truck day!

What is this truck, you ask, and why does it warm the hearts of Red Sox fans the world over?

This truck, my friends, is the first harbinger of spring. It leaves Fenway Park in the depths of coldest winter and makes its way to Ft. Myers, Florida, carrying equipment, along with our pre-season hopes and dreams. If there's one good thing that can be said about Florida, it's that soon The Truck will be there.

Once The Truck leaves, we know it can't be long.

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movie season starts even earlier this year

Ah well, no Red Sox baseball in October this year. I've assumed this for a long time, but we watch the season until the end, regardless of standings. I haven't suffered through 2010 as many Sox fans have. I just stayed in the moment and went along for the ride. I also missed many more games than I usually do, so at least I didn't do that in a championship season!

I see last year's "movie season starts early" post was in mid-October. Ouch.

So this is my annual post where I ask you what movies you saw over the past year that you highly recommend. As I mentioned here, we may concentrate this Movie Season on TV series, beginning with "Slings & Arrows," which many people have recommended to us and which we've never seen. "Death Comes to Town" is also on the list, at least for now.

Do you have another television series that you love and think we should see? We're not big sci-fi fans, although if something is really stellar, we won't avoid it because it's science fiction.

So far, after Slings & Arrows, the top "new" movies on my ZipList are: Broken Embraces (always have to catch up with Almodóvar), It's Complicated, Crazy Heart, The Trotsky (not out on DVD yet), The Ghost Writer, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Yes Men Fix The World, An Education and something called Micmacs.

Two older titles I've been looking for that Zip now has are Our Daily Bread, a documentary about industrial food production, and Denys Arcand's Days of Darkness.

Will Ferrell's recent movie, "The Other Guys," is supposed to be both really funny and slyly anti-capitalist, so it's on the list, too, although also not yet on DVD. I've heard Ben Affleck's "The Town" is terrific; another DVD to wait for.

After that, we're into older titles: It's Not Me I Swear!, Tulpan, Hunger, The Pool, and With A Friend Like Harry. The way Zip works - or doesn't work - you need a minimum number of titles on your list to get decent service. So we often end up paddding out the list with movies that we're only iffy on. If you folks have good suggestions, I can drop some of the older titles.

Any of these you love? Any you hated? What must-sees are missing from our list?

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end of summer personal wrap-up

Classes start next week, and I greet the new term with a mix of eagerness and dread. I'm eager to check off the classes I need to get this degree and begin my new career. Each term equals two more check marks towards the 16 I need. And I dread giving up my time: not being able to read what I choose, having to say no to so many things I want to do, always being pressed for time, being tired.

My summer was good. I didn't have quite the ocean of free time I would have liked, because I needed to earn more money, and took all the transcribing work I could get. But I did a lot of work for the Campaign, got a lot accomplished around the house, socialized more, and read as much as I could (about half as much as I wanted). Our party was great, Shakespeare at Stratford was great, our trip to California for the wedding was great. The low-point of the summer, of course, was losing Cody, but I actually expected that sooner than it actually came.

One thing we didn't do this summer was hike in regional or provincial parks. Cody couldn't do that anymore, and we wouldn't go off and leave her at home. So yesterday - a sliver of time between Cody and school - we took Tala to Hilton Falls, a hike I like because it's nearby and flat, and very wooded. The end-of-summer falls were quiet enough that Allan took Tala right up beside them, and she had a great time trying to eat the spray.

Also yesterday, we picked up Cody's ashes. You know why death sucks? Because it's so damn final. No matter how much you miss your loved one, he or she will never come back.

I didn't watch as much baseball this summer as I would have liked. The Red Sox had a decent season - not abysmal but not spectacular - with key members out with injuries for weeks and months at a time. In the American League East, decent gets you third place. The theme of our 2010 gamethreads seemed to be who has lost hope and when. I freely admit I was one of the first to believe the season was going nowhere, but I was content to watch and enjoy even without playoff hopes. That's how much I love the game. And it's still my favourite way to unwind.

