Great Author Dies

I heard earlier this afternoon that the great writer John Updike has died. Updike is probably best well-known for his Rabbit series of books, which is a wonderful series of four books that follows former high school basketball star Harry Angstrom from his days as a young man trying to make it as a door to door salesman, all the way through to his death, some 30 years later.

The series offers a fascinating look into American history over the four decades. The first book, Rabbit Run was published in 1960, and the final one, Rabbit at Rest, in 1990. Updike does a great job capturing the values and culture of each decade. The first book is marked by a wild idealism, which characterized the 60s', the second book captures that giant hangover that was the 70s. The third book gets the extravegance the was the '80s, and the fourth book gets the bitter conservatism that was much of the '90s. The thing is, he wrote each book at the beginning of the decade. He had a true sense of what was going on.

Of course, I can't say anything else I ever read of his was all too memorable, but, the Rabbit series rocks. If you have some serious time to waste, I recommend checking it out.

Ralph

Inauguration

The Inauguration in HD with stereo was really cool. Barack is a great talker and he was followed by a couple good poets. The last guy actually used the line, "for the red man to get ahead man."

Good stuff.

Congrats to Steelers

For the second time in four years, the Stillers are headed to the Super Bowl, which is pretty impressive, especially considering my Buffalo Bills haven't even been to the playoffs in 10 years - since the halcyon days of Wade Phillips... Anyhow, this post is about the Stillers... I was watching the game with a lifelong Stiller fan friend of mine who made the comment, "I didn't expect it to be this ugly." I'm not sure what he was expecting but after seeing the Ravens and Stillers play a handful of times this year - including once against each other- I was certainly expecting ugly.

I love this comment blogger Adrew Perloff made in regards to the Ravens past two games(against the Stillers and Titans): "Everyone says they love watching smashmouth football. Really? All the head-hunting and injury timeouts made the Ravens' three-game postseason nunwatchable. By the end of the Titans and Steelers games, the trainers had spent as much time on the field as some of the players. There was no flow and very few memorable plays." (Here's a link to the rest of Perloff's excellent column.)

From my standpoint, here were the memorable plays:
1. Ray Lewis' excellent tackle that forced the Willie Parker fumble in the first half
2. The Stillers fourth-down stop that immediatley followed that fumble.
3. Holmes' great TD catch and run.
4. Sweed's drop
5. Polaumalu's interception

That's five memorable plays, not too bad. But, there sure were a lot of ugly-looking plays.

Anyhow, congrats to the 'Stillers. The game against 'Zona should be played in better weather in Tampa, so maybe we'll see some offense, or at least a few sacks of Warner.

Wii fun

Whatever anyone says about the Wii and how cool it is and how much fun... is likely right. I generally don't like video games, because you're pretty much just using your hands and eyes, but you can really get a good workout with the Wii. And it's very easy to do. Not a lot of buttons to learn and press. My son got one for his birthday with the sports package, and we've been having great fun with it. And, I'll admit I'm a little sore today.

Cheers.

Ralph

Newspaper Demise

No, this is not another post ripping on the Erie-Times... although, from what I've seen lately, the Times, like most other print newspapers is probably hurting. I think I read something a month ago about some layoff/early retirement packages being offered to a certain percentage of the staff. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I came across an article on the more general state of the newspaper industry, which detailed how much newspaper advertisting, in particular, classified advertising, was down, and how this was putting print papers across the country in jeopardy. The article did say, however, that smaller town papers were doing better than large metropolitan dailies.

Having worked for a few small town papers back in the day, I have always maintained an interest in the "community newspaper." Even back in the early '90s, we realized our main competition was national/international news outlets - and this was before the Internet. So, at the time, we countered by covering as much local as possible. After all, when I worked in Greenville, PA, papers were about the only source of local news, as the closest TV station was across the stateline in Youngstown... So, you can imagine my shock, when I happened to be passing through Greenville on Saturday, picked up a copy of the Record-Argus, and found the whole thing filled with AP articles. I mean the whole thing. Did they fire the editorial staff because it was too expensive? Were they all just on XMas vacation? I couldn't even find a name on the masthead to contact.

