T-Shirt Spotted

At the corner of 29th and 6th avenue, saw a woman wearing a t-shirt that read:

Beacause BillyBlog is Lousy at Thank You Cards.....

The birthday that keeps on going.....here's some other swag I scored for my birthday:

(Actually, first I saw of this book today. Amazon still doesn't have the photo of The Best American Poetry 2007. This was ordered for me and I will get it in September when it's published....thanks Dad and Donna!)

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I posted about this here and the Tambascias read my mind (and my blog!). Thanks T, T, A, and L!

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And, from the mother-in-law....

Thanks Mommels! I promise, I will not fart in your general direction!

On the train home...

I read "The Golden Man" by Paul Theroux. Subtitled "Saparmurat Niyazov's reign of insanity" in a "Letter from Turkmenistan" from The New Yorker, May 28, 2007. (Abstract here and an article about Theroux writing the article here)

Theroux is a great wordsmith and infuses his travel pieces with humor and vivid description.

I strongly recommend his novel Hotel Honolulu, which is a must-read for anyone familiar with the Hawai'i culture of tourism. It barely misses my "Top 20 Favorite Books" list.

Funny Shirt

Just saw a woman wearing a t-shirt that read " I PUT THE FUN IN FUNERAL".

Bookpeeping: Penn Station, 7 AM

New England White: A Novel by Stephen L. Carter

Reviewed in the Houston Chronicle here.

Gratuitious Little League Post

For the small percentage of readers who read BillyBlog because they know me, here's an update on the youngest Brooklyn Cohen, Shayna.

Shayna has been warming up to baseball in the "post-season," as part of a roundrobin compilation of local youths wrapping up the Little League year with some extra games. I mentioned Shayna was the only girl playing among the four teams, and one of the youngest, and today she recorded a milestone. Of sorts.

Yesterday she played a whole game, and did again today. She has had some fielding experience, playing in the benign location of right field. First a teaser here as she makes a nice relay throw that shows that at least she's not asleep in the field:



Then, she came up in her second at bat and did something I never did in my one year of little league ball: she hit a fair ball. She didn't knock the cover off the ball, but I'm still proud of her, especially when you consider her size, in relation to the pitcher and catcher:

BillyBlog Puffs Up His Feathers

Check this out here. Yours truly is listed on a "Best of the Web" blog directory in the poetry category. And it's not because I added myself. Sweet.

Pauley 220

This was my room in Pauley Hall, Occidental College, circa October 1985.
Why I kept this picture, I'm not sure, but I did, and here it is for all to see. For those interested, the upper left corner is a small section of a poster of a Judas Priest Defenders of the Faith poster. Moving clockwise, the small flier (above the bat) is for a Motörhead concert, very likely the show I saw where they headlined with Wendy O' Williams and Megadeth. Then there's the big square Judas Priest poster at center, next to a Mötley Crüe poster, circa their Shout at the Devil days.

Moving back is a rather out-of-place Beatles poster, then an awesome Iron Maiden poster, from their "World Slavery Tour":

then a promo poster from the live double album from Black Sabbath, Live Evil (variation below).

Above the Sabbath poster is a greeting card from an art museum, which I can't identify. However, right above that is a small print of a Zurbaran still life, a larger print of which is in our living room. The painting hangs in the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.


Just to the left of that is an Iron Maiden poster (I had many) featuring their album Powerslave.


Below this poster was a cartoon poster of the Eagle Rock area put out by local merchants.

On the far right of the photo is a 1.75 liter bottle of Kamchatka vodka. Actually, there was no vodka in the bottle. It was an empty I had found, then filled with water and used as a fishbowl for a small feeder goldfish named, appropriately "Kamchatka". My fish died when someone put a book over the top of the bottle. I still think Kamchatka was killed by my hall-mate and eventual roommate Bucky.

So, very trivial post, but I had fun with it. Stay tuned to see how messy my room was in high school.

Things You Don't See Every Day

More humorous images courtesy of Aunt Lee!

What they're saving in transportation costs will go right into therapy for the child.
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Cool wheels, but does it pass emissions standards?

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"Oh, so that's where I left the other half of my steak sandwich!"
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"That's not what I meant when I said you could pick a car you liked!"
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I thought the Bay of Bengal was much larger.

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Beer-eautiful!
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It runs on fumes.

or

What a crappy bike!

Weekend Update

I know the week is almost over, but I'd like to take a fond look back and walk down memory lane.

Please indulge me as I pry open my brain pan and revel in the pleasant time I had one weekend, oh, it seems like it all happened yesterday ... Isn't that how it always is?

(Pausing for a moment of silent reflection)

So, last weekend, my calendar was full.

Friday night we joined our good friend Lisa at a 40th birthday celebration dinner she hosted at a nice restaurant called Compass on West 70th Street.

On the way, I snapped this shot, looking West down 72nd toward the Hudson River.


Anyway, Lisa had reserved a private room and we had a tasty dinner.

For appetizers, I had the fennel and arugula salad. Melanie had the spice crusted tuna carpaccio. My main course was pork loin with morels and Melanie had the bass, I think. She'll comment if she didn't. Vanilla chocolate cheesecake for dessert.

Pictured (below) is Lisa blowing out her candles.


