Your underwhelming correspondent is slowly spreading his tentacles around the interweb.
Check out my guest post on America’s game over at esmon dot net. And I’m delighted to have one of my science posts picked up by Tangled Bank, a biweekly blog carnival featuring the best science and medicine posts in the blogosphere. See which one they chose here at Evolved and Rational.
“Behold, I can make fire from a little box.”
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Annie Savoy: What do you believe in, then?
Crash Davis: Well, I believe in the soul, the cock, the pussy, the small of a woman’s back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days. Goodnight.
I had intended to start yesterday’s post with a kind of statement of things I believe strongly in, the point being that I did not want to argue about the merits of evolution again. A sort of personal manifesto. The post was getting fairly unwieldy, though, so I killed it.
But I’ve been coming back to the list since then and I actually like it a lot. NPR listeners may be familiar with one of my favorite of their programs, “This I Believe”, on which average people read an essay about their core beliefs. One of these days I’m going to write a proper “This I Believe” essay. But until then and with apologies to Edward R Murrow, Michael Stipe and Crash Davis, here is what I believe.
And…
I believe in coyotes and time as an abstract
Explain the change, the difference between
What you want and what you need, there’s the key…I believe my humor’s wearing thin
And change is what I believe in
I believe my shirt is wearing thin
And change is what I believe in…I believe in example
I believe my throat hurts…
What do you believe?
——————-
R.E.M.’s “Life’s Rich Pageant” is available from 
.
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Most of my interviewing lately has been of bands and posted over at A Free Man. But I haven’t abandoned the format on this site and I’ve got a cracker for you today!
I am a huge fan of podcasts. I listen to all my favorite American radio programs as podcasts, which helps to assuage the occasional homesickness of an expatriate. I’ve found tons of other podcasts as well, radio programs all over the world to guys in their basements with a computer and a microphone.
I though it would be fun to interview one of those podcasters that falls into that latter class and has something interesting to say. One of my favorites is Mike Duncan’s “The History of Rome”. I’m a little bit of a history buff, particularly the American Civil War - fascinating time. But history is not a particular passion of mine, especially the dry, humorless academic history that you often run across. So, the first time I listened to Duncan’s podcast I was flabbergasted. This fellow took what could be a really dull topic and made it not only interesting but strangely addictive. It’s hard for me to put my finger on what it is that Duncan does, but he speaks plainly and brings in the occasional pop culture reference to keep the casual listener coming back. For example, in one episode about the Roman war with Pyrrhus he describes the way in which the Romans defeated the Greek war elephants by comparing it with the the technique that the rebel snow speeders used against the Imperial AT-ATs in “The Empire Strikes Back”. Brilliant.
Mike Duncan, purveyor of “The History of Rome”, was nice enough to sit down on the virtual couch to answer some questions. We had a great interview topics ranging from which American president would have been the best Roman emperor to “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and the Baseball Hall of Fame…
AFM: I can see by your profile that you studied politics and philosophy in university. What inspired you to make the transition to history for your podcast?
MD: The History of Rome was conceived in one of those “This is so cool, I want to do something like this” moments after I discovered 12 Byzantine Rulers by Lars Brownworth
AFM: I’m still playing catch-up on your podcast, but I know you’re up to the Second Punic War which is in the 200s B.C.? How much longer will it take you to get to the fall of the empire? Will you take us that far?
MD: I’m committed to seeing it through to the end. We should be able to get to the abdication of Romulus Augustulus by Christmas 08 (but I only say that to keep morale up - I know it’s going to run longer than that).
AFM: I think the reasons that your podcast work so well is that you keep them short (about a quarter of an hour) use laymen’s terms and tease at the end for the next episode. How did you come up with this formula? Why do you think that your podcast has succeeded where many a Western Civ professor has failed?
MD: I don’t want to lump all history professors together, but on the whole they seem to be a dry and humourless lot. Continue Reading »
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“Go ahead you can
Laugh all you want
I got my philosophy
Keeps my feet on the ground
And I trust it like the ground…”
-Ben Folds - “Philosophy”
I’ve always admired the eternal optimists among you - those who look for the silver lining, walk on the sunny side of the street or always look at the bright side of life. But that’s not really me. I’m the kind of fellow who expects the worst and then is pleasantly surprised when things turn out not as bad as I had feared. I’m not saying it’s a good one, nor am I advocating that you take it on, but it’s a philosophy. Continue Reading »
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The Dawgs have the week off to prepare for Florida and the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party in Jacksonville next week. That gives me time to look at some of the other sport going on in the world and it’s a big day for it this Saturday.
In the world of college football there are a number of big games - Florida at Kentucky, Auburn at LSU and Texas Tech at Missouri. I got my Ph.D. from Missouri and I tried, I really did, to get behind their sports teams. But the Tigers never Continue Reading »
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One by one the flowers fading in my garden
One by one the leaves are falling from the trees…”
-Woody Guthrie - “One By One”
While walking through the Parks yesterday, I noticed some of the leaves on the trees around Keble starting to turn and drop. Then while biking home last night a little bit late from work I noticed dusk creeping in earlier than what I’ve come to expect.This morning I certainly noticed the biting north wind in Continue Reading »
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“Grandma’s home by the radio
On the television watching Joe
She jerks the beard off of Grandpa’s chin
Joe DiMaggio’s done it again…”
“DiMaggio Done It” - Woody Guthrie
There’s not much to say about the Barry Bonds thing - which is why I didn’t say much about it when it happened. Everyone knew it was inevitable. It’s the worst kept secret in sports that Bonds took illegal performance enhancing drugs. He cheated. When I was a kid, I remember playing a game with my Dad - Battleship I think - and when he got up to do something I looked at his side of the board. When he came back I hit all his Continue Reading »
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“I filled the whole front page with the catchiest words I could find, believe me, come back. Fake headlines, believe them, come back.”