I have no idea what the purpose is of a rag filled with AP copy - maybe just a wrapper for some local advertising - but I was truly dismayed by this development. A piece of my past had suddenly disappeared. Unless I find out that issue was an anamoly, I can never again dream about going back to the simpler days of covering high school wrestling matches, or sitting in the sun enjoying a spring afternoon track meet, taking in the local gossip, and preparing my evening copy in my head....

I wonder if the people of Greenville feel the same way. Do they feel they've lost a piece of their identity? Yes, I'll admit (gulp) that the Sharon Herald did a pretty good job of covering Greenville even when I was there and maybe there was only room for one paper in Mercer County. But still, the Record-Argus is gone? Say it ain't so. My clips, two years of my life, headed for oblivion.

Anyway, we made it to the wrestling tournament we were taking my son to. I saw some people from my past newspaper work there, but didn't have the heart to approach any of them. We then had a wonderful lunch down the road in Sharon at the original (and best) Quaker Steak & Lube, and drove back to Erie. I must admit, however, that I feel like a small piece of me is missing...

Ralph

WSEE Thanks

As a lifelong Bills fan, I just want to thank the kind folks at WSEE for not showing today's game vs. the Patriots. I just listened to about 10 minutes on the radio-a drive that ended in a missed field goal, and was thankful I was heading into Starbucks to do some work.

Ralph

Hot NFL Action

What a day for football yesterday. I'll admit, when I heard the radio pundits (actually Red, Jim LeCorchick, and Mike Ruzzi broadcasting from the casino) talking about what a great day of NFL action it was going to be, I was questioning their credibility. After all, the Tennessee/Pittsburgh and Carolina/Giants games were only really playing for home field advantage and not for playoff spots, as all four teams had clinched. And the Bills, well...

But, what do you know, the Tennessee-'burghers game sucked me in and I went from there.

Although I generally root for the Stillers cuz I like their style of play, I was glad to see the Titans win yesterday, just because they have a running game. The four teams I mentioned have pretty much clinched the top four seeds in their conferences, and they all play good defense. But only three of them, the Stillers being the exception, have strong running games. This is unusual for a 'Burgher squad, but it's the unfortunate reality of this season. Big Ben had no more miracles to pull out of his ass and the 'Stillers went down. I'd say this bodes poorly for their chances in the playoffs.

The Giants, on the other hand, what a show last night. They rang up more than 300 yards rushing and totally steamrolled the Panthers in the second half after being down 21-10. It was a clinic in how you play late season football: wear the other boys out and then slam it down their throats. Good stuff. The Giants might have this late season football thing down. Madden kept saying how the Giants' coaches said they were going to get back to the run, no matter what the other team's defense did- even if they were keying on it and tempting the Giants to pass. Well, they did, and it certainly worked. Curious thing is that the Giants O-coordinator is Kevin Gilbride, who was always noted as a passing guru - and spent some time with Bledsoe in Buffalo. He was the guy Buddy Ryan once took a swing at when Ryan was coahing the Oilers defense way back when. Ryan accused Gibride of running a "chuck-'n-duck" offense that was putting too much pressure on Ryan's D. Now, Gibride's orchestrating a power running game? I guess it's never too late to learn.

As for the Bills, they won a wonderful game against the Broncos, who like the Bills started fast and have been an extreme disappointment since. Go Bills! Edwards looked marvelous yesterday, shades of the early season, after a rough start. If we can beat New England at home next week, and knock the Pats out of the playoffs, I think I'll be happy with the season.

Anyways, I went into yesterday with low expectations because I didn't think there was too much to play for in many of the top games. But, the NFL showed me that it's made up of true professionals that really know how to put on a show and take pride in their work.

January should be fun as usual.

Ralph

High Class Scams

Does anyone cover a high-class scam as well as Vanity Fair? This (or is it next) month's issue features Tina Fey on the cover - more droll Hollywood stuff - but buried on page 100 is this wonderful story of how this German immigrant cut a swath through the country posing as a high-class blueblood. His final scam, which he rode for several years and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars (plus he got a daughter of it) was posing as Clark Rockefeller, a relation to one of America's weathiest and most well-known families. Unforutnately for him, he is now in jail, but man, he really pulled it off for awhile. Vanity Fair should win some sort of award for its journalism on these types of stories. It really gets the dirt on the guy, but at the same time manages to glamorize him somewhat and lay fault on the people that willingly fell for his ruse... Plus, the last line (in the rather lengthy story) is really a zinger.

