An "Ask Auntie Lowan" Digression.

So, the other Clemens is/was a baseballer? Only one of them I know is Joe DiMaggio - cos of his wife - and...wasn't there a baby girl allowed to be one once? She musta been a strong baby!

Ruth, or something, her name was, wasn't it?

Setanta, you don't know what you are missing.

"As soon as I got out there I felt a strange relationship with the pitcher's mound. It was as if I'd been born out there. Pitching just felt like the most natural thing in the world. Striking out batters was easy. "

~Babe Ruth

One could almost being talking about existentialism here :-

We have here the weakness of man, who is burdened by the most galling contradictions. In the speculative sphere or mound there is the desire to possess absolute knowledge or at least pitch a fast one-- but it is rendered vain by the constant presence of skeptical doubt; will the batter hit the ball out of the stadium ?

In the field of baseball as in morality there is the desire for infinite happiness -- but it is rendered uncertain by the constant presence of evil; the other team, there is the desire for everlasting life -- but it is dashed to the depths by the ubiquitous presence of death-the possibility of a whitewash.

And so it seems quite clear that the two - baseball and existentialism are inextricably linked at the most fundamental level and quotes from Deb's butch lady friend-Babe Ruth have just as much relevance as say Jean Paul Sartre

gasp!

Its true I tell you, every last word of it, fair takes your breath away.

Setanta tells some wonderful tales of playing baseball. Seems he once loved to play the game. Perhaps he'll return someday and tell a tale or two.

digressing to an animation

NIce ehbeth very nice

i was looking for a scrambled egg avatar
having fun on the way

Hmmm. If baseball is existentialism incarnate, what of the umpire? If existence is entirely predicated on the results of actions, why must we have (or, rather, allow) an arbiter to determine the outcome of every action? Seems that cricket might provide the better metaphor. (Or is the umpire an author, an artist, an informed and eloquent observer who interprets for us the otherwise chaotic and meaningless sum of events that make up reality?)

That's not being cricket!

Patio, the second, as to the ump - and a scapegoat, a chorus, a tragi-comic figure, a Guy in the Bonfire of the Vanities.

ehBeth - it didn't move for me - your first animation, I mean.

dlowan, look at the picture, move your head right/left - right/left - right/left - right/left about 50 times with your eyeballs afixed to the picture at all times - it should be animated now!!!!!!!

harrumph! what do they DO?

I tried it again, looks to me like they are spinning!

phooey

will have to try that first one again, or maybe not

Hmmm - it is one of the eternal whyities, is it not - why do some animations work, and some not?

not enough juice

A drop of social lotion never went amiss.

grease the palms of industry

they help themselves enough! Enough is enough! c.i.