Notes From Neal

Opening Day, that rite of spring whereupon the first baseball game was played, is a holiday in the Cincinnati area. Since the Cincinnati Red Stockings were the first professional baseball team, Major League baseball used to commemorate that tradition by having the now Cincinnati Reds play the first baseball game of the season. Until they sold out to television, which decided it preferable to play the first game during prime time on Sunday night before the “official” Opening Day. Cincinnati commemorates the day with a parade from Findlay Market, a party on Fountain Square, marching bands, and a baseball game that gets sold out in minutes to the scalpers, I mean, ticket resellers.

I don’t enjoy baseball much anymore. It’s not because my favorite teams, the aforementioned Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates are so darn lousy. Baseball was always so rich in tradition with strong appeal and connection to the fans. Much of that has been lost on me for quite some time now. Escalating ticket prices, poor pitching, spoiled players, as well as prevalence of performance-altering chemicals cause me to look elsewhere for my entertainment.

However, it is Opening Day of a new season. It’s spring and “hope springs eternal” (Alexander Pope). Winter is over, the smell of spring is in the air! The Reds will get some pitching this year. The team won’t be out of the division race by June.

At the time of posting of this article, the score was Diamondbacks 4 - Reds 4.  Middle of the 7th.

It’s been a long week. On Tuesday, I made a rainy five hour drive to Pittsburgh, so that I could bring my son home from Carnegie Mellon later in the week. In Pittsburgh, I hopped a Southwest Airlines flight to Philadelphia to work on a database project. A colleague and I hammered out a rather complex data structure for a system we’re building, and on Thursday night, it was back on Southwest to Pittsburgh.

By the way, I can’t recommend the $10 beers nor the curt bartenders in the Philadelphia airport.

What does any of this have to do with snow?

The return trip from Pittsburgh of 300 miles, which normally takes 5 hours, took 9 hours. You see, dear reader, we drove into the jaws of the largest snowstorm in Ohio this year. Our driving speed was reduced to a maximum of 40 miles per hour, frequently moving at the rapid pace of 20 mph. In Zanesville, Ohio we spent over an hour in bumper to bumper traffic because I-70 was closed and we were routed onto National Road, US 40. The Ohio Highway Patrol reported over 610 accidents in that time period, we spotted at least 5 jack-knifed trucks, and cars spun out everywhere. Ironically one such truck was seen off the road right near the famous Hell is Real sign on Interstate 71 south of Columbus.

I drove the entire trip, given that my son just doesn’t have the experience yet in those dangerous conditions. We took frequent pit stops, mainly so that I might unwind from the stress of navigating skating rink quality, sweaty palm, hands tightly gripping the steering wheel, icy highways.

As I look out my window from the warmth of my favorite living room easy chair, I see snow. White everywhere. A snow covered yard and a snow filled sky. They say a blizzard is coming.

Democratic candidate Barack Obama has gained much momentum recently and on this Tuesday, won primary elections in the states of Hawaii and Wisconsin. Candidate Hillary Clinton is struggling a bit to keep up, and might be expected to make a major effort in my state of Ohio. Actually, she is already doing that; her campaign visited Cincinnati last week to order Skyline Chili from a store in Oakley, while our household has already received several phone calls right from the ex-First Lady herself. Recorded, of course.

It’s time for a change, and I believe the country is tired of Bush style divisiveness and arrogance. Our nation needs some new energy and leadership.

This is where Obama appeals to me. He is saying the right things, and apparently doing the right things that attract the voters of America.

The problem I have with Hillary is that she does not have this appeal. Although she appears to have some good ideas, I see her as an “insider” and more of the same old Washington. I’ll open my eyes and ears to what she has to say when the campaign road show come rolling through Ohio in the next weeks, but I’m going to need some convincing to cast my vote her way.

I can’t help wondering, however, what will happen come the Democratic National Convention this summer. What about an Obama-Clinton ticket?

What say you?

My blog gets a lot of page views of the pictures of Touchdown Jesus, the statue behind the Solid Rock Church just off I-75 in Monroe, Ohio.

Two members of my church, Heritage Universalist Unitarian Church, Bradley and Erica, have written an excellent blog about their search for a church that made sense to them. That blog, Church Hopping, chronicles their journey. One of their visits was to the Solid Rock Church, and in their blog they reviewed that visit. You might want to read their article to learn more about this church.

No! We’re not talking about the National Baseball Hall of Fame in beautiful Cooperstown, NY. Nor the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Not even the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

No! The Hall of Fame we’re talking about is likely discovered only in the minds of a few people in Ohio. The Hall of Fame we’re talking about is the Ohio Tax Hall of Fame.

Yes! You read it correctly: The Ohio Tax Hall of Fame.

The Ohio Tax Hall of Fame is “created to acknowledge those people who have significantly contributed to the development, administration or operation of Ohio’s state tax system.”

Wow! Lofty goals.

I discovered this astounding Governmental Tribute from an article in Porkopolis, a blog for a Cincinnati alternative and excellent newspaper, CityBeat.

