New story

Due to popular demand -- okay, one person expressed interest, but I'm counting that -- I have a new, "This would only happen to me," story.


Last Thursday evening I had plans with some Huntsville friends. As my HSV class didn't get out until 2:45, I figured it made no sense to come back to Decatur just to turn around and go back to HSV. Hence, I had some time to kill. As I am wont to do, I headed to a bookstore/coffee shop.


Just as I got my coffee and settled down to do the crossword puzzle, though, I noticed 3 of my students at a table in the cafe area. Strange as it may be, they actually were studying for my class! After a little while, I got to feeling bad for them and went over and asked if they needed any help or had any questions. I figured it was an opportunity for some "free tutoring", but they said they were fine. Well I figured maybe they just didn't have any questions at the ready, so I told them I was going to browse the bookstore for a while and I'd stop back by before I left. That way, I thought, they'll have some time to come up with questions.

After about half an hour, I did stop back by their table. When I again asked if they had any questions, they again assured me they were good, BUT, they said, there were two women looking for me out in the bookstore! I think the most intelligent response I could manage was something like, "Huh?" Then they explained.


Evidently two women were just leaving the cafe when they noticed these kids studying economics. For some reason, this interested the women. Then when the women found out I was there teacher, well they got really excited -- at least according to my students. Again I responded with an eloquent, "Wha?"


My students didn't know why, but these women were now looking for me out in the bookstore. The best I could get out of them is that these women had kids taking econ and stats and they REALLY wanted to talk to me personally. Now that's something every teacher lives for -- an encounter with parents out in public! When I found this out, I asked my students, "So since they are out there (pointed toward the bookstore), I should go out there (point toward parking lot)?" My students couldn't say about that, but one of them did volunteer that one of the women seemed sort of pushy. Great!


Needless to say, I hoofed it out the door. I told the students they could give my email address to the women if they came back, but I was headed out. Before I could get to my car, though, I heard a woman calling from the direction of the bookstore. When I turned around, she was scurrying across the lot toward me. I figured I had no choice but to see just what she wanted.


It turned out to be a good thing. She was the mother of a girl that was in my class about a year ago and she just wanted to tell me how much her daughter enjoyed my classes. Further, she said, she wanted to thank me for taking such good care of and being an inspiration (really, she used that word) to her daughter. In fact, the daughter is now back in school (after some health issues) and she'll be in my stats class in the fall. Plus, she has sang my praises highly enough that her brother is also taking classes from me.


Now this student was a good student and she did interact more than typical. In fact, she often sent me quirky emails about economic issues that weren't really "on topic" in terms of what we were doing in class. I was always willing (even happy) to talk with her about such things and she did send me an email after she finished my classes telling me how she had been dreading her econ classes, but they turned out to be very interesting, etc. I did not, though, realize that I'd made a "tell Momma" impression on her.


In all honesty it made me feel good about what I do for a living, but it was a tad creepy. The mom even sent me an email the next day saying she hoped she wasn't too "forward", but she just couldn't pass up the opportunity to thank me -- and ask me to watch out for the little brother as well. So in the end it all turned out to be a positive experience, but the thought of moms looking for me to talk about their children still sends a cold shiver to the core of my soul.

Hey brother, can you spare a story?

I don't have an M.B.A. and I've never had a cubicle job, so I don't "get" Dilbert the way some do. Still, I like it. In fact, I save Dilbert and read it last of all the comics each day. Though I can't directly relate to a lot of the cubicle-specific issues, I've always felt a sort of kinship with Dilbert's creator, Scott Adams. Now I know why. We're storytellers.

It has come to my attention that most people have no good stories. If you ask people to tell their best stories, you get blank stares and then something along the lines of “Well, once I lost my wallet.”

This has long puzzled me because I’m full of stories. How could I have so many, and other people have so few?

Now I'm not saying I'm in Adams' league as a storyteller, but I do like a good tale and I seem to attract "odd moments". In fact, my colleagues at UAH used to wonder where all the weird students hid before I came on board. Their reasoning was that those students HAD to be there somewhere, yet they never encountered them until I showed up. I always maintained that my co-workers HAD encountered these unique souls, they just weren't paying attention. Turns out Adams has a similar theory:

One theory for this apparent discrepancy is that everyone’s life includes plenty of fascinating events but few people organize them in their memories as stories.

