Barry Manilow Abuse

 A few weeks ago I was somewhat, but not totally, forced to see a Barry Manilow concert. It's the second time I've been encouraged to see him. He's fine. Very talented. If I go to a concert, I would be fine with just seeing a person come out with just seeing a person come out and sing. I don't need a whole production. With Barry you get a whole production. There is singing, dancing, jokes, stories - the whole enchilada. He's an entertainer. Here is the thing about Barry that rubs me the wrong way. It's not about him exactly. It's about his critics. When he was big in the seventies and eighties, he would regularly get ridiculed by people. It was a common thing. He was popular and an easy target. People that do that are not a lot different from playground bullies that pick someone they could make fun to make themselves seem cool to others.

Is Barry not talented enought for you? Have you had dozens of hit songs? Were you trained at Julliard? Please. Maybe if you're Paul McCartney or Elton John you could put down Barry Manilow, but I don't hear them doing that. For those of you think that you could criticize Barry, don't be a schoolyard bully type. Its not attractive and it doesn't make you look as good as you think it does.

Why McDonalds Has Gone Downhill

 I've been a big fan of McDonald's. Not nearly as much now. Here is why.

1. You Can't Fill Your Drink - Its been a fun part of the experience for me. Plus I have a certain amount of ice I want. I don't anymore, but I used to fill my cup with part Coke and Part Diet Coke. Not possible now.

2. You Can't Refill Your Drink - I have gone to McDonalds and worked on writing my books. I might be there for 45 minutes and would like to refill my drink while I'm working. Its 95% water, so I would think they're not losing that much money if I get a refill.

3. Ordering at a Kiosk - If you order at the counter, you have some personal interaction. It makes for a more pleasant experience. That's gone. One time I needed a straw and went to the counter. No one would wait on me. I was there at least two minutes. They were all faced away making food. Fine, but seems like at least one person could be stationed at the counter full-time.

4. No English - I can't help it - if I'm in a room where everyone is speaking a language I don't understand, it kind of freaks me out. I felt like that when I was in France and I feel like that in most McDonalds.

5. Vagrancy - Because their stuff is fairly cheap, they attract vagrants (the nicest word I can think to use). Typically, you can find someone at their entrance with a sign asking for money. Inside, its common to see someone just sitting there with no intention of ordering or with their head on the table sleeping. I'm sure there are some potential customers they lose because they do't want to deal with that. Each McDonald's needs an enforcer to take care of those issues. Their restaurants might say they have the right to refuse service to anyone, but it doesn't seem to happen. 

Some of these issues I'm sure stems from them trying to save money - kiosks, no refills, etc, but I'm not sure its working for them. I keep hearing about how their nummbers are going down. Mr. McDonald, consider my about thoughts.

Pride

I'm afraid I don't get this whole pride thing. Everyone wants to be proud of themselves, often for no apparent reason. Much of the current yearning for pride doesn't make sense to me. If a person wanted to be proud of themselves, it should be for some accomplishment - something they did by their own efforts. "I learned to water ski", or "I learned to play the saxophone", or "I'm Caucasian". If you want, go ahead and be proud of yourself for that, but even then, maybe just keep it to yourself. 

What not to be proud of? Things you had no control over. "I'm proud that I'm right-handed", or "I was born in Wyoming", or "I'm tall". Good for you, but while you might be happy that those apply to you, why be proud of something you had nothig to do with?

Apparently, its not enough to be personally proud of those "accomplishments". I want everyone else to be proud of me too. Let's celebrate me and whatever group I belong to. We could have special days and/or special months, parades, protests, special nights at sporting events, our own flag, advertisements on how we should be treated. To get the sympathy vote, we could say we don't have equal rights, or our ancestors didn't have equal rights. Therefore maybe some special priviledges or money is due us. Everyone pretty much have the same rights now - freedom of speeh, press, religion, etc. - And if you don't, you can use the court system to redress your greivance, which is another right everyone has. 

