Ask Grandstander

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by bigheadache

Who has 3 hands?

You didn't question the pods.

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by LongtimeBravesFan

While I agree that Martin and Herzog deserve induction and feel Anderson coasted his last decade in Detroit, I believe there was miscommunication in my last question. I meant to ask what non-players and non-managers hould get in. By this, I mean owners, GMs, commisioners or any other non-uniformed people. Sorry for the misundertsanding.

The unenshrined executives seem to be in the Gabe Paul class....not really HoF material. Among announcers/broadcasters, I only know my local guys and the national ones like Al Michaels et al. There might be an array of deserving folks in this class with whom I'm unfamiliar and thus, unqualified to judge. I assume Harry Carey will have no trouble getting in, I'm not sure of the eligibility of some others. Whenever Schuerholz retires, he has to be a first ballot lock to make it. It's too early to speculate about guys like Beane or Minaya.

I wouldn't enshrine any of the commisioners but it might do to honor John Dowd to compensate him for having to spend 15 years being called a liar in public by Pete Rose. I'd like to see that just to get a load of Rose's reaction.

[vtred]

Weekly "what if" fight match-up:

Roger Clemens vs. Douglas MacArthur?

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by vtred

Weekly "what if" fight match-up:

Roger Clemens vs. Douglas MacArthur?

It's tempting....but really, few humans who have ever lived have been in the MacArthur ego class. Didn't you get the impression from the brevity and pablum like words that Clemens was going along with someone else's idea? That the announcement gimmick made him uncomfortable and he wanted to get it over with as quickly and painlessly as possible?

If that had been Mac, he would have arranged for an air force fighter fly over, patriotic music being played over the stadium's pa system, a twenty minute introductory tribute film played on the scoreboard tv and then a 15 minute speech from himself about how humbled he was by the honors.

Of course, if it had been Patton, he would have insisted that the announcement be held back until they were in Fenway Park.

[Nighthawk]

We've got a slew of famous generals, enough admirals in the HOF to drive the Love boat for centuries....but no famous Air Force leaders. What gives? Granted, the timeline for them is much shorter, but nobody will deny the massive effect of air power in war over the last century plus, yes?

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by Nighthawk

We've got a slew of famous generals, enough admirals in the HOF to drive the Love boat for centuries....but no famous Air Force leaders. What gives? Granted, the timeline for them is much shorter, but nobody will deny the massive effect of air power in war over the last century plus, yes?

We do have some famous air force generals, but they seem to attract as much controversy as they do fame. There was Billy Mitchell, but he is more remembered for his court martial than his pioneering bombing tactics. There is Curtis LeMay, the man who thought up fire bombing and was the author of the Dresden and Tokyo attacks. The morality of his tactics is still debated, but even if that wasn't the case, LeMay forever tarred himself by being the running mate of George Wallace in 1968. (That was the campaign where Wallace explained that his solution to hippie protesters was going to be to run them over with his car, and LeMay explained that his solution to Vietnam was to bomb North Vietnam back into the stone age....."Run em down and blow em up" ...I can think of a few CE board posters who would think that a great platform.)

But them we do have one genuine famous and non controversial air force general.....Jimmy Doolittle....30 seconds over Tokyo and all that.

Part of the fame problem is that we associate the highest ranking WW II air force generals with strategic bombing....Germany and Japan's cities and factories...and historians are still divided over the effectiveness of those campaigns. The unmitigated triump of the allied air arm was in the tactical arena...Midway.....knocking the Luftwaffe out of the skies over Normandy, the Great Marrianas Turkey Shoot etc. And these days, with air warfare being so incredibly complex on a technical level, I think we tend to credit the aircraft designers and pilots a lot more than the strategic commanders.

[heyterry]

Has a political yard sign EVER convinced anyone to vote for a candidate or an issue?

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by heyterry

Has a political yard sign EVER convinced anyone to vote for a candidate or an issue?

It works like name saturation advertising. How many voters truly understand the complexities of the issues, or make any sort of an effort to brief themselves on what the issues are? How many carefully scutinize candidates for offices such as city comptroller or school board member? Sometimes in the voting booth, familiarity is the only basis for a vote.

Names get plastered around so that they radiate the aura of legitimacy for the candidates. "SoandSo? Oh, yeah, I've heard of him, I see his signs all over the place." And if running against Soandso is someone who could not afford to plaster his or her name all over town....advantage to Soandso among all voters who are pulling the levers without too much thought going into their choices.

[phenweigh]

In Massachusetts, Mitt Romney's parting gift was to propose a Constitutional Amendment defining marriage as only between a man and a woman. My State Representative voted for this amendment and I'd like to send him an e-mail to attempt to get him to change his mind. In an earlier e-mail exchange, he cited his reasons for voting in support of changing the state constitution as his parents and his church taught him homosexuality was wrong. Any advice?

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by phenweigh

In Massachusetts, Mitt Romney's parting gift was to propose a Constitutional Amendment defining marriage as only between a man and a woman. My State Representative voted for this amendment and I'd like to send him an e-mail to attempt to get him to change his mind. In an earlier e-mail exchange, he cited his reasons for voting in support of changing the state constitution as his parents and his church taught him homosexuality was wrong. Any advice?

1) Do not waste your time with any reasoned arguments. Simply state that he will receive no support from you because of his vote in this matter. That is all the information in which he will be interested, you're not about to overcome that sort of static reasoning with eloquence or logical argument. If he should receive a large enough number of such responses, that would be the only means for reversing his stance.

That's if you are the pragmatic sort. If you just want to express outrage with no hope of it doing any good, then have at it. If you go that route, be certain to not cross the line into anything that could be construed as a threat.

Did you vote for this represenative? If so, you could send a letter to the editor of your local newspapers which reads "I voted for Soandso last time around but that was the last time because I was greatly disappointed at his absense of courage when he cast......etc." Newspapers love those "I'm changing my support" letters, you are nearly certain to find print.

[JoseA]

What does it mean to bite your lip gnarly?

[bigheadache]

Will Liz outlast Vickie to become the Brits longest serving monarch?

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by JoseA

What does it mean to bite your lip gnarly?

It depends upon the tone and inflection of the speaker.

"Bite your lip, gnarly" would be a lip biting imperative directed at someone characterized as "gnarly."


"Bite your lip gnarly." This would be either an imperative to bite your lip until your lip became gnarly, or a command to bite your lip and while doing so, radiate a gnarly aura.

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by bigheadache

Will Liz outlast Vickie to become the Brits longest serving monarch?

Looking at the numbers, Liz need to survive another eight or nine years to bust Vickie's mark. However, Liz is just one year younger than Vickie was when she died. Then again, Liz's mum lived to be about 350, so with strong genetics and modern medicine, I think she can set a new record.

[JoseA]

Thanks for answering my last one. Someone said the next saying to me, and I had no clue what it meant

What does it mean to get curb stumped?