Chapter 26.3: Blog the Recount

I just read in the Washington Post that in addition to Ohio, there will be recounts in Nevada and New Mexico of the vote for president earlier this month. Honestly, I think it should be left alone. I think it would be fascinating if those states turned out to be incorrectly awarded to President Bush, but I doubt it would change the result. Have those elections already been certified by their respective secretaries of state? (I'm assuming that is the proper person to do so.) It's a minor story right now, because the major media venues likely don't believe anything can come of this. I know I don't, and I'm just a minor media person.

If someone is willing to use their own money -- not tax money -- to fund a recount, I'm all for it. But the greater issue is whether it's a proper use of county resources. This argument has weight. I'm curious whether volunteers could handle this. Personally, I doubt it because such volunteers would be viewed as politically opportunistic and untrustworthy. At least I'd be skeptical.

If there were questions of a flawed election with the gravity of what appears to have occurred in Ukraine, then of course it should be recounted. I have to believe the push for an Ohio recount isn't based on the early polls. I don't know about anyone else, but I was one Democrat who was eager to vote early that Tuesday morning. I suspect many were, judging by the lines that existed in polls throughout the nation. I'm disappointed in the result, but we move on.

Chapter 26: Home Stretch

The Thanksgiving holiday allowed me to progress on the novel. In addition to getting beyond 260 pages, I also "finalized" my map of the rest of the book. While I don't know how many pages each chapter will be, I now envision it being completed in 72 chapters. I have 44 done at this point, with a couple incomplete ones later in the book.

My deadline for finishing the first draft by the end of the year now requires roughly a chapter a day, which is difficult for me during the best of months, but nearly impossible when I need to also prepare for Christmas and my full-time job. Yet, I'm pleased to have a clearer vision of the future. If it takes me until mid-January to finish the first draft, so be it, because my goal remains the same: finish the novel as soon as possible.

It could end up over 400 pages now, though I expect that after editing and revision I'll end up with a tight 360 pages or so.

Chapter 25.35: Turkey Test

I got an odd little press release yesterday. I get nothing out of this, but feel free to check out the turkey trivia test given by the National Wild Turkey Federation. Personally, when I think about Wild Turkey, it's the alcoholic kind, but having seen a few families of turkeys in my yard the past few years, I can relate to some of the questions.

Anyway, enjoy the holiday. I'm off to listen to Alice's Restaurant ...

P.S.: Just because that organization promotes hunting doesn't mean I do. Nor does my enjoyment of Thanksgiving mean I'm in favor of the horrible manner in which our country has treated Native Americans.

Chapter 25.3: Turkey Time

For all my friends and family and to those few readers I don't personally know who visit this blog, I hope you have a happy Thanksgiving. I realize this is a potentially world-wide audience, including people who don't celebrate Thanksgiving and who possibly have never eaten a turkey. For those people, I wish you a happy day of being thankful for what you have in life.

I love Thanksgiving. It's not a religious holiday, there's no stress of buying the "perfect" gift for someone. It's about getting together with people who matter in your life. It doesn't have to be politically correct -- those morons who argue that not eating turkey is somehow "un-American" aside. I miss playing touch football in the morning or early afternoon and topping it off with a bottle or three of Bass, but on goes life. And there's usually tasty leftovers.

So, whoever you are, enjoy.

Chapter 25.25: Diary of a Recent Home Owner

Ok, so I've owned a home for more than three years. I've finally begun some actual home fixing projects. Nothing too large and nothing that deserves any praise, faint or otherwise. But I replaced the kitchen faucet on Friday. I feel proud of it, not because I did something particularly difficult (it's not), but because I actually did it.

I feel inept watching the various home shows on television and seeing that I too should be able to accomplish these projects. Before Friday, the extent of my home repairs was limited to a mediocre caulking job I did around the tub.

My point of blogging about it, however, is that it seems like an apt metaphor for my writing. I know I can do it. I can even do it well. But without putting the time in, things are just going to deteriorate.

Chapter 25.2: For Those Who Care

I had a good night of writing last night, creating a new chapter and further developing one of the previously written ones. I now have 234 pages of novel in the hopper. That's more than 68,000 words. With at least 100 pages left, I still have much work to do, but I'm starting to see the glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

Of course, that's just a new path into another tunnel, one with other lighting sources and a map with a legend in a language I barely speak. I still have no guarantees I'll get out of it alive (published, that is).

My goal is still to have the novel's first full draft completed at the end of 2004. From there, I've got significant editing to do. I intend to follow the guidance in Stephen King's "On Writing" with regard to the revision process and putting the novel aside as I start the second. Frankly, I'm excited and eager to get working on a different story than the one that's crept around my head since 1995.

