"Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, 'In this world, Elwood, you must be' – she always called me Elwood – 'In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.' Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."--Elwood P. Dowd
The Pirates started Liriano in the play-in because he was their consistently best pitcher, their strongest at home and very effective against left handers--the strength of Cincinnati's line-up--despite the fact he had a serious cold. Cincinnati started Queto, their historically best pitcher, despite the fact he had only pitched 12 innings in three months. Why?
Almost 90 elephants have been slaughtered by poachers who poisoned them with industrial cyanide, authorities in Zimbabwe said. Park spokesperson Caroline Washaya-Moyo told NBC News that 87 corpses had been found so far, all with their tusks removed.
The last time the rube Republicans refused to increase the debt ceiling and shut the government down they lost two House seats but gained two in the Senate.
Seth Klarman, the portfolio manager of The Baupost Group, is a very successful practitioner of the value investing strategy. In 1991 he wrote a book explaining the logic and practice of the approach called "The Margin of Safety." While it is viewed as a classic, it has never been reissued. The price has gone up to $2200.00 for a good copy, probably a lot more than the investments he recommended.
The Randolph County school board in North Carolina voted 6 to 1 to retract its ban on Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man at school libraries.
Pope Francis is continuing his theme that the Catholic Church should be "a home for all," a "field hospital" on life's battlefield.
When asked specifically about homosexuality he replied, "Religion has the right to express its opinion in the service of the people, but God in creation has set us free. It is not possible to interfere spiritually in the life of a person." "It is not possible to interfere spiritually in the life of a person" --what exactly does that mean for the Church to say?
A very shallow article in Huffington disparaged this comment as not going far enough. But this is a lot.
British towns that had all its men return from the First World War were known as the "Thankful Villages." There were 52. Towns that also had all its men return from the second war were known as the "Doubly Thankful Villages." There were 14. One was the curiously named Upper Slaughter, a small town which, incidentally, was bombed.
Who is....Alger Hiss?
Just more than half of Americans read at least one book for fun last year, according to an annual survey from the National Endowment for the Arts. More women than men read at least one work of literature, and 64- to 75-year-olds read more than any other age group.
Apparently the victory of Oracle Team USA in the America's Cup, where they had lost two points on a disqualifying penalty and struggled back winning an unheard of eight races in a row to beat the Austrailians who had match point for a week, is one of the greatest comebacks in the history of all sport. Don't know much about sailing, though.
Secretary of State John Kerry plans to sign a controversial U.N. treaty on arms regulation on Wednesday, a senior State Department official told Fox News -- despite warnings from lawmakers that the Senate will not ratify the agreement. So the executive just signs this stuff anyway?
In the data released by College Board, a full 57 percent of graduating seniors aren't ready to transition to college coursework, based on SAT results. The 1498 average total score for all test takers fell short of the 1550 SAT College and Career benchmark, which says students who score at or above that level have a 65 percent change of earning a B- average.
70,000 people attended the World Maker Faire this year in New York.
There are 10,750 hedge funds that control 2.2 Trillion investment dollars. 1600 funds control 99% of that money. 350 control 60%. So there is this hedge fund industry where data is collected and there is this smaller subset where the real numbers are.
Cuba announced Friday that its athletes will be allowed to sign contracts to compete in foreign leagues. Everyone is thinking baseball but their boxers are terrific.
Cassidy Lynn Campbell is a transgender girl in California who won a homecoming queen contest. Since then she has been brutalized and lauded in print by people who think she is either a brave standard bearer or nuts. Some of the stuff is quite vitriolic. After all, this is a child. But I have not seen the obvious question raised: how did this happen? Does this poor girl have a diagnosis that makes treatment reasonable or was this a personal decision that family and the medical profession supported? If the latter, what is the scientific criteria for such interference?
Golden oldie:
David Gilmour, who said in an interview that he doesn't teach books by women or Chinese authors, has been roundly disowned by faculty members at the University of Toronto, where he teaches classes. Free speech has its limits, especially in universities.
In a recent baseball game A. J. Burnett got 23 "swings and misses" on his curveball in the seven innings he pitched. That was the highest number of "swings and misses" on a single type of pitch in a single game for the last five years. I am unsure which is more astonishing: that his curve was so good or that people know and care enough to calculate and store the information.
AAAAAnnnnddddd ..............a picture of a man on the island of Yap with the island stone currency:
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