Thursday, September 30, 2004

LIGHT A CANDLE, WAVE IT ROUND   An old line Brooklyn Dodgers fan (Gimme that ol’ time religion) used to tell this story about his uncle, a devout Catholic as well as a fervent Dodgers fan. Back in the late forties and early fifties, his uncle—(Let’s call him Joe since I can’t remember his name)—Uncle Joe listened to Dodger games on the radio, if he couldn’t get to the ballpark.   This was before most people, at least in Brooklyn, had access to TV. The kind of radio I’m talking about had tubes, not transistors—it did not have Intel inside. No, I’m not going to explain what a super-heterodyne vacuum tube is.  Some of you young sprats probably don’t know what a transistor is, either.  With its ornate wooden cabinet and large glowing dial, this radio was a formidable piece of furniture suitable for the front parlor. But I digress.   When the game was about to start, Uncle Joe would take a figurine of the Holy Virgin Mary down from its niche, and place it reverently on top of the radio. Then he would go to the kitchen and get a candle, a box of matches, and a beer. Thus provisioned, Joe would kneel in front of the radio, and wait for the first pitch. If the other team was up to bat, he would light the candle and move it, up and down, back and forth in front of the radio dial, muttering imprecations (Always’ve wanted to use that word.) and incantations against the man at bat. Uncle Joe was attempting to distract or blind the enemy batter via the “magic” of radio. If the Dodgers were up to bat, he would try to do the same to the opposing pitcher. Up and down. Back and forth. If he didn’t have a candle, he would use the kitchen matches. Joe frequently singed his fingertips trying to keep a match going long enough to get the strike. According to what I was told, this man actually believed he could affect the outcome of a game—with a little help from the Mother of God.  Bet you didn’t know that the Virgin Mary was a Dodgers fan.   What’s the point? Folks, we got a big game tonight. The captain of our team has had a bit of a slump (according to the stats, anyway), and he is going to bat against the best spitballs the Texas Rovers can throw at him. We have to hope—we have to pray that he hits a homer. Right now, I kinda feel like Uncle Joe. They say there are no atheists in foxholes. I don’t normally go in for sympathetic magic, but I find that I am entirely willing to get down on my knees in front of the TV tonight with a candle (or may be a pretzel), and commit outright voodoo in the superstitious hope that my little point of light will be the chaos butterfly that will, excuse the expression, queer Bush’s pitch.   Light a candle, wave it round. Back and forth. Up and down. 2:48:03 PM    comment []

The Harvest Moon photographed a bit after 9PM, with an HP 3 megapixel camera through 7x35 binoculars lying on the roof of my car. Cropped and slightly tweaked using MS Photo Editor. I had a wild hair. Shine on, shine on harvest moon Up in the sky, I ain't had no lovin' Since January, February, June or July Snow time ain't no time to stay Outdoors and spoon, So shine on, shine on harvest moon, For me and my gal... 1:03:41 AM    comment []