At least the second novel only emerged in my brain in the past 12 months. (Unless I start the other one that I thought of two years ago, or the fourth that I believe would be a better screenplay, that arose four years ago.) Lots of work to do.

Chapter 25: That's a Lot of Potatoes

I happened upon an amazing statistic while looking up a U.S. Senator today. Who do you think had the most overwhelming victory in this year's elections? Well, unless you live near the land of potatoes, you'd probably never guess it's Sen. Mike Crapo (he pronounces it CRAY poe, by the way, though he acknowledged on his Web site that it's a source of amusement for some.)

He won with 99.5 percent of the vote. I think only Saddam Hussein ever got a higher percentage of the electorate. I'm not trying to make ANY connection there; I write that only for the humor value (little though it may be). Less than 3,000 people voted for his Democratic challenger. I'd expect that fewer people than usual voted there, at least for the senator, since there was obviously little chance the senator wouldn't get re-elected, but it's still an impressive whipping he gave his challenger.

I guess the people of Idaho are mighty proud of their junior senator. I may have to look up this guy's record to see why he's so popular with Idaho voters.

Chapter 24.5: Brain Twister Answer

Thanks to all who visited. There were actually a few people who got the answer. Pat McBride got it almost immediately, though he acknowledged his recent trip to Las Vegas may have helped. A.D. Hampton got it too -- also without any clues. Ken Herr got it after calling a meeting at his office (all right, maybe it wasn't that dramatic, but he had help).

The sought-after answer was this: The man was killed after being discovered cheating at cards -- specifically, using Bicycle brand cards. (That's why that word was capitalized.) The other clue that more people seemed to pick up on was that there were 53 of them -- one more than a standard deck, not counting jokers.

Pat wanted a cookie for getting it right, but to my knowledge, this Web log doesn't give you cookies. I could be wrong.

Again, thanks for checking it out. I think I'll have to try dispensing brain twisters more in the future.

Chapter 24: Brain Twister

Here's a brain twister. The clue to answer the riddle is there. Submit your solution in a comment. I'll report back by Monday. While I'm looking for a specific answer, other creative ideas could be clever answers too -- just not the one I was looking for. If people have tried by Saturday night but still not showing the answer I'm looking for, I'll offer a clue.



A man is found dead inside a room, lying among 53 Bicycles. The only other objects in the room are a table and some chairs. What might have happened to cause this scene?

Chapter 23.3: Door Hits Him in the Ashcroft

So long, Mr. Attorney General. Go back to your barbershop quartet and bully pulpit. In a hopeful sign that the second Bush Administration might actually attempt to include the word "compassionate" as it moves forward, John Ashcroft has resigned as attorney general -- and, more importantly, the president accepted it.

The man who couldn't beat a corpse for governor of Missouri took his shambles of a political career back to Washington, D.C., four years ago and arose from the debris of 9/11 to become the face of censorship in America. I'm not completely stupid, I know that our freedom of information can be used against us. But I tend to agree with Benjamin Franklin on this one; he said something like 'Those who diminish freedom in the name of security will lose both.'

I regret that Democratic fundraisers won't have Ashcroft to kick around any more, but I'm sure they'll find someone else.

Chapter 23.2: More Mess From Texas

It's just not right! Can't that moron from Texas simply go away. I don't mean President Bush this time, but rather it's Roger Clemens. He just won his seventh Cy Young Award -- his first in the National League. I recognize he had a fine season, but with his victory and with Randy Johnson's second place finish, I'm starting to wonder if the major league baseball writers have gotten too lazy.

My view of the season was that Clemens had a great first half and then faded in the second half. I admit I didn't watch many Astros games, so I could be wrong in this assessement. Honestly, I don't like Clemens, and that has more to do with my disgust than claiming his teammate Roy Oswalt was more deserving. I respect Clemens's ability and his dedication to the game and the craft of pitching. I just want him to take his Cy Young Awards and go away. Maybe he'll do that now, but I don't expect him to go out on games in Japan. He wants that World Series ring with Houston. I think he'll be back.

Chapter 23: Awaiting Winter

How is it that just a few hours after a beautiful day began, it shifts like a cloud front moving in. By 10 a.m., this Monday morning had begun to feel like 2:30 Tuesday. I'm inside the week already. Gone is the heartpumping buzz of a leaf blower in my hands. My muscles no longer feel the tightness of lifting tarp-topping leaves to the street. Even the soft pleasantness of daybreak has past into a windy morning outside, and windy people inside.

Now I hear that a long-term prediction has snow falling through the weekend before Thanksgiving. This month started off with bad news. I'd like to take a day off and relax. I'm not sure I know how to do that anymore.

