Memorial Day

(from MentalFloss.com)

Memorial Day is more than just a three-day weekend and a chance to get the year’s first sunburn. Here’s a handy 10-pack of facts to give the holiday some perspective.

1. It started with the Civil War

Memorial Day was a response to the unprecedented carnage of the Civil War, in which some 620,000 soldiers on both sides died. The loss of life and its effect on communities throughout the North and South led to spontaneous commemorations of the dead:

• In 1864, women from Boalsburg, Pa., put flowers on the graves of their dead from the just-fought Battle of Gettysburg. The next year, a group of women decorated the graves of soldiers buried in a Vicksburg, Miss., cemetery.

• In April 1866, women from Columbus, Miss., laid flowers on the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers. It was recognized at the time as an act of healing sectional wounds. In the same month, up in Carbondale, Ill., 219 Civil War veterans marched through town in memory of the fallen to Woodlawn Cemetery, where Union hero Maj. Gen. John A. Logan delivered the principal address. The ceremony gave Carbondale its claim to the first organized, community-wide Memorial Day observance.

• Waterloo, N.Y., began holding an annual community service on May 5, 1866. Although many towns claimed the title, it was Waterloo that won congressional recognition as the “birthplace of Memorial Day.”

2. General Logan made it official

Gen. Logan, the speaker at the Carbondale gathering, also was commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans. On May 5, 1868, he issued General Orders No. 11, which set aside May 30, 1868, “for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion….”

The orders expressed hope that the observance would be “kept up from year to year while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory of his departed comrades.”

3. It was first known as Decoration Day

From the practice of decorating graves with flowers, wreaths and flags, the holiday was long known as Decoration Day. The name Memorial Day goes back to 1882, but the older name didn’t disappear until after World War II. Federal law declared “Memorial Day” the official name in 1967.

4. The holiday is a franchise

Calling Memorial Day a “national holiday” is a bit of a misnomer. While there are 11 “federal holidays” created by Congress—including Memorial Day—they apply only to Federal employees and the District of Columbia. Federal Memorial Day, established in 1888, allowed Civil War veterans, many of whom were drawing a government paycheck, to honor their fallen comrades with out being docked a day’s pay.

For the rest of us, our holidays were enacted state by state. New York was the first state to designate Memorial Day a legal holiday, in 1873. Most Northern states had followed suit by the 1890s. The states of the former Confederacy were unenthusiastic about a holiday memorializing those who, in Gen. Logan’s words, “united to suppress the late rebellion.” The South didn’t adopt the May 30 Memorial Day until after World War I, by which time its purpose had been broadened to include those who died in all the country’s wars.

In 1971, the Monday Holiday Law shifted Memorial Day from May 30, to the last Monday of the month.

5. It was James Garfield’s finest hour—or maybe hour-and-a-half

On May 30, 1868, President Ulysses S. Grant presided over the first Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery—which, until 1864, was Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s plantation.

Some 5,000 people attended on a spring day which, The New York Times reported, was “somewhat too warm for comfort.” The principal speaker was James A. Garfield, a Civil War general, Republican congressman from Ohio and future president.

“I am oppressed with a sense of the impropriety of uttering words on this occasion,” Garfield began, and then continued to utter them. “If silence is ever golden, it must be beside the graves of fifteen-thousand men, whose lives were more significant than speech, and whose death was a poem the music of which can never be sung.” It went on like that for pages and pages.

As the songs, speeches and sermons ended, the participants helped to decorate the graves of the Union and Confederate soldiers buried in the cemetery.

6. God knows, not even the Unknown Soldier can avoid media scrutiny these days

“Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God.” That is the inscription on the Tomb of the Unknowns, established at Arlington National Cemetery to inter the remains of the first Unknown Soldier, a World War I fighter, on Nov. 11, 1921. Unknown soldiers from World War II and the Korean War subsequently were interred in the tomb on Memorial Day 1958.

An emotional President Ronald Reagan presided over the interment of six bones, the remains of an unidentified Vietnam War soldier, on Nov. 28, 1984. Fourteen years later, those remains were disinterred, no longer unknown. Spurred by an investigation by CBS News, the defense department removed the remains from the Tomb of the Unknowns for DNA testing.

The once-unknown fighter was Air Force pilot Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie, whose jet crashed in South Vietnam in 1972. “The CBS investigation suggested that the military review board that had changed the designation on Lt. Blassie’s remains to ‘unknown’ did so under pressure from veterans’ groups to honor a casualty from the Vietnam War,” The New York Times reported in 1998.

