Steel Kaleidoscopes

Quote of the Day

"If you bite into a wire, does electricity chase you?"

— Chloe Miller, her final words before falling sleep

Symmetry

Down to their last strike with their season on the line in the bottom of the ninth, the Rays tie the Yankees and eventually win.

One strike away from beating the Orioles to extend their season, the Red Sox cough up the lead and eventually lose.

Team teams, a win and a loss, both monumentally significant.

Symmetry.

10 Worst Heavy Metal Albums of All-Time

The 10 Worst Heavy Metal Albums of All-Time list is making its rounds and I have to say I disagree with a few of the choices.

Coming in at a tie for  No. 1 are Metallica's  "Load" and "Reload."  While I know die-hard Metallica fans think "Master of Puppets" was the band's last great album, I think the nominees don't belong here, especially "Reload." Songs like "Fuel" and "The Unforgiven II" stand up to anything from their earlier catalog.

The other nominee I don't agree with is KISS "The Elder," which came in at No. 10. True, it's a marked difference from anything KISS had ever done (or would do), but I give KISS props for taking a chance and trying something new. It's certainly a better album than "Unmasked."

But what good is a list without some debate?

Red Sox Swoon

Those damn Red Sox.

After masquerading as the best team in baseball for most of the summer, it's all come crashing down.

The Red Sox are 6-19 in September, their nine-game wild-card lead over the Tampa Bay Rays gone.

There are many reasons for this — poor starting pitching, lack of clutch hitting, suspect defense — and it's painful to watch.

Can they pull out of this and find their way to the playoffs?

Of course.

But it's still painful to watch.

Quote of the Day

"Create your future from your future, not your past."

— Werner Erhard, Author

Moo

That was a hell of a play date.

Jarts

 
Tossing lawn darts. Like biking without helmets, another one of those long-ago, extinct recreational activities.

Lyrics of the Day

"Put on your red shoes and dance the blues. Let's dance to the song they're playin' on the radio."

— David Bowie, 1983

Unfair Playing Field

So Gisele Bundchen, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's wife, gets pulled over for speeding on Cape Cod and drives away with a warning.

Shocking.

I get a ticket for rolling through a stop sign during a blizzard.

It's no wonder cops get a bad rap.

My Brother, the Bear Hunter

 
My brother is brave.

He's not quite a bear hunter, but he does find himself in close quarters with bears.

After an 8-foot black bear visited his bird feeder last spring, my brother went for a hike last weekend and encountered a bear (see photo above) walking toward him on a mountain trail.

With apologies to my brother for publishing his e-mail, I'm publishing his e-mail:

"So, my Saturday walk at Wallkill NWR became interesting when I was 2/3 of the way along one side of a rectangular trail around Liberty Marsh when I saw in the distance a Black Bear walking in my direction. The trail is an elevated roadbed which has water on both sides. The middle of the rectangle is the marsh and the other side, normally dry, is flooded with all the recent rain - but wooded.

We continue to approach each other until about 100 yards apart when I decide this bear must be upwind of me and not able to smell me and it's also busy eating, that I decide maybe I should start making some noise. I clap my hands and wave my arms to no avail. We get a little bit closer to each other and I let out a growl to which the bear finally looks up, sees me and heads down the bank towards the woods.

The brush on the bank is thick and I cannot see if the bear has gone long or is hiding. As I have to pass by where the bear has disappeared I'm hoping that he's more afraid of me than I of him. I pass by clapping and never see it again."

My brother is brave, but I'd add a little crazy.