Chapter 22.4: Wally World

I can't believe the Wally Backman debacle. The former Mets second baseman who had just been named manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks earlier this week was fired. The reason: the management just learned that he had a DWI (that he reportedly fought for two years before finally pleading guilty), an assault charge, and they had concerns about his financial situation because he'd gone bankrupt two years ago.

I have not done any investigation into this, but it doesn't smell right. The team completely botched the hiring (who waits until after a press conference to do a background check?), but shouldn't there have been some information they already knew? Backman had been one of their minor league managers. Why hadn't they known about his declaration of bankruptcy from a couple years ago? The team had a new managing partner with the departure, but unless I'm mistaken (which is possible, I don't follow the team closely), the new managing partner had been an owner prior to being named managing partner. Shouldn't he have been aware of who was among their managers?

Frankly, I think we're not hearing the whole truth. The first thing that crossed my mind when I heard on the radio that Backman had financial troubles that concerned the team was that was code for "this man gambles and might gamble on the game." Perhaps there was more similarity between Backman and Pete Rose. I caution this by saying I have never met Wally Backman, I know no one who knows him, I am not calling him a gambler, and I think he's gotten a raw deal. But as an observer of baseball, where some managers and players are known to be alcoholics, womanizers, pot smokers, and worse, it's unfathomable to me that there isn't more to the smattering of details that have been released. Good God, future hall of famer Tony Gwynn went bankrupt because of a corrupt agent. He manages at San Diego State now. There must be something more to the Wally Backman story.

Chapter 22.3: Cracking Through Egg Harbor

It occurred during the night, when only four members of the custodial staff were there, but an F-16 war plane accidentally shot at least eight large slugs that hit a school in Little Egg Harbor. According to reports, the strafing sounded like feet running across the roof, which is what one of the custodians reported to local police.

I don't want to go too far on this, because I understand that our country's military needs to train and accidents can happen, but how is it that a multi-million dollar vehicle with state-of-the art technology and flown by a trained pilot can make such a potentially awful mistake? This wasn't a map error, according to reports, there was no Taliban wedding service going on at the school (tongue in cheek). This was a plane on a training mission flying in a military air space. A desk inside the school was hit, so thank God no one was sitting in it.

It appears to be a mechanical malfunction. I guess we have to be thankful people didn't die as a result of this mistake. Somewhere in this, I think there exists a metaphor for the current political/economic situation. Military budgets strafe Leave No Child Behind program...

Chapter 22: Changing of the Guard

All right, now that the political season is effectively over, on to more important things: baseball. Willie Randolph is going to be named the new Mets manager today, and I think it's about time. The guy was known to be a smart baseball man when he was a player. If my recollection is correct, Baseball Digest predicted back in the 1980s that he would be a manager. So why has it taken so long?

I have no idea. I'd hate to think it was because he is black, but it wouldn't be the first time that's happened. The man proved he can play in New York. He's been criticised after big games as a third base coach for sending guys home where they got nailed by 10 feet and he weathered those storms. He'll be harangued as Mets manager when the media thinks he's made poor decisions. That's part of the job.

The only thing I've heard against him from Mets fans is that he's a Yankee. I understand that, but so was Casey Stengel when the Mets were created and Mets fans loved him. So was Dallas Green when he became Mets manager, and he wasn't run out of town for that. (He was run out for other reasons, but it wasn't because he had been a Yankees manager.) And Yankee fans got over Joe Torre having begun his managerial career with the Mets. I think Met fans will get over Randolph's pedigree. What matters is that he develops a winning team. He's got that history, so I believe he'll achieve that as manager. Good luck, Willie. Now go out and make them win.

Chapter 21.2: A Brand New Day

In looking at the election day results, it appears that Sen. Kerry has been relegated to the historical scrap heap. Personally, I'm disappointed, but at least several million Americans went out and voted. That's an important statement to the entire world. There were no locust sightings or riots, the polls apparently allowed all those who were in line when the polls were scheduled to close to vote, even if it took several more hours. (I believe that is the law in most states, actually, so the law seems to have been upheld.)

In my unscientific analysis of what went on, at this moment I think the biggest reason for the Bush victory was the presence of several anti-gay marriage initiatives on ballots -- most importantly the one in Ohio. Had that initiative not been there, perhaps Sen. Kerry would have taken the state. I don't know. I thought the fact of thousands of jobs lost in the state would have been more important to Ohioans than whether a couple of men or a couple of women who are already living together can have the right to help each other when they're trying to get their estates in order, for example. I don't know.

What I do know is that President Bush now has a mandate. He received a majority of the votes and he has two houses of Congress that hail from the same party. But hopefully progressive, populist thinkers will arise from this era of secrecy and mistrust and there'll be a candidate for president in 2008 that will honor the ideals upon which the nation was formed. That's my opinion, anyway.