Lt. Blassie was reburied near his hometown of St. Louis. His crypt at Arlington remains permanently empty.

7. Vietnam vets go whole hog

On Memorial Day weekend in 1988, 2,500 motorcyclists rode into Washington, D.C., for the first Rolling Thunder rally to draw attention to Vietnam War soldiers still missing in action or prisoners of war. By 2002, the numbers had swelled to 300,000 bikers, many of them veterans. There may have been a half-million participants in 2005 in what organizers bluntly call “a demonstration—not a parade.”

A national veterans rights group, Rolling Thunder, takes its name from the B-52 carpet-bombing runs during the war in Vietnam. Rolling Thunder XXI (and you thought only Super Bowls and Rocky movies used Roman numerals) is Sunday, May 25.

8. Memorial Day has its customs

General Orders No. 11 stated that “in this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed,” but over time several customs and symbols became associated with the holiday.

It is customary on Memorial Day to fly the flag at half staff until noon, and then raise it to the top of the staff until sunset.

Taps, the 24-note bugle call, is played at all military funerals and memorial services. It originated in 1862 when Union Gen. Dan Butterfield “grew tired of the ‘lights out’ call sounded at the end of each day,” according to The Washington Post. Together with the brigade bugler, Butterfield made some changes to the tune.

Not long after, the melody was used at a burial for the first time, when a battery commander ordered it played in lieu of the customary three rifle volleys over the grave. The battery was so close to enemy lines, the commander was worried the shots would spark renewed fighting.

The World War I poem "In Flanders Fields," by John McCrea, inspired the Memorial Day custom of wearing red artificial poppies. In 1915, a Georgia teacher and volunteer war worker named Moina Michael began a campaign to make the poppy a symbol of tribute to veterans and for “keeping the faith with all who died.” The sale of poppies has supported the work of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

9. There is still a gray Memorial Day

Several Southern states continue to set aside a day for honoring the Confederate dead, which is usually called Confederate Memorial Day: Alabama: fourth Monday in April; Georgia: April 26; Louisiana: June 3; Mississippi: last Monday in April; North Carolina: May 10; South Carolina: May 10; Tennessee (Confederate Decoration Day): June 3; Texas (Confederate Heroes Day): January 19; Virginia: last Monday in May.

10. Each Memorial Day is a little different

No question that Memorial Day is a solemn event. Still, don’t feel too guilty about doing something frivolous, like having barbecue, over the weekend. After all, you weren’t the one who instituted the Indianapolis 500 on May 30,1911. That credit goes to Indianapolis businessman Carl Fisher. The winning driver that day was Ray Harroun who averaged 74.6 mph and completed the race in 6 hours and 42 minutes.

Gravitas returned on May 30, 1922, when the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated. Supreme Court chief justice (and former president) William Howard Taft dedicated the monument before a crowd of 50,000 people, segregated by race, and which included a row of Union and Confederate veterans. Also attending was Lincoln’s surviving son, Robert Todd Lincoln.

And in 2000, Congress established a National Moment of Rememberance which asks Americans to pause for one minute at 3pm in an act of national unity. The time was chosen because 3pm “is the time when most Americans are enjoying their freedoms on the national holiday.”

Absinthe: A History

Due to recent discussions around a campfire, I decided to do a little research about "the green fairy".

Absinthe originated in northern Switzerland, but was made famous by those dirty French* during the 19th century. Originally thought to be a hallucinogen, this has been disproved through scientific studies starting in the 1970s.

Absinthe got a bad rap due to piss-poor research done by Dr. Valentin Magnan. Magnan believed absinthe was degenerating the French population and let this skew his research results. He studied 250 alcoholics and found that those who drank absinthe had seizures and hallucinations. Turns out, Magnan didn't check these people for narcotics use. The hallucinations have since been debunked.

The ingredient that seems to be the culprit is thujone which is found in wormwood. Originally thought to be in the same family as THC (just like in marijuana, for you squares), thujone just causes seizures and no hallucinations.

Viktor Oliva - Absinthe Drinker

Absinthe was legalized in the U.S. in 2007 as long as it's "thujone-free". Thujone-free equals 10ppm or fewer. For the record, you can buy absinthe in the U.S., but not ship it in from other countries.

Verdict: Absinthe is a legal liquor that has no hallucinogenic effects.

*I don't actually have anything against the French, I just like to talk shit about other people.

