Steel Kaleidoscopes

Another Candle

My brother turns 49 today.

Yikes.

You know what that means?

He's halfway to 98.

Amazing how life flies when you're having fun.

Happy birthday, Bob.

The Police Set List at Fenway Park

The reunited Police played Fenway Park Saturday night in the first of two shows.

Courtesy of the Boston Globe's Joan Anderman, here was their set list:

Message in a Bottle
Synchronicity II
Walking On The Moon
Voices Inside My Head
When The World Is Running Down
Don't Stand So Close To Me
Driven To Tears
Truth Hits Everybody
Bed's Too Big Without You
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Wrapped Around Your Finger
De Do Do Do De Da Da Da
Invisible Sun
Walking In Your Footsteps
Can't Stand Losing You
Roxanne
King Of Pain
So Lonely
Every Breath You Take
Next To You

Ducks in a Tub

With just a few inches of water to cool them off, these ducks seem content in their porcelain home.

The Mermaid and the Penguin

In the water, down below, on the rocks and under the whispering surf, the teen-age angst of consensual, sensual possibility caught the attention of the soaring gulls.

The penguin put on his Sunday-best, polished black tuxedo with trim coattails but was disappointed to discover during his blind date with the mermaid that she had no legs.

And the mermaid had great anticipation for her date with the penguin, then discovered he resembled Danny DeVito.

The waves continued to crash against the rocks, moistening the periwinkles with an echoing roar. But there would be no tryst between the mermaid and the penguin, expectations evaporating under the weight of perceived pop culture and mythical revelation.

Quote of the Day

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude."

— Thomas Jefferson

A Summer Night in Times Square

Hot town, summer in the city.

Multimedia in the sky, ultralight neon deeming the faded moon dim and insignificant.

Slices of pizza, deli sandwiches, T-shirts, caps. Sharp-dressed men and women clutching theater tickets.

Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty.

Quote of the Day

"Not fulfilling your dreams will be a loss to the world, because the world needs everyone's gifts, yours and mine."

-- Barbara Sher, Career Counselor

Roosters, Hens and Chickens

For the record, to settle an animated debate over barnyard definitions:

A rooster is a male chicken.

A hen is a female chicken.

Chicken is the umbrella term for roosters and hens, but there is no such thing as a chicken, when referred to as something separate from a rooster or a hen. In other words, you can't have a barn filled with roosters, hens and chickens. Simply put, there are only roosters and chickens.

Roosters are also referred to as "cocks," but the term is avoided in modern times for obvious reasons.

Hens do not need a rooster to lay an egg. Their eggs are produced in response to day-light patterns. Hens typically lay one egg every 26-28 hours for a period of 4-6 days, then they rest. Their down time could be one day or several months, depending on whether they are wild or domestic hens (wild hens rest longer).

If a rooster fertilizes a hen's eggs, those eggs will produce a chicken. It is the unfertilized eggs that we buy in grocery stores. In commercial egg operations, hens are kept away from roosters.

And those are the plain facts about the chicken and the egg.

Now have another drink.

Caffeine on the Water

Nothing like an ice coffee watching drifting boats.

My Big Fight

It's funny how you remember the tough guys growing up.

At the time you admire them, yet fear them. And it isn't until 30 years later when you realize what kind of jerks they were.

In my rough-and-tough neighborhood of Lake Katrine, N.Y., the tough guys were Donnie Amell, Butch Devins and Bob Scully. They were always looking to pick a fight, especially Scully.

At one point during the waning days before junior high school let out for the summer, Scully boasted that he'd been in 11 fights and that he'd won each of them. "Eleven-and-oh!" he'd shout through a snarly grin. "Eleven-and-oh."

And when he found out I had yet to have been in a fight, he arranged one for me. My opponent? Kenny Banks.

So I had to fight Kenny Banks. A pre-arranged fight. No beef with someone? No worry. Scully would make sure to create some animosity.

"Miller against Banks," touted Scully, the Don King of his generation. "In the field next to Lake Katrine School."

So all day I had to think about this damn fight. I had nothing against Kenny. He was a year older than me, came from a screwed up family and wore the same clothes to school every day. He was bigger than me, and in decent shape.

I didn't want to fight. I had knots in my stomach all day. When eighth period let out, I tried to put on my best bravado and face the fact that I was the main event.

I thought carefully about my strategy. I knew most fights didn't last longer than a few minutes and they usually ended up with both guys rolling on the ground, with the victor holding the loser in a headlock, pummeling his head.

I did not want this fate.

And I didn't have the confidence I would win. Like I said, Kenny Banks was bigger than me, was probably in better shape and wore that same pair of pants and natty gauze shirt every day. No way did I want to be tucked under his armpits in a headlock.

As we walked toward each other I noticed the crowd. There were about 15-20 people standing around, a mix of both boys and girls. I knew what I had to do.

Before Kenny Banks even had a chance to assess me, I lunged at him with a hard right and caught him clean on his left eye. He reeled back in both shock and pain, but didn't go down. Staggering, he came at me, threw a few punches and wrestled me to the ground. As luck would have it, a school teacher came running toward us to stop the fight.

People said Kenny Banks won because he had me pinned. But he also had a huge blue, black and red shiner the next day at school and he couldn't even open his eye.

No matter what people thought, the proof was there. Maybe that Miller kid doesn't like to fight, but he sure nailed Kenny Banks with a good punch.

That was my neighborhood. Ya gotta brawl to fit in. Even if it's just one fight.