Lament -- for Red Sox Nation

Big Papi at the Bat

Adapted by Dan Lynn Watt from Casey at the Bat[1],

with apologies to Ernest L. Thayer and the Boston Red Sox

It looked extremely rocky for the Boston nine that day:

The score stood one to three, with but one inning more to play.
And then when Varitek died at first, and Cora did the same,
A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest
Clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast;
They thought, if Big Papi could get but a whack at that
We'd put up even money, now, with Big Papi at the bat.

But Crisp preceded Papi, and Pedroia followed him
And the former, he was slumping and the latter seemed so grim
So upon that stricken multitude dumb melancholy sat,
For there seemed but little chance of Papi getting up to bat.

Then Crisp let drive a single, to the wonderment of all,
And Pedroia, whom none had hoped for, tore the cover off the ball;
And when the dust had lifted, and we saw what had occurred,
There was Petey safe at second and Coco hugging third.

Then from all of Red Sox Nation there rose a lusty yell;
It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell;
It knocked upon the mountain and recoiled upon the flat,
For Big Papi, mighty Papi, was advancing to the bat.

There was ease in Papi's manner as he stepped into his place;
There was pride in Papi's bearing and a smile on Papi's face.
And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat,
No stranger in the crowd could doubt 'twas Big Papi at the bat.

Many thousand eyes were on him as he fiddled with his straps;
Many thousand tongues applauded when he picked up his bat.
Then while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip,
Defiance gleamed in Papi's eye, a smile on Papi's lip.

And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air,
And Papi stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there.
Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped-
"That ain't my style," said Papi. "Strike one," the umpire said.

From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar
Like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore.
"Kill him! Kill the umpire!" shouted someone in the stands;
And its likely they'd a-killed him had not Papi raised his hand.

With a smile of Christian charity Big Papi's visage shone;
He stilled the rising tumult; he bade the game go on;
He signaled to the pitcher, and once more the spheroid flew;
Big Papi still ignored it, and the umpire said, "Strike two."

"Fraud!" cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered fraud;
But one scornful look from Papi and the audience was awed.
They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain,
And they knew that Big Papi wouldn't let that ball go by again.

The smile is gone from Papi's lip, his teeth are clenched in hate;
He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate.
And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
And now the air is shattered by the force of Papi's blow.

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there’s no joy in Red Sox Nation – Big Papi has struck out.

[1] Casey at the Bat, first published in the San Francisco Examiner, June 3, 1888.

Obama in 30 seconds

Recently, MoveOn.Org ran a contest for independent film makers to make 30-second Obama ads. The 5 finalists are posted on obamain30seconds.org. They are creative, enjoyable, some are quite moving. I've made a contribution to help air the winner on TV. (It's not my favorite of the five, but it does have a compelling political message. My favorite is the one called, "They said it couldn't be done.")

Kindling

Molly and I got ourselves Kindles--Amazon e-readers. It's a hand held gadget about the size of a paperback book, and weighs less than a paperback. One reason we got them is to cut down on physical clutter. We have so many books, have been subscribing to the Times and Globe daily. The Kindle can hold the equivalent of about 200 books in its memory (and we can get extra memory cards if necessary).

I thought I'd share a few impressions.

1. It's easy to read. (Amazon calls it electronic paper). I've increased the font size a bit to make it easier on my eyes. Not much like reading on a computer because it's light and can be held at many different angles. It's kind of fun to pick it up in the morning. I turn it on and about 2 minutes later the NY times is automatically downloaded. I can scan though article titles easily and click on the ones I want to read. It's also not much like reading a newspaper; no ads! no inky fingers! No papers spread out to find things, no "continued on p. B18". Also no photos (actually there are a few but they don't show up well). I do miss some of those tabuluar things, like baseball standings, box scores, etc. that are not included. I'm not sure why? Maybe they'll be there in Kindle v. 1.1.

2. It's inexpensive and saves on resources. The NY Times subscription is about $13/month. Home delivery costs more than $50/month now. And no paper to recycle every day. Books are similar -- I paid under $8 to download The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Polan. And there's no book to find space for near my bed or on shelves that are already crammed.

