Whatever do you mean Miss Moneypenny?

 

"Take it out James."
"What do you mean Moneypenny?"
"Take it out and put it in my hand. I will show you what I can do with it."
"Why would I do that?"
"Well during the war I learned a lot of things."
"I bet you did."
"Yes quite. It was a hand to mouth existence. So to speak."
"I like how you think Moneypenny."

That reminded me

I watched "The Natural" years ago, barely remember it, that guy with the lumps on his face was in it, and the diabeetus oatmeal guy and so on, but as a woodturner and former bat maker I paid attention to "Wonderboy". A couple of years ago a coworker mentioned that a white oak in her back yard had been struck by lightning, and while talking to her I mentioned, jokingly, that perhaps a baseball bat should be turned out of that wood, as it contains magic.

What do you know, but she and daughter were big fans of "The Natural" and she said I could haul off all the white oak I wanted if, in return I made a child-sized bat like the one in the movie.

No problem, says I, I sawed a bunch of while oak bowl blanks, and after an appropriate amount of time I turned a baseball bat for her:

I borrowed a friend's pyrography tool and burned in the logo.

Baseball bats have been made out of ash for many years, but now that ash trees are going extinct due to the emerald ash borer, maple is become more common. The problem with hard maple is that it is brittle and the bats tend to shatter. Good thing baseball is going the way of horseracing and boxing, so that won't be an issue except in the DR.

On a side note, at the Baseball Hall of Fame one can see historic bats from the early days of the game and the variety of woods used when the players provided their own bats was impressive - oak, hickory, and, I think, elm and chestnut, and the style and weight of those bats are very different than modern bats.

But this is my favorite kind of bat - I saw one when I was in Australia:

Fogerty is a rat bastard commie, but he wrote a baseball song.

Egad's you're back Moneypenny!

 

"Why once again you're back Moneypenny! After such a long absence. And I am glad to see it!"
"Yes I imagine you are Commander Bond. But there is one thing that you would like even more."
"And what would that be my dear?"
"Why my front of course!"
"Indeed Miss Moneypenny, indeed."

Et tu Mitch

You can never trust a Senator.

I just wish that the God Emperor had pardoned himself, his family and his closet aides. The enemy will take no prisoners. Once again he made a mistake listening to his advisors. 

Farewell my soldiers....France has fallen

Let's hope that our leaders return will be much more successful.

I suspect that it will.

WKRLEM: The Natural

In this scene from the film Roy Hobbs strikes out the Whammer who is an obvious stand in for the Babe. There are many legends of the Babe being struck out by this guy or that guy when he barnstormed across America to make money between baseball seasons. They are all bullshit. Don't get me wrong. They might have struck out the Babe buy he might have been drunk or hung over or his penis might have been burning because of his ninety seventh case of the clap that year. So they might have got him here or there but there is one thing that you can't ever forget.

There was only one Babe.

The story of the Natural was based on an actual case of the Eddie Waitkus who was shot by a deranged female fan on June 14, 1949. She lured him up to her hotel room by leaving a note pretending to be a high school girlfriend. He survived and played again for the Phillies and Orioles but he never was what he once was before he got shot. He later died of throat cancer from all the cigarettes he had smoked.

Bernard Malamud stole his life for the story behind the Natural. He never got a dime for it.

The Babe Abides

 "Hiya Keed. You got a good grip on the ball there. There is nothing I like more than a woman that likes to play with balls."

"Oh Mr. Ruth I am not that kind of girl."

"Common Keed. You are all the kind of girl. After you finish filming why don't you come up to my room. I will order a couple of dozen hot dogs and a gallon of gin and we can see what you can do with two balls instead of one. You look like a Natural."

On Real Beyond Imagination & Fifteen Shoes that Fit

Did you see this posted at Insty two days ago?   It was presented with this intro: 

JUST A LITTLE TOO MUCH ON THE NOSE TO BE FUNNY. Seen around the internet – it’s real, from a workplace mental health organization. I checked, because it was so on the nose that I thought it might be a clever fake. Save it before it’s inevitably purged, or definitions conveniently change.

