No fun 

Something important is lacking when you watch a big win on network TV and you don't hear a hometown announcer calling the last play. Like this famous Russ Hodges call:

...there's a long drive! ...The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! ... I don't believe it! I don't believe it! I do not believe it!

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That one happened before I was born, but it's a classic, isn't it?

I used to like the way Ernie Harwell (Tigers announcer) called a home run with all kinds of suspense, starting the same way Hodges did. It's a long ball.. it could be... it may be... it is! A homerun for Willie Horton. Jack Buck was really good at creating drama too.

There's something vaguely reminiscent of the opening of the Superman program in those home run calls. "Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird... it's a plane..." The show was sponsored by the U.S. Treasury Department? Gosh it sounds so very hokey. It makes me feel ancient to think it was produced in my lifetime.

Games with sneaky rules 

Baseball and Monopoly have something in common. Sanctioned sneaky stuff: base stealing and not paying rent if the landlord isn't paying attention. Maybe there are other games with rules like that, but I can't think of any at the moment.

A game is more like life when things like that can happen, don't you think? But it's funny to imagine any such thing allowed in other games. Like, you get to move a chess piece to a more favorable position while your opponent steps away. Or... gee, I can't even conceive of anything very comparable and I tried really hard.

Shaken baby 

I gotta hurry up and finish this freebie project for a friend. It's breaking my heart to look at this sweetie pie. Actually the mom, 23 years old, is the daughter of a friend of a friend. I think about being 23 and the whole world fresh and exciting ahead of me. I didn't start having babies until I was 30. Here's Danille with an enormous heartbreak, the kind I imagine you never get over, and a huge debt to boot. Baby Josh was several weeks in ICU. The injuries were so severe there's a criminal case against the caregiver that could end in the death penalty. Danille's main message for other young moms is "Don't scrimp on daycare and be especially wary of unlicensed home day care."

Getting a clue 

Monday night at Fellini's in Berkeley sounds like it was fun. Dave said about the podcast that there were "lots of guests coming in and out, telling jokes, stories and clues." Telling clues to what? I like a game. What clues? People who know me best say I am among the most perceptive people they know, and also the most clueless. Now how is that possible? (I think I both know and don't know the answer to that!)

It sounded like Sylvia Paull was one of the only women there. I wonder how she deals with being in the minority. I was thinking the other day, when a few folks were kicking around ideas for getting more women to tech events, that I wouldn't feel right at an event like the TechCrunch barbeque, being so outnumbered. Then I realized that the discomfort doesn't extend to other mostly-male groups I've been around -- only tech guys.

For example, I was PR director for a small college in Indiana that had a super-exciting NCAA Division III football team. (Great defense to me is a big bore. This excitement came from risk; the coach loved an aerial game and you might see an average of 40-50 passes per game in any given season.) Anyway, the SID was a student, so if we had TV coverage or something big, I'd show up so a grownup was around. It never bothered me to hang with the players, coaches or press. In what way(s) are geeks so different, do you think?