Cleaning out the Attic v1.0

While cleaning out the dark recesses of my computer in a futile effort to increase the speed of downloading I came across bits and pieces of various things I had written. Even though most are out of date I just couldn’t part with some without giving them the light of day.


Cuban Baseball vs. Right to Free Expression

A few years ago while visiting Florida I read in the Miami Herald about an incident that was straining international relations. Cuba was playing the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic at San Juan, Puerto Rico. The game was being broadcast live back to Cuba.

It seems a Cuban exile was sitting in the stands behind home plate and flashing derogatory signs about Fidel Castro that would be picked up by the television cameras. The Cubans complained about it but when nothing was done the top Cuban official at the game confronted the sign waver.

He was arrested by Puerto Rican police and taken to a nearby police station where they lectured him about free speech.

“We explained to him that here the constitutional right to
free expression exists and that it is not a crime.” Said police
Col. Adalberto Mercado.

When I arrived back in Kansas City according to Pitch Magazine there was a big brouhaha going on about the President of the United States speaking at a Lee’s Summit High School. It was just prior to his campaign for a second term in office. It seems that students wearing anti-Bush or Democratic slogans were not allowed to enter their own high school football stadium were the speech was being given. The Secret Service was also preventing the press from entering.

Where is Col Adalberto Mercado when you need him?


The Demise of the Iced Tea Spoon

Just this evening I was mixing a mojito and I had to resort to a chop stick to mix it all together. The experience made me think back to the last time I have enjoyed the convenience and pleasure of an iced tea spoon.

Of course, being from the south, iced tea only comes one way, sweet, so there is no need for a spoon. But as you creep north you begin to get ambivalence: Captain D’s, a chain originating in Tennessee, at least asks you, “Sweet or Bitter”. When you end up in the fast food eateries of the north you are lucky to get a straw to mix sugar into your iced tea.

In quality restaurants should your place setting include an iced tea spoon? Should I judge my host by the presence or lack thereof an iced tea spoon? My southern etiquette tells me if a salad fork is appropriate then an iced tea spoon would be mandatory.

However, I don’t have to wash the tableware either.