Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers

(h/t Bluegal aka Fran)

Audio

With yesterday’s 1-0 win by Ramirez over the Atlanta Braves I can say, for what is probably the last time this season, that they have a share of the lead in the National League East.

It’s been a bad few seasons with team ownership caught up in the Madoff scandal, a situation that is not yet fully resolved, despite what The Guardian says (you’ll note they still owe in excess of $425 Million).  With the loss of Jose Reyes to free agency any objective observer can only call the team weaker.  They’ve moved in the fences by as much as 12 feet and lowered them by 8 for no good reason I can think of.  It’s not like they’re going to sell the extra 102 seats in what, with tons of luck, will be a .500 season.  Perhaps they will not finish at the bottom of the Division and there are worse teams, though not many of them.

It’s the 50th year for the Club and they usually get off to a good Opening Day start, winning in 33 of the past 43 seasons.  Only one other time have they done it 1-0.

But Santana is healthy for now, and spring is a time for hope and renewal.

Let’s go Mets!

Read it and weep.

I formed my own SuperPAC and all I got was this lousy Peabody Award.

Happy Bloggiversary to Me.

kos seems to think I joined on April 5, 2005 and while my memory is different (I contend it was April Fools Day) I can’t prove it.

That’s a total of 2557 days or 61,368 hours or 3,682,080 minutes or 220,924,800 seconds of my life I’ll never get back.

Including 629 days of unexpected absence, because I didn’t just sit on my ass feeling sorry for myself.

My character is static and fictional (diary #4, but who’s counting?).  I haven’t changed a bit or grown any more than Jerry, George, Elaine, or Kramer, my level of obnoxiousness has remained constant.  I’ve never pushed a noun against a verb except to blow up something.  I do hateful things for which people love me, and I do loveable things for which they hate me.  I’m admired for my detestability.

Nor am I likely to learn hugging in the future.  I’m over 120 years old and they’re still trying to ban evolution in Tennessee where the trees of knowledge are almost extinct and ignorance bushes thick.  I don’t miss Hillsboro, a mélange of Moorish and Methodist, it must have been designed by a congressman.

Since I’ve only ever been in love with the sound of my own voice I’ll spare you the trouble of actual research and direct you to some milestones-

• My First Comment
• My First Diary

When you’re as old as I am you pile up some numbers-

Daily Kos

• 4/5/05 (2,557 days)
• 46,147 comments (18 a day)
• 426 diaries (1 every 6 days)

DocuDharma

• 8/20/07 (1,690 days)
• 8,033 comments (4.75 a day)
• 1,974 essays (1+ a day)

The Stars Hollow Gazette

• 6/12/10 (663 days)
• 10,611 comments (16 a day)
• 1,797 diaries (2.7 a day)

Overall (2,557 days)

• 64,791 comments (25 a day)
• 4,197 diaries (1.64 a day)

I had never blogged before I came to Daily Kos, but I’ve always been a writer (and a critic, NOT a reporter Jim) even when it was just poetry for machines.  While I remain timeless I have taken my craft in different directions and I’m much more involved with the sites I manage and edit- The Stars Hollow Gazette and DocuDharma than I am concerned about minutia at the moment.  Still, I’ve not forgotten where I got my start and should I happen on topics of mutual interest I don’t hesitate to share.

I hope all of you enjoy your time online as much as I do mine.

Cardinals/Marlins.

• Senior League
• Rounders

Play Ball.

‘Dictatorship is coming back to the Maldives and democracy is slipping away’

Decca Aitkenhead, The Guardian

Sunday 1 April 2012 13.03 EDT

Nasheed is no stranger to high drama, but even by his own standards the past two months have been quite extraordinary. Born into a middle-class Maldives family in 1967, and educated in England, on graduation Nasheed – known as Anni – returned to a country in the grip of what many regarded as a dictatorship under Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. Nasheed set up a magazine, began publishing articles accusing the regime of corruption and brutality, and was promptly arrested, imprisoned, held in solitary confinement and tortured. Jailed 16 separate times, he missed the births of his two daughters and became an Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience, before fleeing into exile in 2003.

But after 30 years in office, in 2008 Gayoom yielded to pressure and held the country’s first democratic elections, which swept “the Mandela of the Maldives” to power. Quickly claimed by David Cameron as “my new best friend”, the young president became an international folk hero, and the face of a nation that, as he warned the UN, will be underwater “before the end of this century” unless the world acts now on climate change.

