A Magic Christmas

This Christmas, Ruth and I ( and of course our kids ( Ruth's Dad came along too)  ) traveled to Las Vegas to meet up with her sister's family ( Debby, her husband Orion, and their 2-year old son Owen ).  Most of you are already aware of this due to my facebook posts ( on both my account and Ruth's account ), but I've decided to create a photo essay ( and send it out via email ) to share our experience with our relatives who don't spend a lot of time on facebook.

With a few exceptions, I won't post too many photos of the landmarks on The Strip ( you all know what they look like ).  Instead, I'll focus on what made this trip magical.

The photo above is one of the exceptions to the "no photos of landmarks" rule.  I took if from the balcony of our hotel suite ( on  34th floor ) on the first night of our visit ( Dec 22nd ).  It's blurry because I tool it with my iPhone ( I still can't figure out how to touch the screen to take a photo while keeping the phone steady ), but I was still really happy with the result.

Dec 23rd was the first full day of our stay.  We all woke up between 5 and 6 AM Vegas time  ( Our family and Ruth's Dad were still on east coast time and Debby's family has a 2-year-old ), and had a leisurely breakfast in the hotel suite ( Ruth, Debby, and Orion had shopped for groceries the night before ) , before heading down to The Strip at about 9 AM.  We did some souvenir shopping to kill time while Ruth waited on line at a discount ticket booth ( more on that later ). While we were waiting/shopping, Owen saw a man dressed in woman's clothing.  I wasn't there to see his reaction, but I was told he said "That lady man is scary".

We did a quick visit of "New York, New York" ( We were at the MGM Signature Towers. The Signature is attached to the MGM Grand, which is across the street from "New York, New York". ), and eventually worked out way south down The Strip until we reached Mandalay Bay.  The main non-gambling attraction ( The only person who gambled on this trip was Ruth's Dad ) at Mandalay Bay is an aquarium.  It was quite impressive, but it didn't have a lot of stuff that I hadn't seem someplace else before.   However, the jellyfish tank may have been worth the price of admission.

There wasn't too much excitement during the day, but thanks to Ruth, we had plans for the evening.  Ruth had gotten discount tickets ( $51 dollars per ticket for mid-tier tickets ) to see the magician Jan Rouven at The Riviera.  If you find yourself in Vegas and want to see a magic show, I highly recommend that you go see Jan.  I'll admit that we haven't seen Angel's or Copperfield's show, but I can't imagine how their illusions could be any more impression than the ones Jan performed that night ( We did see Penn & Teller later in the trip.  They are incredible showmen and are worth every penny you might spend to see them, but they have nothing on Jan when it comes to magic. ).

One of the great things about Jan's show is you can get tremendous seats at a reasonable price ( from the discount ticket booths on the strip ), especially if you are willing to show up early.  With the exception of a few tables and booths in the first tier seating, there are no assigned seats, so if you get on line early, you'll get seated in the best seats in your tier.  We showed up at 5:45 for a 7 PM show and got seated in the middle of the first row in the 2nd tier of seats.  These seats were fantastic.  They were only about 25 feet from the stage, and because the 2nd tier of seats is on ground about 4 feet higher than the 1st tier of seats, there was not a chance that a tall person sitting in front of us could block the boy's view of the stage.  I'm sure we would have had to pay at least twice as much to get this close Angel or Copperfield.

The boys really enjoyed the show ( This might be a good time to mention that one of the reasons magic shows were on the agenda is that Peter loves magic.  He's been telling us for years that he wants to be a magician when he grows up. ), and after the show Jan did a picture/autograph session with everyone willing to wait their turn.  Here are the boys with Jan below:

The next day was the most amazing day of the trip.  We started with a trip to "Paris", and went to the top of the half-scale Eiffel Tower.  Ruth and I had done this before at night back in 1999, but the boys were eager to see the view from the top.  You definitely get a prettier view at night, but I think the boys still got a big kick out of the experience.

I didn't take the photos below until 2 days later, but this seems like the most appropriate spot in the photo essay to show them.  I'm sure you've seen plenty of photos of both the real and fake Eiffel Tower, but you probably have not seen too many photos of the Tower with a halo on the top.  As we walked across the street from the Tower on Dec 26th, I happened to notice that the Sun was directly behind the top of the Tower, and snapped the shots below.

Note that what you are seeing in the photos above isn't actually the Sun, but rather the bright sky around the sun ( the top of the Tower is blocking the Sun ).

After coming down from the Tower, we headed over The Bellagio with Ruth's Dad to meet Debby/Orion/Owen.  During the Christmas season, The Bellagio has a beautiful Christmas display in a large atrium.  I don't want to bore you with a bunch of photos, the shot below should give you a flavor of it.

After meeting in the Bellagio lobby, we headed over to the buffet to have a fantastic brunch ( There's one thing I noticed at the Vegas buffets last week which I had never seen at a buffet before.  They all seem to cut the crab legs in half length-wise.  Never before have I eaten that many crab legs with that little effort.  I'm hoping this becomes a trend at other buffets near my home, but if it does, I might soon weigh 300 pounds ( and about 130 of it will be crab meat. ) ).

After the buffet, we checked out the fake canals of "Venice" and eventually headed over to The Mirage.  After debating a bit, Ruth and I decided to take the kids to Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat.  Back when we visited Vegas back in 1999, Ruth and I thought the Secret Garden was one of the best parts of the trip.  I don't think we had ever seen dolphins that close-up before ( there was an underwater viewing area and the dolphins would swim up to the glass quite frequently ), and the tour came with an audio track in which Siegfried & Roy explained the history of all the large cats.  The ticket prices had doubled since 1999, but we figured it would still be worth the price if it was as good as it was back in 1999.  In short, it was nowhere near as good as 1999 ( no audio track, no way to view the dolphins underwater anymore, and only half as many large cats ), but we were really glad we decided to go.

After watching the dolphins for a while, Ruth started talking to one of the guides/trainers/keepers ( not sure what to call him - basically one of the people who was explaining the behaviors of the dolphins ) and asked him if trainers would be interacting with the dolphins soon.  He told us there would be some interaction in about 10 minutes.  Ruth and I seriously considered just waiting around for 10 minutes ( I was in favor of just waiting around, but thankfully Ruth convinced me otherwise ), but instead we decided to look at the big cats for a few minutes.  As we approached one corner of the "Secret Garden", Ruth grabbed my arm and said "Is that who I think it is?".  I couldn't believe my eyes at first either, but sure enough, it was Siegfried.  Sure, we got to hear an audio track of Siegfried back in 1999, but now the genuine article was just standing there a few feet from us.

