2,000 mockingbirds: two kilomockingbirds

My mom's having shoulder replacement surgery tomorrow morning but it's her non-throwing arm so the front office isn't worried about any longterm effects. She'll begin rehab in about a week and should be on the DL for 6-8 weeks. Back in plenty of time for the playoffs.

The Lakers are in trouble. A thug by any other name is still going to do a number on an opponent and his own team. And his timing couldn't be worse.

I spent ten minutes on hold with United Airlines this morning. I now HATE Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. It's like eating oysters after you've had a really bad case of tainted-oyster-induced food poisoning. It's forever in your head, and it's an experience you don't want to repeat. Perhaps the worst part - the $25 charge I wanted reversed, the charge that shows on their paperwork Pam printed out - wasn't really charged to us at all. "Yes, that was waived by the booking agent. It shouldn't appear on that form."

In H.S. metal shop I took the skin off one knuckle by getting it too close to a wire wheel on a grinder. When I went to the shop teacher for a bandaid he said, "That's gonna hurt in a bit." He was right.
I can now tell you that if a wire wheel is attached to a drill and the contact is with your forearm... that also hurts.

Each day I read a few pages in "Thus Spake David E.," a collections of the columns the late David E. Davis wrote during his years at two of the big car magazines. It's the kind of book you can pick up, read two or three of the columns, set down, and pick up again later without forgetting plot lines or characters.
This morning's reading included this paragraph, dated February, 1993:
"We have a new president who drives a 1966 Mustang, smokes very large cigars, and is widely rumored to chase women. This is not a bad prescription for winning the hearts ond minds of us disaffected Americans. I share his love affair with old cars and long cigars, and I guess if I were married to Missus Clinton, I'd chase women, too."
So I guess not all of us were surprised. Did you know?

Which shows how, despite their current rep for digging up the dirt, the press still keeps some things largely under wraps. The public never knew Roosevelt was nearly crippled because the photogs never took a picture of him in his wheelchair. If David E. Davis knew Clinton was a womanizer we have to assume the national press did, too. Why didn't we? (Or did you?)

You can make the case that it was none of our business, and that's why the press didn't report that part of his reputation. But it obviously turned out to be very significant and, rightly or wrongly, occupied a great deal of political energy that could have been better spent on other things.

Which makes me wonder about both of our current candidates for that office. Mr. Romney is presented as a good Mormon who loves his wife and kids, and whose sole indiscretion in life seems to have been strapping Fido's crate - with Fido inside - to the roof of the family station wagon for trips to the nearby Piggly Wiggly. If he gets elected will I read in Car & Driver that it's widely reported he relaxes by pulling the legs off of spiders? Or that President Obama ....

There's a gaping hole in the front of the Rambler's engine compartment. Today I removed the radiator, the fan, and the AC compressor, along with all the associated hoses and belts. Everything, including the inside of the fenders, was caked with 46 years of black gunk. It's now all as clean as I can get it without a pressure washer. Next I'll begin spray painting some of the pieces and putting it all back together, but with new hoses. (The belts look good.) I'll also replace the distributor cap, spark plug wires, and coil, which have the same coating of greasy crud. They're relatively inexpensive, and replacing them is a good idea anyway. I'll also pull, clean and paint the valve cover and replace that gasket so I don't have more oil leaking out. Clean and paint the air cleaner, too. By the time I'm done she should run well and look presentable.

She needs a name. I'm working on it, but suggestions are hereby solicited.