Cheers.

Ralph

What makes a great athlete?

This is an interesting article by some guy who thinks about these things from time to time. It questions whether Michael Phelps, who won seven swimming gold medals in the Olympics, is even close to being "the world's greatest athlete," as many have billed him. The article makes interesting points like:
a. Penn State's starting safety actually beat Phelps in races several times when they were young, but quit swimming to pursue football, because, well, football is football and swimming is, well, unless you're in the Olympics...
b. Lance Armstrong admits he sucks at football
c. Most swimmers admit to being like fish out of water in other sports
d. Aside from the gymnastics, swimming is like the only sport in which you have an opportunity to win eight medals...

None of this is to deny that Phelps is a great swimmer, but it gets down to the definition of athlete. Should a truly great athlete be able to accel in multiple sports or just be super great at one? I'm predisposed to the multiple-sport view, which is what I think helped Jim Thorpe gain such fame as the "world's greatest athlete" in the first half of the century-even though he had a pretty mediocre career as a major league baseball player.

Just some chowder to swish around in your head.

Ralph

Trainspotting-Dark Humor

I was looking for a good dark comedy to read over the recent holiday, and I came across a Yahoo! thread on this topic. After some investigation, part of which involved checking what was in stock at our library, I settled on Irving Welsh's Trainspotting. I had heard this is a good movie, and it was actually recommended by a friend of mine whose wife hails from Scotland, but I have never seen it. The book is a hoot, although it's written in phonetic Scottish dialogue, so it's like reading something written in another language. In some ways this adds to the enjoyment, as it really makes you feel like you're reading about something from a different land.

It takes place in the 1980s (I think that' s the timeframe) in Scotland. Coincidentally, this was also the time I was coming of age in Erie. And even though the lads in the book reside across the Atlantic, it seems they had a lot of the same goals my friends and I did. I mean, we weren't shootin' smack, but sex, drugs, drinking, partying, (not necessarily in that order) is what we were all about for a few years there. It's always good to find kindred spirits.

Here's a link to marvelous short (Trainspotting- Sunday Breakfast) from the book. It certainly reminded me (with some literary exaggeration) of something that might have happened to me back in the day.

Cheers.

Ralph

Whistleblower - lipstick on a pig

Talk about putting lipstick on a pig. Did you see the story in today's ETN about St. V's agreeing to pay $1.9 million to the federal government for what amounts to Medicare fraud. By no means am I saying what St. V's did was right. Apparently, from 2001-2003, Vincent was jacking up the prices of certain procedures so they'd fall under this "outlier" category and then getting Medicare to reimburse them. (More details are in the print version of the story than the online one I've linked to, unless it's been updated). So, St. V's was basically ripping off the federal government, although they won't admit to it. (The $1.9 million payout just to "put something behind them" - I'm paraphrasing, admits enough.)

It was action brought by New Jersey-based "independent hospital consultant" Anthony Kite that brought on the payment. In press coverage, Kite is classified as a whistleblower- yeah, right. I'll agree, he blew the whistle on St. Vincent's and about eight other hospitals performing similar fraud, but Kite wasn't even employed by St. Vincent. No, Mr. Kite could be more accurately described as an extortionist.

First of all, Kite is from New Jersey, so that should tell you something (and I felt this way about NJ people long before the Sopranos made it fashionable). Second, when I Googled his name, I didn't find any listing for a hospital consulting business. I did find several stories about extortion schemes similar to the one he pulled on Vincent, including some published by his apparent employer - the law firm of Phillips and Cohen.

Here's how it works: Kite is the front man, who likely has connections and knows how to discover which hospitals have been pulling this scam on Medicare (lots of scamming going on here). So, he threatens to sue and expose the hospital, which settles with Phillips and Cohen, which pulls a nice commission from the deal. The rest goes to the federal government, and everybody is happy, except for the taxpayers, who have overpaid this hospital first and are now contributing to the ever-accumulating wealth of this law firm. Then again, if it wasn't for the meddling law firm (shades of Scooby Doo here. "They would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for.....'), the federal government probably would have recouped nothing. So, I guess we can give them some due, but to call Kite a "whistleblower" is to put him in the same class with people who have taken serious personal risks and in some cases paid a hefty price to expose wrongdoings.

