HAS THE BLEEDING STOPPED?

But first a word from our sponsors.  Returned from a visit to Austin.  Made sure I ate those wonderful flour tortillas with scrambled eggs--not at a food truck but in a cafe.  But still quite special and have already gone out and bought a supply of tortillas for the house.  Most importantly, we saw Anna and took an overnight trip into the hill country of central Texas--that would be the area made famous by LBJ.  Stayed on a "real" ranch, ate bar bq on the way in a town right out of Friday Night Lights and boasting 4 different bar bq places--all famous. Spent time at what had to be one of the worlds largest flea markets and noticed very few Obama signs--surprise.  A night on the town in Austin at this terrific restaurant populated by a whole bunch of West Virginia football fans whose team the next day clobbered the Horns.  Just a great time and love how much Anna has inculcated herself into the culture and life there.  Just about a year since her arrival.

Moving on--in terms of the bleeding which started after Obama's pathetic debate performance.  Even Nate's fancy algorithms had him losing all sorts of numbers and percentages.  But today some of those started turning in a better direction.  Come on, probably any of us could "beat" the Mitter assuming we had more interest in the process than the Prez did.  At least Joe Biden was feisty and angry and battled--but about those smiles, I just don't know--maybe his Lithium was either kicking in or shutting down.  But he took no shit.  Barack rolled over.  Tomorrow night is very important.

Speaking of Nate, first of all I try oh so hard not to check in on his blog more than twice a day--morning and evening.  But sometimes polls come out and I find myself peeking in the middle of the day.  I feel like I am following this thing much too closely.  Then of course I am reading Jeffrey Toobin's book on the Supremes and Barack and really do know it matters who gets the next appointments to that court.

Back to Nate who was joined by Bill Schneider formerly of CNN.  Focus was on the Jewish vote (after all we were in a synagogue!!). Did you know the largest % of Jews live in NY, NJ, and California--all 3 of which are safely in Barack's pocket and therefore the Jewish vote is irrelevant.  We are almost irrelevant anyway in terms of voting since we represent 3% of the electorate--except of course in 3 counties in Florida.  Those would be Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach.  That is the only place in this election where the Jewish vote matters and only if they turnout. They can counter the red necks up thee in the Panhandle.  Nate is by the way such a nerd/geek that he could be the poster boy--but oh so fucking smart.  Get this--he is not really Jewish since his mother is not.  He said given his name, everybody thinks he is.  He passes!!

One of you knuckleheads (I forget who) convinced me I was crazy and the Colorado river did not go through Austin.  IT DOES AND I SAW IT IN PERSON AND ON A MAP.  Only possibility is that there are two of these named Colorado.  But I guarantee one is in downtown Austin.  Just proves it takes very little to make me crazy.

Speaking of which, I nearly blew up at the TSA slobbola who harassed me at Logan on our way to Austin.  Remember in High School chemistry, we had those strips (forgot the name) which told us something either was an acid or it was something else.  Well after exploring my entire suitcase, he decided he needed to use one of those strips on a salve I had in my bag and when I asked him why, he suggested I could choose not to fly.  Really these folks have convinced me that they have never been trained in any sort of human relations and simply are flung on the job after they have failed to become cops.  But being so mature and being that I wanted to see Anna, I kept my mouth shut.

SPORTS TALK

CC Sabbathia is the only Yankee pulling his weight and though it is a lot of weight, it won't be enough.  Then Jeter breaks his leg.  I was not optimistic before and now...In mid summer both their pitching and hitting were hot.  Since then, either one or the other has been off.  Now it is the hitters who have yet to face Verlander and have made the other two look like Cy Young.

Can any of the Pats defensive backs cover anyone?  Some of the talking heads say it is a mental problem--they cannot put teams away.  I think maybe but they still have to cover.  Brady uncharacteristically made 4 mistakes that did not help--2 interceptions and 2 intentional groundings.  But they still could have won.  Lucky they play in a terrible division.

Good luck with the red flop manager search.  I could not care less except please note that Brad Ausmus is Jewish and just finished managing Israel in the World Baseball Classic.  I will say a prayer for him this Friday night at shul.

Happy birthday Oliver (he is 5 now).
Sayonara