Game Day Thoughts

It's not a big game, I admit. We aren't playing a league game, so it really doesn't count much. Still, real fans should be supporting the team, even when it is a smaller game. Where is the team spirit? They don't see it that way, I guess, and the stadium is not overcrowded.

In fact, the area where we are sitting is practically empty. So why do the only other people in that section who do show up happen to have seats right in front of us, and be the kind of people who stand for everything, forcing you to stand also in order to see?

The band had finished the pre-game show. There was still a minute thirty seconds or so before kick off. #2 Son decides to go to the restroom. Even though there is almost no one in there, he is back with 40 seconds to spare. How? I mean, in this area, boys are sure lucky. Even if I had gone at the same time, and there was no wait, I wouldn't have been able to get undressed and redressed that fast. I don't even want to know if he washed up afterward. Must be good to be male when restroom time comes.

Some parents are very brave. None of my kids went to a game before the age of almost 4. Now I see tiny babies and little toddlers, in addition to the 4 years and up crowd, all appropriately dressed in team colors. I would be concerned about having very young children in such close quarters with large crowds. My dad the doc didn't recommend it, and I agreed, for my kids at least. Other parents can be braver if they want, I won't object.

It was band reunion weekend. Former band members come back to relive old glory days. Two things the alumni association will tell you. Band members aren't usually big donors. I guess there isn't much money in majoring in music unless you become a big rock star or something. Also, they have a tendency to be big drinkers at the party the night before the game. I think I will leave that alone.

Why is it that, when we are gone from the house for more than a couple of hours (usually about 5 hours for a game night), the kittens that swarm us for food first are the ones actually most able to fend for themselves? The older ones, even those that still want a bottle because they are only partly weaned, can eat some dry food, and have it available all of the time. Yet they swarm first when we walk in the door, and the baby babies wait more quietly. Those that get more want more, it seems.


Today is:

Dasera -- Hindu

Dessalines Day -- Haiti

Festival of Hengest -- St. Ives, UK

Four Prunes Day (Only if you dare!)

Gaudy Day a/k/a Wear Something Gaudy Day

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

Loyalty Day -- Argentina

National Mammography Day

National Pasta Day

Shukaku Matsuri a/k/a Kannamesai Harvest Festival, Japan -- Shinto

St. Audrey's Day Fair, Isle of Ely

St. Ignatius of Antioch's Day

St. John the Dwarf's Day

World Toy Camera Day


Anniversaries Today:

Crown Prince Fernando of Aragon marries Princess Isabella of Castile,
1469
Composer Johann S. Bach marries his niece Maria Bach, 1707


Birthdays Today:

Norm MacDonald, 1963
Alan Jackson, 1958
Howard Rollins, 1950
Margot Kidder, 1948
George Wendt, 1948
Ronn Owens, 1945
Evel Knievel, 1938
Jimmy Breslin, 1930
Tom Poston, 1921
Montgomery Clift, 1920
Rita Hayworth, 1918
Arthur Miller, 1915
Jean Arthur, 1905
Spring Byington, 1893


Today in History:

King Cyrus the Great of Persia marches into the city of Babylon and releases the Jews from their 70 years of exile and making the first Human Rights Declaration, BC539
Battle of Neville's Cross, the defeat of King David II of Scotland by Edward III of England, 1346
German astronomer Johannes Kepler observes a supernova in the constellation Ophiuchus, 1604
Boston blacks petition the legislature for equal school facilities, 1787
The political rights of Jews are suspended in the Duchy of Warsaw, 1808
Thomas Edison files a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie), 1888
Guglielmo Marconi's comapany begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service between Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada, and Clifden, Ireland, 1907
Albert Einstein arrives in the US as a refugee from Nazi Germany, 1933
The first commercial nuclear power station is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in Sellafield,in Cumbria, England, 1956
Prime Minister of Australia Robert Menzies opens the artificial Lake Burley Griffin in the middle of the capital Canberra, 1964
Botswana and Lesotho join the United Nations, 1966
Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte murdered by members of the FLQ terrorist group, 1970
OPEC starts an oil embargo against a number of western countries, considered to have helped Israel in its war against Syria, 1973
Mother Teresa awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, 1979
The pinnacle is fitted on the roof of Taipei 101, making it the World's tallest highrise, 2003