Go away Bieber, NRA and Kardashians!

My word!

Minor update now that it's 2015...Get Bruce Jenner out of the spotlight! Every day, it seems, there are more news stories about him/her. I don't care. Does anyone?

I have a look at AOL news each day and am always surprised there are continual stories of the Kardashians and Justin Bieber. Initially, I just assumed that AOL had a financial stake in their careers. (Actually, now, I’m convinced they must!)

I don’t know who the Kardashians are or what they may have ever done to merit any news coverage. However, I did (today) tune in to the Bieber kid on Youtube. He sounds just like he looks! He could easily be a you nick (the site did not allow me to enter the proper spelling!) or an outright girl. He seems to sing a soprano (coloratura) sound and appears to be a girl.

What is this all about? Why would the American news media continue to support him/her? He appears to be a little girl…with a (weak) little girl’s voice.

What in the world is this all about?

The Kardashians don’t seem to have any talents and Bieber doesn’t either.

Please ( ! ) get these people out of the news! It’s a disgrace!

Okay...NRA. Why is the NRA in the news all the time. Who really gives a shit what the NRA thinks?! Why does the NRA have any voice at all in American politics? We already have "the right to bear arms". We don't need a bunch of wackos supporting the right to carry assault weapons. Let's get real! Our country is extremely violent and we all are at risk when people are carrying around AK 47s. Get them off the streets and out of our neighborhoods. F U, NRA! Get the NRA out of politics and out of the news!

There is other (real) news going on in the world.

Seattle Mariners New Announcer...Update

Update: Without regard to my comments below and with another year gone by...I really like the Mariners announcers. I think Rizzs and Goldsmith are just plain great. I only have access to radio broadcasts but I'm extremely pleased with experience.



 Okay...I listen to the Mariners on the radio and have many personal opinions about the announcing staff...

Many years ago, while living in Southern California for a while, I listened to Dick Enberg doing the Angels broadcasts. He was great! His sidekick was Dave Niehaus and I didn't like his gravelly voice and delivery at all. He just seemed...boring. (I was young at the time.) Then, after moving to Seattle so long ago, I was very disappointed to learn that Niehaus would be the Mariners' voice. After years of listening to him, Mr. Niehaus grew on me. While I never really adjusted to the gravelly voice or his un-Northwestern pronunciations of so many words...(for example, he always said "National" with a long "I" rather than a short "A".) In any case, I grew to appreciate all the nuances of Dave Niehaus and miss hearing him.

Then, along comes Rick Rizzs. Similar to my inability to embrace Dave Niehaus early on, I had great difficulty accepting Rick Rizzs. Even now, I take issue when he says things like, "Kerplunk". Also, he tends to shorten words to a single syllable. Somehow, he manages to turn the word, "scoring" into a single syllable. I don't know how he does that! There are many other words that are shortened and, even though I fully understand the meaning, it still bothers me when I hear such things. Also, he tends to speak for a long time during a sentence and takes a breath and pauses, mid-sentence, at the wrong time, before finishing a comment. It's very odd and totally alien to normal conversation!  Alas! After all these years, Mr. Rizzs has grown on me and the Mariners would not be the same without him. I am a fan for sure.

I do not like listening to Dave Simms....ever! His delivery is choppy and..."Southern California-ish". (This is not a good thing to be in the Northwest.)

I hate listening to Ron Fairly. He's the most boring speaker I've ever heard...anywhere. I do acknowledge that many of his stories of the past are very interesting but he should never be allowed to speak about a game in progress.

Mike Blowers needs to learn how to speak less nasally. If he can't adapt, he should not be on any broadcasts.

Ken Levine is the best!

Mike Blowers annoys me. I can't get over watching him swing for the fences for the last strikeout (against Boston?) some years ago. All he needed to do was hit the ball, not practically fall down while ending the game. (He seems to have never learned to hit the ball without swinging for the fences.)

Dave Henderson is great! I could listen to him all day long...even without a baseball game in progress.

Dan Wilson...I think I learn nuances of the game when I hear his comments and am in favor of having him on the broadcasts as often as possible.