Maybe "extortionist"' is too strong of a term. Let's just call him a mercenary and leave it at that.

Ralph

Prep Guidance Department Takes Hit

A know that SI columnist Peter King meant well in yesterday's MMQB column, when we awarded Bob Sanders the "Good Guy of the Week." However, he seems to slam Prep's guidance department with his comments about Sanders not even knowing what the SAT was. I went to Prep, albeit a few years before Sanders, and while the guidance department wasn't world class, it did take an interest in students' futures. I don't know if there were budget cuts in the years after I left, but I fiind it hard to believe that no one tried to help a talented guy like Sanders lay out his future plans.



Anyhow, congrats to Sanders for starting his Chasing Dreams foundation. Sounds like a good thing. I just feel bad for Prep's guidance dept, as King makes it sound like they were sleeping on the job.



Ralph

Last week for Zoo

Just as a heads up, the Erie Zoo closes for the season after this coming Sunday, Nov. 30. According to the Web site, it's open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day until then. I don't know if this includes T-Giving, but it doesn't say it doesn't.

Now, granted, a lot of the animals are away for the winter. But the orangutans are still up and about and worth the visit. I don't know how long Layla, pictured above, will be with us over there, as word has it, her father is starting to make advances on her and they may have to move her. I recently did see a wrestling match between the two of them that definitely raised my eyebrows.

Those of you who have seen the orangutan family know what I'm talking about when I say how entertaining they can be. They are very active and definitely respond to visitors. Leyla climbs all over the place and puts on quite a show playing with her blanket. The mother will swing from the ceiling and threw a couple punches at my youngest son yesterday. And Joseph, the father, he's a big lug who will put his lips up to the glass and try and kiss you. Really good stuff to watch, especially for the kids who get a chance to interact (closeup, especially this time of year when there is barely anyone else around) with some really intelligent and fascinating animals.

Ralph

Maybe not...

Maybe I was being a bit too easy on ole' Judge Joyce. Perhaps he did strong arm Erie Insurance into forking over the cash....

Joyce Innocent

No, this isn't a scoop.

I have no insights into how the jury is voting, but the more I think about it, I don't see how they can justly convict this guy. Did he take over $400,000 from Erie Insurance based on trumped up claims? Almost certainly. Did Erie Insurance care? No. So, how is this a crime? Who is the victim? Granted, you could probably look at this as some type of bribery, but that's not what Joyce is charged with. And if it is bribery, Erie Insurance should be charged too.

I think someone from Erie Insurance testified to the effect that they wanted to settle with Joyce quickly because of his track record ruling in favor of insurance companies. Now, $400,000-plus seems like a pretty expensive settlement for this reason. I mean what kind of cases was Joyce hearing that involved Erie Insurance? And how often did these cases occur that Erie Insurance couldn't wait the time it would have taken to follow-up on Joyce's claim with more care.

Certainly, something sounds fishy, but is this sort of deal illegal? To me, it sounds like Erie Insurance felt it was making a business investment, much like lobbyists invest in our governmental representatives.

When Joyce is found innocent, the question I'd like to see answered is "how did this thing get brought to trial?" In other words, "who's responsible?" And when we figure that out, the responsible party should be made to reimburse the taxpayers for the court costs. The same holds true for the Fillippi trial, which was also seemed a bit frivilous for my taste.

Of course, that all said, both trials have been highly entertaining to follow. Maybe, there's some value to taxpayers in a bread and circuses sort of way.

Ralph

Wide Right

The horror. The horror.

Can you imagine? It certainly reminded me eerily of Super Bowl XXV. During that game, I knew the kick was too long. Just like tonight. Couldn't we have thrown it one more time? Tried to get just 10 yards closer. A 45-yard kick into the wind in Buffalo is no gimme. We ran it three times up the middle and settled for the long kick. I remember feeling the same way at the end of Super Bowl XXV. I thought, if we could just get it a little closer, I'd feel better about the kick.