As baseball winds down, movie season will have a different look this year. We're thinking of watching fewer movies, and renting whole TV series instead. On Red Sox off days this summer, we watched marathon sessions of "Dallas" (my favourite brain junk food), then moved into "The Chris Isaak Show," which I loved years ago (and which is not actually out on DVD yet, so of course we're not really watching it).

A friend recently turned me on to "Veronica Mars," which I had never heard of and went completely bonkers over. It's a brilliant combination of teenage coming-of-age and detective show, and one of the best teen shows I've ever seen. Everyone recommends "Slings and Arrows," which we've never seen at all, and somebody out there probably has "The Larry Sanders Show," which I loved, but only saw one or two seasons of.

Last winter, after coming home from class, I was often too tired to watch a movie. I don't know how that is possible, but I felt so fatigued that I simply couldn't concentrate on anything. So we would watch "Dallas" - lots of it. Allan added "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show" to our collection, and for when I'm watching by myself... Xena! Part of my birthday present this year was the complete "Xena: Warrior Princess". Complete! Xena! Heaven!

I also don't need to gorge on independent films the way I used to. Most likely, if I make a list of the top five or seven films I want to see, that will do.

My classes this term are two requirements: Foundations of Library and Information Science, and Management of Information Organizations. Both sound pretty important for the field, so I'm hoping they turn out to be interesting.

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chelsea baker, little league superstar

If Eri Yoshida doesn't break baseball's gender barrier, maybe Chelsea Baker will.

This is the kind of story I used to go after when I wrote for kids' magazines. So if you know any kids, send them this link. The original on ESPN.com has video, plus a sidebar about women in profressional baseball.

In a league of her own
By Ben Houser

PLANT CITY, Fla. -- She registered another perfect pitching record this year, 12-0, for her Little League team.

She threw her second perfect game -- and predicted this one just hours before she did it.

Her fastball hits the mid-60s, and she can send opponents to the bench in tears, embarrassing them with a knuckleball she learned from former major league knuckleball legend Joe Niekro.

Meet Chelsea Baker, a girl pitcher in a boys' league.

Heads are turning in Plant City, where Chelsea hasn't lost a sanctioned Little League game in four seasons.

Although it is a little early to call the 13-year-old the next big thing in baseball, she's a sought-after pitcher who has the attention of respected talent evaluators, including former Boston Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette. They see grand possibilities in her developing knuckleball, already-hopping fastball and strong hitting skills that sparked a .604 batting average this past season.

"She is definitely one-of-a-kind," said Keith Maxwell, one of her coaches and a former minor leaguer who coaches Little Leaguers across several states. "I've had an opportunity to play with some girls coming up in Little League, and they were actually pretty good ballplayers. Some of them actually made all-star teams and that kind of stuff. Chelsea is on a whole different planet compared to them.

"Chelsea Baker is by far the best female 13-year-old girl [baseball player] in the United States. She is the best I've ever seen in my life hands down. The sky is the limit."

Baseball until she no longer wins

It's baseball, and it will be that way so long as Chelsea has a say.

"I don't like to play softball," she said.

Opponents' parents often remark about Chelsea -- not always quietly or kindly.

The most common: "'Go play softball with the girls' -- we get that a lot, and we have gotten that a lot over the last three years," her mother, Missy Mason Baker, said. "'When is she going to move to softball?' At some point, maybe she might have to go play softball, but right now as good as she is doing and she is able to keep up … and that is her goal, I am going to stand behind her and let her continue playing baseball as long as possible."

"She tried softball," said Rod Mason, her stepfather and coach. "She doesn't like it, so baseball is her deal."

His thoughts about when softball may enter the picture: "When she can't strike out little Johnny no more."

Such talk does not affect her, Chelsea said; it just motivates her.

"I think they say stuff like that because they are jealous," she said.

Chelsea's Little League teams are 95-8-2 the past four years with three city championships, one city championship runner-up, two tournament of champions titles and two District IV championships. She struck out 127 batters in 60 innings this year.

