the kings are a royal pain

To update you about the Sacramento Kings, at least for another year, they are staying in Sacramento. They say the long term stability depends on the city building them a new 400-million dollar arena. The current arena is about 25 years old. Hardly ancient. Chicago has Wrigley Field, 100 years old, Soldier Field, remodeled, but 80 years old. Not too long ago the other two sports arenas were torn down, each over 80 years old. We should expect to get 50 years minimal out of an arena. If the owners don't like it let them walk. The choice the city has is fire all teachers, police and firemen, or keep a useless losing basketball team. Not a tough decision.

going backwards

You know I am getting to that age when I hate to tell people how old I am. On the other hand, I don't want to be so old that I am ashamed to tell anybody. Besides, I am an open book; I just notice I am not announcing my age with the same frequency that I used to. I am having a birthday Sunday.I am 56 today. I will be 30 in 2 weeks. It seems I am losing 14 years every week, so I guess I will be 4 in only 4 weeks.Talking to my mother today I learned something I never knew before. Apparently she was listening to a Tigers game on the radio as she was in the hospital waiting to deliver me. I was born in Ann Arbor Michigan.

I''ll be a name dropper AGAIN. Harvey Mandel (Harvey, not Howie) wished me happy birthday on FACEBOOK. Harvey Mandel plays with a little band from Woodstock called Canned Heat. We have met a couple times. Harvey Mandel w/ Canned Heat Live in Europe 1971

here come ol' flat top

Rod  Begoyovich is being tried for a second time for trying to sell Obama's Senate seat. You have to wonder what the big deal is about trying to sell an old chair.
 
Such a shame that Donald Trump has dropped out of the presidential race. I am sure he has his schedule full with deciding who to fire on CELEBRITY APPRENTICE. .
 
I feel for Arnold and Dominique Strauss-Kahn. I know how it can be to have beautiful women attack you all the time, but then you are blamed if you give in.
 
Sarah Palin apparently can't decide if she will run for president or not. If that question is too tough what will happen when she gets a real problem?

stuff-kicking-around-the-web: idle thoughts of a wandering mind

          I planted  some bird seed.  A bird came up.     Now I don't know what to  feed it.
          ********************          I had  amnesia once---or twice.          ********************           I went to  San Francisco.  I found someone's heart.  Now  what?           ********************

most often used words in band names

possible best use ever of Comcast remotes

Amazing Comcast remote controlled invention gives you

hands-off toilet flushing. Investors sought  (no joke).

Could the flagship product for the next Ronco come from

this Sacramento inventor?

Evan Thomas - Self-Anointed Senior Editor, ProbablyPaul.blogspot.com)

stuff-kicking-around-the-internets-dept: quick fixes

Don’t have a spoon? I can fix that!

stuff-in-all-caps-kicking-around-the web-dept.:

AMAZING SIMPLE HOME REMEDIES:

1.  AVOID CUTTING YOURSELF WHEN SLICING VEGETABLES BY GETTING SOMEONE ELSE TO HOLD THE VEGETABLES WHILE YOU CHOP.

whose shoe

I think we should get our soldiers out of the Candy Jar. As children we were all trained to "Get out of the Candy Jar!" These towns in the Mid east have the strangest names. Why would anybody name a city Ben Gazzi? And how do you not get Tora Bora confused with Bora Bora, or Tora Tora Tora? I suppose our cities sound strange to them, but I just get a visual when I try to think of Moga Dee's Shoe

from the quasi/kinda sp@m desk: short bus qualification exam

The Dementia Quiz -  I confess I am on the short yellow bus.     FIRST QUESTION: YOU ARE A PARTICIPANT IN A RACE. YOU OVERTAKE THE SECOND PERSON,WHAT POSITION ARE YOU  IN?

sex and politics, again, and me and the world are still here

I am rather hardened, but I don't see the big deal about Schwarzenegger having a secret love child. If it were not for sex scandals in politics, then politics would just not be interesting at all. I have offered Maria my hand in marriage if she wanted a rebound. But correctly she assumed I would create an even larger sex scandal, so she rejected me again. It seems to me that if it was good enough for Thomas Jefferson to have love children with the household help, then it should be good enough for Arnold. As for the French guy at the New York hotel, French men are known for being shocking.If you are reading this then apparently the world didn't end today....darn.