Twix - A History

Twix is the most delicious of all candy bars. That's not even subjective, it's true. I've compiled an abridged history of the Twix (thanks for the idea, Megan). For the record, this information is mostly from Wikipedia, so don't quote HwH in any scientific journals.

- Started in UK in 1967

- Made its way to the U.S.A. in 1979

- Produced in Cleveland, Tennessee

- British slogan, "Twix without tea? It's like horseriding without the horse! The Queen without her Corgis!" Also not subjective, hot tea sucks.

A few Twix varieties you may not remember:

- Cookies-N-Creme Twix (1990)

- Chocolate Fudge Twix (1990)

- Triple Chocolate Twix (1991)

- Twix 100 Calorie Bars (2000s)

- Twix Java (2008)

Best Twix moment:

Hello, lover!

For those of you who know me, you know that I'm not really a girly-girl. I prefer jeans to dresses, flats to heels, and ponytails to a fixed style. I will warn you that the next sentence makes me want to jump up and down for joy and completely negates the first sentence of this post:

I am so darn excited that Sex and the City 2 will be out this week!



Yes, my four favorite girls will be back for a sequel and I can't wait to go see them. I will most definitely be at the movies this weekend, sipping a cosmo (in Carrie's honor) and bringing Kleenex (because really - seeing Aiden in the desert cannot be a good thing). Bring on the girliness.

Clone High

I don't know if anyone remembers this show. It was on MTV for a little while. The premise of the show is a lot of historical figures are cloned and are all in high school together. The main stars are Abe Lincoln, Gandhi, and Joan of Arc. The bad guys? JFK and the principal. It's good stuff.

Link to episodes

Miss USA

I'm about to go on another rant about our country and our lack of intelligence. The other day, Rima Fakih won the title of Miss USA. In the light of recent winners (Carrie Prejean), media outlets started claiming Fakih had "scandalous" pictures available and was in an "inappropriate" independent film.

As far as I can tell, a solid amount of this hubbub is due to the fact that Fakih is a Lebanese American. She's kind of Muslim and kind of Christian. I hate terrorists as much as the next guy, but not all Arabs and especially all Arab Americans are terrorists. Some of them are just hot chicks from Michigan.

Get off this poor girls back. Just let her be hot and star in movies like Throbbing Justice (a film in which she shows no nudity). To be honest, the pictures she took for the pageant were worse than the stripper pictures.

And now, everybody's favorite beauty queen.

Ahh, good ol' Nickelodeon

(From Neatorama.com)

If you were a kid at any time during the 80s and 90s and had cable television, chances are that you’re pretty familiar with Clarissa Darling and the Bar None Dude Ranch. Although a shocking (…or not) number of these child actors seemed to call it quits on their television careers not long after their stint on Nickelodeon, some of them went on to bigger and better things. Like what? You know you’re dying to know.

Salute Your Shorts

photo from sydlexia.com

Salute Your Shorts was about kids at a summer camp called Camp Anawanna. It’s relatively obscure, considering it only aired two seasons. But some surprising talent participated in those two seasons, including Blake Sennett (then going by Blake Soper) who is now better known for being the lead guitarist in Rilo Kiley (and possibly dating Winona Ryder). Coincidentally (or not) the Rilo Kiley’s lead singer is Jenny Lewis, who was also a former child star. There’s a hidden song on the Rilo Kiley album “Take Offs and Landings” called “Salute My Shorts” in reference to Blake’s brief stint as Ronnie Pinsky. Also notable is Christine Cavanaugh (Mona the Mail Lady), who later became the voice of Chuckie Finster on Rugrats, Babe the pig and Dexter of Dexter’s Laboratory.

This is pretty much the only fan page I could find for Salute Your Shorts and I’m proud to say it’s from Iowa State University. Maybe we’re the only weirdos who liked this show.

Are You Afraid of the Dark

photo from fewl.net

This was the era of R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike, so I was of course a huge fan ofAre You Afraid of the Dark. It was the highlight of my SNICK (Saturday Night Nickelodeon, of course) lineup. I was particularly haunted by the clown doll in the opening credits. Anyway, Dark was about a group of kids (The Midnight Society) who (presumably) snuck out of their houses late at night to meet around a campfire and tell spooky stories. The episode always began with the storyteller saying, “Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I call this story –”, followed by the title of the story and a dramatic flourish of powder which caused the fire to flare up. I’m sad to report that most of the 15 kids involved in the show over its seven-year run don’t seem to be doing much now, with a few exceptions:

Elisha Cuthbert is arguably the best-known of the Midnight Society. Who knew that innocent young Megan would end up starring in House of Wax with Paris Hilton? I kid, I kid. Elisha is notable for her role as Kim Bauer on 24, which she says she will be reprising in the movie version.

