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Blogging has been light lately because of my travels, which should end shortly, assuming everything that is supposed to happen happens in a timely manner. But patience will be rewarded, with some upcoming material that will be both iluminating and...
Oh, who the hell am I kidding? It'll be the same old stuff I always do. But newer. And more coherent, once I get back on L.A. time and get some rest. Until then, sorry, man....
ShareBoca Raton is the dead heart of South Florida, the empty middle, heavily populated but without much life or soul. That's clear only when exploring the surrounding towns like Delray Beach, where the people are a little younger and the homes aren't all walled and gated off from the world. Sitting at a patio table at Boston's in Delray, reggae on the PA and groups of office workers and locals and tourists knocking back beers and conch fritters, you know you're not in Boca, where the early birds rule and everything's a bland chain.
What's striking about development in Boca is how the number of schools has exploded- there are schools practically next to other schools, high schools every mile or so- yet teens are rarely seen outside the mall. That may be because of the walls: virtually everyone west of 95 lives behind gates and high walls. If you don't live in those communities, you'll never see the people there. There's no driving through, only driving past. And even inside, the kids aren't around. I don't know where they are- probably inside with PlayStation 2- but there's no vibrancy, no socialization, no life.
That's not to say that Boca's good for nothing- it's actually a nice place, especially if you're older and you want a town where everyone's like you and there are activities for people like you and early bird specials at a lot of restaurants. But I can't imagine being a kid there. I imagine, though, that it's like growing up anywhere- kids grow up to fall into two categories, the ones who never leave and the ones who can't wait to get out. That was the case with my home town, a nice-enough, leafy, bland suburb, good schools, good library, safe, plenty of shopping, close to everything, and I couldn't wait to leave. Where I live now is a spectacular oceanside community, affluent, beautiful, and, to the kids who grow up here, prison. Someone even wrote a book about growing up here, and it isn't flattering. To us, adults when we arrived, it's wonderful.
I suppose Boca has some negative vibes for me these days because I've had to deal with my father's death and some legal entanglements there. And it was great for Dad there- tennis every day, people his own age, the mall and the tennis club and the JCC and a Publix store every few blocks. But after all these trips there this year, I'm feeling like I imagine the kids there do- nice place, can't wait to get out. I keep having to go back, but my pedal's definitely to the metal, heading for the city limits sign.
ShareNo surprise: the Philadelphia Daily News declares itself the first paper to endorse Kerry. No problem there- liberal paper, their right to do so, good for them. And then there's this part of the endorsement:
Strategy?
Wait a minute.
Since when did newspapers cross over from endorsement to political activism? Support the candidate, fine, but setting forth strategies (mostly involving registering like-minded folks to vote) to get the candidate elected? Isn't that going from free speech to campaign donation?
At least, judging by the paper's circulation figures in the last few years, not too many people read the thing.
ShareI suppose what we can learn from the 9/11 commission is that it's inexcusable not to be prepared for something you couldn't have reasonably foreseen coming at you.
That's pretty much the situation- the Pentagon, CIA, FBI, FAA, NORAD, the administration, the previous administration, everyone in Washington's at fault because they didn't put the intelligence together in a way that would have told them that not only would planes be hijacked, but that they would be used as missiles to take out several major buildings. This is like several different groups of people being given pieces to several diferent jigsaw puzzles and not assuming that they could put their puzzle together with other groups' puzzles to make one great big puzzle.
Meanwhile, there's also blame for the Pentagon, CIA, FBI, FAA, NORAD, the administration, the previous administration, everyone in Washington, the Detroit Tigers, Brittany Murphy, and Mrs. Olsen's math class at Bryson Elementary for not immediately reacting to the 9/11 crisis by shooting down planes and riding to the rescue on white horses and stuff. The report criticizes the confusion after the initial attack; it doesn't recognize that the situation was, is, inherently confusing. Quick, someone's using passenger jets to attack and kill Americans- DO SOMETHING!!! How are you gonna react to that?
The reaction, we now know thanks to the commission, was inadequate, yet they're not really saying how we can fix that for the future. That's not, apparently, their job- they're here to fix blame. It's just that they're blaming humans for being human, for not necessarily having the answers when things took a left turn. Sure, they're supposed to be experts, but sometimes there are no easy quick answers. I'm supposed to be a talk radio expert, and I guess I am, but if I was confronted with a unique crisis- say if I was running Premiere Radio Networks and someone ran in and told me Rush Limbaugh had exploded and the concussion destroyed a nearby elementary school- I don't know what I'd do. I'd like to think I'd get it right, but I'd also like to think that if I didn't, people would understand. Judging by the media frenzy over these reports, I'm not sure they would.
There's a lot to learn from what the commission uncovered, but I fear it'll be lost in the rush to point fingers. The worst part of it all is that no fingers on this commission are being pointed at the terrorists who actually did the deed. Can't blame them- doesn't make for as good a headline.
ShareThe Yankees showed up at Dodger Stadium at about ten minutes after eleven this morning, that for a noontime start. They must have assumed that everyone shows up late for Dodger games.
Not today. As it was last night and will be tomorrow, the place was pretty well packed by game time, and while a top-of-the-first Derek Jeter base hit was greeted with a few expatriate New York cheers, the chant of "Yankees suck!" appeared to represent the prevailing sentiment.
This is not to say that everyone in the 55,000-plus throng was a baseball die-hard. Yankees-Dodgers- first time since 1981, first regular season matchup ever- is bringing out the occasionals, the rarelys, the couldn't-name-a-Dodger-if-you-handed-them-a-roster fans. The familiar faces in the press box and the visiting New York and ESPN and Fox contingents were packed in with folks from who-knows-what outlets and more than usual from the Japanese media, all of whom had to get a charge when Hideki Matsui reached across the plate to flick at a Hideo Nomo beach ball and plonked it into the hands of a guy in the first row of the right field stands. (Dodger fans have to dread Nomo's turn in the rotation these days. There are few more striking signs that the dilution of major league pitching has reached crisis proportions than Hideo Nomo's presence in the Dodger rotation, or any rotation, for that matter. He gave up four runs in the first, then settled down and shut the Yankees out for five innings (and even hit an improbable homer), but that's not acceptable- there's always one disaster of an inning, and the team never recovers)
The greatest pleasure of the day was being able to witness Vin Scully handle six innings of the radio call. Vin's usually on TV and simulcasts three innings with radio, but because the game was on Fox today, he did the first through third and sixth through ninth on KFWB, and I watched and listened and learned. There are some great announcers in baseball, but when Vinnie gets on a roll, there's nobody better. He told stories about the Yankee-Dodger World Series appearances, he told jokes and described the action and kept an eye on the U.S. Open on the monitor above, he even kept up with the play despite one unbelievably distracting and hilarious event that I shall withhold to protect my access to the press box, and he was, as always, magnificent.
It was, in short, another fine day at the ballpark. It was the kind of day where I always like to grab the cell phone and call the guy I know would most appreciate hearing about it, but for the first time, I couldn't do that. And for the first time, I can't wish him a happy Father's Day, either. But I'm glad I shared the pleasures of a day at the ballpark as many times as I could, in New York and L.A., Philly and Miami, Baltimore and Vero Beach, Boston and Norfolk and anywhere we could go. If all I have now are memories, those are pretty great ones to have. Dad, you shoulda been there, but something tells me you were there after all....
ShareThis page contains all entries posted to PMSimon.com in June 2004. They are listed from oldest to newest.
June 6, 2004 - June 12, 2004 is the previous archive.
June 20, 2004 - June 26, 2004 is the next archive.
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