going to pot is going

Supposedly in the 60's marijuana was the thing to do. I am not so sure that is true, but I was only 5 at the start of the 60's. Word didn't really get out about marijuana until the 70's when the Beatles admitted they smoked it, then everybody wanted to. Soon it was everywhere, and it was the thing to do. In the 80's, pot became harder to find, and it also became expensive. By the 90's much of the youth had moved on to other more dangerous drugs. I would say for the past 20 years, pot has been rather passe, seen occasionally, but hardly a big thing. Then the disaster struck. In California anyway, you can buy it almost anywhere. It is legal with a doctor's prescription, which can be easily obtained. There are pot dispensaries on almost every corner. It has taken all the charm out of pot smoking. Now if you want to smoke pot you are not only a stoner but openly admitting to the world that you can't get through your day without it. Making it legal has been the death blow to pot smoking.

this just in... thunder and lightning linked

I am often amazed when on the local news the lead story of the day is that it is raining outside. The other day the regularly scheduled program was interrupted for a special report. That report was that there was lightning in the area, and lightning had struck a tree knocking it to the ground. I kept waiting for the rest of the story, reporting that a family of three had been under the tree, or a eight-year old was climbing the tree at the time. There was no other news, just that lightning struck a tree. I rather believe that weather should not invade the sanctity of the news.

women and me = trouble

I am going to another River Cats game today. A friend got 4 free tickets so I am driving and taking her, my roommate and another girl. No, it is not a triple date. I won't even say it, but with all the moving and car repairs recently I have been out of action with dating. Thus I have not been in trouble in ages. The cliche still holds true, "Women always get me in trouble." It isn't like I am looking for it; no...I am hunting for it.

$20 postage stamps, maybe

The US Postal Service may be forced to go out of business. I am confused by this. They lost over two billion dollars last year, so they are in the red. Two billion dollars is nothing in government terms. AMTRAK the government passenger rail system, lost over 5 billion dollars last year. They also lost 5 billion the year before, and every year that they have been in business. They have never made money, or been anywhere close to being in the black, yet they never go under. The post office has nothing to worry about.

50% off

I am not as much of a pack rat as some people I know but I have sometimes saved things that I have no explaination for why I kept them. Many are little trinkets women gave me, or letters and cards that meant something to me years ago. Going through my old baggage I am reducing the truck load of boxes I have to about 50%. It may not be carry-on size, but it will still be half what it was. Often I am surprised to find things I want but thought I had lost years ago. After losing most of what I own several times in my life, it is somewhat painful to be voluntary discarding my stuff but it is something I needed to do.

action figures

The shocking news today is that Arnie and Maria are going to separate. I won't use last names, because they simply aren't necessary. It was long rumored that he was a bit of a womanizer. I figured he had been impotent because of the steroids, but he did manage several children somehow. I had been hopeful for his potential political career. Their 25 year marriage certainly lasted way longer than mine, so I am nobody to talk. At the same time it makes me sad, because in a way they were the all American couple. Nobody I know saw this coming. Maybe I should propose to Maria if she should become available? I hear he is worth 400-million. If she got 200-million, I could get 100-million.

back in the saddle

So I know I have been gone awhile. I hope you didn't miss me. Then again, I hope you did. I moved with no problem in three hours. All went well. I have a living room full of boxes. I know where everything I own is. It is in the living room in a box. I went to a River Cats game last night. I caught a foul ball, got it signed and saw my first in-person suicide squeeze play, and it worked. I have a roommate, that I found May 1, and we are getting along fine. She seems to be understanding about the boxes. I was nervous as heck a few weeks ago, but I landed on my feet smelling like a rose, and now I can't remember what I was so nervous about. My computer has been in and out of the shop for most of the last three weeks. I have not gone this long without sending blogs in at least 15 years. I am glad to be back.