Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Odds And Ends

  • Now a good couple of years into my 40's, I do not find evidence for my rapidly advancing age wanting. As I often tell people, it's as if around the age of 33 someone hit "fast-forward" on the tape player of my life. If asked when something occurred, I've now learned to fully double every time estimate that pops into my head. If I would guess something happened a year ago, it was two years ago. If I'd guess two, it was four.

    More evidence of age accrued over the weekend. I finally got around to showing my teenage kids the movie Back to the Future. I remember greatly enjoying it when it came out, but I avoided showing it to my kids when they were younger because I recalled a fair degree of profanity and a bit of suggestiveness. Anyway, early in the film, Doc Brown, as he explains to Marty that he's built a working time machine, announces that he's planning to travel 25 years into the future. And a horrific thought occurred to me: that's now. The film takes place (and was released) in 1985. That far-away, unimaginable future is now here. And Crispin Glover's still weird.
  • Something rather unusual happened to my friend and co-worker Jerry Newcombe this week. About four years ago, Jerry co-wrote a humongous, 1200-page book with Peter Lillback of Westminster Seminary called George Washington's Sacred Fire. It's a comprehensive examination of Washington's religious beliefs. Yesterday morning, that book stood at number 479,955 on Amazon’s book sales rankings. Then Glenn Beck mentioned it on his radio and TV programs and urged everyone to buy it.

    Today at Amazon, Jerry's book (as of this hour) sits at number 2.

    Of every book on Amazon.

    Apparently, that's the power of Glenn Beck. I can see now why leftists of every stripe soil their drawers over him.
  • I'm playing fantasy baseball again this year. Today, Andre Eithier, my best player, joined Asdrubal Cabrerra (broke his arm last night), Curtis Granderson (the always entertaining "groin injury"), and Jorge De La Rosa on the disabled list. Instead of dragging it out over a period of days, maybe it would be quicker and less painful if my entire team just ran out in front of a bus.

    Oh yeah, and I also have Jonathan Papelbon, who was on the mound during last night's already-legendary collapse against the Yankees. Thanks for the 54.00 ERA, big J.
UPDATE: Beck had Pete Lillback, Sacred Fire's co-author, on his TV show last night. This morning (as of 10:24am Wednesday morning) it's number one at Amazon.

UPDATE #2: The book is still Number 1 today at Amazon. But they're out of them. The books are in stock here, however, and ready for order.

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