My advice - don't be proud of yourself, especially for things that are just happenstance. But don't be ashamed of yourself either. Just get on with your life. 

Big Market NBA Teams

I'm happy that the NBA Finals had two small market teams this year. This whole playoff run I've been rooting for the underdog. It was great when the Warriors, Knick, Lakers, Celtics, etc. all got eliminated. I don't there is a clear definition of big vs small makrets, but clearly places like Los Angelles, Chicago, New York, for example are are major markets. Indianapolis and Oklahoma City are not. The NBA suits and the TV networks love big ratings and they get those when large population areas make the Finals. As an NBA comissioner once said when asked who he would like to see in the Finals, "The Lakers vs The Lakers".

More than any other sport, the NBA Championships seem to favor those big market teams. I'll back that up statistically in a moment. First of all, there have been 79 NBA seasons and there are 30 teams in the NBA (although there haven't always been that many). 

44% - In the past 79 years 44% of the championships have been won by either the Celtics or the Lakers. There have been streaks of a few years when they haven't made the finals. Those have been when the Bulls or Warriors have had their own little mini-dynasty.

67% - Two-thirds of all NBA Finals have featured either the Lakers or the Celtics. Many of those (12 out of 79) had both the Celtics and Lakers facing each other.

81% - Eight teams have accounted for 81% of all NBA champtions.

It would be fun to see new teams. And maybe its a new day where small markets like my Portland Trailblazers will get a break. 

The Panama Canal

The Panama Canal - It is pretty much a full day's journey. I think it took eight hours. We sailed into what looked like a big bay, went under a major bridge, then it began to narrow a bit but still pretty wide. We came to the first set of locks. Things becomes very narrow at this point. There were literally inches of clearance on each side. 

I wanted to see this in action, but there really isn't a lot going on. The boat has to move extremely slowly then finally comes to a stop at a giant iron gate. Water is pumped in from below. There were a couple of announcements as to what was happening, otherwise you ight not even be aware what was going on. The boat slowly rises. You could only tell that by looking at a fixed object on the shore. It finally gets to where the water level is the same as the other side of the gate. Then the gates slowly open and the boat slowly goes through. The gates are huge but they say they're pretty much hollow so it doesn't take much energy to open them.You go from one right to the next lock. It's kind of like going from one bathtub to another. I think there was a set of 3, then later, on the downhill side, a set of 2. So, we make it through the first set and come to a giant manmade lake. When the United States took over the building project, they decided to dam up a river to create a huge lake and then not have to do so much digging. Also, the dam supplied electricity to operate the lock system.

History of the Panama Canal

This is a picture of the western end of the Panama Canal. That is the Pacific Ocean ahead.

I've always been somewhat interested in the Panama Canal, but especially after I read The Path Between the Seas, by David McCullough. He's my favorite author. He's written John Adams, Truman, 1776, etc. I've read all his books. If I had access to any of his high school English papers, I'd read those to. I read his Panama book at least a decade ago and then I reread it before my cruise. Its pretty hefty and maybe goes into a little more detail than one would need, but it's really good.

The story of the canal was interesting. The French had built the Suez Canal previouosly and wanted to do the same through Panama (or maybe Nicaragua - more on that later). The Suez Canal meant sailing from, say Rome to India way easier rather than going around Africa - Same with Panama, except here it saved going around South America. Even with the costs, it was a big money and time saver.

However, for tthe Suez Canal, the land was relatively flat and they were basically digging through sand. In Panama, it was not at all flat and it meant carving a path through mountains. Plus Panama had rough diseases like yellow fever and malaria.

France hung in there for many years, but ultimately failed. Thousands died from disease and  an awful lot of money was spent. They left the beginnings of a canal and a lot of rusting equipment. They sought to dig all the way down to sea level rather than use a lock system. That was simply not going to work because there was too much mountain to move. 

So then the U.S. gave it a shot. At the time, the land was actually owned by Columbia. They weren't crazy about a canal, but if there was a revolution and Panama became its own country, they would probably be more cooperative. That's luckily what happen. OK, not exactly luck. The US was backing the coup so they could get their canal. The U.S. cut a deal with Panama. There was a thought that Nicaragua might be a better spot to dig. 