As far as I could tell, Siegfried was not a part of the official tour.  There wasn't a line of people waiting to meet him, and I doubt very much he would want to spend his time taking photographs with tourists all day long ( and unless he is the worst investor of all time, he couldn't possibly need the money. ).  He was just standing there taking to one couple, and there was nobody else gathered around him.  I don't know why he was there, but I can only guess that now that his career is over and the bright lights have dimmed, he probably enjoys meeting his fans for a few minutes every once in a while ( We checked again about 30 minutes later, and he was nowhere to be found in the Secret Garden. ).  Making a few fans smile probably brightens his day as much as it makes the day of his fans.

In any case, after he was done talking to the other couple we walked over and introduced ourselves and the boys.  One of the first things has asked me after the introductions was "Are you German?".  I guess German folks are really tight.  Jan Rouven is German and he knows Siegfried & Roy well enough that they gave him one of their tricks, along with the original equipment ( Jan mentioned this during his show, and Siegfried confirmed this when we talked to him. ).

After Ruth took the picture below ...

... I told Siegfried that Peter wants to be a magician when he grows up.  Siegfried then talked to Peter a bit more and did the following ...



This is the "magic coin" Siegfried used in the trick ( and gave to Peter afterwards ).

After that, we headed back to our hotel suite for a while, where we learned that Ruth's Dad had hit a $1400 jackpot earlier in the day.  After the boys got their dose of video games, and we posted Siegfried stuff to facebook, we headed out to watch Penn & Teller.

Before heading over to The Rio to watch the show, we stopped at The Bellagio to watch the fountains.

I think the ideal place to watch the fountains is from the sidewalk adjacent to the street ( and facing The Bellagio ).  We didn't get there early enough to get one of those prime viewing spots, but it was kinda nice to watch the fountains with the fake Eiffel Tower in the background.

It took a while to weave through the crowd after the fountain show, but eventually we got ourselves to The Rio, where we had dinner prior to the show.  We were all hoping the Penn & Teller show would be the highlight of our trip ( Ruth and I had seen a Penn & Teller show on Long Island about 20 years earlier ).  We had wanted to see at least one magic show while we we in Vegas and we had bought the Penn & Teller tickets almost immediately after we had arranged for the plane trip and the hotel.  When looking over the available seats online, we had noticed a block of 4 seats that were right next to the aisle in the 2nd and 3rd rows ( 2 seats in the 2nd row, and 2 right behind them in the 3rd row, with an aisle directly to the right of the seats.  All the other available seats were at least 20 rows from the stage. ).  We snagged the seats immediately, knowing that we might never have a chance to be this close to the stage in a magic show again.

We settled into our seats ( with Michael and Peter sitting in front of us ), and got ready to enjoy the show.  The show was everything we expected and more, with the "more" happening about halfway through the show.

Penn & Teller have a few acts which require a volunteer from the audience, and as Penn started to introduce and an act based on TSA security, Teller walked into the aisle next to us and offered his hand to Michael.  The next thing you you know Michael was up on stage while Ruth giggled and said stuff like "Oh my Goodness!".

It would be wrong to say the Michael stole the show, but he certainly enhanced everyone's experience that night.  The simplest way I can put it is that Michael was being Michael, except that we was doing it in front of 1500 people.  Michael is one of the least self-conscious kids you're ever going to meet ( Just the opposite of Peter.  Peter was actually sitting in the aisle seat, but Teller choose Michael instead of Peter because Peter probably looked terrified while Michael almost certainly looked eager to go on stage. ).

As soon as Michael got up there he started fidgeting as he's prone to do ( Thanks goodness he didn't stick his finger in his nose or his hand in his pants! ).  He looked around with his eyes as big as saucers and was making all sorts of crazy facial expressions as Penn spoke.  Michael was wearing a hooded sweat-jacket, which  he took off soon after arriving on stage.  While he was fidgeting and looking around ( and audience was giggling at each little fidget ) he put the sweat-jacket back on inside-out.  The audience reacted with hearty laughter when Michael did this and then exploded with laughter when Penn responded by taking off his suit jacket and putting it back on inside-out.

Soon after that Penn handed Michael a TSA wand ( one of the hand-held metal detectors that TSA uses at airports ).  He asked Michael to swipe the wand over his suit jacket, and when it beeped he pull a credit-card sized piece of metal out of the inside pocket of his jacket ( which was actually on the outside at that point ).  Penn explained it was a metal version of the Bill of Rights.  He told the audience that he always has a metal Bill of Rights with him when he goes through airport security and that when it sets off the metal detectors he pulls it out and shows the TSA agent the 4th Amendment ( The 4th Amendment prohibits "unreasonable searches and seizures".  In case you were not aware, Penn & Teller are big time Libertarians, and after magic, Libertarianism was the biggest theme of the show ( there was also an act with a flag-burning theme )).

While Penn was talking about the TSA and the 4th amendment and Teller was pulling huge items out of his jacket ( First a big metal dish with something on fire on top of it, then a huge fire extinguisher, and finally a large shovel.  He eventually made a women appear out of thin air underneath a walk-through metal detector.  BTW, Michael told us he couldn't tell how Teller managed to do all this, even though he probably had a better angle than anyone. ), Michael kept fidgeting and waving the metal detector.  He kept waving it over metal things ( like the zipper on his jacket and metal Bill of Rights Penn gave him ) to make it beep, so much so that you could hear several obtrusive beeps during Penn's speech.  Michael swung the wand like a baseball bat once, and at one point started waving it over his own private parts ( Penn: "That's not made of metal Michael, and you should be glad that it isn't." ).

After the show, Penn & Teller each signed the metal Bill of Rights they used in the act with Michael.

They also took pictures ...

... and signed autographs.



Yes, you heard that right - we got to hear Teller speak!  In the video above, he was signing a photo of Penn & Teller and drew and arrow pointing to himself to help the boys remember which one he was.

Penn & Teller signed autographs and and took pictures with anyone who was willing to wait after the show.  When Teller signed the Bill or Right for me, he told me, "I didn't write it, but I wish that I had."  When we spoke with Penn he told us, "I still don't understand what was going on with the sweat-jacket." ( Unfortunately, we don't have that on video. ).