On the nose indeed.  I received it as an explanation for the tiredness and overwhelm I've been feeling recently along with the growing sense of resolve that's been forming.  I grew up in this.  And I survived it, living long enough to figure out the game and find my way through and out.  With help I was able to enter into healthier ways of relating, and am now able to support and encourage others in their efforts to do the same.  

This is where we are at.   Or at least where I am, recalling what was, seeing what is, and committing once again to doing what's needed to come out on the other side, one more time.  I wish us all well on our journey through whatever lies ahead.

What have I been doing?

Working, organizing, getting my finances straightened out, lightening my load, selling things, donating things, preparing, you know, the usual stuff.

I have been going through all my email accounts, deleting emails from folks I will never interact with again, going through all my social media accounts, deleting or greatly reducing them as there is no reason to have too much exposure online these days.

Also, I have been watching too much television. Saw Trooper's doppelganger in "Once Upon a Time in the West". I thought I had seen that movie before, but hoowee - I must have fallen asleep. That thing is nearly three hours long and being a Sergio Leone movie, it takes its time. There were parts of which I had no recollection. Anyway, I sort of made it through this time. Sure, I went running while it was on, fed the animals, cooked, cleaned, the usual, but when Claudia Cardinale's theme song came around I paid attention. I also rewatched all six seasons of Bosch and I remembered the banter between Crate and Barrel regarding her beauty. 

I also watched "The State of Music" which is a David Holt show that showcases acoustic musicians, and on one of them I saw a fellow named Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton, a talented multi-instrumentalist from South Central who not only can play the heck out of a number of instruments, but he has a devilish sense of humor.

While talking to Holt he mentioned that while he went to a school for the blind, and can read braille, he is not totally blind. Asked about his nickname he said that "People ask why I use "Blind Boy" as that is offensive, so I tell them that "Legally Blind Boy" just doesn't have the same kind of ring to it". In any case, check out his work, he is something else.

I mentioned his name to a musician friend of mine and he said "I met him at a show!" My friend and his wife sell their products at various craft and music shows and at a bluegrass show a while back my friend was standing in his booth, Jerron walked in, they talked, and at one point, Mr. Paxton took out a harmonica, placed it in his mouth, and without using his hands, played "Dixie". My friend was amazed, and at the same time thought "What just happened here?"

I skip the talking parts of that video.

Humor and tragedy. And history.

Whose that girl

We haven't heard from her for a while but for a while there she was America's sweetheart. Or at least the conservative worlds sweetheart.

She spent her college days eating rice but she didn't want see commies even if they were at her front door. Unfortunately she went full retard and it drove some homosexuals mad. 

Still she might be in line for a comeback.

Whose that girl
 

Small Businesses that didn't quite cut it

 

In 1947 traveling ice cream machine salesman came up with an idea. A coffee pot that could severve multiple cups at a time. He tried to market it but the American Diner owner was too conservative. He sold his pattern to some guy in Seattle who wanted to open a shop selling burned coffee, shitty muffins and Josh Groban CD's/.

This is the second big investment that old Tom lost out on. His fellow traveling salesman Ray Kroc tried to get him to invest in this little corporation called McDonalds.

He decided to stick with ice cream.

Trooper York's Word of the Day: Schroder's Cat

Schrö·ding·er's cat

/SHrōdiNGərz ˈkat,SHrā-/

noun

PHYSICS

1. a cat imagined as being enclosed in a box with a radioactive source and a poison that will be released when the source (unpredictably) emits radiation, the cat being considered (according to quantum mechanics) to be simultaneously both dead and alive until the box is opened and the cat observed.

   "the talk promises to demystify all the secrets of quantum physics, including Schrödinger's cat, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, and parallel universe

Schroder's cat

Ann Romano's pussy