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Saturday, May 30, 2009

College World Series coverage, in an effort to become.....I don't know what they're trying to do. I think become an entertainment website. They certainly don't cover sports anymore. Polls, excerpts from Sportscenter, fantasy chats, whatever Rick Reilly is or does, they have that. Go find what they wrote about Elon's appearance in the College World Series yesterday. Go ahead, I'll wait.

If you need a hint, you have to go to the main page and choose college sports. They have sections for college football and basketball because this is an exciting time of year for those sports. But baseball is lumped in with all the other sports.

Once you go there, if you look at the headlines, you'll see golf, tennis, softball, volleyball, lacrosse. The top story in the image box is softball, where the hook is that Arizona State's pitcher doesn't like being called a freshman. Whatever. A couple games are mentioned in the headlines, including Stephen Strasburg's first loss of the season. But if you want the coverage, you have to click in that little picture box that says Friday's baseball action and then scroll almost all the way down to the bottom to see how Elon did (which is an Associated Press report. Apparently ESPN doesn't feel the need to have anyone on their staff report on the CWS).

By contrast, go to Yahoo!'s sports page, choose college sports from the menu and wow!, imagine that!, there's a section on baseball. The featured story is, no surprise, Strasburg's loss. But they have a much deserved article on Rich Poythress of Georgia. You can click on NCAA Baseball capsules and get the same AP reports ESPN has but if you click on Rogers' regional analysis, you actually get a Yahoo! reporter's take on all the games. Reporting! On a news site! Wonder of wonders!

The best place to go, though, if you're looking for all your tourney information, is right here. The NCAA itself. They have great writeups of all the games plus you can follow all the games live. Definitely check it out if you have any interest in college baseball and/or the upcoming draft since many of the players in the CWS will be drafted by the major league teams.

By the way, Elon lost 17-15 to Southern Mississippi.

Here's who I'm rooting for (with the exception of a year at the University of Pittsburgh, all my education has been at smaller schools so I don't have alma mater loyalties) in each Super Regional:

Oregon State - the only Texas teams I've rooted for are the Houston Oilers (defunct but they once had Earl Campbell and Ken Stabler (my favorite southpaw quarterback), the Houston Gamblers (Jim Kelly and Mouse Davis' run and shoot offense, also now defunct) and Mike Leach's Texas Tech football program so that rules out half of this Super Regional right there.

Georgia Tech - my undergrad degree is from a small school in North Carolina (Elon was a rival which is why I follow them). I grew up in Pennsylvania and when I went to school there, you were obligated to root for an ACC team for basketball purposes. 90% of people rooted for Carolina, Duke, or N.C. State. I backed Wake Forest and Georgia Tech. Plus, I got to watch Georgia Tech play when they had Jason Varitek, Nomar Garciaparra, Jay Payton and Brad Rigby. That was cool.

Alabama - they lost yesterday which doesn't bode well. No one else really grabs me.

East Carolina - Go Pirates! Tough call over South Carolina and my favorite baseball coach, Ray Tanner. I've always liked East Carolina since they played an exciting game against Pitt in football while I was there, falling two yards short on a long pass on the game's final play. The final score was 47-42. Heck of a game. It's strange. I like high scoring football games (when I watch) and low scoring baseball games. Go figure.

Louisville - No reason.

Marist - Why not?

Mississippi - Of course, the majority of teams that interest me are in this region. I have friends who are graduates of Ole Miss and Missouri. I've rooted for Fresno State since the Kevin Sweeney football years (how, for someone who doesn't like football, did I become so influenced by it?), Virginia has a good team and, of course, you have Stephen Strasburg's San Diego State team.

LSU - Probably the biggest baseball powerhouse that isn't in Florida, California or Texas. Skip Bertman led a legacy there that still continues even though he's no longer there.

My pick for winning it all is Cal State Fullerton.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Group of 79 Project - Dick Gernert

Well, the Group of 79 Project is actually the Group of 80 Project. My list was missing a player. I changed the details on the page but I'm keeping the title for two reasons.

1: I don't want to try and figure out how to change all the tags and stuff, especially if anyone has things (particularly the display page) bookmarked

2: 79 is a much better number than 80. 79 is prime and cannot be written as the sum of three squares. 80 is four score and in base 3 is written as 2222. 79 is cooler for what it is not compared to what 80 is.

But we're a long way away from getting to either number and I fully expect another player to achieve the feat this season which would force me to go through the changes all over again. Worry about it when it happens, I guess.

Today's player is Dick Gernert. Mr. Gernert responded extremely quickly to my request for his autograph through the mail. You'll note that this is his 1960 card and that he only played for the Cubs for part of the 1960 season. Could this have something to do with the accomplishment? Probably not.

Gernert was primarily a first baseman for the Red Sox where he often batted behind Ted Williams. No doubt part of the reason Ted Williams was so great was because pitchers were forced to pitch to him because of his being protected by Gernert in the lineup (I could not type that last sentence with a straight face. Not because of anything to do with Gernert, just the whole lineup protection thing).

Gernert was quite an athlete, attending Temple University on a basketball scholarship. After his playing career, he took a break from the professional ranks to teach but then returned as a coach, manager and scout.

I found it interesting that five of Gernert's ten comparable players on Baseball Reference are among the Group of 79.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Sometimes pairs come in twos

The first two books I knocked out this week were a pair of e-books by Chris Guillebeau. Guillebeau is a writer and traveler who is making a living off of writing and traveling by harnessing the power of the internet. You can read both A Brief Guide to World Domination and 279 Days to Overnight Success on his website. It contains a lot of useful information if you're determined to try and make a living off of something you enjoy doing.

The other two books I read also pair up nicely. They were The Kept Man by Jami Attenberg and Model Behavior by Jay McInerney. Both are about lousy relationships involving wealthy New Yorkers (and strangely, both include characters named Philo).

When people ask me who my favorite author is, I respond "Michael Chabon is my favorite author but Jay McInerney and Jeanette Winterson are my favorite writers". The difference is this. Chabon weaves terrific stories (and is also a fine writer). McInerney and Winterson just have a way with words. Their writing is always a pleasure to read even if the story itself isn't always great.

I picked up Model Behavior at a used bookstore a few months back. It's one of the few McInerney novels I didn't own. Actually, it is a novel and seven short stories which is sort of neat. I really enjoyed the short stories which is unusual for me. Normally, short stories are like small appetizers to me. They either leave me wanting more or they make me wish I had had something else. They are rarely satisfying. I liked all seven of McInerney's short stories. The endings made sense and actually ended the story (so many short stories I have read seem like unfinished works). Like virtually all of McInerney's writings, all eight tales are about flawed human beings. This is one of the things I like about McInerney.

McInerney makes human beings seem human. They're unfaithful, they have problems, they have addictions, they are full of themselves. But rarely are they lousy people. Done poorly, you wouldn't care about these characters at all. Instead, you do find yourself caring and hoping things turn out well. You sympathize, even when they're snorting coke or cheating on a spouse. It sounds strange, but McInerney pulls it off.

Model Behavior is about an entertainment writer in love with a model (the model is Philomena or Philo). The model leaves him for a film star, ironically, one the writer is trying to interview. The writer is hardly an innocent, though, having slept with someone else and he regularly hangs out with a stripper whose company he enjoys. In addition, the writer tries to cope with an anorexic sister and the neurotic behavior of his best friend, a monastic poet who seems to find himself in the limelight too much, and an internet stalker. Good times, right. And my description sort of makes it seem outlandish, huh? It's not, though. Neither are the short stories about the filmmaker with connections to the mob, the transvestite hooker, the doctor who works in a prison, the couple who try to quit smoking, and so on. Like I said. Just frail human beings trying to lead lives with their own complications.

The Kept Man is similar in a way but then again, maybe not. I signed up for book recommendations through AccessPA and this was one listed under "books involving art" which I am a sucker for. The art is sort of minimal in this one, though. In this book, the main character is the wife of an artist who has been in a coma for six years after a fall caused a brain injury. Her hubby had experienced success and him being on his deathbed has increased interest. She's lonely, gets pressure from her husband's agent and his friend about doing retrospectives and such, and she has a hard time with it. Her clothes washer goes on the fritz and she starts going to a laundromat where she meets three guys with successful wives (The kept men) who don't do much of anything. She has an affair with one which doesn't help things and eventually she pulls the plug on the husband but not before a battle with his parents.

Unlike the characters in McInerney's book, I couldn't care less about those in Attenberg's work. I also thoroughly hated the tone. It's written like the narrator has an MFA in creative writing. The dustjacket calls the narrative spare. Does this sound spare to you?

"As I approach Metropolitan, I see two punks, clothes gray with dirt, black pants, black combat boots, a T-shirt with "Fuck You" scrawled on it in Magic Marker on one of them, the other in a shirt, shredded but somehow still whole, defiantly battling rag status. They're squatting against a brick wall covered with graffiti, not wild, hell-raising graffiti, but commissioned-by-the-community graffiti, blocks of wall real estate carefully delegated to top vandals in order to keep them out of trouble."

I think it bothered me that this is a first-person narrative but the reader gets tons of descriptives that you would expect out of a third-person narrator (which, now that I mention it, is sort of funny, because McInerney has the narrator switch over to the third-person (typically when the narrator is doing something wrong) in Model Behavior). The overly descriptive descriptions are also botched by a high level of crudity. The narrator seems both overeducated and undereducated at the same time.

Oh, the Philo in Attenberg's story is an old man who lives in the facility where her husband is receiving care. Just thought I'd mention that.

So while I find myself rooting for the hero in McInerney's story, Attenberg's lead is too whiny and unsympathetic for me to really care.

