Odds & Sods

It's been a while, so I decided to bring out old "Odds & Sods" before she got too dusty...

NEWS
This long race for the White House is nearly complete, I hope. I have to admit I am a bit worried about what will take place on Election Day and in the aftermath in terms of voter fraud and any sort of poor behavior from the perpetually malcontent. Let's pray for the good of the country, that things go smoothly and perhaps the politicians can start to unite and work toward better days for the U.S. of A. But, since I am not the Pollyanna-type, I'm expecting more partisanship and the usual naval gazing exercise of blaming everyone else, which permeates throughout every facet of our society.

I've been most intently keeping an eye on Afghanistan and that region of the world for the last few months because I read that President Bush really wanted to step up the hunt for Usama bin Laden (forgotten?) in the hopes of either capturing (will never happen) or killing the al-Qaeda leader. We heard from UBL four days before the 2004 Election, I'll be interested if the Saudi billionaire puts out another promo of his non-sensible blathering.

SPORTS
I'm really curious to see how the ratings are for this World Series because I've got a funny feeling not many are paying attention. I partly blame Bud Selig for not doing a few simple things which would generate more interest in the M.L.B. post-season. If you aren't going to do afternoon games during either league championship series or the World Series, then how about starting the games themselves a bit earlier, say a half hour or 45 minutes? But it's an old argument and the start times won't change at any point soon.

The Rangers are really off to a great start and seem to have a very cohesive unit that isn't overly reliant on one particular player.

I'm eagerly awaiting the moment when Martin Brodeur establishes himself as the winningest goalie in the history of the N.H.L. Perhaps, before Christmas.

BOOKS
I'm flying through Who Are You: The Life of Pete Townshend by Mark Wilkerson and am eagerly awaiting the postmen's delivery of Bret Hart's autobiography and Anne Rice's memoir from Amazon.com. It won't be long before I finish the book on PT and in all likelihood will probably dive into Bret's book because I have heard such rave reviews about it.

The bombastic Chris Matthews hosts a Sunday morning show and the only segment I really like is when he asks the panelists on the show to "tell him something he doesn't know." Well, the book about Townshend tells me a great deal that I did not know, such as he was asked to do the music for the movie Blade Runner, but turned it down because he felt that one movie, Tommy, was enough for his lifetime because of the exhausting amount of work that goes into such a project.

Incidentally, I am going to see The Who this coming week and can't wait. So far, reviews of their performance on their mini-tour of North America have been very favorable. They opened with a show in Detroit in which all the money went to a local charity. Good job by The Ooo!