-[tag]The New Pornographers[/tag] - “Fake Headlines”
I’ve been gone from the States a fair while now and some of the news coming from Fortress America this week has me wondering if I’ve lost touch with the pulse of American politics. Because this week I’ve seen headlines that the New York Times published an article entitled “A War We Just Might Win” (resulting in crows of joy from the Right) and that failed Clinton slayer and author of historical fiction Newt Gingrich called the “War on Terror” phony (resulting in consternation and hand wringing from the Right). It’s as if things have turned upside down. But there’s a problem - these are headlines, or at best lead paragraphs, which are designed to draw attention but often bear no resemblance to the story contained within. For example, you may see a Continue Reading »
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There are a few things that I’m obsessive about – well more than a few, but for the sake of argument – music, politics and baseball. Music is the only one of these things that isn’t consistently disappointing to me. But its baseball season and that means that like it or not, I’m reading box scores, keeping up with the NL leader in saves (Francisco Cordero of the Brewers) and who is leading the AL wild card race (Detroit). As an expat, it’s rare that I get to watch a live game, but mlb.com and ESPN have good highlights clips. And I’d like to point out that my fantasy team is leading the league.
Alex Rodriguez makes $27 million per year (that’s more than $45,000 per at bat). The New York Yankees team salary is over $195 million which is more than the GDP of some sovereign nations and over 8 times that of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. This money differential renders most clubs uncompetitive. MLB has no real consistent enforcement policy regarding steroids and other performance enhancing drugs, and don’t get me started on Barry Bonds and the home run records.
Despite all this, from April to October, I follow along. That’s because I love the game. I love the slow pace and the Byzantine rules and scorekeeping. I love hearing the crack of the bat and the thump of a blazing fastball in the catchers mitt. I love the national anthem and the organ music in the ball park and the seventh inning stretch. My Dad is a baseball fan and he passed that on to me. He’s a Dodgers fan, so I was until I got to the age when you start to disagree with your Dad and then I became a Braves fan. I loved the Braves when they sucked. The 80’s when they wore powder blue and averaged 65 wins per season. When Dale (The Stormin’ Mormon) Murphy was their sole All-Star. There’s something pure about a team that bad, something simple and something loveable. The best thing was that every single game could be seen on “The Superstation” sandwiched between reruns of “The Dukes of Hazzard” and “Dallas”. That glorious 1995 series win over Cleveland made it all worth while, yet their hapless record in the post-season kept things simple. Two other reasons to love the Braves – Chipper Jones, who’s in his 14th season with the club, a true rarity in modern baseball and Bobby Cox, who is one ejection away from breaking the major league record for being tossed as a manager, that my friends is a record!
When I moved to the midwest I began a flirtation with the Kansas City Royals. Columbia, Missouri is equidistant between KC and St. Louis, so the choice of a local team came down to the Royals, who for the last 20 years have been the Braves of the 80’s, and the Cardinals - a slick, big budget successful team. The Cardinals still had the spectre of Mark McGwire and doping and home runs and money hanging over them, so I looked West as young men are want to. The Royal’s Kauffman stadium is one of the best I’ve been to in major league baseball. “The K” is intimate, there’s not a bad seat in the house and the perennial poorness of the team generally means that there are plenty of seats available. I’m sure its days are numbered, but it was a great park while it lasted.
MLB is mostly big money and spoiled players and drugs and just bloated like a tick on a stray dog. I think where you can find the purity of baseball, especially a night at the ball park is in the minor leagues. One of my favorite movies, and the best baseball movie ever, is “Bull Durham”. This film paints a romantic and hilarious picture of minor league baseball and is probably the only Kevin Costner movie that is ever worth seeing. There are 246 minor league teams spread all over the country, thus you are probably not far from a minor league club. Admission is dirt cheap, parking is not usually a problem and in most parks you can sit close enough to smell the players sweat if that’s your kind of things. A lot of these guys make it to the bigs, so you may get a chance to see a player before he becomes a greedy, drug ridden freak.
When I go to visit my parents in Florida, my Dad and I usually catch a game. The Daytona Cubs are a Class A affiliate of Chicago playing in the Florida State League against such perennial powerhouses as the Brevard County Manatees and the Lakeland Flying Tigers. The Cubs play at Jackie Robinson Ballpark which sits on the Intercoastal Waterway. It’s so named because, according to the club website in 1946, Robinson came to town for spring training with the Montreal Royals. He was banned from playing in Jacksonville and Sanford, but not in Daytona.. His first plate appearance came in an exhibition game against their parent club, the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson then became the first African-American player in the Major Leagues.
Dad and I go to to watch the Cubs, fill up on bad hot dogs and pretzels, I keep score, we try to catch foul balls and usually come away with some kind of free promotion. We enjoy the Florida summer twilight and do the things that fathers’ and sons’ have been doing in America for over a century. Enjoy a game of baseball. I’ll miss that this summer.
And as Ebby Calvin LaLoush says in Bull Durham: “A good friend of mine used to say, ‘This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains.’ Think about that for a while….”
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