I thought about putting McInerney's book in the top ten (around #8) but looked at the list and said to myself "If I was going to tell someone to read either this book or the one currently on the list in positions 8-10, which would it be" and I had to go with the current list. Mostly, though, because I think this was my least favorite book by McInerney I have read. Ransom is my all-time favorite, I've probably read that close to twenty times in my life. The main character's search for somewhere he can call home has always resonated with me. But any of McInerney's other novels are also highly recommended by me. No recommendation of any sort for Attenberg's book.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Yu Darvish update

During the World Baseball Classic I was glad for the opportunity to see Yu Darvish pitch. He is phenomenal and I hope that he has a long career and does find his way over here at some point in his career.

I'm starting to wonder if he might come over here just so that he's challenged. Even though he is only 22 years old, he's already compiled a 54-20 record with a 2.20 ERA in Japan. Check out how he's done this year:

Opening Day against the Golden Eagles. Darvish has a rough first inning where he gives up three runs, including two on a Fernando Seguignol (remember him? former Expo) homer. He goes the distance, shutting the Eagles out the rest of the way but takes the loss as the Fighters only can plate one run. No walks, five strikeouts.
9 IP, 8 H, 0 BB, 5 K, 0-1, 3.00 ERA

Second start he throws eight shutout innings (giving him 16 consecutive) before leaving for a reliever in the Fighters 9-1 victory over the Hawks.
17 IP, 11 H, 2 BB, 10 K, 1-1, 1.59 ERA

Darvish's shutout streak is stopped at 20 innings but he again only allows three hits as the Fighters defeat the Lions 4-2. Darvish gives up a solo homer to former major leaguer Hiram Bocachica.
25 IP, 14 H, 4 BB, 18 K, 2-1, 1.80 ERA

In his fourth start Darvish blanks the Buffaloes in an 11-0 drubbing. He scatters four hits, walks three and strikes out 11.
34 IP, 18 H, 7 BB, 29 K, 3-1, 1.32 ERA

Darvish goes nine innings in a pitcher duel with the Lions, only giving up one run, but the game goes to extra innings. The Fighters lose in 12, 2-1. Darvish allows five hits and three walks and strikes out 11 again.
43 IP, 23 H, 10 BB, 40 K, 3-1, 1.26 ERA

Darvish earns his fourth victory as the Fighters again trounce the Buffaloes, this time by a 10-1 score. Darvish goes seven innings, walking just one and giving up four hits. Four strikeouts. The run he allows is unearned.
50 IP, 27 H, 11 BB, 44 K, 4-1, 1.08 ERA

The Buffaloes put up a fight in Darvish's seventh start of the season but still lose to the Fighters, 4-2. Darvish walks one, allows six hits, and K's four.
58 IP, 33 H, 12 BB, 48 K, 5-1, 1.24 ERA

In his most recent start, Darvish shut out the Swallows, 3-0, despite allowing eight hits and two walks. He adds nine strikeouts as he earns his sixth victory.
67 IP, 41 H, 14 BB, 57 K, 6-1, 1.07 ERA

7.39 baserunners per nine innings, an ERA just barely over one. 4-1 K/BB ratio. He leads the league in wins, is second in ERA and strikeouts. He's only allowed two home runs. Not surprisingly, the Fighters lead the Pacific League with a 26-16 record, 2.5 games ahead of the Golden Eagles.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

I can't not not quit

Mood change. My muse, who/which/that was being unmusely this past week, is back being musey again.

Plus, the reason I keep a blog is largely due to my own interest in exploring my interests and thoughts and hopefully inspire others or share my experiences. So what the heck.

I don't understand my brain. I don't know why I think the way I do, why certain things pop in my head, etc., etc.

Case in point. Bizarre tunes from the eighties that have entered my head uninvited, unrelated to anything, all this week.

First, and most confusingly, the theme from Cagney and Lacey.

I don't think I ever saw this show. I only know the song from playing it in band when I was in high school. I wasn't thinking of high school, female detectives, television theme songs, wasn't thinking of James Cagney or Lacey Underalls or anything else that might make me go, "Oh yeah, that's why that song popped in my head". I was just standing there and all of a sudden I'm singing that song.

Now you might argue that that song is not the most confusing as Baltimora's Tarzan Boy also crept into my skull this week.

This next one requires clicking the link. There's an embedded version on YouTube without the introduction but you need the introduction simply because of the "I don't suppose you want to take a ride on my yacht" lead-in.

So now I'm trying not to think of inexplicable eighties songs and just like when you're trying not to think of waterfalls and fountains and dripping water and such when you need to go to the bathroom, not thinking of inexplicable eighties songs leads me to think of Terence Trent D'Arby.

I'll add a fifth one even though the source of its thought origination is clear. My son is reading To Kill a Mockingbird in school and that led me to think of the Cutting Crew tune:

I love how times have changed. This is a more obscure Cutting Crew song so you might not know or remember it. But the video has been edited from the original song because of a bad word. Yes, in the first verse "bastards" has been replaced with "doubters". Imagine if South Park was subject to the same treatment: "They killed Kenny. You doubters!".

I mean, seriously, has anyone else thought of these songs in the past two decades? Anyone done Tarzan Boy in a karaoke bar? I guess someone has unless YouTube is some artificial intelligence entity because I managed to find all of them on there. Maybe there's hope for me after all.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Operation Shutdown

It's nice that Derek Bell has a legacy.

Excess ennui has led me to doing a whole lot of nothing this past week (I say this but Doodle is reading over my shoulder. He asked me what ennui was, then proceeded to put his hand on my forehead to check for the fever that accompanies depression and proclaimed "No sign of depressedness". So I guess I'm all right. Thanks, Dr. Doodle).

Being as Doodle is just now wrapping up third grade, you'll pardon my questioning his medical diagnosis.

This is nothing new for me and I'm fortunate in that it isn't. Having dealt with depression and dysthymia issues in the past on a grander scale than I am now, I'm capable of dealing with it (if you call doing nothing dealing with it. I do. It beats crying, misplaced aggression, suicide intent, and a whole bunch of other negative thing. Zero is greater than negative).

There's so much going on right now, I'm essentially doing it all on my own, and underlying it all is this incredible sense of financial insecurity. It's tough. I'm not special in any way in having problems. It's just that they're my problems and so they feel important.

I need to cut back and prioritize. I'm taking on more than I can handle right now and some if it just isn't necessary.

Along those lines, I have to ask myself why I keep this blog and for whom I am writing. I don't have an answer. I don't know what is important to me right now. For the purposes of this blog, the book reviews (me not reading is like me not breathing) will continue. I also think the Group of 79 project will continue, just not this week. I have two cards in and six requests out which gives me a bunch of posts and it's a fun project for me. I'm not writing enough about baseball because the things I want to write about baseball are too large in scope for a weekly post. Music and cooking....they've sort of fallen by the wayside as far as things about which to write.

I think for now I'm going to cut back to two posts a week for now as far as regularly scheduled things go. Maybe this will change soon. Maybe not. We'll see.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Something I find really funny

I've needed some laughs lately and I've found it in Jake and Amir. You may remember Amir from my April Fool's post. He's like a 21st century village idiot only the village is the internet.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Two more books

Not too long ago I read a couple of young adult books. I took it to another extreme this week and read a childrens book. It wasn't my fault, though. My boss was checking in some books while I was doing something else and she said, "I love this book". "What is it?", I asked.
"Click, Clack, Moo".
"Never read it".
"Well, you have to read it right now".

So I did. It was very funny. It's a kid book except for one page that is meant for the parent reading the book which in itself is hysterical because it is an integral part of the story but is over the head of kids. I enjoyed it a lot and will have to get it for my nieces.

The other book I read this week had some humor, too, and more adult themes. I picked up Discover Your Inner Economist by Tyler Cowen because I was trying to find his new book, Create Your Own Economy. Library didn't have it but I thought I'd go ahead and read a book of his because I've wanted to do so. I've read stuff on his blog before and liked how he thinks.

Cowen talks about stuff that interests me (art, music, food) but I don't always agree with his ideas. Some, like trying whatever menu item sounds the worst when you're at a restaurant, rings true (I tend to go unusual instead of yuck-sounding. Cowen's belief is that restaurants are businesses and they're not going to put crap on their menus. Everything is there for a reason. Lobster shell stuffed with chicken nostrils is likely a specialty of theirs and as such, is probably really good. Stuff like roasted chicken, which you can do pretty easily at home, should be avoided at restaurants because it's unlikely to be anything special (an example of unusual sounding which I really enjoyed at a place called Symposium in Lancaster - Nuts and Berries Pork - hazelnut encrusted pork medallions with triple berry sauce; laced with Frangelica & Chambord, served with hazelnut & blueberry ravioli. Man that was good).

Other things, like not completing books and movies because you can get the gist of them from just part and can thus spend ninety minutes watching half an hour of three movies instead of all of one, I just didn't care for in the least.

Cowen also talks about what our true incentives are and how to uncover them. He feels that we are unduly influenced by appearances and will like things that are popular rather than trying to truly get to what we actually like (in the case of art and music, for example).

Again, somewhat interesting stuff but nothing earth-shattering enough for me to suggest you run out and read it.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

How I am not like Tom Colicchio

For one, I'm taller.

I like Tom Colicchio. Back when I owned a television, Top Chef was one of the two shows I tried to watch regularly (along with Ultimate Fighter). Interestingly, both shows aired Wednesdays at 10 which would have been quite a dilemma if not for reruns. I'm not sure how many people had that dilemma. I make for a fun demographic.

Returning to Herr Colicchio, he's an entertaining and thoughtful fellow who knows a lot about cooking. The New York Times recently ran a feature on him which I thought I would link here. But since this is also about me, I thought I'd save the New York Times some time and answer their questions before they schedule an interview with me (I'm really thoughtful).