"After I usually strike somebody out with a knuckleball, they sometimes start crying back to the dugout, and a lot of them just like open their mouth like they can't believe it," she said.

"There's no crying in baseball, right?" said Duquette, the former Red Sox executive. "It's embarrassing to strike out anytime, but I'm sure for young boys it's probably more embarrassing to be struck out by a girl."

Corey Blanchette, a player on a team of all-stars from Pittsfield, Mass., laughed after recently becoming a victim.

"She got me on the two fastballs, and I didn't know she had a knuckle curve, and then the knuckle came in and it was just so dirty [good] I didn't know what to say," he said.

. . . .

Chelsea learned the knuckleball from one of the best: former major leaguer Joe Niekro, who died shortly after he taught her how to throw it. She met him in 2005 when she was a player on a baseball team he coached.

"I'm so happy that Joe's memory is living on; his legacy is continuing through Chelsea Baker learning how to throw the knuckleball," Duquette said. "The key for her will be commanding her knuckleball pitch and getting it in the strike zone consistently."

Breaking down barriers

All agree that consistency will be key for Chelsea.

But maybe just as important will be how she handles navigating the traditional boys' game as she moves forward and how the traditional boys' game treats her.

"It's unfortunate that boys feel so much pressure to perform well against the girls," Siegal said. "I know that Chelsea would like to be seen as a player, not just a girl playing baseball. And in our society, we have this myth that girls are weak and boys are strong. Chelsea's debunking that myth. And as soon as girls and boys realize that they can play the game together -- the whole game -- baseball, the greatest game on Earth, will become a better game for everyone."

Lance Niekro, Joe's son, played in the major leagues with the San Francisco Giants for four seasons. He watched Chelsea pitch in her regular-season finale in a pitching duel against his younger brother, J.J. Niekro.

"Who are we to say that she can't play baseball?" Lance Niekro said. "There's no rule that states that. So as long as she's doing well and people want her on their team, I don't see why she shouldn't be allowed to play. If parents have something to say [about a girl playing baseball], then maybe that's the parent whose kid is striking out against Chelsea.

"With the success that Chelsea has had now, throwing a couple of perfect games … boys will learn not to make fun of her."

Siegal said that negative remarks are only now beginning for Chelsea and her family.

"Once you start playing in high school, the sexual jeers get more intense," said Siegal, who pitched and played shortstop on a high school boys' baseball team in the 1990s. "As a pitcher, I had a lot of sexual comments directed towards me that are not PG for ESPN. But as a pitcher, a female, who wants to succeed at the game, you have to be able to hear those words and then ignore them and continue your game.

"Chelsea's doing a great job with the taunts as a 13-year-old, and she'll have to do even better and continue to focus as she gets older with the high school level as the taunts get more intense."

Duquette seems to think that being a female won't be a factor in how far Chelsea is able to go in her baseball career.

"People will recognize Chelsea Baker, and they'll promote her based on her skill," he said. "Her gender won't really matter to anybody if she develops the skills. She'll find the opportunity.

"I know that there are some physical limitations that will not allow the girls to compete with the boys on higher levels, but if Chelsea Baker can perfect her knuckleball, she has a chance. The knuckleball is a great equalizer, and that would give her an out pitch, where she could get hitters out, irrespective of their sex and irrespective of their level."

As Chelsea heads into eighth grade next year, she is already thinking about high school. She plans to try out for the high school boys' baseball team.

Plant City high school baseball coach Mark Persails, who played for 12 years with Detroit Tigers and Houston Astros, is looking forward to her coming of age. . . .

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once upon a baseball game: the corporate takeover of our brains continues

As wmtc readers know, I have a problem with advertising. My problem stems more from quantity - from volume - than anything else. Our visual and aural landscape has been taken over by corporate advertising. Trying to escape from constant exhortations to buy, buy, buy informs much of what I do.