After that night, the rest of our vacation was gravy.  We enjoyed the next 2 days ( plus Friday morning ), but there really isn't anything else exciting to report.

Considering the boys were there with their cousin Owen, and Owen had both sunglasses and a baby doll, we attempted to replicate the poster from "The Hangover".

We made little sunglasses for the baby doll and put my glasses on Michael ( I regret that I didn't give him a towel to hold - I'm getting so blind that even with my reading glasses on, I didn't notice the towel when I looked at the photo of the poster on my phone ).  I would have liked for them to be closer together ( and for Owen to stand while the boys kneeled ), but it is never easy to get a 2-year-old to pose the way you want ( and I didn't want to be an overbearing "director" of the photo ), so the photo below was the best we could do.

In any case, Ruth says she'll be doing some Photoshop post-production in order to improve it.

The Hangover shot was appropriate, because it really is like a buddy movie with those three.  Owen loves having his older cousins around.  When we visited Debby's family in California in August, Owen followed the boys around for the entire vacation.  He wanted to do whatever they were doing.  At one point, he insisted on having the hood of his sweatshirt over his head because the boys were walking around with their hoods on.  Owen was fighting Debby and Orion when they tried to brush his teeth until we sent Michael into the bathroom to brush in front of Owen.  After that, Owen was happy to have his teeth brushed.  After we left California, Owen kept asking "Where Michael go?  Where Peter go?".  So, Owen was very happy to see his cousins when we met in the hotel lobby to check into the hotel.  Unfortunately, he got upset any time he was separated from them, so there were times when our family and Debby's family were forced to stay together, even when we each felt like doing our own thing.  Still, I've got no complaints, because it was so sweet to see how happy they were together.

We left Vegas at 2:45 PM on Friday Dec 27th, and drove back home from Philly ( There were better flight options in Philly than at Newark, so it made sense to drive to Philly for our flight. ).  We landed at about 10:15 PM local time, but due to a series of mishaps ( flat tire on the mobile walkway that was supposed to get us from the plane to the terminal; luggage was on a completely different carousel than the one linked to our flight number on all the video screens; there were signs leading to every parking garage except the one we were parked in; the parking garage couldn't read my ticket ) we didn't get home until 1 AM on Saturday.  Thus, our Christmas morning took place at 1:30 AM on December 28th.

A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Rich

The Stadium Scam

I know I'm not the first person the write about this, but I might just be the most pissed off.  Yesterday, it was announced that the Atlanta Braves were going to leave Turner Field and start playing in a new publicly financed stadium starting in 2017.

Turner Field opened in 1997.

I have plenty of T-shirts older than Turner Field.
I have at least a few pairs of socks older than Turner Field.
Hell, I'm a little ashamed to admit this, but I bet I even have some underwear older than Turner Field.

Turner Field was a perfectly good stadium.  I don't really blame the Braves for taking the public financing ( $300 million ) to build a new ballpark, but I'm disgusted by the politicians in Cobb County Georgia who decided that spending $300 million to help billionaires build a stadium would be a good use of public money.  Cobb County is a Republican stronghold ( Cobb County gave a higher percentage of their votes to Romney than the rest of Georgia ), and during these times when Republicans are trying to cut food stamps, it is disheartening to know that almost half the country supports a political party that promotes this kind of corporate welfare.

Now, Cobb County is a relatively affluent suburban county of almost 700,000 people.  Perhaps $300 million for a stadium is a luxury they can afford.  Perhaps they are awash in cash and and have no other productive way to spend all their money.

Perhaps not.

As you can see from the link above, the Cobb County school system is experiencing budgets cuts and is laying off teachers.

Let me repeat that again: Cobb County decided to spend $300 million dollars on a baseball stadium while they lay off teachers.  Of course they're laying off teachers.  If there's one thing every Republican politician knows ( I'm looking at you Chris Christie! ), it's that there isn't a budget problem that can't be solved by giving more money to rich people while laying off greedy teachers.

As bad as this looks, it's worse than it looks.

The reason the Braves ( and every other professional sports team ) want a new stadium can be summed up in two words: Luxury Boxes

The Braves want to build a stadium with plenty of luxury boxes.  They want to charge ridiculously high prices to use these boxes, prices that no sane person would pay, unless ...

- the "person" is a corporation ( "Corporations are people, my friend." ).

- the "person" can write off the cost of the luxury box as a business expense.

So, not only is corporate welfare being used to finance this stadium, the stadium itself will be a corporate welfare machine that will use public money ( in the form of tax breaks ) to subsidize the price of tickets for the wealthy.

All of this is nothing new, but this Braves stadium deal is more egregious than most, and it's getting a lot more attention than these stories usually do.  Part of me hopes that this will be somewhat of an emperor-has-no-clothes momenr for the publicly-financed stadium movement.  I'm hoping that some people will finally realize that it is not a good idea to re-elect the politicians who make these kind of deals.

Of course, I'm probably giving voters too much credit, but if we can find some politicians who can make effective arguments against corporate welfare, perhaps we can make some progress as a society.

Anyway, I not even sure what to say anymore.  The only thing in my head right now is ...

Warren 2016!

Seriously, Warren 2016!

Rich

October Pet Peeves

A few randoms thoughts this Halloween ....

I love "The Walking Dead", but something about it bothered me recently.  I came to the realization that very few people wear glasses in the world of "The Walking Dead".  When I say "very few", I don't mean very few relative to the real world, I mean very few relative to the world of the Zombie Apocalypse.  In the real world, the percentage of people who wear glasses is much lower than the percentage of people with impaired vision, because lots of people wear contacts lenses.  However, in the world of the Zombie Apocalypse, contacts lenses would be hard to come by.  Most people who wear contacts lenses have at most a year's supply of disposable lenses in their home.  So, even if you had the wherewithal to gather up all your contacts lenses and cleaning fluid as you fled from the zombies, your supply wouldn't last much longer than year.  Eventually, you would have to switch to your glasses, assuming you had a pair and were lucky enough to survive the Apocalypse without this happening.

"The Walking Dead" is in its 4th season, and judging by the number of glasses you see, it's doesn't seem like the contact lens wearers have switch to their glasses.  How have these supplies of contacts lasted more than 3 years?  How come we don't find people staggering around half-blind because their contacts ran out and they don't have a pair of glasses handy?  Do all the people in the Zombie Apocalypse have 20/20 vision?  What's up with that?

