Double-edged Sword

This is one of those issues that is a perfect example of “be careful what you wish for”.

This week the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the rights of the members of a Baptist Church in Kansas to protest this country’s involvement in foreign wars by holding rallies at the funerals of fallen U.S. soldiers while spouting what many feel is hate speech.

In essence, the church members rally at these funerals, they say, because soldiers deserve to die since they fight for the U.S. which tolerates homosexuality.

I’m not going to get into what the protestors write on their placards … google “westboro baptist church” and you’ll find all the information you want about these people and the vitriolic things they spout at their protests.

This latest case against the church involves a father burying his son who was killed in Iraq, and had sued the group for invasion of privacy and emotional distress because of the things they were saying outside of his son’s funeral. In lower courts, the father had been awarded almost $11 million in damages, which were later reduced to $5 million.

The church appealed the decision and the case made its way to the Supreme Court, which issued its ruling this week. By an 8-1 vote, the justices wrote that while many would consider the church member’s hate-filled speech abhorrent, they have a right to say what they want in this country because the First Amendment of Constitution protects its freedom of speech.

I was listening to NPR on the way home Wednesday and they interviewed the father of the fallen soldier. You could clearly hear the anger, the hurt, and the shock in his voice. He argued passionately about how disrespectful the protestors are, how (in his opinion) they could make their point somewhere else and don’t have to show up at funerals like this. He also said he couldn’t understand how the court could rule like this.

The point was also made in the NPR piece that many of these protestors are family members and a few of them are lawyers. Because of this, they are keenly aware of the laws governing what they do, are careful to notify police before they show up and adhere to the laws governing the minimum distance they must keep away from the funeral sites. Therefore, they aren’t technically breaking the law when they gather.

For an instant, I was shocked and dismayed that the Supreme Court could do this, could validate what these people say. But, the more I listened the more I realized that, for better or worse, they were right, especially when I read this quote from the decision, authored for the majority by Chief Justice John Roberts:

“Speech is powerful. It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, and -- as it did here -- inflict great pain. On the facts before us, we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker."

Of course, the ultimate irony here is that our soldiers are fighting and dying and have fought and died while protecting our right to free speech, even the free speech of those like the members of the Westboro Baptist Church.

Like the French philosopher and historian Voltaire once said, “I may not like what you say, but I’ll fight for your right to say it.”

Is this the Northern or Southern hemisphere?

OK, it's July 1 ... cloudy, cold, foggy and rainy ... oh, and it's 61 degrees.

Unreal.

Saw a report today that for the month of June in this area, there were only 11 sunny days. All other days were either partly or totally cloudy with rain.

The Decline of Western Civilization

Progress and technology are great things, but at what cost do they come into our lives?

Not sure if you’ve heard about this recently, but more and more American newspapers are putting their final print editions to bed and either folding completely or becoming only an online entity.

The latest casualty in the newspaper industry is The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which produced its last print edition today after 147 years of serving the greater Seattle, WA, community.

Click here for an excellent, in-the-trenches account of the PI's last deadline day from one of its reporters.

The PI's Carol Smith writes a great eulogy and historical account of the paper here.

As a former newspaper reporter, I find all of this incredibly sad. Honestly, I had never heard of the PI until today, but I was just as sadden and unnerved to peruse (online, ironically enough) it's final edition and read about its staff, a handful of whom will be staying on to produce the online-only version of the paper.

Maybe this makes me sound old, but I don't care ... I like having a physical newspaper to hold. To this day, I read (virtually) cover-to-cover the entire Sports section of the Boston Sunday Globe ... not online, but on my couch, or in the kitchen or on the porch when it's warmer. For me, there's something very gratifying about actually holding the paper in my hands, the crinkling sound of the paper itself, smelling the ink on my fingers after I put it down. It just feels right ... walking out onto the porch and grabbing the paper every morning.

It genuinely saddens me to think that print papers are rapidly becoming dinosaurs and will likely one day go the same way these ancient creatures did.

And if newspapers aren't stopping the presses entirely, they're at least in deep trouble, to whit: the New York Times and The Boston Globe announced recently huge revenue losses, the Christian Science Monitor will release its last print edition this year, New Jersey’s Newark Star-Ledger is laying off half of its news staff, and the Los Angeles Times and San Jose Mercury News have both drastically reduced their staffs over the past year.

