This is a do-over after yesterday got eaten. Has anyone else noticed that trying to blog regularly means deciding between writing aobut the things you do, and actually doing them? Bummer. Maybe the DSL we're supposedly getting this week will help.

Omigod, like, gag me with a spoonerism!
Saturday my brother and I discovered that our cable company has benevolently decided to give us about 7 new MTV/VH-1 stations, including VH-1 Classic. Nevertheless, I have managed to leave the house a couple of times. But I discovered that, while my brother and I don't have a lot to bond over, an '80s marathon including acts such as Belinda Carlisle, Tiffany, and Whitesnake as well as conversation about Nightmare on My Street is high on that short-list.

Now up to H-J working my way through my CDs, I hit Merle Haggard today. I think Haggard appeals to me because he speaks to universal themes that touch us all. Most notably:
1. I'm drunk
2. I'm in jail
3. I'm drunk, now it's closing time, and I have nowhere to go
4. I'm out of jail, but that just means I'm homeless
5. I'm in jail, therefore I can't drink
6. I'm drunk, but there's so much pain that drinking no longer helps
7. I'm from Oklahoma

Congratulations to DEK on a hard-won semifinal fantasy victory that will hopefully not be lorded over me for more than a decade or two. Since he gave me a Steeler ticket yesterday for the second time this season, I guess I can't complain.

"No Child Wants A Charlie in the Box!"
Life is good, and it's officially Christmas time--Rudolph's on!! Damn those elves and deer for standing in the way of Herby and Rudolph's self-actualization!! And those poor misfit toys. And of course, the most important lesson of all--Bumbles bounce!! The scary thing is I'm really not being sarcastic at all--I do love and have strong feelings about this special, and it's not quite Christmas when I miss it. Now if only I could find Christmas Eve on Sesame Street...

Two Thoughts On Pete Rose
1. Here's the thing that bugs me about the whole Pete Rose Hall of Fame debate--no one even brings up the question of whether Rose belongs in on his merits. OK, the hits number renders that moot for many people. But if you chalk that up to playing at least three years after he was a remotely capable player and look beyond it, you really begin to ask some questions. Here's a guy with the same career batting average as Mike Greenwell, who, oh by the way, finished his career with a 47-point higher OPS than Rose--.831 to .784. And Rose only finished with 160 career home runs. For a player who played mostly at 1B, 3B, and OF, these are by no means Hall of Fame numbers--unless you don't agree with SABRmetricians that counting stats are the least useful kind.
2. OK, this is a Pete Rose/Trent Lott thought. Making no comment or judgement on their individual missteps or indiscretions, I find the talk about apologies in recent days to be fascinating, and in some ways mind-boggling. More than half the people on an ESPN.com poll said that Rose should be forgiven even for betting against his own team if he apologizes. And the Lott controversy seems mostly to revolve not around his remarks but the strenuousness and sincerity of his apology. A third controversy I'd point to is the flap over Garrison Hearst's comments that he wouldn't want a "faggot" for a teammate. Again, the apology became the ultimate issue. Is it actually the case that you can get away with saying (and maybe doing) anything nowadays if you just apologize afterward. I find this troubling. I mean, if you legitimately misspeak I can understand, but for someone to make a comment one day and then retract it the next--are we supposed to just take the apology at face value and pretend the transgression never happened? I find this highly discomfiting, though I can't directly put a finger on why.

Wondering if I could get a job putting stars on Christmas trees, and if I'd have to get all my teeth pulled to get it...

Survivor just ended, and I don't really like the final four, though I guess I dislike Helen the least. However, I don't want her to win, because middle-aged women always seem to manage to. Clay would be OK from a TV perspective, since it would be cool to have the Total Bastard (buh-bye, buh-bye) win. And Brian's got the cool Skin-emax past going for him. So in short, I'm rooting against Jan. My prediction: Helen.

When I returned to work at the coal mine yesterday, the unisex restroom for non-miners had changed its sign and is now the women's restroom. This means that peeing now involves a reasonably strong chance of seeing a middle aged guy showering. And job satisfaction took another severe hit.