I did listen to a few Youtubes of the new guy, Aaron Goldsmith. While I find it particularly offensive that the Mariners went ahead with all these "auditions" without input from me or (probably) any other fan, I'm not totally (yet) disappointed with the selection. Mr. Goldsmith seems to have a slight "S" issue in speaking whereby the "S's" are slurred a bit...becoming a "Sh" sound. In interviews he conducted, he did not over-speak and allowed the interviewees to express their opinions! (This is a wonderful thing. In listening to many, sports-radio broadcasts, the interviewer seems to use up all the time, framing the question with endless gibberish, leaving little (or no) time for a response.) It's also good that he (Mr. Goldsmith) doesn't have a soprano voice like so many other sports announcers have!

Okay...I'll get back to this, eh?

Slight addition...today is the Super Bowl. I turned on the television and there's Jim Nance! How in the world can a guy like that make it in that business? He can't pronounce the letter "L"! It makes no sense to me. If a person is in the business of speaking and has such an obvious (annoying) speech impediment, why is he on the air? I hate it!

Cougar in Fall City, Cinderella in Seattle

Today is garbage day...not that it matters.

Anyway, apparently a cougar killed one of my neighbor's goats a few days ago. The Fish and Wildlife people have set a live trap to relocate the cat somewhere else. However, I think the neighbors are attempting to shoot the animal also. I suppose that's what life is like and am in no position to step up to save the cougar. After all, this same cat could drop down from a tree and attack any one of the hikers, bikers and riders who frequent this area. From the pictures I saw, it looks like the cougar is 51" long from nose to rear...add a cuppla feet for the tail and the thing is well over six feet long! It's just a sad state of affairs. There are far too many people in the world and we're crowding out every other species...

Wait! It's opera night so I have to get on the road. I'll get back to this.

Okay...it's the next day...I took one of my four granddaughters to see Seattle Opera's Cinderella performance. At first, I was concerned that the soprano seemed a bit weak but later she opened up and there was adequate strength in her delivery. I loved it! The tenor was awesome. As always, the Seattle Opera chorus was wonderful and the Magnificent Mice were mesmerizing and spectacular. In general, I found this production to be spellbinding. While I don't remember the actual roles of the characters, the Father was extremely good, the Valet was great and the adviser-guy (the bass) was really good. (It's so often that basses can't even be heard but he was up to the role...and I appreciated it immensely.) I saw no weaknesses anywhere in the cast and am pleased to have experienced Seattle Opera's work for some 25  (or more) years. My granddaughter loved it...viewing from the front row and sitting on two cushions. Seattle Opera needs our support! As long as they continue to bring in world-class talent...why go anywhere else, eh?

New Year?

Tomorrow is the first garbage day of the new year! Maybe it really isn't, though.

Today is New Year's Day...or not.

I was thinking about the new year and how people in the US meet at midnight to usher in the new year. "Happy New Year!" is yelled from rooftops, streets and all across the land. I wondered about that. It's no longer politically correct to say, "Merry Christmas" so people say, "Happy Holidays". What about the political correctness of, "Happy New Year"?

The new year celebrated in the US is on January First but that seems to be incorrect. The majority of people throughout the world recognize the new year as beginning at different times through the year. There are so many different days and times called "the beginning of a new year" that it's impossible to even uncover them all. Many cultures celebrate early Spring as the new year, some celebrate the end of the harvest season, some recognize the rainy season, others choose the winter solstice when the daylight hours finally begin to lengthen. The winter solstice, as the beginning and end of a year, seems to make the most sense to me. Among others, that happens to be the choice of numerous Native American tribes. I also think the advent of Spring might be the best choice for a New Year.

Actually, in some of my (limited) research, it appears that January First was chosen as New Year's Day because that was recognized as the day Jesus was circumcised. That's ridiculous!

The arrogance of Americans and Christians in declaring a new year as beginning today is...is...purely American.

Anyway (I keep having interruptions), this is only New Year's Day in a small section of the world.