When you stop and think about it, though, it's not really that surprising that newspapers aren't what they used to be. The explosion of the internet certainly was the death knell for the newspaper. It's too easy to fire up the 'puter and get all the news that fits. Hell, you don't even need a desktop or a laptop, news is a click away on most cell phones now.

But, given the current economic climate, ad revenues for all print media is rapidly declining. Have you noticed how thin magazines have become over the past year? My wife just received the latest issue of Oprah magazine and I was genuinely shocked at how thin it is. And just the other day I saw in the pages of The Boston Globe a huge white space where an ad might have been.

Still, all this begs the question ... will my 4 1/2-year-old son know a world in which a newspaper is delivered to his front door or will his be one of only online news?

UPDATE: The news continues to get worse for the nation's dailies.

I missed that cookie smell

Finally, I feel-good story about the economy!

Watching history unfold

I'm sitting here in my living room and just watched John McCain give his concession speech. Very graceful and classy.

Watching the TV and the scenes of people in Chicago gathering waiting for President-Elect(!) Obama to make his acceptance speech ... it's like watching New Year's Eve coverage ... hundreds of thousands (if not over a million) people cheering, hugging, crying. It's an amazing scene and I have to admit that I'm getting emotional because I never really thought I'd ever see in my lifetime an African-American president and I'm so glad I did.

Admittedly, I wish Obama had more experience as a Senator, but I think he's better for this country than McCain would have been. In my opinion, the last thing this country needed was another four years of Republican rule.

The National Anthem is now being sung and I have goosebumps ... always happens when I hear this song.

I really hope Obama can come through on many of the things he promised during the election ... he certainly has his work cut out for him. I know that no matter who was elected tonight, no one has a magic wand that's going to be make all of America's problems go away, but I really hope Obama is the person to at least get this country back on the right track. He has to be ... he just has to be because there are so many issues facing this nation and we have to turn a corner soon.

It's 11:43 p.m. EST but I'm so glad I stayed up to see this ... Obama's going to speaking soon ... I'll likely remember where I was at this moment for the rest of my life.

EDIT: Obama just finished speaking ... wow ... I wish I could succinctly put into words what I'm feeling. This is such an amazing moment in the history of this country and again, I hope he can do for this country what he has talked about.

Just an amazing speech ... an amazing day ... an amazing time for this country.

If ever there was a reality check ...

For those who may think that the problems with the economy are being blown out of proportion or just aren't as bad as they actually are, read this story posted on cnn.com.

What strikes me after reading this is that incidents like those described in the story (people killing themselves because of foreclosures and financial problems) could become more prevalent. Scary ... very scary.

DEFCONOMY 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... ?

As I'm sure many others have been doing lately, I've been paying a lot of attention to the turmoil surrounding the U.S. economy and the president's $700 billion bailout proposal.

I don't usually watch the president when he's on TV because without fail, every time I see the man speak, I always think (even eight years later), "I can't believe this guy is our president." But, I was watching TV last night at when he came on at 9 p.m., I watched because I wanted to see what he was going to say about the disaster that is our economy.

Just when I thought I couldn't feel any worse about our current situation ... hearing that he has little support (even from within his own party) for this plan makes it all that much more depressing. As stated on many websites, in articles and by talking heads lately, Wall Street has had a party for the last decade and now the U. S. taxpayers are going to pay the price to the tune of $700 billion.

Virginia Rep. Tom Davis (no relation) said it best when he was quoted as saying that the president's plan is the worst he's ever seen but there is no other plan.

Wow ... just, wow.

Glenn Beck of CNN Nightly News wrote a piece about the plan and introduces a new phrase that, as things continue to worsen (which they likely will) could become part of the lexicon used by everyone: DEFCONOMY.

And folks, we are rapidly reaching DEFCONOMY 1, which would be the next Great Depression.

Much like DEFCON 1 (Defense Condition 1), which is the highest alert status at which the U.S. armed forces can be set, DEFCONOMY 1, according to Beck, is the step at which this country's economy is standing on the edge of the cliff with one foot in the air.

Never in my life did I ever think I'd see something like this. I remember as a kid growing up the recession of the '80s and the economic downturns of the 1990s, but I never thought I'd see the economy at the verge of collapse. I remember my grandparents talking about living through the Great Depression of the 1930s and how there was almost a fairy tale-like quality to their stories.

But it was real ... very real and here we are again. The U.S. is (supposed to be) the greatest free market economy in the world and when the stock market crashed in 1929, it started the domino effect that led to the world-wide Great Depression. And if you know your history at all, you know how the global economy recovered back then ... World War II. Nothing like a war-based economy to reverse an economic collapse.