Last night I finally finished Earth Abides by George Stewart. It is apparently a classic in the "one guy emerges from the woods to find that most everyone else on Earth has been wiped out" genre, and Stephen King's The Stand is a clear successor. Written in 1948, it seems to me that at least implicitly it reflects tensions from the early Cold War, or even resilient anxieties from WWII. The plot, in short, is that once the above event happens, "Ish" (the central character) travels around the country, settles back in the East Bay, finds a wife, and gathers a small community around him. We follow this first year and the 22nd year intently, while getting quick takes on a much longer span of time. My opinion is that this is one of those "novels of ideas" that is better as a book of ideas than as a novel. Stewart's points about how quickly civilization would fall apart and about what might be needed to start rebuilding are well laid out and seem reasonable. (The proliferation of computers--not just in homes and offices, but as components of so many things--may make some of these ideas even more obsolete, however.) The prose, though, is often awkward and stilted, and many points are either beaten to death or hinted at to death. You can keep telling us that Joey is the only hope, George, and that he is very frail, and that there are a lot of dangers about, but don't expect us to be shocked (SHOCKED!) when something happens. The more we get Ish's thoughts, the less real any other character becomes. For me, this book is best as a historical relic and as some meditations on the possibility of the sudden fall of civilization; if you're looking for a good yarn, you can do a lot better...

I got back from Washington DC this afternoon, where I had gone for a job interview, networking, and to see some friends. The interview seemed to go well--it was a group then individual thing. I'm more experienced than the other guys they talked to, who were straight out of college types. I have a good feeling about this one, but then again I had a good feeling about this one and this one, so who knows what that means. Perhaps more importantly, an old friend and colleague from Pitt set up a lovely dinner party/blatant networking session for me Sunday night, and that also seemed to go very well. With a bit of luck, I will soon be inflicted on our nation's capital. The seeing of frineds, of course, also went well because (after all) they are friends. I also learned that an Aerobed will experience significant deflation overnight when someone of my size sleeps on it, but that's another story altogether. I also learned that it's possible to give up 47 yards and lose by 18, and good Lord do I not want to talk about that any more.

Now I get to look forward to commuting to the coal mine tomorrow in an ice storm. Ice storms are not fun--well, except for this one.

I can dispense with two of the books I've read from the aforementioned Chronicle list pretty quickly, and at once. Richard Brautigan's Trout Fishing In America and Ishmael Reed's Yellow Back Radio Broke Down are both experimental '60s novels. Brautigan writes about both the topic and apparently also a character named "Trout Fishing in America" in a series of brief and only somewhat related meditations. Reed deconstructs American racial and progressivist ideologies and histories in his "anti-Western" novel. These are both quick reads, and I was happy to dispense with both quickly, as neither really caught my fancy. I appreciate what Reed is doing but it's been done better elsewhere by others, and works better as academic prose or a movie than in a novel where it's hard to keep anything straight--though I suppose that's the idea. Brautigan's book is appealing as nature writing and is almost poetic at times, but again I can't say that I enjoyed the experience of reading such a disjointed book. So I wouldn't recommend either of these books unless disjointed, experimental prose is your bag, or if you're particularly interested in the subject matter.

In addition to the reading list, my other ongoing "project" of sorts is that I decided that I wanted to work my way through my CDs, so I am taking them alphabetically. I have a 288-CD wallet that holds them all, and a 24-CD wallet that goes in my car, where most of my music-listening takes place. Thus I've been loading up the 24, and today I finished the second batch, meaning that I've gone from ABBA to John Denver thus far. (Yes, I also have some artists in there that other people might actually like.) Part of the idea is to shake up my usual small rotation of heavily-used CDs, and part is to see if pruning needs to happen. And inevitably part of it is trying to figure out what I was thinking about when I bought some of these things. I mean, OK, it's possible that what I really need to do is find myself a brand new lover, but does that mean that I really needed Dead or Alive's Greatest Hits?!

Speaking of bizarro popular culture (and, frankly, when am I not?), if you ever need to kill some time in Wal-Mart while your oil's being changed, I highly recommend the 2 for $10 DVD bin. Today I saw, in addition to such "classics" as Switch, House Party 2 and Protocol, two things particularly jumped out. One was the strong presence of films from the Burt Reynolds ouevre--specifically, Stroker Ace, Hooper, and Sharky's Machine. The other was seeing at least half a dozen copies of Dead Bang. If this title doesn't ring a bell, I'll start describing it, and you tell me when it just sounds horrible and unwatchable. Ready? "Don Johnson stars as..." That's what I thought. If you're really curious, it's a 1989 movie based on the premise that people liked Miami Vice, so maybe they'll like a movie where Don Johnson plays a cop. If you're morbidly curious, click here.

Until next time, I'll be here singing quietly to myself.

"Your sweet nature darling was too hard to swallow, I made my decision, I'm leaving tomorrow..."