Rachel Blanchard (Kristen) played Cher on the T.V. version of Clueless and you’ve also seen her in Snakes on a Plane, Without a Paddle, 7th Heaven and Road Trip. Rivaling her somewhat celebrity status is…

…Joanna Garcia. She used her role as Samantha on AYAOTD to propel her to bigger and better things, such as Vicki on the much-mourned cult hit Freaks and Geeks and air-headed Cheyenne on the CW’s Reba.

Clarissa Explains It All

photo from www.thur.de

Before Melissa Joan Hart was Sabrina Spellman, she was Clarissa Darling. She battled horrors like her brother Ferguson (Ferg-wad), zits and surviving before getting her driver’s license. It was an interesting show because it broke the barrier between viewer and character by having Clarissa address the viewer Ferris Bueller-style.
I have to admit I was mildly in love with Clarissa’s best friend Sam, but unfortunately it doesn’t look like he’s done much acting since. It might surprise you to know that Elizabeth Hess, who played Clarissa’s mom, is now teaching acting at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. At least, I was surprised. Irritating genius Ferg-wad ended up going to Notre Dame in real life.

Hey Dude

photo from Amazon.com

As far as I can tell, Hey Dude was Christine Taylor’s big start. It was the story of a city slicker, who, sick of stressful life in New York, bought a dude ranch in Arizona. He wasn’t quite as talented at running a ranch as crunching numbers, though, so we are constantly entertained by his bumbling ways and how his teenage staff is constantly coming to his rescue. The series was filmed on location at Tanque Verde Guest Ranch near Tucson and apparently some of it is still standing (although in bad shape). We all know Christine Taylor was Marcia, Marcia, Marcia, and married Ben Stiller, but what about the rest of them? Well, Jonathan Galkin, who played Mr. Ernst’s nephew, Jake, is the co-founder of DFA Records. DFA has produced and remixed artists such as Nine Inch Nails, Gorillaz, The Chemical Brothers and Le Tigre. Who know cousin Jake would turn out to be so cool??

Remember This?

Play it here.

Jump back, throw me down!

I am a native Oklahoman. I was born knowing the tornado procedures and precautions, hearing the sirens, and watching Gary England on TV.

Now I'm typically a bit of a worrier, which my husband can attest to, but I know that really worrying about a tornado is not an effective use of time. What is effective is gathering supplies and creating a safe place in your home.
Especially when the sky looks like this:

So I was a little perturbed when Eli started making fun of me for carefully going through my mental list of items and gathering them up in our safe place, a.k.a. the hallway. And I didn't go crazy, but I felt like as a wife and adopted mother of 2 cute pups I should protect my family should a tornado turn towards us. I said this and he laughed at me. So I (alone) gathered the blanket, the water, the flashlights and candles, dog leashes and food, and put them in the hallway. Then Sadie and Fenway told their dad that he was not allowed in the safe place with us. (Haha! I would have obviously let Eli in if a tornado was on its way to us, but he would have had to argue with the pups about it first.) After I felt that we were as ready as we could get, I went outside to look at what was going on.

I'm pretty sure all of my neighbors were outside, too.

We live at the end of a cul-de-sac, so we have the advantage of seeing everyone. The white car in the right corner actually turned down our street and was following the storm. (Not the best vehicle for that activity if you want my opinion.) You can see a couple of the neighbors outside here, but you can see more here.

And the white car has circled around and is watching the storm roll by. It was moving across Highway 9 (about 1 mile from our house) very quickly. We're lucky that it was fairly small in comparison to what it built up to by Eli's parents' house.

This was a Love's Truck Stop on I-40 and Choctaw Road.

There's no need to panic and no need to worry, but disregard your spouse's scoffing and be prepared. There were only 5 fatalities because of last night's storms, but it could have been worse. My goal is to create a tornado kit in a toolbox or some other type of easily accessible carrier so that my family will be ready at a moment's notice...and then I won't have to go through the mess of putting the flashlights and dog leashes away when the storm passes. Do like the Boy Scouts and be prepared.

Read more about it here.

Side note: This author does not claim to be the grammatical genius of certain contributing authors of this blog. I do, however, make every attempt at creating the most error-free entries as possible. I will (most likely, at some point) use ellipses and multiple exclamation points to show emotion - much to my husband's dismay. I know they are grammatically incorrect, but they're being used in a blog with four followers...I don't think it will really have that much of an impact on the greater good. That is all. Mrs. Hammie out.