Ye gods. Could it really come to that again? I mean, look at what has happened within the past couple of weeks ... the economy tanks and the rest of the world's free markets swoon in response. Not good ... not good.

And I don't even want to know what my 401k looks like right now. A co-worker looked up hers last week and says the value of her 401k is down 27%. Ho-lee crap.

Then I came across this ... we bought our house six years ago for $151,000. There are six houses on the street that were built by the same builder within a few years of each other (circa 1924) and they're virtually identical (Dutch colonial). The house two doors up from us (which is more updated than ours) went on the market a few months ago for ... $150K.

I keep looking at Joey and wondering what kind of world he's going to inherit and I never factored the economic future into that until now. I keep hearing how the baby boomers are going to clean out the Social Security system so that my generation will see nothing of what they contributed. If that's the case, what is Joey's generation going to face?

And not for nothing, but ... picked this up from the Doonesbury website on which is quoted part of the Republican Party platform for 2008:

"We do not support government bailouts of private institutions. Government interference in the markets exacerbates problems in the marketplace and causes the free market to take longer to correct itself."

A pregnancy pact

My mouth literally dropped open when I read this story in the Boston Globe.

Amazing ... just amazing.

Truly, how stupid can you get?

It just keep getting worse ...

Was zipping around the news websites this a.m. and read about the earthquake damage in China and caught this story on cnn.com.

For days now we've been hearing about the devastation of the latest earthquake and its aftershocks to hit China and I didn't even think about this angle of the story.

In a nutshell, the story talks about China's law that parents are only allowed to have one child. Now we're seeing that included in those tens of thousands of people who have died are many children ... which means that there are so many parents now without kids.

At any point in my life this story would have affected me on some level, but since Joey was born, stories like this take on a whole different meaning. Looking at the woman crying in the photo accompanying the picture and reading about parents standing outside a destroyed kindergarten, I couldn't help but put myself in their shoes and I just can't begin to imagine what that must be like. In an instant, your family is gone ... just like that. You'll never hear your child's voice again, never hear them laugh again, never hold them again ... you'll never hear them say, "I love you" again.

Seeing and hearing about this just reminds me again how you can't take anything for granted. I hug my son and kiss him every day and I tell him as much as possible that I love him. I can't imagine life without him.

Home equity dips

I just saw a story on cnn.com in which the Federal Reserve has announced that for the first time on record (since 1945) the percentage of equity in American homes is less than 50%.

This means that people's homes are worth less than what they owe on them.

The most disturbing part of the article:

"Economists expect this figure to drop even further as declining home prices eat into the value of most Americans' single largest asset.

"Moody's Economy.com estimates that 8.8 million homeowners, or about 10.3% of homes, will have zero or negative equity by the end of the month. Even more disturbing, about 13.8 million households, or 15.9%, will be "upside down" if prices fall 20% from their peak.

And there are people out there who say we're not in a recession.

I find your lack of hot air disturbing ...

Best hot air ballon ... EVER!



From yahoonews.com:

Darth in the sky : A hot air balloon in the shape of Darth Vader from the Star Wars films rises at the Tours and Taxis site as part of the Star Wars exhibition in Brussels.

"Spygate" saga continues ...

This is just getting ridiculous.

Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter continues his asinine threats to launch a full-fledged investigation (and threatening to withdraw the NFL's anti-trust exemption) into the NFL's destruction of the materials turned over by the New England Patriots in relation to "spygate".

I still can't believe he's actually still pursuing this. That is, until I remember that Specter is a season ticker holder of the Philadelphia Eagles (who lost to the Pats in Super Bowl XXXIX) and apparently he hasn't gotten over that.

Now there comes word that based on the rumors that the Patriots taped the pre-game walk-through of the St. Louis Rams before Super Bowl XXXVI, three layers have filed a $100 million lawsuit (yes, that's $100 million), claiming that since the Patriots cheated, they owe everyone associated with the game (fans, players' shares, etc.), even thought the NFL said there's absolutely no evidence that any such taping occurred. Wow ... just ... wow.

Yes, I'm a card-carrying member of Patriots' Nation so if you dismiss this post as a homer defending his team, so be it. But I'm really getting tired of all of this spygate crap. To which:

• If the Patriots cheated in their three Super Bowl wins, why did they only win by 3 points in each game?!?
  
