In baseball, most people think tie goes to the runner, but many believe the rule book states otherwise. Rule 6.05j says that the batter must reach base before the ball, not later nor at the same time. Rule 7.08e says the fielder must either tag the player or touch the base while in possession of the ball before the runner gets there, not at the same time nor after he touches base. This is obvious a conflict in the rule book, a paradox, as you cannot ignore either rule.

The real problem here is that a batter cannot become anything but a runner if he hits a fair ball or a 3rd strike is missed, so reserving a right to a player as a batter that he can’t use now as a batter & can’t use later as a runner (which is the crux of the game, to be a batter who becomes a runner), is a paradox and at the very least an unconscionable rule. This rule should be discussed & amended to settle it once & for all. I for one feel the tie should go to the runner as they are the disadvantaged entity in this scenario, being that getting a hit in only 3 out of every 10 ABs is considered excellent.

If you watch enough MLB games, you’ll see that in virtually every case where it’s a tie, the umpire calls the batter/runner out & replay doesn’t overturn it.

Most people think Al Pacino said in the film “Dog Day Afternoon” the phrase “I’m dying over here”, but he actually said “I’m dying here”. It was Andrew “Dice” Clay doing an impression of Pacino in his “The Diceman Cometh” live show from 1989 that popularized “I’m dying over here” by adding the extra word, which sounds better anyway.

In the film “Casablanca”, Humphrey Bogart never said “Play it again, Sam” — he said “Play it”. However, Ingrid Bergman said “Play it once, Sam” and also “Play it, Sam”.

Cary Grant never said “Judy, Judy, Judy”.   Cary Grant himself said that he believed it was started by the actor Larry Storch doing an impression of him.  Grant said the name “Judy” a number of times in the film “Only Angels Have Wings”, but never “Judy, Judy” or “Judy, Judy, Judy”.  There’s no doubt it was popularized by George “Goober” Lindsey on “The Andy Griffith Show” when he does a purposely-horrible impression of Storch doing Grant with that same infamous line he never said.

Clint Eastwood in the original “Dirty Harry” film never said “Do you feel lucky, punk?”.  He said “You’ve got to ask yourself 1 question — do I feel lucky?  Well, do ya, punk?”  And he said it twice in that film & that’s it.  He had other catch phrase he tried to create with each Dirty Harry, and none of them stuck except for one which was the biggest of them all — in “Sudden Impact”, he said “Go ahead — make my day.”

There are lots more — Google them.

 

First off, the name should be changed to the “Music Hall Of Fame”, as it’s ridiculous to let in artists aren’t Rock & leave out those who are the epitome of great Rock when your name is the Rock & Roll Hame Of Fame.  Tupac Shakur has no business being in a Hall Of Fame for Rock & Roll, but there are a ton of other artists in there who contradict that term also.

The RRHOF in 2016 just agreed to induct a band (Electric Light Orchestra – “ELO”) known for its “light orchestra”, yet omitted the light orchestra & its conductor (Mik Kaminski, Melvyn Gale, Hugh McDowell & Louis Clark) from the honors!

But leaving out bassist Kelly Groucutt was a cold slap in the face by Jeff Lynne for him, Mik & Louis doing ELO II/The Orchestra, which Bev was a part of.  Jeff Lynne surely could have refused the honor or used his influence to have them included, but it shows how childish & stupid he really is after all these years.

Bev, Mik, Kelly & Louis wanted to continue playing & needed to make a living in the 90’s, and yet Jeff had all the money he needed & didn’t want them to use the name, which severely limited their chances of making good money, even though Bev Bevan owned half of the name.  Once Bev quit ELO II, the band was forced to use “The Orchestra”, and their money & ticket sales went down.

Groucutt died a few years ago and luckily won’t be able to have to deal with this, but these other guys contributed a lot to all the successful albums.

I don’t have a problem with Roy Wood being included as he’s the one who envisioned the band & the concept of a small “light” orchestra in a rock band, but he quit in the middle of the 2nd (unsuccessful) album & the band would’ve been defunct if Jeff Lynne didn’t kept it going, and the hits didn’t start until Mik & Kelly & Louis came onboard for the 4th album under Jeff’s direction, vision & songwriting, which was more accessible to the masses than Wood’s.

