Areas of Unrest

15 October 1999 - It's Fun to Say Garciaparra

QOTD: "It is good to know that there remain wild corners of this dreadfully civilised world." - Robert Falcon Scott

Reading: Dale DeArmond, Tales From the Four Winds of the North

Listening to: Antonio Carlos Jobim, Jazz 'Round Midnight

Robert had a cute comment on the American League Championship Series. I emailed him on Monday to tell him that the Red Sox had defeated the Indians and would be playing the source of all evil in the universe in the ALCS. He wrote back saying, "Anyway, Cleveland is a boring team, if you ask me, and it's fun to have an excuse to say "Garciaparra", so I'm glad the Sox are still in it."

I wrote back that I think it's even more fun to say "Rheal Cormier." But my all time favorite player is one whose name is mild fun to say and sheer torture to spell - namely, Carl Yastrzemski.

Unfortunately, the source of all evil in the universe won the first two games. Tomorrow at Fenway promises to be awesome though - Pedro Martinez vs. Roger "I'm in it for the money" Clemens. There was a news bit about a doctor who paid over $12000 for four tickets to that game. Normally I would scoff at the extravagance - but, in this case, I understand it. Not that I would pay that much myself, of course.

Before I shut up about baseball, I should add that I grew up with the Mets and I am thoroughly disappointed in them right now. They were already down two games to Atlanta and made so many errors early in tonight's game that I thought I was back in the 1960's and the days of "Marvelous Marv" Thornberry. They pulled it together a bit later in the game, at least as far as fielding went, but still lost.

Anyway, I only saw part of yesterday's American League game because of storytelling. We had a special treat, with a visiting teller. Allan Davies lives in Scotland (although he is English, not Scots) and this is his first time in the U.S.. Several of us had dinner with him at Audrey's house before the meeting. I was emceeing which is ever so much easier at Community Storytellers than at Long Beach. The only problem is that having a guest teller means less time for open story swapping, but it worked out well enough. I was especially pleased that I got a newcomer in at the end. I don't mind so much if a regular doesn't get to tell, because I know they'll have a chance next month.

I came home and watched my videotape of the game. And discovered that I hadn't looked to see what speed the VCR was set at - and the default is the fastest, so the tape ran out in 2 hours. On the plus side, the Sox were winning at the end of my tape. I got the final play by play off their web page. But I was still up way too late and was a complete zombie all day today. That was a fair excuse for leaving work earlier than usual. Which meant I could retrieve a UPS package from the office in my building. This was actually delivered last week, but UPS neglected to put a notice on my mailbox, so I didn't find out until I called up United Media to ask for a tracking number. I would have been more annoyed if I hadn't known that Milo was going to be out today. The package in question is a Boss's Day gift. Mary Joan and I conspired on this and got him pointy hair. I often find Dilbert irritating, but I know that Milo is a fan, so he should enjoy this.

Incidentally, I did have a business trip this week (to Denver, on Tuesday and Wednesday) but amazingly enough nothing went wrong. My flights were on time, the hotel had my reservation, my visit request was on file, etc.. The only minor annoyance had to do with the rental car. Avis gave me a Buick Park Avenue, a huge monstrosity with all sorts of useless luxuries. One of the alleged luxuries is a duplicate set of radio controls on the steering wheel. I'm sure this is supposed to be safety-enhancing, as you don't have to look as far away to change stations - but I ended up accidentally hitting the "seek" button four times in under 24 hours. There is one feature on these cars that I do really like, though. The rear-view mirror darkens automatically in response to headlights. That seems much more useful than a display telling you the outside temperature.

My final bit of news is that I have ruled out one vacation possibility for next year. I had seen an ad in my alumni magazine for a trip to the Canadian Arctic to view a wreck. It sounds like an incredible tour, including four days at an ice station, dives in submersible vessels to view the wreck, wildlife viewing when you aren't diving, etc.. Alas, they've announced the price and, while I don't think that $10,000 is unreasonable for this, it's more money than I'm willing to spend on a week-long trip - and that price doesn't even include the airfare to Resolute.

So Mongolia is becoming even more likely. There is still a possibility that I'll decide to go to Surinam, though. I understand that their capital city is quite an interesting place. And "Paramaribo" is fun to say.

Hmmm, I think I have to sit in my living room now and try saying "Nomar Garciaparramaribo".