Dead people getting up and walking around, however?

I'm down with that.

My other October pet peeve is a baseball pet peeve that I was reminded of during game 3 of the World Series ( see my tweets from October 27th ).

I was planning to write more, but work just called me and it's 10:10 on the last day of the month.  I'm going to need to post this now to get my October post up in time.

Rich

Time for Barry to Step Up

The 2 greatest accomplishments of Barack Obama's presidency:

1) He's not John McCain.

2) He's not Mitt Romney.

Seriously, as a Liberal I've been tremendously disappointed by his presidency.  He's great at getting elected ( In all seriousness, I'm very grateful that Obama's a great politician.  Just imagine if another Alito and Scalia had been appointed to the Supreme Court rather than Sotamayor and Kagan. ), but he's been a terrible advocate for Liberal principals over the last 5 years, and perhaps an even worse de-facto leader of the Democratic party ( The best example of this was the run-up to the 2010 mid-terms, when he refused to use the bully pulpit to help out Democrats in Congress.  He should have made the argument that Republicans in Congress were standing in the way of his plan to let the Bush tax cuts expire for those making over $250,000 ( Actually, it was more than just a plan, it was a 2008 campaign promise. ).  He should have pointed out that the Bush tax cuts could expire for everyone unless Republicans in Congress voted for his plan.  His should have made it clear to all voters that Republican's in Congress were willing to let all American's tax rates go up for sake of protecting tax cuts for the richest Americans.  This would not have been a hard argument to make.  All he would have needed do is execute a few of the simplest plays in the populist Democrat's playbook.  However, he was unwilling to make that argument.  In my opinion, he wasn't willing to spend any of his political capital prior to the 2012 election cycle.  He hung his fellow Democrats out to dry.  Not only that, but I really believe that .... well maybe it's not right for me to say what I want to say.  Maybe I shouldn't commit the most common sin that political bloggers make.  Maybe I shouldn't accuse a politician of having less that noble intentions without any evidence to back up my claim.  Oh hell, what I worrying about?  There's no such thing as a noble politician.  I've written this before, but it bears repeating: There's a word for a politician who has integrity and always tells the truth, and that word is "loser".  I don't think a politician with integrity could ever make it as far as the White House, so I'm just going to accuse Obama of what I want to accuse his of, even if I don't have any evidence.  And hey, if that makes me a crappy political blogger, well I don't think I've ever claimed to be anything other than a crappy political blogger ( I'm not even sure if I am a political blogger.  Hell, I've blogged about boots. ).  Anyway, in an attempt to bring this huge tangent to a close, let me just say that I think President Obama wanted the Democrats to lose control of Congress in 2010.  Obama's many things, but he's certainly not stupid, and he must have known that running against a polarizing Republican House of Representatives would have worked to his benefit ( as it certainly did ) in 2012. ).

I can kinda forgive him for the way he governed during his first term, because he did have to worry about getting re-elected, and being a liberal Democrat probably isn't the best way to win a national election in the USA these days ( and I do give him big props for coming out in favor of Gay Marriage before the election.  Then again, he didn't come out in favor of of Gay Marriage until his Vice President forced the issue by coming out in favor of Gay Marriage first. ).  However, now that he never has to worry about getting elected again, I'd really like to see him step up and show some balls.

Specifically, I'm talking about his battle with Republicans in Congress over the budget and Obamacare.  Republicans in Congress are threatening to shut the government down ( by refusing to fund it ) unless Obama ( and least a few Democrats in the Senate ( BTW, glad to know you have the President's back Joe Manchin! ) ) agree to accept a budget that de-funds Obamacare.  

Look, I've never been a huge fan of Obamacare.  I was disappointed when Democrats ( Who controlled the Oval Office, the House of Representatives, and the Senate ( with a filibuster-proof 60-40 margin ) at the time ) couldn't manage to pass a single-payer system or even a system that included a public option.  However, what they did manage to pass ( The Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare ) is better than nothing, and it is the law of the land.  Republicans keep trying to make the point the Americans  don't want Obamacare, but the results of the 2012 elections say otherwise.  Mitt Romney made it clear that he would repeal Obamacare his "first day in office" ( impossible unless the Republican's won a fillibuster-proof majority in the Senate ( also basically impossible for the 2012 election cycle ), but few American understood that ), so any American voter paying attention knew that Obamacare wouldn't be repealed unless Obama was defeated in 2012.  If Americans thought that repealing Obamacare was an important priority, Obama would have been defeated resoundingly in the 2012.  Considering that Obama won the 2012 election relatively easily, I think it's clear that most Americans would rather see Obamacare enacted than have the government shut down.

With all that in mind, there's no reason for Obama to compromise with Republicans on Obamacare.  He shouldn't give an inch.  If the governments gets shut down because the Republicans refuse to fund Obamacare, Republicans will get the blame.  Even if the public pins some of the blame on President Obama, why should be care?  He going to be President for the next 3 years no matter what happens, and he never has to worry about being elected again.  Some pundits have suggested that Obama should compromise with Republicans to protect his legacy.  Some have suggested that Obama will not want to known as the President who let government shut down and the economy fall into another deep recession as a result.  I hope that's not the case, because if he gives in this time, the only word that will ever be used to express Obama's legacy is "pussy" ( No offense to any real female genitalia out there, which are certainly a lot tougher than President Obama. ).

Rich

Oh Crap!

I was having a great week until about an hour ago.

- On vacation to visit with Ruth's relatives in California

- Arrived Tuesday afternoon at a beautiful rented house at Lassen Volcanic National Park.

- Seriously, beautiful house.  Can't believe how nice it is.  I've only been here a few hours, but I think I might like this house better than my own house.  Can't believe how nice it is considering how little we paid to rent it ( So glad we decided against renting the cabin without electricity. ).

- I wonder if we have Wi-Fi?

- Yes, We have WiFi!

- Let's check that been going on with the Mets!

- Oh Crap!

I guess there will be no more Harvey Days this year ( and probably next year ).

OK, that's all I've got.  I know this is kinda a cheap way to fulfill my "at least one blog post a month" requirement, but I don't feel much like writing right now.  I was actually planning to write a baseball blog this week entitled "My Favorite Years", detailing my favorite years as a Mets fan ( Up until about an hour ago, this might have been the most fun I've ever had watching a non-contending Mets team.  Oh well, we'll always have Paris ( "Paris" = beating Yankees 4 out of 4 games in 2013 ) ), but that's not gonna happen now.