Baseball Stance Guy quiz

Click here to take this quiz. I got a 12/15. Not too bad.

Spell Check Strikes Again

I went to News9.com and read an article about the 4 reported deaths caused by today's tornadoes. It's a news story about a terrible event. And it's a terrible article. They were discussing injuries and claimed the OU Medical Center helicopter couldn't be used because it was damaged in its "hanger." I created a profile just to let them know it's "hangar" when it's a building used to house aircraft.

Shouldn't these people be able to spell? They're journalists for Christ's sake. I know it sounds the same, but it's not the same word. When I worked for The Oklahoman, I had to explain to the entire Classifieds department the difference between "stationary" and "stationery." I should not be the grammar Nazi at a newspaper.

Four those of ewe who rely on spell czech to ketch you're type-os , your thee wurst.

This goes out to the people who constantly pepper Facebook with "I hate stupid people" and "school is a waste of time" or "It's America, speak English", maybe you should learn your own language before you pass judgement on others.

While I'm on the topic, the ellipsis (...) is not the same as a period. You don't need to use an ellipsis unless you intentionally omit a word or phrase. Also, when you use multiple punctuation marks, it doesn't make your statement more exciting!!!!!!!!!!! Please stop. If you use an ellipsis to end a complete sentence, you're an ...

Jim's Pancakes

Jim is a father of a 3-year-old daughter. She loves pancakes and he wanted to make it fun for him to cook pancakes all the time. He started creating edible masterpieces. He's made some really cool pancakes. Check out his blog at www.jimspancakes.com.

God (or Buddha, Allah,Vishnu, etc...) is a funny dude.

For those of you who'd never heard of Dallas Braden before this year, join the crowd. I'm not a baseball expert, but I keep up with it and I'd never heard his name.

In late April, Braden was the starting pitcher for the A's when they faced the Yankees. Alex Rodriguez went from first to third on a ball that ended up being foul. On his return to first, A-Rod jogged over the pitcher's mound. Braden took offense to this. I guess it's one of baseball's unwritten rules. The mound belongs to the pitcher. This altercation is what inspired me to blog about baseball's idiosyncrasies a little while back.

Now, how did A-Rod respond in the media? "I'd never quite heard that," said Rodriguez. "Especially from a guy that has a handful of wins in his career."

Well, on Sunday, Dallas Braden threw baseball's 19th perfect game. A feat like this is rare, to say the least. A-Rod will be in the Hall of Fame and Braden probably won't be. I still feel like Braden's perfect game is more impressive than A-Rod's career. I'll only change my opinion if Braden admits to steroids.

The best part of the entire situation? Braden's

grandmother's quote after the perfect game,

"Stick it, A-Rod!"

TRIVIA: (If you don't know, that's fine. Don't cheat and look it up.)

What 4 MLB teams have multiple

perfect games in their history?

Respond in comments.

Wal-Mart

I hate Wal-Mart. I don't hat Wal-Mart because they exploit their workers (then get sued, Megan) or drive Mom & Pop stores out of business. I hate Wal-Mart because they don't give a damn about their customers.

I tried to find some fruit that wasn't in terrible condition. No luck. I tried to find a lane where I didn't have to check myself out and pay the same price. Slight luck. The lady who ran the register was about 50. Not too old, but too old to work at Wal-Mart at 11:00. She bagged the shit out of our groceries. I'm not a true conservationist or hippie, but I do try to cut out as much waste as I can while keeping my extra work to a minimum. This cashier used four bags to wrap two bottles of Pellegrino. It was a little ridiculous.

I had a gift card with $7 on it. It won't scan. You'll have to come back and wait in line at customer service to get them to research it. I'm still debating as to whether that experience is worth $7.

In short, I like the idea of Wal-Mart. To me it seems very American. Some guy in Arkansas turned a single shop into a multi-billion dollar empire. That's amazing, but I don't work for you. I shouldn't ever have to check myself out or wait in a ten-deep line to have the one employee you have working do her job.

P.S. - To all you stockboys who give me dirty looks because I'm trying to shop in the same aisle you're stocking - YOU'RE IN MY WAY! Smile and stand there until I get my cottage cheese then go about your business. I'm the customer, you're the guy still wearing JNCOs.