Now let’s talk about Pearl Jam — more political infighting by a band allows someone who’s a vital part of the band to be omitted.  Dave Abbruzzese played on the 2nd & 3rd albums, “Vs” & “Vitalogy”, yet wasn’t included because of a disagreement he had with the band over 20 years ago, and also omitted drummer Jack Irons who played on the 4th & 5th albums, “No Code” & “Yield”.  Instead, they inducted latecomer Matt Cameron who didn’t join until 1998 & didn’t play on a recording with them until 2000 when they had become relics & had literally nothing to do with the band’s recordings when they were relevant in the 90’s.

For anyone who thinks Matt Cameron should be included with Pearl Jam, note that the RRHOF typically ALWAYS excludes members who weren’t in the classic or first-popular lineup (note that I didn’t say “most-popular”).  The band Chicago was super popular in the 80’s as well as the 70’s & sold a ton of albums in each decade — in fact, they sold 17 million in the US of the 70’s output & 17 million in the US of their 80’s & later output, yet the 2 integral members of the group’s 80’s & beyond sound, Jason Scheff & Bill Champlin, weren’t inducted with the group.  Tremendous oversight & just shows you that they don’t use facts & figures — they use their short-sighted opinions & emotions to determine who gets in, and a hefty dose of socio/business politics as well.

Another solid screwup by the RRHOF.

The authorities released the envelope that Tonya Harding allegedly scribbled on in 1994 that was the alleged smoking gun in the case.

First off, this is not new evidence & it’s an unsubstantiated/unproven claim at best.

Secondly, the investigator in charge CLAIMED they analyzed the handwriting & that it was allegedly a match.  They never said who did the analyzing or how they analyzed it or provided any comparisons to known handwriting of hers to the press.  It was never entered as evidence against her in any case against her and she was never offered a chance to provide her own expert rebutting the claim in court as a result.

To say that this is her handwriting without the proper evidentiary standing is a witch hunt at best and libel/slander at the worst.

Sure, she allegedly made a bad choice in not reporting what she knew, but she claims she was tortured & threatened, so her refusal to report evidence in the case was out of fear.  Imagine finding out someone close to you had done something wrong and the whole world thought you were a part of it — it’s a no-win position, so coming out & admitting you know ANYTHING at ANY point looks bad, and if saying something means you might get tortured or killed, most people won’t say anything.

People have turned on Harding simply because of her appearance & her background from the “wrong side of the tracks”, and because of Nancy’s whining, which was ridiculous as she didn’t get hurt that badly — they hit her thigh above her knee, not her knee.  She denied Michelle Kwan a chance to compete, who might have won considering she almost won twice after that.

Besides all that, Nancy isn’t that good of a skater (she only got silver) and she isn’t that pretty.

Because the world has gotten connected by social media & the Comments section of most online news articles, people have found it all too important to be positively connected to a particular group of people, or the world at large, and in making that the ultimate quest, they have forgone individualism, independent thinking, criticism (unless it’s done behind a pseudonym online as I do — how else are you going to protect yourself nowadays from the wrath of society?), and the truth itself.

People have found it more important to be liked & wanted than to be critical & speak the truth aloud.  This used to be a trait respected & practiced by politicians, whom we used to despise for doing this, but now we emulate them in our own socio-political quests.

Don’t get me wrong — it will get you much further in life to appease people socially than to speak out against anything they have to say or stand for.  The question is whether you value that more than your own ideas & thoughts.

Many people are stuck in a social or employment situation where they can’t say that they’re atheists or even question faith/religion, or that they’re a Mets fan instead of a Yankees fan, or that they are liberal instead of conservative, or that they gay/lesbian or have a relative who is.  These people find it important for their financial livelihood and/or their social connections to uphold the social status quo & repeat the groupspeak & platform as if it were their own.  It’s the rare individual who doesn’t care if they’re liked or not — it’s usually those who were pushed outside the social circles who simply got used to it, and being liked & popular is just sour grapes.

It also leads to situations where the group may be incorrect in its facts, but refuses to acknowledge it due to fear.  There are also cases where the louder & more aggressive person will win an argument simply because of fear.  I saw a New Yorker cartoon where a Jeopardy contestant’s answer was determined to be the winning answer even though he was incorrect simply because he interrupted the correct respondent forcefully & was louder — this is happening quite a bit in reality.

I don’t know if social media will ever go away or not have the influence it exerts in society — I believe it will only get worse.  It’s just a matter of time before we have classes in grade school where kids are taught to get along by going along with the status quo — like in prison.