In any case, I'm going to post this to facebook/Twitter, and then put down my laptop and enjoy my family and the beautiful natural wonders here.

Rich

We Are All Anthony Weiner

I am Anthony Weiner.  You are Anthony Weiner.  We are all Anthony Weiner.

Sure, most of us aren't sticking our smartphones down our pants on a daily basis, but we all have a propensity for going online to show off the things that make us proud.

I'm mostly talking about the parents out there ( We all flood facebook with the latest cute pictures of our kids and stories/videos of their latest accomplishments - I'm as guilty as anyone of this, and I certainly don't intend to stop. ), but people without kids can be just as bad ( "Look at my cute pet!", "Let me tell you about the cool thing I just did!", "Look at the new thing I just got!", "Let me show you photos of the great vacation I just took!". ).  We maybe "bad" is the wrong word.  I don't think anyone is doing anything wrong.  It's just that we shouldn't fool ourselves into thinking that "sharing" in the social media sense is some kind of benevolent act akin to "sharing" in the traditional sense.  We might like to think ourselves as humble, but social media has really lowered the bar when it comes to what is considered "humble" behavior.  Social media has created a world in which we can humblebrag.

Now, I know some of you parents out there might be saying "How can you equate the the photos I send of my precious child to the photos Anthony Weiner sends of his penis?".  Well, I wouldn't necessarily equate those two things, but they are both examples of people showing off things they are proud of.

Because let's face it, if there's one thing we know, it's that Anthony Weiner is proud of his penis.  And hey, if you've taken the time to look at the penis photos he's sent, you can kinda understand why.  That thing is huge.  It's so big I bet there are stablehands all over New York who talk about how their horses are "hung like a Weiner".  Hell, if I was hung like that, I'd probably walk around all day with my pants off.

OK, well maybe not.  It's certainly not good for any guy to link his feeling of self-worth to his penis size, but Anthony Weiner is clearly one of those guys.  Perhaps it was because he was teased about his last name as a kids, perhaps it's because he was picked on for being relatively small in stature, but somewhere along the line, I think his penis became his pride and joy, and now he thinks he's too sexy for his pants.

I didn't mean for this post to be a defense of Anthony Weiner ( He's an egomaniac with extremely poor judgement who shouldn't be put in charge of a lemonade stand, let alone a city of 8 million people. ), but I just wanted to point out that we are not as different from Anthony Weiner as we'd like to believe.  Different enough that we ( hopefully ) don't have pictures of our private parts floating around the internet, but not so different that we don't something post things online that others don't care to see.

Rich

Harvey Day

Every 5 days, Mets fans celebrate "Harvey Day".  It's the day when the Mets go from a moribund 4th place squad to a baseball team that everyone loves to watch.  It's the day the Mets young ace Matt Harvey takes his turn in the rotation.

On Sunday, July 21st, we finally got out to a Mets game on "Harvey Day".  It was actually the first Mets game we've been to in 3 years.  It was great to finally get the taste of this out of my mouth.

By a stoke a luck, the Mets had won every game I'd every taken the boys to in previous years.  The Mets won the first game I ever took Michael to, and then the next 4 I took Michael and Peter too.  I wanted to keep their streak alive, so I wasn't going to leave anything to chance.  If we were going to watch the Mets play in person this year, it was going to be on "Harvey Day".

Harvey and the Mets didn't disappoint.  Harvey hit 99 mph on the gun routinely, struck out 10, walked none, and gave up no runs and 3 hits in 7 innings of work.  The Mets actually gave Harvey some run support for a change ( unlike yesterday ( 7/26/13 ) when Harvey gave up zero earned runs over 8 innings, but took a no-decision ( in a game the Mets ultimately lost ) because the Mets scored only 1 run and made an error which ruined Harvey's shutout attempt ( Stupid Mets!  Last night's loss might just make me grumpy all weekend.)  ), hitting 3 home runs in a 5-0 win.  So all went well in Flushing that day, and a fun time was had by all.  What follows is a photo essay documenting our day at the ballpark.

The boys hanging out before the game.

 In the Jackie Robinson Concourse.  The quote behind them reads "A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives."

With my Aunt Barbara ( my Mom's sister ) before the game.  My Aunt Barbara ( along with my Great Aunt Ginny ) took me to a bunch of Mets games at Shea Stadium during my childhood.

 On the Shea Bridge.

 The boys watching batting practice.

Family shot with Mr. and Mrs. Met!  I couldn't find a shot where we were all facing the same camera ( there were a lot of cameras ).

Before the game started we had lunch at Shake Shack ( Tied for the best ballpark food I've ever had with the Primanti Brothers sandwiches I had at PNC Park. ) and ...

... the boys had some fun at "Kiddie Field".  See the highlights below ...

In our seats before the game.

The view from our seats right before the start of the game.


Ruth wasn't too interested in watching the game, so she spent most of the time walking around the stadium and getting treats with the boys after they became bored ( Michael lasted 4 innings, which was enough to see the Mets score all 5 of their runs.  Harvey also gave up his first hit in the 4th inning.  Considering Harvey's already taken 3 no-hitters into the 7th inning this year, I wasn't going to let Michael leave his seat until Harvey gave up a hit. ).  While she was walking around the stadium, she did manage to do some pretty kick-ass sports photography of Matt Harvey dealing.

Of course, a bunch of Mets sports photos wouldn't be complete without at least one shot of 7-time All-Star David Wright.

While my Aunt and I watched the Mets finish off the Phillies, it was ice cream time for the boys.

 It's not every day you see a jelly bean Mr. Met.

 Ruth took this shot in the Mets Hall of Fame.  I'll have to drop by to see this plaque the next time I'm at Citi Field, because this plaque has some sentimental value to me.  Back in the late 90's and early 2000's, my brother and I would go to about 20 Mets games a year at Shea Stadium.  We would each head to the park straight from work and would meet at this plaque before the game.  When they tore Shea down after the 2008 season, I wondered if I'd ever see this plaque again.

 Thanks for coming!

Oh, one more bonus was that "Harvey Day", also happened to be "Dwight Gooden Bobble-head Day".  This seemed entirely appropriate, considering that Harvey is the best Mets pitcher since Gooden ( However, as great as Harvey is ( and he may be the best pitcher in baseball ), he wasn't half the pitcher Dwight Gooden was in 1985.  Dwight may have smoked a mountain of crack, but he's still my favorite ballplayer of all time. ).

