Good day at the office

 Dear Friends

Even if you’re not a baseball fan, I’m sure many of you heard about what Dodger Shohei Ohtani did yesterday. He became the first member of the 50-50 club---50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in one season (now 51 and 51). Surely those numbers will go up with nine games to play. He had six hits in six at bats---three home runs, two doubles and a single, producing 10 runs batted in.

Just a few thoughts:

***I keep imagining how beloved Dodger announcer Vin Scully would have called the game and historical moments.

***As good as his “day at the office” was, there is still room for improvement. I mean, six for six is great, but only half of his six hits were home runs!

*** I’m now waiting for his endorsement of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

And then there is the candy bar. When will his be on the market? Two of the three candy bars pictured below were not directly related to a player, but people made the connection anyway.  Baby Ruth (1921) referred to President Grover Cleveland’s daughter, claims the maker, not Babe Ruth. The Oh Henry (1920) was named for a salesman hanging around a store, but later, people tied it to Henry Aaron. Reggie (1977) was named after Reggie Jackson. He had said, "If I played in New York, they'd name a candy bar after me." He did. They did. His nickname was "Mr. October" because he played so well in his play-off and World Series games which came in that month. 

Shohei has already seen the money; maybe his candy bar should be “Show-mei the Candy”!

John

P.S.

Obvious riddle: For now, What is Shohei’s favorite candy bar?  Pay Day

Obvious joke start: Three candy bars walked into a ….now what?

 

 

You want the tooth?!

 

 You want the tooth? Take it! Fix it! I can’t handle the tooth!”

Dear friends

While I stand behind every word of my last blog, I’m going to get my teeth into something very different, while hoping to put a smile on your face. 

Two days ago, I got a text from a friend at 8:27 am, asking about having lunch at noon. I texted back with a pretty good excuse: “Sorry. I am having a root canal at 11:45!”

After it heals, I will return to my regular dentist, possibly for a new crown. (I will be listening to the hymn “Crown him with many crowns” for that procedure, if needed.) During the root canal, I listened to “Take me out to the ball game”, but they kept telling me to stop trying to sing root, root root for the Dodgers because it was slowing things down. I fought tooth and wail but to no avail. By the way, did you hear about the dentist and salon owner that shared an office? It was called “Tooth and Nail”.

It wasn’t on my bucket list, but now I am glad to say I am a root canal veteran. They got to the root of the cause of my pain. Now that I am in recovery, I am ordering Root Beer floats (to be delivered by Door Dash every four hours and no more than six times a day) from the closest A & W. in Mentone, just outside Redlands. So maybe part of the trip will be on the old Route 66!

On a serious note, I immediately stopped worrying and complaining about the need for this procedure after reading a story in the LA Times which arrived in my driveway a just few hours before my appointment.  It reported the fact that less than half the children covered by Medi-Cal in California receive any dental treatment, despite a scathing report issued in 2016. Hopefully things will improve.

We take so many blessings for granted. I needed to read that article as a reminder not to take dental care (with insurance) as one of them.

John

 

Tongues starting fires

 

"How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! 

And the tongue is a fire.”

 

    I can’t remember when an appointed lesson mirrored so clearly current events in real time. If you were in church last Sunday, you heard the words quoted above. Eugene Peterson’s contemporary biblical rendering in “The Message” continues the warning from the Letter of James: It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation…”

     Yesterday, an LA Times article titled “The specter of violence returns” included this quote from Dr. Garen Wintemute, director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at UC Davis: “It is our job to be wet ground, so that when a spark of political violence falls, it stops right there and it doesn’t initiate a conflagration. It’s also our job---the vast majority who reject violence---to speak up about that.”

     Politicians of all stripes and parties, speaking from platforms large and small, are guilty of not taming their tongues. But I would argue a current politician is the leader of the pack by far. He has been poisoning our nation’s bloodstream with his words from the moment he came down that escalator, to his remarks about household pets on the debate stage last Tuesday. Now, he and his running mate, are inferring his political opponents are the real enemies and threats, and are the reason for the recent assassination attempts. Trump cannot tame his tongue. He speaks without any sense of responsibility or remorse.  

    Two final quotes. JD Vance, who essentially admitted he stoked a fire by reposting tweets and memes, said he wanted to “create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of American people” and that alleged problems in Springfield were not being discussed until he and Trump “started talking about cat memes.”

     To which Mayor Rob Rue politely responded, “It would be helpful if they understood the weight of their words and how they can harm a community like ours”.

     Sadly, the former president and his running mate know exactly the weight of their words. They don’t care about the harm they may do. They just believe those words will help their chances to win.

We the people, we the jury, will have to decide that on November 5^th.

Lord, have mercy upon us!

John