Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie, Disney and Women Shrieking

The Schloss-Blog is eying baseball and why he doesn't watch it anymore: because this year, strike outs surpassed hits.

Believe it.

And they have every season since 2018.

They swing for the fences. I swing for the remote.

***

Is it just me, or are women screaming? A  lot?

• Like in the Google Pixel 8 ad, when the woman screams as her boyfriend takes a knee to propose.
• Like in the Jacuzzi remodel-your-bath ad, when the chic designer unveils the new shower for the client. And she shrieks.
• Like on the SNL season opener, as the women in the audience scream when a clever spoof on Taylor Swift's impact on NFL coverage ends with her boyfriend, Travis Kelce making a cameo.
• Or the Mom in the Chick fil  A ad recounting how wonderful it was to be able to supply a goodie bag of sandwiches for their stationed-overseas son. And then he walks on. And she screams in delight.

What am I missing? Is it necessary to shriek? Is this the shark jumping out behind the boat in the first "Jaws" movie?

Ladies, why do you scream? Men don't. They gasp. They smile. Or cry. Or mutter a "Yes!" under their breaths.

But men don't shriek.

Do we? Guys?

***

Disney turns 100 (today). One hundred? How many businesses can say they've lasted 100 years? Not Sam Bankman-Fried's. Maybe not Donald Trump's, pending trial results in New York.

To celebrate, Disney is re-releasing "Snow Shite and the Seven Dwarfs" in a supposed 4K restoration of the 1937 original, although its live-action version caught a lot of flak. The technologically touched-up remake will be available on Disney+.

Jocelyn has a soft spot for Disney cartoon films. I'll have to get her one when the disk comes out.

***

Sidney Powell blamed Venezuela, and in good part Cuba and Italy, for technology that changed votes from Trump to Biden in 2020.

Now, she's confessing her lies and turnings state's evidence in the Fulton County, Georgia, case against her and Trump.

You can bet she's hoping Trump gets reelected so he can pardon her. By the same token, can't you just hear Trump muttering "That bitch" under pressure when he heard about it? 

Can he do that from jail?

***

Mitt Romney and Oprah almost ran together as a ticket in the 2020 presidential election, Oprah as VP.

Yeah, right, Oprah settling for VP.

Never.

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.

More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show.

 

Harvard, Hard Way, Hard Luck and (Microsoft Owes) How Much?

So much going on that the Schloss-Blog doesn't know where to start. Well, actually, sure we do...

...A bunch of students from varying organizations protested loud and long about that the whole thing going on now between Hamas and Israel is all Israel's fault.

Their protest was a little too loud and a little too long for billionaire Bill Ackman, who demanded the names of the students so they could be blacklisted when they go job-hunting. Ackman claims Harvard, via its corporate shield, is protecting the students from backlash,

Bottom line: want to protest, anything? Use your college, the bastion of free speech, right?

Wrong, says Ackman and others in the corporate world who agree.

And hasn't Harvard stirred up enough controversy lately anyway? Race neutrality. Affirmative action. And Ivy League sister Penn caught flak for hosting a Palestine Writers Conference, which got labeled "antisemitic" because of its attendance and focus.

Makes me feel better about my SUNY degree.

***

The Schloss-Blog swears, every golf course in Arizona is closed for overseeding right now, which means I haven't played in three weeks.

I don't want to hear it, Mark.

***

Do you wear Birkenstocks? 

The IPO of the fashionable footwear maker, while generating a lot of money, came up disappointingly short though.

There was a time when everyone I know wore Birkenstocks. Now everyone I know can own a piece of Birkenstock.

Although owning a pair might be a better investment than owning their stock.

***

In case you were wondering, Apple iPhones are the brand of choice with those in the Gen Z demographic.

They love the camera.

Looks like I'm as ancient as my Android.

***

Microsoft, which closed a $69 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard, reportedly still owes the IRS $29 billion in back taxes.

Activision Blizzard makes the ever-popular "Call of Duty." The IRS, meanwhile, comes to your door with AR-15s if you owe back taxes.

Or so said Ted Cruz.

In a release from Cancun.

On vaca.

While Texas was freezing over.

***

ACT scores are at their lowest since 1991.

American youth has apparently forgotten how to read.

And add.

***

One last note to asshole Republicans: Iran can't touch the $6 billion, not a penny.

Got it?

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.

More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show.

 

Recent College Grads, Turn Away

The Schloss-Blog wants to know if you're a recent college grad, or know one, or have one in the family, because if so...

...life expectancy at age 25 (adult life expectancy) for those with four-year college degrees rose by 59 years on the eve of the pandemic. In other words, an average individual would live to 84 - up from 54 additional years (or 79 years old) in 1992. During the pandemic, by 2021, the expectation slipped back a year.

All this is according to the Brookings Institution, which found that life expectancy for the college educated in 2021 was eight-and-a-half years longer than for the two-thirds of American adults who don't have a bachelor's degree. Most alarmingly, that is more than triple the 1992 gap of about two-and-a-half  years.