The Maldives’ transition to democracy was, however, ominously incomplete. According to Nasheed, elements still loyal to Gayoom were undermining reforms, and in response to repeated constitutional crises many opposition MPs and officials were arrested and detained during Nasheed’s administration. In January, frustrated by the judiciary’s attempts to thwart his reforms, Nasheed ordered the arrest of chief justice Abdulla Mohamed. Protesters loyal to the old regime took to the streets, supported by factions within the police, and on 7 February, after weeks of unrest, Nasheed was confronted by armed military officers. “There were guns all around me and they told me they wouldn’t hesitate to use them if I didn’t resign,” he told reporters that evening. It wasn’t a resignation, he says simply, but a coup d’état.

How’s that austerity thing working out for you?

School meals are ‘made smaller to save money’

Richard Garner, The Independent

Tuesday 03 April 2012

School meal portions are being shrunk, leaving children to go hungry, teachers and parents have warned. Smaller portion sizes caused by cost-cutting are reported in schools across the country and are of particular concern, given the increase in the number of impoverished pupils who rely on school lunches as their only hot meal of the day. Primary-age children, in particular, are going hungry after being given lunches that are too small, according to teachers.

…

In the ATL survey, teachers warned that private providers, who are often hired to supply school meals, were cutting portion sizes to make their budgets go further and win new contracts. “The younger children pay the same price but get much less than the older ones,” said one reception class teacher in Bradford. “Also, they do not get the choice as this is also saved for the older ones.”

…

A spokeswoman for the Association for Public Service Excellence, which monitors the school meals service, said the major costs for caterers were staffing and overheads such as kitchens, equipment and energy supplies, and these would be targets for cuts rather than portion sizes. However, she added that government grants for school dinners were no longer ring-fenced and had been incorporated into schools’ overall budgets, thereby making the meals service less secure.

The system has undergone radical change in recent years. Schools can hire private providers to run their service – or do it themselves. Local authorities have catering services but schools are free to decide whether to buy into them or not.

…

The standards do set out minimum calories for each age group. But Christine Lewis, of the public service union Unison, which represents school dinner staff, said it had “almost been left on faith with the providers to abide by them”. “There is a possibility providers are violating the standards,” she added.

To further complicate matters, academies and free schools are exempt from the nutritional standards.

(h/t Chris in Paris @ Americablog)

There is absolutely no reason Notre Dame should not win tonight.  They showed against Connecticut that they are willing and able to put other team’s players into foul trouble and Baylor is only half a team.  When Brittney sits they should be able to put it out of reach.

In the grander scheme I think one of the things Soapblox is best suited for is limited time event live blogging.  It’s unfortunate that there is no auto-refresh, but even dK has not been able to duplicate the immediacy of peeder’s Ajax Commenting System.  If there is sufficient volume and activity however this shortcoming is less pronounced.  Some even prefer the relaxed atmosphere where you are not subject to the expectation of instant defense.

The solution to all problems is to write more and often as TheMomCat suggests.  Frequently people complain about the lack of exposure and response, yet careful examination suggests that even at a high traffic site like dK actual page views of member submissions is not much higher than you can achieve here or at DocuDharma.

There are two things I think are a shame, which is that people get discouraged and that they don’t proliferate and promote their work.  I can’t do much to change the perception that comments equate to attention (though it’s not at all true), but I would urge you to consider the effect on your readership and impact of publishing at multiple places over a span of time on the issues you are passionate about.  Each site has its own audience and each posting gives you the opportunity to re-promote.

We’ll continue our coverage of special events here at The Stars Hollow Gazette (my next nightmare is the Summer Olympics) and you are more than welcome to contribute pieces about your particular interests.  It’s really not that hard.

Hype starts at 7:30 pm on ESPN.  Game @ 8:30.

Semifinal Results-

Tonight’s Action-

Let me be the first to say it-

I.

was.

wrong.

And so we are left with 2 teams that I really couldn’t have less interest in- Kentucky and Kansas.  I don’t even know which one to hate more.

Still, when you embark on these long term sports projects you have to stick with them even when Lance Armstrong is out of the picture lest you brand yourself a mere partisan fan instead of a student of the game.

Semifinal Results-

Tonight’s Action-

Zap2it says coverage starts at 9 pm on CBS.