DWTS

I know I'm going to catch flak for this, but I'll own up to it. My wife and I watch Dancing with the Stars. I have to vent about a thing or two DWTS has taught me:

1. Dancing is hard and somewhat entertaining, but still nowhere near a sport.

2. Tom Bergeron is a funny dude.

3. Evan Lysacek is gay and can't admit it to himself. If you're gay, be gay. Don't lie to me and yourself.

4. Carrie Ann Inaba's right armpit is displayed all the time. It tends to look like a vagina. (The picture doesn't do it justice.)

5. Carrie Ann Inaba played Fook Yu in Austin Powers in Goldmember.

6. Evan Lysacek looks like Doug from Nickelodeon.

7. Nudity helps your career. (Brooke Burke, Shannen Doherty, Erin Andrews, Pam Anderson)

8. Erin Andrews is physically attractive but too much of a tomboy. I still believe a girl doesn't fart or poop.

9. It's not fair when people like Nicole Scherzinger are on DWTS. She's a professional dancer.

Baseball's Unwritten Code

The 'Code': Ten unwritten baseball rules you might not know
By Jason Turbow

Last month, when A's pitcher Dallas Braden called out Alex Rodriguez for cutting across the Oakland Coliseum mound, the country was informed of a small slice of baseball's Code that had lain mostly dormant in recent memory.

It was only one of a litany of unwritten rules that covers major leaguers' actions, designed essentially to preserve a baseline level of respect between competitors. They constitute the moral fabric of the game.

The best known of these rules tells players not to steal a base when their team holds a big lead in the late innings of a game. Others include barring overt displays of exuberance in all but the most extreme circumstances; the hitter who watches his own home runs is the most egregious of violators in this category.

Many fans have heard of these rules (Alex Rodriguez himself was unaware of one). Some sections of the Code, however, fly under the radar (even for baseball insiders, to judge by the number of people within the game who had never heard the rule about restraint from crossing the pitcher's mound).

So, without further delay, here are 10 of baseball's more obscure unwritten rules:
1. Don't swing at the first pitch after back-to-back home runs .
This is a matter of courtesy, respect for a pitcher who is clearly struggling, offering just a sliver of daylight with which to regain his senses. When Yankees rookie Chase Wright gave up back-to-back-to-back-to-back homers against Boston in 2007, the guys who hit numbers three and four — Mike Lowell and Jason Varitek — each watched a pitch before taking a cut.
"Let him know, okay, I'm not swinging," said Hal McRae. "I know you're out there trying to do a job, and I have to do a job — but you've just given up back-to-back home runs. So I take the first pitch."
2. Don't work the count when your team is up or down by a lot.
This is true for both pitchers and hitters. Nobody wants to see the fifth guy on a bullpen's depth chart nibbling on the corners in the late innings of a blowout. Similarly, hitters are expected to swing at anything close. It's an effort to quickly and efficiently end a lopsided contest.
3. When hit by a pitch, don't rub the mark.
This one is all about intimidation or lack thereof. It's a hitter's way of telling the pitcher that his best shot — intentional or otherwise —didn't hurt. Pete Rose made a point of sprinting to first base after being hit, to ensure that he stripped all satisfaction from the pitcher.
"It's a macho thing, like a fighter who gets clocked in the mouth and shakes his head like it didn't hurt him," said Rich Donnelly. "But believe me, it hurts."
Lou Brock was the only hitter Sandy Koufax ever threw at intentionally, and despite the fact that his shoulder was fractured by the pitch, forcing him from the game, never once did he rub the spot. The Washington Post once reported that Don Baylor "was hit by 267 pitches yet never rubbed, even once. Of course, several of the balls had to be hospitalized."

4. Don't stand on the dirt cutout at home plate while a pitcher is warming up.
Just as Braden dismissed A-Rod's attempt to enter his sacred space, the area around the plate is meant only for the hitter, and then only when it's time for him to hit. Should a pitcher be getting loose before an at-bat, it's strictly off-limits. "I stay as far away from the cutout as I can when the pitcher is warming up," said Ken Griffey Jr."If they could, they should put the on-deck circle in left field to make me happy. I don't want anything to do with messing with the pitcher when he's getting ready."
5. Don't walk in front of a catcher or umpire when getting into batter's box.
This is respect, pure and simple. If the line from your dugout to the batter's box takes you between the pitcher and the catcher, walk around. Like the A-Rod incident, you'll likely never hear about this one until a player is called out for brazenly violating it.
6. Don't help the opposition make a play (bracing them from falling into the dugout, etc.).
In 1998, Dodgers left fielder Matt Luke braced Arizona's Andy Fox as the third baseman staggered into the Los Angeles dugout while chasing a pop fly. He knew the Code, but he had also been Fox's roommate in multiple levels of the Yankees' minor-league system, and was so tight with him that Fox had served as an usher in his wedding. Even then, he had his limits. "I waited until he made the play," said Luke in the Riverside Press Enterprise. "I wanted to prevent an injury. We're competing out there, and not for one second do I want to help the opposition."