3. I do have some questions about where all this is leading. I know it's getting almost impossible to run a newspaper or a bookstore (or a record store) these days. Can a newspaper afford to publish without ads? Or will ads invade the kindle the way they do the internet? The space is so small that if ads start coming, it will make reading very unpleasant. And then I love books and bookstores, but I've been avoiding them for the past few years because of having no space in my house.

4. The Kindle is not a computer. Although you can make annotations, and you can upload your own documents--I haven't done that yet-you can't edit on the Kindle. The keyboard is so dinky anyway. It's something like one of those cell phone keyboards. You're supposed to be able to do email on it, but I haven't figured that out yet. The web interface is terrible! It's all text, and doesn't really work. Well-they say it's "experimental"-maybe it will improve.

5. Although the publicity says there are over 100,000 books available, when I search for an author I want to read --unless it's a best sellar or brand new--I most often miss finding him/her. This is frustrating. But I think there may be other sources for ebooks that I haven't tried looking for yet.

On balance, I'm very happy with it and expect to be even happier as I learn more about it and use more features.

I'll be interested in comments.

George and Ruth: Songs and Letters of the Spanish Civil War

In 1937, George Watt, 23, joined thousands of international volunteers who fought against fascism during the Spanish Civil War. George’s wife, Ruth, 22, organized support for the fighters in Spain. Their story unfolds through readings from their letters to each other, interwoven with songs that capture the bravery and humor of men and women fighting for their lives and ideals against a larger, better-armed foe.

George's and Ruth's letters are read by Dan Lynn Watt and Molly Lynn Watt. Songs are arranged and performed by well-known folksinger Tony Saletan, accompanied by Sylvia Miscoe on accordion. Words are provided in the program and the audience is invited to sing along.

For more information about the show and to listen to parts of it, go to our page at CDBaby.

For me, this is a very personal story. It's a story about my parents before I was born. When my father went to Spain in July 1937 to fight against the fascist effort to overthrow a democratically elected government, George and Ruth were newlyweds. George came home in January 1939, just before the final collapse of the Spanish Republic. I was born in March 1940. My mother Ruth died mysteriously 5 weeks after I was born. My father remarried and I was raised by him and my stepmother. I knew very little about my mother until we discovered my parents' letters in January 2002.

The Spanish Civil War was a precursor to World War II. Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany supported Franco's uprising, with aircraft, arms, transport and airports. The Western democracies, Britain, France and the United States adopted a stance of neutrality. They established an embargo against aid to either side, which had the effect of cutting off all military assistance from the West. It did nothing to stop German and Italian assistance to Franco in defiance of the Western embargo. The only governments that supported the Spanish Republic were Mexico and The Soviet Union. The International Brigades was a volunteer army formed to aid the Republic. They were led and organized by an international coalition of Communists and Socialists. Volunteers came from many nations--Britain, France, Canada, the United States, Eastern Europe, and included Italian and German exiles. Volunteers from the United States called their contingent the Lincoln Battalion. After the War it became known as the Lincoln Brigade. The web site of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives contains information and links about the Spanish Civil War and the Americans who volunteered.

Two hot tips--act immediately!

North Cambridge Family Opera does it again! A brilliant oratorio by David Haines illustrates "Powers of Ten" a trip to the smallest and largest spaces in the universe, with songs and narration for many (but not all) the sights along the way. This is part of the Cambridge Science Festival. The chorus consists of local adults and kids, choruses from three local elementary schools, plus visitors from David's community chorus in Devonshire, England. The songs are delightful, some with appropriate actions by the chorus, such as the collision during "The Waltz of Tectonic Plates", or the transmission of a cold by viruses. I found the music both simple and sophisticated. Easy for amateurs to sing and easy to understand. There are two free performances next weekend as part of the Cambridge Science Festival: Tobin School, Sat May 3, 1 PM, MIT Stata Center, Sun May 4, 3 PM. Perfect for families, great for adults too (if you have a sense of humor) and are at least a little bit interested in science.

David and the NCFO should get a documentary film-maker to glorify them the way "Young at Heart" celebrates the struggles and triumphs of Northhampton's community chorus made up entitrely of people 70 and above. Their repertoire: rock and pop music. Apparently this group has performed in Europe and is very well known-but this was the first I'd heard of them. Highlight for me was a concert given at the Hampshire County Prison! Right now it's at Harvard Square. I bet it will be there a while as it seemed to attract an audience of diverse ages (not all oldsters like Molly and me).