Restaurant pet peeve: Using packaged food. Don't try to pass off boxed mashed potatoes or Jell-O cheesecake as something that you prepared. For that matter, just don't serve it. Either mash some taters or get into another business.

Always with him: An inane and often annoying running numeric and pattern analysis. Tonight for example we're driving home from practices and I say to the boowahs "You know, this is the only time where we have this symmetry in your educations. You have three years of school under your belt and nine to go and your brother has completed nine years and has three more before he graduates". I wasn't thinking about this at all. There was nothing to trigger it. My mind just felt the need to point it out to me.

Food aversions: Mushrooms. Mushrooms. Organs. Mushrooms. Wait, I'm missing one. I remember now. Mushrooms.

Worst thing about his kitchen: Electric oven and a dishwasher that doesn't take its job duties too seriously.

Why rent? I don't for one simple reason. I hate footsteps on my ceiling.

Favorite place in apartment: I'll answer this for the house. The baseball room/library, of course.

Morning routine: Up at 6, get Gaga up. Go downstairs and start the computer. Check e-mail and news until Gaga comes down. Visit with him for the seven seconds it takes him to inhale his breakfast. Make his lunch. Return to the computer until it is time for him to go. Give him a hug and watch him until he's across the street and on the way to the bus stop.

By this time Doodle is probably up. Eat breakfast with him. Make his lunch. Sign his assignment planner. He often commandeers my computer after he brushes his teeth so I will read or play Strat-O-Matic depending on my mood. Walk him to the bus stop and see him off. From there the routine varies daily.

Worst culinary creation: Some fifteen plus years ago I tried to make a recipe out of a Cooking Light magazine for braided blueberry bread. It tanked miserably. I would have had better luck trying to make bread out of the magazine itself and not wasted good ingredients.

Most-used cookbook: Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

Collection: Baseball books. Approaching fourteen hundred. The majority of them useful for research purposes and not goofy fluff.

Music in kitchen: I don't listen to enough music and need to remedy that. Playing some while I cook would be a nice start.

Superstitions: Don't really have any. I always put my right sock, then right shoe, then left sock, then left shoe on but that's a habit and not a superstition.

Fishing gear: I don't fish.

Obsession: Baseball. Books about baseball.

Old-time religion: I was semi-raised Presbyterian. Started exploring various religions and cults in high school and college and found myself liking different aspects of Scientology and Buddhism. My personal belief system leans more towards the latter nowadays but I don't really categorize my belief system in any particular way.

Cooking philosophy:
Heck with the boowahs. Fix some vegetables.

Top “Top Chef” memorabilia: Don't have any. If I could have one thing, it would probably be Gail Simmons as a trophy wife.

Worst thing about TV stardom: Without a doubt, the groupies. Especially here in Lancaster County. The Amish are just horrible about it. I'm sorry, was I not clear? The lack of groupies is the worst thing. But that may have more to do with the lack of TV stardom I possess.

Always in fridge: Cottage cheese for myself and milk for the boowahs.

Worst meal he ever had: The worst time with food I ever had was in Kinston, North Carolina. Went there for a ballgame. The Holiday Inn was horrible and tried to pass off the above mentioned Jell-O cheesecake as homemade. The hot dogs at the ballpark were day-glo pink on the inside. Seriously, the color of the hot dog should never occur anywhere outside of the fallout zone of a nuclear blast. The best meal was at a Burger King where we got to talk to the incredibly tall (he was 6'7") witty and cynical Rod McCall in the parking lot while he waited for Pete Rose, Jr. to come out with his food.

Fitness routine: Crossfit, baby!!!!

Evening routine: My evenings are contingent on what I didn't get done during the day and what I feel like I have enough energy to do. Thus, they are unpredictable.

Obsolete item he won’t toss: My alto sax. It's more corrosion than metal and if I ever dared play it, it would sound awful. Plus, I have a wonderful tenor sax and have no need to play the alto. I won't toss it, though.

Best recent gift: My folks hooked me up with some new clothes for my birthday which were much needed.

Favorite cooking tool:
As mentioned before, my Kyocera ceramic knife is my favorite thing in my kitchen.

Least useful kitchen gadget:
One of the nice things about the divorce and moving out and starting a new home on my own was the ability (and necessity) to keep things simple. I don't have extraneous items. My dish drainer which I use when I hand wash dishes has all these multiple layers I don't know the purpose for. That would have to be my pick.

Best thing about job: I work in a library. One of my two favorite places to be (the other being the ballpark). Although I've only been a librarian for eight months, I haven't had a bad day. I've never walked into a library anywhere and didn't get a thrill out of it. I still get it every day when I go to work. Shame it took me this many years to make a career out of it.

Recipe inspiration: I'll get a hankering for a food and want to do something different with it.

Last meal would be: Fresh raspberries and veal piccata.

Travel ritual: Let someone else drive if at all possible.

Biggest self-indulgence: Peanut butter KandyKakes from Tastykake. I can't even get them anymore because I'll eat a whole box in a day. They would be my dessert for my last meal.

Favorite table decoration: Our table tends to be decorated with whatever hasn't been put away. School papers, empty bottles, folded clean clothes. My favorite decoration is a clear table.

Favorite movie: I can't pick one anymore. It used to be Real Genius because of the semi-biographical nature of the film (Val Kilmer's character Chris Knight was based on me. At least I think so). Wonder Boys is up there. The Sting. The Horse Whisperer. Those would be the big ones, I think.

Household issue he’s fussy about:
Everything. When you do it all, you have to be fussy.

Procrastination technique: Blogging instead of working on my homework.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Preakness picks

Same format as before (Horse, Post position, My odds, morning odds):

13: Flying Private, PP10, 99-1, 50-1
I developed a theory today to cover Mine That Bird's victory. Mine That Bird won because he's a cheap horse and hasn't been spoiled like most of the other Derby horses. Godolphin spent 2 million dollars on Desert Storm. Think Desert Storm is pampered? All the best food, temperature controlled facilities, flown in from overseas, the works? Mine That Bird cost less than $10,000 and drove to the Derby in a trailer from Arizona. Who might perform better in less than ideal conditions, the horse who has led the pampered life or the one that has been treated like a horse?

I make this point here because Flying Private is the most expensive horse in the Preakness, being sold for $700,000 at auction. I commented before the Derby that he had no heart. So how did the pampered horse with no heart fare in the wet mess of Churchill Downs? Dead last, 44 lengths back.

12: Luv Gov, PP4, 99-1, 50-1

The owners of Luv Gov are confused. Luv Gov won at Churchill Downs on Derby Day. The only thing is, he won a maiden special weight race that took place hours before the Kentucky Derby. So your horse wins his first race in ten attempts and now you think he's good enough for the Preakness? This will be Transfixed Ingress' horse here, methinks.

11: Friesan Fire, PP5, 99-1, 6-1

I didn't like Friesan in the Derby and the pros did and the public did. He finished a length ahead of Flying Private. So now the morning line has him as the third favorite? Huh?!?!?! He has to run better but there was no evidence that he was ready to run after the layoff at the Derby and a crap race and a good workout isn't going to make me think otherwise.

10: Tone It Down, PP12, 59-1, 50-1
I love Kent Desormeaux but I think it is a very questionable decision to have him replace local legend Mario Pino, the only jockey to ride Tone It Down in a race. Tone it Down is the only horse in this race to have raced on this track before. Tone It Down likes to be out front but starting right next to Rachel Alexandra, he won't be there long. I'm predicting 15 lengths behind Rachel at the end at a minimum.

9: General Quarters, PP8, 21-1, 20-1
I can see a third or fourth place finish out of General Quarters. I could see it better with a little more time off but the potential for a big run is there. There's just a lot of better horses in the race, though.

8: Terrain, PP6, 20-1, 30-1
Another one I can see in the money. With Leparoux taking General Quarters, Jeremy Rose gets to ride Terrain. Sort of the reverse of what Tone It Down's connections are doing. This could be a good longshot bet.

7: Take the Points, PP11, 16-1, 30-1

Twice Edgar Prado has ridden this horse, twice he has won. He's got the mount at Pimlico. Pletcher is putting blinkers on him for the first time which makes him VERRRRYY interesting. I think Take the Points is the fastest horse in this race. I don't think he can be the fastest horse for 1 3/16 miles. If this were a mile race, this would be my horse. But my odds say he can wire the field 1 out of 16 times. If you're going to get paid in the high 20's or 30-1+, you have to make this bet.

6: Mine That Bird, PP2, 14-1, 6-1
You have to respect the Derby he ran. But miracle worker Calvin Borel is riding Rachel Alexandra and this is going to be a much faster race than the Derby. You're not going to close from 20 lengths again and if you go back to the front running style, you're going to get creamed. I'm staying away.

5: Big Drama, PP1, 12-1, 10-1

Take the Points is going to be leading the race and Big Drama and Rachel Alexandra are going to be there if he falters. Edgar Coa is riding Musket Man instead of him and that means a lot to me. I also don't like the long layoff since the Swale Stakes and I'm leery about the blinkers coming off.

4: Musket Man, PP3, 8-1, 8-1
Ran a nice Derby in the muck but I think the pace ends up being too much for him as he'll be sitting behind Big Drama and Rachel Alexandra by a few lengths. My odds are in line with the morning odds which makes it unlikely that this will be a good value bet. Have to like him in the exotics, though.

3: Papa Clem, PP7, 8-1, 12-1
Also ran a nice Derby, finishing a shade behind Musket Man. Had a horrible workout yesterday and is in the middle of the pack. Needs a good run to win and Rafael Bejarano might get it for him.

