tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772737381039074262011-11-27T16:10:47.810-08:00Covering life in LA, making a living from making noises, what else I do when making a living from making noises isn't paying, marrying for the first time at 50, politics, the politics of marrying for the first time at 50, the environment, neo-conservatives, neo-liberals, travel on a shoestring, my never-ending quest to find decent New-Haven-Style pizza in a pizza-challenged city, and why Swiss cheese has holes when it's the Gorgonzola that needs the ventilation.Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.comBlogger291100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-5441139031242128532009-02-07T23:32:00.000-08:002009-02-09T15:44:55.349-08:00

The sixth and final installment by my brother Ed as he reports on his experience at the Boston Red Sox Fantasy Camp in City of Palms, Florida. As with the other five installments, I present these posts to you unchanged, other than a couple of spelling errors or words smashed together. Scroll down to the beginning of the series to get the whole skinny. Despite getting knocked out of the

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-76543355912428377072009-02-07T23:15:00.000-08:002009-02-07T23:29:00.295-08:00

Day 5 of my brother Ed's trip to Red Sox Fantasy Camp. Despite a bad hamstring and a sprained right finger on his throwing hand, Ed's bat is on fire and he's pitching effectively without his middle finger touching the ball. Here's more from Ed:So last night the entire team took our coaches (Spaceman Bill Lee and Felix Maldonado) out to dinner...I had the pleasure of hearing more stories about

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-86485864185640215012009-02-07T22:50:00.000-08:002009-02-09T09:04:41.678-08:00

Yet another installment from my brother Ed at the Boston Red Sox Fantasy Camp in sunny Florida. I'm not changing anything, nor am I leaving anything out. Ed likes to use the dot-dot-dot thingies a lot so that doesn't mean I cut anything.....And now, back to our "field" correspondent. Take it away Ed:So this morning when we were waiting for the bus to take to the Park, a car pulls up and Butch

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-44945894782428837922009-02-07T22:33:00.000-08:002009-02-07T22:48:29.143-08:00

Another installment from my brother Ed. Scroll down and start from Day One: So last night I was sitting down relaxing outside by the pool smoking a cigar and Luis Tiant leaned over and asked for a light....I said "certainly". Then he said something I can neither repeat nor understand.....anyway....This morning we arrived at the Red Sox Player Development Center for breakfast and a trip to the

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-9633614373626855562009-02-07T08:31:00.000-08:002009-02-07T08:56:28.092-08:00

Part two of my brother Ed's adventures at the Boston Red Sox Fantasy Camp in Florida. Scroll down and check out part one first. Here's Ed:So I was talking to Oil Can Boyd at the bar last night....well he was talking and I can neither repeat nor understand what he was saying.....anyway....This morning we arrived at the Red Sox Player Development Center for breakfast and a trip to the trainer's

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-43005511079642978932009-02-07T07:49:00.000-08:002009-02-07T08:26:13.341-08:00

Right now, I am waist deep in a job search I am reluctant to write about for some reason. Until I get over myself, let's hear from my brother Ed who turned 50 a couple of months ago.Ed is the middle child and acts like it. He is the most pragmatic of our clan, being bookended by a couple of dreamers. So who knew he harbored a secret desire to fulfill diamond fantasies and return to the

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-9175797720460402942009-01-27T21:23:00.000-08:002009-01-28T21:54:37.097-08:00

Today is my birthday. Most likely, it's the last birthday I ever have. No, I'm not planning to do something rash. I'm not dying of cancer, either.For the last two weeks, my wife asks me what I want to do for my birthday. My answer is always the same; nothing. I want no fuss made. No party. No dinner out. No movie. Nothing. Unfortunately, my wife forgets I am a man which means the words

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-86016408317628424412009-01-10T08:47:00.000-08:002009-01-12T22:47:52.955-08:00

What a week. Everybody in the house is or was sick, including me. My wife had a virus, her youngest daughter Natalie has tonsillitis, Natalie's visiting cousin Kyle is under the weather from a tough semester at K-State and I caught my current illness from my wife. We are so far behind, we took the Christmas tree down yesterday. That's right. Our house still had Christmas decorations up on

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-86083175466958427692008-12-31T07:55:00.000-08:002009-01-12T22:47:43.895-08:00

