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8/26/09
Although I've never been a fan of auto racing, I realize that NASCAR has a huge following.  I try and avoid the argument that the drivers aren't athletes and that it isn't a real sport.  To each their own.  But I had to laugh when I saw a recent commercial featuring a NASCAR driver with his car emblazoned with the sponsor Extenz.  It's not uncommon to see Viagra or Cialis commercials at halftime of NFL or NBA games, or between innings of MLB games.  Those products are actual pharmaceuticals with proven results and they address legitimate medical concerns.  And there may have been Extenz commercials during those contests, but there was never a direct connection to a specific team or the league.  However, to drive a car with an advertisement for "male enhancement" pills prominently displayed across the car is entirely different . . . and a joke.  Everyone knows these types of products don't work anymore than weight loss pills that claim to target specific areas of the body.  The only parts of the body that can be targeted for growth are muscles and you can't take a pill for that either.   These male enhancement products appeal to men with low self-esteem.  The only thing enhanced are the companies bottom lines.  I wonder if they are targeting NASCAR fans.  Are NASCAR drivers or the men that follow the sport concerned with the size of their organs?  Are female fans of NASCAR (and their are millions of hot chicks that follow that sport) focused on finding men with big guns?

3/16/09
WOW!  Can this economy get any worse?  Nobody's buying cars, so car companies don't need steel or plastic or forgings or glass or whatever.  The real estate market is dead and banks don't have money to lend.  It seems that every talking head on TV has a solution and our political leadership thinks that throwing money at the problem will make everything better, but we all know that solution rarely produces sustainable success.  Oh well, at some point, things will get better.  People have to buy cars sooner or later, banks will eventually get squared away and retirement accounts will recoup their lost value.  In the meantime a lot of people will suffer.  However, you can rest assured that the media elite and the politicians will weather this storm without any substantial change in their daily lives.

I saw the coolest email signature the other day:
"There are 10 kinds of people in the world; people who understand binary and those who don't."

With spring just around the corner, I thought I'd post a story I wrote last fall about college recruiting visits:
The college visit is a rite of passage and an event to be treasured; a road trip typically taken by one parent and the child, it is invariably a warm and exciting experience. Your baby is growing up and will be leaving home. The ride gives you the chance to discuss career options and plans, relate experiences from your own youth and just enjoy the changes that are happening to your kid. My boys played football and their school choices revolved around playing in college. In both instances the trips began in earnest in the spring.  continued here

While I've always been environmentally conscious, I've never totally bought the man-made global warming argument.  I mean, there is no doubt that the earth has been getting warmer in recent years, but I'm not sure that the warming has been caused by the human race.  I'm not even sure that the extent of the warming that is routinely reported  is accurate.  However, we should have a better idea in a few months.  According to the February issue of Popular Science, polar explorer Pen Hadow will be leading an expedition to measure the ice from Canada to the North Pole.  The crew will be lugging an ice penetrating radar rig that will measure how fast the Polar ice cap is melting.  The trip will cover 1200 miles and should provide more accurate data than the satellite photos we currently rely on.  You can track the crew's progress at, catlinarcticsurvey.com.

Speaking of the environment, the January issue of Popular Science has a short article about dot-com billionaire Elon Musk (think Paypal), who is betting on the electric car of the future vs hybrids or hydrogen fuel cells.  He has become a major investor in Tesla Motors.

My concerns with the environment have always been more related to topics such as the depletion of the world's fish stocks or the pollution of our fresh water supply from pesticide and fertilizer runoff.  While reading the February issue of Popular Mechanics, I came across a story about a real-life environmentalist, dairy farmer Shawn Saylor.  Saylor has managed to collect and process the manure from his 600 cows and use it as fuel for a generator that produces enough electricity to run his Pennsylvania farm.  He actually produces more fuel than the generator can use and plans to add another generator and send power back to the grid.  This guy is my kind of tree hugger and his neighbors are a lot happier with the smells emanating from his farm these days.

12/15/09

Oh no! OJ is in the news again.
I had hoped to never see this hoodlum punk on TV again, but he made the news once more. Years ago we learned that the Los Angeles sewers were home to more than just the Hollywood elite. The police, prosecutors and judges also resided there. Don’t get me wrong, there was a positive aspect to OJ’s murder trial. We’ve always suspected that rich white guys could get away with murder and the playing field was leveled 15 years ago. A rich black buy got away with murder. Things were a little different in Vegas, where they don’t care how rich or famous you are. If you do the crime, you will do the time. I wonder if he will make the news when he finally gets out in 6-15 years.

Aloha
Imagine if you will, sitting on a Waikiki Beach hotel balcony at the break of dawn, watching the sunrise over the mountains of Oahu and listening to “Life in Paradise”, a tune by legendary saxophonist Ronnie Laws. This really happened to me . . . no, really, I was there. The boys had a football game versus the University of Hawaii and we went to watch it and I’ve got to tell you, if this place isn’t Paradise, then I don’t know what is. The temperature doesn’t drop below the 60s or above the 90s; there is almost no humidity and I didn’t see a flying insect anywhere. In fact, the hotels have no screens on the windows or sliding doors and some don’t have heating or air conditioning. We stayed on Waikiki Beach, ergo we didn’t get a chance to see the rest of Hawaii and that’s a regret.
The Arizona Memorial was intense and is revered as a graveyard. Visitors to the park are given a brief history lesson via an introduction by one of the guides followed by a short movie. Then it’s off to the actual Memorial by boat. The Memorial sits atop the sunken Arizona, which still leaks oil today. They don’t know when it will stop and they won’t investigate the source because to do so would mean disturbing the graves of all those sailors whose bodies are still entombed on the ship. As I said, this was a bit intense.
Throughout the Waikiki Beach area there are literally hundreds of kiosks manned by Asians selling Aloha shirts, blouses, swimwear and cheap jewelry, all made in China. At night the strip comes alive with street performers of all sorts. It’s a very lively scene that curiously shuts down about midnight. All in all, it was a memorable trip and some day I’d like to go back and see more of the islands. Five days was barely enough time to get my biological clock adjusted to the five-hour time difference and that nine-hour flight from Chicago was exhausting.
But, Wow! Hawaii is so cool.

11/10/08:
We also visited another landmark in Oklahoma, one that was equally emotional: The Oklahoma City National Memorial.

We approached the west gate and were immediately taken aback by the “tokens of remembrance and hope” that people continue to leave on the fence. That fence is part of the original fence erected to protect the site. It’s been constantly adorned with “tokens” that people have left there over the years, and still leave today. I believe the number of items is greater than 60,000.

The engraving on the gate wall profoundly sets the tone for the memorial:

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