• People are questioning why NFL Comish Roger Goodall came down so hard on the Patriots and Bill Belichick so quickly and then destroyed the tapes and written materials so quickly. It's simple: He wanted to send a loud and clear message to the rest of the NFL that cheating will not be tolerated.
  
• There are calls now for the Patriots to give up their three Lombardi trophies because "they're obviously tainted", some Patriots haters are saying. Really? So the three titles Jimmy Johnson won with the Dallas Cowboys in the 1990s should also be relinquished because Johnson admitted (during a Fox broadcast when the spygate story broke) that he and his staff cheated as well when they would take discarded play book pages from teams and use them to prepare for the next time they played that team. And Johnson's not the only former coach to admit to cheating ... Jim Mora, Al Davis, and Bill Parcells also all admitted they went outside the rules.
  
• Specter has said the Patriots wins against the Pittsburgh Steelers should also be more closely scrutinized. But, Steelers ownership has said they feel the Patriots' videotaping is a "non-issue."
  
• This may be the weakest defense of the Patriots but it bears repeating ... everybody in the NFL cheats in some way. Maybe not so much now because of what's been going on, but they have in the past. Want proof? Just look at the coaches and assistants on the sidelines of any game, especially the offensive and defensive coordinators and the head coach. Whenever they call in a play, they always cover their mouths so their lips can't be read. Why? Because they know they're being watched by the other team! Seriously ... is it that complicated, people?!?
  
• As has happened in the past, the only thing people like more than celebrating a winner is tearing them down. Losing a Super Bowl by three points has to hurt (think about it, that's pretty much a one-play difference in the game), and it seems like some people are seizing this spygate thing as their chance to run up the excuses as to why their teams couldn't figure out a way to beat the Patriots.
  
• And lastly (at least for this post), Specter absolutely needs to be taken to task for using his time to focus on this issue instead of those that really concern the country ... like the war in Iraq, the healthcare crisis, the mortgage crisis, the looming recession ... the list goes on.

I want to make it clear that I'm not condoning what the Patriots did. Cheating is cheating and they got caught and paid the price. Let's just hope that all of the other NFL teams don't pay the price as well.

Clemens vs. McNamee

Former Red Sox ace Roger Clemens is scheduled to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform today and even before he raises his right hand he appears to be in trouble.

His former teammate, Andy Pettitte, has already admitted to using HGH (supplied by his and Clemens' former trainer, Brian McNamee) and now comes word that Pettitte has told Congress that Clemens admitted to him that he (the Rocket) took HGH. Clemens said Pettitte is mistaken in recalling the conversation.

Pettitte was supposed to testify with Clemens but was told by the Committee that such testimony wasn't needed. I haven't been able to find the reason why this decision was made.

Once again it comes down to he said-he said ... barring a last-minute change of heart, Clemens is presumably going to testify under oath that he didn't take HGH or any other steroid, despite the assertions made by Pettitte and McNamee. Meanwhile, McNamee will also testify under oath that Clemens did, in fact, use steroids.

So, where does this leave Clemens? One can keep speculating, but until we hear exactly what Clemens says and, perhaps more importantly, how he says it, it's difficult to say. (I'm reminded to Bill Clinton's famous, "It depends on what the definition of 'is' is.")

I was talking with a friend about this whole mess and said that I found it hard to believe that someone as (supposedly) smart as Clemens would go this far if he thought there was any evidence to support McNamee's claim.

"No it's not," my friend said. "Guys like Clemens, competitors their entire lives, just can't let things go away. Clemens probably sees this as another sort of competition and wants to be the winner. Maybe it's the steroids that are clouding his judgment."

I admitted that I never really thought of it that way and my friend made a good point. Either way, Clemens isn't going to come out of this unscathed ... it's how badly burned he will be that has yet to be determined.

GM buying out workers

I'm not much of a financial person, but I just saw this story on CNNMoney.com and it made my stop and think for a minute (which is about all I have time for these days).

The gist of the story is that GM, the largest U.S. car maker, is continuing its cost-cutting measures by offering "lucrative buyouts to 74,000 employees - its entire U.S. hourly workforce." (emphasis added).

According to the article:

About 46,000 of the GM employees are eligible to retire today and they can take pension incentives worth between $45,000 to $62,500 to retire. In addition there are inducements for those who are five years from retirement to leave early and receive benefits.

Those who leave and agree to sever all ties with the company - including giving up lucrative pension and health care coverage - will receive a lump sum of $140,000 if they have 10 years of service, or $70,000 for those with less than 10 years.