Yes, it's New Year's Eve and I'm still writing about Christmas but that's just indicative of how this holiday season unfolded. We are both behind the eight-ball for the last month and we make it through Christmas by the skin of our teeth.We still have much to do on Christmas Eve. Robin has the day off so we head out to buy last minute items like stocking stuffers. There is no better place on

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-80458608118513165332008-12-27T09:30:00.000-08:002009-01-13T09:24:56.327-08:00

The spirit of Christmas finally smacked me in the face like a refrigerator falling off a speeding furniture truck. Last Saturday, my lovely wife Robin and I participated in an event we like to call The Annual Christmas Tree Lug. There is a Christmas tree lot at the end of our street about a quarter mile down the hill from our house. Parking is at a premium and it's too much of a pain to put

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-60038062104099854172008-12-20T07:12:00.000-08:002009-01-12T22:45:42.599-08:00

My lovely wife Robin and I entered the state of Holy Mortal Wedlock about two and a half years ago. This is her second trip, having two beautiful and ridiculously intelligent daughters with her first husband. This is my first marriage. Not too many men get married for the first time at 50, unless they lead the Warren Beatty life first. I did not lead the Warren Beatty life.We met online.

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-71607263613328483942008-12-09T18:40:00.000-08:002009-01-15T11:21:08.358-08:00

Had to sell my old 1989 Nissan Sentra the other day. Actually, I didn't sell it so much as betray it. The car would no longer pass a smog test without about 300 dollars worth of catalytic converter and other parts. While the car ran excellently, it wasn't worth the additional investment. Especially since I bought it for 375 dollars at an impound auction almost four years ago.Trust me, this is

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-75894484491474725192008-12-08T22:15:00.000-08:002009-01-12T22:48:39.914-08:00

Here in the City of Angels, the Christmas spirit is hard to come by. Of course, watching the news lately strangles everyone's good time but LA is unique in its suffering. First of all, we had no autumn. OK, I see the jokes on the horizon. "In LA you know it's autumn because the smog changes color." Yes, the seasons are not so pronounced here. However, the week before Thanksgiving featured

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-76842206073596295532008-12-03T06:56:00.000-08:002009-01-12T22:45:42.599-08:00

My Aunt Agnes died over the weekend so there's been no blogging. As with all my relatives who die, I took time to think about them and their impact on me."Auntie Ag" married my uncle Pasquale "Pat" Votto at a relatively young age. Pat was a hands-on hard-charger at the Griest Manufacturing plant where they both worked. They moved into a house right next door to my grandparents. This has to be

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-48094784698500688532008-11-25T07:09:00.000-08:002009-01-12T22:49:40.639-08:00

Right now, I'm doing more mechanic work than I've done in ten years. That greasy, slimy, wounded Nissan Sentra engine is sitting on a pallet in my friend's print shop ready for its makeover. My wife's water pump just gave up the ghost. Well, actually, her water pump is fine. Her Toyota's water pump ground to a halt literally so I'm replacing it two days before Thanksgiving with all the

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-63895817706748470152008-11-21T06:53:00.002-08:002009-01-12T22:42:20.538-08:00

Yesterday, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin pardons a turkey. No big news there. As we all know, governors pardoning turkeys is a well-worn tradition around this time of year. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger pardons turkeys, which takes on a whole unintended life of its own given his thick Austrian accent.Usually, some functionary of the local turkey farmers association brings a well-coiffed bird to the

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-74001049592372345712008-11-20T17:25:00.000-08:002009-01-12T22:42:20.538-08:00

I'm in the middle of pulling the engine on the Nissan Sentra I wrote about last week. Plus, my lovely wife and I are holding an estate sale this weekend with a friend so we're spending our evenings shlepping furniture back and forth. I'm also on a deadline for getting the engine out of the car so I've been remiss in adding new material. Please forgive me while I microwave something instant for

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-32894030785296994792008-11-17T08:32:00.000-08:002009-01-12T22:52:15.001-08:00

Yesterday, the sun was little more than an orange disk in the sky obscured by tons of airborne ash kicked up by the three large wildfires burning in our vicinity. Though the closest fire is about 25 miles away, the smoke burns the back of all our throats and ash falls out of the sky all over the county. So if it's not Armageddon, it's a little bit of Pompeii. We painted some furniture in the

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-4297089841495869162008-11-13T06:47:00.000-08:002009-01-14T09:31:30.955-08:00

