Like Butter

Never Mind

In the latest defeat for the dim-witted food fascists, it turns out that butter is not, in fact, bad for us.

To the complete surprise of absolutely no one with a brain, the long campaign against butter and other foods with saturated fats turns out to have been completely misguided.

Frankly, I don't think the Founding Fathers intended for government to be in the business of demonizing popular foodstuffs in the first place...

"Seriously, are you people retarded or something?"

As an Irishman, I know the perfect way to celebrate this bit of helpful news...

Cruise Update

Today my best friend Skip and his wife Elaine spent the day visiting Tórshavn, in the Faroe Islands (an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark)...

...including an boat excursion to see the famous Vestmanna Birdcliffs and Grottos...

"I'm pretty much a landlubber, but places like this have their charms."

They certainly do, yes...

Third Time's the Charm

Last night my beloved Kansas City Royals won the third game of their four-game home-and-away series with the St. Louis Cardinals, prevailing 3-2 in 12 innings at Busch Stadium. It was quite a pitcher's duel. The Royals took two leads late, but couldn't hold them. It took a third rally to finally put the game away.

Now 5-0, 3.66 ERA

Royals starter Edinson Volquez pitched well into the 7th inning and held the Cardinals scoreless on just six hits, while striking out four.

Unfortunately, All-Star closer Wade Davis failed to protect a 1-0 Royals lead in the bottom of the 9th, and RHP Joakim Soria similarly failed to protect a 2-1 Royals lead in the bottom of the 10th.


RHP Chien-Ming Wang wound up getting the win for his two perfect innings of work when the Royals scored in the top of the 12th.

"Bang!"

It was a frustrating night offensively, as the Royals got 14 hits and six walks but only managed three runs of output.

All-Star SS Alcides Escobar was the hero, giving the team a 1-0 lead in the 8th on a sacrifice fly, and driving in the winning run in the 12th with a double.




Kendrys Morales played RF for the first time in eight years and continued his hot hitting, going 3-for-4. With one game left he's hitting .386 for June and has raised his BA 62 points this month.

The news wasn't all good yesterday, though. All-Star CF Lorenzo Cain was placed on the 15-day Disabled List due to an injured hamstring he suffered in Tuesday's game, and won't be back in the lineup until after the All-Star break.

"So we're going for the Busch Stadium sweep today, eh?"

Well, with Chris Young getting the start tonight that seems highly unlikely...

Happy Birthday!

1953 Chevrolet Corvette

On June 30, 1953 the very first Chevrolet Corvette rolled off of the assembly line at GM's plant in Flint, Michigan.

The first-generation Vette, known as the C1, was not an immediate success, but eventually the Corvette became an American icon.

Brexit Strategy

From the insightful pen of Michael Ramirez,  whose editorial cartoons you should read often, as I do.

Until Next Time...

Although they were always highly-regarded as a live act, R.E.M. was remarkably resistant to the idea of releasing a live recording for much of their career. Lead singer Michael Stipe explained in interviews over the years that the band thought issuing live albums was a sign of creative exhaustion.

This meant that, for most of the band's career, die-hard fans like me could only obtain live tracks by purchasing the band's CD singles, which typically included live material.

After the disappointing commercial performance of the band's Around the Sun album
in 2004, they finally relented on the live album front, releasing the two-disc R.E.M. Live album in 2007. That album consisted of recordings made in Dublin in 2005 on the band's world tour in support of Around the Sun. The positive response to the project encouraged the group to try again.

On June 30, 2007 the band played the first of a series of five concerts at Dublin's famous Olympia Theatre, intended mostly as "working rehearsals" of material for their forthcoming Accelerate album.

This marked a return to the band's early practice of working out new material in live performances before heading into the studio. In addition to the Accelerate material, the band also featured a retrospective of their entire catalog, including some fan favorites that they hadn't performed live in decades.

My favorite aspect of Live At the Olympia is its exuberant energy. The band is clearly having fun, and it shows in their playing and singing. That carried over to the studio work on Accelerate, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart in March 2008 and was their most successful album in over a decade.

Today's send-off is the splendid Dublin version of "Driver 8," one of my favorite songs from the band's 1985 Fables of the Reconstruction album. Enjoy...