Thoughts of a Common Man

The details of the Jack Smith criminal case against the former president were made public just a few days ago. It’s hard to believe that it’s only Saturday morning and the media has moved on. I’m begging you to read the transcript of what happened on January 6th. As the Capitol was under attack, he sat in the dining room in the White House and watched it all unfold on television. When they reported that Pence was under threat he remarked: “So what?” He’d planned on that happening. When told that a civilian had been shot… …he didn’t respond. Didn’t make a move to stop it. “Let them riot.” And to what end? He wanted the government to be overthrown!!!! He knew he lost, and simply would not accept the results of the election. And he’s running for the job again?????? What is going on? Watergate wasn’t anything compared to this! It certainly seems to me, almost 60 years in, that we are upside down here. The assassination attempt? What do you know about that???? Nothing! It made zero sense as

Man, the playoffs are off to a booming start. Find me one football game - in the last 20 years - that was as good as the Monday afternoon game between the Braves and the Mets… …and that was just to get into the tournament. Since that game we watched the Astros and Orioles get bounced. They were two heavily favored teams in matchups with teams with much lower payrolls. The Tigers entire team is making less money than the guy they got the 3-run double off of. What I’ve always enjoyed about baseball is that you can see something different every night. A low-scoring affair. A slugfest. No running out the clock. The pitch has to be thrown and the ball has to be hit. Also, they’ve sped up the game without any of us really noticing. I loved the Yankees-Red Sox battles 20 years ago, but those game would go 4 and a half hours! The Braves-Padres game 1 was over in 129 minutes. The shift is gone. 12 slow tosses to first base when a runner gets on - gone! It’s the greatest sport. Hardly ever a con

When I was about 15 years old, I caught a hockey stick in the mouth. John Armbruster was the guy who didn’t have control of his stick. Later that night, my tooth fell out! I kind of forgot about it because I went in and got a cap put on. Couple of days ago, a guy poured a few milk duds into my hand. I walked around the site chewing on them. They aren’t crunchy! My first thought was: “Armbruster!” I was able to fish the cap out of the caramel mess… …headed to a store and was amazed to see they had a cap repair kit. Went home and performed surgery. All good… …with one exception. I had chewed a little of the enamel off the cap. Have a little black showing. Freaking… …Armbruster!

  In a world of poor behavior, Jimmy Carter has lived an absolutely tremendous life. He turned 100 years old yesterday and despite the fact that he’s been in hospice for months… …he’s hanging in there. I’ve told the story before, but my first foray into politics was watching the presidential election between Carter and Ford with my Mom & Dad. I got to stay up late because I had read a biography of Carter and was impressed by his life. This is an accomplished man. Served the country.  Nuclear engineering is on his resume and while the uninitiated refer to him as a peanut farmer… …he’s done it all! Including building housing for the poor well into his late 90’s. His presidency is wildly panned because of the gas lines and the Iran hostage situation, but many insiders have said that he was too intelligent to be a president and that he didn’t play the games that are normally played in D.C. Regardless, in a world dominated by men of questionable moral standing, Jimmy Carter stands out a

For the 17th time I have received my box of books. It’s still a pretty cool feeling, but my emotional state of it has certainly changed. When I broke the seal yesterday, I thought: “Don’t take it for granted.” I’ve written a LOT in the last five or so years. Most of the books are sitting on my computer. I went with this particular title because I wanted to bring some laughter to my readers lives and I also wanted to inspire them to enjoy their lives. It’s funny, but I actually got the idea for the lite story when we were watching the mini-series, ‘The Maid’. It was a well-done show about a young woman who was battling to just keep her head above water. She would tabulate how much money she had before she bought a candy bar. She was off to work every day and despite the fact that she hustled, struggled, cried and battled… …it was sad. “There are so many people living that way,” I said. I learned a long, long time ago that I can’t do a whole hell of a lot to change the world… …it’s funny

I grew up in the 70’s. Pete Rose was everywhere as an example of how to play baseball. ‘Charlie Hustle’ is one of the game’s great nicknames and Rose was on those great Reds teams in the mid-70’s. Me and a couple of buddies can still recite the lineup for those teams. He was also on the Phillies team that won in 1980. The all-time hit leader, and I must admit that when he had the 44 game hit streak, I was rooting for him to get even closer. And then he became a manager and the Reds brought him back, but things went south. His gambling was a problem. He bet games that the team he was managing was involved in. He got kicked out, and here’s the thing - he AGREED to the lifetime ban because he didn’t want his sins to come to light. There were more disturbing stories about Pete. He showed up at Cooperstown on hall of fame weekend each year and set up a table next to the museum where he sold his autograph. When I heard the news, I thought of Rose as he’s pictured above. Kind of felt bummed a