2: Pioneerof the Nile, PP9, 8-1, 5-1
You can see that I have Musket Man, Papa Clem and Pioneer of the Nile all with the same odds. Needless to say, Papa Clem is the best value bet. Little story, here. Pioneerof the Nile's Dad is Empire Maker. The first Kentucky Derby wager I ever made was in 2003. I played an exacta box of Funny Cide and Empire Maker. That's the kind of bet that gets you hooked. Pioneerof the Nile is going to get bet down as people look for an alternative to Rachel Alexandra. He's one of the four best horses, no doubt. But I won't like the payoff.

1: Rachel Alexandra, PP13, 2-1, 8-5
People will be betting on her because she's female. People will be betting on her because she's good. People will be betting on her because she's the total package of speed and endurance. A third of the time she will win. Two-thirds of the time, one of the guys will. If you want to make some money, you'll take one of the guys.

Why might she not win? The big thing is the trainer change on short notice. That concerns me more than any gender issues which is what will concern other people. Not crazy about her Sunday workout time either.

So what's the bet? One of the top four horses is going to win this race 2/3 of the time. Papa Clem will likely give you the best payoff. I'm talking myself into Take the Points the more I think about it. If you're going to pay me 25-1, 30-1, or even more, yeah, I'll take the shot.

Kentucky Derby revisited again

Looking at the list of contenders for the Preakness (I know the actual runners have been announced but I'm waiting for post positions) and just marveling at how unusual the Derby was for so many horses. Witness:

Andrew Beyer, a noted horse racing handicapper and journalist came up with a number that somewhat normalizes how a horse runs a given race. If a horse runs an 80 and another runs a 75, the 80 is the better performance, even if the 80 was a slower time. This is due to track differences, distances, etc. It's a pretty good measure. I'll be talking about Beyer scores.

Advice - His Derby score was a 74, his second lowest score in seven races
Atomic Rain - His Derby was a 59, his second lowest score in eight races
Dunkirk - 77 is his lowest in four races
Flying Private - 41 is his second lowest in 11 races
Friesan Fire - lowest in eight races
Hold Me Back - second lowest in six races
Nowhere to Hide - lowest in nine races
West Side Bernie - second lowest in eight races

Again, this is the Kentucky Derby. Trainers are paid big bucks to have their horses prepared for and ready to peak in this race. And 8 of the 19 horses either ran their worst or second worst race of their careers.

As a matter of fact, only one of the horses in the Derby ran his best race ever. Care to venture a guess? Mine That Bird received a 105 score. His previous best was 81.

Early, pre-analysis pick. I think Rachel Alexandra is the best horse in the Preakness. Just slightly better than Dunkirk. Analysis tonight after I get home from work.

Kentucky Derby revisited

I'll be posting my Preakness picks later today but I wanted to take a look back at the Derby and get all defensive about the accusations of my long-time friend, Transfixed Ingress.

TI and I have been friends since we were eight years old. Three decades later, we're still conversing even if we haven't seen one another for awhile. I give him a little leeway in his almost always critical comments because I know that deep down he is resentful of my all-around awesomeness.

So even though he claims he won't be taking my advice on the Preakness, I know he's smarter than that and you should be, too. (I know you're smart because you choose to read this). Any horse race of nineteen horses has a lot of potential outcomes, especially in the slop that the Derby was run in and especially when the horse that won ran the race completely different from any race he ever ran before. Let's take a look at what I'm talking about, shall we?

The horse I had as the best horse in the race...Dunkirk? Here's his start:

Narrowly avoiding a face plant will do you in any day. He worked too hard to get back in with the leaders and just didn't have it.

How about some of the other horses? Did I know what I was talking about? Oh, I don't know:

Join in the Dance PP9
"Another front runner....." Lo and behold, there's #9 leading the race.

Desert Party PP19
Regal Ransom PP10
"Even though I think Regal is the better horse, I think he'll set the pace for Desert Party to stalk and finish strong." Oh, look at that. #10, Regal Ransom, up there leading the race and who is right there just a little off his shoulder but #19, Desert Party.

West Side Bernie PP1 "Closer who will be able to save ground from the pole." Sure enough, there's West Side Bernie on the pole near the back.

Hold Me Back PP5 "Hard closer who has looked good in 2009" And look who is right back there with Bernie, another closer.

Five of the six horses whose running style I mentioned in my post, I was right on the money. The sixth?

Mine That Bird, PP8 "Slow front runner who will get eaten up in this race."
What the hell was he doing all the way back there? Mine That Bird, notorious front runner, was 19th out of 19th horses. He fell back as much as 20 lengths behind the leaders before Calvin Borel's miracle run.

Do you know what the largest margin Mine That Bird had ever made up at any time in any race before the Kentucky Derby was? Four lengths. I can only use the best information I have available and there was nothing to suggest that this horse was going to show up for horse racing's biggest event, run a race in a manner he never had tried before, make up a deficit five times larger than any he had previously made up and defeat eighteen better horses. I even looked at wet track data and breeding. Nothing. This was about as unlikely a result as there could be. Which is why, of course, he paid 51-1.

So before you so cavalierly dismiss my picks, Mr. Transfixed Ingress, take a look and see if I was as wrong as you think. Put that in your Dr. Pepper and smoke some bacon.

Photos courtesy of The Blood-Horse.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Everything is Illuminated

Wow. I've been done this book for almost 48 hours and I still am at a loss for words. Wow. This could be my most favorite book of the year but I'm going to put it third. Good non-fiction just impacts me more. But It's easily one of the best works of fiction I've ever read. Definitely, top 20 and maybe top 10. I'd have to think about it and give it some time but it is just incredible.

This book was recommended to me by an incredibly young and pretty library patron. I have a James Bondesque weakness for women which is good in one way. If I'm ever in a situation where someone wants to extract information from me, they don't need to resort to torture at all. Just bring in an attractive woman and I'll break. But that's neither here not there. I mention it because it adds to the story and makes me feel better about myself because I still can entertain and be entertained by good-looking women. So there. I also mention it because she spoke so highly of the author, the tastefully named Jonathan Safran Foer, that I had to look into it (even if it was almost a month after she recommended him to me). If an attractive patron recommends Nora Roberts to me, I'm not going to read her, so maybe my weakness isn't kryptonite-level weakness.

Foer is amazing. This book, Everything is Illuminated, is his first and it was written while Foer was in his early twenties which is mind-boggling in a way and has made Foer the target of numerous spiteful authors and reviewers which is a shame.

The book is based on an actual event in Foer's life. After graduation from college, Foer journeyed to the Ukraine to research the life of his grandfather. Everything is Illuminated is somewhat about the journey and his grandfather.

The most unique aspect of this book is the style of it. There are three separate narratives that go on. One is the narrator's (Foer's) history of his grandfather (and many, many generations before that). The second is the story of Foer's journey as told by his Ukrainian translator. The third is a series of letters written by the translator to Foer discussing the other two narratives (the reader is led to believe that Foer is forwarding the sections of the book he writes to the translator and the translator responds in his letters although you never see any letters by Foer (or the narrator named Foer).

The two sections written by the translator are written in the Ukrainian equivalent of Spanglish (Ukrainglish?) which says a lot about Foer's writing skills. It is so well done. You can tell the translator is intelligent and eager to develop his English skills and there's the combination of the unusual formality that many non-native speakers adopt and mixed up or incomplete idioms.

That's novel but the portion where Foer writes as Foer is even more phenomenal. He has a tremendous gift for words and describes things so well. There are words that when I encountered them I felt that they were extraneous or maybe a Chabon-like ten-cent word but by the end of the sentence, or at worst, paragraph, I felt like the word was perfectly selected.

As I got close to the end, I was preparing for disappointment because I didn't think it could possibly wrap up well. I was wrong. I was left teary-eyed and fulfilled at the end. Again, just amazing.

The book jerks your emotions around. The history of Foer's family is filled with tragedy which even provokes the Ukrainian translator to question why Foer is making it so sad. You're writing it, you can make it whatever you want. You can make happy endings. Foer doesn't. While the Foer part is sad, the Ukrainian portion is witty. Especially the completely unnecessary flatulent dog that belongs to the translator, Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior. Sammy Davis, Jr., Jr. is a perfect example of what I liked about Foer's writing. The dog is absolutely not necessary for the progress of the story. Done poorly, it could be a hindrance to the story and be a noticeably awkward means to generate a few laughs. Foer does it right. The dog, just like the language, flows so wonderfully and fits in perfectly.

I can't recommend this book enough.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Gospel sax

Decades ago I came across the music of Dr. Vernard Johnson, a gospel saxophonist (if you can believe there is such a thing).

As I was thinking of what (if anything) to post today I thought "What better choice of music on a Sunday than some gospel"? So here you go.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Why Dr. Pepper tastes like crap

In this story about a guy finding a notebook containing a formula for something called "D Peppers Pepsin Bitters" there's this wonderful line:

"It isn't a recipe for a soft drink, says Greg Artkop, a spokesman for the Plano-based Dr Pepper Snapple Group. He said it's likely instead a recipe for a bitter digestive that bears the Dr Pepper name.

He said the recipe certainly bears no resemblance to any Dr Pepper recipes the company knows of. The drink's 23-flavor blend is a closely guarded secret, only known by three Dr Pepper employees, he said."

23 flavors?!?!?! Here's an idea. Take away twenty of them and make something tasty.

And what is it with these soft drink companies and their need to have their secret formulas known by only a few people? Coke advertises that only two guys know that formula. Dr Pepper has three. What does that mean exactly? Do these guys concoct each batch individually? Come on, machines measure it all and make it. You need zero guys to know the formula. And in the case of Dr. Pepper, a good case of amnesia would be good for us all.

Speaking of which....Dr. Pepper guys, if you're reading this after a bout of amnesia, the flavors are pineapple, coconut and rum.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Group of 79 Project - Ken Phelps

The Group of 79 Project continues this week with Ken Phelps.