While a large-scale buy-out like this isn't unusual (Ford has done something similar, according to the article), this makes me uneasy about the state of the economy. Frankly, if there are people who are still saying we're not in a recession, then this could erase those doubts.

Why I love scathing movie reviews

So Paris Hilton apparently has a new movie coming out called, "The Hottie and the Nottie" and, shockingly, it sounds perfectly awful.

I've read four reviews and none have been at all kind. But, I think my favorite is by the Boston Globe's Ty Burr, who wrote a review for today's paper. I've always loved Burr's writing style, especially when he hates a movie and he really didn't like Hilton's latest offering. The highlights include:

The problem with "The Hottie and the Nottie" is - wait, let me start again. The most crippling of the many problems afflicting "The Hottie and the Nottie" is the radical disconnect between the title and our perception of the movie's star. I'm not sure on what planet Paris Hilton is considered "hot" - one that involves hazmat suits and tongs, possibly - but it hasn't been Earth for some time.

Then there's Hilton. She delivers her lines in an unmodulated near-whisper and keeps her head lowered, gazing up at Nate as if she'd learned Acting Position #1 and then dropped the class. The film poses her in a succession of bikinis, mini-tops, and short shorts, none of which give her the presence necessary to actually hold the screen. Her head seems too small for her body and stuck on at an odd angle. She resembles nothing so much as a tiny blond velociraptor.

No question where Burr stands on this one!

The Clemens circus continues

So Roger Clemens and his former trainer, Brian McNamee, both have appeared before a House committee to argue their sides of this "did-Roger-take-steroids?" case.

He said-he said.

According to this story on espn.com, it's going to get very interesting next week when the two will appear at a public hearing (along with Clemens' former teammate, Andy Pettitte) at which they'll be under oath.

What amazes me about this week's developments is that McNamee's lawyers showed two pictures of syringes and other paraphernalia that they say are evidence of Clemens taking steroids.

Seriously?!? Pictures of this stuff and not of Clemens actually being injected is part of your evidence ... seriously?!?

Look, I've said it once and I'll say it again, I'm not here to defend Clemens. But, I have to say that I can't see why he would be fighting so hard against these allegations if they weren't true. I mean, he's not stupid and if he even thought a scintilla of evidence existed that could link him to steroid use, why would he be putting himself in the spotlight like this? It just doesn't make sense.

On the other side of the isle, though, is McNamee who (on the surface) doesn't seem to have anything to lose by pressing this case and therefore one could argue that he's not lying because of that very fact ... he doesn't have anything to lose so why would he be doing this?

Either way, if these two are under oath next week and stick to their stories, one of them is lying and, again, as I've said before, that's frowned upon just a bit by the Feds. The whole thing is just mind boggling.

Of course, the wild card here is Pettitte. I can't imagine that in the course of the hearing next week someone's not going to ask him if he ever saw Clemens get injected. His answer, or rather, the way he answers is going to be very telling. I see it going one of several ways:

• "No, I did not see him get injected."
  
• "If he ever was injected, I never saw it."
  
• "On the advice of Counsel, I plead the Fifth."

If Pettitte pleads the Fifth, that's as good as him saying Clemens took steroids, IMO. If his answers are in any way ambiguous and the panel can't get him to be more clear, then that's not going to look good for Rocket, either.

As a baseball fan, I'm still astounded by the fact that the man who could be considered the greatest pitcher in the history of the game may not be so if it's definitively proven that Clemens used steroids. Once a lock for the MLB HOF, Clemens' stats and accomplishments on the diamond may be but a footnote to his legacy ... as a steroid user.

There's a joke in there somewhere ...

Just saw this on espn.com ... wow.

Video posted of Martinez at cockfight


A video of New York Mets pitcher Pedro Martinez and Hall of Famer Juan Marichal at a cockfight was posted this week on YouTube.

Martinez and Marichal laugh before releasing the roosters. The two took part as honorary "soltadores," the word used to describe the person who puts the animal to fight.

The animal released by Martinez appears to be killed on the video, which was posted Tuesday. The fight takes place in the Coliseo de Gallos (Rooster Coliseum) in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic's biggest cockfighting venue. Cockfighting is legal and popular in the Dominican Republic.

By early Thursday, the video was removed "due to terms of use violation."

Bishop accountability

Well, here's a post that's not going to be very pleasant, but then again ... not all things in life are pleasant, are they?

