A Large Regular

Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

Have a new Quotes for Today up on my Substack. As I've mentioned doing this as a way to thank those who have Subscribed. If you are a Subscriber - you should have received an email. Thanks!

Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

Have a new Quotes for Today up on my Substack. As I've mentioned doing this as a way to thank those who have Subscribed. If you are a Subscriber - you should have received an email. Thanks!

Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

Have a new Quotes for Today up on my Substack. As I've mentioned doing this as a way to thank those who have Subscribed. If you are a Subscriber - you should have received an email. Thanks!

More stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- 'Mr. Fix-it' Michael Cohen bombs on the stand.

- The wisdom of Archie Bunker.

- Thinking this person just has to post that video and the teaching job opportunities will flood in. For places he'd want to work.

- Looks like Red Lobster is on its last legs.

July 31st in kind of a big deal in Boston and in my life. Including Garnett's picture because he was my favorite NBA player until the day he retired:

Boston Celtics trade for Kevin Garnett in 2007.

Rowdy Roddy Piper dies in 2015.

Celtics icon Bill Russell passes away.

Nomar Garciaparra is traded from the Red Sox in 2004.

JK Rowling's birthday.

EDIT: Should have added trade with Seattle where Boston got Varitek and Lowe in 1997.

Via

 Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Whatever happened with all those lawsuits against Saudi Arabia for their 9/11 culpability?... Well the Most Interesting Man in the World did tell us he didn't always drink beer... My favorite conspiracy theory is that making cookies is just a front for the Keebler Elves sports bookmaking operation... "It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. It is in fact true. It's called living." - Terry Pratchett... Was going to do a post about whether Jon Lester is a Hall of Famer but the simple answer is "No." He's beloved in both Boston and Chicago and has 3 World Series rings but with just 192 wins and a career ERA of 3.59 that just doesn't cut it. What really props up Lester is his great personality, being a cancer survivor, and the fact he went 4-1 with a 1.77 ERA in 5 career World Series starts. The bigger the game the better Lester seemed to pitch. Would not be surprised if he retired or maybe signed a one-year deal with the Red Sox for next season... With the cancel mob gunning for JK Rowling for her new book about a cross-dressing killer - I wonder how long it will be before that mob comes after the 1980 movie Dressed to Kill? Because the plot (spoiler alert) is basically the same... 

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Chicago is in big trouble as a city. And underfunded pensions weren't even mentioned. A financial disaster is looming... Wonder when trans-activists will schedule their first JK Rowling book-burning event. You know its coming. And book-burning is always a sign of the most tolerant of folks... This Ben Affleck story is 100% accurate... Ilhan Omar on Tuesday's historic Middle East Peace deals, "Some people did something" (probably)... Judd Apatow on Hollywood "China has bought our silence"... Someday I'd like to compare where Venezuela stood in comparison to other nations based on GDP when Socialists were first elected to office and where it stands now. And then do the same thing for California starting in 2008... 

EDIT: I was only joking about the JK Rowling book-burning but evidently they're already happening.

Today is JK Rowling's 52nd birthday. In her honor I'm reposting an observation I had a long time ago about the Harry Potter series. 

In the series - young readers are exposed to death, murder, torture, theft, lying and I'm pretty sure that if there was an eighth book the line over heavy snogging would have been crossed. The only thing JK Rowling seems to have been very careful to protect young readers against by not bringing it up is divorce.

It hit me that none of the adult characters in the book are divorced.

Think about it. 

Any adult character that gets married stays married till death does them part. The Weasley's, the Granger's, and Fleur's parents are all happily married. Even the Dursley's and Malfoy's - as unlikable as they may be to the reader - are all-in-all pretty happily married. Harry's parent's and Neville's parents were happily married till tragedy struck. Luna Lovegood's parent's loved good till tragedy befell her mother. Heck even Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange seem to have been a happy couple in their twisted way.

If an adult is unmarried in the series - it is pretty much because they are a widow(er) or a spinster (or bachelor). McGonagall, Snape, Dumbledore and most of the teachers at Hogwarts seem resigned to living the celibate life. No divorced adults or children of divorced parents are mentioned. 