Common theme here. I liked Ken Phelps when he was playing. I never understood how a guy with this much power couldn't get a full-time job in the majors. He was drafted by four teams. So as an amateur he was much desired. In the majors, however, his skill set was not appreciated and much maligned, much like that Adam Dunn character of which I'm so fond. Phelps didn't hit for average and walked and struck out a lot. The three seasons in which he got a ton of playing time, he hit over twenty homers and had an OBP over .400.

Lest you think that we are much more modernized and knowledgeable these days, check out native Hawaiian Kila Ka'aihue. He's been in a power drought of late but he's another one of the brand of players who walks and strikes out a ton with a low average and a lot of power. And there he sits in the minors.

Returning to Mr. Phelps, I sent him a couple of cards recently which he signed and added a Bible verse inscription. The card I did not scan has John 3:16. If you watched a football game in the 1980's, you're already familiar with that excerpt (and if you didn't, well, swing by a church or hotel or Google and check it out).

An aside...don't you miss scripture signs at games? A friend of mine had end zone seats for one of the Eagles playoff games this past season and I tried to get her to take a sign that read Matthew 1:9 because I thought it would be fun to have people scrambling for their Bibles and looking up that verse and going "Huh?" but she wouldn't do it. No fun.

Returning to Ken Phelps and his quote, John 14:6 reads "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

Here's where the Scientologists let me down. You don't here them quoting L. Ron Hubbard like the Bible gets quoted. Wouldn't the scene in The Shawshank Redemption where the warden tosses Andy's cell been different if Andy had been reading Dianetics? "The scientific fact, observed and tested, is that the organism, in the presence of physical pain, lets the analyzer get knocked out of circuit so that there is a limited quantity or no quantity at all of personal awareness as a unit organism". Salvation lies within.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

A trio of books

Somehow I wrapped up three books this week. One I read entirely this week, one has covered two weeks and another four. This is the downside of working at a library. I'm always seeing things I want to read and I'll often sign them out. Then I find myself reading four or five books at a time (not at the same time. I don't hold one in each hand, one in each foot and another with (hey! get your mind out of the gutter!) some other means of propping up a book). Granted, I have the coordination and the high degree of ambidexterity needed to pull it off. I'm just missing the detached eyeballs and the extra pair of them.

I will keep books accessible everywhere which helps in getting reading done. Let's get to the reviews.

I've always wanted to read a book by Chuck Palahniuk and having just read Neil Strauss' concerns about the collapse of society, I thought Fight Club would be a good read. I enjoyed the movie immensely and books are always better than movies so I was expecting it to be awesome.

Not the case.

One of the reasons I like books better than movies is because you're treated to the workings of the mind much better in a book. You can only glean so much from facial expressions and narrator expositions. I honestly think that Fight Club the movie captures the essences of the characters better than the book does. The storylines are different, too. It's like the screenplay writer took scenes from the book and reworked them. I also felt that the movie captured the essence of a fight club better than the book did. The book is almost more about the pursuit of Marla which makes for a rather wacked love story. It also touches on themes of bad fathers which I'm glad the movie left out. I just think the concept of fight club-like organizations make more sense for a bunch of anarchists than for guys raised by single moms.

I do like Palahniuk's prose. It's sparse. He relies on repetition to infer that something isn't quite right with the narrator before we get the whole truth on his relationship with Tyler Durden. I can see myself picking up another one of his books down the road.

There's also mention of a desire to wipe one' posterior with the Mona Lisa. This may not be an easy feat. Perhaps it was easier in 1911.

Why 1911? Because that was the year that contained the day they stole the Mona Lisa. And The Day They Stole the Mona Lisa by Seymour Reit is about that day and the theft.

This book has been on my to read list for a long, long time and I was never able to find it. Published in 1981, it is long out of print and somehow I either missed it before in my library system or forgot to look for it until recently. Again, riding the crime wave of books I'm on, I checked it out.

The timing is surprising as there was an announcement last week that the book may be made into a movie. Strange that it popped up twice in my life like that.

The book is a (possibly) non-fiction account of the theft of the Mona Lisa. The story goes that a wealthy Argentinian, Eduardo de Valfierno, who dealt in art forgeries to keep himself wealthy got it in his head to steal the Mona Lisa. His typical game was to have a forger create a copy of some work of art. He would then bribe a museum guard to let him insert his copy behind the original in the museum. Valfierno would then bring his target to the museum and proclaim that he would steal the painting for the person and that they should go ahead and mark the back of the painting (which would be the back of the copy covering the back of the original) so that the target would know it is the actual painting that hung in the museum or gallery. Valfierno would then bribe the guard again, remove the copy with the mark on it, and then sell it to the target as the original. Valfierno would explain that what hung in the gallery was a fake because the museum would not want the public to know that it was stolen. Besides, what is the target going to do, go to the police?

Valfierno felt that it would be more profitable to actually steal a famed original and then rely on the large publicity surrounding the theft as his "proof" that the painting he had for sale was the original. He would still sell forgeries, however, in this case a half dozen of them.

Valfierno hires a trio of men who enter the Louvre as tourists, hide out in the museum after it closes, and then walk out with the painting disguised as weekend cleaning crew. The one man, Peruggia, keeps the painting hidden in a trunk for years while Valfierno supposedly sells his forgeries abroad to wealthy collectors.

Valfierno never returns to France and the fellow who stole the Mona Lisa decides to try and sell it to a museum in Italy a couple of years later. The museum, of course, calls the cops and the guy is arrested. An Italian himself, Peruggia tells how he was seduced by the Mona Lisa's smile and that he decided to return the painting to it's true home in Italy. He is tried in an Italian court and by this point, no one really cares so he's let off with a light sentence. The painting is returned to France and all is well.

The problem is, there's no proof that Valfierno ever existed. The entire story is based on an article a man by the name of Karl Decker wrote in the Saturday Evening Post. Decker interviewed this man numerous times but that is the entirety of the information on the person. Valfierno's forger also lacks any confirmation of existence which makes the whole story questionable outside of Peruggia's brazenness.

The final chapters of the book deal with the question of the legitimacy of the Mona Lisa, both before and after the theft, and is a fascinating story in and of itself. The Mona Lisa is not signed and so there is nothing to attribute it to DaVinci other than the beliefs of scholars after the fact. Reit looks at the little existing documentation of the era and comes to the conclusion that DaVinci did paint it and at least one other Mona Lisa which is in the hands of a private American collector.

It is interesting to think of forgeries and documentation and the passing of time. Who knows who painted the Mona Lisa that hangs in the Louvre. Who knows how art created in our era will be viewed five hundred years from now. Perhaps the tunes of the Beatles will be attributed to one of their many cover bands. Samantha Fox will be known for her hit Satisfaction. Fun to think about.

The last book completed this week was The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry. It is a very unusual detective story that included much more somnambulism than The Somnambulist did. Although unique, I couldn't really care much about it. The story takes place in an unnamed city in an unnamed place. Crime is handled by a group called The Agency which has many tiers, none of which are allowed to communicate with one another. A clerk, whose sole job is to type up the notes of solved crimes by detectives, finds himself unwillingly promoted to detective, presumably to discover what happened to the detective whose cases he was in charge of typing up. This detective has vanished. As the clerk explores more and more, again unwillingly, he finds that all the cases the detective supposedly solved were staged to make the detective seem like he solved them. More and more of these cases are revealed until we learn that some bad guys are trying to get away with something.

While the revelations and concepts are interesting in their uniqueness, the book itself is confusing and the characters, the place, the time, etc. lack any reason for caring about them. It's like reading about some ugly woman from Great Britain who can sing but probably hasn't been kissed. Who cares about that? Bad example. For some reason lots of people seem to care about that. OK, it's like a political figure decides to buy a pet for his children. I mean, really, why is that of interest to the world in general? Oh. Another poor choice for an example.

So maybe this is a much better book than I give it credit for being. It is unusual. I just don't think it's unusual enough to be interesting without having a character captivating enough to care about.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Why Retrosheet is bad for baseball

Let me start off that I don't have a beef with Retrosheet whatsoever. I've been a part of Retrosheet for many, many years and have known Dave Smith, the founder, since I was back in high school. I think Retrosheet has been one of the biggest advancements in how we understand and appreciate the history of the game in some time.

For those not familiar, Retrosheet is a volunteer effort coordinated by the above mentioned Dave Smith to computerize the play-by-play of as many pre-1984 baseball games as possible. Why 1984? Because that's when Project Scoresheet and then STATS began tracking play-by-play and making it available to the general public. Initially, in order to achieve this, Smith contacted the major league teams to see what they had in terms of scoresheets from games. The results were mixed but once he got his foot in the door, it soon opened wide. Scoresheets came from media outlets, official scorers and even fans donated sheets. A lot of information was found in play-play-play reports from newspapers and eventually, play-by-play existed for almost every game back to 1954.

All this information was made accessible by Sean Forman and his website Baseball Reference and this is where my beef begins. So many people get their information from there and use that to find stuff that it is becoming commonplace to act as if the beginning of baseball history was 1954.

Take this example from Kansas City Star sportswriter Joe Posnanski. He writes about cycles and just says "that's how far we are going back" meaning "that's all the data Retrosheet has and I'm being lazy enough to not do any research of my own besides using the Baseball Reference Play Index and also mention Retrosheet or Baseball Reference".

And I'm not picking on Joe, whose writings I enjoy immensely. This phenomenon is just becoming more and more rampant and Joe's is one of the more recent examples I've seen of it.

I also don't have a solution. Retrosheet has added boxscores from the games from the 1920's but that won't help as people certainly aren't going to begin citing "That's the most times that has happened since 1954 or in the 1920's". It's just frustrating that the ease of Baseball Reference is creating this arbitrary baseball history starting point.

