Pictures from Jay & Lisa's engagement party on Saturday!

OK, I need to know...

Who is looking at my blog multiple times each day from Norway???

Congratulations to the Chicago White Sox on winning the World Series last night. It was a four game sweep. For me the best part was the disappointed looks on the faces of Astro fans (sitting in the front row of the stadium) George & Barbara Bush.

Before the game, baseball honored their Latino Legends team - the best Latin American players at each position voted on by the fans. For those who missed it, the honorees were :

Starting Pitchers : Juan Marichal, Fernando Valenzuela, Pedro Martinez
Relief Pitcher : Mariano Rivera
Catcher : Ivan Rodriguez
First Base : Albert Pujols
Second Base : Rod Carew
Shortstop : Alex Rodriguez
Third Base : Edgar Martinez
Outfield : Roberto Clemente, Manny Ramirez, Vladimir Guerrero

And this morning, Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination to the Supreme Court. A defeat for the Bush administration! But beware, should they choose a ultra-right winger instead, the Democrats should threaten a filibuster.

Tomorrow... indictments!

The hypocrisy of Republicans never fails to astound me.

Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson was on Meet the Press about the leaked CIA agent investigation and she commented, "I certainly hope that if there is going to be an indictment that says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where they couldn't indict on the crime." She then minimized the credibility of any indictments for perjury or obstruction of justice.

Lest we forget that the U.S. Congress including Sen. Hutchinson voted for the impeachment of President Clinton on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. But to be fair, Clinton lied about sex. Karl Rove and Scotter Libby only potentially lied about national security. I think we know which one Republicans think is more important.

On Saturday afternoon I attended a taping for the pilot episode of VH-1's "The World Series of Pop Culture." Picture teams of three in a quiz show where the questions focused exclusively on movies, TV and music. And if that wasn't enough, it was hosted by Pat Kiernan - morning news anchor for New York 1. (Love his "In the Papers" segment)

Anyway I was there to cheer on my Tuesday Night Trivia comrades - Jonathan Bloomfield, Korey Skeete and Robert George. Alas, they lost. But it was a gallant effort. And they certainly outdressed their opponent, styling in tuxedos. Maybe I was biased out of rooting for them, but I think they were asked far harder questions.

I thought that if I were a contestant, I would have done moderately well. For example, I knew the answers to some of the questions that they didn't, such as the insect that carried dinosaur DNA in "Jurassic Park" was the mosquito. But on the other hand they knew answers that I had no clue about, such as the name of the terrorist organization in "Die Hard."

Still, if the show makes the air, it'll be fun to watch and play along.

I first want to wish a very happy wedding anniversary to my parents. 31 years!

I used to spend a lot of time on this blog pointing out the many fallacies of the Bush Administration. I have not done as much of that recently but that's not to say that there aren't any. If anything, the Administration has been fucking up more than ever! Where do I start? Let's start with the Valerie Plame matter. She's the CIA agent whose identity was leaked to the media by Karl Rove (Bush's puppet master) and Scooter Libby (Cheney's evil chief of staff). By the way, leaking the identity of a secret agent? That's a crime. And to do it to politically discredit her husband is as sleazy as it gets. Both Rove and Libby are under investigation by a special prosecutor and there is a strong possibility that both will be indicted. And even though Bush had denied knowing who the leaker was, sources are now revealing that he did indeed know it was Rove. This led NY Senator Chuck Schumer to call on Bush demanding that he come clean. Chuck's letter to W reads, "It seems you may have been angry that White House officials were caught, not that they had compromised national security." Stay tuned on this one!

Then there is the Harriet Miers matter. According to Bush, when searching for a new Supreme Court justice, Miers was the most qualified person he could find. Even though she never served as a judge and previously wrote Bush sweet little notes declaring "You are the best governor ever." Even right-wing Republicans are against her. The day that his own party turns against Bush is the day that his presidency becomes irrelevant. And with record low approval ratings and frustration with his handling of Iraq and Katrina, it's no wonder that politicos are already looking ahead to the 2008 elections.

But first there are the 2006 midterm elections. And if the Democrats can't capitalize on all of these GOP blunders (I haven't even mentioned the arrest of Tom DeLay), and make substantial gains in Congress, then they are in a sad sad state.