Nowhere does advertising saturation bother me more than when I watch baseball. It makes sense: baseball is my greatest escape and relaxation, and it is more heavily polluted by corporate advertising than any other venue I see.

Fenway Park, Boston, 1942

Ads have always been a part of baseball - in old photographs of ballparks, there are always ads on the outfield wall - but in the last couple of decades, following the trends in the larger culture, baseball has become thoroughly permeated with advertising. I explored this in one of my better posts, "invasion of the brain snatchers", and again in a brief follow-up, "i tried to watch some advertising and a baseball game broke out". For some context for this post, I recommend reading those older posts.

Fenway Park, 1941

Fans often note that the amount of advertising in baseball isn't as bad as in, say, auto racing, where the cars are plastered with ads. I disagree; in terms of what a viewer actually sees, baseball is every bit as bad. Just because - so far - Major League Baseball uniforms and helmets are free from advertising doesn't mean we aren't subjected to just as much advertising during games, maybe more.

During one Red Sox game this summer, I documented just how pervasive this trend has become, by writing down every instance of corporate advertising that I saw or heard. Each time I saw an ad onscreen, I recorded the name of the company and how the ad was seen (that is, where in the ballpark or broadcast).

The ads fall under a few different categories, and I made up codes for each:
OF: outfield wall or on walls along the foul lines
DO: dugout - the dugout walls are papered with ads and there is an ad on the railing that prevents players from tumbling into the dugout while making a play
BP: the dreaded behind-the-plate advertising that began in the 1990s
ODB: an ad you see when the camera shows the on-deck batter, i.e., who is batting next
B2B: This pitching change/linescore/player's stats brought to you by... or an inning or an entire game brought to you by...
DTN: ads that are disguised as donations to Red Sox charities
BPN: bullpen - when you see relief pitchers warming up, there are ads on the bullpen walls
IG: the worst of all, the in-game ad, when some action of the game is linked to a particular ad. There are two such in-game ads during this Red Sox season, one whenever a batter reaches second base on a double, and another for the entire fifth inning.
And some miscellaneous ads that didn't get categorized.

Note that I did not include regular commercial breaks - these are only ads that viewers see during games. Also, photographs are for illustrative purposes only, so you can see what behind-the-plate or outfield ads look like. The photos don't correspond to the list of ads for each inning.

In addition, many of these ads are seen repeatedly. For example, the behind-the-plate advertising is seen during every single pitch, plus replays; I only noted each ad once per inning. Similarly, while there have always been ads on the outfield walls, the televised game now includes many more replays of at-bats and plays than it did 40 or even 20 years ago - which means that the ads are shown many more times, too.

* * * *

Boston Red Sox vs Tampa Bay Rays, June 29, 2010

T1 [top of first inning]

pitching stats B2B Mercedes Benz dealership
BP Lumber Liquidators [twice]
BP Soccer at Fenway
BP Best Buy

OF Redsox.com
OF Ninety Nine
ODB Volvo
ODB Safe and Secure [insurance company tagline]
DO MetroPCS
DO St. Pete Clearwater
OF Soccer at Fenway on sale now
BP Giant Glass [twice]
BP JetBlue.com
BP Soccer at Fenway
B2B [list read by announcer] Southwest, Subaru dealership, Dunkin' Donuts, Ford dealership, AT&T, Kia dealership, Kayem franks

DO Xfinity
DO BankofAmerica.com
OF CVS Pharmacy
OF Waste Management
"The Amica [insurance] Pitch Zone"
OF MasterCard
Linescore B2B Southwest

[This was a 21-pitch inning, so the behind-the-plate ads were seen a minimum of 21 times, plus replays.]