As I mentioned before, I have an intent on increasing the scope of my own cycle research and so perhaps I can help in one small way. That doesn't do any good for other events but maybe it will open some eyes that there was more professional baseball played that Retrosheet doesn't have data for than that for which it does.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Return of NASCAR

Got out to Target for some birthday shopping and picked up some Press Pass NASCAR cards.

7 of 36 NSCS Drivers
1 of 12 NNS Drivers
2 of 6 NCTS Drivers
3 of 12 Built for Speed
4 of 12 Nascar Scene
3 of 8 Looking Forward (+1 double)
2 of 11 Tony Stewart - 10 Year Retrospective
2 of 9 Joey Logano - Through the Years
3 of 12 Top 12

7 blue parallels - 3 NSCS, 1 Built for Speed, 2 Scene, 1 Looking Forward
4 Freeze Frames
1 Trading Paint
1 Unleashed
and two Target cards

Total cards:
23 of 36 NSCS Drivers
8 of 12 NNS Drivers
3 of 6 NCTS Drivers
11 of 12 Built for Speed
9 of 12 Nascar Scene
6 of 8 Looking Forward
9 of 11 Tony Stewart - 10 Year Retrospective
4 of 9 Joey Logano - Through the Years
9 of 12 Top 12

14 of 36 Freeze Frames
4 of 12 Unleashed
5 of 9 Trading Paints
37 Blue parallels of 120


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Friday, June 29, 2007

Boxes of Words

We've been back in our Iowa home for nearly three weeks and have been unpacking boxes the whole time! Today we unpacked the very last box of books. It's also been three weeks since a monster bronchitis attacked me, rendering me unable to sing a single note and also unable to sustain even a simple conversation. I've been imagining my first official Sunday at my new church in Iowa City, in two days: "Hmm, the new priest doesn't say much." "They said she sings, but I didn't hear anything!"

Amidst these wanderings of the mind, I thought about all the thousands of words inside the books we freed from their boxes, setting them back in good order on neatly organized shelves. So many words! Maybe these countless words make up for all the words I've been unable to speak. Maybe I'm supposed to go into this new position as one who mostly listens. And maybe all the words, unspoken and newly taken out of boxes, just needed a time to rest.

Blogger The Archer of the Forest said...

I had to keep buying book shelves to store all my books. I need renter's insurance just to insure my cache of books.

2:23 PM

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Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Food, Race and Class: Eating Healthy Is Hard for Poor People

By Yovanna Garcia

A growing food movement exists that urges people in developed countries to support sustainable eating by foregoing greasy cheeseburgers and eating fresh produce at local family farms instead, but how often do we look at the intersection of food, race and class when considering what people eat and do not eat?

Vegetarians and vegans often critique people who are overweight and/or frequent consumers of fast food restaurants for their unhealthy eating habits, but fail to acknowledge how skewed — and privileged — their own eating habits are.

In developed countries, namely in the United States, there is a divide between what food is accessible and affordable to members of different races and class statuses.

Low-income people and communities of color usually have the short end of the stick when it comes to going green and eating healthy since buying and preparing fresh produce is not often a feasible option for working class people who may not have the budget or hours in the week to prepare home-cooked meals.

According to the Food Research and Action Center, approximately 49.1 million, or 16 percent, of Americans struggle to provide their families with enough food, let alone healthy, nourishing food. More than half if these struggling families, or 52.6 percent, are Latino or African-American.

Even government assistance programs limit people's dietary options. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program provides benefits and helps millions of low-income Americans put food on the table — and even then, a family of four, on average, is only allotted about $649 for food per month, which is extremely limiting for purchasing fruits and vegetables.

Recently, a Republican state lawmaker in Missouri is said to be pushing for legislation that would limit what food stamp recipients can buy. The bill being proposed would ban food stamp recipients from buying steak and seafood.

When burgers cost just $0.99 at fast food chains and salads start at $4.99, it is no wonder that many low-income families and poor people opt out of eating healthy, when it comes down to the choice of eating whatever is cheapest and available or not eating at all. Even local farmers' markets are not so local for urban neighborhoods where a majority of the African-American, Latino/Hispanic and Asian population do not have access to clean water, let alone a basic food basket.

It was not until last year when I attended a workshop on food politics at the National Conference on Race & Ethnicity, or NCORE, that I realized food justice is racial justice. This means that you cannot claim to be an advocate on race issues without mentioning a lack of basic civil and political rights, such as food, among different races.

This workshop helped illustrate the intersection of race, class and food dynamics in America, going beyond the labor practices that disproportionately affect people of color.

According to, “A large percentage of factory farm workers are people of color including migrant workers from Mexico and other parts of Latin America,” where employers will often recruit undocumented workers since they are less likely to complain about the low wages and exploitative working conditions.

Of course, you rarely hear about this issue from the very same people — usually white, upper class vegetarians and vegans — who urge others to eat healthy at any cost.

As a woman of color from an urban neighborhood, I have seen food injustice and systemic racism my entire life through my own experiences and those around me, but I was only able to put a name and social theory to it after I had developed the social consciousness to understand how it has affected me throughout my life.

I can finally understand why my family only ate fruit when it was in season, since it was cheapest, why I never knew that so many vegetarian or vegan people existed until college and why I never had access to a farmers' market until attending college in a predominately white community.

While the emphasis on going green is admirable, it tends to overlook differences in the identities of those who can actually participate in the sustainability movement. The capitalistic food industry is an abomination and this is a fight that many vegetarians and vegans know all too well, but they cannot expect poor people of color to choose to focus on this fight with all other issues that disproportionately affect them.

As with any social justice movement, food justice is an issue that needs more voices. The voices of those who are most affected by the systemic injustice need to be heard, but that can only happen when upper class white people realize their place and privilege in the movement. Instead of shaming others for their eating options and habits, they should instead educate themselves about their own privilege.

A version of this article also appeared in The Ramapo News

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Friday, December 12, 2014

Becoming Nikki Blog Tour: Author Interview

Remember when I blogged a cover reveal for Ashley Elliott's debut novel, Becoming Nikki?  Well, it's really, actually here.  Right here.  Or here.  Check it out, guys (girls?).  It's a great novel and I know ya'll will LOVE it.  You can also enter to win a signed copy here, through Rafflecopter, or here, through Goodreads.  But I highly recommend you purchase it too.  Support a budding author and all that. (*winks*)  Anywho, the real purpose of this post is part of Ze Fabulous Blog Party that Ashley has going right now. (well, actually, it's pretty much over - I'm at the very end of it...not that I mind)