Saturday morning, Shayna had her first "July League" baseball game. A select group from her league that played April-June were asked to continue at a higher level. Kids born in 1999 were eligible to participate in a sort of round-robin abbreviated two-week tourney.

Shayna had been one of the older kids on her team previously in a league in which the coaches pitched, everyone batted, and no one walked or struck out.

Now, she is on a team with 8, 9, 10, and 11-year olds. The pitchers are 11 and, as far as I an tell, Shayna is the only girl playing.

Well, her first game on Saturday morning found her there but not there. Something upset her and/or she had some serious butterflies. The end result was that she sat out and did not play. She missed her Sunday game (more on that later), but she did suit up and was in the line-up Wedneday, so we're guessing the nerves are behind her.

Despite the early disappointment, the day impropved significantly as Grandpa Barry Liss was in town and through a friend, had 2 extra tickets to the Yankees-Angels game.


The first ticket was for me, a birthday gift from Barry, and the second ticket went to Shayna, who is definitely getting her share of games (this was her 3rd this year, one prior Yankees, and one Mets).

What made this even more special was that it was "Old Timer's Day" at Yankee Stadium, so we got to see a lot of old players introduced and welcomed by the masses.

Even though I have only recently (since moving to New York in 1997) become a Yankees fan, there's still a thrill seeing the old Yankees take the field. Chris Chambliss, Oscar Gamble, Bucky Dent, Reggie Jackson, Goose Gossage and Ron Guidry, to name a few. Below, Goose acknowledges the crowd as Paul O'Neill looks on.



The Yankees were honoring the 30th anniversary of the 1977 championship season,
so the honorees were all recognizable to someone who was 10 that year, the stepson of a Yankee fan (at the time), and a collector of baseball cards. When the introduced Ed Figueroa, I told Shayna I had, like, fifty of his "traded" cards.

We all got collector's pins (above) affixed to special cards (below).


More info on Old Timer's Day at Yankee Stadium here.

By the time the actual game started at 3:50, the sun was behind us, leaving us in shadows. Sure we were in the upper deck, but the views were sweet.


The game was a classic, of sorts. Roger Clemens was on the mound.
He had thrown a gem in his previous start, so I expected to be disappointed. However, he was good, aided by some great fielding. John Lackey, from the Angels, was better, striking out 11 Yankees to Clemens' 3. At the end of the 8th inning, the score was knotted at 1 apiece.






The good pitching continued and Shayna, who has seen more extra-inning games than 9-inning ones, got another doozy.


Unfortunately, Miguel Cairo threw away the game in the top of the 13th inning, committing two errors on one play.

Despite runners on the corners with only one out in the bottom of the 13th, the Bronx Bombers couldn't get anyone across home plate, leaving the crowd disappointed.

An article about the game is here.

On Sunday (July 8), we headed to Paramus to celebrate cousin Alexis' 6th birthday. The party was at the Paramus firehouse and had a movie theme. Check out this cake:

In case you can't tell, the cake was gigantic. Here's another perspective:


After watching Ice Age 2: The Great Meltdown, Jolee and Shayna checked out the firetrucks.

After the party, we were invited by other cousins, Natalia and David Schull, along with their sons Nico and Matt, to join them for swimming at the Mamaroneck Beach and Yacht Club. The kids all had a great time playing together at the pool, and the adults had some nice R&R time. Below, Jolee relaxes (and tries not to pose) at the beach, before we had a nice dinner with the cousins at the club.

After a long day, Grandpa Barry drove us back to Brooklyn and I snapped some pictures from the car:

Quite a weekend. Much busier than most, yet very enjoyable for all!

Trader Joe's is Coming to Brooklyn!

Or so the New York Observer says, here. Above, the Sovereign Bank building at Atlantic Avenue and Court Street, the reported home of the Brooklyn Trader Joe's-to-be.

His Behind the Back Pass by Alex Katz

I got this cool birthday card from my Aunt Lee last week and was looking online for a reproduction to post here, but this piece was mentioned, but not displayed anywhere in the great wide internet.

So last night I scanned it. The artist is Alex Katz and this is entitled His Behind the Back Pass. If you like it, go over to Mr. Katz' website and check him out.

Dear Mr Ian

This was received in the office yesterday by a co-worker who handles hiring for my company. His first name is Ian. It is so poorly written, I thought it was worth sharing.

Damn! I Missed National Mullet Day. Again!

Last Tuesday, July 2, was apparently National Mullet Day. I'm way beyond celebrating that, but will pay homage to the mullet in what I called, at the time, a "Vanderpool":



This was taken in May, 1988, the day I decided that the "Vanderpool" wasn't as successful a babe magnet as I had imagined, and de-mulleted myself:
Mullet-less, my love life soon improved. In fact, I wonder, had I been still mulleted four months later, in September, what would the future Mrs. Billyblog have thought? Not much, methinks, not much.

However, if you like mullets, check out the Mullet of the Week, here.

Hilarious "Banned" Bridgestone Commercial

My friend Steve has been raving about this ad and I have to admit, it's pretty darn funny and brilliant.

Genius In Advertising, Redux

My Aunt Lee sends me good stuff in the e-mail now and then and when she does, up it goes on BillyBlog.

This series is reminiscent of a previous post I did (linked at the end of this one), in which I exhibited shots of clever advertising ideas from around the world.

Enjoy!
















Like these? Check out a previous post here.