Guess Who's Back... Back Again?

Lemmon's back. Tell a friend.

While I'd like to tell you I was aimlessly wandering the highways of America, acutely lonely with only my superpowers as company, I actually never went anywhere outside the escapist corners of my own mind. Life, as it tends to do, blew up in my face entirely this month, and I'm just now finding myself with a Saturday fit for a little bit o' bloggin'. So much has happened since my last post that I want to comment on...

I'm still running: I'm up to 16 miles, only 10 from my goal. The break in the ridiculous heat has helped my stamina, as have the fancy-pants new shoes I ponied up for a couple of weeks ago (it's amazing how old shoes feel like running on cardboard.) The last week has worried me a bit, as I'm having some significant pain in my right knee (the outside portion, connecting the knee to calf. Whazat, biology majors?) So I've been cutting my weekday runs short and icing at night. We'll see how it does tomorrow morning, which is a 10 mile run.

Barry Bonds: It was with almost feverish tenacity that I watched every single Giants game until he tied and broke Hank Aaron's record. As a self-respecting baseball fan, I felt it was my duty to watch what will surely be one of the most-talked-about home runs in the history of the game. (Actually, I've been paranoid of missing big baseball moments ever since I went to bed before this home run 19 years ago.) My take on Bonds? Let it go. He broke the record, he's one of a bajillion players who juiced over the last 20 years... let it go. Prosecute him for whatever you want, but let the records stand--and cheer like freakin' crazy when A-Rod passes him six or seven years from now.

Work, work, work: Not too much to say here, but the exciting news is that I'm now Web Editor for the whole of Whitaker Publishing, Inc., in addition to my existing duties as GO Magazine editor. Exciting, or suicide? We shall see. Be sure to check out 417mag.com and springfieldgo.com early and often; exciting changes begin soon!

More corporate-export deaths in China: Suicide now. Seriously. When your government executes officials for taking kickbacks, how long until they start cutting out the middle men? Either way, I had to return my lead-tainted Dora the Explorer figurines. How pissed am I? Pretty pissed.

The Cardinals' August resurgence: It's a mirage, but a beautiful one. I was dreading a September in which baseball didn't matter to me--now I'm at least forced to pay attention. Thank you, Albert Pujols.

This makes me laugh a whole lot: dugout.progressiveboink.com.

Props: I absolutely have to give a shout out to my best friend, Nathan. He's an Ozarks Democrat who fled for the relative sophistication of the Triangle area of North Carolina (he lives in Chapel Hill). Not only does he have a rapidly growing birders' blog, The Drinking Bird, (you can't miss his "Single-Issue Voter" column, where he breaks down each presidential candidate by how birder-friendly he or she is, he's now starting a reader-driven blog called Joe America's America. Do check them out and comment often.

I've got my yearly fantasy football draft tomorrow with a group of buddies from college. Last year my team (name not safe to print here, alas) finished third. I'm aiming for even better things this year. More tomorrow (if I'm not too plowed/tired from my run to type.)

Peace.

ML

In America, he'd be directing FEMA

Nice shout out from Ron Davis at Chatter yesterday. Ron's one of Springfield's most relentless and respected bloggers (at least I think that's what the Blogaroni Award means.) He's also one of our city's bigger media critics, so his words about GO are appreciated.

But with that recognition comes added pressure to keep this blog updated and relevant, so here goes.

I've decided to put the running stuff LAST in each of my posts, as it will likely be of interest to the fewest people. I found the link to my Team In Training donation website. Click here to send me some much-needed moolah. I'm going to put a list of donors in a sidebar... as soon as I have some donors. Hugs and kisses (if you're hot and my wife isn't looking) in advance.

I'm not a news-a-phile. I mean, I keep track of current events but rarely do I obsess over foreign happenings or what's going on in the Bush White House. But yesterday, one story made my jaw drop: The execution of former Chinese State Food and Drug Administration head Zheng Xiaoyu.

From the New York Times.

Zheng Xiaoyu, former head of the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), dominated television and print news a day after he was executed for taking some 6.5 million yuan ($850,000) in bribes to let medicine companies slip past his regulatory net.

