The Dreaming Up Daily Quote

"I’ve been trying to understand the mentality that leads people who wouldn’t ask a stranger to give them a keychain or a Twizzler to ask me to write them a thousand words for nothing. I have to admit my empathetic imagination is failing me here."
Tim Kreider
New York Times

At Last, the GOP Healthcare Plan

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Saying that “the American people are fed up with a disastrous Web site that doesn’t work and never will,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) and a phalanx of congressional Republicans today unveiled their own health-care Web site, EmergencyRoom.gov.

“At EmergencyRoom.gov, every American can access the one tried-and-true health-care system that has worked in this country for decades,” he said.

While Healthcare.gov has frustrated many users with its difficult-to-navigate design, Rep. Cantor said that at EmergencyRoom.gov, “Health care is just three easy steps away. One: enter your zip code. Two: see the list of emergency rooms. Three: get to the nearest one before you die.”

Night of the Century in Boston

Congratulations to the Boston Red Sox for winning the 2013 World Series in six games, and winning a world title at home for the first time in 95 years.  Especially stunning since I believe the last time was also in Fenway Park.

Now let's hope Boston can celebrate without burning the town down.

It was a series dominated by pitching, bad hitting and bad fielding.  When almost the entire winning team bats around .200 (with several starters even below that) it's not exactly a Series of fireworks.  Only David Ortiz who batted .668 was outstanding, so I assume he's the MVP.  Timely hitting however was the difference.

And yes ESPN they WON the series, they didn't "clinch" it.  Clinch is a perfectly good word that has always meant something other than "win" in baseball.  It meant that a team has mathematically won something even though they are games yet to be played that will be played.  That is, no combination of losses and wins by another team could overcome their lead.  But they would not officially win until the season is done.

However the World Series works like this: the first team to win four games wins the damn thing.  Both teams go home.  They aren't going to go out and play the 7th game tomorrow.

I have to credit ESPN for being the last outpost in the English speaking world to correctly use "fewer," as in "fewer runs", not "less runs."  But I don't understand why they throw away the specific function of "clinch."

So now we have basketball.  Maybe somebody will also explain to me the difference between "shot attempts" and "shots."

The Dreaming Up Daily Quote

Cloudminding#2 by WSK

"There is no possibility of true culture without altruism."

Susan Sontag

Can't Anyone Here Play This Game?

First St. Louis bobbled and booted away the first game of the World Series.  Then Boston threw away the second, and traveled across country to throw away the third.  Yes, there's been some great pitching and timely hitting, but also a lot of bad baseball.

How about the fourth?  A Boston outfielder booted a ball that led to the Cardinals' first run.  Then with two outs in the last of the ninth, a Cardinal runner--not even representing the tying run--gets himself picked off first to end the game.

You know what this series needs?  A tight team like the Pirates.  But sorry, it's too late.  Wait til next year.