Jeanine Pirro does it again! Last we heard from this Republican who dares to challenge for Hillary's Senate seat, she botched her official campaign announcement by losing a page of her speech and then spending over 30-seconds in silence as she searched through her notes for it. The other day, Pirro had this to say about that moment : "I got to tell you, was it my best day? Absolutely not. Am I better than that? Absolutely not."

Jeanine Pirro, ladies and gentlemen!!!

Good baseball game last night. The Astros had a two-run lead and were three outs away from their first World Series. Then they were one out away. Then they were one strike away. And then they gave up a single, a walk, and a 3-run home run to force a Game 6. It sure got quiet real fast in Houston.

Did you hear that George W. Bush's approval rating among African Americans is two percent? Two percent! Jefferson Davis had a higher approval rating than that.

Funny joke that was e-mailed to me yesterday : According to the Jewish calendar, the year is 5766. According to the Chinese calendar, the year is 4702. That means that for 1,064 years the Jews went without Chinese food. These were known as the Dark Ages.

One half of my World Series prediction will most definitely not come true as the Angels were defeated yesterday by the Chicago White Sox. For the ChiSox it's their first World Series since 1959. (They haven't won since 1917, before the Black Sox scandal) And it's looking like the other half of my World Series prediction will fail to materialize as well as the Cardinals are down 3-1 in their series with the Houston Astros. The 'Stros have never been in a World Series. Still, a White Sox-Astros series doesn't inspire much enthusiasm. I suppose I'd root for Chicago if only because Illinois is a blue state and Texas is a red state.

Over the weekend I saw "Good Night, and Good Luck." Best film of 2005 so far. The story of Edward R. Murrow is an inspiration to anyone interested in journalistic integrity. Murrow stood up to Joseph McCarthy when no one else would and pointed out the hypocrisy and unfairness of McCarthy's witch-hunt when everyone else was afraid to. McCarthy was played by himself through the clever use of archived footage and is as more effective a villain than any actor who may have played him. The defeated look on McCarthy's face as he is finally remonstrated and censored by the Senate is a vindication against all of those fear mongers who manipulate public fears for their own personal gain. Murrow is well depicted by David Straitham and George Clooney excelled as his producer, Fred Friendly. Clooney also co-wrote and directed the movie, a remarkable achievement. As a graduate of Edward R. Murrow High School, I feel this should be required viewing for all who enroll in the school and don't know who it is named after. And damn, did he ever smoke like a chimney...

End of the week blog roundup...

The Anonymous Blogger gets mentioned in the Village Voice, thus becoming famous and hopefully not forgetting the little people. And he wishes they could all be California girls.

Bex recaps her trip to Chicago and her latest exploits with Damien, Ariel and the rest of the little shits.

Caren is in 7th heaven over all this rain we've been having and relays an amusing phone conversation she had with her father.

Sarah discovers "Lost" on DVD and gives it a good review! And talks more about Zoey who by now should have her own blog.

Valerie excitedly prepares for her wedding this weekend to Jon. Congratulations you two!

Dave writes more about... what else... Bananaman!

Jess talks endlessly about meat and then summarizes our exploits at trivia on Tuesday.

Daryl's blog is still... OVER!

Tonight begins the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, where we atone for our sins of the previous year. I know that I have much to atone for. So much so that I don't know where to begin. Nah, just kidding. I think I've behaved myself pretty well this past year. But still, one never knows when they've done wrong by someone and it is a custom before Yom Kippur to offer apologies. So I'm sorry. So very very sorry.

Last night was media night at the Baggot Inn. VH-1 was there filming trivia for a new trivia reality show they might be doing. And reps from the Discovery Channel were there too to cast people for a new series they are starting where New Yorkers show off their favorite places. Jess and I were interviewed and it's possible that we might be called on to be featured in a segment! Back to trivia, Jess and I basically played as a team of two (there were two other people at our table but they didn't contribute spit). Yet, we still came in a very respectable 4th place - beating out many other larger teams. Our team name was "Brought to you by the numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42." It's a "Lost" reference. Execute!

Few events bring more joy to a Met fan's heart than the elimination of the Yankees from the postseason. It's not that I hate all of the Yankees. I like Joe Torre. And I like Derek Jeter. And that's about it. A-Rod, Giambi and Sheffield are evil. And George Steinbrenner was spoiled by the dynasty of 1996-2000. So to see five consecutive Yankee postseason collapses is enjoyable.