7. Relievers take it easy when facing other relievers.
The caveat to this piece of the Code is that for the most part, relievers don't step to the plate in close games, which gives their counterparts on the opposing team some leeway in their approach. "You'd probably give them all fastballs," said Dave LaRoche. "It was just a professional courtesy type of thing. Here it is — I'll give you a chance to hit it if you can."
8. Follow the umpire's Code when addressing them on the field.
This is a book in itself. How one talks to umpires goes a long way toward getting favorable calls, or at least not getting thrown out of a game. ("That call was horse----" is generally acceptable; "You're horse----" is never acceptable.) Some savvy teams go so far as to post headshots and bios in the clubhouse for the umps working that day's game, so that players can butter them up a bit.
Still, there are ways to express anger without getting tossed. After umpire Shag Crawford called Dick Groat out on a play at second base, Groat told him, "You're still the second best umpire in the league." Then he added that the other 19 umpires were tied for first.
9. Pitchers stay in the dugout at least until the end of the inning in which they get pulled.
This is purely about respect for one's teammates. "I know you're having a tough day, but give your teammates the respect to stay out here until the end of the inning," said Sean Casey. "You don't want to show that you think the game's already lost."

10. Pitchers never show up their fielders
This doesn't happen frequently, but when it does, players notice. One pitcher who made a habit of excessive body language on the mound was Gaylord Perry, who would put his hands on his hips and stare down fielders who made errors behind him.
"That bothered me because nobody glared at him if he gave up a home run or something like that," said Dave Nelson, Perry's teammate on the Rangers. "I always felt like I deserved the same respect because I'm out there busting my butt just like he is, and if I make an error, it wasn't because I was doing it on purpose."
Perry's teammate in Cleveland, Oscar Gamble, had a different take: "If you don't do right, if you miss a ball you should have caught, you expect the fans to boo you," he said. "And this fan, Gaylord, was a player. That's the way I looked at it."
Perry, however, was occasionally able to find his fielders innocent of wrongdoing. Once, after shortstop Todd Cruz fielded a grounder and air-mailed the ball into the stands, Perry withheld judgment. "Too much stuff on the ball," he said after the game.

New Arizona Immigration Law - No Bueno

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I've never been to Mexico. I don't care to go. I don't like Mexico. It seems dirty. They gave us killer bees and bad lettuce at Taco Bell.

That being said, this new immigration law in Arizona is terrible. Basically, the law states that a cop can stop anyone he/she thinks is an illegal alien and demand documentation proving otherwise.

How Nazi is that? I don't know that many cops, but of the ones I do, a large percentage (not all) of them aren't very smart. What makes us believe these guys will be able to tell an illegal immigrant from a legal one?

I'm all for kicking every illegal alien out of the country. I'll pay more in taxes so we can hire a hell of a lot more border patrol. You know what I'm not for? Harassing innocent Americans. Leave them be. Unfortunately, we have bigger problems than these illegal aliens. Can we fix public schooling? Can we get this Iraq/Afghanistan shit done?

The Phoenix Suns will be making a political statement (really just a PR move) by wearing their Los Suns jerseys today (Cinco de Mayo).

Durant & Thunder

Durant belongs with Thunder, and Thunder belong with Oklahoma

Article by: Gregg Doyel at cbssports.com

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Kevin Durant and Oklahoma City Thunder fans deserve each other.

I know what you're thinking, and you're right. A sentence like that, coming from a smartass like me, is usually going to be an insult. Watch this: Roger Goodell and Ben Roethlisberger deserve each other. Michael Vick and oblivion deserve each other. Tiger Woods and a missed cut deserve each other.

Kevin Durant's exciting style is a perfect match in Oklahoma City. (Getty Images)

But that sentence about Durant and the Thunder fans? Not an insult. They do deserve each other, and in the best possible sense. Kevin Durant is the most charming star in the NBA. Thunder fans are the most charming fans in the NBA. They deserve each other, and they deserve each other for another decade.

Whether Durant plays out his career in Oklahoma City is a topic for another day. He could sign a max-contract extension this summer, which would tie him to the Thunder for another five years, but at some point he will be on the market as an unrestricted free agent, much like LeBron James and Dwyane Wade will be on the market this summer. So this is not a plea to Durant to stay in Oklahoma City. It's merely an acknowledgement that he is perfect for the Thunder, and they are perfect for him.

