I WAS SO HIP

As a catcher from way back, I wore my hat backwards. Out of necessity. To wear my catching mask which protected me from foul balls, I had to turn it around or the bill wouldn't fit into the mask. But that's the only time I wore my cap backwards.

Now I see all kinds of guys wearing their caps that way. To be in style. But what's stylish about it? Unless the sun in shining on your back. Unless you have an already blistered neck. Otherwise, put it on the right way. Or better yet, don't wear one at all. Unless it's part of an equipment requirement.

Otherwise, it's simply a bad fad statement. Like the student who came to my class one day with his blue jeans on backwards. I told him as long as he kept them pulled up, it was ok with me. But I hoped he wouldn't have a pressing need to go to the bathroom in a hurry. That's all it took: he changed them.

I'd like to have the same effect on the backwards baseball cap. I'd prefer to see the ridiculous spinner on the top. And if you don't think I'm right, then you haven't seen the picture of Steeler QB Rothlesberger sporting a Pittsburgh hat backwards on media day at the Super Bowl. No quarterback ever looked worse.

GEOMETRY AWAITED

Unfinished Geometry. Due first hour. Back then I wasn't an early riser. It wasn't going to get done. Copy? No. Not that I never did, but did once turn down a copy of a test that a girl told me she got from an old file. But I'm digressing.

For Geometry wasn't my best subject. I realized that if I was going to get anything out of the subject, I was going to have to understand it for myself. For whatever reason, my self didn't get his homework done.

No worries, as they say. I was saved by An Act Of God Day. That's what they called them in SoIL (Southern Illinois). By the way, He never got credit for any of the beautiful days we had either. But, as you probably know, An Act of God Day meant a Snow Day or no school. Just once it seems they could have announced, "Because of the beautiful day God had provided us with, go outside and enjoy. We're declaring an Act of God Day." Of course that never happened.

So on that day of thankful snow, I slept late. Shoveled our drive and sidewalks and front porch. Drank hot chocolate and was picked up by a friend old enough to drive. We didn't go far, but we did make it to the downtown area where we pushed cars that got stuck. That's what we did on our snow day.

The next morning arrived all too suddenly. There I sat in first hour Geometry. Looking confident. I had my homework paper out. But it wasn't finished. That's right. I was spared. I had had an additional day. And I hadn't cracked a book.

TAKES THE RED OUT

The apple of my eye... Looking at the world through rose colored glasses... A cherry in the eye?

Why is it always something red in the eye? Even stys. Or abscesses. Cuts, too, of course.

But why the cherry?

I don't know, but it made me think of Anita Baker or Roberta Flack. Some singer who belted out "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face". And I wondered, where did all the ballads go? Then I had an epiphany: country music. They still have plenty of ballads.

But they're so different. Most, to me, seem like the singer has a chip on his shoulder. A "Somebody Done Somebody Wrong" genre. A "Billy Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahassee Bridge" lament perhaps rather than a grudge/ get even. But sad, remorseful, undone.

Yesterday marked the first time I ever talked to my youngest granddaughter on the phone. I'm not sure what she said, but at less than two months old when her dad held the phone to her ear, she warbled quite a bit. She sounded happy. I guess no country music contract in her future. But maybe there's a good ballad that she's working on to hit the pop charts in say 15 years or so. But by that time, I'll probably be ready to listen to country music, so I won't limit her.

But she may be too late. She may have missed the boat. You see, her name is Veronica. There's already a girl group called The Veronicas. But they don't sound as good as she.

AMAZING PICTURE

that's a fake.

I received an email from a friend with this amazing picture. It was from Burmica and was advertised as the once a year sun's reflection on a rock. The same day, he sent another email stating that it was a phony.

If you haven't seen what's amazing about it, then turn your head far to the left where you almost stand the picture up vertically.

Initially he bought it. Initially I thought "where or what is Burmica?" Then I couldn't see the reflection complementing or completing the picture. That is, I couldn't see the whole picture.

And it's that the way it goes? There's a lot of phoniness out there. While we focus on the minutiae, we miss the big or overall picture. We're too ready to accept something new and different and spectacular. We're too eager to get on that bandwagon.

When the truth smacks us in the face, it doesn't. What I mean is, when fraud of any kind is revealed, we blame others and not ourselves for being gullible. For over-reaching, for falling prey, for our own faulty thinking or logic.

It's still a cool picture. If you still haven't seen it, it's a mother with her child praying, half of it reflecting in the water. But watch out. It won't be the last thing we buy into that's not on the up and up.

LIT

Once I had to read a Kafka book for a grad class. It began, "Gregor Samsa awoke one morning to find himself transformed into a giant insect." And that was one of the better books I was forced to read in my education.

I think Paul Simon had it right when he penned "When I look back at all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all." Change had to study and high school to college, and you have my sentiments.

My least favorites were the existentialists. Was there ever an unhappier lot? I didn't ask to be born, life is terrible, there is no God, thus I just exist unhappily and then I'll die. Wow! Now that makes good reading. Jean Paul Sarte even entitled his famous book (or maybe it was a play--I don't remember; change my grade) No Exit.

When there's so much good literature out there. And if it's not good, there's enough enjoyable literature, inspiring literature, biographies, histories, travel, adventure, sports, music, and volumes of good Christian literature. If you haven't been to a good Christian book store, you must go. You won't walk out of there without purchasing something.

"Too many books: too little time" is a saying I saw once on a librarian's tee shirt. It is so true. Just don't waste your time on Kafka and Sarte and don't think you have to finish any book if it's not appealing to you. But read; you'll be glad you did.

YIPS AND CHROME

As I continue on my quest to put out into the open things that puzzle me, as I write today, there are two. Who knows, by the end of this entry I might just find a third or fourth.

Yips are what a golfer occasionally gets when he's putting and can't make a three-foot putt. But how can yips be the norm? But that's me anymore. Give me a forty-footer with break or straight, in fact it can be in the first cut, and I'll get it consistently into gimme range. But if I don't; if I leave it three feet short or long, well, just send me to the cart and add two. If my buddies can tell what I'm doing wrong, they're silent about it. But I line up, don't squeeze the putter, don't break my left wrist, don't move my head, think I'm going to make it, don't put too much right or left hand in it, take it back straight...and miss it. Change putters? Practice? Take a putting lesson? Yes to all, although my putting lesson was unofficial from a PGA Store salesman where I bought my next to last white hot two ball putter, affectionately called Yippee. So, I don't get it.

Chrome? Where did it go? When I see the new cars and compare them too the old, that's what stands out to me. Bumpers are supposed to have them. Even my Schwinn bike had beautiful chrome fenders back in the 60's, so where did it all go? Did chrome dry up? Even on the most expensive, you won't see them. Plus, they were fun to look at yourself in. A sorta funhouse effect. But anyway(s), I miss my old bike and chrome.

I'll save the third thing (see one did come to me) for tomorrow. It's surprisingly about politicians.