All we heard about in the American League was Yankees-Red Sox. Yankees-Red Sox. And sure, why not? For the last two years, they dominated, playing each other in classic League Championship Series. But there will be no Yankees or Red Sox in this year's ALCS as both teams were eliminated in the first round. Instead, it's the Chicago White Sox and the Los Angeles Angels. And the sports executives at FOX are weeping.

The NLCS is a rematch from last year between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Houston Astros. My predictions are the same as in March when I said that the Cardinals and Angels would play in the World Series. So far, that is still on track to happen!

Stupid terrorists. Why do they have to threaten the NYC subway system just when I have a million things going on? So far so good though. I was in midtown last night and the cops seem to be on top of things. Nothing to do but to be alert and be vigilent. I doubt anything will happen because terrorists usually strike when you're least expecting it. The fact that we're on high alert should cause them to scrap anything they had planned.

I also saw "Jewtopia" last night. It's Borscht Belt self-deprecating Jewish humor for the JDate generation. Hilarity ensued. The story is about two 30-year old friends. Chris O'Connell is a gentile who desperately wants to marry a Jewish woman so he won't have to make anymore decisions in his life. Adam Lipshitz is a Jew who doesn't so much want to meet a Jewish girl, as much as he HAS to in order to please his family. Chris changes his name to Avi and Adam trains him in Jewish culture, so he can pass himself off as one. He teaches him the ten character traits that would immediately point out that one is not Jewish (#1 was being in perfect health) In return, Chris/Avi introduces Adam to Jewtopia - namely, JDate, where Adam proceeds to go on 155 dates from it. During those JDates, Adam adopts different personalities to match the person he is seeing - the SportsJew, the ArtyJew, the ClubJew and the HasidicJew. The Playbill included a Yiddish glossary that contained the terms : abba, eema, facocked, feh!, goyim, kvell, mazel tov, mishigas, nosh, oy!, pupik, schmuck, schpilkas, schtup, schvitzing, shayna punim, shekit, shemekle, shikker, shiksa, traif & zay gezundht. The printed glossary did not contain one yiddish term though that was prominently featured in the show... shvatze. Guess they didn't want to leave any written proof behind!

How interesting...

October 5 is most common birthday in USA; May 22 least common

“A recent in depth database query conducted by Anybirthday.com suggests that October 5th is the United States most popular birth date. It seems that on average more people are born on this day than any other.
“According to the inquiry, an average of 12,576 people are born each year on the 5th of October. It also suggests that some 968,000 Americans celebrate this day annually.
“Which birth date is the least common? May 22nd with an average of 10,259 persons born each year.”

I never knew this!

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY TODAY! WOO-HOO!

Happy New Year - Jewish style. Or as we in the know like to say, L'Shana Tovah.

It's now the year 5766. I just got back from temple where the tickets were mistakenly printed to say 5765. Temple, as always, is a grueling experience. Tamara hit the nail on the head last month when applying the Five Stages of Grief to the synagogue experience. First there is denial (It can't last that much longer, surely it will be over soon and we can go home to eat lunch). Then there is anger (Why are they still chanting? How many times can they give thanks to God?!?) Then there is bargaining (I'll take a bathroom break and then a quick walk outside. That should speed things up). Then there is depression (Sigh, they'll never get to page 420.) And finally acceptance (Well I only go these two holidays a year)

Tomorrow we do it again.

Damn, I'm good. On March 30, I made my predicitons as to how the teams would finish this year in the baseball standings. I picked the Yankees (AL East), Red Sox (AL Wild Card), Angels (AL West), Braves (NL East), Cardinals (NL Central) and Padres (NL West). The only teams that surprised me were the White Sox and the Astros. Let's see how the playoffs go now. On March 30, I also predicted the Angels and Cardinals to make the World Series so we'll see if that actually happens.

Congrats to the Mets on a successful year. 83 wins, 79 losses, tied for third place in the NL East. Not bad at all.

Happy New Year! Tomorrow is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year which means that tonight is New Years Eve? I'm going over to my parents house for a few days and sleeping over in my old, childhood bedroom. Temple calls!

This past weekend featured a trip to Great Adventure. In honor of "Fright Fest", one of the members of our party got into it by dressing up and thus attracting many women. (albeit those a bit too young for him...)


Here's a picture of me right before riding the Great American Scream Machine...



Meanwhile, another experienced some difficulty on the tea cups...