Not only does the Electoral College prevent the candidate with the highest number of votes from winning, it also suppresses the vote mentally by inducing those who live in a heavily-leaning state to stay home & not vote if they feel that doing so is a waste of time.  A Democrat in Alabama or other Red states may not bother to vote knowing that it doesn’t matter, whereas Republicans tend to vote always.  You may think that this may not be that widespread as there are typically plenty of other races to vote on, but it’s happening to a large extent as I’ve read accounts of people online who stated they didn’t bother to vote as they only cared about the Presidential race and they knew there was no way a Democratic Presidential candidate would win their state.

If the Electoral College were abolished, I believe you would see a lot more Democratic votes, as Republicans typically will vote regardless of whether they’re in a Blue or Red state, and if you allow early voting, even if for just a week prior, I believe the Democratic vote total would go even higher, as the people who say they can’t find time to vote are typically Democrats.

The World’s Most Overrated Bands & Musicians Ever:

> Velvet Underground – Lou Reed is a bad Bob Dylan impression, as if you could get worse than Bob himself . . . see below. Lou Reed & Nico plainly couldn’t sing. The songwriting was really good at times; like Bob Dylan, put somebody else recording those songs with better production & a number of them could have been big hits.

> The Rolling Stones, except that Jagger & Richards were excellent songwriters

> Eric Clapton’s guitar playing, but good writer & singer

> George Harrison’s guitar playing, but good writer & singer

> Kiss

> Lynyrd Skynyrd

> Sonic Youth – bad punk, after punk died, which was never good anyway

> U2 (without Bono, they would suck, except that the U2 production is one of the most-copied sounds ever, which isn’t something the band created — thank the early producers of their albums)

> Coldplay (U2 with more production/keyboards & less talent)

> The Cult (a lesser-talented, but heavier U2 & INXS blended copy)

> Led Zeppelin (without the studio tricks, like endless retakes until they get it right, they’d suck, just like they did live, and John Bonham isn’t nearly as great as he’s made out to be – go listen to Neil Peart for 1 minute – that’s the greatest rock drummer)

> Depeche (Com)Mode (All Electronic Pop sucks)

> Radiohead

> Poison (a Motley Crue wannabe, and I’m not hot on MC either)

> Talking Heads (although their production was good, I can’t stand David Byrne’s voice — He’s a David Bowie wannabe)

> Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – every song he writes is in a major key & revolves around the 1-6m-4-5 change or some variation of that. Take that away and he’d have no catalog. He & his band are also incredibly way over-the-top when they perform that it’s like a parody of a 70’s Rock band, like I’m watching Spinal Tap, Part 2 — The Jersey Sound. Or Eddie & The Cruisers, which was a parody of Springsteen.

> The Band (they were all lame musicians, except that Garth Hudson was a decent keyboardist, and I liked some of their songs & Levon’s voice, but what saved them was Robbie Robertson’s songwriting skills)

> Green Day & just about all of Alt-Rock

> Bob Dylan (highly overrated songwriter — the only reason his songs are any good is because good producers for other bands did a job in making them sound good for covers by their bands)

> Any teen idols

> Any Rappers & Hip-Hoppers

> Most of early Rock & Roll & most of early R&B/Soul

> Virtually all of Blues

> Virtually all of Country, with the exception of the acts that came in the mid 80’s to mid 90’s such as Restless Heart, Blackhawks, Exile, etc.  Nashville ran them out of town on a rail for being too Pop & then it really turned into Pop when Shania Twain come onboard. What they call Country now is Southern Pop/Rock. Merle, Waylon & Conway are rolling over in their graves over this crap.

> Leonard Cohen – his songs don’t sound well-written no matter who does them & no matter how good the production is.

> Sex Pistols & all Punk bands – can you believe they were inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame, and can you believe they turned it down? Shows you how stupid the whole hall of anything is.

> White Stripes/Jack White & any of the guitar-drum duo bands & other garage bands out there. “Garage band” is a pejorative term, people.

> Foo Fighters – not bad players, but not as good as you‘re led to believe. Their songwriting always leaves you wishing it had been just a bit better. They’re missing a really good chorus hook in virtually every song. It’s like it’s almost right, then they lose it. A better producer would have pointed that out. When you get down to it, they’re like a semi-pop Nirvana clone without the good hooks

> Trent Reznor/NIN – total joke, another bad-but-electronic U2/INXS clone

> The Grateful Dead – they were really lame & loose. The harmonies were pitchy & offbeat, the playing was basic rudiments, and with the except of a few songs, they had no hooks & weren’t well-written, and even those few decent songs weren’t very good. Most of the shows were just jam sessions for a crowd of very-high pot smokers & acid trippers. It was just a social phenomenon.

