Game, Set & Match

I was just reminded that Badminton is an Olympic sport as featured in the NYT yesterday. The little white "thing" struck with a racquet is called a "shuttlecock". It is made of 16 feathers plucked from the left wings of geese. A player offered that "trying to control these feathers just felt really weird." Now you can appreciate how Nancy Pelosi feels trying to corral all her "left wingers."
tjs

Word of the Year

Dictionary.com just announced the word of the year is "misinformation". This word has been with us for quite some time and did not just arrive with the internet. In the 1942 movie CASABLANCA, someone asked Bogart why he came to such a place. He replied that he came for the waters. When informed there was no water there he said "I was misinformed." What comes around goes around.
tjs

Thanks for Losing

As the college football season winds down, it is this time of year to recall an event taken place on November 28, 1942. Boston College and Holy Cross - both Jesuit institutions were Massachusetts rivals and Boston College Eagles were heavily favored to finish their season undefeated. Many of their fans and supporters had planned a victory party at a local night club. But Holy Cross pulled off an upset 55-12 and crushed the Eagles chances for the Sugar Bowl. More important, the victory party at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub was cancelled which was the night of the disastrous fire there which killed 400+ occupants. The players lives were spared and many of them went off to war.
tjs

All Alone

On Thanksgiving the NYTimes reprinted from 1978 comments from individuals on what they would do if alone on the holiday. One writer said he would walk in the woods. A woman critic said she would rack her brain(s) for a lonely, miserable person and ask if I could take him out to dinner. This was premature from my standpoint as eight years later when USL folded I found myself alone with a box lunch for Thanksgiving - lonely but not miserable. - and nary a drumstick in sight.
tjs

Begging your pardon

We will be spending Thanksgiving week in Cape May, a lovely town famous for its Bird Sanctuary where a few wild turkeys roam the streets - but this week they are in hiding. This is also the time when our Presidents would pardon Tom Turkey but the current one term apprentice leader might have a challenge on his hands. He, who has pardoned an Arizona sheriff and Scooter Libby, among others, might want to keep his distance from Big Tom. A male turkey, when excited, can attack with a six foot wingspan. On the other hand, he might say "You're FIRED!" - and consign Tom to the oven. Save me a drumstick!
tjs

There Goes the Block

In September the police broke up a prostitution ring in Brooklyn protected by seven police officers and run by sleazy landlords. Apparently, the street walkers have come inside. One of the charges is  "enterprise corruption". And one of the locations is in Park Slope, Mayor DeBlasio's former neighborhood which he still visits for his gym sessions.  Yesterday's snow created a slow news day. Sorry.
tjs

A Star is Reborn

You may recall last summer an irate and frustrated citizen took a pickax to Donald Trump's Star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Now his day of reckoning has arrived. The cost of repairs was $9400. plus probation, community labor and counseling. He said his action was a protest against the President and the G.O.P. It appeared he wanted to make California Bluer. This should draw the attention of the "Go fund me" folks.
tjs