Chapter 21: The Sky Is Falling

I hope every registered American voter out there is doing the right thing and casting a ballot in this election, no matter what your political preference or affiliation. Personally, I think we're going to have some repeat of 2000 in that there will be court actions. But it could actually be worse than four years ago.

Picture this: Not only could we have a recount in Florida, but also in Ohio and even possibly Pennsylvania. That's 67 electoral votes right there, I believe, and the three largest anticipated EV contests out there (assuming New York and California go Democrat as expected). If one or more of those cases go through the state supreme courts and end up having to go to the U.S. Supreme Court then we're in a similar setting to 2000. Now, just to really mess with things, imagine that Chief Justice Rehnquist dies before a decision is made. With the recent disclosure of his faltering health, it's not impossible that he could die soon.

I can't imagine a new justice could be nominated and approved by congress before the High Court makes its decision on those case(s), and I don't have enough knowledge of civics to know how a new chief justice is chosen (or whether that truly matters), but it seems plausible we could have a 4-4 deadlocked court, which I believe means the state decisions are affirmed (whatever they may be in these hypothetical cases).

I hope that none of the above doomsday scenario becomes reality. Nor would I really like to see another of the prospective outcomes that could create a split ticket of President Bush and Vice President Edwards (how bizarre would that be!), where I'd expect to see then former VP Cheney reprise his role as Secretary of Defense or maybe Secretary of State if Colin Powell steps down. It would be a sham of a government, and our nation deserves better than that. So if I can have any influence on the two or three or fewer people that occasionally look at my blog it would be to say this: get out and vote so we have certainty in government.

Chapter 20.3: #1 and #100 (and some in between)

The Red Sox did it, at long last. They became the World Champs after 86 years of waiting to taste such victory again. The decades and lifetimes of frustration are already well chronicled, so I'm not going to waste any more time on that.

But I found a few less noticed things interesting about the World Series and long-standing frustration. The Red Sox franchise has now won six championships. The 1918 season gave them their fifth, which meant that of the first 15 World Series (remember, there wasn't one in 1904), the Red Sox won fully one-third of them. Not too shabby, though admitedly not close to (the hated) Yankees accomplishments after they acquired Babe Ruth. The 2004 World Series was also the 100th of all time (again, no series in 1904 and none in 1994), so it seems fitting that the first "century" of World Series play has bookend Boston victories. Others can argue that point.

But I disagree with the characterization that occurred during the final moments of game 4; the Red Sox are not third overall in championships -- at least not when you look at franchises. The A's have won nine championships. The first five came in Philadelphia and the last four in Oakland (sorry Kansas City). Furthermore, the Dodgers' championship in Brooklyn shouldn't be forgotten, though they certainly have been far more successful in Los Angeles, where they've been champs five times.

I hadn't realized how relatively unsuccessful the Giants franchise has been. The team at the heart of the 1904 World Series void (where I think their opponent would have been the defending champion Red Sox, though I could be mistaken), may be suffering from some other form of curse. I'll call it the Wertz Curse, reflective of the great catch Willie Mays made in the Polo Grounds off Cleveland Indians slugger Vic Wertz in the 1954 series -- the Giants franchise's last championship. Only the Yankees (13) have more World Series losses than the Giants. Like their fellow Boys of Summer -- the Dodgers -- the Giants have also lost 12 times.

The Cardinals are at least as impressive as the A's franchise, with nine championships in 16 World Series. I was surprised to see that the Red Birds didn't appear in their first World Series until 1926. Even the Washington Senators had been champs before that. Since then, however, they played in 20 percent of the World Series.

Perhaps no former champion is as sad as the Chicago Cubs, however. They're 2-8 in World Series play and have yet to appear in a fall classic since 1945. Heck, expansion clubs such as the Mets, Blue Jays, and Marlins have been champs as frequently as the boys from the Friendly Confines. The Cubs' two championships came in what was arguably their hey day. They won in 1907 and 1908, after having fallen to their South Side rivals, the White Sox -- also known as the Hitless Wonders -- in 1906.

The White Sox haven't won now in 87 years. Their victory in 1917 was the lone blemish for a string of strong Red Sox teams that won three out of four titles from 1915-1918. Of course, the White Sox should have won in 1919, but they discolored their sox and the game that year. It's been a long time since the Windy City could boast about its baseball teams. Personally, after the Mets, I'm rooting for the Cubs next year. I think it's more than time for them to win.

Let the Curse of the Goat be smote!

(originally written on 10/29/04, but unable to post for technical reasons until 11/1/04)