Rich

Edward the Snowden

Edward the Snowden, was a coder in-the-know,
With his glasses square, and a stubbled face,
and a whistle that he'd blow.

Edward the Snowden, did work for the NSA.
Did for a while, 'til he stole some files,
and he had to run away.

There must have been some secrets in those files that he found,
For when they placed it on the web,
people's jaws dropped to the ground.

Edward the Snowden, was as smug as he could be,
And we heard him say, that the NSA,
liked to spy on you and me.

Edward the Snowden, had to hurry on his way,
So he waved goodbye, said "I gotta fly,
to stay out of Guantanamo Bay."

   My wife and I tend to agree with each other for the most part when it comes to politics, but we have different opinions regarding the Edward Snowden case.  Just be be clear, neither of us believes that he is a traitor or that he has compromised the security of the United States in any way ( After all, any terrorists smart enough to carry out successful plots would be careful enough to work under the assumption that United States could be listening in on any of their phone calls.  These guys are not discussing terrorists plots on their iPhones.  OK, well maybe that's not 100% true   ( After all, the head of the CIA thought he could keep an extra-marital affair secret via gmail. ).  There will always be small-time guys with small-time plots that don't even care that they might be caught ( being caught and killed would make them a martyr in their own eyes ), but the USA doesn't have the resources to track all the small-time guys, and frankly it would be a poor allocation of resources to track all the potential small-time terrorists.  For the amount of money that is spent on counter-terrorism you could save a lot more lives by allocating more police resources to inner-city neighborhoods plagued by gang violence.  White suburban "security moms" overly concerned about the dangers of terrorism should try raising a family in inner-city Baltimore for a week ( Oh and BTW, when I say more "police resources" would help save more lives, I mean police resources allocated to protecting people, rather than police resources being used to arrest people for smoking weed.  The amount of police and prison resources allocated towards drug possession crimes is ridiculous - but that's an issue for another blog post.  ).  The difference between my opinion and my wife's opinion is that I actually believe that Edward Snowden's actions have increased the security of the United States.

My wife doesn't have any problem with the NSA monitoring the phone calls of Americans.  She, like many Americans, says that she has "nothing to hide".  She's glad that the United States government can use this kind of surveillance to catch terrorists and criminals.  I, on the other hand, feel that such surveillance is a threat to our democracy, and thus a threat to our long-term freedom and security.

Let me make one thing clear, as far as I am concerned, this isn't about privacy.  I could give a rats' ass about privacy.  If the government secretly installed a camera in our bedroom to watch my wife and I have "private time", my attitude would be "Fine, if that's what gets you off, enjoy the show!".  I don't really care if the government finds out my secret information ( Have fun being bored-to-death Mr. Governement Agent! ), but I do care if the government can get compromising information about people who are frankly more important than me.

For example, consider a journalist who might be in midst of uncovering damning evidence of government corruption, evidence that might force a President to resign, or change the outcome of an election.  Let's say this journalist happens to a guy who is cheating on his wife.  Let's say he's made hundreds of phone calls to his mistress.  If the US government has access to the history of phones calls this journalist made ( which Snowden's revelations shows that they would ), they could use this information to blackmail the journalist into burying his story about the government corruption.  In an example like this one ( or case where a political opponent was involved in marital infidelity ) phone-call information collected by the NSA could be used to keep a corrupt administration in power.  In my opinion, a corrupt federal government is a bigger threat to our freedom and security than any terrorist.

If you want a real-world example, consider that case of Martin Luther King Jr. and the FBI.  It's a widely-held belief these days that MLK cheated on his wife ( If don't believe this, take a look the "Allegations of adultery" section of this link.  I think it is pretty damning that one of his closest allies  ( Ralph Abernathy ) wrote that MLK had a "weakness for women" and "all understood and believed in the biblical prohibition against sex outside of marriage.  It was just that he had a particularly difficult time with that temptation". ).  The FBI knew this, tapped MLK's phones in order to get evidence of this, and tried to used this evidence to destroy him.

Just imagine if the FBI had had more tools their disposal to use against MLK.  Just imagine if they could have discredited him while he was alive or driven him out of the fight for Civil Rights.  Just imagine how different the world might be today.  Would we be more "safe"?

Rich

I want a Total Refund ( or "My reaction to this movie was Total Recoil" )

I've written more than 200 of these posts, and I've rarely used this space to review movies ( with the exception of this Pixar post ).  However,  the Total Recall remake was so bad I just couldn't keep my opinion to myself ( and I think my wife might be getting tired of hearing me complain about it ).

Technically, I saw this movie for free ( As long as you don't count my cable TV bill, which I don't because I didn't purchase cable TV for the purpose of watching Total Recall ), so I guess I shouldn't really be asking for a "Total Refund".  However, I still wouldn't mind if the producers of the movie sent me a few bucks for wasting my limited free time.

Before I dive into my complaints, I should mention that the rest of this post will have plenty of SPOILERS about both the the original Total Recall and the remake.  If you've never seen the original, I suggest you stop reading right here.  If you've seen the original and have never seen the remake, go ahead and keep reading.  It would be impossible for me to "spoil" a movie as bad as the Total Recall remake.  Seriously, if you haven't seen the remake yet, you should consider yourself lucky.  Don't waste your time by subjecting yourself to this remake.

SPOILERS BELOW --- SPOILERS BELOW --- SPOILERS BELOW --- SPOILERS BELOW

Let me start by saying that the producers of the Total Recall remake squandered a great opportunity.  Philip K. Dick's books and short stories are the basis of a lot of great movies, and the plots of many of the best of these movies deviate significantly from the original Dick stories.  The original Total Recall was no exception.  Dick's short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" is the basis of the plot of the original "Total Recall", but the movie's plot goes off in original directions that make it far more interesting than the short-story.  I don't say this a knock against Philip K. Dick.  On the contrary, his stories are full of such intriguing ideas that they serve as especially fertile ground for creative screenwriters.  The screenwriters for the original Total Recall took advantage of this fertile ground, but the screenwriters for the remake ( and the producers who approved the screenplay ) failed miserably.