There seems to be three exceptions to this rule of thumb - Dean Thomas, Hagrid and Voldemorte himself. Dean Thomas shouldn't count because according to Rowling his father was killed by Death Eaters when he was an infant - unbeknownst to either Dean or his mother who later remarried. Hagrid's mother was a giant and thus probably exempt from the normal rules. That leaves only Voldemorte as an example of some sort of "broken home."

Merope Gaunt, Voldemorte's mother cast an enchantment on Tom Riddle Sr. (first a love potion but then other things) to get him to marry her. Once Merope let the enchantments lapse - Tom Riddle became disgusted at what had happened and left the pregnant Merope to her fate. Did the one truly "bad egg" somehow become what he was because of the sins of the parents?

When you consider that JK Rowling was a single mother when she started writing the series - it doesn't take much of a psychologist to wonder if her situation played a major role in how she portrayed marriage in her books. A magical world where people who fall in love never get divorced.

Happy birthday JK and thanks for creating such a magical world.

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Nice little poker tip.

- This is my favorite Hamilton quote. My second favorite Alexander Hamilton quote is, "Don't believe everything you read on the Internet."

- Heh heh

- What a complete waste of taxpayer money

- Nice story of the kindness of a waitress.

- Cool - good news for Harry Potter fans

OK - I'm a geek. Today is Robbie Coltrane's 66th birthday. Coltrane plays Hagrid in the Harry Potter movies. In fact when Coltrane was trying to figure out the best way to portray Hagrid - he asked author JK Rowling how he should play the character - Rowling answered something like, "Just be yourself - I had you in mind when I wrote the character."

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - is it wrong if I'd prefer if JK Rowling just wrote a book instead?

- I'll take "Things on the Internet that make you say WTF?" for $200 Alex

- The Sumo Sprint

- Definitely going to hell for laughing at this

- Am I the only who sees this and thinks "Woody on the Cross"?

- Heh heh

- Excellent news for baseball good guy Hal McCoy

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Belichick gets drunk and lets people know what he's really thinking (NSFW language)

- Who is Sam Adams rooting for on Sunday? Why the Patriots of course

- This is what people in Massachusetts have to deal with all the time. Good bet guy's name is Sully or Fitzy or sum such. (NSFW language)

- Interesting article on Ernie Adams - the Patriots mystery man

- I've read this JK Rowling story before but it's still touching.

- Awe inspiring - the Milky Way as seen from Chile.

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- 12 things JK Rowling has revealed after the publication of last book. No real news here for big Harry Potter fans.

- Grantland has a look back at the failure of the Russian Sochi Winter Olympics.

- I just love this photo - Stonehedge's gardener mowing the grass 1955

- Cool - nice summary of places to go for free content for your iPhone, iPad, Kindle, etc.

- The 20 most popular Ted Talks

- Good on you JetBlue

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- 12 Harry Potter revelations from JK Rowling

- The Air Force's mysterious X-37B space plane - the replacement for the space shuttle?

- The Ballad of Leno and Letterman - told by Jerry Seinfeld (I wonder if Leno will be a guest on Letterman now?)

- REAL anti-masturbation video from BYU - Wounded on the Battlefield (in this particular war I have millions of Purple Hearts)

- I want a print of this - Salvador Dalek

- Heh heh

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Whatever happened to the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome epidemic? Interesting question.

- Rocket Frog - awesome!

- Good news - Syracuse and Georgetown about to renew basketball rivalry.

- More good news - JK Rowling to pen Harry Potter related prequel movie EDIT: Link fixed

- This is awful and surprising. The name of the paper reporting is either ironic or an Onion spinoff.

- Better Call Saul is really happening.

- Speaking of Breaking Bad - this Jimmy Fallon parody Joking Bad is pretty funny. I thought it ran long but the final joke is well worth the wait.

- Student athletes or employee athletes? Interesting look at the legal side of the argument. I say employee athletes.

