The Icepick Cometh

With apologies to Defiantly Dutch, who would assuredly disagree (thanks for the plug, Double D), what the hell is wrong with Connecticut these days? Earlier this summer you had some overly aggressive moneyed homeowners in Greenwich trying to shut down Wiffle ball-playing teens and kick them back into the Great Indoors where they apparently belong.

Now we've got a youth baseball league in New Haven booting a 9-year-old pitcher and probably his entire team because he's too good a hurler.

After reading about these back-to-back fiascoes, I have to ask, why doesn't Massachusetts annex the Northwest Corner and add it to the Berkshires and let tiny Rhode Island have everything else from this crazy state? (In a battle of disgraced politicians, I'll take Providence's Buddy Cianci over former Connecticut Gov. Rowland.)

Let's see, here are some things that Connecticut cursed us with: the Hartford Whalers, Joe Lieberman, Carl Pavano, Benedict Arnold, and the movie Mystic Pizza.

Good things to come out of the Nutmeg State? (nicknamed after something you put in your apple cider, I might add.) You have Katharine Hepburn, no arguing that. I'm OK with Meg Ryan, too. Wiffle Ball itself was alleged to have been invented in Fairfield. And then, … um, the Danbury Mall was pretty cool for a week in, like, 1987 (it once was the site of an even cooler fairgrounds). That's about it.

And, no, I didn't forget the worst offender in Connecticut's lineage — no, not the various other corrupt elected officials from the self-named Constitution State. It's that all-consuming monolithic sports Galactus in Bristol.

I love this quote from the AP story on the 9-year-old pitcher:

League officials say they first told Vidro that the boy could not pitch after a game on Aug. 13. Jericho played second base the next game on Aug. 16. But when he took the mound Wednesday, the other team walked off and a forfeit was called.

League officials say Jericho's mother became irate, threatening them and vowing to get the league shut down.

"I have never seen behavior of a parent like the behavior Jericho's mother exhibited Wednesday night," Noble said.

Um, you think she was irate? Hey, I can't stand most kid-sports parents — even if they're not the infamous hockey dad, I think most parents should be banned from watching their kids play as soon as they start doing more than cheer their daughters and sons and begin commenting, criticizing and, hell, even speaking anything other than "Yay." But if I was this mom and they kicked my kid out because he threw too fast, yeah, I'd go apeshit too. Not hitting-people-apeshit — you can't condone that. But there would be some raised voices, yes.

More coverage.

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I just like the idea of Cheney as a barnacle on the Ship of State.

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Random thoughts while waiting out a wind-whipping thunderstorm at a local cafe:

For the Blogfather.

Had this months ago. And I thought I was embarrassingly re-stating the obvious.

I don't know the answer to this, but if Obama can figure something out to help these people (more rural transit, gas subsidies for those making under a certain income) and put the supposed lack-of-middle-class-cred comments to rest, he should hit this issue, and hit it hard.

And now, for tonight's anti-newspaper rant:

If you're a kid in college wanting to be a journalist, it's not too late to change your sucker bet. Don't worry, the newspaper industry isn't what you thought it was, and hasn't been for 20 years. It's a Boomer-centric society, where hiring and news coverage is dictated by those who think new rules to make things better — including clubby hiring and obstructionist and narrow-minded coverage — apply to their younger employees, but not to them. It's the continuation of the do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do ethos of the Boomers.

Because, like a lot of other industries, the Boomers got in and locked the door behind them and said, no, sorry, this is for us. You go get us coffee, child, and we'll use up most of the resources so there's nothing left for you. And then create new rules to limit your advancement (while not limiting our own), all in the name of protecting "the children" and "the earth." Which they pretty much fucked already.

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I know Gawker poked fun at it, but this is the type of thing that pisses me off: why do the fucking toothbrushes have to be so wide these days?

Put the toothpaste on the toothbrush, and brush. You don't need an ergonomical grip to do that.

In the toothbrush aisle at my supermarket, the only toothbrush with the regular handle — the kind that will actually fit into a toothbrush holder — was the store-brand on sale. How much longer do you think those will be available before they replace them with the fat gripper kind?

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Random thoughts this evening while the coffee buzz again wears off:

And I thought we had it bad when we had a landlord that controlled the "free" heat (he kept it below, like, 60 degrees during the daytime, back when I was working nights — we tricked the box-locked thermostat by laying icepacks on top of it). Story from Daily News, via Gawker.

Best way to drink up this weekend.

I like this guy. Newsflash for Gannett: local people like local news. Second newsflash: People don't like stuff that sucks.

I also love this follow-up criticism surely from a Gannett zombie ("one of us, one of us, one of us"). Complainer's Alec-Baldwin-in-Glengarry-Glen-Ross-like comment: If you don't like it, leave. That's priceless! "All for company!"

Wonder if this fascist judge knows that at the rate he plans to impose these fines, he should hit this journo's annual salary in about 18 days (via Romenesko, who also turned us onto the Gannett blog, and the blog after the jump).

More coffee, more coffee (thanks again, Romenseko for turning me on to this blog.

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Just a quickie — the staff are still recovering fromo too much soy sauce. I don't know, news like this always seems to make me a little cranky.

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Am I too naive to think Krugman is wrong? If so, why doesn't he ask Eliot Spitzer how well that worked out so far. Of course, Spitzer came in with great promise, then went on to antagonize everyone, his own party members included. Not that the state Legislature didn't deserve it, up and down. But do we really need another combative and polarizing president?

Sorry, cranky and naive this morning. Still, the NY Leg is self-interested, preservationist and essentially useless, doing more bad than good most times. Not that Congress ain't (can't believe I'm sort-of defending Congress), but maybe because more people (slightly) give a shit about Congress — whereas only politcal junkies and people in Buffalo follow the mostly irrelevant Statehouse — whereas you might be able to shame Congress into working with you. I know that's somewhat of Spitzer's failed strategy from a year ago; the difference is, no one really cares about the NY Leg.

Of course, with Cranky Post 1. this morning, no one's gonna be following Congress either pretty soon, because they're ain't gonna be any more newspapers.

Shit, 11:30 a.m. ain't close enough.

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I used to think that in 15 years, we'd be down to about three newspapers — The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the L.A. Times, USA Today (ugh) and (in supermarket-tabloid fashion by then) the New York Post.

Maybe now narrow my survivor list to five.

That's it as far as printed papers would go. Another 20 of the top circ papers would limp along as online-only entities. Everyone else will be out of business. And really, after reading Romenesko on Poynter.com, who would notice?

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