B1 [bottom of first inning]

Inning B2B Southwest.com
Starting lineup B2B local Chevrolet dealership
BP BankOfAmerica.com/redsox [twice]
BP Best Buy
BP Soccer at Fenway on sale now
ODB Safe and Secure
OD Xfinity
DO BankOfAmerica.com/redsox
OF Covidien [health insurance]
B2B Eastern Bank
ODB Ninety-Nine [restaurant]
OF Safe and Secure
OF Waste Management
OF Poland Springs
OF Coca Cola
OF Granite City Electric
Pitch count B2B Southwest
B2B Southwest

T2

B2B Southwest
BP Wise [twice]
BP Best Buy
BP Soccer at Fenway
IG Bruins
OF Stop & Shop
OF Solar Blue
OF JetBlue.com
OF Wise
B2B Covidien, F W Webb, Southwest.com

[There were 10 pitches thrown in this half-inning, so the behind-the-plate ads were seen a minimum of 10 times, plus replays.]

B2

B2B Foxwoods [casino], Southwest.com
BP Dunkin' Donuts [twice]
BP Best Buy
BP Soccer at Fenway
"Key matchup" B2B Acura dealership
OF Waste Management
OF Ninety Nine
food delivery to broadcast booth: D’Angelo Pizza
wallpaper in booth: Dunkin' Donuts
OF Foxwoods
OF Freecreditscore.com
"Amica pitch zone"
IG: "New York Life Safe and Secure" [batter reaches second base]
OF CVS pharmacy
DO Xfinity
DO Ford
OF Waste Management
OF Amtrack
OF Boston Globe
OF 99
OF CVS
OF W B Mason
OF Giant Glass
DTN CVS donation for every extra-inning game
DO Xfinity
DO BankOfAmerica.com/redsox
"Amica pitch zone"
B2B Southwest.com

T3

B2B Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
B2B Southwest
BP Hess Express and Hess [twice]
BP Best Buy
BP Soccer at Fenway
"Amica pitch zone"
OF Giant Glass
OF Jordan's Furniture
OF Stop & Shop
OF Waste Management
OF 99
OF Poland Springs
OF Volvo
OF Safe and Secure
DO Xfinity
DO StPeteClearwater.com
DO MetroPCS
DO Ford
DO BankOfAmerica.com/redsox
B2B Southwest.com

B3

B2B Cumberland Farms
BP Giant glass [twice]
BP Best Buy
BP Soccer at Fenway
Waste Management
Wallpaper behind player interview: Dunkin' Donuts
Injury report B2B FCHP [health insurance]
DO Xfinity
"Amica pitch zone"
B2B Southwest.com

T4

B2B Coca Cola, Southwest.com
BP Foxwoods [twice]
BP Best Buy
BP Soccer at Fenway
IG Lumber Liquidators - onscreen and audio
OF Covidien
OF F W Webb

"Amica Pitcher of the Week," vote at NESN.com or at the Yawkey Way team store
OF Granite City Electric
OF Solarblue.com
OF CVS
OF Giant Glass
OF Amtrak
IG General Motors - on screen during at-bat
B2B Southwest.com

B4

B2B Football at Fenway
BP 99 Kids Eat Free When Red Sox Win [twice]
BP Best Buy
BP Soccer at Fenway
OF Foxwoods
OF Budweiser
"AT&T trivia question"
OF Masslottery.com
OF MasterCard
OF CVS
OF Gulf
DO Xfinity
DO Dubble Bubble bucket
OF Waste Management
IG Boston Globe - between batters
OF Stanley
OF Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
OF F W Webb
OF Granite City Electric
OF Gulf
B2B Southwest.com

T5

B2B Southwest.com
BP Hood [twice]
BP Best Buy
BP Soccer at Fenway
IG "The 5th inning is the Eastern Bank inning"
IG Eastern Bank on player stats for each batter - repeated several times
IG Eastern Bank between replays - repeated several times
OF Foxwoods
OF Budweiser
B2B Southwest.com

