Heroes and Goatees

OK, so it's not as obvious in the picture, but yes I am sporting a roughly five-day stubble/goatee. It's the result of one life's nastier little tricks - the cold sore. No, I won't refer to it by its more proper and yet obnoxious name - even though I didn't have a cold. It's a sure sign to me that the stress has finally worn me down, along with perhaps the sun. I promised myself the next time I got one that I would not shave that area for a few days and grow a goatee. The Wife gave me her seal of approval. Still you can be sure that it will be gone later today.

Now why did the Devil Rays go and ruin a good thing? It was 21-3 Yankees entering the 9th and I was beginning to work on my football cliches. But Noooooo! The Rays had to tack one on and finish 21-4. So now it's just an ugly ass-kicking. It's also symbolic of nothing. The Yankees are doing what they need to do - beat teams like the Rays. They still have a ways to go.

Kei Igawa...please leave. Now.

Gary Sheffield...shut the "f" up. Now. I admire you as a ballplayer that gives your all - most of the time (let's not get into the times that you tanked plays - we all do stupid things). But to say that Joe Torre treats black players differently than white players is pure race-baiting. There are no facts to back it up, and I don't care what malcontents like Tony Womack and Kenny Lofton have to say. Darryl Strawberry says Torre is like a father to him.

Next.

Padraig Harrington - come on down! The claret jug is yours, despite your best efforts to go Van de Velde on us. Then Sergio Garcia tanked The Open Championship, and it was all yours.

Then Sergio started making excuses. Typical.

Sergio is still the player who can't win the big one, kind of like Lefty Mickelson was. But here's the rub: everyone likes Lefty.

They love us in White Plains! With the addition of site stats, I now have a general idea of where the readers of "Exit 55" are. White Plains is the leader in visits since I put the feed up. But they also dig us in Norwalk too. Then there were places that baffled me, like Athens (?), Bethany, and Denver. In fact, have a look at the top cities:

Athens, Baldwin, Bedford, Bellevue, Bethany, Bronx, Brooklyn, Carmel, Chelmsford, Cliffside Park, Denver, East Meadow, Flint, Fulton, Greenwich, Hartford, Hershey, Hollywood, Ithaca, Jamaica, Kissimmee, Lebanon, Little Ferry, Little Neck, Los Angeles, Manchester, Manhasset, Mc Clurg, Meriden, Montréal, Moorestown, New Cumberland, New York, Newark, Norwalk, Oakland Gardens, Oceanside, Overland Park, Palm Bay, Plainview, Port Murray, Roslyn, Scarsdale, Silver Spring, Stamford, Westland, White Plains, Williamsport, Winchester, Yorktown Heights

Wait...Montreal? Flint? Kissimmee? Hollywood? Yorktown Heights???

Just kidding, I think I know who's reading from Yorktown. And where has "Richmond" been?

I know my most loyal of readers.

Anyway, thanks y'all (as Ben Folds would say - and has said). I'm grateful. Don't forget to put those comments up. I'm always tempted to give an email address out, but I'm not big on the anonymous-I got a G-mail account so I can tell the blog-guy to go "fook" off-type of emails. They're just time-wasters.

Oh and thanks to the subscribers also!

I've alluded to job news, and it does exist. If all else fails, I will likely join the ranks of the retail world. A dog-loving store that likes to emphasize red has offered me a supervisory role that would stop the bleeding for us. It seems like a great company and is a store whose model I admire. I just didn't want to return to retail because of things like interfering with the weekends (September is coming, high school football fans) but we'll see.

A few other places have called as well - yes, retail places. I visited one and will possibly have a second interview there, while another one just didn't work out, by my choice.

As always, we'll see where it all goes. I also received a few inquiries that might have something to them. I'm really trying to be positive.

Then there was the agency that called me (with what I hoped was something), only to ask me for a reference for somebody else. That's fine, I was happy to do it and that person got a rave review, but I think I guilted (a made-up word) the woman into putting me back on the top of their pile. So with all of this, please please please (can I say please one more time?) keep me in your thoughts, prayers, hopes, chants, meditations, and anywhere else. You might not want to scream my name during relations though.

Well now let me think about that for a moment...if it might get me a job, then OK.

So CBS-FM is back. Great jocks on there, and the mix has been OK. But they're just not digging deep enough for me. It's definitely comfort music though.

I know The Rolling Stones have the nickname "World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band" but if I hear Caroline on The Weekend Peak say it one more time, I might try to reach through the radio. We can argue all day about it.

I know Up Front is the world's greatest...and you should too.

I took part in a broadcaster/blogger/reporter summit on Thursday night in Stamford, courtesy of somebody, who probably won't want the credit. I will say that I enjoyed talking with Jason Intrieri, Tim Parry, and Matt Levine over drinks and fine Italian food. Matt has some good things going on with his website, and Tim will be putting a webcast on to talk FCIAC football, while Jason and I were bouncing some ideas around. In short, we might all work together at one point. I'm giving a lot of thought to putting my own webcast on, but am afraid that with Tim doing one, it might be redundant. We'll see. I'm tired of getting jerked around and not enjoying it, so I just keep thinking about taking matters into my own hands.

OK, I said "jerked" and "taking matters into my own hands." Huh-huh...huh-huh.

I am Cornholio.

Only one thing bothered me from the whole night, and that was TP not telling us that "Crisofah" himself, Michael Imperioli, was sitting nearby. At least allow us to gawk, right?

Ah, so that's who died in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, eh?

So Reverend Racebaiter (that's Al Sharpton, people) has deemed it OK for Mr. Imus of New Mexico to return to the radio because, "We never said we didn't want him to make a living." Jesus what a fathead.

Allow me to quote Dennis Miller on the subject:

"When did this guy become the one who absolves us of our public sins? What sort of cosmic apologetic bunny hole have we fallen through as a society?"

And apparently Tubby Timmy Russert said that he'll go back on the show if invited. Something is not right about this, but we will soon learn the true story.

Unless Russert was quietly talking to Imus away from the glare of the spotlight, I can't see him coming back. Friends are supposed to be supportive and respect their friends' wishes.

Oh, there's more I want to say here. Suffice to say, friendships get damaged when one does not respect the other. If you say to him, "Dude, I'm not cool with that", and he does it anyway, is that OK? That is a phony friend, and one that I won't deal with.

Sing it, Aretha!