Foxy Lady

I started running regularly again about 2 weeks ago (although I didn't get much done during Thanksgiving week). And don't bother to ask: it's beyond me why I waited until the onset of winter and temps in the 20's to start an exercise regimen. Guess the masochist in me loves running in the freezing rain. Luckily, I've had my own personal cheerleader to urge me on most nights. She usually meets me at the halfway mark on my way back from the Willows. She's gorgeous, a red-head, a little shy, and is only ever dressed in a fancy fur coat. I only know her as Miss Elisabeth.

I swear, I don't think I've seen an actual, real-life fox in person but a couple of times in my life. Honestly, two or three times at most. They are one of the most elusive, people-wary creatures I've ever known of. But this lovely lady is out there for me almost every night. I don't know if she lives on Salem Neck permanently or is just temporarily hanging 'round but I've definitely loved heading out every night in anticipation of seeing her. Sometimes she'll run out of the brush and trot across the road ahead of me or I'll catch her lurking on the edge of somebody's front yard, dancing in and out of the glow of the streetlamps. One time she ran out not ten yards in front of me, jumped up on the chest-high stone wall outside of the Marine Biology center, and glanced back to make eye-contact for just the briefest of instants before the grey-white tip of tail disappeared over the other side. It's definitely nice to have that extra little motivation to get out and log a couple of miles every night. Just hope she sticks around for awhile.

Meeting of minds

Oh, how I would have loved to be a fly on the wall of the Oval Office today.

Who can even begin to imagine what they discussed, what matters of grave importance and what trivialities were brought up in that room during that hour when they were alone? Has there ever been a meeting between two American Presidents -- one outgoing and one incoming -- that encapsulated so much, that sat perched on that most perfect precipitous acme of history? Sitting here, briefly thinking now I admit that I can think of none other.

These are the sort of iconic images and events in human chronology that speak to the historian in me. These two men represent two absolute watershed moments in our American saga like few other. But not only they themselves but the way they and their ideologies clash and run up against each other like a mad herd of berserker Tectonic plates. One man's importance and global after-effect felt all too well, and the other's only glimpsed at through a smoky prism -- both to not be fully realized for many many years. Two men with such conflicting guiding thoughts, differing personalities, and personal bearing -- yet they will for the rest of their lives be brothers in a shared experience even few former Presidents could ever understand. To share the greatest mantle of power in the history of our existence and bear the burden of working the hardest job while struggling to maintain a fractured, vulnerable, suicidal world. God bless them both.

YES!!!!!

As if yesterday's big breakthrough wasn't enough -- here's more. After what seems a lifetime of waiting, the big moment has finally arrived (albeit a year late).......









........................BRANDON WON THE 2008 GOLD GLOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

People, you may not be all that familiar with him since the Reds have been so fucking bad the last couple of years and never get talked about, but I can honestly say that Brandon Phillips is a Top 5 defensive player in all of MLB. He pulls some kind of wicked play out of his pocket almost every night -- consistently Webgem worthy. The shame is that I personally think he had a better year last year but lost out to a guy who missed almost a third of the season. I'm glad he's getting recognized now though and he should have it on lock-down for a while. So congratulations to Brandon and I guess Barack too for breaking down long held prejudices and barriers and what-not.