Snow Day!!!
The Beallsvonian is publishing today in spite of six inches of snow on the ground. This was my first winter storm in five years at least (seeing as this is my first winter in five years), and I had forgotten some of the fun and had never experienced other parts. Specifically, this was the first time I've owned a car during a winter storm. I got up this morning, showered and ate breakfast as if I was going to work, and then--in the words of Julia Sweeney--God Said Ha! I spent over 10 minutes cleaning off my car, which is about one minute for every 10 yards I got before I discovered that my car had no traction and was Bartleby-like in its refusal to move. This is a bad place to make that decision, since it's on a hill with no turnaround and a blind curve not too far further up said hill. Luckily, the truck coming down the hill as I made the awkwardest 180 since Oliver Miller last tried a reverse jam got more traction than I did, and was able to stop without plowing (or slamming--pick your pun) into me. Three minutes later, I was on the phone with the mine letting them know I'd be staying home--a good decision since (a) the farther south the deeper the snow this time, and (b) this was actually the most major road I'd be travelling on. The day was spent productively napping and playing cards.

While flipping briefly to the Hawks/Bucks game on TNT, I caught the halftime on-court interview with Glenn "I stole Antoine Carr's nickname" Robinson, who said this was a big game because it was against his former team and because "if we win, we'll be in the 8 slot". "THE 8-SLOT?!" Dude, it's freakin' December! Early December! Most people won't notice that the NBA season has started for 2 more months!

This Sunday I'm headed for DC where in 48 hours I need to see two people I haven't seen in years, one I haven't seen in months, one I haven't seen in a month, and oh by the way interview for a job. Wish me luck! I'm going to need a weekend to recover from my weekend...

I saw the headline on ESPN.com that the Dodgers were trading Mark Grudzielanek and Eric Karros to the Cubs, and my first reaction was, "OK, but what do the Cubs get in return?" Then I saw that they are sending the Dodgers Todd Hundley. Has there ever been a trade in the history of sports that was immediately a successful addition by subtraction for both teams? One of the most dubious sports "achievements" I saw live was the night Eric Karros was recognized as the all-time home run leader for the Los Angeles Dodgers, surpassing Ron Cey (for whom I have always had a fondness because the first baseball glove I ever had was a Ron Cey model; let's just say the other kids were underwhelmed), but never mind the fact that Duke Snider had over 200 more for the Dodger franchise as a whole!

The one thing I've posted so far that got the most feedback by far was the political stuff about the left-wing, so I'll be coming back to that regularly I think. One of my thoughts on something that could help the left re-emerge is that I think we need to find a way to make the case to redefine some key terms. "Big government" is one, and I think this one has to do with people's fear and lack of understanding of complexity. Why does "big" equal "bad"? It's not clear. The only halfway smart idea I remember from my wasted time studying PoliSci was from E.E. Schnattsnyder (or something like that) who said that a big society with big institutions and big business needs a big government to manage it. Yes, big means slow and plodding at times, but it beats the alternative. Somehow, someone needs to get the idea out that "government" does not equal pointy-eared bureaucrats in Washington wasting time and money, but it's people who get roads paved, food inspected, etc. The idea that government somehow causes the societal problems it was created to solve is a dangerous one--as is the idea that government screws up everything it touches while business somehow always manages total efficiency. How much evidence against that do we have now?! And yet somehow this idea persists, most recently in the President's idea of privatizing large portions of the bureaucracy. And yes, a big government means some taxes, which are another thing we need to redefine, but more on that another time.

One thing I forgot to mention about the coal mine yesterday is how scenic the area around it is--seclusion will do that. On one of my first days there, we actually saw deer and wild turkeys wandering just about up to the parking lot, and they were barely out of the woods. The woods all around here are very stark now that they are leafless, but there is a strange beauty in that too. Not that you can relish that beauty for long, of course, because it is currently about 10 degrees. Yes, Fahrenheit. Can someone please remind me why I left SoCal again?!?!

The Co-Temp is leaving!! I found out today that the Co-Temp will be starting a full-time job after tomorrow, so I will finish my current assignment in blissful solitude. And if she can get a job, good Christ something can't be far off for me. I don't know what I'll miss more, the incessant questions about my opinions on her own personal matters, the horrible country music in her car, or the barely competent way in which she accomplished very basic tasks. (Data entry ain't brain surgery, folks, but at times you wonder.) God speed, Co-Temp--I guess I'm at least happy that her kids will eat.

