I hate to say it, but I have to agree.
I am so bored with the USA
Our gunplay has become so commonplace to the rest of the world. I hate to say it but none of my friends in other nations are even slightly surprised by this. One said, “It was inevitable that one, if not both, of your candidates would be fired at. I know you don’t own a gun, Kielty, but the world does think most of your country does.”
That came from a friend in Wales.
The world thinks this is how we work. It’s the wild west. Everyone is packing heat. An assassination attempt is not stunning. Quite frankly, it’s not even stunning in the United States. Tonight we play baseball.
So, let’s root, root, root!
I am so fucking pissed off that someone shooting at a Presidential candidate has not brought a single member of his party to ask if assault weapon legislation is not in order. Not one! Your guy was fucking shot at! By an assault rifle!
Anyway, there’s also America!
-Watching the MLB All-Star Game was something that baseball fans have universally embraced. The fact that players aren’t proudly wearing their day-to-day uniforms is it’s own stupidity, driven by marketing money. I loved keeping score of this game with my father. I don’t have children. If I did I’d chase them to bed and tell them, “You can stay up late when the millionaires play in the autumn!” Yet, I did find myself watching the introductions and thinking, “That’s quite an accomplishment. That dude is playing in the only All-Star Game in which they actually compete!”
-One of the favorite dishes I enjoy on the rare occasions that I eat out is Pad Thai. I have no suitable companions for this dish down here in South County, RI so I have have made it - with mixed results - at home. I do have a neighbor who is a chef and another friend back in Cambridge, also a chef, that told me, “Ghee and not rushing is the crucial part. It’s not that hard. Just don’t rush it.” I was once told that about sex (minus the ghee) but in both cases, ultimately true. Getting pointers is never a bad thing!
-So, apparently some young modern country singer flubbed the National Anthem last night. I use the term “modern” because country music to me is Johnny Cash and Ray Price and my friend, Wille Nelson. I have shared a good vibe twice on Willie’s bus and asked permission to call him a friend, he said, “Tommy, of course you’re my friend, you have been on board ‘The Red-Headed Stranger (his bus) twice!” I met Merle Haggard, an incredibly intimidating but ultimately kind presence (the old country guys are all actually sweethearts who appreciate that a younger generation listens to them) and I met Levon Helm, who was a sweet man from top to bottom, and I will say this: they’d have given that girl a swat on the bottom and told her, “Fuck ‘em, none of them have the balls to do what you just did.”
And, they’d have been absolutely right. So, critics, get over it. You’re criticizing someone for singing our song in front of a bigger audience than you have ever faced.
Willie actually always sings, “America, The Beautiful.” I asked him why and he smiled and said, “I think it’s a prettier song, and it’s easier to sing.”
-One thing I have never faced is the Ivory Billed Woodpecker. Sadly, an extinct specie but I did see a Pileated this morning. I heard the call, first time in South County, RI. A senior citizen looked at me and asked, “Did you hear that?
I told her that I thought maybe that I had. She grasped my shoulder - lack of contact lenses has diminished me with binoculars, among other outdoors tasks - and there he was. A beauty, working on an established nest in a bored out hole high in a tree.
We smiled and walked out of the woods together. We spoke of the recently reported to be extinct “Ivory Bill,” we’d read the same books about the searches in Mexico and Louisiana for that elusive beauty. We both hold hope something might not be gone forever.
Politics never came up once but she did point at my Paw-Sox hat when we parted ways and said, “I wish Devers was playing tonight, but we need him in the second half.”
I laughed so hard and she grinned and said, “We’ll see more birds, kid.'