I knew I wanted to do an interview with Ashley, but I also knew that I wanted it to be unique.  And so did she.  We put our two minds together (scary thought!) and came up with the idea (well, it was mostly her doing) of conducting the interview via Skype chat.  So, that's what we did.  It was lots of fun, made the interview more interesting (in my humble opinion), and you'll be able to see a bit of our mutual craziness and fangirlyness (that's not a word, right?) because of the format.  Without further ado...the interview!
So, Ashley, tell me and my blog readers a little bit about yourself!
Whhhhheeeell, my name is Ashley, I'm 20 years old - SO OLD! - and I'm a writer.  (Duh.)  I'm also a reader, a musician, a singer, a fangirl, and a movie-and-tv-show-binger.  I'm the second oldest of six and I'm currently pursuing a degree in Humanities through CollegePlus.
And could you tell us a little bit about your new book, Becoming Nikki?
Becoming Nikki is about a girl named Nikki and her brother, Alec.  They ice dance together - which is kinda like ice skating - except it's the only thing they have in common anymore because their relationship is falling apart.  Then, as the result of a swimming accident, Alec loses his memory and Nikki is given the chance to rebuild their relationship from the foundations.  However, she struggles with how much she should help him, and if she should hide anything from him...  Either way, she knows her life will never be the same.  DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN.
Wow.  That sounds...dramatic.
I know, right?  Especially when you add in the DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN.
With all that drama, you must've had some pretty interesting sources of inspiration.  Care to share what they were?
Indeedy.  Well, I first started loving ice dancing after watching the 2010 Winter Olympics and I've been obsessed with Meryl Davis and Charlie White ever since.  Pretty sure they're what keep me inspired with Nikki.  As I wrote Nikki, whenever I needed inspiration, I'd either take a break and eat some chocolate or I'd watch a video of Meryl & Charlie ice dancing.  :)
I haven't watched much ice dancing, but I loved reading your descriptions of it in Nikki.  I think the only time I've watched any ice dancing was one woman dancer during the Olympics who danced to some music from Les Miserables.  That's about it.
Oh, it was SO hard to write those!  I am not an ice skater by ANY means - whenever I do it, I always hold on to the railing - but I love it, and I'm kinda-sorta-okay-TOTALLY obsessed with it, so I watch the videos over and over and over until I feel like I've got it just right.  Oh, and I'm also a perfectionist, SO.  : P  Oh, cool!  Meryl and Charlie did a Phantom dance that was just fantastic.  I love it when they do their dances set to music I know!
Well, if the ice dancing scenes were some of the hardest scenes for you to write, what was one of the easiest?
All of the scenes that were only with Nikki and Natalie, her best friend.  I feel like I'm some kind of weird combination of Nikki, who is very introverted and shy, and Natalie, who is absolutely hilarious and makes friends with everyone.  Those scenes were the easiest to write because it was like writing out of the different sides of me.
I love Natalie!  She's one of my favorite characters.
Me, toooo!  People keep asking who my favorite character is and I honestly can't decide!!!  I always say Bennett, though, because he has a special place in my heart.  ;)
Okay, what about top THREE favorite?
Okay, I can do top three.  ;)  Nikki, Dylan, and Natalie are my top three.  Then comes Bennett and Alec.
Wait a sec.  It's been so long since I've read the book that I've completely forgotten who Bennett is. *sigh*  So...who is he exactly?
Hahaha, it's okay.  Bennett is Natalie's ice dancing partner.  I'm pretty sure Natalie and Nikki met through ice dancing.  Bennett and Natalie aren't quite as good as Nikki and Alec, but they're better than most.
Ohhhhh, that's right.  Now I remember.
He’s awesome.
He is.  Anywho...moving on with all the interview questions (*wink*) what is it you'd like people to take away from Nikki?
I think of Nikki as a relationship book.  It's about how to mend relationships that are falling apart and how to heal broken relationships.  But it's great because it's not one of those boring, non-fiction books that talks about relationships and how to fix them and is just totally yawn-worthy.  It's told in a story format.  I read this great quote once about stories... let me see if I can find it....  Ahh, yes.  Here it is.  "If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten." - Rudyard Kipling.  I could go on and on about this because stories are something I'm really passionate about.  But I won't.  ;)
I love that.  Both your answer and the quote.  It's so true!  I remember more from reading a good historical fiction novel than ten non-fiction books.
I know, right?  I think I've learned more about history through stories I've read - like Les Mis and The Scarlet Pimpernel and Dickens and Austen....
Except when it comes to Unbroken.
I'm so glad I recommended that to you, so we can fangirl over it together.  ;)  Guys, if you haven't read Unbroken, DO SO.  As soon as possible.
Definitely.  So, hey, I just thought I'd ask you about your newest writing project - The Art Of Letting Go.  Do you think another self-publishing is in your future?  Or TRADITIONAL publishing?
Ooh, yes.  Good old TAoLG.  *rubs hands together*  Part of me wants to take the easier route and just self-publish it myself, but part of me - the Natalie/adventurous part - wants to try and do - DUN DUNNNN - the traditional route.
That would be awesome!
I know!  It's just incredibly daunting and scary....
Lastly, just for fun, what's your favorite book?  Movie?  TV show?
Ahhhhh, Evaaaaaa.  You KNOW I can't pick a favorite book, movie, or TV show.  No, wait, you know what my favorite TV show is.  ;)  But let's go from the beginning.  One of my favorite books - because I can never narrow it down to an exact Number One Favoritest Book Ever - is Unbroken.  Which we've already glossed over.  It's an amazing story of survival, redemption, and forgiveness.  And I love it.  My favorite movie is....  Oh, gracious, I don't know!!!  Let's go with /Captain America: The First Avenger/ because I LOVE IT SO MUCH.  Because Steve is one of the greatest guys on the silver screen and his story is just... *sigh*  Amazing.
Yes.  I love him so much.  Definitely my favorite superhero.
Duh.  Absolutely.  He blows everybody else out of the water... except maybe Peter Parker.  But that's another blog post topic for another time.  AND MY FAVORITE TV SHOW IS BOY MEETS WORLD AND I DON'T EVEN NEED ANY TIME TO THINK ABOUT IT.  It's one of the most feelsy, powerful, and funniest TV shows I've ever seen.  Bar none.  The end.  Amen and amen.
Ah, YES.  I've got to watch more episodes with you.  SOON.
ABSOLUTELY, YES.  THE SHAWN DRAMA, EVA.  SHAWN DRAMA.  I just found out that Eric's going to be on Girl Meets World, and I did a blog post on it, and I'M SO EXCITEDDDDDD.  The episode of GMW that Shawn is in is premiering tonight, but I can't watch it because (1) I don't have the channel and (2) Even if I did, I can't watch it because I have a concert tonight.  : (((((((  I'll find it on YouTube tomorrow.  ;)
Well, I know you could talk about BMW all day, but time's running out, so we should probably wrap up this interview ;)
Hahahahaha, yeahhhh, I could.  ;)  Well, thank you so much for interviewing me!  This was fun!  :)
It was!  Surprisingly. (I'M KIDDING)  I can't wait to read BN in all its revised glory :)
Haha, it's much better than the version you had to read.  ;)
But that was still awesome.
Well, I'm glad you thought so!
Yep.  That's us.  Two crazy peas in a pod of feels and fandoms and friendship. (*grins*)

Again, the link to buy Nikki is here.  Go do it.  You know you want to.

Ashley Elliott is a writer, reader, musician, photographer, tree-climber, and Leaguette. She speaks fluently in movie quotes and spends most of her time fangirling over her latest obsession. In her free time, she enjoys laughing with her friends, laughing over Christian indie films (but secretly loving them), and laughing with her five crazy siblings. Ashley is a homeschool graduate and is currently pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Humanities through CollegePlus. She lives in Georgia with her parents and siblings, and doesn't have any pets.

inklingspress said...

*giggles* WOW. That was SOOOO much fun! What a great way to end the blog tour. We make a great team, don't we? ; ) Thanks for interviewing me!

Beth said...

Hello! I have awarded you over at my blog, please have a look:)
By the way, I love your Pinterest. :-D

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Drifting thoughts of a snowflake

Friday, April 30, 2004

Victory is mine!

You might remember the rantings I entertained regarding my cube-mate. She’s the loud gay woman that invades my work environment. Well, I’m so cunning that I got rid of her once and for all.

It appears Miss S. had a hankering for a little caviar. At my suggestion, and slight persuasion, I instructed her to find Central Market. Miss S lives very close to this part of town, but is unfamiliar on how to get anywhere. Could it be that she never leaves her cat infested home?

She left with instruction in hand for the location of the fish dispensers. Her last sentence wafting in the air, “if you don’t hear back from me today, it’s because I’m lost for good!” Oh, how tempting. The Cheshire cat smiles at his good deed, relishing in the glorious thought of silence.

It’s been over and hour, and nothing. No noticeable noise is detected from her side of the wall. I hear no tapping on her keyboard, no loud conversation to her hidden lover.

Indeed, I do believe the sanctity of silence is mine. I can hear the snowflakes falling on the high traffic carpet. Lovely, glorious victory.

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Colour Statement

Posted by Hayley Gilbert Wednesday, 15th November 2017

As the nights draw in and our days become shorter, now is the perfect time to consider adding a splash of colour to the kitchen. Nothing brightens up a dark, dreary weekend like a vibrant colour scheme that makes you want to linger in the kitchen, cooking up hearty soups, stews and casseroles for family and friends. Whether you’re planning a whole new design in time for Christmas or you just want a quick update before the festive season begins, there are plenty of ways to add pizzazz and personality to your room....

Create a style statement with Rangemaster

Posted by Hayley Gilbert Wednesday, 19th April 2017

When planning a new kitchen, there’s one item that can easily be your starting point – something that you can base the rest of the scheme around, and that’s a range cooker. Rangemaster ranges come in a fantastic selection of sizes, shapes and styles, so there’s sure to be something to suit. As well as offering everything you need for professional cooking results, your choice of cooker can also help to create the ultimate style statement.

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Engine Support

by Richard Atwell
(c) Copyright 2004-2011

Disclaimer: this article is for illustration only. Lifting engines is very dangerous so wear steel toe boots, observe safety protocols and use common sense.

They say there are two kinds of VW owners: those that have pulled their engine and those that are going to. If you've ever rebuilt or dressed an engine while it sat on the floor you'll immediately understand how inconvenient it is. The solution is to purchase an engine stand like a repair shop or rebuilder would use.

Stands come in several styles: T, I, A and U styles. The style describes the arrangement of the legs:

T base H base A base C base
"T" "H" "A" "C"(The best!)

The C style is usually rated for 1250 lbs and has one obvious advantage: you can remove the vertical post and use it as an engine dolly with some 2'x4's and a floor jack. This is the style I think it best to own and it works equally as well for VW and Porsche.

The stand I bought is the Torin Big Red (#T25671). If you can find one locally get it because shipping a heavy item like this can be expensive. Luckily I found one that was in the same UPS zone. The stand was $50 and with tax/discount/shipping the total came to $65.

What I like most about the stand besides its use an an engine dolly and price are the dimensions: 31" high, 31" long and 29" wide.

Torin height Torin length Torin width

This allows you to drive an ATV jack or lift into the base area to help you lift the engine onto the stand. My first attempt was with the H style and you can see below how difficult it was to use when you are lacking a hoist (something most people won't have and which is not tailored to lifting a boxer engine anyway). Just take a look at the size of this impractical crane: Suitable for a large shop but what about your little garage? (Photo)

Style Pros Cons
T stand none tipsy
H stand sturdy no front access
A stand super sturdy too big, access
C stand Best access none

porsche yoke

Now that you've got a stand how do you mount the engine to it?

The VW parts vendors sell a surprisingly expensive engine stand. It is not made from box steel and incredibly bouncy when the engine is fitted. Avoid temptation and steer clear of this stand: it's just the cheapest version you can buy and while I might mount the yoke by itself to a sturdy bench I wouldn't trust the welding of that bouncy stand at those prices. To be fair it's only designed to lift a Type 1 engine.

One thing you'll notice about the design is that it has a 2-arm yoke style engine holding fixture. Again, this is a poor reproduction of the original version made by Matra for the VW factory and their dealerships.

The box frame engine stands come with a universal yoke but it bolts to the case in a way that puts stress on the transmission mounting holes. The original fixture is designed to support the engine in an arc so the case is not stressed.

The original VW yoke was a sturdy 2 or 3 arm affair but it's hard to find used and expensive. Luckily the case mounting holes are universal between aircooled VW and Porsche engines and this allows us to use a 4 arm (dead link) or 5 arm fixture normally used to support a fully dressed 911 engine. Some people think this item is overkill for a VW engine but it's well made and available.