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

I missed South Park last night but I understand they were brutal to Tom Brady. I'll have to watch it!... One of my favorite quotes is Ronald Reagan asking, "How do you insult a pig by calling it a pig?" It is so straightforward but at the same time can be used in so many situations... What an awesome correction... Good advice - never turn your back on a unicorn. Those bastards will stab you in the back as soon as they see you aren't looking... Every time I see a sign for the new JK Rowling book the Casual Vacancy - I think the sign says Carnal Vacancy. I'm guessing that porn version of the book has already been written by some fan fiction writer... The best praying mantis photo you may ever see... Supposedly France will be banning the words "mother" and "father" from all official documents. Remember the Coneheads were from France and they only used the term "parental units". I think France should go with that term...

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Wrap your mind around this - 95 percent of the US taxes we have now did not exist 100 years ago. I'd be willing to bet that many of the taxes were enacted for a specific purpose that no longer applies but the taxes still do... I'll admit that my first thought upon hearing that Dez Bryant was hurt at Cowboys training camp was, "I hope no veterans helped Bryant off the field." That's not what they are there for... First they took away Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. Now they are taking away my favorite childhood dinosaur? The dinosaur we call "triceratops" never existed... I have perfect confidence that Tom Brady and the Patriots will work out their contract issues. Perfect confidence... In fourteen-hundred and ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue (and the Jews were expelled from Spain). It's funny the history you are not taught in school... Happy 45th birthday to JK Rowling. Your Harry Potter books have brought me and my family hours and hours of reading pleasure... With Al Gore (sexual assault) and John Kerry (tax evasion on a multi-million dollar yacht) both being in the news lately - aren't you glad that both failed to beat George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004?

Sarah Palin as Mrs. Weasley

Last night I got home too late to have seen Sarah Palin's speech live. I did find the text of her speech on RealClearPolitics and my initial reaction was "Wow!" Flipping around the channels I noticed that one of the C-Span channels was replaying the night's RNC events. I knew I would have to wait a while to see the speech but I had to see it. I couldn't wait till the morning when the speech would be available on video. The anticipation was killing me.

I fell asleep but awoke during Rudy Giuliani's speech. Governor Palin would be next. I sat up in rapt attention and when she started in my reaction was, "Wow - simply wow!" Her speech generated strong emotions in me. Feelings that were eerily familiar. It took me most of the day to realize when I had felt those feelings before.

Before I explain - let me back up. Like many people I was disgusted at the way the media had been attacking Palin through her children. Her speech reminded me on a visceral level of a lioness protecting her cubs. Governor Palin knows her family is not perfect nor rich nor to the aristocracy born. But it's her family and they are a family. Whole and intact. Like the Weasley family from the Harry Potter books.

It hit me tonight that the last time something generated such feelings was at the end of the last Harry Potter book - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

At the end of the book Bellatrix Lestrange is trying to kill Mrs. Weasley's youngest daughter Ginny (along with Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood). Mrs. Weasley's response? "NOT MY DAUGHTER YOU BITCH!"

Mrs. Weasley did not need anyone to protect her child. She did it herself. Much like Sarah Palin last night. If you substituted the liberal media elite for Bellatrix - then to me the cry of "NOT MY DAUGHTER YOU BITCH!" seems spot on.

To continue the analogy - again substitute the main stream media for Bellatrix and the reaction to Palin / Mrs. Weasley again seems spot on:

"Bellatrix's [the MSM's] gloating smile froze, her eyes seemed to bulge: For the tiniest space of time she knew what had happened, and then she toppled, and the watching crowd roared..." Deathly Hallows Page 736-737

The gloating smiles over an inexperienced, white trash hick with no experience is gone. Evaporated by a speech like no other I can recall in my lifetime. The mainstream media has been exposed for their shabby treatment of a mother and her daughter. And last night the crowd cheered as the mother protected her family and prevailed over her would be tormentors.

The crowd is still cheering. Not my daughter you bitch indeed!

Harry Potter

If you are a Harry Potter fan then this interview of JK Rowling is a must read.

At the very least you learn about who the Victoire was that Teddy Lupin was "snogging".