The Current State of Affairs

Man jumps off building after an Italian dinner

Gadabout enjoyed dinner out with friends this past Friday and Saturday evenings. Both venues were Italian, and both served up above average fare. There was one unique difference between the two that is noteworthy, though. That difference was that Saturday night was twice as expensive as Friday night.

Friday night’s dinner was just Gadabout and a friend. Beer and wine was involved and the tab totaled $55 including tax and a 21% tip (the service was exceptional…thanks, Zia’s). Saturday’s meal was a bit more complicated. Our party consisted of 6 adults and 4 children (thank you for setting up 2 separate tables and supplying pizza dough to entertain the ADD afflicted miniature people). Gadabout ate light and consumed one beer and two glasses of wine, so I am guessing I was roughly carrying a 0.04 BAC at the end of the meal. The bill for the slightly above average chow totaled $386 (tax and 20% tip included). Do the Math.

My point is that Americans toss cash into the air like confetti at a Super Bowl parade. Just in dinners, Gadabout tosses at least $5,000 out the window for slightly above average meals each and every year. Now remember, this $5,000 is after tax income and only includes weekend expenditures – not pizzas and other food purchases during the week!

Americans love to consume, and consume we do. We consume at the movie theater where we spend $40 dollars for two tickets, popcorn, diet Cokes and nachos. A 42 inch LCD? Sold! A new Lazy Boy? Sold! Tickets to the ballgame? Sold! A week in Aspen? Sold! A new Escalade? Sold! $4,000 to paint the home interior? Sold!

Americans are in debt. Debt produces anxiety in relationships that often leads to divorce. Divorces can cost mucho dollars, leading to more debt and anger. Anger towards others causes health problems and lost productivity and reduced incomes. Reduced income and spiraling debt is a shiny pathway to bankruptcy. Bankruptcy causes people to jump off tall buildings and splat themselves onto unforgiving concrete surfaces at an acceleration rate of 32 ft/sec2 (remember, Gadabout has a Masters Degree in Science).

In short, Italian dinners lead to gruesome deaths where Americans hit the pavement at a velocity of 300 feet/second. Splat! The End.

The American League is Locked

An Indian Killed a Tiger

Indians with bats
Beat, hit…killed a Tiger
Faded pennant dreams

Gadabout sadly concedes defeat for his favorite ball club, the Tigers. Well, there is always next year.

It is all about Cleveland, Boston, New York, and LA.

Sadness and shame.

American League Madness

It is not a secret that Gadabout is an enthusiastic baseball fan, which makes him a true American. And like most baseball fans, he is keeping both eyes fixated on divisional and Wild Card outcomes. This has been a fantastic year for baseball fans, especially with the Yankees distant second place performance behind the Red Sox. People are either Yankee fans, or they are Yankee adversaries. There is little middle ground here. Sort of like rock and roll in the 60’s—you either loved it or hated it. Yankee fans are sweating a bit this year, and that is good and wholesome. Beer is wholesome. Whisky is wholesome. Muscle cars are wholesome. And a second place Yankee team is wholesome.

2007 American League Baseball

God is good
God is great
Thank you for a Yankee team
Staring at an empty plate!

Okay, what will the outcome be? The Mariners have stumbled of late with a 1-9 last ten games winning streak. They have a three game stint in Detroit that will have lasting affects on the wild card outcome.

Cleveland is on the road for three games against the Western division LAA leaders, and if Cleveland stumbles their hold on the Central Division will be challenged.

Boston and NY are playing high school teams Baltimore and KC and are keeping pace within the East.

Which four teams will be left standing?

American League Might

Tomorrow we celebrate our mid-season baseball classic, the All Star Game. Hockey and Basketball are behind us now, and we are focusing our collective attention on Baseball (thank God!). This a great time of the year! It is hot, we are vacationing, and baseball dominates television programming. The game starts at 8:25 PM EDT. Late in the evening, yes, but worth it.

Now, Gadabout plays favorites when it comes to baseball. He is a big fan of the American League, and even a bigger fan of the Detroit Tigers. Gadabout grew up watching Tiger greats like Al Kaline (Hall of Fame), Mickey Lolich (3 game winning pitcher in the 68 World Series), Denny McLain (31 game winning pitcher in 1968, and convicted felon). The entire ’68 team was unstoppable. The Tigers have had up and down years since then, like most teams, but throughout it all I have remained a loyal and steadfast fan despite many dark years. Hey, they took the American League Pennant last year! And the won the 84 World Series! Respectable!

Now, if you are a Tiger fan like me, then you are going to be an American League fan. It's just that simple. Besides Detroit, the American League boasts the Red Sox, White Sox, Yankees, Indians, Orioles, A’s, Blue Jays, Twins, Mariners, Royals, Angels Devil Rays and Rangers. About the only thing that could make the American League perfect, would be if the Cubs jumped ship and joined its ranks. Everybody loves the Cubs. You are not human if you don’t like the Cubbies! The League lost the Brewers during a reorganization a few years back. That was a loss—a team has to be fun with a name like the “Brewers.” Oh well.

Since incorporation of inter-league play, the American league has cleaned up. This year’s scorecard shows a 134-115 lopsided advantage for the AL. It was the same story last year too. “Spank!” Two of the three cellar teams in the AL; Texas and Kansas City, recorded winning records during inter-league play. Nine of the fourteen AL teams have winning inter-league play records this year, three have loosing records and the remaining two teams were .500.

The National League is winless in the past 10 match-ups. There was a 7-7 tie in 2002, but no W’s for the NL since 1996. This year’s match up will be hosted by San Francisco. Grab a six pack of beer, fire up the grill and sit back, relax and enjoy our most American and cherished Classic. “We live for this!” Go AL!