B5

B2B Eastern Bank
B2B linescore B2B Southwest.com
BP Gulf [twice]
BP Best Buy
BP Soccer at Fenway
"The 5th inning is the Eastern Bank 5th inning"
Pitching line B2B Lexus dealership
Player stats B2B Eastern Bank
IG Home Depot - onscreen and audio
IG Uno [restaurant] – onscreen and audio
Player stats B2B Eastern Bank
[announcers chat about going to Uno on their way home]
OF Solarblue.com
OF Soccer at Fenway
Replays B2B Eastern Bank
Player stats B2B Eastern Bank
Replays B2B Eastern Bank
Player stats B2B Eastern Bank
Replays B2B Eastern Bank
Player stats B2B Eastern Bank
OF Covidien
OF W B Mason
Replays B2B Eastern Bank
Player stats B2B Eastern Bank
Replays B2B Eastern Bank
Player stats B2B Eastern Bank
Replays B2B Eastern Bank
Player stats B2B Eastern Bank
IG DTN Eastern Bank donation to Boys and Girls Club of Lowell, Massachusetts
Replays B2B Eastern Bank
Replays B2B Eastern Bank
Replays B2B Eastern Bank
AT&T trivia answer
Player stats B2B Eastern Bank
Replays B2B Eastern Bank
Replays B2B Eastern Bank
B2B Southwest.com

T6

DTN Hess donation for home runs
BP Verizon Wireless [twice]
BP Best Buy
BP Soccer at Fenway
Pitching line B2B Ace Tickets
IG All-Star voting at redsox.com
OF Waste Management, 99, Safe and Secure, Volvo, Poland Springs
IG NESN
OF JetBlue.com
OF MasterCard
OF Mass Lottery
B2B Southwest.com

B6

OF F W Webb - After coming back from F W Webb commercial between innings, camera holds on F W Webb OF ad
B2B Southwest.com
BP Benjamin Moore Paints [twice]
BP Best Buy
BP Soccer at Fenway
BPN Minolta
"Amica pitch zone"
"Game break B2B Toyota"
[Showing highlights of another game, different ads in the other ballpark...]
OF Solarblue.com
OF MasterCard
League leaders B2B Olympia Sports
B2B Southwest.com
pitching change
B2B Southwest.com
IG Twisted Tea - onscreen and audio
Call to the bullpen B2B Ford dealership
BPN Minolta
IG Benjamin Moore - onscreen and audio
OF Budweiser
OF CVS - seen several times on replay
OF W B Mason - seen several times on replay
"Amica pitch zone"
B2B Southwest.com
pitching change
B2B Southwest.com
B2B Southwest.com

[This was a 28-pitch inning, so the behind-the-plate ads were seen a minimum of 28 times, plus replays.]

T7

"Red Sox Gameday Live" B2B Olympia
BP Bigelow Tea [twice]
BP Best Buy
BP Soccer at Fenway
BPN Stop & Shop
BPN Minolta
OF CVS
"Amica pitch zone"
DTN Dunkin Donuts
OF CVS
OF Stop & Shop
OF Covidien
B2B Southwest.com

B7

"Extra Innings Live" B2B W B Mason
Linescore B2B Southwest.com
BP Giant Glass [twice]
BP Best Buy
BP Soccer at Fenway
BPN Konica Minolta
DO Xfinity
DO Ford
DO Dubble Bubble
OF CVS
B2B Southwest.com
pitching change
B2B Southwest.com

T8

B2B Eastern Bank, Sports Authority
BP Under Armor [twice]
BP Best Buy
BP Soccer at Fenway
Linescore B2B Southwest.com
OF F W Webb
OF Granite City
"Red Sox Final" B2B Granite City Electric
OF Giant Glass
BPN Konica Minolta
BPN Stop & Shop
"Amica pitch zone"
BPN Konica Minolta
BPN Stop & Shop
BPN Giant Glass
BPN Konica Minolta
B2B Southwest.com
pitching change
B2B Southwest.com
OF Amtrak
OF Boston Globe
OF 99
Linescore B2B Southwest.com
B2B Southwest.com