Advertising dollars are the de facto censors of our media. Since advertising pays the freight in this country, advertisers often determine content by sponsoring material compatible with their products or services. Controversial content can send advertisers running for the hills. My previous post on Proposition 8 even strained friendships.A couple of days ago, I wrote about fixing old cars as

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-14985293297763845092008-11-10T10:31:00.000-08:002009-01-12T22:49:40.639-08:00

Spent the last couple of days using other parts of my brain than the Political Lobe. A friend of mine hired me to pull the cylinder head of his 1989 Nissan Sentra to determine the damage caused by the disintegration of the stationary timing chain guide and the subsequent loss of the proper relationship between the cam and crankshaft.Not following along? My friend's engine went boom. My job was

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-77392519122798368742008-11-05T12:52:00.000-08:002009-01-12T22:41:05.557-08:00

My lovely wife wakes up this morning a full hour before the alarm with tears of joy in her eyes and optimism about facing the challenges of the day ahead. Trust me, this is highly unusual weekday behavior. By mutual agreement, we usually interact as little as possible before her morning cup of coffee. It's too dangerous and the potential for serious injury too great.This morning is different.

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-5189786769401544852008-11-04T07:30:00.000-08:002009-01-12T22:42:20.538-08:00

Let's make some history today! VOTE!

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-17232838385592797032008-11-03T18:10:00.000-08:002009-01-12T22:42:20.538-08:00

Remember that scene in Jaws when Roy Scheider's character throws chum in the water, then the shark breaks the surface right behind him? Maybe if Dick Cheney screened the movie before he endorsed John McCain, he could avoid feeding the Democrats. Checkitout.....

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-56552956976597781412008-11-03T17:34:00.000-08:002009-01-12T22:42:52.413-08:00

We lost enough due process and individual rights the last eight years. Unfortunately, the little blog bots picked up "Proposition 8" and flooded my site with supportive ads. I'm trying to remove them now. Regardless, they'll be gone tomorrow.Read my blog entry below outlining my opposition to Proposition 8.

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-65568072454211726822008-11-03T12:47:00.000-08:002009-01-12T22:42:20.538-08:00

The Right wing of the Republican Party turned the United States of America into the World's Largest Banana Republic. For that alone they should be knocked off the Executive Branch for a good long time.Don't believe me? Here's how they did it:In 2000, Dubya runs a campaign platform stating in effect, "Vote for me and I'll give you 200 dollars." Heads in several small Caribbean islands as well

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-83597775830825585822008-11-01T20:43:00.000-07:002009-01-12T22:42:20.538-08:00

I like John McCain. He has the best environmental record of any national-class Republican, he attacks pork-laden bills like they were stealing his own wallet and he served his country with distinction both as a military man and as a Senator. I told my lovely wife, "Boy, the Democrats will have their work cut out for them if McCain wins the nomination." Lots of people in the middle felt the

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-48484073299830556752008-10-30T12:44:00.000-07:002009-01-12T22:42:20.539-08:00

Here in beautiful sun-stroked California, voters go to the polls on Tuesday and decide on the fate of gay marriage. If enacted, Proposition 8 prohibits same-sex unions, making it confusing for either side because voters supporting same-sex unions must vote "no" while opponents need to mark the "yes" box.Frankly, I thought we decided this one once and for all. Same-sex marriage passed the CA

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-31119401172440245042008-10-29T23:46:00.000-07:002009-01-12T22:42:20.539-08:00

There's an old saying about religion and politics not being suitable topics for polite conversation. Which is why I'll cover them straight away.First, I want to thank Newt Gingrich and Lee Atwater for fouling the waters regarding the use of the word "liberal" as if it were profanity. I admire their success at changing the meaning of the word completely. They took a simple political philosophy and

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-477273738103907426.post-60922360447660645322008-10-29T16:12:00.000-07:002009-01-12T22:55:42.236-08:00

Thank you. The carpets here are brand new and I'd like to keep them that way as long as possible. Now that that's settled, thank you for for joining me here on this server located somewhere near Peshawar I'm sure. If you're unsure of Peshawar's location, get out your world map and find a country with cheap labor that hates us. Peshawar will be pretty close.By the way, if you like acerbic

Jerry Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09136869791790101098noreply@blogger.com0