I feel an odd sense of empowerment, but I'm also a little disgruntled that he turned his storytelling ability into a lucrative career and I ... Well, I haven't.

Anyway, Mr. Dilbert even offers his best story ever and I must admit, it's pretty damned good. That, though, got me to thinking, do I have best stories? I thought a moment and decided these are the best ones I've blogged about:

The gun in the laundry basket.
The night I locked myself out of the house during the playoffs.
Falling in Caney Creek.
The cheeky panhandler.

You may not think those are good stories, but I still chuckle when I think of them and that's pretty much my criterion for a good story. Oh, I have a new story to add! It happened last week, but I don't have time to recount it right now. Tune in next time ...

ICK!

This just makes me go ICK!

Another baseball post

In case you haven't heard, Sammy Sosa hit his 600th home run Wednesday night -- becoming only the 5th man in MLB history to do so. Of course Sammy is also tainted by the whole "steroid thing" (suspicion but no proof) that has hounded Bonds, McGwire, etc. Naturally the experts over at ESPN have opinions about Sosa's Hall of Fame credentials.

For those of you who haven't followed the debate, ... Some players in the last 15 years or so have put up MONSTER numbers that equal or eclipse the all-time greatest players in baseball history -- a LONG history by the way. Normally such numbers would make the players "locks" for the Hall of Fame, but now that people are SHOCKED (think of the guy in Casablanca when he found out there was gambling going on in Rick's) to find out that some of these obscene numbers may have been aided by illegal substances, people are beginning to wonder whether these players belong in the Hall after all. The test case was Mark McGwire. His numbers should have made him a "no brainer" selection, but the voters sent a "message" and only 23.5% of voters cast a ballot for Mr. McGwire -- far short of the 75% required for selection. So far, however, McGwire is the only one of the suspected steroid guys who has appeared on the ballot. Sosa, Bonds, and the rest are yet to come.

My personal feelings are that voters will have to discount the inflated numbers. For instance, hitting 400 HRs used to be enough, by itself, to get a player serious HoF consideration. 500 HRs was a guarantee. That cannot be the case any longer. The Hall is going to have to "keep out" some 500 HR guys because, quite frankly, there is NO WAY some of them can be thought of as Hall of Famers. For instance, Jim Thome is 19 dingers away from 500 and Jim Thome is NOT a Hall of Famer. So how to handle the steroid era players?

Again, this is just my personal feeling, but I think you have to discount the numbers so that there are no more "magic numbers" that guarantee inclusion, but I don't think you can arbitrarily keep everyone from the era out of the Hall. I don't have the exact voting criteria in front of me, but I seem to recall something about "dominant player of his era" being a guideline. Now if you dominate a league in which "everyone" was juiced, well then you're still the dominate player of your era. Plus, something many fail to acknowledge, until very recently baseball had no specific policy against steroids. It really gripes my butt when I hear the old timers talk about these cheating players today and then totally ignore the fact that most (I hear) of the late 1960s and '70s players were all hopped up on amphetamines! So discount the numbers, but don't get all sanctimonious about excluding these "cheating" players. If I had a vote, I'd vote for McGwire, I'd vote for Bonds, and I'd probably vote for Sammy too. I would not, though, vote for Rafael Palmeiro. Without his home run numbers he was simply a very good hitter who played a long, long time.

Regardless, back to Sammy, ... I don't blame anyone for thinking Sammy should be in the Hall. One of the ESPN "experts", though, comes up with some of the stupidest drivel of all time in justifying a Sammy vote. Steve Phillips, former big league GM and current ESPN baseball "analyst", says:

Sammy Sosa is a Hall of Famer. Slam dunk. There is no smoking gun with him. There is just guilt by association. Just because he kept pace with Mark McGwire in home runs in 1998 doesn't mean he should be seen the same way as McGwire. Sosa made a statement in front of the House Committee on Government Reform in which he declared he had never used illegal performance-enhancing substances while McGwire did not. There are no former teammates pointing fingers at Sosa like there are at McGwire. He has never failed a drug test. In fact, consider that Sosa did get busted for corking a bat during his playing days. Why would a player on steroids cork his bat? He wouldn't. Sammy Sosa is one of the most charismatic players to ever play the game during his prime. He will most likely end up with the fifth most career homers. He is a first-ballot Hall of Famer if there ever was one.