B8

B2B Southwest.com
"The road ahead" [schedule preview] B2B Safeco Insurance
BP BankOfAmerica.com [twice]
BP Best Buy
BP Soccer at Fenway
BPN Konica Minolta
BPN Stop & Shop
BPN Giant Glass
Post-game show B2B W B Mason, Granite City Electric
"Catch of the Day" B2B D’Angelo
IG D'Angelo "the official lobster roll of the Boston Red Sox" - onscreen and audio
"Aspen Dental play of the game"
Post-game show B2B W B Mason, Granite City Electric
"Futures at Fenway" B2B Xfinity
B2B Southwest.com

T9

B2B Bermuda Tourism, New England Toyota dealers, Olympia Sports, Sullivan Tire, Southwest
BP Ace Tickets [twice]
BP Best Buy
BP Soccer at Fenway
BPN Konica Minolta
BPN Stop & Shop
BPN Giant Glass
Post-game show B2B Granite City Electric
B2B Southwest.com
pitching change
B2B Southwest.com
Game summary B2B W B Mason, Xfinity
B2B Southwest.com
pitching change
B2B Southwest.com
NESN.com/redsox
"Amica pitch zone"
DTN IG "Save of the Game" B2B Bob's Furniture
B2B Southwest.com

[Red Sox won at home; no bottom of the ninth]

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the knuckle princess and her canadian sisters

I have blogged about Eri Yoshida a few times, a young pitcher making a bid to be the first female to play Major League Baseball. And guess what? There's a Canadian connection! (There always is.) Here's a terrific story about women in professional baseball in BC, by Tom Hawthorn in The Tyee. Thanks to JoS.

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san francisco, day one

If you're new around these parts, here's a quick note of explanation. I've kept a travel journal for every trip I've taken since 1982. Since 2006, with my trip to Peru, I began keeping these journals online, on this blog. I write it almost exactly as I would if I were writing for myself. So be warned!

* * * *

Tuesday was a long travel day, from Buffalo to JFK to Oakland and into San Francisco. Our four hour wait in JFK extended to five, then close to an hour wait on the plane for takeoff. We took public transit from the Oakland Airport into town. If you go to San Francisco, you should always check fares to Oakland. It's usually less expensive and always much easier.

So by the time we got into Oakland, with the time change working against us, we were tired and bedraggled. Imagine our surprise when the front-desk clerk told us he had no record of our reservation!

The hotel was completely booked, not one unreserved room, and Hotels.com - did you know that is an offshoot of Expedia.com? - had oversold them by 15 rooms. In chatting with him about it, we learned that this has been happening a lot. Recently when the San Francisco Marathon was on, the hotel had to send 50 people in cabs to a hotel in a nearby city. It's been something of a nightmare to them, but this person could not have been more gracious and unflappable.

He said he'd book us a room at a hotel around the corner, at their expense, and then there were plenty of rooms for the next two nights. But that hotel was oversold, too, as was the second one he called. Finally, the poor guy made what must have been a scary decision - there were six rooms that were reserved but for which guests hadn't shown up yet, so he gave us one of those.

There is nothing quite like sinking into a clean, fresh bed after a long day of travel. We were so tired and very relieved.

We're staying at The Prescott, a bit more luxurious than usual for us, but the online deal was very good - although of course that only works if the reservation service actually books the room! The front-desk clerk upgraded us to include breakfast (not always done in the nicer hotels) and an afternoon wine reception.

* * * *

Since we've been in San Francisco several times, we've done all the big tourist attractions, at least the ones that interest us. We just want to hit a few favourite spots, do a couple of new things, and soak up the atmosphere. San Francisco is a really special place. It's so beautiful, the houses rising on the hills, the Bay, the views, the bridges. It also has an energy and an excitement found in very few US cities.

We had a brief breakfast in the hotel, then took a bus to the Chestnut Street area, a fun neighbourhood not far from the Bay. The bus goes through Chinatown and North Beach, another cool SF neighbourhood, and provides a nice little tour. Time zone difference being what it is, by the time we got to Chestnut Street, we were hungry again, and stopped at a great cafe for coffee and breakfast burritos. Chestnut Street has been infiltrated by Starbucks and Gap, but for the most part it still has an independent feel.

