Dude...just Wow.

Word of the Day

Little Fish strikes again, with another gem. Today's word was found in Church while Pastor Troy spoke about yearning. Little Fish came up with:

Urining [yur'-eh-ning] -noun
1. deep longing to go to the bathroom
2. an instance of such longing.

Ex. I drank a lot of water earlier, then experienced a deep urining in the middle of the meeting.

Harry Kalas

I was watching the video tribute to former Phillies announcer Harry Kalas and thinking about almost 40 years of baseball with him. My brother and I used to play wiffle ball in the back yard and we would break out our baseball card collection and choose up our teams by position. The thing was, you then had to hit and play like the player you were emulating. I liked Phil Neikro because I got to throw a knuckleball, which is an amazing thing when you have it working with a wiffleball. I also like Steve Carlton because he was a Phillie and he threw hard. My brother used to grab the Joe Morgan card, convinced that the "chicken flap" of the arm before hitting made the ball go farther when he got into one...more than once "Joe Morgan" parked it in the neighbor's backyard, by rule, a homerun. And we announced the game, trying to sound like a real announcer, trying to sound like Harry.

I don't usually get all maudlin about the passing of celebrities, but by all accounts Harry Kalas was a gem precisely because he was not a celebrity. Person after person speaks about his approachability, his humility and his simple love for his beloved Phillies and the game they played. I remember summers at my Uncle Charlie's shucking corn by a transistor radio while he chain-smoked unfiltered Pall Malls in a blue haze; I remember driving in the front seat of my dad's car with no seatbelt with "the game" on; and I remember the wiffleball games in the backyard with "Joe Morgan" squaring off against Steve Carlton. And the constant was the call of the announcer, the only one my brother and I had ever known: Harry Kalas.

I'm going to miss him.

Word of the Day

Little Fish has inhereted the love of words Mrs. Fish and I share, including inventing new words when existing ones don't suffice. To wit, I offer you:

Slethy [sleth - ee] adjective, sleth⋅i⋅er, sleth⋅i⋅est
1. The feeling resulting from an excess of mucous, particularly as it settles at the back of the throat
2. the way your throat feels after slugging orange juice or milk
3. that icky feeling you get between your throat and your stomach when running, especially in the rain or in humid weather.

Ex. I felt slethy when I ran tonight, and I only got slethier when I drank orange juice afterwards.

Let Me Win...

...but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt. My buddy Vern made this video of a local Special Olympics event, featuring his daughter and the other athletes who competed that day. Absolutely awesome. Go Kaitlin!

Don't Drink and Drive...Idiot!

I have to think the 911 operator saved him from a Darwin Award...

We're Number 66!

That's right, baby! Okay, so it might not be one shining moment, but it does put a stamp of authentication on a program that was at best an afterthought and at worst an embarrassment for years in Happy Valley. We Are...Penn State!

For Those of You Keeping Score at Home...

...I ran the get Your Rear in Gear 5K in 28.32. Not bad, and I was pleased I 1) finished and 2) did it in less than 30 minutes. While the road to recovery is long, it's nice to be out and running again. Nicer still that the weather has decided to start helping a little as well.