This is just nonsense! Yes, Sammy said he'd never taken steroids, but so did Palmeiro. Plus, does Phillips not remember Sammy's sudden inability to understand or speak English during that hearing? McGwire essentially "took the 5th" while Sammy relied on the "I no speak English" defense. According to Phillips, that's more admirable? I don't think so.

Second, how about former teammates? As far as I know, Jose Canseco is the only former teammate accusing McGwire and Jose is accusing just about everyone he ever played with of being on the juice. You can bet he'd be accusing Sammy if they'd ever been teammates. Further, McGwire (and Bonds as well) never failed a steroid test either. They just weren't given when McGwire was in the league.

Finally, though, Phillips really shines when it comes to the corked bat incident. Read it again, "In fact, consider that Sosa did get busted for corking a bat during his playing days. Why would a player on steroids cork his bat? He wouldn't." That's just ludicrous. Would you say, "Oh John Doe would never rob a convenience store. He just robbed a bank a few months ago so why would he need to rob a store?" No, in criminal cases (at least on Law and Order, where I get all my law knowledge) a tendency to commit one crime lends support to the theory that a guy might commit another offense. The fact that a guy has a criminal past is NOT a defense against other crimes!

I can only reach one conclusion. Steve Phillips is a blithering idiot! [Yes, I'm sure he's a nice guy and he knows a lot more than me about baseball. The "idiot" thing is poetic license.]

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Finally, Bill James is getting some respect -- from the WSJ no less.

After 25 years on the outside, Bill James was invited to take a seat at the center of the baseball universe. Since Mr. James, the statistical oracle and author of the Bill James Baseball Abstracts, was hired by the Boston Red Sox in 2002, the team has broken the Curse of the Bambino, won the World Series and is currently tearing up the American League.

For those of you who don't know, Bill James used his free time on a job as a night watchman (or something like that), his ability with numbers, and his insane love of baseball to produce a series of Bill James' Baseball Abstracts in the 1970s and '80s. Though it might be an exaggeration, one could say he's the reason SABR exists, or at least why anyone other than uber nerds knows about it. By the way, if you haven't read Moneyball, do it now. If you have even a microscopic interest in baseball, I guarantee you'll enjoy it. If for no other reason, you should read it because it (and books like it) drive Joe Morgan nuts!

Things that make my job miserable

This.

ASHINGTON ESTATES, Fla. (AP) - For most high school students, the perfect
grade point average is a four-point-zero. But that wasn't good enough for one
Hillsborough County student who graduated with a mind-boggling
eight-point-zero-eight G-P-A.
[...]
Rumela says she could have scored an even higher G-P-A if she had known
about all the Advanced Placement and online course options available to her in
ninth grade.

I'm sure Rumela is a good student, but I see way too many "A-students" who cannot or will not do the work I expect. While I expect Ms. Das does not fall in that category, I just don't see how telling a student she is "double perfect" (based on the old-style grading scale) can be a good thing for her future profs. Sigh.

On the positive side, I am (mostly) out of my funk. Now I'm just dealing with being busy. For those of you who don't know, currently I teach a 2 hour course here in Decatur and then rush to Huntsville to teach another class 30 minutes later. Normally I can make the commute in about 23 minutes. Tomorrow, though, I may get caught up in traffic from this. He's supposed to arrive at noon and I usually zoom past the airport exit about 12:25.

Ennui

Sorry blogging has been so light of late. I could blame it on my summer teaching schedule, but while that does have something to do with it, the main reason has just been a general funk I seem to have fallen into. Basically I'm just in a foul mood. Nothing has happened to put me in such a state, I'm just kind of "ginched" (to use a Stella word). [Actually something could have happened last night to alleviate my dark cloud, but I'll remain mysterious about that. Regardless, it didn't happen, so it's really not relevant.]