> Jimmy Buffett – and I like his music a lot, but he’s just highly-overrated. He should haven’t been as popular as he was — it was more or less a movement like the Deadheads were.

> Adele – now we have a ton of fat chicks with little talent copying her crummy glissando vocal licks – you know, when people slide up & into the note to find it because they can’t hit it otherwise.  Remember the awards show when she had to stop the song & start over — who does that unless they suck?

This list could go on & on. They’re overrated because literally any musician could do what they do — it doesn’t take a plethora of talent to do it, and talent is what music is supposed to be all about, not popularity or how good it makes you feel — you can drink or take a pill or injection for that.

So what’s good? Bands & musicians that have worked hard to hone their talent & play music that requires that talent to play & sing. YES, Kansas, Styx, Journey, Dream Theater, Saga, Dave Matthews Band, Steely Dan, Billy Joel, virtually any studio & orchestral musicians & backup singers, and anybody else whose music it takes many years to learn how to play correctly.

I’m a big fan of Led Zeppelin. I love the music & the production. They were pioneers indeed. I respect their talents greatly, but to a defined degree. Their songs will seemingly live on forever. But they have a lot of faults that people tend to overlook & they aren’t as great as people with rose-colored glasses tend to believe . . .

Jimmy Page was a below-average guitarist & only sounded good in the studio & not always at that.  Live & in reality, he sucked pretty badly.  Just listen to the solo in Heartbreaker (done in his prime) to realize how bad he was — it’s cringing & embarrassing & he let that end up on the record for posterity, which shows you he’s not THAT good a studio player or producer.  He & Plant were also song thieves, having admitted to have been part of stealing numerous songs from Blues players, and they won’t admit to stealing the main identifiable part of their most famous song, Stairway To Heaven from Randy California & his band, Spirit, whom they toured with prior to the conception & release of STH.  But Page did write some good songs when he wasn’t stealing them & he did some good production at times, but it was not as good as a real producer would have been, and he is highly overrated as a musician.

The band itself was a great pioneer indeed, but they didn’t invent Hard Rock or Classic Rock and certainly didn’t invent Heavy Metal.  Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Cream & a host of others were releasing music before Led Zep that was the genesis of what Led Zep was doing, and much of what they did was turn up the noise on Blues songs, and sometimes they didn’t even bother to change the melody or words, which is why they got sued more than once for stealing songs.

John Bonham was a good drummer, but he couldn’t carry Neil Peart’s drumsticks — that’s not even a valid argument.  The intro of Rock-N-Roll is not in time & I don’t think it was intentional to add a beat to it as it has 17 beats.

Robert Plant’s voice was so fragile that even in his 20’s, he couldn’t hit the notes he produced on records. Listen to the live recordings in the 70’s & you’ll hear him using lower alternate vocal notes as he can’t hit the original vocal notes even then.

John Paul Jones was the most talented pure musician in the bunch, and he wasn’t incredible by any means; just a good well-rounded player. It’s somewhat uncommon to see guys who play bass & keyboards, but not completely rare, and many of them do it better than JPJ — Geddy Lee, for one. The guy in Zebra for another, and they both sang their ass off while doing it.

The Kinks are also highly-overrated except that they influenced Punk, which is a crummy offshoot of Rock played by musicians who suck talent-wise, and a further offshoot in that it influenced Grunge, most of which was also devoid of talent. You can start learning guitar now from scratch, and within a month, you’re playing most all of the Kinks output & most of Punk & Grunge note for note. That’s not talent. It will take far longer to play something by artists who actually have talent, like Led Zep, YES, Steely Dan, Van Halen, Kansas, Boston, Styx, Journey, Night Ranger, Ozzy, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Dave Matthews Band, etc.

America is slam full of idiots.  Not all idiots, but a very large percentage of them, something on the order of 83% in my estimation, maybe higher — that’s 5 in 6 people.  It only takes simple math to see that . . .

There are appx 320 million people in the USA, and of that, only appx 125 million of them voted.  To be fair, not everybody is of voting age obviously, and some of them are felons or legal/illegal aliens who can’t vote.   It’s estimated that up to 80 million of us who are of voting age will not vote, so that’s 80 million idiots right there.  Add to that total the 120 million who aren’t old enough to vote, as anybody under 18 (and those up to age 30) are idiots by default — they just THINK they’re not, along with the felons who are idiots for being felons.  Then add to that mix appx 65 million who didn’t vote for a smart person and instead voted for someone other than Hillary (who was the only intelligent person on the ballot) & you now have 265 million of the the 320 million who are idiots.  That’s appx 83% idiots in the USA.  Even if you think the people who didn’t vote for Trump are idiots, you’re still at the same figure I’m at.