The French failed with the Panama Canal. Its kind of like Vietnam where the French failed then the United States comes in, only the Panama Canal excursion went quite a bit better than Vietnam did. 

Panama was actually part of Columbia. Columbia didn't want the United States coming in and building a canal. So the U.S. and Teddy Roosevelt, who I think was a great president except for this, not so secretly supported a coup. Panama became its own country and agreed to have the U.S. come in. Some in the U.S. wanted the canal to go through Nicaragua. Its not as mountainous. It is wider but has a giant lake in the middle which would reduce the amount of digging. It was rumoured that they had occasional volcanic eruptions. That was supported by the fact that their stamps had an actual volcano pictured on them.

So Panama became independent and let the U.S. start building. A big advantage the U.S. had was to go with the lock system rather than trying for a sea level canal. Digging down to sea level just probably wasn't possible. Even today there is constant dredging going on from the ssides of the canal eroding. 

Another key was stopping the deaths from malaria. A Dr. Gorges realized it was spread by mosquitos and they proliferate where there is standing water. So he got rid of standing water. They used to put the legs of beds in buckets of water to keep ants from climbing up them. He got rid of those and he made sure all windows had netting on them. Pretty soon malarial deaths went from the thousands to a handful.

The other things that worked was to dam up a river to create a giant manmade lake. Then a lot of the canal didn't even need to be dug, and the electricity from the dam was used to power the locks. Pretty smart.

Even with that, it took a decade or so to build the canal. Worth it, because now people like me get a fun vacation going through it. 

 

Weird Sixties Sitcoms

There have been plenty of good situation comedies. The ones in the sixties weren't necessarily the best,

but I think they stand out because of how out their their situations were. Other than in the sixties, TV shows have all been about the same. Friends, families, or coworkers get together and have funny things happen. But in the sixties, the situations were just bizarre. Its hard to believe that so many of these exhisted. Let's check out some of them.

Hogan's Heroes - A German prisoner of war camp.

Bewitched - A man married to a witch.

F-Troop - A Western America fort in the 1800's

Gilligan's Island - Shipwrecked on an Island

My Mother the Car - His mother is reincarnated as a car

The Flying Nun - Her hat allows her to fly

I Dream of Jeannie - A Genie in a Bottle

The Munsters / Adams Family - Families of Monsters

Get Smart - The cold war, but funny.

Batman - A superhero comedy

Beverly Hillbillies - Poor people strike oil

There are so many shows now that are copies of other shows. Clones of the original Tonight Show, clones of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, clones of The Voice, clones of Survivor, etc. Most of those old time shows is that for the most part, there was nothing else like it on TV.  

Since then - Friends, Seinfeld, Big Bang, etc, were good shows, but had pretty normal settings. We need a few of those weird shows from the 60's.

Basketball Changes

 

If I was commissioner of basketball and could make whatever changes I wanted, here is what I would do. I have a list of a few of the changes I would make.

1. First of all, most of it would be left alone. Its doing ok.

But,

2. The time outs are out of control. When refs make too many foul calls, announcers like to say, "Let 'em play." Hey, how about coaches and greedy television networks with commercials that interupt the flow of the game dozens of times. At least with fouls, the game is still going on. If I watch basketball, I record it so I can skip the commercials, defeating the point of the commercials. If there were a reasonable number, I might watch them.

3. No flopping, i.e., pretending to get fouled when you're not. How about a committee of three reviewing each game and voting on anyone play-acting. They could be trained refs, or just everyday fans would do. Then, three flops and you miss a game - something like that.

4. Cut down on the three point shots. My plan would be to just extend the arc. No more of the shorter shots in the corner. Also, there wouldn't be enough room of everyone to come down, just stand outside the arc, and wait for the ball. Steph and Damian can hang out there, but not the whole team.

