9/11 Anniversary
So we are approaching the 1 year anniversary of 9/11 and I noticed there are dozens if not hundreds of blog posts and "real" media comments about how we should mark the occasion. Or complaints about how it will probably happen. Or discussions of what it will mean. And it annoys the hell out of me. Hello! How about you write about it after it happens rather than trying to guess what the reaction will be. It is as bad as having the Presidential election coverage starting 18 months before the election.

Blogcritics.com
I've signed up for Eric Olsen's Blogcritics.com project to review books and music. Perhaps this will help jump start my writing. I've been a bit lax lately because most of my computer time has gone into 1250Ships.com, my hobby e-commerce project. Fortunately with help from a friend of mine a good portion of the work is now automated so I can spend time doing other things. So watch for a review of some sort in the next couple of days.

Chick Is Gone
Francis "Chick" Hearn passed away today at age 85. There are plenty of excellent obituaries out there, with the registration required LA Times one the best I have read. Chick certainly was a key player in making basketball popular in Los Angeles. He gave the sport a vocabulary. He didn't miss a day of work for 36 years.

But he was more than just a sports announcer. The Lakers are a unifying force for Los Angeles, a spread out city that needs that sort of glue to hold it together. He was a decent man who if he couldn't say something nice would hold his tongue. He suffered more than his share of tragedy with both of his children dying early. Despite that he never lost his love of life that he expressed to his audience through his love of the game. He is irreplaceable. I can't imagine listening to the Lakers without him. I'm sure I'll hear him in my head while I watch.

It seems fitting to let Chick have the last word. When asked what he wanted on his tombstone Chick didn't hesitate:

"No harm, no foul," he said.