America has slowly been turning into a social meritocracy, i.e., those of us who are popular socially are the ones who get ahead — it has nothing to do with talent or genius anymore.  We elected Eisenhower because he was a popular war hero.  We elected JFK because he looked better & was younger.  We elected Nixon because we’re stupid & also because Nixon was tougher than Humphrey.  We elected Carter because he was nicer & more popular than Ford.  We elected Reagan because he was tougher than Carter & was a B-movie star.  We elected Bush I because he was tougher than Dukakis.  We elected Bill Clinton because he was cooler than Bush I.  We elected Bush 2 because he was more likeable than Gore.  We elected Obama because he was more cool & likeable than McCain or Romney & because he was 1/2-black, though he’s way smarter than McCain or Romney.  And we just elected Donald Trump because we like billionaire TV stars who are tough men who talk with macho soundbites, not women who are smart & wimpy.

I believe an “Idiocracy” is upon us, but just hasn’t gotten as nuts as the movie.  It’s only a matter of time before a pro wrestling star is president (Jesse Ventura tried already).  We value coolness & popularity over intelligence & logic, and we are mostly broke, but we vote for people who are the complete financial opposite of us.  How can anybody who’s not wealthy have the same economic agenda as a billionaire?

I find it highly amusing (and not ironic from my viewpoint) that Easter would fall on April Fools Day as it has here in 2018, considering that fact that Jesus, as far as all legitimate, scientifically-acceptable proof would show — DID NOT EXIST, or at least was a nobody & nothing special if he did.

What if you had an uncle that you say was very famous, that everyone knew him, and that many people wanted to be like him & were his fans, so to speak?

You say this uncle of yours had people coming from near & far to pay respects to him when he arrived and that he continued to live on long after he died.

You say he was born in 1940 & died in 1973 at the age of 33, but I check the web and can’t find any mention of him by anyone during his time at all. In fact, the first mention of him started with you right here some 40 years after his death.

I believe anyone who’s sane would say that you’re nuts & you made all this up.

Now let’s flashback about 2000 years.  A man allegedly named Mark allegedly wrote about Jesus’ alleged life & times for the first time before anybody else did, and he did this 40 years AFTER Jesus allegedly lived & died.

There are no Christian or Secular writings about Jesus that were written DURING his alleged lifetime or within 40 years after his alleged death.

You see how ridiculous this is?

I’m not making this up — do your own research, which you should have done long before you started believing the crap that you were spoon-fed in your younger years after you realized you had the capacity for think for yourself using your own brain & to question things that sounded outrageously fantastic, in fact, TOO fantastic to be true.

So did some guy named Mark in the year 40 make all this up?  I believe he created or at least was the first to publish the fable of Jesus, but he wasn’t original at all . . .

There were many, many religions that came before Christianity that had a messiah figure & story with all the same traits as Jesus, such as the belief that a messiah would come to save the world, that he would be killed & would resurrect 3 days later, was born to a virgin, etc, etc.  Even Judaism, which Christianity borrows heavily from, believes there’s a messiah; they just don’t think he’s come yet.

I also don’t think Shakespeare wrote all those great plays either.  Same problem as Jesus — no publicity during his lifetime of something that surely would have been so notable.

I’m not a theologian, but from what I’ve read about Jesus, he threw out the moneychangers from the temple, so he obviously didn’t like money & wealth.

He helped the poor & the sick incessantly, including those such as lepers who were outcast from society due to their sickness, so to think that he wouldn’t be a supporter of Medicaid or free healthcare for everyone (at least the poor) is ludicrous.

He fed the masses with fish & bread, which sounds like socialism and is at least charity & care for the poor.

In other words, Jesus was a radical liberal leftwing nut.  I also believe he would have peacefully tolerated & not punished those who didn’t believe in him or his ideals.  I also know that he didn’t support the idea of an “eye for an eye” death penalty as stated in the Sermon On The Mount in Matthew 5:38-39.

So why would Republicans think that Jesus is on their side? Why would a group of people who profess to be followers of Jesus have a political platform that’s diametrically-opposed to Jesus’ own actions?

If you’re a Republican, it makes you think about what it is you stand for & what you believe in & what Jesus would do, and the paradoxical duality of it all.