It wasn't all wine and roses at work today though; wow do I hate happy Mountaineer fans.

People have asked me what the coal mine is like. It's on a country road 12 miles south of the only decent-sized town in Greene County, a few miles north of the Mason-Dixon line, off of a small two-lane road. A quarter-mile-long winding driveway heads up to the mine entrance or portal. (I technically work at the Kuhntown Portal of the Blacksville #2 mine.) The building is a long one-story cinderblock building, a building that could house any small industrial concern or even a few small offices. On the inside it is similar--filled with offices with fairly state of the art computers and also filled with men (almost exclusively, few women) who know how to use them. For instance, I work in the outer of two connected offices, and the man in the inner office supervises all the union people in the mine and monitors a network of 25 interconnected computers monitoring who-knows-how-many systems running throughout the mine.

It just so happens that at one end of this modernish office building, there is an elevator that takes you 80 stories underground in 90 seconds. As a result, most everything and everyone around the place ranges from dusty to filthy at all times. Not knowing appropriate dress etiquette, on my first day I showed up wearing khakis; that night I commented to my folks that I was the only one in the place not wearing jeans, and if I did my laundry over the weekend, I'd probably be the only one wearing clean jeans on Monday. In short, the mine is not exactly what I envisioned, it's a hi-tech operation, the men are blue-collar but are blue-collar technicians rather than laborers in the traditional sense, and yet at the same time they are almost exclusively from West Virginia and in many ways are as redneck-y as I'd imagined. As my dad said when I got the assignment, it may not be my dream job, but it will be something to tell the grandkids about. For better or for worse, it will probably last me through next week, with Monday and Tuesday off for a very strange job interview in Washington, DC, but more on that later...

The Trojans salvaged the split and my sanity by annihilating the Irish last night. This is extra nice because it has the potential to further weaken the BCS's credibility if the Irish are chosen for the Orange Bowl anyway and USC settles for the Holiday. It also puts Trojan fans in the awkward position of cheering on the Bruins next week against Washington State if we want to be Rose Bowl bound. On the Panther front, I now have to root for us to get technically screwed by Virginia Tech beating us out for the Insight.com Bowl bid (in Phoenix, where I definitely cannot travel to) so that we go to the history and pageantry that is the inaugural Continental Tire Bowl (in Charlotte, which I suppose I can drive to).

It's a little late, but read The Story of Thanksgiving, more or less.

I promised to start talking some politics, and I'll start by saying that what really got me thinking about these issues again was the GOP success on election day in general, and then this George Will column in particular. A key premise of the column is that "liberals" (a sneaky, slimy word that we should work to eliminate from our politica vocabulary, but more on that another time) believe that The People do not know enough to properly govern themselves and thus need guidance from above. Perhaps this was true of the left-wing of Adlai Stevenson's time as Will asserts, and I still think it's half-true. Of course The People don't know enough to properly govern themselves. But here's the rub--as a dyed-in-the-wool post-modernist, I strongly believe in the notion that the more you learn, the less you know. What a more post-modern leftie such as myself thinks is that, in fact, no one actually knows enough to govern an enormous, complex government/society. I believe that the left in this country understands this, but it is very hard to take this message to an electorate. The success of the right-wing in this country, I believe, has a lot to do with putting out the opposite message--the world is not complex, it is not shades of gray--it's black and white, right and wrong, and anyone with "common sense" (a truly despicable term that usually means "something I believe but have not bothered to look up or test in any systematic way") can see that. I'd like to think this problem isn't intractable, and I'd like to think that the Left can make a comeback without the Right doing something catastrophic in the meantime. I'm not sure how that can happen, but I do know that for once the mainstream media actually has the proper take on these things--if the Democratic Party is going to regain relevancy let alone power, it's going to have to do it by establishing and getting out a message, and that message has to be more substantive than "We're the not-Republicans" or "The president isn't very smart". But if the Democrats are to truly create a message it's going to mean not a renewed play for the center-right as the party has tried in recent years; instead, it's going to mean looking to the left to reinvigorate the party and the country's political culture with fresh ideas. I'm not optimistic on this front, but the promotion of Nancy Pelosi is a small step in the right direction. And to get back to Will's column, isn't it interesting that no one ever calls people from overwhelmingly and disproportionately conservative Republican districts out of touch. Just one more example of our national media's conservative bias--and don't let Republican lies convince you otherwise.

On a happy note, I should be back with more fun, happy-go-lucky stories about the coal mine and the Co-Temp next time...