I Heart Comics

I have always been a big fan of comic strips.  Anytime I used to travel I would plunk down the change to buy a local newspaper and see what therir comic page looked like.  As you have gathered what newspapers remain in this digital age cost more than change for a dollar.  

Fortunately there are many strips old and new available online. From time to time I will share a few of those here.  Simply click on the name of the comic  to see the strip.  The ones today I found through Go Comics.

   

The Far Side                                                  Calvin & Hobbes

                                                         

Peanuts                                                                                              Pearls Before Swine

White Sox defeat Cubs in exhibition game at Wrigley Field.

This past Sunday Evening in Chicago, a cross town rivalry resumed days before the covid 19 shortened baseball season got underway.  

Jason Kipnis homered for the Cubs in their half of the first inning giving them a one run lead.  Kipnis hit 12 homers against the White Sox as a member of the Cleveland Indians.  The Cubs added to their lead in the second as Wilson Contreras scored on a sacrifice fly in the second.  

The score remained 2-0 until the top of the 5th inning.  With one out, Adam Engel who is known more for robbing opposing batters of home runs, robbed Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks of a shut-out by homering himself.  

After the Engel homer, Tim Anderson singled and Eloy Jimenezflew out to right field and what happened next could only bedescribed as a good old fashioned 2 out rally.  Jose Abreusingle to right moving Anderson to 3rd and removing Hendricks from the game. Jharel Cotton came in to pitch for the Cubs and Andrew Vaughn came into run for Abreu. Yasmani Grandal then doubled in Anderson and  Vaughn giving the White Sox the lead. 

The south siders were not finished yet.  Grandals hit was just the first of three run scring doubles in succession. Edwin Encarnacion who made his major league debut for the Cincinatti Reds in the White Sox World Championship year of 2005 and is  right about to begin his 16th season in the major leagues and his first for the White Sox hit a double to left  plating Grandal.  Then Luis Robert, who has yet to make his major league debut and was 8 years old when the White Sox won it all in 2005 hit a ground rule double to score Encarnacion.  

 

 Luis Gonzalez came into run for Robert.  Leury Garcia  tripled to score Gonzalez.  This brought up Cheslor Cuthbert who just came over to the White Sox from the Royals who had the misfortune of making the first and final outs of the inning.  But when Cuthbert made out #1 his team was behind 2-0, when he made out #3 they were ahead 6-2. 

The White Sox added a run to that lead on a wild pitch in the seventh and the Cubs took that run away in the 8th as David Bote scored Josh Phegley in the 8th ending the scoring at 7-3 White Sox.  

Quick Random Takes 7/19/20

Before the videos  commence let’s review the concept of quick random takes.

1. Quick 

Some of my videos can be rather lengthy. These videos will be me speaking on a topic for about 90 seconds to 2 minutes.

2. Random

When I begin filming, I have no idea what the topic will be. I have a number of topic idea written down that I choose from, sometimes out of a hat. Some of these suggestions are my own, others are from family members. If you like you can make a suggestion by writing it in the comments section. On some pieces of paper I have written wild card. If I pick a wild card I pick the topic on the spot.

3. Takes 

A little double meaning on this one. Primarily I am giving my “take” on what ever topic I pick. That,s pretty straight forward. The second is that I have a tendency to film a Dave out loud and make a mistake, or get interrupted and film it again, and again, and , well you get the point. This can be time consuming and frustrating. So I decided at the outset of quick random takes that I would film two takes and then choose the one to post. So far for the first two episodes , it’s been the second one. I don’t know about this one as I have not filmed it yet. I’m going to go do that now.

1. Picking the topic.

And now Dave’s Quick Random Take

This was also take 2 as the past episodes have been. Maybe one day I’ll share the first takes here. I wanted to also share a link to a Mr. Rogers episode but instead I’ll share this link to him testifying before Congress in 1969 for funding for what eventually became PBS. 

In the video he talks about how feelings are mentionable and manageable. I think that is a profound concept.  I hope you enjoyed today’s edition of Quick Random Takes.  

White Sox set to open 2020 season on 7/24

 When the year began the Chicago White Sox were all set to have a record breaking season.  Maybe they wouldn't hit 242 home runs like they did in 2004 or strike out 1,359 opponents like in 2015, but when the umpire shouted "play ball" in their game on Thrusday, March 26th against the Kansas City Royals it would be their earliest opening day ever.  

This, of course did not happen.  The White Sox, none the less, will be breaking records this year if  their home opener scheduled against the  Minnesota Twins on July 24th doesn't get cancelled or delayed it will certainly set  the record for latest opening day ever. The planned 60 game schedule should contain many records even if many of them will come with asterisks.  Teams will certainly have the least errors and strikeouts and fewest hits and home runs allowed.  Attendance should be record breaking as well with most teams unsure if they will be able to sell any tickets.  .

With Covid numbers continuing to grow in the U.S.   I'm not sure how I feel about the season being played at all.  As a fan, I am eager for the sason to get under way,  but thher is part of me, like a true baseball purest,  that feels that  everyone should be safe at home.  

The Library at Last

March 13, 2020 was a Friday.  It turned out to be a true Friday the 13th in the sense that something scary started occurring.  Friday March 13th was the day that many things in the U.S. started shutting down because of Covid 19.  For me it was a day of lasts.  It was one of the last days I worked at the movie theatre I used to work at.  It was the last day I subbed during the 2020 school year. It was the last day I went to a public indoor event (a college talent show, wher my daughter was reciting her poetry).  

During this time I've switched jobs, (although I still hope I can sub in the Fall.) jumped back into blogging, and navigated the new normal with help from God and my family.  Because of that and that I am a particularly resilient kind of guy  social distancing, face masks and zoom chats have been fairly easy to adapt to.  What's been difficult is LOL. LOL is no laughing matter, it stands for lack of libraries.  

I love libraries.  I have really missed ours (Gail Borden in Elgin, Illinois) being open during the stay at home order.  They have handled it greatly but I still missed them.  The first thing they did after closing was expand the amount of materials you could take out virtually using Hoopla.  In late May or Early June the drive through  opened and you were able to start checking out  mterials.  Today they reopened in person,  

When we went to Wisconsin last month we stopped in an open library and there was a 30 minute time limit and not much to do because we didn;t  have borrowing priviliges.  It felt good to be back at a library even for a half hour, but today felt more like coming home. 

Instead of lasts it was a day of covid-19 era firsts.  First time back at Gail Borden ,first time bugging  reference people, first time checking out books in person. , first time back at my bank  (my credit union is in the same building as the library), first time running into and talking with someone I knew while at the library, and first time using a library computer.  I even started this post while using it.  

Home Sweet Library

Quarantine Chic: Library Style

I must have told 8 employees of  the library how glad I was that they were open.  A kid in a candy store had absolutely nothing at me.  Now if you could borrow candy and then return it when you were finished, that would be similar. A library is an everlasting gobstopper for the soul. 

Quick Random Takes Zoom Chat

Zoom 70's ending                                                           Zoom Revival Ending

                                Quick Random Takes Archive