5. Get rid of the portal and NIL money in college basketball. Now, college basketball is just a different professional league from the NBA.

6. Have the best teams in the post season. Which of the top 68 teams will be the colllege champion? Answer: One of the top 10, or so, you other 58 teams really don't stand a chance. NBA - Having 20 out of 30 teams make it the post season pretty much guarantees that you'll have some teams that couldn't even win half their games. 

Postscript - I'm just ranting. I read some people's comments recently about some of these items and people really don't seem to care. They say they like the commercials. It gives them a chance to relax and use the restroom. Lots of teams in the postseason - the more the merrier. Untold riches to the college kids. They deserve it for their hard work. So I got my proposed changes out there, but there doesn't seem to be a groudswell of support for any changes.

I Hate Protests

I really dislike protests. They don't accomplish anything. The people doing the protesting get to raise their self esteem by thinking they are doing something awesome. They're not. I'll tell you why I feel that way. 

1. First of all, they don't accomplish anything. The one case where I think they did was the Martin Luther King/Rosa Parks, etc, social protests in the South in the 50's and 60's. I think people in other parts of the country didn't know how bad things were. It brought attention to it and that led to changes. For the Vietnam War, cuts in spending going on today, etc, pretty much everyone knows the issues already. You aren't bringing attention to it. Everyone knows already. You're saying that you are upset about it. Everyone knows that, too.

2. The powers that be aren't listening. During a war, the people that declared the war knew there would be protests. The fact that there are protests, then is no surprise to them. In fact, the powers that be don't want to appear weak by changing their policy because of protests. They figure that would just encourage more protests, so they dig in even harder. The Vietnam War didn't end early because of marches. In fact, it might have ended earlier. North Vietnam figured if they could just hang on long enough they could ultimately win. And Donald Trump doesn't seem like the sort to back down because people don't like what he did. In fact, he seems to kind of like making people mad.

3. You turn off the people in the middle. A famous baseball manager, Casey Stengel, said the secret of being a great manager is keeping the people that hate you away from the undecideds. On most issues I think the majority of people are somewhere in the middle. Protesters, especially violent ones, upset them and they move away from what you want. 

4. You bring out the other side. People that would have stayed home are now taking to the streets because you did. That happens for groups like Neo Nazis. In fact, they are all for you coming out. Their goal is to be visible and have others have a counterprotest and attract media attention. The more yelling and anger, the more they like it.

5. There are better ways to respond. Samuel Johnson said, "You raise your voice when you should reinforce your argument". A senator once said that a well written letter from a constituent saying how he feels about an issues did a lot more for him than a petition with a thousand names on it. 

You have the right to protest, but it would be better if you did things that actually made the world better.

 

Rene Descartes

If you don't have a favorite mathematician, and I'm guessing most people don't, I would suggest Rene

Descartes (Renay Daycart). He looked like a musketeer and, in fact, was a soldier for a time. He was sickly as a child and allowed to stay in bed for hours after everyone else had gotten up. He liked that idea so much, he just stuck with that routine pretty much the rest of his life. In math, he came up with the graphing on the x and y-axis thing that anyone that ever makes it through algebra knows about. It combined algebra and geometry. Pretty impressive. 

He was also a philosopher But, he is probably most famous for one particular line. and maybe most famous line was "I think, therefore, I am". Seems pretty obvious, but it made him famous. Seems pretty obvious, but it made him famous. What can I really be sure of in life? Maybe everything I think I experience is fake. But the fact that I am thinking right now means that at least I myself must exist. 

. . . I noticed that whilst I thus wished to think all things false, it was absolutely essential that the "I" who thought this should be somewhat, and remarking that this truth "I think, therefore I am" was so certian and so assured that all the most extravagant suppositions brought forward by the sceptics were incapable of shaking it, I came to the conclusion that I could receive it without scruple as the first principle of the Philoslophy for which I was seeking.

His last job was to teach philosophy to the queen of Sweden. It was early in the morning so he couldn't stay in bed on those mornings, but still, a pretty good job.