I was reading the Boston Globe online during lunch today and saw this front-page story about a non-profit group that is archiving the massive amount of documents and information related to the scandal surrounding the Catholic Church and the abuse by some of its priests.

I was raised Catholic and, from seventh grade through high school, attended Catholic school. Those of you who know me personally and those who don't and read my random list about me that I blogged about recently know that I'm not a religious person and don't believe in god. Coincidence? Hardly.

Anyway, so I'm reading this story and out of curiosity I decided to check out the organization's website, bishopaccountability.org.

One section of the website lets you search for accused priests by state, then by Diocese, in my case, Worcester, MA. When I started looking at the list, I nearly did a spit take with my water. I saw three priests on the list that I knew personally. Two of the priests on the list were teachers at the high school I attended, and one was the headmaster of the junior high school at which I was a student.

Fortunately, I was never a victim of one of these guys and I have to admit that in looking at their names and thinking about it for a few minutes, I'm not really surprised to see them on the list. In each case, I remember (even as a kid) thinking something just wasn't quite right about these guys, but I couldn't put my finger on it. According to the list, one priest was arrested but found not guilty, another was asked to resign and is being sued by an alleged victim and the third is named in a pending civil suit and settled yet another suit.

I should say that I have no personal knowledge of any of these guys abusing any of my fellow classmates. But, settling a lawsuit doesn't exactly bode well for your presumed innocence, does it? I digress ...

Aside from the whole disgusting and unnerving travesty that is the Catholic Church abuse scandal (I could go on and on about it, but what's the point?), what makes me sick to my stomach is that one of these guys was the person who helped me when I fell down the flight of stairs and split my chin wide open (see #120 in my random list post). Again, he did nothing inappropriate (if I remember correctly, he once said he was a nurse in the armed services and knew how to treat my wound before I went to the hospital) but he came in contact with me. It may have been 25 years ago, but it still makes me a bit nauseous.

Bluetooth technology in artificial limbs

Just read this story on CCN.com ... wild stuff.

Basically, the story says the guy's prosthetic legs have bluetooth receivers (like in cell phones) in the ankles that communicate with each other so that one leg knows what the other is doing, thus resulting in more coordinated movement. Wow.

Can't help but think that as cool as this is today, it may be very commonplace in the future.

The most random list you'll ever read

I'm not ashamed to say I got the idea for this post from a fellow blogger. To me, that's a compliment when fellow bloggers borrow each other's ideas. Disagree? Well, it's my blog, so there.

The following is a completely random list about ... me.

1. I was born July 22, 1969 … the story goes that my mom went into labor as Neil Armstrong was walking on the moon. She wanted to go to the hospital but my dad couldn’t take his eyes off of the TV. She won.
   
2. My son, Joey, is one of the most amazing people I have ever met. Seeing the world through his eyes is indescribable.
   
3. When I worked in Boston, I used to commute 20 hours a week. Fun.
   
4. I’ve never been sued.
   
5. If there's one person in my life that I trust more than anyone else, it's my mom. She absolutely would never BS me.
   
6. I am a huge golf nut and love playing. Well, if you call having a handicap over 20 "playing".
   
7. My favorite color is navy blue.
   
8. One of my most favorite things in the world is the way Joey prefaces almost every sentence he says to me with, "Dah-dee".
   
9. Nothing beats walking in the door and Joey comes running up to me saying, "Dah-dee, Dah-dee, you're home! I missed you!" I fall in love with him every day.
   
10. I’m not a fan of sodas like Coke or Pepsi … I can’t stand the way it feels like your teeth are covered in sugar after you drink them.
    
11. If I drink soda, it’s soda water (lemon and orange are the favorite flavors).
12. That being said, Jack + Coke = always good.
    
13. I’m proud to be a Jack Daniel’s Squire.
    
14. My favorite beer is Cape Ann Brewery's "Boston Tea Part Ale", followed closely by Boddington's and just about anything Sam Adams makes, especially Sammy Light.
    
15. I have one sibling, a younger sister, Beckie.
    
16. My all-time favorite book is “To Kill A Mockingbird” … I’ve read it over a dozen times.
    
17. I try not to use the word "hate", but I have to say that I really hate being late for anything. As far as I'm concerned, if you're ten mintues early for something, that's being on time.
    
18. I’ve only owned five cars in my life (in order): metallic blue 1980 Pontiac Sunbird, black 1991 Nissan NX 1600, 2001 green Dodge Stratus coupe (man, I loved that car), a 2004 Subaru Impreza RS sedan, and my current car, a 2010 Subaru Impreza.
    