Isn’t this a great country we live in? Only in America, would we have an Ohio Tax Hall of Fame!

The voters of Hamilton County, Ohio have once again spoken about a sales tax increase that would have funded a new jail and bought our sheriff some new toys. Speaking of the sheriff’s toys, what do we need an urban assault vehicle for anyhow?

Back on topic. The voters said “NO”. Again.

The new jail funding issue came up a few years back in a somewhat different format only to be voted down by about the same margin. Our three wise County Commissioners who gave us the stadium boondoggle a few years back, decided Hamilton County needed a jail and needed it bad. So they found a way around the voters and decided to enable the sales tax themselves.

“Not so fast!” said several diverse citizens groups who then organized a petition drive last summer for a referendum placing this issue on the ballot. And at the general election held November 6, that issue was defeated 56% to 44%.

Digression.

Hey, Paula!

Now, that was the name of a song back in the 60’s sung by none other than Paul and Paula.

But I digress again.

Paula, my excellent English teacher friend, in the paragraph above that starts out, “Not so fast!”, where, if anywhere, does the comma go? Inside or outside the quotes?

Thanks for the grammatical help.

Now back to our regularly scheduled blog.

The scare tactics about more criminals on the streets didn’t work. I imagine we’ll see a lot of hand wringing by our public officials, but hopefully action will be taken to consider the underlying issues.

But I’m dreaming…

For another opinion, of similar mind, of course, click this link to Porkopolis, a CityBeat blog.

When I think of firsts in things, things that happen in the Cincinnati region don’t often come to mind. But according to the Cincinnati Business Courier, this town has something to crow about.

Cincinnati ranked first (in the nation) with an average air fare of $562.23 for the second quarter, up 6.7 percent from $526.94 in second-quarter 2006. That was way ahead of second-place Anchorage, Alaska, with an average fare of $487.68.

Compare this to the lowest airfare flying out of Lihue, Kauai, in Hawaii at an average of $138.66. Also note that airfares in general dropped 4.5% compared with last year, while those at CVG rose 6.7%.

Congratulations are in order to the Kenton County Airport Board for this achievement, as well as for being such a watchdog for the public interest. Of course, having sold most of the gates to Delta Airlines, it comes as no surprise that fares are constantly so high here in this Delta hub.

Many local travelers find it more reasonable to fly out of Dayton (39th), even though it’s about an hour drive away. There was a time I’d even drive as far as Columbus (71st most expensive) to save significant bucks, only to find myself connecting right back home in Cincinnati. If I planned ahead, and didn’t check any bags on my return flight, I simply “forgot” to board the Columbus flight and got a ride to my home, twenty minutes away.

Hey Cincinnati! Don’t it make you proud to be first at something?

OK! I’ll admit it. I’m pandering to the people who come to this blog only to see Touchdown Jesus.

Here he is. This time from an overhead view using Google Earth. The location is Interstate 75 north of Cincinnati near Ohio exit #29. If you’re driving, look to your right. You can’t miss him.

Perry Outz became only the 22nd jockey to accomplish the feat of winning 5,000 races on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 aboard Kandinsky in the first race at River Downs. Outz is 53 years old, and has been riding race horses for 33 years, mostly locally at River Downs, Turfway Park, and Beulah Park outside of Columbus, Ohio. As of that race, Perry Outz had ridden 39,429 mounts, while earning purses over $29 million.

Perry Outz, known around here as “Scoot ‘Em and Boot ‘Em” accomplished his feat in the relative obscurity of the minor league horse racing that takes place at these race tracks. He’s a fan favorite, and well known for his propensity to scoot his charges out to a fast early lead. Outz joins several much more known riders in this elite group of 5,000 wins, including Mark Guidry, Russel Baze, Pat Day (retired), Laffit Pincay, Jr. (also retired), Willie Shoemaker (retired), and Earlie Fires.

The job of a jockey is a tough one, full of danger, and rough rides. The jockey is astride a 1,200 pound often high strung animal racing at speeds around 35 miles per hour, while often in a lot of traffic. It is quite an accomplishment to ride that many winners as well as to be so durable to be able to continue riding at age 53.

Congratulations Perry Outz!

• Click here for an article in the Daily Racing Form.
• Click here to read a similar post in The Thoroughbred Times.
• Click here for the River Downs press release.

The number of deaths of American soldiers in Iraq as of today, August 9, 2007: 3684

These casualties are up from 3555 (up 129) since my last post on this topic, June 23, 2007.

The source is a database called Iraq Coalition Casualties, which categorizes and numerates all the deaths and casualties of Bush’s Iraq War.

According to the web page Iraq Body Count, between 69,045 and 75,495 Iraqi civilians have been killed by military intervention in their country.

To break it down further, for those who might be interested:

• The state of Ohio gave 156 (up 4) of its sons and daughters.
• West Virginia lost 19 of its fine young men and women.

Congress and the politicians keep on talking and talking, while Bush’s war grinds on and on and on.

It’s way too easy to just type down these statistics, forgetting that these numbers represent young men and women, children of parents, fathers and mothers of children waiting for them at home.

Does it ever make you angry?