They could have gone in so many interesting directions with this remake.  I was actually pretty excited to watch this movie.  I couldn't wait to see what they did with Dick's concept.  There were so many ways they could have explored ideas like the nature of memory and the meaning of reality.  The possibilities were endless.  I was expecting big differences between the plot of the remake of the plot of the original.  I didn't even care if the remake was as good as the first version ( which would have been a tall order ), I just wanted it to be original.  Instead, remake was just a dumbed down version of the original.

The dumbed down aspect of the remake's plot was what I found most disappointing.  The remake completely removed the most intriguing aspect of the original's plot, which I can only see an an attempt to dumb down the plot for today's audiences ( Personally, I don't think the audiences of today are dumber than audiences of 1990, but the producers of the remake clearly thought so. ). 

To explain how the remake was dumbed down, I'll need to review the plot of the original.  In the original, ordinary blue-collar Doug Quaid discovers he is really a secret agent named Hauser.  He learns much of this from Hauser himself via a video Hauser had recorded earlier.  In the video Hauser tells Quaid that he used to work for the evil Mars administrator Cohaagen, but that a few weeks earlier he had met a women who made him realize he had been "playing for the wrong team".   He indicates that he had started fighting against Cohaagen until he was captured by Cohhagen's people and had his memory erased and replaced by the artificial memories of Quaid.  Hausers tells Quaid that he has enough information is his head to stop Cohaggen, but the only way to get his memory back is to "Get your ass to Mars!"

( Embedding is disabled for this video, but you can see the entire Hauser/Quaid "Get your ass to Mars" clip here. )

We learn a few more things once he gets to Mars.  We discover that the woman's name is Melina.  She is a high ranking member of the Mars resistance, and it's clear that she and Hauser had become lovers.  One can also infer that Hauser must have been on a mission from Cohaagen to infiltrate the resistance when he met Melina and fell in love with her.  Quaid learns from Melina that the way to retrieve his memories is to arrange a meeting with the resistance leader Kuato ( Kuato has psychic  powers ).

Quaid eventually finds his way to Kuato, but when he does he discovers he has inadvertently led Cohaagen's gang to Kuato.  They kill Kuato and capture Quaid and Melina.

Up to this point, the plots of the original and the remake are practically identical.  I was disappointed by this, but I was still eager to watch the end of the remake, because the plot twist near the end of the original was the best part of the movie.

Unfortunately, the remake completely screwed up the twist ending.

The twist near the end of the original is the primary reason why the original Total Recall is one of 10 favorite science fiction movies ( might even be top 5 ).  In case you don't "recall" the plot twist in the original, here's the relevant part of the script ( sorry, I couldn't find a YouTube clip ):

Vilos Cohaagen: [after Cohaagen's team kills Kuato] So this is the great man. Hmph. No wonder he kept out of sight. Well, my friend...

[puts his hands on Quaid's shoulders]

Vilos Cohaagen: ...you're a hero.

Douglas Quaid: Fuck you!

Vilos Cohaagen: Don't be modest. Kuato is dead. The resistance has been completely wiped out and you were the key to the whole thing.

Douglas Quaid: [to Melina] He's lying.

Melina: [to Quaid] You two-faced bastard!

Vilos Cohaagen: You can't blame him, princess.

[His finger grazes Melina's face]

Vilos Cohaagen: He's innocent. You see, Quaid, none of my people could get close to Kuato. Fuckin' mutants could always sniff us out. So Hauser and I sat down and invented you: the perfect mole.

Douglas Quaid: You know you're lying. Hauser turned against you.

Vilos Cohaagen: Uh-uh. That's what we wanted you to think. Fact is, Hauser volunteered to become "Doug Quaid." It was the only way to fool the psychics.

Douglas Quaid: Get your story straight.

[Points to Richter]

Douglas Quaid: This idiot has been trying to kill me ever since I went to Rekall. You don't kill someone you're trying to plant.

Vilos Cohaagen: He wasn't in on it. You set him off by going to Rekall.

Douglas Quaid: So, why I am still alive?

Vilos Cohaagen: We gave you lots of help.

[points to Benny]

Vilos Cohaagen: Benny here...

Benny: [to Quaid] My pleasure, man.

Vilos Cohaagen: The guy with the suitcase, the mask, the money, the message from Hauser. All of that was set up by us.

Douglas Quaid: Sorry. Too perfect.

Vilos Cohaagen: Perfect, my ass! You pop your memory cap before we can activate you. Richter goes hog-wild screwing up everything that I spent a year planning. Frankly... I'm amazed it worked!

Douglas Quaid: Well, Cohaagen. I've got to hand it to you. It's the best mind-fuck yet.

Vilos Cohaagen: Oh, don't take my word for it. Someone you trust wants to talk to you.

Douglas Quaid: Who is it this time, my mother?

( Cohaagen turns on a video screen.  We see Hauser on it )

Hauser: Howdy, Quaid. If you're watching this, that means that Kuato is dead, and you led us to him. I knew that you wouldn't let me down. Sorry for all of the shit I've put you through, but hey, what are friends are for? All I want to do is wish you happiness and good living, old buddy, but unfortunately, that's not gonna happen. You see, that's "my" body you have there, and I want it back. Sorry for being an Indian giver, but I was here first. So, adios, amigo!

[the screen zooms out to reveal Cohaagen, who puts his hand on Hauser's shoulder]

Hauser: And thanks for not getting yourself killed. Maybe now, we will meet in dreams, you never know.

( Hauser and Cohaagen laugh in an especially evil way. )

---------------------
Woah!!!!

That's all I thought we I first saw this scene - Woah!!!

Honestly, my wind was so blown by this scene that I wouldn't have minded if the movie had ended right there.

Consider the implications of this scene ...

Quaid was Hauser's idea.  That means that Hauser was never actually part of the resistance.  That means he was never really in love with Melina.  He pretended to join the resistance to gain their trust, so that they would trust him when rejoined the resistance as Quaid.  He knew that he could never get close to the psychic Kuato as Hausser so he invented the good guy Quaid and then tricked him ( actually tricked himself !) into leading Cohaagen's men to Kuato.  That plan was so brilliant I honestly wouldn't have minded if Hauser had won in the end.  The guy deserved to win.  He may have been a "fucking asshole", but you've got to give him props for both his brilliant plan and the way he executed it.