19. I graduated from Fitchburg State College in 1993 with a degree in Journalism and a double minor of Political Science and U.S. History. I had a GPA of 3.1.
    
20. My first job out of college was as a newspaper reporter for the Concord (MA) Journal.
    
21. I worked in the Public Affairs office of Brigham & Women’s Hospital and then at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
    
22. My two favorite expressions (and I use them all of the time) are: "Not for nothing, but ..." and "It'll look good from my house!"
    
23. To put myself through college, I was a chef at a restaurant.
    
24. All told, between high school, college and post-college (when I had to work two jobs to support myself), I was a chef for almost 16 years.
    
25. My favorite type of food is steak, followed closely by Italian cuisine.
    
26. I am a great cook and can make almost anything, but I’ve never tried making soup.
    
27. I used to own and wear a black leather motorcycle jacket. I thought I was cool. I was wrong.
    
28. I'm so not a fan of gore in movies. I like being scared as much as the next person, but I don't like being grossed out. And no, the sight of blood doesn't bother me. There's just no need to see people's entrails in movies.
    
29. I hate seafood. Lobsters look like giant cockroaches and I just can't see how anyone can eat them. Nasty .... just, nasty.
    
30. When it comes to creamy vs. super chunk, I'd have to go with super chunk.
    
31. I think the greatest condiment ever created is Frank's Red Hot sauce.
    
32. I like white wine and red wine (although red doesn’t like me as much … it’s the nitrates).
    
33. I’m a card-carrying member of Red Sox Nation and a hard-core fan of the New England Patriots.
    
34. I love watching baseball and football in HD.
    
35. I’ve known my best friend for 26 years and I’ve known he’s gay for 20 of those years.
    
36. I'm very good at figuring out who the actor is doing voice overs for commercials and movies. If I can't figure it out, it drives me nuts.
    
37. When I was a pre-teen, Star Wars was my life. I’m still a tremendous fan and have loads of collectibles in the attic to prove it.
    
38. I used to collect and read comic books, but can't really afford the 12+ titles I used to regularly read a month now that I'm an adult (sort of). If I could afford it, I'd still read them.
    
39. I don’t believe in god.
    
40. I absolutely bombed my SATs but was accepted to all five colleges to which I applied.
    
41. I’m an editor by profession but am one of the worst spellers you’ll ever meet.
    
42. I used to smoke cigarettes but quit after a few years. Nasty.
    
43. I love smoking a good cigar now and then, especially in the summer.
    
44. I used to speed, but since my son was born, not so much.
    
45. I could give up cigars and Jack Daniel’s in a heart beat … but never coffee … especially Starbucks.
    
46. I finally have all speeding tickets off of my record and am paying the lowest insurance rates available.
    
47. It doesn't bother me to chew on tin foil.
    
48. My favorite place to take a summer vacation is Martha's Vineyard, MA.
    
49. To me, driving in Boston is fun, not scary.
    
50. I absolutely abhor roller coasters.
    
51. Almost as much as roller coasters, I hate being in the water, like a pool, lake or ocean.
    
52. I can drive a manual transmission car (my Subaru is 5 on the floor).
    
53. I’m a registered Democrat.
    
54. I’m pro-choice.
    
55. I can’t cross my eyes.
    
56. For me, the "Big Three" was Larry, Kevin and The Chief.
    
57. I have little to no patience for people who cannot drive. The idiotic things people do on the road never ceases to amaze me.
    
58. I’m obsessed with getting achievements on Xbox 360 games.
    
59. I believe gay people have as much right to marry as straight couples do.
    
60. I’m not a fan of country music.
    
61. I love hard rock/heavy metal music … the harder, the better (if I can air guitar to it, I’m in!)
    
62. Sometimes I get the heebies and the geebies.
    
63. I played Little League baseball as a kid (short stop).
    
64. I'm a very sarcastic person.
    
65. I’m an amateur photographer … digital photography is great.
    
66. I once had a photo published in USA Today.
    
67. I had a hernia operation when I was 11 years old.
    
68. I’ve only ever broken one bone in my body … a bone in my left foot in karate class.
    
69. Speaking of which, I studied Kempo karate for a few years and was three belts away from black when I stopped (I had to get a job to make money and it left me with no time for anything else). I was even an instructor for a while.
    
70. My favorite number is 7.
    
71. I have a pair of "hospital green" scrub pants that are one of, if not the, most comfortable pieces of clothing I own. If I could, I'd wear them every day, all day.
    