The People's Daily, voice of the ruling Communist Party, said the punishment was intended to deter other wayward officials.

"Corrupt elements will be thoroughly investigated no matter who they are, how high their post, or how deep they hide, and there can be no appeasement or softness," the newspaper said.

Basically the guy took kickbacks in exchange for approval of substandard products, drugs, etc. For this he was executed. I'm not saying the execution was right or wrong. Eastern cultures have a complicated sense of shame and honor that I am not qualified to judge. Here was the kicker:

But even as the media cast Zheng's punishment as a sign of the leadership's commitment to curing graft, reports described a system of kickbacks and favors that went back a decade without public exposure.

If China's ambition is to be the next U.S., it's well on their way. Granted, approving potentially deadly pharmeceuticals is more blatant an offense than, say, taking soft money for your war chest. But is it THAT far from leaking the name of a CIA agent? Is it THAT far from being painfully, painfully incompetent when thousands of people are stranded in a football dome? Is it THAT far away from sending soldiers off to die on flimsy evidence? I'm not sure it is. Don't read this as a call for Scooter Libby to get the chair... I wouldn't want that to happen. But the man's sentence was commuted.

My incredulity sparked a brief but interesting e-mail flurry with my boss, during which I asked the question (or something to this effect): Can a country with such a deep-seeded sense of honor and shame really compete as a global superpower? To which Greg replied "Bring back Eisenhower!" I'm no historian, but it really does seem like our collective national shame went out the window when Marilyn Monroe did her little dance for JFK. It started with a feather boa; world domination ensued.

Enough on China, and I promise I won't get too heavy here too often. How 'bout that All-Star game, huh? I sat there for four hours waiting for Albert Pujols to hit--figuring he was being saved for a clutch situation at the end of the game, and then watched as a g-d Philadelphia Phillie few out with the bases loaded to end the game. Pujols had a right to be mad at his manager, Tony LaRussa, for not playing him, though the St. Louis paper's story gave his comments a bit more context than the national jokers, and bothered to mention that Pujols was in a fairly good humor during his interview. Still, no excuse. My favorite Cardinals blog, vivaelbirdos.com, got pretty animated today. I think, whether or not the Cardinals turn it around this year, it was the end of Tony LaRussa, or the beginning of the end, anyway.

You do not mess with El Hombre.

Tuesday's run was ho-hum. I tried to mix things up a little bit and run through a nearby neighborhood rather than going straight to the Greenways. It was sort of a mistake. People like to park their cars across sidewalks and trash cans smell icky. I ran about 3/4 of a mile on Golden Avenue, not remembering that there is no sidewalk on Golden just north of Battlefield. In all I went about four miles, with the usual big hill at the finish. Saturday's a longer nine-miler. We'll see how that goes, as I plan on mixing in several hills. My abs say thank'ya!

Peace.

M

One foot goes in front of the other, right?

Like so many of us in local media, I have decided to start my own blog. There are two reasons why:

1. I am training to run a marathon. Today was our weekly Saturday-morning "long run." Eight miles, to be exact. It fuc*ing sucked, my first day where I finished and said "Why in God's name am I doing this." I'm sure there will be more. A purpose of this blog is to help me through it.

2. Cleverly, however, I named it such that on days when I don't have a running update, I can sound of on this or that. There will be plenty of days like that. As journalists we so often write for other people that we need a place to write for ourselves. That may be a bit self-indulgent, but do blogs have any purpose larger than immediate gratification?

I suppose it's time for the "disclaimer." I am the editor of a magazine here in Springfield. Many of you will know it, some may not. This blog has nothing to do with that magazine. I will refrain from complaining about work if you refrain from confusing this blog and the opinions contained herein with the opinions or purposes of that magazine. I may link occasionally, if there's something worth sharing, but that's about it. For a proper example of a "this has nothing to do with my job" statement, I refer you to the homepage of my boss, mentor and fellow blogger, Gregory Holman (gregoryholman.blogspot.com.)

More later...

M