St. Patrick's Day

Forty years ago tomorrow, we had about a 19" snow storm, St. Patrick's Day 1973.  I remember vividly because I had to park on a main street, several blocks from Karen's house, to walk back to pick her up for our date.  Then, we had to walk back out to the car.  She remembered doing the same when stopping by the house of friends, to pick up them, too.  I always look at the official rankings of the biggest snowfalls in Detroit and this one doesn't even crack the top ten, the last of which is only about a foot.  How does that happen?  It must snow different amounts, a lot different amounts, depending on where one is.  Another is the blizzard of '78, which purportedly dropped less than 10 inches of the white stuff.  Nope, even with the wind of that storm, the drifts were far higher than a mere "10 inches" can account for.  And, listed as the second largest snowfall was two weeks before our wedding--and I don't remember it at all being almost 20". 

How fitting that the recently appointed Emergency Manager of Detroit has had four liens put on his house in MD for failure to pay taxes!!!!  And, of course, the guy was unaware of this situation.  He blamed his accountant.  Yeah, right.  Maybe those people who say there are two sets of laws in this country are correct.

I've had a number of people remark on my op-ed piece in the newspaper a couple of weeks ago.  It was the one where I take issue with Walter Williams' characterization of Abraham Lincoln, that Lincoln really didn't oppose slavery.  The surprising thing is that most of the comments include something like, "I don't like that man," meaning Dr. Williams.  The irony is that I almost always agree with WW's views, probably 90% or more.  None of the circumstances of my recent conversations were conducive to asking about the dislike of Dr. Williams.  I'd be curious to know.  He seems to make a lot of sense to me.

For whatever reason, I wondered why the GM and Chrysler workers received bonuses again at the end of 2012.  After all, both companies still owe American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars.  Now, if I was an employee of either company, I'd take the money, too.  But, still, how much of the supposed turn-around was due to employees' work, a new-found work ethic?  My guess it wasn't much.  And, I see, the CEOs are still making their millions.  Instead of all these bonuses, etc., shouldn't the fact that there are still jobs be thanks enough?  Funny, I never received a "bonus" in more than four decades at my job(s).  In fact, in the '90s, it was apparently OK that private sector employees were raking in annual pay raises of 6 and 8 and even 10 percent, but in four of those years I had no increase.  (A fifth year saw a 2% raise, but I had to work an extra 2 1/2% to get it.  So, is that really a "raise?"  Not really....)  Yet, people are still complaining about my pension.  Do you think any of those auto workers put any of their bonuses aside for their pensions?????  Me neither.

I can't believe these little league baseball groups plan "tryouts" for the middle of March.  Hey, there are 3" of snow on the ground and the white stuff doesn't appear to be going anywhere!  OK, they'll move it inside to a junior high gym, with hundreds of kids in an hour and a half.  Who does any thinking around here?  And, then, the next week, still March, practices will start.  The weather will be cold (30 and maybe 40 degrees, wet and/or damp, and windy).  That's not real good baseball weather, esp for kids.  Why not start the league a month later and then extend the season a month later?  Begin in April and end the first of July?  I asked that once and was told that parents go on vacations in June, once school let out.  Hey, wait a minute!  Parents go on vacation over Easter break; we've had practices with as few as 4 or 5 players.  But, who listens? 

We once played a doubleheader vs Holy Cross in a freak April or May snowstorm.  The snow didn't stick to the ground, but it came down through most of the games.  And, one of the HC pitchers threw hard, very hard!  In fact, he later pitched in the Majors, with the Twins I think, until he shattered his leg in an auto accident.  Although we (a Div 3 school) split with Holy Cross (a Div 1 school) is irrelvant.  (We beat the future Major Leaguer and lost to a junk throwing pitcher in the nightcap.)  Neither game was fun.  Hands hurt, both hitting and fielding.  There was danger of injuries to arms.  But, play we did.  And although I reminisce about the games, I still remember it was not any fun.  There were some fun games, though, esp my senior year.  Wow!  I can't imagine anyone having more fun than I/we did that year!