Live longer. Go to college.

***

In other Schloss-Blog news ...

... if you watched the women compete in golf's Solheim Cup and then the men in the Ryder Cup on consecutive weekends last month, maybe you noticed the same thing the Schloss-Blog did:

The NBC networks carrying the competitions did not cover them the same. The shot-tracking technology used to trace shots in air during the men's competition was not used near as generously in the women's competition.

What, the women don't matter? At least the U.S. women's team had a shot at winning the Solheim Cup and actually wound up in a tie, which enabled the European team to keep the prize. The U.S. men's team was never close in the Ryder Cup competition. But the shot-tracer was still amply evident.

Oh yeah, the U.S. men's team, much more so than the women, can't putt. The guys I play with on Tuesdays all summer in Illinois make those putts.

***

Polls show that Joe Biden is considered too old to complete a second term as president, even though he has shaped and passed some remarkable legislation in technology, jobs, climate and ... yes, infrastructure, which was announced every week during the Trump administration but never executed.

Biden needs a jolt of energy to correct what is considered his more-feeble-than-most posture, speech, gait, delivery and general appearance.

Vitamin B12? Super Beets? Fruits & Veggies? He needs to resemble the Joe Biden that Jason Sudeikis so often portrayed on Saturday Night Live.

Well, who else should be the Democratic nominee? Kamala? Gavin Newsom? J.B. Pritzker?

Yeah, that's what I think too...

***

When the NY Giants play the Washington Red__ uh, Commanders, on Sunday, Oct. 22, play close attention.

After watching the Red__, uh, Commanders, put on a pathetic display against the hapless Bears, the Giants-Commanders showdown will be a battle to see who has less.

And when you have less than the Bears, that's a problem.

***

If you don't think there's a difference between Democrats and Republicans, consider...

...when Donald Trump got indicted, all the judges and prosecutors got life-threatening messages.

Repeatedly.

When Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) got indicted - again - no one got threatened.

And now, Greg Gutfield, on Fox News, has literally called for civil war.

How mature.

***

One last sports note:

During the regular season, Major League Baseball used a man on second at the start of every extra inning to speed up games.

In the postseason, uh uh - no such thing. Rule suspended.

Hey MLB - either get rid of the rule for the regular season or use it in the postseason. Can't have it both ways.

***

A quick tip of the cap to Terry Griffin (BG, '78) and guys from the Buffalo Grove and Barrington high schools classes of '78, '80, '82 and '84 who gathered last weekend to mark the memory of the late Dave Millay with their annual kegger.

I'll join you next year, guys.

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.

More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show.

 

The Schloss-Blog has been watching the fallout from the GOP debate, the fallout from Donald Trump getting his properties shoved up his ass and the fallout from Taylor Swift marrying Travis Kelce.

Just kidding on that one - they didn't get married. Just wanted to make sure you were paying attention.

***

According to Donald Trump, his brand is worth so much that his properties must be too.

***

Fox News commentators blasted Taylor Swift over her supposed "let's f#%king go" cheer at the Kansas City Chiefs game last week.

Hey Fox, Smartmatic will be talking to you soon about the same thing for which you paid Dominion $787.5 million. In other words, there are bigger things for you to worry about than Taylor Swift's potty mouth (besides, I like a girl who talks dirty).

***

Phoenix Suns fans and media are celebrating the departure via trade of center DeAndre Ayton, who is now a Portland Trailblazer.

Where, actually, at age 26 and so many years of being a double-double machine, he'll fit perfectly.

Meanwhile, local Phoenix media are pounding their chests over how the Suns are going to be bigger by getting smaller in what they got back in this trade.

Hey Suns, Denver or the Lakers versus Milwaukee for the NBA title.

***

At the Republican presidential debate, seven people who will never be president debated why they should be.

None of them should ever be, as the colloquialism goes, dog-catcher. Yet, they all want to be Trump's vice-presidential candidate.

That's going to be Kari Lake, who has her lips pressed to Trump's cheeks.

***

Donald Trump could lose his New York-based businesses, according to a ruling from a New York-based judge.

That's what happens when you estimate the value of your New York apartment at somewhere between $114-207 million in what the judge called a "fantasy world."

To many Americans, his presidency was that overvalued too.

***

Uh, Paging Bob Menendez: time to step down.

***

Uh, speaking of that court ruling last week in New York, no one was speaking of it at the debate on the same day as the ruling.

Not the candidates. Not the moderators (what a bunch of wusses). 

Oh, that's right, it was on Fox.

***

Who's Barbara Mullen?

Oh trust me, you know.

***

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce?

Oh surely, he can do better.

Just kidding, just kidding!

***

The writers are back and Bill Maher missed them, as he fawned all over Ron DeSantis when his "Real Time with Bill Maher" returned last Friday.

***

J.P. Morgan Chase paid $75 million to settle a lawsuit that it in good part helped enable Jeffrey Epstein and his sex trafficking..

Time to get my money out of Chase Bank.

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.

More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show.