From there we walked to the Bay, cutting through a piece of The Presidio to the Golden Gate Promenade or Crissy Field. This is a walking and bike path right on the bay, with a spectacular view of the Golden Gate Bridge. If you walk the entire path, you can visit the historic fort at the base of the bridge. If I recall correctly, this fort was almost torn down when the Golden Gate Bridge was built, but preservationists were successful, and the bridge was designed to go over it. (On the Fort Point website you can get the whole story and see how the bridge now shelters the fort.) On our first trip to San Francisco together in 1988 (which was my third or fourth time here), Allan and I hiked down to the fort. We were fascinated with the Golden Gate Bridge and learned everything we could about it.

This time we strolled along the Bay, enjoying the perfect weather and the incredible view. Along with the cyclists and walkers, there were dozens of dogs romping on the sand and playing in the surf. Some were with their owners who were walking on the beach, but there were also many dogwalkers with six, eight or twelve dogs each. It seemed an ideal place for both dogs and people, such a beautiful and relaxing setting.

We're not taking photos here in San Francisco, as we already have hundreds of photos of these areas. But a Google image search will give you an idea.

We took the bus back to the hotel, had some tapas and wine at the bar, and headed to the ballpark. I really like the "new" (now ten years old) park in San Francisco, sadly named AT&T Park, but beautifully designed and situated on the East Bay overlooking the Oakland Bay Bridge. We've been to this park once before, and had also been to Candlestick, where the Giants used to play.

We met a friend from Joy of Sox, and a friend of his, for the game. It was a wild one: the Giants were up 9-2 after six innings, blew the entire lead, but came back to win 10-9 in ten innings. Unfortunately for us, I neglected to consider our seat locations and didn't use sunscreen. We sat in the blazing sun for eight innings and now have strangely-patterned sunburns.

After the game, our SF friend brought us to a great Chinese restaurant, very different than the Chinese food I eat in Toronto, and a real treat. Then we went to their neighbourhood bar hangout.

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An Update from a Slacking LOTUS

I've gotten lazy, haven't I? BOTUS and I have posted a few things lately, and I've slacked about reporting. Shame on me. Let's see. Well, on Friday we posted our support for Franklin Graham when the Opologizer administration dis-invited him from speaking at the National Day of Prayer. Hmm, I wonder if Obama "opologized" to Graham when he met with him this past weekend.

BOTUS has been busy with her pithy, yet caring condolences for those involved in the oil rig fire, witty smackdowns of the media regarding corruption in Goldman Sachs, and giving a shoutout to Michael Steele.

Today we posted another endorsement--a special one. This one was for Tim Burns who is running in a special election for a Congressional seat in Pennsylvania. Madame is supportive of the fact that he started his own business, and he's a "hockey dad". What's the difference between a hockey dad and a pit bull? Umm...well, you know what I mean. He's a businessman, not a bureaucrat. It'd be nice to have someone in government who has had a real job before.

Oh, I was surfing around Facebook last night, and I found a picture from a baseball game that Madame attended (without me!!!). Check it out. It's Madame and perhaps her future Homeland Security secretary, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer.

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Take Me out to the Ballgame: Obama Style

Tonight is the first game of the World Series between the Phillies and the Yankees. I'm not sure who Madame is cheering for, but I'm cheering for the Phillies. I think the designated hitter is for wimps.

I had a conversation with TOTUS tonight, and he told me that the Great Opologizer has his own special version of "Take Me out to the Ballgame" that he sings during the seventh inning stretch when he watches a game. Here are the lyrics:

Take me out to the ballgame.
Write about me Maureen Dowd.
I don't like bitter clinging rednecks.
I don't care if I ever use facts.
For I don't root for the "home team".
If they don't win, there's no shame.
For its 1,2,3 times a day I say Bush is to blame!

Now don't tell Madame that these are the President's lyrics. She won't be too happy. Now, final question: who would you rather have on your team?

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