72. My driver’s license says I’m 6 feet tall, but I’m more in the 5’ 11” and ½ to ¾ range.
    
73. I've never flown in a helicopter but would really like to some day.
    
74. I can see why women think Tom Brady is good looking ... not that there's anything wrong with that.
    
75. I can’t swim and have absolutely no desire to learn.
    
76. I can whistle … not well, but I can.
    
77. I've never skydived before and have absolutely no plans of ever doing so.
    
78. I’ve never traveled outside of the US.
    
79. I love gmail and wish I could have bought Google stock when it was first offered.
    
80. If I could vote again for Bill Clinton, I would.
    
81. The farthest west I’ve ever been was Anaheim, CA for my ex-brother-in-law’s wedding in 2005. Awesome time.
    
82. My blood type is O+ and I try to donate whenever I'm eligible (every eight weeks).
    
83. I've never been arrested and I've never been in the back of a police car. (Front of the car, yes, but not in the back).
    
84. Aside from Fenway Park, the only other MLB ballparks I’ve ever been to are Wrigley Field in Chicago and Angel Stadium of Anaheim.
    
85. I think George Dubbya did more harm to this country than any other president in our nation's history.
    
86. I don’t gamble, but I’ve been to Mohegan Sun just to see it … bizarre, but fun.
    
87. I have used a laser radar gun to clock people speeding on a highway.
    
88. In 1986, I was the only person I knew that had a CD player.
    
89. Mean people suck. I agree.
    
90. I don't care who beats the NY Yankees, the Indianapolis Colts or the NY Jets ... as long as they lose.
    
91. If I could, I would live in the Back Bay area of Boston.
    
92. My favorite Harry Potter book is the last one, “The Deathly Hallows”.
    
93. I listen to a tremendous amount of music, but if I had to pick one all-time favorite band, it would have to be Van Halen (David Lee Roth era).
    
94. I like Jazz and Classical music.
    
95. I have met John Glenn and actually declined to have my picture taken with him. I really regret that decision.
    
96. I listen to Howard Stern every morning on Sirius Satellite Radio.
    
97. Since I installed Sirius in my car in November, 2005, I haven’t listened to broadcast radio.
    
98. My all-time favorite TV show is The Sopranos.
    
99. I’m lactose intolerant.
    
100. My favorite ice cream flavor is Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.
     
101. I’ve never stolen something from a store.
     
102. My current favorite show is The Daily Show with Jon Stewart...brilliant!.
     
103. Best Buy is my favorite store.
     
104. I used to be on MySpace and Facebook but deleted my accounts because the whole thing just got too obnoxious.
     
105. For as much as I love playing first-person-shooter games on Xbox like Call of Duty, I really suck at them.
     
106. I’m anal retentive about a lot of things.
     
107. I love Eddie Bauer clothes.
     
108. My favorite sneakers are Under Armour.
     
109. I used to be painfully shy.
     
110. I have acid reflux disease and can’t eat roughage (iceberg lettuce and popcorn are the worst for me).
     
111. I love Gulden’s spicy brown mustard.
     
112. I think OJ is guilty.
     
113. Aside from medical procedures, I’ve only been unconscious once … when I was 12, I tripped at the top of a flight of stairs and landed on my chin on the concrete platform at the bottom of the stairs. I still have the scar underneath my chin.
     
114. I have a birthmark on my left bicep.
     
115. The most I’ve even bench pressed is 190 pounds.
     
116. If I could do it all over again, I’d get a degree in something that has to do with fixing/building things, like an electrician or construction.
     
117. My favorite adult cereal is Wheaties … kid’s cereal is Capt’n Crunch.
     
118. I never missed an episode of Pee Wee’s Playhouse on Saturday mornings.
     
119. I think Dane Cook is way overrated.
     
120. When I vote, I try not to vote party lines, but I just can’t bring myself to vote for a Republican given the GOP’s intolerant, ultra-Christian conservative platform.
     
121. I’ve never listened to an entire “book-on-tape”.
     
122. I’m not much of an amusement park person … they just don’t amuse me.
     
123. I’ve been to Disney World twice and Disney Land once.
     
124. Edward Hopper is my favorite American artist.
     
125. I think full-figured women are more attractive than thinner women.
     
126. I once cut off the tip of my left index finger. It grew back.
     
127. I can recite word-for-word many skits from Monty Python’s Flying Circus.