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Entries from August 2019

The 20th Century Gas Station: Refuel, Repair, Reorient

August 28th, 2019 · 1 Comment · Journalism, Long Beach, Newspapers

When considering the industries and local businesses that mostly disappeared, ahead of the 21st century, I tend to focus on newspapers. That’s what I did for a living: Newspapering. Papers were important to readers, back in an era when not everyone was online, and they made a lot of money for their owners. Also, journalists […]

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Dodgers, World Series: Can We Keep Them Apart This Fall? Please?

August 26th, 2019 · No Comments · Baseball, Dodgers

The New York Yankees came to town to play a three-game inter-league set with the Los Angeles Dodgers, in a matchup of the clubs with the best records so far this season. Excuse me if I, a lifetime Dodgers fan, was a little creeped out by it. The Yankees took two of three, outscoring the […]

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‘Ball Four’, 50 Years Later

August 21st, 2019 · 2 Comments · Baseball, Books

As a sportsman, Jim Bouton was best-known as a pitcher for three early-1960s New York Yankees teams that reached the World Series. As a careful observer and serial pot-stirrer, he was best-known for the diary he kept of the 1969 Seattle Pilots season, which led to the 1970 book Ball Four. It was an endeavor […]

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France and Its Summer Vacations

August 19th, 2019 · No Comments · France, Languedoc, tourism, Travel

If you are reading this in the U.S., brace yourself. In France, all employees get five weeks of paid vacation per year. Five weeks. More than a month. And that does not include one-day public holidays, which can reach double digits in a given year. We know about France and its summer vacations because we […]

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Zero Appetite for Dangers of ‘Competitive Eating’

August 15th, 2019 · No Comments · Uncategorized

Let’s get this straight right off: There is no future for competitive eating. It is tacky, gross, wasteful and Just Plain Dangerous, with links not only to chronic medical conditions but also to fatalities. You perhaps have viewed, via television, one of the episodes of professional gluttony. Hot dogs are the preferred edible but other […]

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‘Field of Dreams’ Game: A Celebration of Black Sox?

August 10th, 2019 · No Comments · Baseball

Many baseball fans love the idea of the ballpark hacked out of a corn field in Iowa to serve as the focal point for the baseball movie Field of Dreams. It is not a one-shot prop. It is not generated by a computer. It is acres of land where corn once grew, carved out for […]

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What’s in a Name? A Lot, When it is Oberjuerge in France

August 9th, 2019 · No Comments · France

It is a hard name to pronounce. No question. Oberjuerge. Go ahead, take a whack at it. What is your best guess? It has been anglicized, a bit, if that helps your guesswork. Here in the south of France, where we are based, locals officials and merchants will attempt to pronounce the name rather than […]

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MLB-TV, the Dodgers and Orel Hershiser

August 6th, 2019 · 1 Comment · Baseball, Dodgers

Kind of a Triple Crown, as far as I am concerned. The not-expensive set-up with MLB-TV to choose among various live games during the European night and early morning; the Dodgers doing what they do (destroy the National League); and the pleasure of listening to the cerebral and chatty Orel Hershiser, who serves as color […]

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Dodgers Whiff on Deadline Day

August 1st, 2019 · No Comments · Baseball, Dodgers

Anyone who has watched the 2019 Dodgers for a half-dozen games already knows what is going to keep this team from its first World Series championship since 1988. The bullpen. Yesterday, the club had its last chance to address the problem under the new trade deadline of July 31 … and chose not to. “We’re […]

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