Catching Up

As you see, it's been quite a few weeks since the last post, a long hiatus for me.  The reasons are simple: I got my novel manuscript done, and the days have been mostly beautiful and sunny, and so I've been out and about.

The last few days, before yesterday, was different: a very rare macroburst during a powerful thunderstorm knocked down trees and telephone poles and knocked out power for me and thousands of others.  It's been almost as bad as Hurricane Sandy was around here, except this storm only lasted about 45 minutes.  Incredible amount of damage in such a short time.

In other news:

--The latest Mission Impossible is a good movie, even if you don't like Tom Cruise.  If you like action movies, check it out.

--Speaking of Tom Cruise: If you think back on his career, it's shocking that he has made so many good, quality movies, of lots of different types.  Regardless of how you feel about him, his marriages, Scientology, Oprah's couch, etc., the fact remains that he's been giving a thousand percent in a ton of movies, the vast majority of them very good, for the past 30 years.

--Yes.  Thirty.

--Donald Trump is leading by a lot in the latest GOP polls.  This says a ton about our present media-driven culture and society--none of it good.

--I said at the beginning of the baseball season (see my baseball blog) that the Sox would finish first or last, depending on their starting pitching.  I wasn't wrong, though I didn't expect the offense to be this bad, too.

--Speaking of which: The PawSox moving to Providence (the ProSox?) isn't unheard of.  Providence used to have a major league team (the Providence Greys, the first team to win a World Series) and a minor league team (also called the Providence Greys; Babe Ruth played for them for a very short time).  The major league Greys had a few Hall of Famers and played in what is now Downtown Olneyville, near Wes's Rib House.  The minor league team played a few blocks up Union Avenue, in what is now a residential neighborhood.  Easy to spot: a side-street becomes a highway ramp that empties onto Route 10.  This side-street is where the minor league park used to be.

--And Providence is a minor league ready city.  Plus, it's a minor league city to big league Boston, if you know what I mean.

--Having said that, Pawtucket's McCoy Stadium is not in danger of falling down, and you can't beat the ease of access and the free parking.  I go there 10-12 times a summer.  A stadium in Providence won't be faster to get to, as Providence is a small city and traffic is terrible.  Plus, the parking won't be free, unless the stadium is built with a free parking lot.  There otherwise is no place to park in Providence, for anything.  It's a park in a garage city, as I guess most cities now are.  What happened to all the parking lots?

--The Pawtucket Red Sox, by the way, are now owned by the guys who own the Boston Red Sox.  I don't know if this is common now, that the owners of the big league team also own the minor league team, but it's a bad situation.  The minors are 100% slaves to the majors already.

--But those guys do know how to make tons of money, and to do so with class.  But...

--And it says something that Fenway still sells out (or comes close) for a team that's been in last place (or close to it) for most of the season.  Many playoff-bound teams don't draw as well as that.  This says something good about what the ownership has done with Fenway.  Whatever it is, let's hope they do the same in Providence.

--Maybe a smaller Fenway for the Providence stadium?