Given my general grumpiness, I'll just share a PowerPoint bullet list (I swear the "bullets" show up on my screen, but not when I publish) of things that depress me:

• PowerPoint bullet lists.
• All the attention given Paris Hilton's jail term.
• All the attention given Barry Bond's troubles.
• Anything to do with Lindsey Lohan.
• The Cardinals' disappointing season.
• The fact that (thanks to MLB and DirectTV) I can't watch the Cards this year.
• Zimbabwe assuming the chairmanship of the UN's Commission on Sustainable Development.
• The Democratic Presidential hopefuls.
• The Republican Presidential hopefuls.
• Reality TV.
• Non-reality TV.
• Summer movies.
• Summer heat and the lack of rain.
• Justice Anthony Kennedy (see this piece).
• And finally, ...
• The continuation of the designated hitter rule! C'mon, I couldn't leave that one off.

So anyway, I'm hoping my cloud breaks soon and I'll be back to my cheerfully grumpy self. In the meantime, GRRR!

Still reading

I haven't book blogged in a while, primarily because I haven't read anything that I feel others must read. Unfortunately I have read a few books lately that I feel the need to talk about for the opposite reason -- to warn you away from them.

First up is the latest pop econ book from Steven Landsburg. Though Freakonomics got all the attention (and I've suggested The Undercover Economist as a better choice), Landsburg's Armchair Economist really got the pop econ thing going back in the 1990s. Now I guess he's decided to try to cash in on the (relative) surge in popularity for such books. The problem is Landsburg targets the wrong audience.

Like Freakonomics, Landsburg's book applies economic analysis to decidedly uneconomic (as popularly understood) issues -- everything from HIV to stupid legislators. While these issues might appeal to non-economists, his reasoning won't. Basically he's taking lunch table discussions between economists to the masses. I'm not saying regular folks aren't able to understand the reasoning, but if you don't have a good bit of formal training (more than just introductory classes) you'll probably dismiss the arguments out of hand. If you're familiar with the research or even the methods of research, you realize Landsburg is onto something, even if you disagree with his conclusions. Most people, though, don't have that background and Landsburg, understandably, doesn't devote the needed time or effort to explaining the underlying theories.

Hence, I fear this book will be beloved by "insiders" (trained economists) and totally ignored by "outsiders" (almost everyone else). I don't think it's a shame that another econ book will be disregarded by the general public, but I think books like this hurt the image of the profession. An intelligent layman could see this (the catchy title is guaranteed to draw in the curious), note the positive blurbs by big names in the field, and then be totally let down by the book itself and thereby conclude that economists really are all wet. I'd be much happier if this book had been targeted toward economists rather than pushed as the next Freakonomics.

On the fiction front, I tried to read The Yiddish Policemen's Union, the new novel by Michael Chabon. While I still think Chabon's first book was excellent (and Wonder Boys wasn't bad either), I haven't liked much of his writing since then. Given my old love of comic books (and the enormous praise and Pulitzer), I waded through Kavalier and Clay but I didn't like it. Now with the Yiddish Policemen I'm done with him. This book was years (6 or 7 maybe?) in the making and it was even delayed for a year to allow for some "fine tuning". I think it could have used another year or two of tuning. After waiting that long, I expect a really good book. Instead I found a book with 3 serious (in my opinion) contradiction errors (things like saying his 15-year marriage ended and then when we meet the ex-wife he says he spent 12 years married to her) within the first 50 pages! In addition, the story just plodded! Chabon tried to do noir, but noir is predicated on action. Action, unfortunately, is sorely missing from the book. I finally gave up after about 150 pages.

On the positive side, I am reading two books that have not yet offended me. First, though I'm a couple of decades late on this one, I finally pulled The Sportswriter off my shelf. Though Ford is unnecessarily flowery at times, I like the feel of the book so far. I am afraid, though, that it may descend to unacceptable levels of self pity. I hope not.

Second, and the one I'm most excited by, I picked up a copy of The Last Season the other day. It's the story of the most experienced back country ranger in the Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park who just up and disappeared on day in 1996. While the teases don't reveal his ultimate fate, the only mystery appears to be whether he was "done in" or whether he chose to do himself in. I'm not very far in, but so far it is gripping in the way that only the best non-fiction books can be.

Well that gets you caught up on my summer reading. Summer classes (for me) will be over soon, though, and then I start my summer project. In case you've forgotten, I intend to try, once more, to make it through this ungainly tome. Sigh!

Pow!