You probably know about Durant, and I don't mean simply his stardom. Everybody knows that. Dude led the NBA this season with 30.1 points per game, becoming the youngest player -- at age 21 -- to lead the league in scoring. You definitely know how good he is. But I'm guessing you also know how humble he is. Lots of players try to be humble and fail, guys like LeBron (and I love him) and Kobe (and I don't).

Durant doesn't try to be humble. He just is. He had a rotten series offensively against the Lakers, abhorrent really, but he didn't let it affect his effort on defense. Well, yes he did. Durant was helping so little on offense that he felt bad -- so he asked coach Scotty Brooks if he could guard Bryant. His offense affected his defense in the best way possible. The leading scorer in the NBA begs to cover Kobe Bryant? That's special. But Durant is special. He has no idea how good he is, urging people like me not to write his name in the same sentence with players like Kobe or LeBron. "Those guys are way above me," Durant says. "Don't compare me to them. That's unfair to them."

That's charming. And so are the fans who cheer for Durant.

Most NBA arenas are the same. Same flames shooting out of a flame-shooter during introductions. Same jackass guy on a microphone yelling at the crowd to make some NOIIIIIIIIIIIISE. Same sexpot girl flouncing around the crowd with another microphone, her impact measured in cup size.

The Ford Center isn't that way. Maybe that's why the Ford Center crowd behaves like grown-ups. They cheer and they boo, but more than that, they appreciate the game. It is, as Lakers coach Phil Jackson said Friday night before Game 6 of that series, "like a college crowd.

"These people stand and cheer," Jackson said. "They're very vociferous. It doesn't matter if it's the New Orleans Hornets or the Oklahoma team. They're still cheering."

College crowds are better than NBA crowds, so much so that it's not an argument worth having. I'm not trying to get a rise out of NBA fans. That's not an opinion. That's a fact. College basketball atmosphere is sincere intensity like an NFL game. NBA atmosphere is pre-programmed noise like Arena Football.

Game 6 ended in the most shocking way possible, with the Lakers stealing victory from defeat when Pau Gasol tapped in the game-winning shot with less than one second to play. That ended the game and the series ... and the Thunder's season. And do you know what the Thunder crowd did next? It stood and cheered, and this is where I'm getting goosebumps as I remember it. The season was over, the Thunder was crushed -- Kevin Durant, earnest like a college player, collapsed at midcourt at the final buzzer -- and the damn crowd was giving them an ovation out of appreciation for a sensational season.

When it happened, I started looking around for the reason. Is there a fight? Why are they cheering? NBA crowds don't cheer at this time, or with this much passion. This wasn't half-hearted, over-the-shoulder applause by fans who were headed for the exits. This was 16,000 people standing and staring at the court and loving a losing team. This lasted almost five minutes. A half hour after the game, Brooks said the crowd's response had torn up his team, in a good way.

"They're pretty emotional in there," Brooks said of his players in the OKC locker room. "Because of the crowd."

Make no mistake, Oklahoma City deserves this basketball team. Four years ago I wrongly predicted this day would never come, that the NBA wouldn't let the Sonics leave Seattle, but here we are. The Sonics are the Thunder, and Oklahoma City deserves to have them. This isn't a comparison between OKC and Seattle. I'm not saying Oklahoma City deserves this team more than Seattle did.

Leave Seattle out of the equation and understand this: Oklahoma City deserves the Thunder. This is a major league city that has been relegated to the ranks of the minors by American sports leagues that measure their worth by the size of their, um, market. And Oklahoma City is only the 45th-biggest TV market in the country. But players around the NBA have come to appreciate the Ford Center as one of the toughest buildings to play because of the sheer volume the crowd generates. I've not been to every arena in the NBA, but I get around, and the only basketball building louder than the Ford Center is Duke's crammed Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Point being, Durant is the ideal young basketball star. Oklahoma City is the ideal young basketball fan base. With Russell Westbrook a superstar at this moment and Jeff Green an All-Star down the road, Durant has the supporting cast to win whatever he wants to win. That talent, and that crowd support, should attract better accompanying pieces than the Thunder have right now.

It's the perfect match, Durant and Oklahoma City. And you know that part earlier in the story where I said "this is not a plea to Durant to stay in Oklahoma City"? That was a lie. This is a plea. Stay in Oklahoma City, Durant. They deserve you -- and you deserve them.

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