Election Day, Lucky Charms and Moss…

Well, the San Francisco Large People won the World Series, defeating the Rangers 4 games to 1. Even the players were excited to be finished, did you see how quickly the Rangers hit the locker room? The team with the best pitcher and the best team won, and since that was not the Yankees this season, I am very happy. Mark it down; the Cubs will make the playoffs next year…if Selig expands the number of teams who make it, as he has said he will. And if he includes teams that were eliminated from the playoffs in June. Then, the Cubs will make the playoffs.

On Monday Night Football, the Indianapolis Lucky Charms casually beat up the Texans. Two things could have told us this before kick off; one, the Colts don’t lose to the Texans twice in one season, and two, they definitely don’t lose to the Texans after coming off a bye week. Even with the third stringers starting, Peyton Manning has the ability to to will his team to victory, similar to his power to make you like him while he is selling you Oreos, TVs, NFL Sunday Ticket and everything else he hawks on the side. These Lucky Charms are looking good, and the Bohunk thinks they are the best AFC team not in the East division, home to the Patriots and Jets…

It’s election day across the country, and millions of voters will spill out to their local polling station to decide the direction of this country for the next handful of years. Personally, I am hoping the Dems hold onto just enough seats in Congress to at least propose and adequately argue bills. Nothing will come of a Senate or House in which only bickering is heard and no real discussion. That is the true waste of our tax money. That, and the largest defense budget in the history of the world. Obama has to be looking out of a window somewhere wondering what in the $@&(@ he is going to do with no support in either house of Congress but all the blame already on his doorstep.

In Michigan, Rick Snyder will end his campaign trip in Ann Arbor as the governor hopeful settles in to await results this evening. Pollsters have “The Nerd” well ahead of Democrat Virg Bernero, who seems content with now driving out Dem voters in a push to prove the dismal predictions wrong. Either candidate will be encumbered with a terrible economy, a shrinking budget and little to no prospects for new jobs. While Granholm must be accountable for some of these failures, to blame her for all of it is just ignorant. Michigan has always had an unemployment rate which hovered close to twice the national average. Under Granholm, this didn’t change; nor had it been any different in eight years under Republican Engler before she took office. Michigan needs a drastic change in direction, attitude and identity. We can keep the auto industry, we just need a very tangible “Something Else” around which to build our future. I propose a green economy, but, that’s just one of many options. So, with that in mind, go vote…

In fact, a record 16 million early ballot voters have already been cast, a good indication of this year’s potentially massive turn-out.

The Minnesota Hyperboreans waived Randy Moss just four weeks after acquiring him from the New England Flying Elvii for a third round pick. If he is not claimed off waivers, the Vikes will be asked (forced) to pick up Moss’ salary for the remainder of the year. They traded a 3rd round pick for, essentially, the 13 catches and 2 touchdowns Randy caught in 3 losses….I’m no GM but that seems wasteful. If it wasn’t for the Cowboys, Minnesota would be ridiculed as the biggest failure in sports this year, and they probably should be named so.

On this day in 1960, a trial of obscenity over the great novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence (one of my favorite novels and authors, as well) ended. The ruling came that Penguin Books, the publisher of the novel since its release in 1928, was acquitted of obscenity charges and the book was allowed to stay in circulation in its full version. The novel’s first release in 1928 was an expurgated text and remained so until Penguin released the full version, the one intended for print by Lawrence, in 1958. Lawrence had many amazing novels, including the critically noted Women In Love which was released in 1921. Lawrence died of tuberculosis in 1930. Find more Lawrence books here.

Like Charles Osgood on Sunday Morning, I’ll leave you this morning with a look at some colors…

Thanks for reading, enjoy anything but Glee on Fox tonight, I just don’t see the appeal…Better tomorrow, as always…

Buckyballs, Halloween, Obama and an "Attaboy Babe-ee!"

If you guessed that the pitching duel between Cy Young winners Tim Lincecum and Cliff Lee would result in 18 runs, 10 doubles and Lee's first loss in the post season in his career, well, good guess. The Giants throttled Lee, who gave up 6 earned runs after allowed 2 runs total in his last two starts. Tim "If You're Going to San Franciso, Be Sure to Put Flowers in Your Hair" Lincecum pitched a subpar game by his standards, but they got a win, and they don't have to face Cliff Lee again for at least a week.

Scientists have confirmed the existence of buckyballs (see below, you don't need to know this off the top of your head) around not three but four! dying stars within our very own galaxy. Buckyballs are complex sphere-shaped bundles of carbon and were first created in a lab on earth by scientests and named after designs by a famed architecht, Buckminster Fuller. More importantly, the balls of carbon are located in vast quanitites and in regions of space with confirmed high levels of hyrdogen; scientists had thought that the existence of buckyballs would be impossible in the vicinity of hydrogen, which would compress the carbon and result in a chain structure. Why does this matter to you? It doesn't. It is just a good reminder that we do not know everything, we know almost nothing, and there is nothing wrong with trying to learn more. The universe, my friends, is a profound mystery.

French officials have announced the discovered a video reportedly featuring Osama Bin Laden, threatening the country as a result of its attitude toward America, its Muslim population and Islam in general. The French said, "Eh." France, where protests are winding down after weeks of strikes and demonstrations, recently passed a bill that will raise the retirement age to 62, as covered in a previous Update. The population ignored this tape and its threats throughout the strikes, and only now is the terror threat being taken seriously. When asked on the street, Frenchman Pierre Rousseau said, "We don't care, we are French, nobody attacks us anymore." True, Pierre, true. President Sarkozy will go ahead with plans to withdraw troops from Afghanistan in 2011. Good! We should all get out; we didn't find a single WMD in Iraq, and not one afghan blanket in the whole of Afghanistan.

It's almost Halloween, and a quick, you-probably-already-know-this tip on the origin of the holiday. Many link the holiday to a Roman holiday, but it is more likely descendant of the Celtic holiday Samhain. The Celts believed that on this day each year, the murky boundary between the living and the dead was especially thin, allowing the dead to walk among the living for the night (Mickey Rooney got lost 46 years ago and stayed with us ever since). The Romans converted the Celts, and everyone else they conquered, to Christianity, which meshed well the established relgion of the Celts. So, the holiday of Samhain became the Roman holiday of Pomona, which, as the "Universal" Church gained power, became Christianized as All Saints' Day. However, the tribes refused to give up their customs. They kept October 31st as "All Hallow's Eve", which became shortened to what we know today, and partied in costume and drinking and feasting before having to sit in church all friggin' day the next morning. Just like Christ taught...

Big "Attaway, Babe-ee" to Jon Stewart, who asked the tough questions of President Obama last night on "The Daily Show". Obama stood his ground; what some might have thought to be just a photo-op became one of the most respectable, honest discussions in all of the media interviews with the current President. Stewart, thank you for seizing the opportunity and refusing to pander. We respect you and Obama more for it.

Finally, the Bohunk will be travelling up north for a cyclocross race this Saturday. There are only 6 people registered; sign up, and I will ride with you in your Group C race. Just let me know if you'll be there. With no one else signed up in my category, I may be racing myself; my most feared enemy and rival.

Thanks for reading, enjoy the NBC line-up, they have the best Halloween episodes. Don't forget to check out "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy, there will be a Book Club membership application soon.