Unfortunately these items have been going up in price recently. The Porsche factory yoke costs $700 and the reproduction from Sir Tools shown here that used to be $125 a few years ago is now over $300 list price. Simply crazy! Keep a look out for one at a reasonable price. I looked for 6 months on eBay in order to save a hundred plus on the 5-arm reproduction.

Ok, so you're saying that's a lot of money. We'll there's a useful alternative that combines the yoke and the universal engine adapter. It's made by Mainley Custom By Design and is about $150.

Aug '07 Update: a sub-$200 yoke from QSC has recently appeared on the scene:

Style Pros Cons
Engine stand yoke "free" bad for engine case
Aftermarket VW yoke inexpensive really meant for Type 1 engines
Factory 5-arm yoke strong expensive
Mainley Ring strong affordable

sirtools clamp

The VW/Porsche style yokes are designed to fit into a companion clamp (Sir Tools P313) that is bench mounted. The clamp was also meant to be bolted to a heavy duty stand that was bolted to the floor. Because the clamp held the engine level instead of at a slight angle like the universal stands it was easy to rotate by hand.

This yoke does not have a rotation handle attached to the back like the universal versions which makes engine rotation on the universal stands slightly more difficult due to the fact that the yoke is longer than the receiver on the universal stands. This can make it awkward to align the hole and hitch pin that lock the yoke to keep the engine from rotating. Given the number of times you need to rotate the engine this isn't really an issue. Just be sure to grease the yoke before inserting it into the stand.

Note: the head of the engine stand the holds the yoke is about 2 1/2" ID (63mm) while the yoke is a slightly smaller metric size of 60mm. While the engine does rotate easily on the stand even with the slightly loose fit I decided to improve the fit. I bought 2 ft. of 10" wide aluminum flashing from the hardware store and cut it to 21" long. This allowed me to wrap the inside about three times around. Use a clamp to compress the cylinder you form and insert it into the head. After you flare the front edge and trim the rear you can drill a hole through your shim so you can still fit the hitch pin. Secure it with a hose clamp and grease the inside.

my sleeve sleeve clamp

This setup is less than ideal but it's a compromise. If you have the money to spare, I would modify the engine stand by cutting off the top and welding a plate that would allow you to mount the bench clamp.

Style Pros Cons
Engine stand "free" angled, wrong size for yoke
Factory Clamp none expensive

Mechanical Fuel Pumps:

72-74 Type 4 engines with the mechanical fuel pump will not clear the engine yoke. You have to remove the pump first. The yokes are designed to bolt up using the starter mount hole and the engine case stud below it using one of the nuts from the bell housing and the engine mounting bolt opposite the starter D-bolt. You can bolt it the other way but then the yoke won't clear the engine tin. If you need to bolt a starter adapter then you don't have a choice. If you bolt it horizontal you won't be able to split the case on the stand which defeats the purpose of using it to it's fullest.

BTW, I believe the original screws holding the fuel pump on were 8mm triple square like the new style CV joint bolts.

fuel pump carbs

Engine Dolly:

The traditional tool for VW engine removal at home is the dolly. All the factory photos you'll see show a pair of technicians using a long transmission jack to pull and engine and transition from a beetle.

The dolly is made from metal (although I've seen a few home-made 2x4 experiments) and it lets you slide a jack into it so you can lower the engine onto it and remove the jack afterwards. Some models have 4 casters instead of 3 and most are most from angle iron although I've seen a couple made from T-iron which is stronger although I'm not sure if it's necessary.

When choosing a dolly, all you need to know is whether or not it fits Type 4 engines because most are designed to fit the Type 1 crankcase only.

All of these stands are no fun to roll because the casters are so small and do not move easily over rough ground. The small casters are a necessity to keep the stand as low to the ground as possible.

The dolly really needs a couple of eyelets to let you attach a rope to pull it back to the garage.

ATV Jacks:

atv jack

Thanks to the Chinese, expensive items like shop equipment are costing less and less. One such item is the ATV jack which can be had for about $50 now.

With a plank of wood, the ATV jack lets you lower and transport the engine back to your garage. I can't really fault anything about this method except that the jack doesn't lift up high enough (more on this later). I wish I knew who to give credit to for this idea because it's really great.

These jacks are also called motorcycle jacks. You might wonder how you can lift a modern motorcycle with the exhaust pipes running below? These jacks are really meant for the old style cruisers with the cradle frame (watch American Chopper sometime).

Style Pros Cons
Dolly low profile engine case specific
ATV jack mobility/convenience limited lift height

If you thought choosing a stand and locating an affordable yoke was difficult try lifting 300 lbs worth of engine off the floor and mounting it onto the stand that's too high. Several workarounds exist. Use 4 or more people and a short table and try to lift the engine onto the stand. Use a hoist to lift the engine up to the necessary height. Even with the lift there is a risk of damaging the fan shroud if you don't remove it because it's made from Magnesium and fragile.

I think everyone probably comes to their own unique solution based on the equipment and manpower at hand. Planning the lift is harder than it looks. He's my own solution for an engine pull I did for a friend and it shows the awkwardness of the ATV jack and the stand I used:

1. The first step was to remove the engine from the vehicle. I like to use an ATV jack because of its superior stability and mobility. The previous engine removal I performed was to replace a leaking flywheel seal. I also undressed and cleaned the engine and while the engine was supported on the jack and inconvenient it was still better than working on the engine with it directly on the floor. TJ pulls engine
2. The engine is supported by a plank of hard wood as it sits on the jack. This prevents the jack from getting damaged and helps to support the bottom of the engine keeping it level. I often take off the exhaust beforehand but since the bolts on this 72 engine have rusted so badly I decided to remove them after mounting on the stand. engine on jack
3. The ATV jack cannot lift to the height that the yoke requires to mount the engine on the stand. I scratched my head for a few hours wondering how best to do this with the equipment on hand and I came to realize it would be possible with my second jack and some blocks of wood. I used eight 6x6x12" end cuts from some wooden posts and oriented the jack transversely to the engine stand. This would allow me to roll the engine over the jack while providing a secure base. jack n stand setup
4. I raised the engine to transfer it from one jack to the other but found the engine didn't slide easily because of the irregular shape of the bottom. I discovered this during a prior engine pull trying to move the engine from the jack to a wooden pallet. My solution then was to rock the engine from side to jack but I found it unstable at this height so I decided to support the engine temporarily by the heater boxes using my floor jacks (another good reason to leave the muffler attached). Because of the arrangement of the eight blocks I was able to clear the support blocks, roll the engine over the other jack and lower it. The arrangement of blocks is very limited in order to allow the various jacks to move back and forth using the H style base. jack lifting engine
5. With a sturdy base and the engine stable I lifted the engine up into position. The yoke needs to go up about 2 feet to be at the same height as the receiver but because the receiver is angled you have to go higher in order to tip the stand to get the receiver level for the hand off. upper jack lifting
6. At this point it was easy to slide the yoke into the receiver and slowly lower the ATV jack in order to support the full weight of the engine on the stand. No heavy lifting involved, just a lot of jacks and a little "enginuity" :-) Too many jacks were required and I won't do it this way again but we were pressed for time.

If this procedure looks difficult just try doing the reverse. I must stress that at any time you are trying to remove the engine stand while you transfer the engine to the jacks and you discover that the stand is still supporting the engine, do not attempt to remove the stand fully. If you do, you might find that the engine is precariously balanced and the chances of it falling and damaging the engine or yourself are great.

engine on stand

A better way:

lift table $99 table

So having struggled with the difficulty of mounting and mounting I had to search for a better way. My solution? To use a U-shaped engine stand and a hydraulic lifting table:

The photo shows it in action. These tables can be had for $200 from HF and other vendors. Some only lift 300 lbs, some 1000 lbs. You have to carefully look at the specs. The best deal I've seen was at Kragen Auto. They had a $100 table that could lift 500 lbs. from Champion Power Equipment (NLA).

The table surface only lowers to about 11" off the ground. This means you can't use it like an ATV jack without jacking up the bus even higher. I haven't tried it yet but you may be able to remove the engine if you put the bus on ramps and remove the rear bumper.

These tables are also fairly heavy which limits their mobility. Having a table like this must be useful for a variety of other tasks. When not in use, just use it as a non-lifting table so it doesn't waste space in your garage.

I recently came across this photo showing the table in action, installing a beetle engine with the valance removed (something you can't do with the 72-79 bus). You can see they've lifted up the rear a little because of the minimum height of the table I mentioned.

Style Pros Cons
ATV jack inexpensive, fits under engine limited lift height, can't balance engine and trans together
Hydraulic Lifting Table lift height too high to remove engine from bus, needs C style stand, heavy

It's hard to beat the lift table for overall stability.

11/16/04 - Created
04/28/05 - Updates with lifting table
12/1/05 - Added photo of beetle engine
06/11/07 - Added clamp, ATV jack and dolly photos
09/07/11 - Fixed broken photos, added translate button, updated footer


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Showing posts from August, 2012

Pitch Perfection - a psychological perspective

Adherence to shruti is the greatest truth in music.  Every system of note in the world places extreme importance in tuneful renditions of the basic 12 tones within an octave.  In reality, the yardsticks of what is tuneful varies from system to system.  For instance, certain note values in Just-Intonation system of natural melodic systems in the world like Carnatic Music (CM)/Hindustani (HM) are different to those heard in Equal Tempered-Tuning system, embraced in the West.

Varied yardsticks
In friendly terms, Just intonation is based on laws of physics and aesthetics, but the intervals between any two notes in an octave is not constant.  While this sounds beautiful when notes are heard one after the other, it can create problems when certain note-combinations are rendered simultaneously by orchestras.  Therefore, for reasons of harmony, Western scholars 'averaged out' some note values to create equal intervals between the 12 tones.   Violin-legend Yehudi Menuhin has gone on re…