But in both cases, it was not to be. Same result. Painfully close, but wide right. And now, we will miss the playoffs again.

At least the game was entertaining. I'd like to say, congrats to Cleveland, you played a good game. But, we kind of gave that one to ya'. Merry Christmas I guess.

Cheers.

Ralph

Cringely leaving PBS

It seems one of my favorite columnists is wrapping things up at PBS.com at the end of the year. If you've never read his work before, do yourself a favor and read this week's post. He's truly an original with unparalleled insights into and contacts in the high-tech industry. He jokes (I think) that Barak Obama should consider him for the position of CTO for the federal government. Then again, with Bill James holding a front office position with the Red Sox, I guess anything is possible.

Joyce Trial

This trial of the former Judge Joyce is truly a classic. You've got all sorts of high-drama elements coming together:

• a high-profile former district judge, who was also known as a man about town
• a spurned ex-girlfriend with a vendetta
• an insurance company that admittedly paid him off quickly so as not to lose access to his mostly favorable rulings
• is Greg Rubino involved in this as well?

Anyhow, things are coming to ahead, and based on today's article in the paper, if I as on the jury, I think Mike Joyce would be cooked. Here's the testimony I found most damning: (It comes from Dr. William Welch, the chief neurosurgeon at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, who was testifying for the prosecution.)

From the Times article:

"Joyce’s activities, especially the long hours he spent piloting a personal
plane, do not support Joyce’s claim to the insurers that he suffered
life-changing pain and cognitive problems after the crash, he said. Joyce’s
'actions suggest this is not a highly disabled person,' Welch said.

Joyce’s multiple flights in 2002, the 95 score he received on his pilot’s
test and his clean Federal Aviation Administration physical all indicate he was
'highly functioning,' Welch said. 'If you are saying you are having arm
weakness, numbness, and shaking, you would have trouble operating the controls.
Anyone having significant neurological difficulties would not pilot anything. It
is unconscionable.'"

That makes sense. Really, if someone was as worried as Joyce says he was about physical problems, and stuff, like his back, suddenly stopping working, what the hell was he doing flying a plane? It makes no sense. Of course, maybe he's just psychotic, which I guess in itself isn't criminal...

Oh well, there was a lot more evidence presented than what I have just written, but, based on that alone, I'd say something is fishy.

Ralph

Weekend-Monday update

Well, we got our first snow of the season. The rest of the week looks a little questionable, with more snow perhaps next week. Could we possibly be in for a big snowy winter?

Looks like it will at least be pretty nasty for the Prep-Vincent rematch on Saturday. I've seen the Ramblers play twice this year, and, from my perspective, they got killed both times, vs. Vincent and McDowell. I sure hope they have some sort of a different game plan for this one. Prep seems to do pretty well in the games I haven't gone to, so maybe I should stay home.

Prep runs this spread offense and they do have a new quarterback from the one they had in the beginning of the year. As the QB is definitely the key to this type of offense, perhaps they really have turned a page, but I'm not overly confident. Vincent has been really, really solid all year.

On a professional football note, the Bills have really shit the bed after their fast start. I've had a link to this guy's page for a couple years now. He is absolutely brutal on the Bills, and it turns out justifiably so. Basically, he's insisted that for the past four years - at least, any winning they have done is through smoke and mirrors and that they just don't block, tackle, and execute well enough to win consistently in the NFL. Maybe if Mr. Phillips would spend a little more time on his day job with Cowboys and less time writing under his alias, his team in Dallas would have more success. Seriously, when Wade was in Buffalo, the Bills sure could tackle and hit you at least. I don't know what's happend to his D in Dallas.

Oh well, that's about it. All sorts of fun on several fronts here.

Ralph

Gotta Love Denny Green

Was listening to the Browns-Broncos game last night. Former Vikings (and regrettably Cardinals) head coach Denny Green was doing the color commentary. To give you an idea of what he sounds like, I thought it was Jerry Glanville. Anyhow, he made this call, "the Broncos still need a whole half-yard for the first down."

Oh yes, another great episode of Life on Mars. I absolutely think this is the best network TV show ever made through five episodes. Unforuntely, I haven't found anyone else who shares my opinion. Are you out there?

Ralph