Add together Bay's stats subtract what Manny might have done over the same time and then add in the 20 homers and 75 RBI's you can add in when you take into account not having to deal with Manny's BS and you have what someone like Jason Bay who just does his job is worth.

The word is out that Rodney Harrison is going to retire. I will always remember in the Super Bowl against the Panthers when he broke his arm and did not come out for something like 3 plays. He was and is a warrior and helped the Pats win 2 Super Bowls. Appropo of nothing, some 93 year old guy crashed his car into the Wal Mart in Danvers, MA. I am amazed he was able to do it. I don't think that if you tried to do it you would be able to!

The Beat Beat Goes On

I can't help but wonder what it is like to be the PR manager at GM in these days. I mean if you are at GM corporate it must have been brutal for the past several weeks seeing the writing on the wall and knowing the company was going down in flames. If you were in one of the product lines, you have to have been going crazy seeing how badly GM was planning it's future and developing more big, gas guzzling cars when the market taste was shifting towards more fuel efficient models. Yes GM has filed for bankruptcy and its not quite the end of the world, that's now happening in December 2012 if you're wondering. This will be a painful progress and sadly a number of good people will be hurt by it but sadly it is necessary in this case to cut off the infection to save the patient. My only hope is that we don't see the incompetent managers who lead GM into this position leave with bundles of golden parachutes.

One possible good outcome of this mess is that it could end the second gilded age in America and the idea of the CEO as a god. CEO's are grossly overpaid and in many respects are paid regardless of whether they succeed or fail. Also, their short term, quarter-to-quarter view handcuffs them into pleasing Wall Street and not in pleasing their customers. Last time I checked, Wall Street bought zero for product yet most CEO's behave as if that is the market they most need to appeal to. If you want to see an example of one company doing the right thing look at Amazon. They are among a growing list of companies who refuse to provide guidance to Wall Street and "manage" earnings. Not surprisingly, they tend to be more successful and often have stronger earnings and be more in tune with their own markets.

Well the Red Sox didn't play last night which was a good thing because it was a good night for TV watching. Personally, I think CBS has the best hour of TV between 8 and 9 PM on Monday's with the Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother. The guy who plays Sheldon on Big Bang is one of the funniest characters on TV today and should receive an Emmy nod though I doubt he will. I mean how many years did Friends get those automatic Emmy nod's and it basically sucked. I think the funniest episode of Friends would qualify as a lame episode of How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang. I also watched the first season of Barney Miller on DVD. Barney was one of the best TV shows ever and is still extremely funny to watch even today!

I think it's a shame about the Air France jet but I am not buying the theory of a lighting strike bringing down the plane. What I don't get is that this model of Air Bus is equipped with both satellite and Doppler Radar and if the weather was so bad, why didn't the crew just fly around? The black boxes will keep beeping for 90 days so I hope they find them because I think that's the only way this mystery will be solved.

Finally a Nice Weekend and a Crappy Week

Well at long last we had weather that was nice on the weekend and not so nice during the week. Oh what a pleasant relief that was. Perfect weather for a walk, or a ride with the car window rolled all the way down or just sitting outside and reading a good book. All of which were activities that I partook in. I gave Max his walk and as is becoming habit he got beat up by the Malamute puppy that lives up the street. Max is very socially inept so when another dog wants to play he really does not know what to do.

Oh and of course Sunday would not be complete with out a good dinner. A nice stuffed chicken breast with mom's stuffing did the trick for me. Nothing like a good home made dinner to offset the grease fest of fried clam strips I had on Friday. My walking hopefully will offset some of the grease I ate and the fact I make Max run on our trips might also help out somewhat.

I was also happy to see the Sox save at least one game during their trip to Toronto. Jason Bay, Dustin Pedroia and Youk all came up big and they are already on my All-Star ballot. I like Jason Bay because he is the anti-Manny. Gee he does his job quietly, puts up good numbers and actually can field the ball. Oh yea and he is not a lying cheat that too. I was glad to see Jon Lester pitch a great game. Given his health history, any game Lester pitches, never mind wins, is a miracle of medicine and he should get praise for that accomplishment.

I did have the chance to meet with a small company CEO last week and this guy was a trip. He had just let go of his PR agency because they were writing in his terms "nothing but press releases that weren't doing anything." So what was the problem as he saw it? They were not writing enough press releases. He wanted me to write 3-6 per week and turn them into stories in Time and Business Week. I diplomatically suggested that was not the way to go and that he needed to focuses not only on his industry books but he needed to build relationships with editors and reporters. "Oh no," he says to me, " I know for a fact press releases are what gets you noticed. The never talk to companies." So knowing I wasn't going to get the job, or for that matter wasn't interested in working for yet another clueless CEO enjoyed debating with it. Sitting there telling him he was basically an idiot in nice double speak terms, never losing the smile on my face was just so enjoyable.

So today is also the day that GM finally files for Chapter 11. This is one of the really sad stories in American business. This is a company that has ignored every trend in the past 50 years and has made every wrong headed decision a company can make. Poor quality, high prices a ridiculous insistence that it is somehow my patriotic duty to buy a piece of junk made over seas so GM can make more money for their senior executives and union leaders made my head spin. Hopefully they find someone to run the company who actually puts money into marketing and moving with the marketplace.

I am still mad at the notice the Pastor of my church put in last week's bulletin. He claimed that he was saddened to see how church collections have been dropping and how over the past few months, preposition as an adverb no no, and that many people are using ones instead of fives. He knows times are tough but he thinks that makes it even more important for people to help out those less fortunate. I was so mad I didn't write the email which would have said hey buddy when you're worried about the mortgage even giving at church become discretionary spending. I was feeling bad about cutting back on my donation each week but seeing stupid comments such as this makes me feel much better thanks!