Devil’s New 21st Century Dictionary

Business Ethics: The professional and academic study of avoiding bad press

Gold or Silver

You’re in the mood for buying some precious metals. A dealer has two options in your price range, a small gold ingot which he’ll sell for bullion price, or a large bar of silver, also at bullion price. Both cost $100. Which do you take?

Probably the gold. In fact, if I had to guess, most people would take the gold. So how come they’re the same price? And how much is silver really worth?

Food Rationing

The only way the obesity problem will ever be solved in this country will be by using WWII-style food rationing.It would work. It would be a form of fascism. And I’d prefer it to most foreign-model healthcare systems.

Crede Fans?

Not to make too much out of such a small sample size, but:

Brian Buscher OPS: 883
Brendan Harris OPS: 985
Joe Crede OPS: 608

I’ll wait until later in the year (mid-May?) before I come to any conclusions about the Joe Crede signing.

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The Evil Genius’ 40-Man Roster

Mystery Man

His identity is shrouded in secrecy. Some say he’s a demon. Others say he is from a small town in Siberia. Still others suggest he’s just a marketing intern. Whatever he is, it’s kept secret. The Mystery Man is not seen in public. He’s never played, anywhere, that anyone knows of. There are no stats, no pictures, and his identification is unknown even to the FBI. When signing his baseball contract there was simply a smiley face where his signature should have been. And when the baseball world least expects it, he’ll make his appearance in The Show.

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From the Notebook

-This week marks three years of daily excercise. I have gotten at least 30 minutes of excercise a day, six days a week (and often much more). Only a couple of times did I miss more than one day a week and only once did I actually go two days without working out (thanks to the stomach flu). It has been especially hard in 2009 with the snow storms, the long sickness I had and, recently, the worst allergies I can ever remember having. I guess I’m celebrating the fact I have to continue this the rest of my life or else I’ll hit 400 pounds.

-I’m giving up on the standalone Twins blog. After more than a year it never developed readership. My political readers will have to deal with the Twins and any Twins readers will have to deal with my politics (as if I had any readers left).

-This is the 4000th Blogpost I’ve written in my life.

-I wrote a column for the Bleacher Report, basically my solution to the Twins outfield question is to send down Carlos Gomez and Delmon Young.

-Read Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. It’s part of the Great Books of the Western World Ten Year Reading Program. I really liked it, I found the last part of the play, where Oedipus talks to his two daughters and basically says “Try to be happy, but you can’t do anything like have kids or love another as you are crimes against nature, so yeah, ttyl” hilarious and disturbing.

Twins Notes

Have to give kudos to Jason Kubel; hitting for the cycle by winning the game with a grand slam home run after the opposing team intentionally walked the guy in front of him is something awesome. Angels manager Mike Scioscia gets an assist by failing to bring in his closer when the game was on the line (see Gleeman, Gardy isn’t the only one). Twins fans needed this win to stay interested. Offense=good.

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From the Notebook; Happy Taxation Day

If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it –Ronald Reagan

-Read through Prometheus Bound “by” Aeschylus. It’s a greek tragedy about a Titan who takes on Zeus, gives man fire and the ability to write and is punished for his insolence. I was disappointed when I couldn’t find any remotely watchable videos of the play online. This play was part of the Great Books of the Western World ten-year reading program. Now whenever I have a bad day, I can just remind myself that at least I’m not chained to a rock having my intestines consumed by a giant eagle for all eternity.

-On a personal note, this Business Law/Ethics class is a real test, so expect light posting. Lighter posting? No posting? I haven’t been posting up any Wednesday Heroes for a while, so I think I’ll just throw the ones I haven’t posted yet into my blog’s scheduling system just to have some content (Along with the final chapters of “Terror Rats”). Just think, someday I might be able to call myself a blogger again.

-Kenny Perry came close to history in his Masters bid and ended up a little short. It was a great battle, the outcome of which actually kept me up for a few nights. I hope Kenny Perry is sleeping easier than I am. This isn’t to say Angel Cabrera is a bad guy or didn’t deserve to win. But writers love a great story, and lament its death and replacement with good story.

-El Dos de Mayo is coming up. If you didn’t know, it’s the official national collegiate conservative activist holiday. It’s celebrated on the 2nd of May and it is a celebration of the previous year’s efforts towards annoying liberals and spreading conservatism on college campuses. Like usual, the party starts 4pm at Sally’s near the U of M campus in Minneapolis, it moves over to Stub and Herb’s at 8pm and the survivors end up at Dulono’s on Lake Street around 1am. All readers of this blog are invited.

-I’m adding Flash of “Centrisity” to blogroll (despite the fact I have long standing objections to the name of his blog since it’s not the blog of a centrist but a very reliable liberal). I’ll get the link up eventually.

The Value of Dickey

-Dickey’s value goes beyond the numbers.
-Dickey can pitch a lot, make starts, work on short rest and eat innings.
-Tim Wakefield did this for the Red Sox in their 1st World Series win since Ruth was on the roster, eating up some dead innings and working on short rest.
-Dickey did the same on at the Metrodome earlier this month, against Blue Jays for 4 outs and 23 pitches after he had made a start three days before where he threw 104 pitches.
-Knuckleballers have no platoon effect, so Dickey takes over the spot of a mediocre left handed reliever.
-Dickey should allow an 11 man pitching staff which gives the team more hitting options.

Mark Fidrych, RIP

I was truly saddened to hear about the passing of Mark Fidrych today in an apparent accident. He was a great TTM signer whose career after baseball showed a stoic humility few men could muster.

-Another great TTM signer also passed away recently, George Kell.

They will be missed and their devotion to baseball fans should serve as a model to all other sports figures.

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