While I could have done without the happy ending, it did have some remarkably intriguing implications.  In the end Quaid decides he'd rather be the made-up good guy Quaid than the real bad guy Hauser.  Just think about that.  Would you want to be somebody other than yourself?  Would you want to be an artificial person with fake memories inserted by your real self?  Perhaps you would if you knew your real self was a "fucking asshole", but it's still a fascinating concept.  Even 23 years later, the idea still makes my head spin.

So, as disappointed as I was by the first 80% of the remake, I was looking forward to reliving the mind-blowing plot twist.  After all, Colin Farrell is a far superior actor than Arnold, so there was some great potential there.  But instead of trying to blow the audience's mind, the producers of the remake decided to spoon-feed the audience a watered down version of the plot twist.

In the remake's version of the plot twist, we are given the strong impression that Hauser had nothing to do with Cohaagen's plan to create Doug Quaid.  We learn that Cohaagen did send Hauser to infiltrate the resistance, but Cohaagen tells Quaid he saved a copy of Hauser's memory before he "went soft" ( I believe that's the term he used.  However, I can't be sure, because I deleted this crappy movie from my DVR right after I watched it, and I can't seem to find any clip of quotes from that scene. ).  This strongly implies that Hauser actually did fall in love with Melina and joined the resistance before being captured by Cohaagen's men and implanted with the fake memories of Doug Quaid.

So, in this version of Total Recall, Hauser's not that bad a guy after all - and that's not good.  I want Hauser to be a "fucking asshole".  I want Hauser to be the brilliant evil character who manages to trick himself.  I don't want want him to be some sensitive piano-playing sap who finds his soul-mate in Melina.  In this version the Hausser who fell in love with Melina isn't all that different from Doug Quaid.  I can barely fathom why the writers/producers of the remake decided to abandon the awesome mind-bending plot twist of the original and replace it with a plain vanilla plot twist that was barely a plot twist at all.  I can only conclude that they thought that the plot twist from the original would have confused audiences too much.

On top of all that, the remake got lots of the little things wrong.  The movie consistently broke both the laws of physics and common sense.  Honestly, the most believable thing about this movie may have been the three-breasted woman ( Here's where I insert a gratuitous photo of the three-breasted woman in order to increase the number of hits to this blog. ).

The most egregious example of the move breaking the laws of physics was everything about "the Fall".  For those who didn't see the remake, "the Fall" was a gravity train ( see the link for details ) featured prominently in the film.  The idea of a gravity train isn't really new.  I remember my Dad mentioning the idea when I was a kid, and the idea has its origins in the 17th century.  I was excited when I realized gravity train was in the movie, but I was disappointed when I realized that the filmmakers were going to use the idea of "the Fall" to mock everything I know and love about physics and engineering.  Specifically ...

1) In the movie, "the Fall" passes right through the core of the Earth.  The temperature and pressure at the core of the Earth is so high, I cannot conceive of any technology that would allow you to build a shaft right through it.

2) Because "the Fall" is presumably a free-fall all the way through the earth, passengers would feel weightless ( like a passenger in a plunging amusement park ride, like the "Tower of Terror" at Disney ) all the way through the trip, not just at the center of the earth.

3) As the name implies, a gravity train ( or gravity elevator ) works by gravity only.  The trains falls and is accelerated by gravity until it reaches the low point of the trip, and then decelerates on the way up.  In theory, if you remove all friction from the shaft ( by removing all the air and making sure the train doesn't touch the walls of the shaft ), you should be able to get all the way to the other side of the shaft via gravity-power alone ( In practice, there would always be a tiny amount of friction ( even deep space is not a perfect vacuum ), but you could always use a power source on the train to give it a little boost at the end to reach its destination.).  In the movie, "the Fall" is supposed to take 17 minutes to go all the way across the earth.  A little bit of high school physics can prove this is utter nonsense.  We can prove this be using the classic equation s = 1/2 a( t squared ).  At the start of "the Fall", the acceleration will be 9.8 meters per second squared.  By the time you reach the center of the earth the acceleration will be zero.  So, the average acceleration for the first 4000 miles of the trip ( to the center of the earth ) would be somewhere behind 9.8 meters per second squared and 0.  Even if we assume an average acceleration of 9.8 ( which is certainly more than the actual average acceleration ), it would take about 19 minutes to cover those first 4000 miles, and thus 38 minutes for the entire trip.  The actual time ( with an average acceleration of less than 9.8 ) would be more than 38 minutes.  According to the "gravity train" link above, it would take 42 minutes, which is certainly a lot more than 17 minutes.

4) As we've established, a gravity train like "the Fall" really can't work properly unless you pump all the air out of the shaft.  That's why I was flabbergasted when Quaid and Melina climb on the outside of the moving train in the final action sequence.  Clearly there should not be any air out there.  However, if assume there is air in the shaft, things get even more ridiculous.

5) The amount of power that would be required to move a train through an 8000 mile shaft full of air is ridiculous.  While it is theoretically possible with advanced enough technology, any civilization that could develop such technology would be smart enough to pump the air out of the shaft.  However, if we do assume the train is moving 8000 miles though air in 17 minutes, things would not be pretty for Quaid and Melina on the outside of the train.  8000 miles in 17 minutes gives us an average speed of more than 28,000 miles per hour ( mph ).  However, Quaid and Melina headed to the outside of the train near the core of the earth.  Near the core of the earth, the velocity would be much higher than 28,000 mph.  If we assume constant acceleration to the center of the Earth and constant deceleration to the surface, high school physics tells us that the velocity at the center of the earth would be more than 56,000 mph.  I highly doubt than any material we could engineer could avoid burning up when passing through air at 56,000 mph, and any organic material out there would certainly be toast.  Quaid and Melina would have been burnt to a crisp ( probably vaporized ) as soon as they ventured outside that moving train ( I believe they actually ventured to the outside of the train a few minutes after the train passes the core, but even at a speed like 40,000 mph, they would instantly be toast ( The recent meteorite that burned up over Russia was traveling at about 34,000 mph ).

I could go on ( about the fall and the movie in general ), but I think I've made my point by now.  This movie failed in just about every way a movie could fail.

Hmm.  Having never written a full movie review before, I have no idea how you are supposed to gracefully end one of these things ( I think I now have even more admiration for out dear departed Mr. Ebert. ).

Screw it, I'm getting tired and the Mets are on ( going for 6 in a row after sweeping the Yanks! ).  Forget about ending this gracefully. Movie sucks.  Don't see it. Bye.

Rich