I've heard of political fights, but I thought the literal trading of punches in legislative bodies was a thing of the past. Not in Alabama.

Yesterday, at the end of the legislative session, state senator Charles Bishop attempted to cold cock fellow senator, Lowell Barron. What did Barron do to raise Bishop's ire? Each side tells a different story, but Bishop claims Barron called him an S.O.B. Bishop, of course, wasn't going to take such a grievous insult to his mother:

"That was with my right hand. It shouldn't have happened," he said. "My mother has long been dead, and he called me a son of a bitch. That's somebody talking bad about your mother, and when he did, I responded with my right hand."

No apology.

Of course Barron claims he did no such thing.

Despite my extreme dislike of Mr. Barron, this is outrageous! Grown men, especially political representatives, do not behave this way!!! How hard is that to understand? As for Bishop's claim that he was defending his momma -- BULL! Everyone knows that calling someone an S.O.B. is an insult to the person, not his mother. It's not a literal insult! If, though, you think Bishop has a point, well that raises an issue for him. According to numerous reports, just before the alleged S.O.B. comment, Bishop had told Barron he was going to try to (expletive deleted) every chance he got in the Senate over the next three years. If, like Bishop, you think insults are literal, well I guess Mr. Bishop just declared himself a homosexual who plans on violating several public decency laws in the Senate chambers in coming years! I wonder how that'll play with his constituency?

The whole thing is ludicrous and it puts me in the (personally) painful position of having to side with Lowell Barron.

Of course this being politics, Barron's pals have found a way to overplay an incident that is despicable enough on its own. See, I'm thinking the Barron camp could have just taken the high road and let the facts condemn Bishop. No, they had to go over the top. Sen. Parker Griffith (a physician) witnessed the event and here's what he had to say about the attempted (flat footed) punch by (69-year-old) Bishop:

"This was a violent, violent punch," said Griffith, a retired physician. "Had he not ducked, it was a hospitalization punch. It was a neurosurgery punch; it was a deforming punch. It was that hard. It was a brutal attack."

Geesh! Go here and click on the link in the upper left to see the whole thing. Judge for yourself how close Barron came to being MAIMED FOR LIFE!

I'm still here

Yeah I know blogging has been light of late, but that's what summer school does to you. It takes up all your time! Still, only 3 (or so) more weeks and I actually get some time off for the first time in a few summers!!!

In the meantime, I gave my first test yesterday and the results were surprising -- in a good way. I'm teaching two classes -- one in Decatur and another in Huntsville -- and the Decatur bunch did very well. I don't know that I've ever had a class do that well on test 1. After grading the Decatur tests, the Huntsville students were a bit of a letdown, but when I compiled the numbers, they also did better than average. I'm not sure why, or if it will continue, but for now I'm pretty happy with (most of) my students. Cool.

In other news, there is none. I haven't moved over to the darkside of cell phone life yet and I've yet to hear anything else from the guy with the land for sale. On the plus side, the brewfest was fun. It was a bit too crowded with mid-20 "cool" guys who just wanted to get smashed, but I did get to try several beers I'd not had before. Plus, I got a cool cast iron bottle opener made by the "metal arts" guys at Sloss Furnace. All-in-all a good day.

I promise pictures of the balloon fest will be coming -- eventually.

Aw man!

I couldn't believe it, but yesterday I had a phone message (two actually, one at home and another at work) from the guy with the property for sale! Why, pray tell, did it take the guy a week-and-a-half to return my call? I got not idea, but he called. Unfortunately I was in class when he called so I didn't get to talk to him, but my dream of being a land baron might not be dead.

Once classes were over, I called him back. Want to guess what happened? I got his voicemail -- again! Not to be deterred, I told him I'd be out most of the evening, but I'd be at the office this morning and he could call me then. Seeing as how I'd not heard from him by 11:00, I decided to call him again. Do I need to tell you? Voicemail. I swear; this guy is annoying me. Sigh.

On the bright side, I will be attending the 1st Annual (though in journalism class I learned that it's incorrect to use the "annual" tag until you get to a 2nd occurrence) Magic City Brewfest down in Birmingham tomorrow. It looks to be a good time. I've seen the list of beers and some of my favorites will be there, along with experts from some of the breweries. I'll blog on my favorites next week.