Brrr......

I sure seems early for our first Arctic Blast.  But temperatures are forecast to be in the single digits and even below zero over the course of the next few days. The teens next week might well feel like a heat wave.

The 10-11" of snow we received Sat PM to Sun PM was a surprise to me, too.  One of the local stations was calling for "6 to 9 inches," but the others I heard were sticking to their predictions of "3 to 5."  The first couple of rounds of shoveling were fine, a lot of fun.  The snow, with low temperatures, was light and fluffy.  And shoveling with Michael in the dark on Sun eve was fun, bringing back old memories.  Monday's load, although only another 2 to 3" was heavy, very heavy and tough to move.  I heard, although haven't confirmed, another big one is slated for next weekend.  We'll see.

Tiger manager Brad Ausmus wants to cut down on the team's strikeouts next season.  Yep, I'd say that's a good plan.  Putting the ball in play, even if not a hit, is a good thing.  There are always chances for errors.  Hitting more often puts more pressure on a defense.  Runners can move up, at least have a better chance than with strikeouts.  But doesn't this fly in the face of something I've heard quite a bit the last few years and just just about the Tigers?  Isn't one of the new-fangled items of analytics in baseball "going deeper into the count," the idea of making the pitcher throw more pitches by taking more, swing less early in the count?  I suppose that works for some; but with so many bullpens getting better, is it really advantageous to knock a pitcher out early?  I don't know: I am just asking.

Interesting, if true, that Trump actually picked up votes in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania (according tot he newspaper this AM).  The recount was stopped by the courts in Michigan and, I'd assume, is over.  I wonder, though, if one aspect will get the attention it deserves.  In Detroit, in about one-third of the precincts (?), more votes were tallied than voters who voted.  Huh?  Yep.  And didn't Detroit vote overwhelmingly for Clinton (and other Democrats)?  So, then, if that's the case......  I'll let you fill in the rest.  And for how many years have we just laughed off "the cemetery vote?"

Back when the Democratic-controlled US Senate initiated the "nuclear option" to get passed filibuster rules, I was just hoping that this break with Senate history and tradition would come back to bite the Democrats.  (And I'd have felt the same way had the Republicans acted like the Democrats.)  Go back and find the comments of Harry Reid, then the Majority Leader, in justifying the decidedly unparliamentary skirting of the rules, time-honored rules.  Now, after you've done that, with the Republicans now in the majority, with a Republican President, listen for the Democrats to lambaste the same "nuclear option" they created.  If all this stuff wasn't so serious, it would be hilariously funny.

Remember how the Republicans were called "obstructionists" and "the party of 'no'" when some of them tried to slow down or stop Obama's worst measures?  (Heh Heh!)  We were reminded that "elections have consequences."  Where are these same people, the name-callers, now?  Well, they are out there trying to find ways to "obstruct" and say "no" to Trump. Will they be foisted on their own petards?

So, a group of students at Yale took down a portrait of William Shakespeare and replace it with a photograph of some obscure woman poet or writer or whatever she is.  (I never heard of her or her work.)  Of course, that's because Shakespeare is another one of those "white, old, even dead, men."  How can he be relevant?  And, according to the newspaper, the Yale English Dept members, well, at least the dept head, went along with it and even praised the students for their "insight."  Huh?  I don't care if he's a white dead man who lived almost 500 years ago.  There haven't been many writers of any ilk who have captured the human condition--actions, emotions, etc.--better than Billy S.  I suggested to several people, instead of doing nothing but condoning juvenile behavior by their students the Yale faculty should assign a paper, perhaps as a final exam.  Students should be asked to actually determine, not with "feelings," but facts from analysis, whose picture is more appropriate.  I am not advocating one over the other (although I know my choice); I am just advocating Yale professors to make this a learning experience, one that requires students to employ academic rigor and reasoning.  After all, isn't Yale an Ivy League school??????

Meanwhile, as people protest the Trump appointments (and several of them seem very bad to me), this week there were 5 or 6 more black-on-black murders in Detroit.