Back from Tampa. Spent several days in FLA with some old friends from Ohio. Terrific weather for the most part and had a great time. You know, baseball...beach...grouper. Lovely way to spend March afternoons.

I flew Independence Air through DC to Tampa. They have new Airbuses (Airbusi?) that are kinda neat. But the low fares attract people like:

NASCAR couple who were flying from Cleveland to Las Vegas. The type you don't want telling others where they are from. He was the only guy to get wanded when I passed through security.

Before taking off from DC to Tampa, I hear this line uttered behind me: "My Jewishness is strange. My Jewishness is unique." I thanked my God for the iPod, praying for the 10,000 foot barrier quickly, because I was thinking about bailing on the runway. This was a young girl who did not shut up for the entire flight. When I had to turn off the iPod, I caught this: "Sometimes when I go to dinner with friends, I cry and tell them: "I didn't have many friends when I was young." I guess she didn't see my thought bubble, because she kept talking.

And then there was the steward, who looked like this guy:



Then on the flight back home to Cleveland, someone had a Pomeranian on board. Such a quiet dog, he says, noting how slow sarcasm can actually drip.

Meal of Links

Bernie Ebbers...GUILTY. I hope he does some time. Like maybe the 85 years max.

FCC rules this is not indecent. I rule it bad acting.



Oddly enough, Phil Spector liked to play with guns.

Exercise Yard

Lots of baseball in FLA. Saw the Tigers-Yankees on Friday and the Tigers-Mets on Sunday. Was part of a record crowd at Joker Marchant Stadium on Friday. (Joker, Joker, Joker!) It is a really neat little place, they did quite a job with the redo. Saw Rondell White crush two homers for Detroit, Maggs hit one, Giambi took steroids for the Yanks. On Sunday, we sat 6 rows behind the catcher and waved to all the people in New York who were watching, even though we weren't on the cellphone. Piazza DH'ed. Kris Benson pitched, no Anna. New York fans are a tiresome lot though.

Lakeland puts Winter Haven to shame. Went to see the Mets-Indians on Monday, but it rained like cats and dogs, and was cancelled. Pedro was gonna pitch, too. Saw him toss 5 warmup pitches in the pen before the rains came and washed all the crops away. Wait a minute, that was "Patches", not Pedro. The ground crew was heinous, as they couldn't put the tarp down on the field, because it rained so much, it was too heavy to pull. It was the first time we were behind a pole since Municipal Stadium. They now have an Applebee's across from Chain O'Lakes Park. And no, we didn't go to Beef O'Brady's.

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